2018 Movie Wrap-Up

I can't think of a better way to close out the year than by complaining about entertainment. Here are all the films I watched in 2018 and my one paragraph reviews.

Black Panther

Like last year's Wonder Woman, this was more than just another superhero film. It was a warm, inclusive eff you to all the powers in Hollywood who have insisted that audiences will only flock to see heroes who are white men. It was a no-brainer the film was going to be successful, but I think we were all surprised at just how GOOD it was. A combination of sci-fi, fantasy, and celebration of African cultures, this is one of those rare superhero films where the superhero element is practically unneeded. It won't be a surprise if the mantra "Wakanda forever!" takes on a life of its own outside of the MCU.

Game Night

Imagine an actual game night where you pop open a hot new adult board game, read the rules, and put all the pieces in the right places, but nobody can quite figure out how the game is supposed to work; thus you feel like you've missed a really cool opportunity. That's this movie. The premise is great: a night of 'you won't know what's real and what isn't' role-playing gets interrupted by an actual kidnapping; and comedic actors Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams really should be in their element. But it all falls apart after the first act (at about the point where they definitively realize they aren't playing a game). You really need a chess master like Steven Moffat to make a script like this work, and they didn't come close to getting him.

Tomb Raider

There's good news and bad news. The good news is, this Tomb Raider does a much better job of translating Lara Croft and her videogame adventures into cinema than its Angelina Jolie predecessors (and most videogame-based films) ever did. The bad news is, that's as low as I have to set the bar for it to read as good news. It's got good things going for it, Alicia Vikander is well cast and many of the action pieces are well staged. But you need to freaking go for it! Just do Indiana Jones! Probably the biggest problem is that the story bogs itself down with ties to the current game series, and not the good stuff (the dumb idea behind the dumb Trinity organization is dumb). If we try this again, please lose the daddy issues and just let Lara run free.

Ready Player One

Um. That was...fine? Okay, I'll be blunt, Steven Spielberg ended in 1993. Jurassic Park was his last vintage film, and Schindler's List was when the Academy Awards finally had to admit he knew what he was doing. But from there, something changed. Maybe he didn't feel like he needed to prove anything after that, or maybe DreamWorks tarnished his artistic quality, I don't know. The point is, Ready Player One is a movie custom tailored for old school Spielberg and that man unfortunately no longer exists. As such, a huge budget and tons of pop-culture nods can't distract from the truth that this is Diet Spielberg. We would likely have fared much better with Edgar Wright.

Avengers: Infinity War

That was pretty good I guess, although my friends tell me I'd have understood it more if I'd watched the eighteen prequels first. But seriously, this movie was amazing and the Russo brothers are rock stars for even managing to pull it off. Between the engaging villain and the incredibly downer yet surprisingly satisfying ending, this is cinematic spectacle at its purest. Now if you press me against the wall and politely ask me to say so, I believe Black Panther was the better film. But in terms of promise to build-up to pay-off narrative roller coaster, I don't think you're ever going to see anything like this again.

Overboard

Now this is interesting. The original movie was well-liked, but it wasn't iconic or anything, and it certainly wasn't begging for a remake. This version actually took on enough solid life on its own that they conceivably could have eliminated the boat element altogether, renamed it literally anything else, and passed it off as an original script. ("Whoops! I guess it is kind of like that Goldie Hawn movie...oh well.") At any rate, this was a nice surprise; cute, funny, and touching in all the right places. Anna Faris's comedic shtick may seem familiar by now, but it doesn't show any signs of going stale. And if Eugenio Derbez still doesn't catch on here in the States, it's clearly going to be our loss.

Deadpool 2

Throughout the three act structure; loved it, loved it, eh....kind of liked it. That's really not the act you want to drop the ball on. The action was great, Domino rocks, and Ryan Reynolds put way more emotion into his performance than he ever needed to. But the moment Cable teams up with the ex-X-Force members the movie is being held together by duct tape. It's still funny, but the motor's burned out and it's coasting on momentum. Juggernaut would have no reason to stay with the kid, and it feels like Cable has switched drafts. Come on guys, you were so close.

