Hello everyone, it’s that time of the year again. We’re now in 2018 so let’s give 2017 one final send-off by talking about the movies of the year. I waited a little bit to write this because there was one movie that I really needed to see again before I put everything in the final order. Now that I’ve taken care of that we can get down to this. I didn’t see that many movies this year (I have a list of 22) for a variety of reasons such as distance from theater, releases that don’t release wide enough for us to get them, general time/life/work, etc. things. There are some big releases that I haven’t seen that I wish I could have put on here but unfortunately can’t, so sorry to It, Thor: Ragnarok, Blade Runner 2049, Geostorm, and Justice League, but you don’t get to be on the list. I will be seeing them once they hit home release but I just didn’t get to them theatrically. With that said, let’s get part one started!
Part One: Starting from the Bottom
As I said, I have 22 films to talk about. We are going to start from the bottom of the list and work our way up to number one. For this part we are going to go over 22-12. Now then, these movies may not all be bad, this isn’t a ‘worst of’ list, but rather the bottom half of all the ones I got to see. So they’ll start bad, but they won’t all be that way.
- The Mummy
Ugh. What an utter waste of time. Tom Cruise is grossly miscast, the movie is dumb and assumes the audience is too, there’s several gross, sexist moments with the female characters, the timeline doesn’t make sense, the CG is bad, and it’s ‘tell, not show’ in the worst extreme. Bottom of the list and it deserves to be there. I’m not wasting any more words on this dreck.
- Shin Godzilla
This movie was weird. It had a lot of potential and some things I really liked. But it also had by far the worst looking Godzilla ever, no matter what his form. There was some elements that really felt like they were trying to fix what wasn’t broken and overall it just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped. I’d recommend for a fan, especially a completionist, but it wasn’t great.
- Power Rangers
2017 was a year when a lot of things that were formative to my person got big screen treatment. One of these was Power Rangers, and not just any version, but an update to the original Mighty Morphin’ team. And…. It wasn’t great. Rereading my review, I was pretty kind to it overall score-wise. Everything was aesthetically over-complicated and ugly and the movie overall just didn’t really have the fun of the original show. It took itself way too seriously too, and lacked the self-awareness that it really needed. It wanted to be dark and gritty but didn’t want to fully commit. Didn’t ruin my childhood, but didn’t do it any favors, either.
- Ghost in the Shell
A franchise I knew nothing about, and yet even I could tell how much they simplified and dumbed it down. The look of it was fascinating and there was a glimpse of a really deep, amazing world, but the story just wasn’t there. It was all gloss and no substance, and I really feel that that substance would have not only made it a better movie, but could’ve been a good primer for non-fans like me to pull in new blood to the fandom.
- Beauty and the Beast
This is the second film on this list to have source material close to my heart. This live-action remake does nothing to ‘improve’ or add to the original, animated film, and many of the most magical moments of the animated film fall flat here. The extra songs don’t add much but runtime and the design, while elaborate, is del Toro-lite but lacking the love and attention of a del Toro creation. The cast was stacked with amazing actors, but as they say in the animated film ‘if it’s not baroque, don’t fix it!”.
- Colossal
Okay, so this was a good movie. It just ended up here. It was a really fun take on kaiju films and it was cool to see Anne Hathaway play a totally different character to what she usually does. It went in directions that I didn’t think it would and was overall a really neat film and I would definitely recommend it just for all the weird directions it took.
- Guardians
This one I actually just watched not too long ago. I didn’t do a proper review for it (holiday burnout) but it was a fun movie. It’s basically Russian Avengers, sort of. And one of them is a were-bear. It’s a really fun action movie and a really good time. We were able to rent it dubbed in English and that went pretty good, the dub was overall well done. One interesting thing, their S.H.E.I.L.D-type organization had a lot of women in it, in fact their ‘Nick Fury’ was a woman and it was really cool to see. It was a really good time.
- Free Fire
This movie did something unexpected, it took what would be a 3-5 minute sequence in any other action flick and made it feature-length. I have to applaud them for making that work. The acting was all really good and every character felt individual without needing tons of exposition or character exploration. It’s amazing to watch and to see this play out, and it has a lot of good tension and good action. I do recommend it just to see it and how they made it work.
