Once again, the new year is just around the corner, so it's time to reflect on the movies of the year that's just passed, both the good and the bad. I've done one of these lists every year since 2011, so welcome to my fourth annual movie round-up. :)
Now, bear with me for a moment; I need to set some criteria. Movie release dates are a complicated business, and I have my own idea of what qualifies as a 2014 movie. It simply has to have been released to the general public in the year in question. So any movie that's only seen the light of day at film festivals so far, no matter how big a splash it was, is out. The same rule applies to a movie's release date in a particular country: I judge by the first public audience it reached according to IMDb, so if it was initially released in another country earlier but didn't make it to yours until this year, it doesn't count. It is a pain that that's a two-way street, because some big US releases towards the end of the year won't reach my shores until January and February, so I currently haven't seen movies like Big Hero 6, Into the Woods and Birdman.
Speaking of which, I emphasise this every year, but something else to keep in mind is that this is going purely by movies that I've actually seen. I try my best to see every movie that gets either exceedingly good or bad buzz to see if it'll make either of these end-of-year lists, but there are always some that, for one reason or another, I never get round to. But I'll go into the specifics on that in the individual good and bad sections.
So, without further ado, let's get started. :)
I tend to get the bad news out of the way first so that the good news becomes sort of a reward.
But let me tell you, this was a hard list to narrow down! Truth be told, this was a distinctly underwhelming year for movies. There were practically none whatsoever that I either really loved or really hated; the whole year seemed to be running on indifference nonstop. …Or maybe that was just my own ennui.
And I may not have the utmost authority to make a worst-of list anyway, because I haven't seen many of the reputedly worst movies that came out this year. Like, I haven't seen any of the Tyler Perry movies or The Expendables 3, for instance. There's also Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, the remakes of Endless Love and Annie, Dracula Untold, A Haunted House 2, Mrs Brown's Boys, As Above, So Below and Uwe Boll's Rampage: Capital Punishment, among others I'm sure I'm forgetting. But the big one is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; I never watched Ninja Turtles myself – I didn't grow up with it – and I certainly didn't want this piece of shit (as I'm sure it is) to be my first exposure to the franchise.
But anyway, from what I have seen, these are my picks for the top ten worst movies of 2014…
#10 = Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return
This is an embarrassing attempt to bring Oz into the twenty-first century by making the dialogue and humour exceedingly contemporary. It's such an ill-advised idea that this movie is basically dead on arrival. Not to mention, the songs are bad, and some of the voice acting is terrible: in particular, Bernadette Peters is staggeringly wooden as Glinda. Also, I didn't care much for Oz the Great and Powerful, but the little China Girl in that movie was far better than the China Princess in this one. I just wouldn't recommend showing this to your children; show them the more timeless movies instead.
#9 = Under the Skin
This movie, right from the first minute, seems like it's trying desperately to be a Stanley Kubrick film, with a very slow pace and a vague, visual-fuelled narrative. But a sci-fi movie of this nature doesn't lend itself well at all to that approach; it really needs to be cohesive. As a result, it leaves tonnes of questions unanswered. Just what is that liquid she traps men in? Who is that guy working with her? Why does she even need men's skins in the first place? None of this is ever explained. It constantly left me thinking, "What the hell is going on?!"
#8 = Transformers: Age of Extinction
I've made no secret of my utmost disdain for the Transformers sequels and Michael Bay movies in general. I was fully expecting this to top the list before I even saw it, so imagine my surprise when it turned out to be nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. It's still overlong and poorly structured, and the human characters are more annoying than ever before, but at least it wasn't as all-around infuriating as Transformers two and three. Despite learning from a few of its predecessors' mistakes, like reducing the robot cast to only a few clearly distinguishable Autobots, overall it's just plain dull.
#7 = A New York Winter's Tale (known in the US as simply Winter's Tale)
This is basically a failed attempt at a modern-day fairytale, and I have a hunch that it's going to become a new classic "so bad it's good" movie. But personally, I was only laughing at it half the time; the rest of the time, I just found the stupidity on display aggravating. As an example of both extremes, I lost it whenever I heard Russell Crowe's ridiculous Irish accent, but when Peter survives for a century without aging, it just leaves you wondering what kind of social life he's had in the meantime. There are just too many outrageously stupid moments to even count.
#6 = Behaving Badly
Based on Ric Browde's novel While I'm Dead… Feed the Dog. I haven't read the book, but it must surely be better than this. As the title would imply, a lot of the humour is meant to be dark or distasteful, but the overall direction is so indifferent that there's no wit to it; it just comes across as immature. And some of the concepts are downright cringe-worthy, especially the plotline of the best friend's mother having sex with the teenage protagonist, which is wrong on so many levels! I spent the whole time either cringing or just sitting there in awkward silence.
#5 = The Purge: Anarchy
I hated the original Purge, but thought maybe this sequel could offer some improvement. But that hope was quickly dashed. The whole concept of the Purge is still beyond absurd, so illogical that it beggars belief. Thankfully the characters aren't aggravating morons this time around, but it's the cinematography that really kills this attempt. The camera never stops shaking, everything looks overexposed – it's all simply ugly to look at. Plus the half-assed nature of its satire is exemplified at the end, when it turns into a blatant Hunger Games rip-off. So, while it's not as bad as its predecessor, this still isn't much more watchable.
#4 = A Long Way Down
Another movie based on a dark comedy novel. But this time, the mistranslation from book to film is plainly noticeable – and distressing. Right from the opening scenes, the movie's joking approach to the characters committing suicide made me distinctly uncomfortable. It's a disastrous failed attempt to be darkly humorous about a very delicate subject. And the rest of the movie that follows is just as awkwardly unfunny. The characters often got on my nerves, but by far the most annoying is Jess: she never shuts up! Basically, it's a movie that shoots itself in the foot right from the start and never recovers.
#3 = Bad Neighbours (known in the US as Neighbors)
One word: annoying! It's one of those movies where both parties involved in the rivalry are as unlikable as the other, in this case because all they do is shout and scream and be as loud and obnoxious as possible – it's just noise, noise, noise! It's so cacophonous that the painfully unfunny and often sophomoric jokes are almost secondary. I also have to wonder why our leading couple are the only ones in the whole neighbourhood who bother to call the police about the noise. The sheer level of annoyance I got from this movie is really what puts it at the number three spot.
