2014 Summer Movie Season Awards by Matt Harrison

So this is my 100th post on this blog and I thought I'd do something a little different for it. The 2014 summer movie season has been really fantastic in my opinion and I'd thought I'd give my favourite movies of the summer some recognition with awards I literally made up this morning...


Movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Raid 2 will not be awarded anything as I saw them both in late March/April time. I didn't see every movie of the summer but I saw all of the big ones so without further delay let's begin:



Best Hero - Caesar (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Out of all of the characters in the movies which came out this summer, none were more heroic than Caesar. Andy Serkis put in the best performance of his career and gave incredible raw humanity to a CGI ape. The character of Caesar is one of the best ever created and through him channels an incredible amount of human emotion. Plus he's a badass leader, and winner of Best Hero.



Best Villain - Koba (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)

Toby Kebbell's amazing performance as Koba proved that Andy Serkis has made motion capture a thing which any actor can do. Out of all of the villains this summer Koba had the most menacing presence and did the most evil things. And on top of that you could actually understand what his motivations were, unlike villains like Ronan the Accuser or Bolivar Trask.



Best action scene - The Tank scene (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes)


We were blessed with some awesome action this summer. I considered putting in the Quicksilver scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past, the Normandy beach fight in Edge of Tomorrow and the cheer inducing final battle from Godzilla, but this one blew my mind the most. When I first saw it I was in awe of how it was created and stunned when I thought about the detail that must have gone into directing and shooting a scene like that. Please watch it if you haven't already, but you must have seen the film by now, right?



Best comic book movie - X-Men: Days of Future Past

I really liked Guardians of the Galaxy, I thought that the characters were all brilliant, the action was good and I loved just how funny it was and how it didn't take itself to seriously. However, X-Men: Days of Future Past was a much more solid movie with amazing performances from actors who transformed into their characters. It had smart writing, amazing action and real drama and tension similar to what Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had. I loved this movie and thought it was the best comic book movie of the summer.



Best music - Guardians of the Galaxy

Star Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot are awesome and yes the movie was funny as hell so I couldn't leave the Guardians out. So I thought about it for a while before I realised that it had the best music of any summer film by far. The actual score itself was sufficient but the addition of "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" added so much into the film's character and personality. The opening scene with Star Lord still impresses me when I think about it today...



Best animated movie - How to Train Your Dragon 2

It had absolutely no competition. It was easily the best animated film of the summer.



Best comedy - 22 Jump Street

There were a lot of really funny movies this summer like Bad Neighbours and Guardians of the Galaxy. But I laughed the hardest in 22 Jump Street. The chemistry and timing between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum is spot on and the "kitchen scene" with Ice Cube is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.



Best limited release - Boyhood

Richard Linklater's Boyhood proved that good things are worth waiting for. It took him 12 years to make this 2 hour and 45 minute long film and it paid off because it naturally and authentically captured the essence of childhood and growing up better than any film before it. It was an easy watch and deserves some recognition.



Best trailer - Interstellar trailer 1 

A lot of cool trailers landed this summer but none excited me more than the first full length Interstellar trailer which came out in mid May. The thing gives me goose bumps even now when I watch it. I love the way it intrigues you without spoiling anything, plus Hans Zimmer's score which progressively builds up in the background is perfect.



Most anticipated fall movie - Interstellar

It stars some very good actors, has the best musician in Hollywood producing it's score and has the best director working today directing it. Christopher Nolan has made some of my all time favourite movies like Inception and The Dark Knight trilogy. He's yet to let me down and I can't wait to see his next movie despite not knowing a thing about it.



Worst movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction

A Million Ways to Die in the West let me down horribly, Tammy was terrible and The Purge: Anarchy didn't work for me. But I've gone with Transformers as my least favourite summer movie because it was everything that I hated about a Michael Bay film; shit CGI, an incomprehensibly stupid plot, dumb military dialogue, awful humour, weak and 1 dimensional boring characters and that same irritating and epileptic directing style. It's awful and I hate that it has made over $1 billion worldwide.



