2018 Movies Ranked

<< 2017   2019 >>

I think I need to cut back on the superhero movies.  The fatigue is sinking really in bad even though Into the Spider-Verse looks worthwhile.  

27. The Cloverfield Paradox

D: Julius Onah

**********

A mediocre film that wastes a few potentially interesting ideas.  Some of the moments were so cartoonish that I would have like the movie a lot more if the twist was that it was the origin story for the Looney Tunes universe.  Oddly enough, the much better Annihilation has an ending ambiguous enough to interpret it as the origin story for The Wuzzles.

26. Skyscraper

D: Rawson Marshall Thurber

**********

A lackluster Die Hard wannabe that’s only helped by the neat building design, a couple acrophobic moments, and The Rock’s likability.

25. Ant-Man and the Wasp

D: Peyton Reed

**********

Despite a few clever action moments (almost all of which were in the trailer), it was mostly a plodding, glorified comedy.  The dark credit sequences were a gut-punch, though.

24. Deadpool 2

D: David Leitch

**********

Not as consistently funny as the first movie, and David Leitch’s direction did not infuse it with as much style as I hoped.  It’s rather odd to see a movie that’s supposed to be a satire of comic books playing this trope so straight.

23. Incredibles 2

D: Brad Bird

**********

Like many belated sequels, it was a disappointment.  It had to compete with the ideas explored during the superhero era the first movie predated.  Its one good idea (Mrs. Incredible’s being the front for a PR campaign while Mr. Incredible remains home) was completely dropped when the predictable twist came.  After that it was a generic drag that was like watching a lesser version of Big Hero 6.  The villain could have used more screentime as the persona of Screenslaver.  I knew Bob Odenkirk’s character was a Red Herring from the first trailer, and I knew the real villain at first sight.  The raccoon scene struck me as a particularly tedious and tone-deaf moment.

22. Black Panther

D: Ryan Coogler

**********

Some elements were interesting, such as the political themes, but these were wasted on typical tedious superhero movie fare.  I liked some characters, especially Okoye.  It’s also a good example of how lackluster cinematography can ruin great production design.

21. Mission Impossible: Fallout

D: Christopher McQuarrie

**********

A suspenseful action movie that doesn’t have much replay value because of how dependent on suspense the third act was.  I was disappointed by Solomon Lane, who lacked practically all the qualities that made me think he was a cool villain in Rogue Nation.  


20. Bohemian Rhapsody

D: Bryan Singer
**********
It's a rousing film and probably the closest thing someone of my age will ever come to seeing Queen in concert.  There are some inaccuracies (I'm pretty sure they placed the creation of "We Will Rock You" in the wrong decade), but the movie is well put-together.  By maintaining focus on Mercury, it juggles various aspects of the story well, and get more of X2 than Days of Future Past from Singer.  The scene in which Mercury is rankled by nosy reporters re: personal life is a bit awkward in recent events.  However, Singer's depiction of the experience of being gay work better when dealing with an actual gay man than when applied to the question of gun control if it was an issue of bodily autonomy.

19. 12 Strong

D: Nicolai Fuglsig

**********

A well-executed and apparently accurate war movie, but for some reason doesn’t distinguish itself enough aesthetically.

18. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

D: Jake Kasdan

**********

It’s not as bad as the first movie, but then again it’s not as good as the first movie.  It’s plot structure made it more watchable than the original, and it lacked some of the annoying stuff that brought its predecessor down.  On the other hand it lacked the better elements of the first movie.  A passably watchable and perfunctory popcorn movie.

17. Overlord
D: Julius Avery
**********
A well-executed zombie/Nazi movie that doesn't break new ground in terms of subject matter.


16. The Christmas Chronicles
D: Clay Kaytis
**********
Kurt Russell is charismatic as Santa, and Judah Lewis is also good.  The elves were cute, and I like the speedboat design of the sleigh.  Overall, it's ok.


15. Upgrade

D: Leigh Whannell

**********

An engaging sci-fi movie that does a lot with a relatively low budget.  Unfortunately, it’s dragged down with what I believe to be a huge plothole.  It’s revealed that STEM is the villain and has been pulling the strings the whole time even though large parts of the plot were completely dependent on the premise that he was not in control.  Good score.

14. A Quiet Place

D: John Krasinski

**********

A very well-directed thriller that could have used a little more thought put into its premise.

13. Outlaw King
D: David Mackenzie
**********
I assumed that the "Captain's Log" everyone was talking about involved Chris Pine's killing someone extremely violently with a literal log.  I was a bit disappointed to say the least.