#2 = The Legend of Hercules
This retelling of the story of Hercules is as clichéd a Moses story as it gets. You can even pinpoint the famous historical epics it's blatantly ripping off, including Ben-Hur, Gladiator and every triumphant "people's hero" leader story you've ever seen before. Plus the CGI is astonishingly bad, the acting is so dull it's downright depressing, and the only one of the famous twelve labours that's even remotely referenced is the Nemean lion; even the Disney version had more to do with the legend than that! In short, this is one of the most boring, derivative movies I've come across in quite a while.
And #1 – straight in there from the moment I saw it – Lucy
God, this movie is stupid! Even the trailer had me laughing because, as yet, I didn't realise the "ten percent of the brain" thing was an actual misconception; I always thought it was just an expression meaning that hardly anyone makes full use of their talents. But now here's a sci-fi movie taking that completely false idea entirely seriously! It's insulting! But even simply as a movie, Lucy lost me very early on, when it keeps cutting between two completely unrelated series of events; the transitions are just jarring. The second half is mostly just unremarkable action fodder, but it's still frustrating because it's serving such an idiotic purpose. I hated this movie! It flat-out fails both in conception and execution, and it gets my vote as the worst movie of the year. Others might have been technically worse in terms of tradecraft, but none were more frustrating to watch.
Runners-up:
• Divergent is head-scratching in its idea of a society dictated absolutely by personality.
• I, Frankenstein is so bland and mediocre that I was almost completely indifferent to it – up until the ridiculous ending.
• Into the Storm is chock full of stock characters and maddening abuse of the found footage gimmick.
• Need for Speed was a surprisingly drab return of old-school, CG-free stunts.
• The Quiet Ones was the most thoroughly forgettable movie I saw all year.
• And Rio 2 is a wholly sloppy, half-hearted sequel that also tries to do way too much at once.
Well, that's the worst-of list. Now I get to wash my hands of those stinkers by talking about the movies this year that I actually liked. :)
Now, I mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating. Compared to the other years I've been doing this, this best-of list sadly isn't quite as strong a remedy to its counterpart. The line-up of movies this year was pretty subpar; there were next to no movies that I even liked enough to award five-star ratings. Even some of the movies that were huge hits with both critics and audiences, like How to Train Your Dragon 2, didn't resonate quite as strongly with me personally. Perhaps the biggest examples are the two Marvel movies this year – Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy – both of which I thought were just okay. Is the movie-going public getting desperate for something to latch onto, or am I just becoming too cynical?
And again, there might be some glaring omissions on this list, because there were a fair few reportedly good movies this year that I didn't catch, like Muppets Most Wanted, Big Eyes, Pride, What If (AKA The F Word), Veronica Mars (I think it best to watch the show first) and The Babadook – the latter of which I feel really guilty about because, when I first heard about it, I thought it sounded incredibly stupid, and by the time I heard what it was really like, it was too late. But the one for which I'm kicking myself the most is Boyhood, helmed by many as the best movie of the year; unfortunately I missed it in the cinema, and it won't hit DVD until January. I'd also like to give a special mention to Dinosaur 13: I usually take no interest in documentary films, but that one sounds like just my cup of tea. :)
Bottom line: if there's a movie that you feel really strongly should be on this list, chances are I either haven't seen it or I just didn't like it as much as you did.
So, with that rather pessimistic intro out of the way, let's now jump right into the joyful side of this year's cinema. :D Here are my top ten favourite movies of 2014…
#10 = Interstellar
It's more of the same complex sci-fi fare we've come to expect from Christopher Nolan. :) This time we have a team of explorers scouting deep space to try and find mankind a new home. A few aspects of the story don't add up, but I could still follow it well enough overall. I really didn't like Hans Zimmer's raucous, bombastic music, which even drowns out the dialogue at times. But on the other hand, the whole "time is relative" concept leads to one of the most powerful emotional moments in recent memory. Overall, it's far from Nolan's best offering, but still a pretty good one.
#9 = Godzilla
Finally, an American Godzilla remake that actually respects the franchise! :D Personally, I've only seen the original, but from what I've heard of the rest of the series, this movie is an affectionate tribute to the whole franchise. The human characters are boring, and they take up so much of the movie that that can be a little disappointing, but the story, and the plan they devise, still consistently held my interest. However, the final monster battle is definitely the highlight. :) Overall, while I could have used a little more focus on the monsters, I was still more than satisfied with what I got.
#8 = Gone Girl
When his wife disappears, Nick Dunne suspects kidnapping and goes public with his search for her, but then the media begins to suspect that he may not be all that innocent. Well, it's been a while since I've seen a thriller that kept me guessing all the way! :) The mystery of what happened to the wife only lasts for the first act, then it becomes something entirely different: an equally riveting battle of wits. The last act made no sense to me at the time, but fortunately it does become clearer on reflection. On the whole, it's a well written and highly effective thriller.
#7 = Chef
This is one that I really underestimated at first. The first act, involving the main character's feud with a critic, is pretty shaky, because all the trouble could have been avoided if he simply told the truth; you just want to jump into the movie and explain that it's all because of managerial mandate. But the second half, after he opens up the food truck and goes on tour, is quite simply some of the best feel-good entertainment I've seen in a long time. I especially love the developing relationship he shares with his son – who delivers one of the best child performances in years.
#6 = Oculus
This was the surprise of the year for me. I usually don't find the supernatural scary, and the idea of a haunted mirror sounded ludicrous to me. But instead, the movie succeeds by offering an extremely well written psychological study. As the film progresses and we get to know the two leads more and more, we start to wonder which of them is actually delusional, which is what makes the second half so intense. Watching the whole movie makes you feel like you're descending into delirium. It's an absolutely riveting mind trip, and probably the best horror movie I've seen since Cabin in the Woods.
#5 = X-Men: Days of Future Past
I went into this movie with high hopes, and came out feeling that I'd seen the best X-Men movie ever made. In a word, wow! :) It's impressive in just about every respect, but I'm especially amazed at how well written it is. The story is everything that a comic book movie should be: tightly written, and exciting thanks to being witty with both its clever ideas and its endearing characters. All the performances are top-notch, but Michael Fassbender stands out in particular. But the main thing the movie did for me was the last half-hour: the tension in the climax is nothing short of breathtaking.
#4 = The Imitation Game
If any movie this year was right up my street, it was this one! :) It's a biopic of Alan Turing, who developed the first prototypical computer to decode Nazi communications in World War II. The film as a whole is endlessly compelling and exciting, and even manages to pack some truly devastating emotional punches. But of course, it's Benedict Cumberbatch who steals the show. The movie portrays Turing as autistic, and, speaking as someone on the spectrum myself, Cumberbatch's performance is pitch-perfect. His tendency to rarely look people in the eye, and sometimes have trouble forming complete sentences or even words, really rang true.
