2014- Year Overview + Top 5 Films of 2014

Today, January 7th, 2015, is the 1 year mark for this blog. I found it fitting that the overview for the last year be on this day. Let’s take a look back on the blog’s first year, and 2014 in general.

2014 was a pretty darn good year for movies. There were disappointments, and plenty of awful, horrible movies, but I feel like the good outweighed the bad. I mainly went and reviewed the sci-fi/action films, such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Godzilla. There was a lot that I did not see, but I tried to make up for it by reviewing other movies that have been out for a while. The Avengers, old sci-fi cheese-fests, things like that. Definitely the strangest movie I reviewed in 2014 was a film called… Karate Robo Zaborgar. I… think I might want to revise my review for that… but I don’t want to watch it again. I really don’t want to. I still have Vietnam flashbacks from it.

Of course, anyone following me knows of my ‘Countdown to Godzilla’s Return’, which lasted from March to May. I reviewed every single Godzilla film that I could get my hands on. Only 2 movies were left out, Godzilla VS Gigan and Godzilla VS Megalon. Those ones I couldn’t get. What I did review was all build up to what was my most anticipated movie of the year- the new Legendary Godzilla. That had to have been the best experience at the theater this year.

Out of all the Godzilla films I watched, the absolute worst was Godzilla’s Revenge, getting the lowest rating on this blog, which is a 0 out of 50. It is the worst film I’ve ever seen in my life. Nothing else I reviewed has made me hate it so much. Not even 20th Century Fox’s Walking With Dinosaurs was that bad! If you want to see my thoughts on that one, look back through previous posts to find it.

In the midst of Summer, I reviewed some movies (if you can even call them that) made by the Asylum, one of the worst studios I’ve ever known. They made abominations like Atlantic Rim, Android Cop, and Jack the Giant Killer, which were all rip-offs of Hollywood productions. If you thought the Hollywood versions were bad, then you’d loathe the Asylum versions. Atlantic Rim made me want to rip my lungs out, and Jack the Giant Killer made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Why were there dinosaurs in a story about Jack and the Beanstalk? Why did Jack have a robot suit hidden in his shed? Why was that princess lady even there? What was the deal with Jack’s dad? What was EVERYTHING?!?!? I couldn’t make any of that crap up if I tried! For each Asylum movie, not just Jack the Giant Killer. I am sad that I do not have the talent (or drugs) to come up with such things.

In short, unless you want to lose your mind, don’t watch anything made by the Asylum.

When August came, after Guardians of the Galaxy came out, there wasn’t that much in theaters worth going to anymore. Posts on the blog slowed down. In October, I picked things back up the best I could with reviewing old horror movies from the 50’s. Even then, I felt like I could have done better. I could have been more active. And I’ll do my best to fix that for 2015. I am a busy person, but I’ll be determined to do better… and maybe even get 100 likes or followers on the facebook page.

Now… it is time for my personal Top 5 Movies of 2014. This list consists only of films that came out in 2014 that I have seen. I wish I saw a few more, but life isn’t fair. I’ll admit, it was difficult sorting out which movies would take which spots, but I am fully confident in my choices as they are now. One thing to take into consideration is that while I will mention what scores the movies recieved from me, that’s not what will be dictating their spot on the list. I really don’t think the scores mean that much. Also, this is my personal list. You don’t have to agree with this. It’s just my biased opinion. That’s what 99% of reviews are, really.

#5- The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies

The last movie I saw in theaters in 2014 was the conclusion to the epic Hobbit trilogy, prequel to the Lord of the Rings. This movie is mostly this one huge fight between humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, and…. the eagles, I guess? I don’t know if they counted as the fifth army or not, but whatever. This movie scored a full 50 points out of 50 on my scale, and is right alongside the other two Hobbit installments as one of my favorite movies ever, not just for 2014. The driving point that got it to this list was the amount of emotion it had. I cried. My eyes didn’t simply water, it wasn’t merely a tear or two, it was full on sobbing. I have never cried this much at a movie before in my life. The only movie that came close was Titanic.

A sad, but fond farewell to the best multi-movie adventure I’ve had the fortune of experiencing for myself, deserving its spot on my top 5 list.

#4- How to Train Your Dragon 2

It’s the sequel to one of my favorite animated movies of all time, which means I had high expectations for it. Everyone did. Somehow, it managed to blow its predecessor out of the water! This was fantastic! It had everything anyone could ask for! It had sweet, touching scenes, emotional moments, great action, great characters, and beautiful animation! This is the best looking animated movie I’ve ever seen! I have absolutely no complaints about this one. I couldn’t find any flaws, nothing weighed the movie down, everything was pretty much perfect! That’s why I loved it so much, and why it got a perfect score. Hell yeah, this is on my top 5 list! No question about it! I have it on Blu-Ray and I get to watch it again and again and love it even more! I’ll go freaking crazy!

