Ruk's Top 88 Movies of 2018

[rukaio101]

54. Mary and the Witch's Flower

 

Yeah, I know, technically this is a 2017 movie, but I didn’t have a chance to watch until this year and there are like 5 movies in my 2017 list that technically count as 2018 movie because what even are years anyway? Still, I liked it decent enough, I guess. I wouldn’t say I loved it by any means and it’s very rough in a lot of places, but as far as Diet Ghibli goes, it’s alright I guess.

 

The movie is about the titular Mary, a redhead having trouble adjusting to her current house, who finds in position of the titular Witch’s Flower which gives her magic powers and lets her enter a school for magic with questionably sinister teachers. It’s a movie that’s definitely fairly rough around the edges, especially in regards to pacing and character motivations, but makes up for it with a lot of neat Ghibli-esque animation and creativity. It definitely feels like it’s trying to be something akin to Spirited Away and while it doesn’t really come all that close, it does at least capture a kernel of that kind of creativity, which I suppose is an accomplishment in and of itself.

 

Still, it does make me thing about a question I’ve been pondering for a while now. Ever since Hayao Miyazaki went into kinda-sorta retirement and Studio Ghibli shut its doors, I’ve been hearing article after article and comment after comment about which various Japanese director is going to be the ‘next Miyazaki’? To which I can’t help but wonder 'Do we really need a new Miyazaki?’ There are a lot of great Japanese animation directors currently working today whose work I really adore. Mamoru Hosoda, Masaaki Yuasa (who did my favourite movie of 2017 ‘Night is Short, Walk on Girl’), Makoto Shinkai (the guy who did the very popular 'Your Name') and even a handful I only got introduced to this year. All of them have their own unique styles completely separate from Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli and are all the better for it. And, in comparison, a movie just trying to be Studio Ghibli 2.0, but not quite managing it, really doesn’t seem to stand up. I’d be much more interesting if the infant Studio Chizu tried more to do its own thing rather than clung onto the coattails of its legendary predecessor.

 

In conclusion, this isn’t a bad movie by any means of the word. Indeed, there’s plenty to enjoy about it. But it does feel a touch like it’s coasting on the reputation of Studio Ghibli rather than working to be its own thing, which is disappointing. Especially when there are so many other great anime directors rising right now. Hopefully though they’ll find a better path forward in the future.

[rukaio101]

53. Ralph Breaks the Internet

 

You know, sometimes I feel I’m the only person in the world who thought the original Wreck-it Ralph was just… alright. Not great, not terrible, not all that memorable to be honest, just alright. It had an interesting premise that ended up getting hijacked by Vanellope’s less interesting hijinks and story and thus never really felt like a full execution of what it could’ve been. And honestly, I wasn’t amazingly looking forward to this either. Once again, the premise seemed interesting enough, but the trailers seemed bleh and I wasn’t nearly as enthused about the Disney Princesses scene as everyone else was. Then the rave reviews started to come through and I was reluctantly tempted into going to check it out.

 

My ultimate thoughts? It’s alright, I guess. Not great, not terrible, not all that memorable either to be honest. Just alright.

Honestly, I think a large part of my apathy comes from the fact that I’m really not all that fond of Vanellope and certainly not as much as the filmmakers clearly are. I tend to find her obnoxious and kind of annoying and with an irritating tendency to overshadow much more interesting plot threads and characters. Plus I’m not amazingly fond of meme humour either and this movie is freaking chock full of it. Along with typical kids movie humour that never really made me laugh all that much either.

 

Still, I do have to respect the imagination shown in bringing the internet to life in that way. And I suppose it deserves credit for a genuinely good message at the end, that you don’t usually see in kids movies (even if I really feel like it could’ve been worked in a lot better to the story). And both the animation and some of the action scenes are frenetic and fun. But otherwise, I just felt the same kind of underwhemingness that I did watching the original.

 

Sorry, but I just don’t think this franchise is for me. Not to say that I don’t recognise the quality that went into it or even that I didn’t like it, but it just didn't work for me like it seemed to for everyone else. 