#3 = The Book of Life
Another big surprise. Right from the opening scenes, it was so emotionally poignant that I was won over instantly. The story is as basic a fairytale as you can get, which just makes it all the more engaging: sometimes simplicity goes a long way. But aside from that, I simply adore the art design and the animation; I can't think of any other movie that looks like this. I said before that I hardly rated any movies five stars this year, but this is one that I strongly suspect will earn that coveted rating on repeat viewings. I loved it.
#2 = The Raid 2
This is one for which I had particularly high hopes, being a huge fan of the first Raid. This sequel features a much more complicated story; I had a bit of trouble keeping up. But all the characters' motivations made perfect sense, so I began to become steadily more invested. And then, once again, the third act made all the difference. I mean, WOW! The action scenes are some of the best in recent memory, including one of the best car chases I've ever seen, period! They're so exhilarating that I felt like I had to take a breather after each one was over!
So, what could be number one? What did I enjoy more than any of those other movies? The answer surprises even me.
My #1 favourite movie of 2014 is… Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Now, I admit I may have a bit of a bias towards this one, since I've been a huge AVGN fan since 2007, and James Rolfe himself, through his other videos, has become one of my biggest filmmaking idols. I was following this movie's progress from day one, trying not to let myself get too hyped, and boy was it worth the wait! :) It never stops being entertaining, not even for a second! Just about every step of the story feels natural, and I love how progressively outrageous the situation keeps becoming. I'd be lying if I said the obvious low-budget effects weren't occasionally distracting, but some of them just add to the humour in a big way: seeing some of the actors turned into part of the miniature models is frigging hilarious! :D Judging from its IMDb rating, it seems even a lot of AVGN fans hated this movie, but I'm clearly not one of them. I couldn't help but share in the passion on display, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It's my favourite movie of the year.
Runners-up:
• Batman: Assault on Arkham is more about the Suicide Squad than Batman himself, but their interplay makes them just as enjoyable to watch.
• Belle is maybe a tad romanticised, but still a compelling tale of morality and breaking boundaries.
• Edge of Tomorrow (released on DVD as Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow) is a very clever thriller that plays around with the concept of time travel magnificently.
• The Grand Budapest Hotel is both a dryly humorous comedy and an effective mystery story all in one.
• The Lego Movie is funny, creative, energised and even surprisingly profound, as demonstrated near the end.
• Nightcrawler is that rare movie for the bad guy, topped by an outstanding performance by Jake Gyllenhaal.
• And Noah acknowledges both the good and bad at the root of human nature, and ultimately reaffirmed my faith in humanity.
And those are my picks for the high and low points of this pretty meagre year.
Let's hope we get a more illustrious catalogue of films next year. After all, we've got the Wachowskis' Jupiter Ascending to look forward to, as well as the Fantastic Four reboot, Ant-Man, not one but two Pixar movies, Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, and quite a few sequels: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mockingjay Part 2, a new Mad Max, another Bond movie, Mission: Impossible 5, Star Wars: Episode VII and – perhaps the one I'm personally most excited for – Jurassic World (man, it's been a long wait for that one!). On the other hand, I'm rather dubious about The Minions Movie: I'm not sure those characters are really leading role material. And then, needless to say, I couldn't be less enthusiastic about Fifty Shades of Grey; why that's even getting a film adaptation is beyond me!
In any case, let's hope for the best. :)
So thanks for reading this summary of my own outlook on cinema in 2014, have a fantastic New Year, and I'll see you next time. Take care.
I just saw the trailer for Jurassic World, and I'm ready to share my thoughts. And if you intend to keep reading, you'd better get comfortable, because I have a lot to say! :)
Man have I been waiting for this movie forever! The last Jurassic Park movie was back in 2001; that was, of course, the God-awful Jurassic Park III. And since then, a fourth movie has been teased several times, but has remained in development hell as far as I can make out.
Now, I'm usually not one to keep up to date with a movie's development progress, but because I'm such a huge Jurassic Park fan, I found myself making an exception in this case. Any article I saw about the development of Jurassic World, I was all over it.
A Jurassic Park sequel is usually released every four years, so in 2005 – the time I'd been expecting another movie to be released – I read in Total Film magazine that Steven Spielberg was working with the studio to produce a script they were happy with. "Too much science will make the movie too talky," he said. "Too much fiction will make it seem dry."
From then until only a couple of years ago, nothing really happened. Then, when I read that the script was in the hands of Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the husband-and-wife writing duo behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I was optimistic. My only hope was that they had as much passion for the Jurassic Park franchise as they did for Apes. But apparently, the script has been revised by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly since then, so that point may be proved moot.
On the other hand, another article I read presents a whole other discussion in itself.
It seems they decided against giving the dinosaurs feathers in this new movie, because, as they put it, "a Velociraptor with feathers is not a Velociraptor". And I think that's a shame. I mean, that would have been a great way to solidify the new evidence of feathered dinosaurs with the general public. Especially since an earlier article had included a script extract where Dr Wu addressed the outdated image from the earlier movies by discussing the flaws in gene sequencing: maybe the dinosaurs had no feathers because of their slapdash approach previously. (An idea that's also explored in Telltale's Jurassic Park game, by the way.)
Now, I can understand why some people would be reluctant to accept feathered dinosaurs, because I've been there myself. All my life, I've known dinosaurs as scaly reptiles, so for all the research that was turning up indicating that some species had feathers, I was extremely reluctant to listen to that evidence. Hell, it took me until a couple of years ago, when I saw the documentary miniseries Dinosaur Planet (not to be confused with the BBC's Planet Dinosaur) to finally accept feathered raptors; the feathered Velociraptor in that series looked amazing. Sometimes you just need to see something in action for it to really win you over.
But what about T-Rex? Well, we know the very earliest tyrannosaurs had feathers, and some of them were pretty big, but we're not so sure about the more advanced ones. Until recently, I remained a firm sceptic of the idea that Tyrannosaurus Rex itself had feathers.
But then I saw this picture of a statue in Poland that depicts it with a carpet of downy feathers. And the more I look at it, the more sense it makes. That's a feathered T-Rex image I can get behind. If this new Jurassic Park had made its T-Rex look like this, I wouldn't mind a bit. It would still look respectable and intimidating, certainly not like (to slightly alter a quote from the first movie) a "forty-foot turkey" that you couldn't take seriously.