#3- Guardians of the Galaxy

This one surely was a surprise. Nobody expected Guardians of the Galaxy to be so well received and do so well at the box office, succeeding in becoming the 2nd highest grossing film globally, and the #1 highest grossing film in America. Everyone seemed to love it. Including me. While I didn’t give it a perfect score, it was still extremely enjoyable. The characters were fun, the soundtrack was awesome, the effects were great, the action was good, and it was all around an excellent movie. It well deserves its place on my top 5 list.

#2- Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This was the second movie I saw in theaters in 2014, and the second movie released in 2014 to get a full score. I liked the first Captain America. The action would have been better if they didn’t montage through it, but other than that, I thought it was great. But The Winter Soldier…. wow. I was impressed. It looks like Steve Rogers took lessons from Jason Bourne, because he kicks a LOT of @$$ now! I mean… holy crap, he can fight! Want to know who else can fight? The Winter Soldier. He was amazing! He was relentless! He was one of the most merciless and intimidating villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe! Don’t get me wrong, the action isn’t the only thing good about this movie. The characters were fantastic, too! I liked the conflict with Steve Rogers and SHIELD, I completely LOVED Black Widow, Nick Fury was awesome, and Falcon was all sorts of cool. Seriously, why wouldn’t I love Black Widow? She’s an unbelievably attractive redhead that could kill me if she wanted to. What’s not to love about that?

The effects, action, characters, and story were all elements that made this movie so great. What I liked about this story over the first Captain America, and most other Marvel films, is that it was more of an espionage/spy thriller. I do think it could fit into that category. It’s a different direction than what most other superhero films go for. it’s my favorite Phase 2 Avengers movie. Heck, it might be my favorite Avengers installment out of all of them! Full score and placement at #2 on my list.

And the blog’s #1 film of 2014 is….

#1- The Lego Movie

The first movie I saw in theaters in 2014, and it got a full score. It deserved that score, too. The Lego Movie ranks up there with How to Train Your Dragon as one of my favorite animated films! Looking back, I wish I reviewed this one better than I initially did. I was still starting out at that time, and I wasn’t the best writer. I’m still not that great now, but I do feel like I’ve improved. Maybe now I can properly express how much I love this one.

The Lego Movie has a lot to offer. It’s the funniest movie I saw in 2014. It had the whole theater laughing like crazy all the way through! It’s the type of comedy that isn’t done too often. I mean, it’s super rare that this happens. Few have done it in recent years, and even fewer have made it work. Want to know what makes the comedy in the Lego movie so golden? I’ll tell you…. all the laughs, all the hilarity, all the jokes were done…. without a single curse word or sex joke. I KNOW!! It’s hard to comprehend, right?!!? And it works! It actually WORKS! Perfectly!!

On top of that, the message is something that I personally cherish. Yeah, a lot of times, when a movie (animated or otherwise) has a message, it either falls flat, feels forced and annoying, or is too vague or not thought out well. Here, not only is the execution and delivery of the message spot on, but what it’s conveying is something that I encourage everyone to listen to. The movie is centered around this. And I believe the movie succeeds in getting it across to its audience.

Imagination makes everyone special. This applies to people of all ages, not just kids. Suppressing imagination and creativity means not letting people be who they really are, and who they could become. Let people’s imagination run wild, let them express themselves. Everyone can be special in their own way if they can unleash their creativity. They have the choice to decide what they are and what they do. The roots of all of this is the freedom of the imagination. That’s what I took away from The Lego Movie. That's what I hope everyone took away from it.

The Lego Movie is one of THE BEST movies I’ve seen in my life. The film could have been a bunch of cheap jokes and references and shameless product placement. But it turned out to be so much more! There are references and, to be honest, it really is a feature length toy commercial, but it's deeper than that. It's got tons of heart and effort put into it and it shows! If you can't see what this movie really is, then... I don't know what to tell you.

I hope this gets an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a cookie, just SOMETHING!! It deserves a chance to be the year’s best picture, too! At least let it get nominated! It is too great of a movie to not get some sort of official credit!

Honorable mentions go to:

1- Legendary’s Godzilla, for being worthy of the darn title, as opposed to the 1998 movie.

2- Edge of Tomorrow, for being so darn awesome.

3- Transformers: Age of Extinction, for being the highest grossing film of the whole year, raking in over $1 billion, as well as having the best soundtrack I’ve heard in any movie this year.

This concludes 2014, the blog’s first year. We have all of 2015 ahead of us, and I cannot wait to see some of the movies coming out. There’s going to be Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens, Fast and Furious 7, Minions, Terminator Genysis, and… 50 Shades of Grey……. I guess. I don’t plan on seeing that one, but if you want to, be my guest. Tell me how it goes. I'll be doing my best to keep up with it all.

There’s a lot of movies to watch, and a lot to review, so let’s get this year started!