12. Bumblebee
D: Travis Knight
**********
This movie was actually genuinely decent.  It was weighed down by the limitations imposed on it by the previous movies, like not having as many of the main characters in the story.  It was like a rip-off of Iron Giant combined with what the first movie should have been.  I wish the whole thing was the Cybetron battle.


11. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
D: The Coen Bros.
**********
An interestingly deconstructive Western anthology with beautiful cinematography.

10. Hereditary

D: Ari Aster

**********

A disturbing, original horror movie from A24.  Not quite as good as The VVitch, but definitely better than It Comes at Night.

9. Solo: A Star Wars Story

D: Ron Howard

**********

It didn’t work perfectly as a Solo backstory, but it was a solid movie.  Wonderfully gritty cinematography, great production design, tense action, and fun characters.  I may be in the minority, but I think the Star Wars standalones is one of the more promising series out now.


8. Dragged Across Concrete
D: S. Craig Zahler
**********
Solid, with one particularly brutal and heartbreaking moment in the middle.  In addition to the practical gore, Zahler's films also have nod to grindhouse exploitation with an over-the-top element.  In Bone Tomahawk it was the Troglodytes.  In Brawl in Cell Block 99 it was Superjail.  In this one it's "professional" bank robbers who kill so impulsively it almost becomes more moronic than evil.


7. Avengers: Infinity War

D: Joe & Anthony Russo

**********

A movie elevated by a great villain and a boldly tragic ending.  Josh Brolin made an excellent Thanos.  Unfortunately, the scenes with the heroes made it feel almost incomplete.

6. Isle of Dogs

D: Wes Anderson

**********

I watch Anderson’s movies for two reasons: the sense of humor and the distinctive visuals.  While it’s arguably his most visually impressive movie yet, if falls short on the comedy.  The story is decent, but could be better.  Greta Gerwig’s character is an unnecessary and annoying distraction.

5. Mandy
D: Panos Cosmatos
**********
Absolutely loved the style of this movie, but it's mostly a typical, albeit rather satisfying revenge flick.

4. Annihilation

D: Alex Garland

**********

A refreshing sci-fi thriller.  It’s interesting to see an R-Rated version of a typical 80’s girls’ cartoon that works so surprisingly well.

3. Paul: Apostle of Christ

D: Andrew Hyatt

**********

A movie that demonstrates that not all faith-based films are bad.

2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
D: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
**********
A visually stunning, clever movie with heart.  I was afraid this would be too self-aware and meta, but it was an elseworlds scenario done right.

1. First Man
D: Damien Chazelle
**********
A thrilling and poignant movie that made me tear up a few times.  Inspiring.

<< 2017   2019 >>

10 Years Ago, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away...

 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

2008

D: Dave Filoni

**********

Pros: Has Its Moments, Spawned Surprisingly Decent Series

Cons: Dull, Lacks Focus

        Ten years ago, Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars debuted.  This movie was generally not well-received.  It was often seen as lacking even the entertainment value and clever ideas of the prequels, and was often contrasted with Genndy Tartakovsky’s beloved Clone Wars series.  It didn’t help that it essentially retconned the latter.  I certainly didn’t like it when it came out, and it still ranks as one of the worst in a relatively good year for movies.  Still, people eventually grew to like the resultant series to the point where they forgave this movie’s existence.

           The film begins with a narration (Tom Kane) that is distractingly similar to that of a World War II-era newsreel.  This always annoyed me about the series.  It seems out of place and takes me out of the universe.  Star Wars always mixed subtle visual cues from various genres, whether they be Eastern or Western, in a science fiction universe that seemed believable in its own way.  Nothing was so recognizable as to be jarring, but you noticed it on a subconscious level at least.  However, some of the more recent additions to the franchise have featured things that are a little too obvious, such as this, Cad Bane’s hat, and the tuxedos in the Canto Bight casino.  It also doesn’t help that Kane uses the same voice for Admiral Wullf Yularen.

        The narration helpfully reminds us that the Clone Wars are being fought and adds that Jabba the Hutt’s (Kevin Michael Richardson) son Rotta (David Acord) has been kidnapped.  This is significant because he controls areas of space that both sides need for the war effort.  Meanwhile Mitch has gotten rich  Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) are fighting a droid army (Matthew Wood) led by General Loathsom (Corey Burton).  Anakin is disappointed to find out that the Jedi Council has sent him a new apprentice named Ashoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) even though it was Obi-Wan who requested one.  I’m sure Yoda (Tom Kane) had a plan.  They butt heads momentarily and Anakin gives her the nickname “Snips” due to her snippy backtalk.  A protracted battle ensues in which Anakin and Ahsoka infiltrate the enemy deflector shield while Obi-Wan displays his playful personality, distracting Loathsom with a fake parlay.  After Ahsoka momentarily turns Anakin into Buster Keaton with a daring stunt, they win the battle and Anakin acknowledges that their shared recklessness would make him a more understanding mentor for her than most Jedi.