[rukaio101]

52. Tito and the Birds

 

Full review here

[rukaio101]

51. Venom

This is another one that I did a full review for elsewhere when it first came out, but I feel like I ought to throw in a bit of extra justification about why it scored so highly. Because I will confess that this is not a good movie, at least not in the critical sense. The plot is generic superhero origin, the villain makes no sense and won't stop preaching and overall it's filled with a lot of stupid holes. 

 

But it is an entertaining bad movie and I feel like that makes all the difference. It has this pervasive silliness to it and an underdog quality that kinda makes me want to root for it, in spite of recognizing that it's kinda shit. Plus, any movie that gives Tom Hardy to the 'All-You-Can-Eat Scenery Buffet' is always going to be a plus in my book.

 

Trust me though when I say it's far from the last 'entertainingly bad' movie to make it high up on this list.

[rukaio101]

50. Alpha

Okay, we’re now pretty solidly in the territory of movies I outright unambiguously liked now and this movie was honestly a pretty pleasant surprise in that regard. I’d seen a scattering of trailers and advertisements for it that largely underwhelmed me and really wasn’t expecting all that much from this. So I was really pleasantly surprised to learn that it was really fairly good on its own terms.

 

It honestly reminded me a lot of The Good Dinosaur if it was actually done well, albeit also if it was live action and with a human and wolf instead of a dinosaur and a… human. A young hunter gatherer is injured and separated from his tribe during a hunting expedition and has to make the long trek back with the reluctant aid of an injured wolf who has similarly been cast out of its pack. But where The Good Dinosaur was kind of a disjointed mess (albeit a disjointed mess with cowboy T-Rexes) that didn't know what it wanted to be or do with its premise, this movie is a lot more streamlined, a lot more focused, has a clear story of survival and growth and is obviously all the better for it.

 

I will say, the story and execution is fairly basic, but it gets the job done and the relationship between the boy and the wolf is neat to watch. It didn't hit any massive highs for me personally, but it’s competent and consistent enough that I probably would recommend it to anyone vaguely interested in the movie.

 

And while we're on the subject of unexpectedly good movies...

[rukaio101]

49. Smallfoot

 

Okay, now this one actually was a really big surprise for me. I was fully expecting to just skip this movie altogether, as I usually do with Western animations that don’t catch my fancy (hence why also you’re not going to be seeing Sherlock Gnomes or the Grinch on this list), but the movie got surprisingly decent reviews and, remembering how much I enjoyed the similarly reviewed Ferdinand, I decided to give this a chance.

 

And you know what? I’m glad I did. Because this movie is actually pretty good and handles themes and ideas I really wasn't expecting for a kids movie.

 

Really, there genuinely is a lot to like about this film. The main character is likeable, the animation is good, the musical numbers are surprisingly solid (I didn’t even know going in that it was a musical!) and it actually has a fairly nuanced and interesting message about truth and lies and, well, ‘fake news’, I guess. Plus it has a really great villain(ish) song by Common in what was probably one of the best scenes in the film.

 

I will say though that it is somewhat held back by the common misconception these days every children's animated movie these days has to be packed full with comedy. Because the comic relief in this movie is… not great. Oh, I got a few laughs here and there, especially in regards to some of the misunderstandings between the yetis and the humans, but certain characters were clearly designed to be comic relief and really did not work in the movie given. (Which is the nice way of saying I found said characters incredibly irritating.)

 

Still, overall I did actually like Smallfoot a fair amount. Like Ferdinand, it's a surprisingly strong movie, beneath the 'basic kids animation' surface, with a good heart and some decent animation/songs to boot.

[Reddroast]

As a fan of Code Geass im sad to hear that the 1st recap movie isn't good @rukaio101.

[Avatree]

4 hours ago, rukaio101 said:

50. Alpha

Okay, we’re now pretty solidly in the territory of movies I outright unambiguously liked now and this movie was honestly a pretty pleasant surprise in that regard. I’d seen a scattering of trailers and advertisements for it that largely underwhelmed me and really wasn’t expecting all that much from this. So I was really pleasantly surprised to learn that it was really fairly good on its own terms.