Solo: A Star Wars Story

I did not want to see this movie. I forced myself to watch it out of spite. And damn it all, I really liked it. It was completely unnecessary, but it was fun. Alden Ehrenreich had so much working against him and did the impossible by making me believe he was Han Solo. Donald Glover was great as Lando. And the story just worked. But the movie needed to be released before The Force Awakens to have evaded being instantly irrelevant, and as is there was no hope for it. It's a shame because there were two interesting (if superfluous) takeaways. One, Han honestly viewed himself as a bad guy. We sort of knew that already, but here we get to see the extent to which he was wrong. Two, the world of Star Wars really sucks to live in. You can actually understand how the Empire could have sprung up. Oh yeah, and Rey is Darth Maul's daughter, but don't tell anyone.

Incredibles 2

The Incredibles was a Pixar film that I honestly never connected with. I thought it was okay enough, but it wasn't anything special. It took a sequel for me to figure out why; the characters really aren't that interesting. Without superpowers they may as well have been named Mom, Dad, Sis, Junior, Baby, and Friend, which leads to about half the running time devoted to generic family issues. The other half is the superhero adventures, and Incredibles 2 has a bit of an upgrade regarding its story. Elastigirl has the most visually interesting power set, and the movie benefits by focusing on her. And some questions are raised that might have been worth exploring, but director Brad Bird is more content with thrills than substance. In the end it's clear that the movie was only pretending to be about something, making it a decent Fantastic Four adaptation (take that however you choose).

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

You know, if we pretend that Jurassic Park was turned into an animated show on Nickelodeon in the nineties called Jurassic World, and then that show was adapted into the live-action film series with which we seem to be currently stuck, that might be worthy of some adulation. Unfortunately our bar is still set at that first book and movie, which neither Michael Crichton nor Steven Spielberg could reproduce. Dinosaurs run around. People die. Stuff happens. There are occasional signs of a real story happening but they're brushed aside in favor of watching a kid play with 187 million dollars worth of action figures. Welcome to Michael Bay Park.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

The MCU has had a few disappointments, but it hasn't been since The Incredible Hulk that a Marvel movie has missed the mark so badly. First off, Ant-Man is silly. That by itself isn't a problem as the first movie demonstrated. But when the story requires some emotional resonance, silly gets in the way. Second thing, to kind of piggyback off that, it should have been The Wasp (with Ant-Man). Scott Lang already had his story. It's Hope van Dyne's turn. And the fact that she has to share the running time with him means the crucial elements (like Hank Pym's temper) and the moments of depth keep getting undercut by detours into Scott's life that amount to nothing. A lot of missed opportunities in this movie, and it's certainly not helped by having to be the palette cleanse after Infinity War's downer ending.

The Spy Who Dumped Me

Not solid, but not bad either. There are many different tones comedies and thrillers can take, and not all of them overlap. This movie can't seem to make up its mind which comedic tone and/or thriller tone to adopt, much less how to blend them. But somewhere amidst the chaotic storytelling is a genuine chemistry between Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. That by itself is enough to make much of the movie work, even if we're left with a feeling that these actresses deserve much better.

Crazy Rich Asians

This reminded me of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in the sense that I thought it was good but I literally have nothing to say about it.

White Boy Rick

I'll be honest, I wasn't the audience for this movie. This is the kind of dreariness I buy a movie ticket to get away from. The film's performances were as impressive as you'd expect, but I'm not really clear what I'm supposed to take away from it. Detroit sucks? Snow sucks? Don't deal drugs? Don't work with the FBI? Don't work with the FBI in a drug dealing capacity? I mean, I think director Yann Demange told the best story he could with the source material, but it just left me with a feeling of futility.

A Simple Favor

I can't speak on the merits of the book penned by Darcey Bell, because I don't have enough time to both read and blog about not having time to read, but this film script clearly more ambitious than it was capable of following through on. Don't get me wrong, for all the rough patches there were a few likable elements to more than counterbalance them. Anna Kendrick has a unique screen presence about her and her ability to appear two steps behind and ahead simultaneously is put to full effect. Blake Lively has needed a typecast shattering role like this, and she's eating it up. Unfortunately the story only holds together by the forgiveness of the audience. But for a Lifetime movie on the big screen, it's an exciting, if head scratching, romp.

