Movie Round Up 2013

[size=+1]Movie Round Up of 2013[/size]​

Happy New Year, one and all! Hopefully, there will be a grand ol' time had by all in 2014. A time for new beginnings and to choose what you're going to fail to give up or achieve. Sorry, the statistics of resolutions are woeful...

In fact, they should fail very soon, now that it's the second week of January.

Still! Reviewer types like me will look to the past year and count down their top 10 lists and I don't want to be left behind in that respect. However, I can only really manage this with games. I've been playing new ones regularly for half a year now and I think I can get together a decent Top 10 of the best and worst of what I've had to play or review this year.

For movies? Errrrr...nope. Can't. Not enough material there! I've seen a few this year but I've not gone out to see a great deal. Even so, I think these are pretty decent flicks for different reasons and I'd like to offer this separately from the 'Worst/Best' video thing I'll shove together in the first week or so of January.

So, here's what I managed to catch and what I thought:

Frozen

This was made by the same people who made Wreck-It Ralph and Tangled. I can kinda leave it there. Both are excellent movies that attempt fresh feeling ideas and taking Disney away from being such an anachronism it feels like with all it's 'Princess' molarky. Tangled livened up and added a great deal of fun, excitement and even drama to what could have been a boring re-telling of 'Rapunzel' in the similar vein of Snow White or even...oh boy...Pocahontas.

Frozen is basically a modern version of The Snow Queen. A little princess. Elsa, is born with magic ice powers and is told to hide them away after an accident involving her little sister, Anna. Elsa locks herself up in her room after the girls' parents are killed off in a sea storm. For about 15-odd years, Elsa stays locked in her room while Anna - who had to have her memories of Elsa's powers removed for...health reasons - gets the rest of the locked up castle to go mad in. One day, Elsa is crowned queen, allowing the castle to open up and let Anna meet people for the first time in ages. In the excitement, Elsa lets her powers get out of control when Anna asks to get married to a guy she has known for a night. In the anger, Elsa flees and builds an ice castle, locking herself from the world below, unaware that she's accidentally caused an eternal winter.

Anna must talk reason into her sister and bring back Summer for her kingdom.

It's all vaguely Scandinavian in it's look and feel but most of the characters are predictably American. Complain about cultural issues all you like, the songs are upbeat, catchy and even have some decent humour to them. My favourite being from Olaf the Snowman dreaming about getting to experience summer while being blissfully unaware that it would spell his doom. It's a beautifully comical piece.

The characters really shine in this. The relationship between the two sisters Elsa and Anna is touching. Being forced apart then allowed to see each other again seems genuinely awkward but exciting for them both. Their love for each other as sisters is actually deeply central to the story so it's good to see that it appears genuine. Krystof and Sven are also pretty enjoyable. While we know little about them both, the odd relationship between Man and Reindeer is a natural place for good comic relief. Having an anthropomorphised reindeer (possibly dog-like) might be borrowing a little from the amazing horse from Tangled, although it's certainly not the same character or dynamic. It's not a terrible thing at all to see this idea pushed in a slightly different direction from the proud guard horse to a sort of schlubby bachelor.

Elsa's hardship and fear about her powers is normally something that feels somewhat forced in other movies. Here, things feel rather well set up and explained, for the most part. The ice appear to form involuntarily when she's anxious, signifying her lack of confidence and trust in herself. It's this emotion that she's been told to purge that eventually scares people into hating and fearing her. It's a decent set up, adding to the strong emotional core of the movie.

Even so, there's sadly little depth given to the source of Elsa's powers or what exactly her limits are. After all, she builds a castle within minutes and creates living snow golems without much trouble. The limits seem to fluctuate a little while juggling just how overpowered Elsa appears to be. I can accept that the full extent of her abilities is limited by her own knowledge but some more details would add some flesh to them. Especially to the purpose of the 'red ice' that pops up menacingly whenever Elsa appears to become...well, not 'evil'. Just very stressed out...

But this is me pushing myself to find something to dislike about this movie! Seriously, I did not expect to find one of the best movies of the year coming from Disney but...Hey! They did! Any complaints are out the window because of the strong emotional core at the centre!

Another complaint I've heard is it's distribution of music. Expect to hear a lot in the first 30 minutes or so. Me? Didn't mind that. The songs are catchy...to my ear anyway. I appreciate something with some good humour thrown in while still advancing plot or character development. I like the songs as they seems unabashedly cheesey just to add to the innocence of the early scenes while playing up the and I like this movie. It's just enjoyable, fun and highly energetic. I dare you not to laugh or even smile...On your second screening. Don't want to be the sourpuss in the corner! You'll get...sour milk....ABANDON JOKE!




The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

This is actually pretty enjoyable.