Anyway, after all those developments, the trailer's finally out, the movie is finally within sight, so what do I think? Well, to be honest, the trailer did very little for me; I was kind of indifferent to it. Trailers very rarely get me excited to see the movies they advertise, because I know they can sometimes be misleading. The first teaser appeared to confirm one of my biggest fears for this project: that they were relying too much on CGI. The full trailer, like I said, didn't get me any more excited for the movie, but at least it didn't add any additional fears on top of that.
But, right off the bat, there are two major problems with this movie, both of which are very obvious, but I might as well get them out of the way.
The first problem is that I'm worried about the special effects.
Stan Winston, the special effects legend behind the animatronic dinosaurs in the first three movies, sadly passed away in 2008 – an unfortunate blow for any potential practical effects. The real genius of the series so far, and what made Jurassic Park so groundbreaking in the first place, was how well it blended the CGI with the animatronics. To paraphrase the words of the filmmakers, their intention was to make the two match up as best they could, so that they wouldn't come across as two completely different entities, and therefore the dinosaurs themselves would seem complete. And for the most part, they succeeded. I remember going to see the first movie when it was rereleased in 2011, and I didn't see animatronics: I saw frigging dinosaurs!
But now that the leader of the practical side of things is no longer with us, that sensibility could be gone altogether. Now, let's make one thing perfectly clear. CGI is very tricky to pull off convincingly; unless you do it perfectly, it just ends up looking like the digital animation that it is. And most blockbusters since Jurassic Park, especially in the most recent years, have made the mistake of relying too heavily on CGI; nothing seems grounded in reality anymore, so almost all CG effects just look like video game graphics, not live action in any way. I really hope Jurassic World doesn't succumb to peer pressure and reduce its computer effects to clearly animated sprites in that manner.
Well, if the trailer is anything to go by, I have good reason to be apprehensive. Right from when I saw that shot of the gate in the first teaser, I thought it looked straight out of a video game, completely devoid of the wonder we felt as we approached the gate to the park in the first movie (which was achieved mainly because that gate was a real prop, it was actually there). And the dinosaurs look like cartoons.
Still, according to Wikipedia, there are indeed animatronic dinosaurs in this movie. We'll just have to wait and see how it all fairs out.
The second thing that hurts it for me is that it just took too damn long. Nothing is worth so many false release dates and setbacks. With each year, our expectations grew higher, and sometimes we let our imagination run away with us. The early concept art of dinosaur mutant hybrids certainly didn't help.
But, with all that aside, what else did I take from the trailer?
Well, Chris Pratt's performance, for one thing. It's about as far from his Star-Lord performance (and, if I'm not mistaken, his usual roles) as you can imagine! He's so deadpan serious he wouldn't be out of place in Man of Steel. But that's all right with me, because… I'm just going to come out and say it: I hated him in Guardians of the Galaxy. Though maybe that was just the character of Star-Lord himself; if the trailer's only showing us a tiny portion of Chris Pratt's scenes and it turns out he's applying that same shtick to a more likable character, maybe I won't mind so much.
What the fuck was up with that mosasaur show? I asked this question of Jurassic Park: The Game and it still applies here: where did they get the DNA to clone it? And during the show, how can they guarantee the safety of the spectators? How does the creature even fit in that pool? Is it supposed to be a satire of the killer whales' cramped conditions at SeaWorld?
But there is one thing I have to commend the trailer for: intrigue. They're promising a new dinosaur – which, by the way, I really hope they can justify well, otherwise it's just going to come across like the clichéd "scientists didn't know what they were doing" story. But if this new creature is to be a replacement for T-Rex, let's hope it's a more worthy choice than Spinosaurus from the last movie.
And on a side note, they didn't show this in the trailer, but I'm glad Dr Wu is in this movie. He basically had a cameo in the first movie, played by BD Wong, but he played a much bigger part in the original novel. Maybe he'll finally live up to his potential this time.
Anyway, that's about all the preconceived feelings I have for now. Now we just have to wait until June 12th, and all will be revealed. :) And, regardless of everything I just said, I'm still looking forward to the new movie. I'll be there opening day if I can. …Wow, it's hard to believe the wait is almost over! Fourteen years of anticipation is coming to an end.
So thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.
Again, since the last time I posted to this blog (nearly two months ago), I've felt very little motivation to write about the movies I see. But that leads to another problem resulting from not noting down my thoughts immediately: by this point, some of them have faded from my memory altogether. For both those reasons, I'm just going to run through everything very briefly – perhaps only a couple of sentences each – sort of like I remember doing at the end of an essay-style post a while ago.
As always, I'll start with the movies I've seen in the cinema since my last post…
Gone Girl (2014). Well, it's been a while since I've seen a thriller that kept me guessing all the way. :) The mystery of what happened to the wife only lasts for the first act, then it becomes something entirely different: an equally riveting battle of wits. The last act made no sense to me at the time, but fortunately does so on reflection. On the whole, it's a well written and highly effective thriller. My rating: 80%.
The Book of Life (2014). Right from the opening scenes, this movie was so emotionally potent that it won me over instantly. The story is as basic a fairytale as you can get, but that just makes it all the easier to get invested. I can't emphasise enough how creative the art style is! :) The pop songs are a little distracting, but otherwise this is easily one of my favourite movies of the year so far. My rating: 85%.
Nightcrawler (2014). At first, I could completely relate to the main character's struggle to find work. But as the movie progressed, I realised that devotion to him was misguided: the guy's a sociopath, plain and simple. And the movie is basically about his rise to success by being a complete slimeball. There are enough movies out there for the good guy; this is one for the bad guy. My rating: 80%.
Interstellar (2014). Well, it's more of the same complex sci-fi fare from Christopher Nolan. :) A few things don't add up, but I could still follow the overall story well enough. The whole "time is relative" thing leads to one of the most powerful emotional punches in recent memory. The only thing I really didn't like was the music. Overall, it's not one of Nolan's best, but still pretty good. My rating: 80%.
Next, everything I've rented over the last two months (making use of Xtra-vision's platinum offer, I might add: unlimited rentals for three months for only €49.99)…
A New York Winter's Tale [AKA Winter's Tale] (2014). I have a hunch that this is going to become a new classic "so bad it's good" movie. Half the time I just found it aggravating, but the rest of the time I was laughing my ass off. It starts out as a laughable failed attempt at a modern fairytale, and as it progresses, it just gets stupider and stupider. My rating: 25%.