- The Dark Tower
Since 2017 was gonna do everything I loved on the big screen, it really cut to the quick on this one. I have long maintained that this series should not be adapted, and they didn’t do much to prove me wrong. Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Taylor were excellent in their roles, but the rest… If you were gonna do this, do a limited run on HBO or Netflix or something and adapt the damn story of the book. Don’t make a dumbed-down, simplified, PG-13 version of something that should be none of those things. Don’t even get me started on the 90-minute runtime, especially when bloated monstrosities like Batman v. Superman are being made.
- Lego Batman
How do you take the history, the mythos, the legend of Batman, and totally turn it on its head? By making him Lego, apparently. This movie takes the ‘granny’s peach tea’ out of every incarnation that has come before in the best, most meta way possible. You could spend the whole movie just picking out Easter eggs and references, but at the same time you get a really good story out of it as well. This movie nailed it and is awesome for both kids and adults. If you haven’t seen it, go see it.
- Kong: Skull Island
I was a little meh on Kong in the fact that they were making this movie essentially to introduce him so he could fight Godzilla later on. But you know what, this was a pretty darn good movie. I really liked the setting, and that they went with something different by going with the end of the Vietnam War instead of an earlier time reminiscent of his other film appearances. The cast was solid and the effects were great and that post-credit stinger was awesome. And that soundtrack was fantastic.
Alright folks, stay tuned for 11-1 in the next few days! We’re on the upswing!
The ones that I saw…
Ghost in the Shell – I enjoyed it. I’ve seen the original anime, but I’m not what you’d call a hardcore Anime fan. I do like Cyberpunk, and as a Cyberpunk action movie this one was pretty good. I don’t feel like it deserved the negative attention it got.
Guardians – we just saw this over the weekend, and it was a lot of fun. I’ts not deep, it’s not the Avengers – but it’s a fine beginning to a superhero story. Highly recommend you pick it up and check it out. I grabbed it from Amazon for under $15.
The Dark Tower – I haven’t read the books (Yet) so I don’t have an opinion on it as an adaption. However, I do like Urban Fantasy as a genre. And if I come at this as a generic urban fantasy, then it was a good movie. Basic good vs evil, yeah, but still I thought it was worth watching. I enjoyed the characters, even the kid, and the action was well done.
Kong – Been a fan of Kong movies for most of my life, and I really like this one. Why? Because for the first time Kong was the hero of the story instead of it’s victim. The rest of it was pretty basic – the human characters pretty standard. In fact within 30 seconds of SJJ on the screen you knew who he was, what he was going to do and how he was going to die. But it was still worth watching.
I actually made it to the theaters more times last year than I think I ever have – 8 different movies on the big screen and I saw 2 of them twice. (GotG2 and Thor:R)
By my count I’ve seen 56 movies which came out in 2017, and saw 47 of them in theaters. Of your set listed here I’ve seen Free Fire, Colossal, Ghost in the Shell, Lego Batman Movie, and Kong Skull Island. Some random thoughts about each below in order of favoritism:
Free Fire: My favorite of this set. I really enjoyed the cast, mainly Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, and Cillian Murphy. I admit it is a bit dragged out in the middle, but people rolling on the floor bleeding is funny to me. Also Ord’s general competence makes me happy.
Colossal: Excellent performances from Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis. The movie pulled some twists and had some of the tenser moments I’ve seen this year.
Kong: Skull Island: I really enjoyed this in the theater, but upon rewatch I was not as wowed. The lesser of the two Apeocalypse Now movies this year, though not by too much. I appreciated the Gonzo colors and moments sprinkled throughout. Monster on Monster action is also always appreciated. Some fine performances from John C Reilly and Samuel L Jackson also helped things.
Lego Batman Movie: I really did not think highly of this movie. Its fine, but predictable to the point of boredom. The visuals were colorful and the references were neat, but this did nothing for me.
Ghost in the Shell: Eh. It’s okay, but they butchered the original for a mediocre movie. It looked pretty, but was empty underneath.
When you post your second half, I’ll post my top ten, with several honorable mentions.
I almost never see movies in the theater. Blade Runner: 2049 being the first since The Avengers. I am glad that I saw it on IMAX. It’s difficult to put into words. The pace is slow but the action sequences are timed perfectly. It fits into the world that Deckard wanted to leave behind.
There are a couple of times where it stumbles. You will know when you see them. Overall, amazing and satisfying for fans of the original movie. Which you must watch to get into the groove of 2049.
Ryan Gosling is fantastic as K. Harrison Ford and Edward James Olmos reprise their roles perfectly. However, I believe it’s the female characters who really shine and take center stage.