 

It honestly reminded me a lot of The Good Dinosaur if it was actually done well, albeit also if it was live action and with a human and wolf instead of a dinosaur and a… human. A young hunter gatherer is injured and separated from his tribe during a hunting expedition and has to make the long trek back with the reluctant aid of an injured wolf who has similarly been cast out of its pack. But where The Good Dinosaur was kind of a disjointed mess (albeit a disjointed mess with cowboy T-Rexes) that didn't know what it wanted to be or do with its premise, this movie is a lot more streamlined, a lot more focused, has a clear story of survival and growth and is obviously all the better for it.

 

I will say, the story and execution is fairly basic, but it gets the job done and the relationship between the boy and the wolf is neat to watch. It didn't hit any massive highs for me personally, but it’s competent and consistent enough that I probably would recommend it to anyone vaguely interested in the movie.

 

And while we're on the subject of unexpectedly good movies...

I'm sad I missed this film, I originally wanted to see it from the first trailer (and just the synopsis / subject in general). Then when the second trailer came out with that awful early 2000s trailer voiceover, that said to me it was going to be terrible so avoid. So I did, and it left cinemas.  

[rukaio101]

48. Sorry to Bother You

 

You know, I mentioned this in my Green Book review, but there really were a surprisingly high number of good movies about race and race relations this year. Seriously, I usually only tend to stumble across 2 or 3 in any given year (although I suppose that could arguably say more about my filmwatching habits than anything else), yet this year I’ve already seen nearly double that of mostly pretty damn good quality. And that’s not even including Blindspotting and If Beale Street Could Talk, both of which I gave a miss. And while this movie is currently on the bottom rung of those that I have seen, aside from Green Book obviously, that’s certainly not because it’s a bad movie.

 

Honestly, this really was an interesting movie to me, from its weird off-beat tone to its fiercely biting satire, most of which felt at least fairly on point. LaKeith Stansfield does a good job as the everyman telemarketer trying to move up in the world, the movie does a good job of portraying a lot of the toxicity of corporate culture and honestly, while I’ve heard a lot of people complain about it, I really liked the weird final third twist, which I thought was a great ‘Modest Proposal’ esque critique of many companies approach to their workers

 

Honestly, if I had to say anything bad about this movie it’s that, and bear with me for a second… I actually think it could’ve done with being even more weird and out there. And trust me, if you’ve seen the movie, I wouldn’t be too surprised if you raise your eyebrows at that. But no, I really think it could’ve/should’ve gone further with the weird surreal ridiculous satire. A lot of the big satires that have really stuck with me tend to be the ones that don’t hold back with their punches and metaphors and keep them going throughout the entire film’s running time. And while this film certainly does have some of its big satirical premises near the beginning of the film, it’s honestly a bit subdued for the first half or so. And large part of me suspects that the big controversy and mixed reception about the big third act twist has more to do with it seeming out of place compared to that more subdued first half.

 

Then again, I am telling a movie that features Tessa Thompson getting bullets and bladders of sheeps blood thrown at her while she recites an obscure movie line that it needs to be more weird so maybe that just says more about me than anything else. (Also, considering what I know about actual real life performance art, that shit was practically tame.) But hey, it was still an interesting movie, so credit where credit is due on that front.

[rukaio101]

47. Ready Player One

 

Okay, just to get this out of the way quick, I liked this movie but I’m pretty sure I’m now completely over easter eggs as a concept, because this is practically ‘Easter Egg: The Movie’ and yet I barely gave a damn about most of the cameos. Seriously movie, flashing two seconds of Master Chief is not enough to get me excited. Get some actual goddamn substance to the appearances first instead of name/visual dropping them like it's supposed to mean anything.

 

Seriously though, like I said, I did actually enjoy this movie fine enough. I never read the book and I’ve heard a lot of criticisms about it and things from it that made it into the movie that I... honestly don’t disagree with, but as a far a technological Willy-Wonka-esque treasure hunt narrative went, I enjoyed it fine enough. The action was frenetic, if maybe a touch too busy and chaotic at times, the story was paced well enough, the romance… okay, the romance was awful and cringy, as were more than a few of the characters involved, but it didn’t distract me enough from the stuff I did like.