The Invisible Woman (2014). This is a movie that conveys its period setting to a T: the set design, costumes and dialogue completely envelop you in the world the movie's created. But the attention to the setting comes at the expense of the actual story, which isn't very engaging. My rating: 55%.
The Quiet Ones (2014). This is by far the most forgettable movie I've seen all year; I hardly remember any specifics at all. I just remember it wasn't remotely scary, the characters were all assholes, and there was one scene where a character made an assessment that completely contradicted his attitude in an earlier scene. It's just a very unremarkable movie. My rating: 35%.
The Two Faces of January (2014). This one started out promising, with an almost Hitchcockian take on characters on the run. But as it progressed, I started to like the characters less and less; the only reason there's a movie at all is because the husband jumps to conclusions. So overall, I think it's just okay. My rating: 65%.
Tarzan (2014). Where do I begin with this one?! Right off the bat, the animation struck me as surprisingly lifeless: using motion capture with exaggerated, cartoon-like character models just doesn't work. The other big problem is the pacing: all the first two acts feels like first-act build-up. And don't even get me started on that cassowary! Boy did this movie suck! My rating: 30%.
Cuban Fury (2014). It's a cheesy dance movie that hits all the plot points you'd expect. …That's all I can really say. It's a mixed bag: parts of it are kind of effective, but other times the jokes are so contrived that I often found them groan-worthy. My rating: 55%.
Pompeii (2014). Again, this one isn't really worth commenting on. It's as predictable a disaster movie as it gets, with stock characters, humdrum storytelling and unconvincing CGI. Though it does end with one of the silliest images I've ever seen. My rating: 45%.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014). As a standalone thriller, this keeps your attention well enough and delivers a surprisingly breathless climax. But by completely rebooting the franchise, you've emphasised what a run-of-the-mill protagonist Jack Ryan's always been; the hero here is so plain that he might as well not even be called Jack Ryan. My rating: 60%.
Bad Neighbours [AKA Neighbors] (2014). GOD, this one was annoying! It's a movie where both sides of the rivalry are as unlikable as the other, since all they do is shout and scream and be as loud and obnoxious as possible – it's just noise, noise, noise! The fact that the jokes are unfunny and often sophomoric is almost secondary. I hated this flick! My rating: 20%.
Oculus (2014). So far, this is probably the year's biggest surprise. Even if, like me, you don't find the supernatural scary, this is still a great psychological study. You start to wonder which of the two leads is actually delusional, and you genuinely don't know what's real and what isn't. It's a very well written, compelling mind trip, and probably the best horror movie I've seen since Cabin in the Woods. My rating: 80%.
Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return (2014). Another movie that I just wouldn't recommend you show your children. It's a disastrous attempt to bring Oz into the twenty-first century by making the dialogue and humour very contemporary. The songs are bad, some of the voice acting is terrible… and I didn't care much for Oz the Great and Powerful, but it had a far better china character. My rating: 35%.
Frank (2014). You can't go too wrong with a story about making music! :D The overall story is about the main character gradually destroying the band through his own selfishness. I didn't completely take to the characters, but still liked it well enough. Also, it's been a while since I've seen a movie that convinced me to buy the soundtrack! :) My rating: 75%.
Heaven Is for Real (2014). First of all, this movie is painfully slow! If you cut out all the scenes that don't go anywhere, this movie would be less than half an hour long. I had some issues with the message, too – but I'd need a full review to go into that. But at least Greg Kinnear was giving it his all. On the whole, I'd say this is deeply flawed, but not terrible. My rating: 45%.
Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (2014). This is sort of like if Groundhog Day was an alien invasion story. :) I really love how the movie plays around with the idea, especially with how many times the characters have been through each scenario already. Oddly enough, the weakest aspect is the action scenes, which are a bit too frenetic and at times unintelligible. But overall, very clever and enjoyable. My rating: 75%.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014). You know… I'm kind of done being angry at this series by now. The continued success of these movies is just depressing by this point. It's just a sad fact of life: Michael Bay has got the movie-going public by the balls. This instalment wasn't as infuriating as two and three, but still pretty boring and way too long, and the human characters are more annoying than ever. My rating: 25%.
Locke (2014). This is a prime example of the "less is more" sensibility. The whole movie takes place in this one car, putting you right into this guy's mindset. You can feel his frustration when the job starts going to hell, and his reasoning is so sound that you really want his wife to listen to him. I just wish it hadn't ended where it did; I wanted to see it go on a little longer. My rating: 70%.
Now for all the miscellaneous movies I've watched on a whim, either by downloading them or picking them out from my DVD collection…
Wolf Creek (2005). Brad Jones' glowing comments naturally got me curious. But as I got into it, I quickly started to really dislike the characters: they laugh at everything, even when the car breaks down and they're stuck in the middle of nowhere! So, when bad stuff starts happening, it's just tedious to sit through, especially when they start making stupid decisions on top of that. My rating: 30%.
Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014). How could I resist a tie-in to the Batman: Arkham games? :D This is more of a Suicide Squad movie, though, and their personalities are so strong and their interplay so natural that they're just as enjoyable to watch as Batman himself. My rating: 80%.
Son of Batman (2014). It just sort of is what it is: Batman and his son's ideals clashing. I suppose it's kind of appropriate that I get some very anime-ish vibes from it (since the League of Assassins appears to operate out of Japan), but the mood's a little too sombre for me to get fully invested. My rating 70%.
The Haunting (1963). This is another one that had a promising start, especially with its clearly mentally unstable protagonist. But the whole middle section made very little sense to me: the dialogue is pretty laughable at times, and the characters often pull conclusions seemingly out of thin air. The creepy atmosphere never falters, though. My rating: 60%.
True Lies (1994). Well, the middle section of this movie made me distinctly uncomfortable, because it came off as very anti-feminist; Mrs Tasker is forced to pose as a hooker basically for a joke. Most of the humour is just plain awkward, too. But the second half is a different story. :) As with any James Cameron movie, the action scenes are some of the best ever, especially the big finale. My rating: 70%.
Last Day of the Dinosaurs (2010). This TV special is a minute-by-minute depiction of the Cretaceous extinction event. It's fair to expect TV documentaries not to have the best CGI, but for some reason it was really distracting here. But the one thing that's captured almost perfectly is the atmosphere: the desperation of the impact's immediate aftermath, and then the sense of desolation that follows. My rating: 75%.
