Neat list, still need to catch up on these titles.
While 2018 may have been an unpleasant year overall, I think it's safe to say that it wasn't too bad for movies.
Infinity War was impressive. Not impressive with regards to quality, mind you, but ambition. I have to admire the Russos for being able to bring together so many characters in a single film, without having any one feel superfluous and/or drowned out. Don't get me wrong, the execution remains far from perfect, but I think I still enjoy the cinematic voice of this new duo more than I did that of Whedon.
Also, Thanos is best superhero of 2018. Hands down.
As for the other four movies I saw released this year (having been pretty busy), they weren't quite as notable.
The best had to be Into the Spiderverse, which is no surprise, seeing as it came from the same minds behind The Lego Movie. Like the later, it knows exactly what it is, but wastes no time winking at the audience. Outside of a few questionable soundtrack choices, I dare say it was almost perfect.
Speaking of Lord and Miller, Solo was alright. Although, I honestly don't know what I was expecting from a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford. Don't get me wrong, both Ehrenreich and Glover were rock solid in their performances. I just think the material (along with its sub-par execution) ultimately did them a disservice. Han himself feels like too much of a good guy. I did not particularly care for the new characters, especially the obvious feminist-parody robot. I may have been glad when she died, but that still didn't make up for her being there in the first place. Sure, it is decidedly less of a mess than The Last Jedi. But at least TLJ had more of a personality.
Halloween 2018 was another movie I'd file under "OK". Don't get me wrong, there were aspects I liked. This film chose to play psychological over supernatural aspects, and I think that gave it a unique angle. Not only that, but I felt Laurie had a great arc, without giving too much away. Otherwise, no real complaints, just felt like it was another slasher movie at the end of the day.
Then we have my least favorite film of 2018, which I'm sorry to say, was Fallen Kingdom. It not only failed to feel like the original Jurassic Park film, but it also failed to have any personality of its own. Funny that its director also did The Orphanage, seeing as the last portion is essentially a haunted house film. This one comes in the lowest not even because of quality, mind you, but because it failed to strike a chord with me. The original had much lower stakes (seeing as it was isolated to an island) and that felt so much more intense. Why? Because I cared about the characters on screen. I did not care about any one character in Fallen Kingdom. They came across as cartoons, so naturally, the dinosaurs did as well.
Overall, if I had to rate these:
Into the Spiderverse - 8/10
Infinity War - 7.5/10
Halloween 2018 - 7/10
Solo - 6/10
Obviously, I'm not a film critic. Everything said was my useless opinion, lol.
Neat list, still need to catch up on these titles.
While 2018 may have been an unpleasant year overall, I think it's safe to say that it wasn't too bad for movies.
Infinity War was impressive. Not impressive with regards to quality, mind you, but ambition. I have to admire the Russos for being able to bring together so many characters in a single film, without having any one feel superfluous and/or drowned out. Don't get me wrong, the execution remains far from perfect, but I think I still enjoy the cinematic voice of this new duo more than I did that of Whedon.
Also, Thanos is best superhero of 2018. Hands down.
As for the other four movies I saw released this year (having been pretty busy), they weren't quite as notable.
The best had to be Into the Spiderverse, which is no surprise, seeing as it came from the same minds behind The Lego Movie. Like the later, it knows exactly what it is, but wastes no time winking at the audience. Outside of a few questionable soundtrack choices, I dare say it was almost perfect.
Speaking of Lord and Miller, Solo was alright. Although, I honestly don't know what I was expecting from a Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford. Don't get me wrong, both Ehrenreich and Glover were rock solid in their performances. I just think the material (along with its sub-par execution) ultimately did them a disservice. Han himself feels like too much of a good guy. I did not particularly care for the new characters, especially the obvious feminist-parody robot. I may have been glad when she died, but that still didn't make up for her being there in the first place. Sure, it is decidedly less of a mess than The Last Jedi. But at least TLJ had more of a personality.
Halloween 2018 was another movie I'd file under "OK". Don't get me wrong, there were aspects I liked. This film chose to play psychological over supernatural aspects, and I think that gave it a unique angle. Not only that, but I felt Laurie had a great arc, without giving too much away. Otherwise, no real complaints, just felt like it was another slasher movie at the end of the day.
Then we have my least favorite film of 2018, which I'm sorry to say, was Fallen Kingdom. It not only failed to feel like the original Jurassic Park film, but it also failed to have any personality of its own. Funny that its director also did The Orphanage, seeing as the last portion is essentially a haunted house film. This one comes in the lowest not even because of quality, mind you, but because it failed to strike a chord with me. The original had much lower stakes (seeing as it was isolated to an island) and that felt so much more intense. Why? Because I cared about the characters on screen. I did not care about any one character in Fallen Kingdom. They came across as cartoons, so naturally, the dinosaurs did as well.
Overall, if I had to rate these:
Into the Spiderverse - 8/10
Infinity War - 7.5/10
Halloween 2018 - 7/10
Solo - 6/10
Obviously, I'm not a film critic. Everything said was my useless opinion, lol.