 

Spielberg is obviously a pretty dang good director and he was a good enough hand here to steady the story and cut out some of the more awkward bits. I actually really enjoyed the Shining segment that was clearly designed as a tribute to his old friend, Stanley Kubrick. One of the few ‘references’ that actually genuinely worked for me. And who better to capture that sense of 80’s nostalgia than the guy who made some of the biggest hits during that time.

 

Still, Ready Player One is the sort of movie where, whether you love it or hate it, I completely understand. It had its good features and moments but also carries a lot of the cringiness and unfortunate implications of its original source material. Still, I thought it was a solid enjoyable movie.

[rukaio101]

46. Crazy Rich Asians

Boy, those Asians sure were crazy and rich, huh?

 

Okay, I don’t really know what else I’m supposed to say here. It was a solid rom-com about rich people that acted like a solid rom-com about rich people, so I liked it. I really don’t have much beyond that. I can understand why it might have a lot more meaning and importance to other people (heck, just being a highly successful all-asian casted movie is pretty meaningful in its own way), but to me it was cute, but didn't really leave enough of an impact to make the higher tiers on this list.

 

Then again, considering what's coming up next...

[rukaio101]

45. Robin Hood

Okay, I feel like I have to go into emergency explanation mode here for obvious reasons. And, to be clear, I don’t think Robin Hood is the 45th best movie I saw this year. I don’t think Robin Hood is even in the Top 75 of movies I saw this year. This isn’t an ‘Actually, I think this movie is a lot better than critics and audiences give it credit for’ sort of situation. God no, this movie is hot garbage and I openly admit it. But for me, it was the enjoyable kind of hot garbage. The kind of awful movie that, if you go in with the right mindset, you can just throw your head back and laugh at how batshit dumb it is.

 

I mean, Just to present to you a few of the notes I made when I got back from my screening (spoilers)…

 

1) The filmmakers in this movie have a clear vendetta against the idea of 'subtle' allegory.

 

2) The filmmakers in this movie have a clear vendetta against the idea of 'subtle' use of anachronisms.

 

3) Apparently nobody in this movie knows what a sword is? Rather than swords, spears or axes, all the Nottingham guards are solely armed with adorable tiny miniature crossbows, even in situations where melee weapons or basic shields would clearly be more useful. The sole exception are the clubs and ridiculous leather riot shields the guards carry at the end which are clearly just there so the movie can have the image of 'masked molotov-throwing protesters against riot cops'. (See my earlier point about the filmmaker's hatred of 'subtle' allegory.)

 

4) The whole fucking Middle East Crusades scene that opened up the movie, which was pure unintentional comedy gold. A good writer/director might have noted the parallels between the medieval crusades and our modern wars in the Middle East and thought to maybe add some subtle parallels in the dialogue or the direction, enough to call up the similarities, but without distracting from the actual movie being told. Robin Hood (2018) went with 'What if we removed all that namby-pamby 'subtext' crap and just shot a scene from the Hurt Locker/American Sniper, but with bows instead of guns?' Complete with medieval flak-jackets, a ballista machine-gun sniper in a tower, everyone walking around with drawn bows like they're M-16's and so so much more. I nearly pissed myself with laughter when they called in a fucking airstrike (with catapults throwing stones) towards the end.

 

5) Seriously, I can not physically understate how unsubtle this movie is when it comes to its modern allegories. The Sheriff of Nottingham's first major scene had him basically speaking to a large public crowd about all the 'evil rapist muslims coming to steal our freedoms and how the brave war effort totes justifies all the obvious oppression and corruption I'm involved in and that if you're against the war, you're against Ameri-Nottingham.'. I was half expecting him to start winking halfway through and going 'Do you get it, Audience? Do you get it? It's a metaphor for the Iraq War! Aren't we clever?!'

 

6) Speaking of, I'm 90% certain that Ben Mendelsohn's Sheriff in this and his character in Rogue One are both secretly the same person. Or one is the other's descendant or something. Either way, scenery chewing abounds whenever the guy is on screen. (Also the Sheriff was possibly implied to have been anally sodomized with a broom as a child? Not entirely sure whether that implication was deliberate or not though. Also tells Robin his entire secret tragic backstory on like their third meeting because the pacing in this movie is wack as hell.)