Best movie - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

It has real human emotion, drama and tension. It has incredible acting and memorable characters. It has an unpredictable story. It has jaw dropping action and CGI. It's a beautifully directed movie and is a marvel to look at on the big screen. It has everything a great summer movie should have. We don't need brain-numbing Transformers action to get a good summer blockbuster, we need everything Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has. This is how you make a blockbuster. It's not only my favourite movie of the summer, but my favourite of the entire year.



That was actually really fun to do! If you agree/disagree with any of my choices please comment below and put your winners for each of the categories. I will be doing a Fall movie preview very soon and I hope I enjoy my next 100 posts as much as I have my first 100. I'll keep up the movie reviews, spoilers and movie news stuff plus I hope to introduce 2 new regular segments for this blog as well in the coming weeks so look at forward to that. What a summer its been and here's to an awesome Fall and Winter!

Thanks for reading,
Matt

X-Men: Days of Future Past Movie Review (Mild spoilers)

Better late than never.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is directed by Bryan Singer, the director returning to the helm of the X-Men franchise after previously directing the first two instalments; X-Men and X2. The film sees the mutants we know and love living in an apocalyptic wasteland on the run from machines known as Sentinels. These beings are incredibly powerful and can adapt to any mutant power in order to defeat them, plus have the ability to target mutants and humans with the gene for mutation. In order to avert this future, the X-Men send Wolverine back in time to round up Charles Xavier, Magneto and others in order to stop Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, this being the event which sees the Sentinel's creation.

I must say that the summer blockbusters of 2014 have been majorly impressive and enjoyable and this film is no exception. Bryan Singer's return proved to be a successful one for his directing career and the franchise itself as events within the film see a creation of an all new timeline, one which can be filled up with new X-Men movies. Singer not only removed some of the mistakes of X3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins:Wolverine, but he also rendered the events of X Men 1,2 and The Wolverine as no longer canon.

I really have a fondness for the X-Men franchise because they strike an excellent balance between the ultra serious and realistic storytelling of The Dark Knight trilogy and the super-fun popcorn entertainment we get from the Avengers. The film finds this balance through genuine humour which works, especially in the first act of the film. At that stage of the film I was laughing consistently.

However the film is driven forward by its riveting story of time travel and alternate realities. For Bryan Singer and screenwriter Simon Kinberg to create a time travel tale, one from a beloved comic storyline of the same name, and create it so I never found myself confused or contradicted is a fantastic achievement. The time travel script was written with care, and translates clearly onto the big screen.

What really makes the movie though is the emotional weight we feel towards characters we are familiar with. Each character has different layers and depth to them. For example, Charles Xavier at this point is a broken man who has lost all hope, different to the wise old man we know. Wolverine has to use his brain as opposed to going berserk like he normally does and Mystique is emotionally conflicted in every sense. What I also loved was the parallel between past Magneto (Fassbender) and future Magneto (Mckellen) and seeing just how much that character has developed.

The performances are great across the board, my two favourites being McAvoy and Fassbender, who's chemistry which made First Class such a hit is still there.

While some may complain about the lack of action, I won't because the story was compelling and the characters were so interesting. My one exception would be main villain Bolivar Trask. While Peter Dinklage does well acting wise, I didn't understand his motivation for creating these Sentinels. A more compelling villain would have put this film on another level. Also, a few inconsistencies still exist within the X-Men timeline, but those events never actually happened according to the new timeline so I can't really complain.

Also, I can't not mention Quicksilver. While the production photos made him look terrible, he is actually a really cool character. And he's fast, really fast. That scene in the Pentagon where we see Quicksilver run at super speed and take out all of those guys in that kitchen is one of my favourite scenes in a Marvel movie.

Despite a weakness with the villain, I loved Days of Future Past and I think it exceeds the most through its story and through its characters. It's ballsy and changes the timeline of X-Men films allowing room for many more instalments. And with Bryan Singer returning for X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016, I can't wait to see where this franchise goes.


Rating - A


1 sentence summary - Everything great about the X-Men franchise bundled into one fantastic movie!


Thanks for reading,
Matt