Planet of Dinosaurs (1978). I went in expecting sci-fi trash, and that's exactly what I got. But it was so dull that I couldn't even enjoy it ironically. The music is terrible, the special effects shots stick out like a sore thumb because the scenery is a different colour, and even the stop-motion dinosaurs themselves look like low-rent Harryhausen effects – until the T-Rex shows up. Overall, definitely not good. My rating: 45%.
And finally, I've also played three video games in the last two months (and, in the case of the first two, this is where I feel the need to elaborate the most)…
The Amazing Spider-Man (PS3). It obviously takes many cues from the Batman: Arkham series, especially the combat system, but I feel that this game does for Spider-Man what those games did for Batman: you never get tired of being the hero in question. That's why I didn't mind at all how repetitive the game is. When you web-sling, it really feels like you're swinging. My only real complaint is that it's an epilogue to the first Amazing Spider-Man movie, so it's continuing a story that I didn't particularly care for in the first place. But still, swinging around, capturing criminals, getting into car chases, helping infected civilians, and even a section where you lose your powers… If you just freed it from the baggage of being a sequel, you could have something pretty close to the best Spider-Man game ever made. My rating: 80%.
The Wolf Among Us (PC). This one, I could probably do a full review on! :) The mystery is so involved that I had to watch several Let's Plays on YouTube just to make sure I had every detail down. I really love the premise – and even though I never read any of the Fables comics, you don't have to, because this game precedes them. There are too many good examples of humour and character moments to even count. The fight with Bloody Mary is simply one of the best battles I've ever seen, period. But one thing that particularly stands out to me is the music by Jared Emerson-Johnson; I could watch those opening credits all day, the music's so perfect! Overall, it's not my favourite Telltale Games title, but still a really good one. My rating: 85%.
The Walking Dead: Season Two (PC). The most striking difference this time around is the overall tone: while the first season was an emotional rollercoaster, this one is almost a complete downer, very bleak and joyless indeed. There are plenty of individual scenes that are powerful in and of themselves, but I wish I could appreciate the whole as much as the parts; it's just not as compelling as the first season overall. My rating: 75%.
If you've read any of my recent blog posts, then you've heard this before, so I'm sorry to sound like such a whiner, but getting motivation to write really is the hardest part of doing this. Structuring your thoughts and writing them down is a time-consuming, not to mention lonely, process. Seriously, I heartily applaud anyone who's able to keep doing it on a regular basis!
With that said, here's two weeks' worth of "first impressions" comments.
The Boxtrolls (2014)
It's funny how they're marketing this as "from the makers of ParaNorman" even though it doesn't share any of the same creative team. It's presumably the same animators, though: same studio, and the art design looks very similar. It also shares those movies' dark, mildly creepy edge, though maybe not quite to the same extent.
Aside from that, it's a standard but still interesting kids' movie about family values.
The animation, of course, is wonderful, especially when you first see the Boxtrolls' lair.
One of my favourite parts is when it's established how misguided the villain's goal is; you don't often see a villain who has no idea that he's doing himself in like that.
I have mixed feelings about the Winnie character. On one hand, her sick obsession with bloodthirsty violence really made me laugh. But on the other hand, there's a scene where she won't stop screaming and gets annoying really fast.
All in all, pretty good, but probably nothing that's going to stick with me.
My rating: 70%.
Lucy (2014)
This was HORRIBLE!
Right from when I first heard the premise, I couldn't help but laugh at how downright stupid it sounded! Look, until right now, I didn't realise the "10% of the brain" thing was an actual misconception; I always thought it was just an expression meaning that hardly anyone makes full use of their talents. But regardless, it's still a bullshit premise for a sci-fi movie!
That's not the only scientific inaccuracy I picked up on, either. Another is that the earliest life forms date from 3·5 billion years ago, not one billion.
And even simply as a movie, it lost me right from the opening scenes, when it keeps abruptly cutting between two completely unrelated series of events; the transitions are just jarring. But the moment this movie died for me is when Lucy calls her mother and suddenly starts talking about what's happening to her, which makes her sound insane.
The second half of the movie is mostly unremarkable, but it's so frustrating because it's serving such an idiotic purpose.
I hated this movie! It's quite possibly the worst movie of the year so far, right up there with The Legend of Hercules and A Long Way Down.
My rating: 15%.
If I Stay (2014)
Mia Hall is left comatose after a car accident; caught between life and death, she has to decide whether to die or wake up again. As she wanders around the hospital, she overhears what happened to her family, and other discussions among her family and friends that guide her in her decision.
So, what kind of message are we supposed to take from this? That if you're half-dead, you can wander around freely and acquire knowledge for when you recover?
Also, the narrative structure is kind of offputting: a lot of it is told in flashback, and the flashback sections bear no relevance to the scene at hand, so it actually feels like a romantic drama that keeps getting interrupted by the hospital scenes.
The romance itself is kind of manipulative, too, in that the characters are pretty flat, not much personality.
…But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't invested. The film is just so heavy on mood and enthusiasm that it's hard not to start falling for it.
Plus you have Chloe Grace Moretz giving a predictably flawless performance.
So, overall, I think it's okay. It was certainly a welcome relief right after such a terrible movie as Lucy, but I have to wonder if I'd be so lenient under different circumstances.
My rating: 65%.
Sex Tape (2014)
Married couple Jay and Annie try to reignite their sex life by making… well, the eponymous sex tape – but Jay accidentally ends up synchronising it to several iPads before distributing them.
I usually find sex comedies insufferable, but this was a surprising exception – thanks mostly to the interplay between the two leads. The way Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel work off each other makes the dialogue sound natural and improvised, and never fails to amuse.
There's a running gag about how Jay keeps taking things far further than he needed to, which could easily make him look like an irredeemable idiot, but somehow that joke works too.
The whole sequence with the dog had me in stitches!
There were some gags that went a bit too far, like the blackmail scene. And any scene involving lying had me grinding my teeth, especially since some of those parts went on for too long.
But overall, much to my surprise, I liked this movie – although, judging from Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, I seem to be a minority on that.
My rating: 70%.
Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
Well, it was a long wait for this one! I never read any of the comics, but I love the first Sin City movie: its spectacular blend of hyper-violence, snappy character actions and dazzling visual style is like nothing I've seen before or since.
That unique atmosphere is almost perfectly recaptured with this sequel; I just can't get enough of the world this franchise presents. :) The characters are just as easy to latch onto as they attempt to fight the injustice in this corrupt hellhole of a city.