OK, OK, forget the books at this point. Seriously, I heard the opinion of a Tolkien fan once and she said that this translation to a cinema screen was basically warped almost beyond recognition. She happened to be saying this while burning an effigy of Peter Jackson so I'm pretty sure the film is playing very fast and loose with the material.

I simply don't care. I really don't! The Hobbit 'Saga' so far has been enjoyable and Desolation of Smaug works harder than the first half to justify itself as an entertaining movie. It's exciting for one! Dwarves are smacking things right and left. The godlike killing machine known as Legolas turns up for whatever reason. It's still entertaining to watch him slaughter orcs as if using cheat codes although at least he's somewhat unlikeable in this. His elvish arrogance is on full display here, fleshing the character out nicely.

Bilbo starts to take a bit of a backseat to the dwarves and elves, popping up sparingly this time. I don't mind this. It starts to make this more of an ensemble story that will bounce around each thread as it needs to. After all, the dwarves are probably more central to this story than the hapless hobbit they brought along to be a burglar and little else. His talking scenes with the very threatening Smaug himself are pretty good. The idea of an entire city filled with gold that contains this huge beast looks wonderous and grandiose. The details of Smaug can be pretty well done, such as the noise of coins falling from Smaug's scales to alert the Dwarves to him moving overhead. It was such a well done character that rivals but doesn't surpass Gollum/Smeagol at the moment.

And yes, Gandalf spends a lot of time meandering around, looking into this Necromancer business while one of the Elves falls in love with one of the dwarves. In the first Hobbit, I'd feel like it was needless padding. In this, I actually don't mind at all. In fact, I rather enjoyed learning about what these groups are up to. I like Radegast, the Elves in their cave was interesting to see while they discussed what do to and I found the initial spark between dwarf #7 and that elf woman quite sweet. While this move is predominantly subplot, The Hobbit seems like the best place for it. They're not rushing through places that have been affected by Sauron yet. They are travelling through places that have their own problems and their own interests. Generally, they couldn't care all that much about The Lonely Mountain's gold. I like it, it's world building. It gives the impression that this is just one of hundreds of stories going on at the same time. It gives each area life and texture as if each location existed far longer than the events of the film took place rather than simply pop up out of no where to advance the plot.

Overall, it's a good movie. It's worth your time to see. It's not quite as solid as the Lord of the Rings, especially when it's so long with it's run-time of around 2 hours. Even so, it's full of enjoyable ideas and scenes. It's worth the time and money to see.




Equestria Girls

Umm...In a word? A mixed bag.

This film is really...polarising. There's some really good elements to this.

I like some of the ideas at play. I like the idea that Twilight is utterly clueless to begin with. It makes for some decent comedy as she awkwardly slams her fists into a keyboard or stumbles around in her vaguely fashionable boots. It's awkward to watch in the way that it should be. It's not afraid to make Twilight look like a weirdo and it does fit. Partly due to this being a drastically different universe that's auto-magically transformed the former pony into a teenage-ish human (well, what a human would look like if you're basis of what a human looks like was a cross between Doug and Bratz dolls) and partly because Twilight has been shown to be a real oddball.

After all, who else reacts to being slightly late with sending a regular friendship report by enchanting a soft toy while wearing a panicked grin pulled taught by the ever more ratcheted tension inside than the recently crowned Princess Twilight Sparkle.

So, that fits. Furthermore, the song is all right. It's OK. It doesn't endear to me much. As well as a few fun jokes or ideas here and there, the rest is me just picking holes in it. Afterall, when Friendship is Magic loosens up and has a little fun with itself, it's endearing to watch.

My issues start with the School Setting. I dislike school settings. I generally find them limiting and overdone. This one isn't badly done but you can't help but see 'Girls still like High School Musical, right?' written all over it. Thank goodness the villain...Starlight Shimmer, right? Yeah, thank goodness she turns into a demon and breaks the usual cliches of these movies by attempting to blow everything up.

Predictably, the story centres around this world's version of the other Main 6 ponies not getting along and Twilight must rebuild their friendship. Pleasingly though, each character is just as they would be normally and are delightful as always, even if Twilight is the focus. Friendship is Magic and this film is generally good with side characters chipping in an occasional funny line or two, with the undeniable queen of this being Pinkie. In fact, trying to play a guessing game with each character and which pony they've been translated from is pretty appealing. Some feel lazier than others but, eh! That's what DeviantArt is for.

Personally, I like the idea of a slight colour to Twilight. Not lylac, you understand but I remember a few different ethnicities being experimented with...

And Punk Mohawk Spike catching up on his sleep, too!​

But! Does this movie do enough to deserve to exist? Eh...It doesn't seem to impact much and it's not as detestable as we all thought it would be going in. It's worth a look but I won't be watching it of my own volition when the show is still going. Nice try guys but how about staying in Equestria next time?




Star Trek: Into Darkness

I remember liking this the first time I saw it in the same way I remember enjoying Transformers when it first came out. It was big, it seemed interesting, it was a fun, action-filled adventure!