       The growing trust between Anakin and Ahsoka is the primary arc of the movie, but it only comes out in a few moments, and they seem to act like they’ve known each other for years halfway through.  She’s like a scrappy in this movie, but she eventually becomes more likable throughout the resultant series, partially because she seems less out of place in it. 

        Ahsoka and Anakin travel to Teth, where they retrieve Rotta.  With circumstantial evidence that the Jedi have captured the Huttlet, Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman) attempts to recover the child, but the Jedi Knight and his new apprentice escape on a beaten-up old light freighter than Anakin ends up using throughout the series (we don’t see Anakin’s recovering the crashed ship from the middle of the desert, though).  Obi-Wan then gets into a rather tedious lightsaber fight with Ventress.  The problem with the action in this movie is that there is no build-up or emotional involvement.  Many of the battles also seem like padding designed to stretch this movie out to feature length.  This particular fight has no stakes aside from the fact that Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and a few other Clone Troopers have been trapped in the area.  So a character we like who has no arc fights a villainess whom we only know for dying a symbolic death in a retconned work and failing in this one for the sake of another character we know nothing about but possesses implied plot armor.  Rex does end up being one of the best break-out characters of the series,  but that doesn’t exist yet.

          As for the Huttlet, I don’t like its design.  The face is ugly-cute like that of a bulldog, but it seems to be a head attached to a rather stubby tail with hands sticking out the side; it has no body.  Also, it’s generally not a good idea to have a baby as the object for the protagonists to protect.  In addition to its having no potential for characterization, it creates a Catch-22.  Most movies don’t have the nerve to kill the infant so the suspense is false, but if the suspense were real it would sap any amount of entertainment value from the work.  It doesn’t help that Rotta is suffering from a life-threatening fever until Ahsoka provides him with first aid on the freighter.  Usually you should only use this trope if you are being ironic or so over-the-top it’s funny.  Shoot’em Up, for all its problems was an example of how to do this, and so is Hard Boiled.

           Anakin and Ahsoka land on Tatooine where Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his MagnaGuards unsuccessfully fight them off.  Dooku was apparently so confident he could head Anakin off at the pass that he had already told Jabba that the Jedi had murdered his son even after Ahsoka failed to keep them on Teth!  The stupidity of this attempted frame-up makes sense considering that it Palpatine (Ian Abercrombie) would want it to fail.  He would want the public, including crime lords, to trust the Empire by using the CIS for false flags.  Any moderately intelligent person like Dooku should be in on this, but a conversation between him and his master indicates he wasn’t.  He really was an idiot.

        About twenty minutes prior to end credits, the movie remembers there’s a political element, and Padme (Catherine Taber) tries to ameliorate the situation by negotiating with Jabba’s annoyingly flamboyant uncle Ziro (Corey Burton).  She finds out that Ziro conspired with Dooku to kidnap the Huttlet and she contacts Jabba to exonerate the protagonists after C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) calls in a rescue for her.  The Republic (but really Palpatine) wins the day, and Ahsoka proves her worth.

        The animation isn’t quite ready for the big screen, but good enough for the show.  There are some interesting stylizations of the characters (like Dooku) and some hiccups (like Jabba).  There’s a wonderful establishing shot of a Venator Star Destoyer approaching Teth, and Christophsis is a neat setting.  The expressions seem a little stilted, but this got better in the series.  Voice acting is pretty good, and many cast members display a nice talent for variety and mimicry throughout the series.  The Clone Wars demonstrates that the franchise has many great voice actors at its disposal and can make an animated film without wasting money on celebrities (hint, hint, Disney).  Samuel L. Jackson also voices Mace Windu in this.

           I found The Clone Wars to be the least watchable of all the canon Star Wars movies.  It’s even more of a chore to watch than Attack of the Clones or Last Jedi despite its substantially shorter runtime and better legacy.  A lot of this is because it lacks focus.  The character appeal that defined the Original Trilogy is compromised by action filler and only comes up in a few moments during the battles.  The political aspect that at least made the prequels somewhat interesting is toned down.  The action, for all its runtime, seems phoned in and lacks the artful execution of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars; it just seems like white noise.  On the plus side, this movie did end up spawning a surprisingly decent TV Series (viewable on Netflix).