Sadly, though, the stories themselves just aren't as interesting this time around, and in some cases they seem to go on a bit too long. In the first movie, each story was just the perfect length, and the film even bookended itself really well, which made it feel satisfactorily complete. But this one feels very lopsided and not quite as fulfilling.
Several characters return from the first movie, but a couple of them are really distractingly recast. I can understand recasting the Manute character, since obviously Michael Clarke Duncan is sadly no longer with us, but why Dwight and Miho as well?
I was also pretty disappointed that nothing more is revealed about the mysterious man from the first one played by Josh Hartnett.
But overall, I was only too happy to return to this unique world and get a second dose. :) This sequel is still good, but it's not as good.
My rating: 70%.
Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
This is basically 50 First Dates in the form of a thriller. :D It's the same psychological condition: she has amnesia that wipes her mind every morning. But in this case, it's told from her perspective, as she tries to figure out what happened to her and gets back in touch with some things that her husband Ben keeps hidden from her.
It sounds like an intriguing premise, but sadly it falls pretty flat in its execution. I'm just not a fan of these movies where everyone speaks very slowly, very simplistically, very little wit in the dialogue at all, hardly any jokes being told. That just makes the movie seem really wooden to me.
All the actors are giving it all they've got, but again, I wish they were more naturalistic.
However, the main thing the movie did for me was the plot twist in the third act. I obviously won't spoil it, but I will say this: I was half-correct in predicting it, but the circumstances actually took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting exactly what I got.
Overall, this is a pretty lacklustre but still interesting thriller that makes up in plot for what it lacks in performance.
My rating: 55%.
Next up, the two pairs of rentals for the last two weeks.
The Legend of Hercules (2014)
Yes, I hinted at this one earlier. :) And seriously… yeah, this was bad! Really, really, really bad!
It's a retelling of the story of Hercules that imagines him as your typical Moses-like hero overthrowing a tyrant. It's as clichéd as it gets, and you can even pinpoint the famous historical epics it's blatantly ripping off. First it's 300, then it becomes Ben-Hur, then it becomes Gladiator, then it becomes every triumphant "people's hero" leader-type story you've ever seen before.
The first thing I noticed right away is that the CGI is awful! I mean, astonishingly bad! Some of the worst I've ever seen! The acting, too, crushes your spirit pretty quickly: every performance is so dull it's downright depressing.
On top of that, the only one of the famous twelve labours that's even remotely referenced is the Nemean lion. Even the Disney version had more to do with the legend than that!
On a minor note, when Hercules pulls down two stone pillars and starts swinging the stone blocks around on the ends of his chains, all I could think was, "Hulk SMASH!" :D ('Cos didn't he do something similar at one point in the Edward Norton movie?)
Overall, this is one of the most boring, derivative movies I've come across in quite a while. In terms of tradecraft, it's easily the worst movie I've seen so far this year… but it wasn't quite as frustrating as Lucy.
My rating: 20%.
Reasonable Doubt (2014)
When an attorney (played by Dominic Cooper) commits a fatal hit-and-run, he becomes determined to manipulate the case to acquit the accused (Samuel L Jackson) who was found with the body and convicted of the crime. But he eventually realises his actions have freed a guilty man, and a serial killer at that.
This is another one that boasts a great premise but doesn't do the best job of realising it.
I had very little sympathy for the main character, who's so bad at hiding his guilty conscience that anyone with half a brain cell would immediately see right through him. But Samuel L Jackson's character is a really well written villain, thanks mostly to his motivation – which I won't spoil. :) He's what made this movie for me.
Aside from that, this is a pretty standard thriller. It keeps your interest well enough, but packs very little in the way of surprise. And it seemed really short; it flew by extremely quickly. In fact, they must have realised the script couldn't fill an entire movie and that the final product was too short, because it has the slowest credits I've ever seen: they're ironed out to a full ten minutes!
On the whole, it's just kind of mediocre.
My rating: 55%.
Divergent (2014)
I'm not just saying this because it's cool to pick on young adult fiction, but… yeah, you guessed it. I didn't like this movie.
And that's mainly due to the premise. I guess it plays to teenagers who are discovering their social standing, but this whole idea of a society that dictates people by their personality type is just laughable. There are five factions in this world, and Four says that he always wanted to be a little bit of all of them… but he can't be the first one to have ever brought up that point! People aren't that one-dimensional; personalities are far more complex than that. This movie basically turns everyone in the world into a one-note drone. I'm a very introverted individual – I know very little about how society really works – and I was picking up on this stuff! It's beyond unrealistic! I haven't seen a society so obviously broken since The Purge!
Plus, I never got everyone's rampant hatred for the Abnegation people. Why does everyone look down on them, spread lies and dub them criminals when, by definition, they're selfless, good Samaritans?
Aside from that, the movie just did very little for me. The characters are boring, so I didn't find their struggle interesting or suspenseful in any way. But the ending made me legitimately angry: it's as bullshit and predictable as it gets!
In conclusion, it's not offensively bad, but still pretty meagre.
My rating: 40%.
Labor Day (2014)
I have to admit, I'm having particular trouble explaining my thoughts on this one, because… I really don't know what to make of it. It's a pretty strange movie.
From the trailer, I got the impression that it was about an escaped convict keeping this woman and her son prisoner in their own home, but she ends up actually falling in love with him. But instead, he turns out to be a legitimately good guy, taking the place of a husband and father figure. The only problem is that he has to keep hiding his presence whenever someone comes to the door. It's just a really bizarre situation, and I'm not sure I mean that in a good way. I guess we're supposed to like the guy, to believe right from the start that the murder he was convicted for was an accident, but I think, in my case, there'd constantly be an ever-present fear that he could snap and kill us at any moment.
For that reason, I was never invested in the situation or cared about the romance. So, during the climax, when he's in real danger of being revealed, they drag the tension out for so long that, rather than being suspenseful, it just annoyed me.
I can't help but think how much better this movie would have been if it was actually about Stockholm syndrome. As it stands, it's just kind of confused and underwhelming.
My rating: 50%.
Now for a couple of movies I watched outside of my usual rentals; these are ones that I downloaded and watched on a whim. …Well, technically I chose the "rent" option on the first one (as it's an online On-Demand release), but fuck it, it still counts! :)
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014)
I've been a huge AVGN fan since 2007, and James Rolfe himself, through his other videos, has become one of my biggest filmmaking idols. I've been following this movie's progress since day one, trying not to let myself get too hyped. But anyway, it's finally out, and I'm proud to say, it's worth the wait. :)
Man, this movie has a tonne going on! There's a car chase, a horrific dream sequence, zombies, robots, a giant monster movie homage, and much, much more! But it actually all flows together very well indeed; just about every step of the story feels natural. I love just how outrageous the situation keeps becoming as it progresses, like the Nerd is indeed in way over his head.