 

7) Also speaking of, the pacing in this movie is wack as hell. It seriously feels like Robin and John have been back in England from the Crusades for like 5 minutes before they both decide to go all outlaw to repay the Sheriff and his cronies for propagating the war (which is also all Little John's idea, in spite of the fact that he's only just arrived in England at the same time Robin has and has presumably spent most of his life fighting on the other side of the Crusades, but somehow knows exactly what is wrong with the Nottingham class system and how to turn Robin into Batman a symbol to defeat it.)

 

8 ) Also also speaking of, in the continuing adventures of 'Subtext is for cowards!', the Sheriff and the Church are apparently not only unjustly profiting from the war and using it to justify their evil deeds, but they're also actively propagating it, ala modern-day shady rich arms dealers, by giving funding and weapons to the Arabs. Which.... I'm not even sure how to begin going into what's wrong with all of that. Marian and Friar Tuck get documents proving this partway through the movie but never do anything with them and they never come up again.

 

9) At least a third of the movie feels like the result of the writers rooting around in the bins behind the Nolan Batman Trilogy writer's room and stealing whatever rejected scraps they could find. Jamie Foxx's whole deal is trying to make 'The Hood' a symbol and a rally point and 'the terror that flaps in the night' yadda yadda, like a discount Ra's al Ghul in Batman Begins. Marian honest-to-god at one point tells Robin that 'Loxley is the mask. [The Hood] is the real you.' As for Jamie Dornan, he is such a clear Harvey Dent ripoff that it's comical, right down to burning half his face off when he turns evil (although the make-up just makes it look like someone's daubed red paint on his cheek.) I'm honestly surprised they didn't name him Hyrvy Dynt.

 

10) Speaking of Batman, remember that one really silly training sequence from BvS where Bruce Wayne drags around a tire and beats it up? Well apparently, that was a great inspiration to this movie because it does almost the exact same thing during its big training montage with Robin and Little John, where they drag around and lift broken wheels and shit. Like, was the montage in BvS really something you so badly wanted to rip off? Or did they just become friends with the DCEU production team while they were both rummaging around in Christopher Nolan's garbage can?

 

11) This movie has a weirdly strong hate-boner for the Church. Like, Castlevania Season 1 levels. Minus Friar Tuck, every major church officials looks so cartoonishly evil, I half expected them to turn into Captain Planet villains at any minute. The Prince John role is pretty much taken over the Cardinal who looks like a mix between Littlefinger and Jeremy Irons.

 

12) This movie does not seem to understand how medieval feudalism worked. Like, at all. Characters get away with shit that would've gotten them executed in real life faster than their heads could spin. Marian (who in this version is just a commoner) does/says like dozens of things in front of the Sheriff that should've gotten her imprisoned or outright executed almost immediately. My favourite was during the medieval casino party where she walks up in her Bond Girl dress (and not like an anachronistically appropriate equivalent, I mean literally a dress that you could easily see on a modern Bond girl) and spends like 5 minutes actively complimenting the Hood and how great he is for the people of Nottingham directly in front of the Sheriff's face without any attempt at concealing it in any way. And he does fucking nothing about it!

 

13) Oh my God, the casino party scene. For those of you who thought what TLJ was really missing was more Canto Blight. I'm also pretty certain it was where the filmmakers gave up any pretense of being even slightly historically accurate because everybody is dressed like they're in a fucking modern day gala or something. Then even have that whole 'red carpet steps flanked by bodyguards' thing. It's a hoot.

 

14) Robin gets PTSD from the Crusades completely out of nowhere for about a minute in the middle of the final climax and gives himself up, only to almost immediately get over it. It is never once led up to, or ever mentioned again.

 

15) The sheer disconnect between how seriously this movie clearly tries to take itself and how unintentionally campy it so consistently ends up as instead, is a thing of beauty.

 

16) I'm fairly sure a horse cart explodes upon crashing at one point and I can't for the life of me recall why. I can only remember that I laughed so damn hard when it happened that I nearly choked.