Smallfoot

I think we all learned a valuable lesson from Shrek 2; if you don't have enough creative energy to sustain an entire movie, put your good stuff in the second half. Smallfoot starts out as a by-the-numbers non-Disney animated musical. There's a passable opening song, an energetic protagonist misfit, some quirky side characters, a generic conflict, and an out-of-nowhere full screen close-up of an animated spider (thanks, assholes). But then the damnedest thing happens, it gets good. And then it gets really good. There's a barely beneath the surface argument between faith and science, but both sides are handled with respect. The moral of the film is less obvious, but my takeaway is this: in a battle between blind faith and blind science, if either one wins nobody wins. The ultimate reconciliation is the mutual overcoming of the blindness. Not bad at all for a movie starring Channing Tatum. Oh, and to whoever pitched the idea of having Common do a rap as the yeti chief, bravo thrice over. It is the most ridiculous sounding thing on paper, but the execution is jaw dropping.

Bohemian Rhapsody

I don't know how accurate the band members were portrayed, but I truly hope they got the soul of Queen right. Based on this edited history, Queen was that rare band where all of its members were listening to the same muse (something you can't say about The Beatles, Styx, or Talking Heads). But fair or not, at its core was Freddie Mercury, resurrected through an Oscar-worthy performance by Rami Malek. What the point of the movie is, I'm not sure. But the script kind of non-answers the question in-universe with a reminder that poetry doesn't explain itself. And poetic, this journey is.

The Grinch

Here's a little game. I'm going to say 'animated Dr. Seuss film' and you write down every adjective that you think might apply; I'll see you in an hour or so. Okay, done? Let's see: 'whimsical', 'colorful', 'fun', yeah the usual lot. 'Equanimous'? Now you're showing off. Um...nope, I'm on page 97 and I haven't seen 'subtle' yet. Yeah, who would have guessed? This film is subtle. Benedict Cumberbatch's Grinch quite possibly has a mental health disorder and only knows how to treat the symptoms by delighting in other people's misfortunes. This version knows it's not going to supplant the Chuck Jones masterpiece (expect to find a shelf full of the Jim Carrey vehicle at 2nd & Charles) and it uses that knowledge to take a few well-timed liberties with the source material. Cindy Lou Who's B-reel plot could have used a rewrite, but the heart of the Grinch has always been the heart of the Grinch, and this one starts out a big enough size to feel it bursting. Do you know what it's like to dig your fingernails into a theater's armrests desperately trying not to lose it in front of a room full of eight year olds? I do.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

It was good, not great. And I so wanted it to be great. The set-up was fantastic. The internet gags were clever. Gal Gadot's character could easily have headed up her own film. And Disney may not fully be aware of the Pandora's Box they've opened with their princess line in what can only be described as the Coolest. Thing. Ever. And the lesson Ralph learns is a really good one. The problem is, it takes a relay race of conflicts to get him there instead of one solid obstacle to overcome. This film could have really used a villain. Compare it to Inside Out, which was a movie that either had no villain or had a villain protagonist, depending on how you look at Joy. There was one central conflict. It carried from the opening moments all the way to the resolution, and the film is all the more powerful for it. Ralph needs three conflicts to keep the story going, a new one for each act. As a result, the third act's tension is undermined by its own (dare I say?) cheapness. The algorithm would have made a great villain, or even a second Ralph. Hell, a leftover clause in Michael Eisner's old contract would have been an inspired antagonist. "We have to keep this direct-to-video sequel from being green lit!" On that note, there's early talks of a third film...