Needless to say, for an independent film, this is about as ambitious as it gets. I'd be lying if I said some of the obvious low-budget effects weren't distracting, but some of them just add to the humour in a big way. For example, seeing some of the actors turned into part of the miniature models is frigging hilarious! :D Besides, some other effects are legitimately slick – but unfortunately, those specific examples are in the climax, so I can't spoil too much.
And, speaking of which, the climax itself is definitely the highlight of the movie. There are too many laugh-out-loud funny moments to count, and even the payoff from a dramatic standpoint is priceless.
So yeah, colour me satisfied! :)
My rating: 85%.
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
I decided to watch the movie itself before Spoony's review of the Commodore 64 game, and he's praised it so often he got me interested anyway. And… I don't get it. I'm sorry.
What I read afterwards confirmed what I'd suspected while watching it: it's an homage film, a tribute to kung fu B-movies. Maybe it'll make more sense to people who've actually watched those movies, and I'll admit the plot does make a lot more sense on reflection, but while I was actually watching it, there were a number of detractors keeping me from going along with it. And that mainly stems from how the female characters are handled. I hate the damsel-in-distress cliché, and boy is it exploited to the nth degree here!
Also, there's a lot of expository dialogue that really piles on the Chinese lore, to the point where I had trouble keeping up.
But it was Kurt Russell's character that made the movie for me. He's basically the spokesman for the audience, the observer in all this crazy shit he suddenly finds himself in.
Also, that floating eyeball monster is a truly fantastic effect.
Overall, there's enough good plotting and entertainment value that I might see it again at some point, but for now, its anti-feminist streak and overwhelming exposition are really bugging me.
My rating: 55%.
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
I surprisingly really liked this movie. I went in expecting nothing dignified – I knew full well it was going to be stupid – but this movie seemed like it was having so much fun being stupid that it transcended my usual bias against that sort of humour.
This also applies to the two main characters – who I think are the main reason why the movie works so well. Obviously they're complete idiots, but with a childlike naïveté; nothing they do is malicious. Even when Lloyd does seemingly terrible things like give a dead parakeet to a blind orphan, he's just unaware of the trauma that he's potentially causing. Also, some people might point more towards Ace Ventura, but I view this as Jim Carrey at his funniest.
There's not even as much low-brow humour as I was expecting – only a small handful of bodily waste-related gags, in fact.
The only part I really didn't like was whenever they tried talking to ladies: that was just cringe-worthy. The kidnapping plot itself never quite added up for me, either.
But on the whole, all I can say is this is one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time.
My rating: 80%.
Training Day (2001)
This review will contain basic spoilers. Sorry, but it's required to fully explain my impressions.
As the title implies, this movie takes place over the course of a single day, as a rookie narcotics detective (Ethan Hawke's Jake) is introduced to the gang neighbourhoods by an experienced veteran (Denzel Washington's Alonzo). And, as crime thrillers go, this is a pretty damn good one.
What really sticks out about it is how the two leads' relationship progresses from good-humoured banter to downright horrific disillusionment in the first two acts. Jake is the by-the-book, ethical cop, the character whose morals we can identify with. But as things progress and he sees Alonzo acting more and more like the common criminals, which Alonzo insists is required to understand them, we become just as anxious as he does.
Also, on a side note, I'd heard that Gary Sinise was considered for Denzel Washington's part, so while I was watching it, I kept imagining him in the role. And, honestly, as much as I love Gary Sinise, I just don't think he would have worked as well.
Sadly, the third act is where the movie lost me. It culminates in an action climax that feels completely tacked on. We can certainly understand Jake's motivation, and maybe you can kind of deduce Alonzo's, but it still doesn't make much sense for them to be at each other's throats like that.
It's a shame that that last act tarnishes a previously great movie.
My rating: 75%.
Next up, the latest PS3 game I played.
Assassin's Creed III (PS3)
Each of the Assassin's Creed games follows one of Desmond's ancestors in a different time period: first it was the Third Crusade, then it was the Italian Renaissance, this time it's the American Revolution.
You actually play as two characters in the past this time, and there's a brilliant twist after you finish with the first one. But after that, the game irreparably goes downhill. You start playing as a Native American whose village is under threat from the British colonists. I was left thinking, "Are we still in the same series? When did this become Pocahontas?"
One of the things I really hated about the second game was the control, how hard it was to send your character in the right direction. That problem is back in this game, and it's especially maddening when you're on horseback, which is almost impossible to steer.
Honestly, the most fun I had was during the sea battles. But again, that feels like an entirely different game, unrecognisable from the AC games of old.
Also, I found out later that this game actually references events in the Brotherhood and Revelations games, which are also part of the main series. So if, like me, you're going from Assassin's Creed II straight into this one, you're probably going to be totally lost!
I've decided I'm not a fan of this series. I still can't get into the story, and this one is easily my least favourite instalment to date.
My rating: 55%.
And finally, I just finished reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest – and with it, the whole Millennium trilogy.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Stieg Larsson)
This one picks up right where the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, left off, with Lisbeth Salander rushed to hospital and then charged with attempted murder. The rest is basically just building up to her trial, with Mikael Blomkvist and a whole network of journalists and police trying to collect evidence to prove her innocence. And man, what an irresistible ride it is! :)
Lisbeth Salander is still my favourite character, but this really is an ensemble piece, with everyone contributing something in a big way. Honestly, the most boring parts involved the guys within Säpo working to keep things covered up. I'm glad they weren't portrayed as pure sinister villains, but they just seemed a little too passive to me.
My favourite thing about this book is that, even though it deals with investigative journalism and government espionage, it's written in a way that makes the characters and proceedings seem so down-to-earth and relatable that, whenever things do heat up and action ensues, it's all the more effective because it seems genuinely out of the ordinary.
Not to mention, it ends with a trial. I'm a huge fan of courtroom dramas, so that was right up my street. :)
All in all, a great ending to a great trilogy. Not quite as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I liked it a little more than The Girl Who Played with Fire.
My rating: 85%.
I also have to say, I've seen the Dracula Untold trailer so many times that I'm getting pretty sick of it. It's quite a coincidence, though, that we're getting another Dracula and another Frankenstein movie in the same year. :) Let's hope Dracula fares better than Frankenstein did.
