In a day and age where it seems like a new superhero movie is getting released every other week, it is hard for an average mainstream moviegoer to know which ones are worth watching, which ones to skip, and in what order you should watch these movies. This is particularly important with the Marvel movies and even more important with The Avenger movies. I have done my best to see The Avengers movies as they’ve been released, but I haven’t always been successful. It certainly has not helped that Marvel characters who aren’t Avengers (like Spider-Man) are starting to appear in movies featuring The Avengers. It’s only a matter of time before all of these other Marvel characters (Ant-Man, Deadpool, etc.) start appearing in each newly released movie. At that time, it might be time to give up. Don’t even get me started about the future when either Marvel or DC buys the other out, and we get characters like Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America, Flash, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Hulk, etc., all end up in the same movie. It won’t occur for a while, but when this market becomes stale many years from now, there will be too much money sitting on the table not to do it. Of course, the purists will also be upset by those who write the comics (though they most likely already are), but if I’ve learned anything, it’s that money speaks.
Category Archives: Adventure
San Andreas (2015)
Not being a guy who is really into the disaster film genre anymore (I turned off movies like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 before I was even a third of the way in), I was more than tentative to give San Andreas a chance. It’s a genre that once interested me in my younger days. I enjoyed movies like Independence Day, Deep Impact, Cloverfield while loving Titanic (my favorite movie of 1997), The Impossible (my favorite movie of 1992), World War Z (my second favorite movie of 2013), I Am Legend (my second favorite movie of 2007), War of the Worlds, The Perfect Storm and, shamefully, Armageddon.
The Revenant (2015)
Why not save the best for last? It doesn’t always work out that way, but The Revenant was the final movie released in 2015. In fact, except for in a few select theaters in a few select cities, you couldn’t see the film until January 7th. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely it was. It seems like we’ve seen trailers for months building this movie up. Each time I saw a preview, I couldn’t help but get excited. I believe that this might have been my most anticipated movie since Shutter Island, and with that movie, I had reason to be wary because it was a 2010 movie released in February. You usually don’t get the best films of the year released that early in the year. While Shutter Island exceeded expectations, The Revenant was all that and more. Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street, The Great Gatsby) has been burned by the Academy many times before. While The Revenant is his fifth Academy Award nomination for acting, he should have at least three or four more. None of those past omissions matter now, as DiCaprio is the front runner to win Best Actor this year. I wouldn’t quite qualify him as a lock to win, but it is only a two-actor race, and his performance was more impressive than the fabulous performance given by Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl.
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Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
Honestly, there is no point in reading this review until after you’ve seen the movie. There is no way that my review on a Star Wars movie will influence whether you see this movie or not. So this review will have spoilers. Not to belittle my review, but this is mostly my honest thoughts on the film and not whether you should see it. If you come here quickly to look at the score, I gave it an 89/100. Undoubtedly if you’ve watched the other films, you need to see this film in the theater. If you are newer to the franchise and wonder which movies you need to see before watching Episode VII, I would say you should watch IV, V, and VI. Those are the ones that will help you best understand this film. There is no need to see I, II, or III. I don’t know if you can fully appreciate VII without seeing IV, V, and VI first. It is assumed that you have seen these films. If you haven’t, there is no real effort or desire to explain anything that happened in the past. Continue reading Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015)
In The Heart of the Sea (2015)
I was excited when I saw a blurb earlier this year about In The Heart of the Sea coming to the big screen in 2015. I have stated numerous times that Nathaniel Philbrick’s novel of the same name is the single most descriptive book I’ve ever read. But Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex had a way to make me feel I was actually in the book. I read this book on a whim probably seven or eight years ago and was utterly engrossed. I didn’t understand the place of this movie in historical literature. I learned that it was set to be released in 2015, that it would be directed by Ron Howard (Apollo 13) and star Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Rush), which got me even more stoked. Finally, I learned that this would have a December release. Unfortunately, it has failed to meet its critics’ expectations and has been squashed. Still, In The Heart of the Sea was probably my anticipated movie of the year. I felt that this movie met all of my expectations and then some. It was exactly like the novel, and I gave it a solid A. However, I could easily see a scenario where this movie might not have been as enjoyable as it was for me.
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