 

 

Okay, I'mma leave it there, even thought I'm fairly sure I've barely even scratched the surface of how batshit dumb this movie is. Hell, there are at least a dozen other things I could say about it that I've barely even touched on. It really has to be seen to be believed. Admittedly, as far as an actual quality movie goes, this is nothing but hot steaming garbage, but I honestly had more fun watching it than nearly half the other movies I saw this year, even the good ones. So yeah, that's why it's ranked so high up the list. And I would entirely recommend anyone interested in an enjoyably garbage movie to check it out. But, you know, don't actually spend money on it. Just like get really drunk and watch it on Netflix or something.

Edited January 30, 2019 by rukaio101

[rukaio101]

Accidentally forgot to post the second half of yesterday's entries, so I'm doing a few extra today.

 

44. Widows

 

 

Full review here

[rukaio101]

43. Annihilation

 

It took me a weirdly long time to get around to watching this. Seriously, it came out in what, February? Yet I didn’t get around to watching it until December and I’m not entirely sure why. After all, I loved director Alex Garland’s previous work, Ex Machina and I thought the trailers for this looked fairly intriguing. Still, I did watch it eventually. And did I enjoy it as much as I expected?

 

Well... I did like it. Wouldn’t quite say I loved it as much as I was hoping to though.

 

Honestly though, there is a damn lot to like about this movie. For one, the visuals are excellent with a lot of genuinely fucked-up or just plain surreal imagery. Special mention should go the fucked up skull-bear and Natalie Portman’s weird doppleganger, both of which contributed to some of the most memorable moments of the movie. The acting is also pretty solid across the board and the writing handles a lot of complex ideas, while also being relatively easy-to-follow in regards to thematics and messaging. And when it's being difficult/confusing to follow, it's difficult/confusing in a good way.

 

However, I think the ultimate problem I had with it was the direction, which struck me as very clinical and slightly flat. And, to be fair, I thought the same thing about Ex Machina, by the same director. But in that movie, the clinical nature of the direction actually really fit the story being told and helped add to the atmosphere and tone. And while that's arguably also the case with some of the moments in this movie as well, others feel like they could’ve used a more exciting or energetic hand and, as a result, the movie did feel like it dragged at points.

 

That said, in conclusion, while I do ultimately have my issues with the movie, it’s still a damn solid film with a lot to like about it. I may have preferred Ex Machina but as far as sophomore movies this is a pretty good one. Shame it got screwed over by distributors so.

[rukaio101]

42. Ocean's 8

 

This is one of those movies where I don't really have an amazing amount to say about it, since it more or less does what it says on the tin, but considering both how much I generally don’t care for the Oceans 11 franchise and the lukewarm reviews this got, I was surprised by how much I honestly enjoyed this. It didn’t reinvent the formula for the heist movie or anything, but it was a fun turn-your-brain-off movie that never seemed to drag. Plus I loved Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett’s chemistry.

 

Honestly, it’s not a movie I’m exactly going to rave about with great passion to anyone who disliked it, but I never felt particular bored during the runtime, I liked the characters and the action and I walked out the theatre feeling relatively satisfied. And that in itself is quite an achievement.

[rukaio101]

41. I Kill Giants

 

I’ll admit, this movie was kind of interesting to me. For those unaware, I Kill Giants is an adaptation of the 2008 graphic novel of the same name about a troubled girl, Barbara Thorson, dealing her family issues by retreating into her own fantasy world of giants and harbingers and so on. It’s honestly a fairly good read, even if the main character is somewhat obnoxious (albeit deliberately so and you can see why she’s acting out,) but I wasn’t expecting too much from this adaptation aside from a diluted version of the original material.

 

Yet weirdly enough, I actually kind of think this film did some things better than the original comic book. Admittedly, it also did a lot of things significantly worse, but that’s kind of par for the course in regards to a cinematic adaptation like this.

 

The thing is, the switch to live action really does help a lot in showing how unhealthy and strange a lot of Barbara’s actions and coping mechanisms are in the first two thirds or so. They were already somewhat unhealthy in the original comic book, yes, but the nature of the comic book medium and its tendency towards strange and fantastical things means that it really doesn’t come off exactly as weird as it probably should. But, in live action, on the other hand? A lot of the thing Barbara does to ‘hunt giants’ really does come off as a lot more unsettling and unhealthy than in the comic book, which I felt really helped with what the story was trying to convey. The actor playing Barbara in particular was excellent, managing to mix the character’s snarkyness with her conflicting emotions perfectly. In fact all the actors in the movie did their jobs pretty well.