Creed II

Speaking of potential third films, it's inevitable the Creed series is going to get one. It probably should, but at the same time it probably shouldn't. On the 'should' side the story feels just a little incomplete. But on the 'shouldn't' side it doesn't feel incomplete enough to warrant a full feature that's likely to veer into actual Rocky IV/V territory. But what do I know? Certainly not sports, which is still baffling to me that I've embraced the Rocky franchise so passionately; I guess because it was never just about boxing. What can I say about Creed II? It doesn't necessarily surpass its predecessor but it matches it in different ways. Michael B. Jordan's performance is nothing short of electric (you can even pinpoint his Oscar clip). Stallone continues to prove how much we underestimated his talent in the eighties. Tessa Thompson is destined to be a power player in Hollywood. And definitely keep an eye on newcomer Florian Munteanu's career; he took what easily could have been a screen test for Bald Bull in a Super Punch-Out!! movie and turned Viktor Drago into a full character that you just wanted to hug until he believes the world can still be better than it is (that, incidentally, is what America is supposed to be doing with the world). Who do you root for when you want everyone to win, or at least not lose? For me it was Dolph Lundgren. You can tell for his whole career he's been wishing people would see him as more than the "I must break you" guy. It's ironic that returning to the role of Ivan Drago that made him a cliché is the exact thing that shows off his depth as an actor. On one level or another, everybody comes out of this film a hero.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I'm not planning it this way, but: speaking of everyone being a hero...This film was freaking amazing. It was visually stunning, which I usually don't like to point out because it tends to mean the story and/or characters were neglected like a Tim Burton movie; this was not the case here. The story was brilliant, and the characters were very well polished. And on top of that, it was visually stunning. I just pulled it up on Wikipedia, and holy shit! They did all that on $90 million? What the hell cost Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides so much? Until we go back into the Spider-Verse, and we will, we'll no doubt be talking about Stan Lee's voice from beyond, what we've missed about Nicolas Cage, and whether or not Hugh Jackman could be persuaded to return to Wolverine as a voice actor. But for all of the open-ended possibilities we've been offered, the core of this story is a personal one. It only took Miles Morales seven years to go from comic debut to big screen debut, which is telling both of how much his fan base needs him and how much extra room there really is in the world of superheroes. His journey is one of the heart. It's hard, it's unfair, but you can do it. We could all use some Miles Morales right now.

Mary Poppins Returns

I have one question that I'm asking myself as much as you. How would you feel about this film if it had been released exactly as is, but three years after the original and with Julie Andrews in the title role? I think I would feel that the songs never quite came to life, and the story beats mirrored the original a bit too accurately, but the character of Mary Poppins achieved a depth that wasn't there before. The Andrews Poppins was more of a concept, like a TV show hostess. The Emily Blunt Poppins hits the bull's-eye on all the mannerisms, but there are questions raised. And it's implied those questions have answers, even if we're not likely to ever get them. The original's beauty was in the spectacle. The new version's beauty is in the details; her reaction to a rude banker, the fact that her balloon doesn't lift her off the ground, the impending heartbreak of being forgotten, moments that speak volumes (although not to us). Mary remains a mystery, and a more tragic one this time around. In the end I notice a parallel with Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell series. The first one will always be the one I grew up on, founded on raw emotion. The second one has processed emotion filtered through experience; not destined to be as iconic, but pure in its progression. And just possibly (don't throw anything at me), it might be the better production.

Aquaman

This movie should not have been as good as it was. In addition to being freaking Aquaman (DC's punch line since The Super Friends), it's the first DCEU movie after DC socked itself in the face with its heavy hitter. I imagine we have a similar situation here as with last year's Wonder Woman, in that DC really didn't believe in the project and thus never thought to screw around with the director's vision. The result benefits all the more from their negligence. You could easily say that director James Wan hacked together leftover bits from The Abyss, The Little Mermaid, Thor: Ragnarok, Tron: Legacy, Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and Robot Monster. But damned if he didn't fit the pieces together in a creative way. It's silly and Wan knows it, but he clearly respects the film and the character. The whole cast looks as if they're enjoying at least something about their roles; be it Dolph Lundgren's substance, Willem Dafoe's conviction, or Nicole Kidman's "No, this isn't beneath me" sincerity. Even Amber Heard's Mera starts to find some funny (yeesh) fish-out-of-water moments. But as we all know this is the Jason Momoa show, and from his opening line he makes it clear that we're not at the theme park to discuss ethics. We here to ride some rides. His Arthur Curry is a perfect balance of barbarian and teddy bear, and every glance at the camera reminds us to just roll with it. I can't think of a better way to end 2018 than on the hope that DC might actually stop drowning.