This has not matured like a fine wine, over the year. No, watching this a few times has given me this big aversion to this film. Not so much an aged wine than a vial of bleach...

The first one was good. It has the action and the drama of something that looked promising. There's glimpses of that here in it's opening. The crew of the Enterprise is full of excellent actors putting in some really appealing performances as these various characters. It's just a hoot-and-a-bloody-half to watch Scotty or Bones or Spock or even Sulu in this! They're all actors I enjoy seeing in these roles.

And they desperately needed a plot with a brain in it's head! Something fascinating to sink it's teeth into! Even a retread of one of the original movies would have done!

Instead, we got Khan. Yeah, yeah, Spoilers and stuff but the movie has been out for months now! If How It Should Have Ended didn't bother with a spoiler on this, neither am I!

Anyway, this plot showed some promise. I liked all the double crosses. I enjoyed the mystery of these Cryotubes. I liked how they pieced the ideas together. I liked that it bothered to establish, at least in some small way, that the Klingon's were a growing concern.

It's just bloody Khan that makes or breaks this.

On the positive, Benedict Cumberbatch is giving a mesmerisingly dead-pan performance that grabs you by the lapels and makes sure your listening. This, I approve of. Khan is a damn scary guy and gives off all the right levels of menace. His voice is level and booms through the theater. He can snarl when he needs to. It's awesome. As a character, I have little issue with Khan being here.

However, the concepts surrounding Khan and his suddenly flipping roles are just bloody infuriating. I know it comes up alot but why make a twist that has no impact on the story and wouldn't have if Spock had kept his mouth shut, like he should have. The original concept of Khan Noonien Singh was that he was a superman, a genetically improved human that controlled a good chunk of the Earth in the 1990's (the show was written in the Sixties, cut them some slack). He is the mirror of Kirk. He is Kirk's rival. He is one of the most powerful adversaries Kirk ever had.

And I think they want to try and recapture some of that lightning in a bottle.

But the rivalry was set up at the start. It had a point, something for Kirk to rise up against. Something to challenge Kirk and his crew that was almost as formidable as he was.

In this film, he just kinda turns around and attempts to murder them. He's only a straight up psycho. There's little else to him other than a deep voice and killing people. Admiral Marcus is a far more interesting and devastating villain than Khan. His motives are clear, you can see how he might have arrived at the conclusion that building a Warship was a good idea.

Khan is just one-track minded and hangs around to drag the final act out far longer than it should have been. We didn't need to see the ship crash into Earth. The chase was exciting but excessive.

It's just...Khan was unnecessary. His primary purpose was to shock the audience. It just feels cheep and distracts the story from what could have been a half-decent Star Trek flick.




The Croods

Not a bad movie at all.

Firstly, Nicolas Cage is pretty enjoyable in this. As the only voice you'll likely recognise, it's important he's good. Thankfully, he gives an enjoyable performance while always having the bravery to go wild or animalistic with grunts or snarls or barks. Although, knowing of Cage's past works, I imagine he does this anyway. It's lucky it fits well with the rest of the movie.

Animation is where this shines as the story is a little basic.

The world appears to be going through tectonic shifts and this has forced The Croods family out of their cave and into the wide world. The elder daughter of the family yearns for new experiences while the others are taught that anything new is basically deadly. They stumble on a smart primitive named 'Guy' who creates fire then bring him along on their quest to find a new cave to live in.

So far, it all feels like Ice Age, what with the trek across ancient lands with an ensemble of quirky characters working together to overcome obstacles.

However, the film is gorgeous to behold. It's brightly coloured and full of energy. It basically throws realism out the window as it actively creates bizarre cross species creatures all over the place. Like the Cat/Owl. Or the Elephant/Giraffe. The plants and the creatures simply look hugely appealing just from their design. Coupled with some intuitive movements and characteristics, these creatures seem to cement themselves as something memorable.

Look! I have to show you one!

Oh yeah! That's an Owlcat! Would you like that pawing your lap? No! You'd be throwing all the fish you could find at it to hopefully appease it!​

Speaking of animation, what's interesting is how animalistic the human characters are allowed to get. The Croods themselves will bite, snarl, prowl and knock each other over. The granny character attempts to eat the son at one point. The youngest daughter is actually rabbid. They're all very energetic performances that make excellent sense in the world they live in.

Finally, the comedy is decent. Not spectacular but not terrible. Just funny enough to keep you tittering through it.

Otherwise, I recommend it. It's a decent, imaginative family-flick.




And that's 2013. Here's to 2014, ay?

As for my most anticipated movie? The Lego Movie! Oh my word! How hard to I want to see that movie! It's from the people who made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs but made with one of my favourite toys of all time! This cannot fail to raise my excitement!

Right! Now for the 2013 Games lists!

How about you tell me what your looking forward to in 2014 in the comments below?