 

Unfortunately, where the nature of live-action doesn’t help (in large part due to budget most likely) is the action, especially the climax. Without giving away too much in the way of spoilers, in the comic, Barbara spends the climax fighting the Titan, the mightiest of giants, in a confrontation that’s just as much symbolic and meaningful as it is an actual fight. It’s probably the biggest and most meaningful scene in the entire story and the key upon which the entire emotional arc rests on. And here the format of the comic really helps as you can see Barbara clearly putting her passion and all into each and every blow leading to a conclusion that’s equal parts awesome, bittersweet and heartwarming all in one.

 

In the movie, however, it’s done with bad CGI and over in about one hit. And while, like I said, a large part of that is probably due to budget, it does mean that it loses a lot of the emotion and catharsis of the climax in the original comic which, since said scene was so important to the overall story loses it a lot of points in comparison.

 

Still, as far as adaptations go, this was a pretty solid one. It keeps to a lot of the similar beats of the original story while translating it effectively for film and honestly outright improves on some of them. It has a clearly grimier and darker atmosphere than the original that I felt really worked in its favour. And even the lack of catharsis in the climax is something I’m more inclined to blame on a lack of budget that any real incompetence on the filmmakers part. So if you read and enjoyed the original comic, I’d say maybe check it out.

 

 

(Also, suck it @Blankments. 113th worst movie of the year, my ass.)

[rukaio101]

40. Creed 2

 

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t really expecting all that much from this sequel, once I heard that Ryan Coogler was no longer directing. And can you really blame me all that much? One only needs to look towards Pacific Rim Uprising to see that sequels to exceptional movies lacking their original director tend to be not all that great. But honestly, this managed to hold up to the legacy of the first movie pretty dang well. Oh certainly, it’s not nearly as good as the first Creed, but it’s still a damn entertaining movie in its own right.

 

Really, I think a lot of what makes this movie hold together without Coogler’s presence comes down to two things. The acting and the writing. Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson and Sylvester Stallone all slip back into their old roles like they never left and carry the heart of the movie on their backs. (I swear I could watch Michael B Jordan and Tessa Thompson doing couple stuff for hours.) Even Dolph Lundren manages to imbue what was once a cheesy Russian stereotype with a real sense of weight and age and past-his-prime bitterness that adds genuine emotional impact to the relationship he has with his son. And I was surprised by how well the writing managed to give these characters depths and understandable emotional arcs. Maybe they're not anything amazingly emotionally complex, but they're still there and I still thought they worked.

 

Still, like Pacific Rim Uprising, losing the original director did have a negative effect on the movie as a whole and, once again, it comes down to the action. Not the say the boxing in this movie is bad, it’s really not. But it just doesn’t hold a candle to the tense, pulse-pounding action in the first Creed movie and just feels a touch flat in comparison. Again, it’s not bad, just not quite great enough.

 

Still, as far as sequels to acclaimed movies go, this is a damn solid one. I’m not entirely sure where they can go from here, but the characters have proved endearing enough to survive Coogler’s departure and maybe carry more future movies on their own.

[rukaio101]

39. Sgt Stubby: An American Hero

 

No really. Really. I’m being entirely serious here. This isn’t a Robin Hood case where I actually think the movie is awful but was entertained by its awfulness. I genuinely think Sgt Stubby: An American Hero is a really really good film. Yeah, I’m as surprised as you are.

 

For those unaware, the movie itself is based on the real life story of Sgt Stubby, a real life dog who becomes the regimental mascot of an American platoon sent to fight during WWI. During his time on the front at the war, Stubby faces dangers and trials, catches spies, warns soldiers of danger and ends up actively saving a lot of lives, in what is, once again, based largely on real life incidents. Also, he's a very adorable doggo. Who's a good dog? Yes you are! Yes you are!

 

Seriously though, a lot of what I really think makes the movie work is its heart. Stubby is an instantly lovable protagonist and, thanks to the fact that he doesn’t ever speak (thank god), a lot of his emotions are expressed through his body language instead to great effect. And he really does act like a dog a lot of the time, rather than a human acting through a dog. I have a pet of my own back home and I was amused to recognise certain actions or behaviours in Stubby that I’d see plenty in my own dog, especially his voracious appetite. And a lot of the characters surrounding him are friendly, likeable and heroic as well, making it easy to root for them or see them interact. One of the main characters had a friendly relationship with an older french soldier he was stationed with that was actually really endearing to watch.

 

Another positive about the movie is that, unlike a lot of western animated movies, it never feels like it's talking down to its audience. In particular, there’s no immature stuff like pratfalls and shitty out-of-place jokes. There is humour, yes, but it’s a very natural kind of humour, like the sort you’d actually expect between friends. The time period and the characters are treated with appropriate respect, which is refreshing to see in a kids movie. Plus it isn’t afraid to delve into some of the darker aspects of WWI with stuff like death, mustard gas and genuine injuries, including to Stubby.

 

The one big negative I do have to give it though, and the main reason this isn’t even higher on this list, is that, like I Kill Giants, it clearly suffers from not having a big enough budget to fully do what it wanted. In particular the backgrounds tend to look less like the mud-ridden trenches of WWI and more like ‘generic forest CG mapback No32’. Plus the whole ‘kids movie thing’ makes it difficult to show a lot of the more violent and horrific details. Several characters get wounded at certain points, but I’d be damned it I could tell from their models, considering the lack of blood and dirt, or tearing in their clothing.

 

Still, for what they actually had, there’s no denying that the makers of this film did a damn fine job. Rather than being a ridiculous joke, Sgt Stubby is a true-story movie with a lot of heart, moxie and ultimately produced a genuinely really good film.

[rukaio101]

38. Bumblebee

 

God it feels weird to watch a Transformers movie made by someone who doesn’t feel raw contempt for the franchise and its audience, doesn’t it?

 

Seriously though, like a lot of people, I’m really not fond of the Bay Transformers movies. Even the first movie, which I hear a lot of people defend as ‘not that bad’ I thought was just hot garbage that only improves on the other movies by being more structurally solid and actually having a go at character arcs. The only one I have anything even remotely resembling positive feelings towards is actually Transformers: Age of Extinction and even that I thought was too long by half and gave me a headache by the end.

 

Honestly, it’s kind of difficult to judge exactly how much of my praise for Bumblebee is down to it just showing basic storytelling competence instead of shitty Bayisms. What’s that? The Transformers now actually look visually distinct instead of incomprehensible mishmashes of randoms metal jigsaw pieces? The characters actually seem to be good people who like each other rather than just sex objects or awful unlikeable macho assholes? I can actually follow the action clearly? There’s not a single Transformer voiced by a shitty, potentially racist cultural stereotype? Is that even allowed?!

 

But yeah, no this movie really does have a lot going for it. The story is simple but sweet, there’s good chemistry between the two leads, Bumblebee in particular is amazingly expressive in spite of his lack of vocal chords and overall there’s legitimately a lot that makes this movie stand out as good, beyond just ‘not being a Bay movie’. Yet, I can’t help but kinda feel that maybe it’s ‘too little too late’ for this franchise? Because, even though on paper I enjoyed it plenty, I really cant bring myself to feel the hype and excitement or passion for this movie that I once did for the Transformers franchise. Which is a shame, because this really is the sort of Transformers movie we really needed all along.

 

Ah well, maybe it’ll do well enough to stop Paramount from turning back to Bay in a heavily misguided attempt to ‘save the franchise’.

[rukaio101]

37. A Simple Favour

 

This was an interesting turn for director Paul Feig. The guy is mainly known for his comedies, like Bridesmaid, Spy and that one 2016 movie that shall not be named but was really just okay at best/worst. So a mystery thriller seemed like an odd choice. Although then again, in hindsight, considering how much I enjoyed the non-comedy elements in Spy, I really shouldn’t have been surprised that this turned out as well as it did.

 

Honestly, I really don’t have all that much bad to say about it. It’s a good movie with good characters, good acting, good dialogue, pacing, story, plot twists, Blake Lively's wardrobe, everything. It’s the sort of movie on this list where I genuinely don’t have any complaints about it, I just preferred other movies more.

Edited February 1, 2019 by rukaio101