2017 Movies
The Year in Review
Of all things, I wasn't expecting Wonder Woman to top this years movies. There were a lot of good contenders, with IT and Thor being particularly noteworthy. Thor was my original choice but on retrospective, it seemed too much like a Guardians of the Galaxy wannabe (and the year was quite crowded with them; Thor Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Valerian). I also considered IT for sheer atmosphere but then how hard is it to make a remake?
Wonder Woman was different. It was the first proper Female superhero movie and it projected a very good image for Women in a year where so much came out about the oppression of women in cinema (#HarveyWeinstein). It also became the highest grossing movie with a female director, something else to aspire to. Most of all though, it carved out its own niche in an already overcrowded superheroes market and demonstrated both the value of historical superhero movies (a nod to Captain America there) and the way to do a DC movie properly. Something that the Justice League movie that followed it (with higher paid male directors) failed to do.
... and, If nothing else, 2018 is the year that Disney completely dropped the ball on Star Wars. I liked the Prequels but I don't like the Last Jedi. So while I was worried about Star Wars taking out top spot, I needn't have worried. It didn't even earn a spot in my top picks of the year.
My Top Picks
Wonder Woman: A Whole lot better than I was expecting. The best of the DC movies so far. This one had a lot of heart and
Thor: Ragnarok: I wasn't even planning to see this movie but the trailers kept getting better and better. In the end, I went to see it and the best bits were the bits that weren't in the trailer. The Kiwi rock monster was incredible.
IT Part 1: A remake but a very good remake.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: An intensely colourful and interesting movie. It's a very welcome return to Sci-Fi for Luc Besson
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2: This was fun. Bright, colourful and fun.
Passengers: Unexpectedly good. I almost didn't go to see this because of the bad reviews.
GeoStorm: Yeah, it was a screensaver and it had its share of WTF moments, particularly script-wise but it was still fun.
Spider-man Homecoming: The best Spider-man film in a long, long time. Possibly the best ever.
Notable Mentions ("Surprise" Films)
Passengers: The reviews were terrible but the movie was actually pretty good.
CHiPs: I wasn't looking forward to this at all. CHiPs, the TV series was okay at the time, perhaps even good but a movie.... nah.... Except it was. It was really funny.
Kong: Skull Island: Better than Peter Jackson's Kong. Shorter, faster paced and not quite so silly.
Great Wall: Unexpectedly good, especially in 3D.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: If I wasn't trapped on a 24 hour plane flight, there's no way I would have watched this. I bombed out halfway through the (far too long) second instalment. I approached this with great trepidation as I usually won't watch a film out of sequence. It was pretty good though and I didn't feel like I'd missed anything much by not watching 2-4.
Coco: I was all set to hate this movie for being a rip off of "The Book of Life" but it was so good that it was hard to dislike it.
Wonder: A great feel-good movie.
Downsizing: Something different for a change. Better than expected.
Dog's Purpose, A: A Great film for people who love dogs.
Spider-man Homecoming: I really had Spider-man fatigue and I wasn't planning to watch this at all except that the kids said it was good and it was available in 3D. Impressed. I might yet watch another spidey film.
The Biggest Disappointments
Rings: Even if they'd just remade the first it would have been better than this. No story, no rules, just drivel.
Lego Batman Movie: Loved the original Lego movie. Love Batman, especially love 60's batman. Love the Lego Batman games, loved all the lego batman trailers. Hated the movie. Wow.
Life: I thought Alien Covenant was a letdown. I couldn't even get through life.
Mummy, The: Not as good as Brendan Fraser's mummy, not as good as Christopher Lee's and certainly not as good as the Boris Karloff originals.
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter: Ending with a whimper rather than a bang. I got the feeling that after her friend was so badly injured on set, Milla's heart just wasn't in it anymore.
Blade Runner 2049: It's not that Blade Runner was a terrible movie, it's just that I was already tired when I went to the cinema and I didn't expect a three hour epic. There was no way the film needed to be three hours long. It would have been better to have a shorter and more action packed cinema film with an excitingly different Blu-Ray release. It makes it worth buying the film then. There was a great concept and story trying to get out... it was just trapped inside some poor editing. I know I'll love this on DVD/Blu-Ray but I didn't like it at the cinema.
Alien Covenant: They had a reasonably good set-up at the end of Prometheus but they killed it. I think this film pretty much confirms that Ridley's original entry into the Alien franchise was a fluke. The worst of the Alien movies. Possibly even worse than AVP 2.
Beauty and the Beast: This was simply awful. The singing was bad and it just . wouldn't . stop. arrgh. The cartoon version was so much better.
Annabelle 2: Annabelle Creation: The Annabelle and Conjuring series was such a great series with so many hits that it was bound to have a miss eventually. Funnily enough, there was a flashback scene in the middle of the movie which showed us what the movie should have been about.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi: After the reasonably good "compilation of the best bits of Star Wars" that was "The Force Awakens", it became clear with the Last Jedi that the writing team was struggling with the material. Instead of doing something different and well-written, like the Thrawn trilogy, they opted to blaze their own trail with a sub-par story in which the main aim was to kill off all the old trilogy characters. There were pop culture references, which don't belong in a Star Wars film and then there was that Princess Leia scene which looked like it belonged in a Marvel film.
All the films I've seen at the Cinemas in 2017
Passengers
Rings
Logan
Alien: Covenant
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
John Wick 2
Alien Covenant
Wonder Woman
IT Part 1
Blade Runner 2049
GeoStorm
Thor: Ragnarok
Justice League
Wonder
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Jumanji
Films from 2017 that I saw on the "small screen"
Annabelle 2: Annabelle Creation
Baywatch
Beauty and the Beast
Book of Henry, The
Boss Baby, The
Cars 3
CHiPs
Coco
Commuter
Cure for Wellness, A
Dark Tower
Darkest Hour
Despicable Me 3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul
Dog's Purpose, A
Downsizing
Emoji Movie, The
Flatliners
Get Out
Ghost in the Shell
Great Wall, The
Jigsaw
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Kong: Skull Island
Lego Batman Movie, The
Lego Ninjago Movie, The
Life
Mummy, The
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Red Sparrow
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Split
Underworld: Blood Wars
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
XXX: Return of Xander Cage
Zookeeper's Wife, The
What's Left to See from 2017
The boldfaced titles are the ones I'm most interested in;
* Denotes titles I've acquired but haven't gotten around to watching yet.
All Eyez on Me
All I See Is You
American Made
Amityville: The Awakening *
Animal Crackers
Baby Driver
Bastards
Beguiled, The
Belko Experiment, The
Blazing Samurai
Born in China
Bye Bye Man, The
Captain Underpants
Circle, The
Coldest City, The
Collide *
Disney Descendants 2
Dunkirk *
Everything, Everything
Fate of the Furious, The
Ferdinand *
Fifty Shades Darker
Fist Fight
Friday the 13th
Gifted
Girl Trip
Going in Style
Granite Mountain
Greatest Showman, The
Hitman's Bodyguard, The
House, The
Kidnap
Let It Snow
Logan Lucky
Lost City of Z, The
Lowriders
Murder on the Orient Express
My Cousin Rachel
My Little Pony: The Movie
Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, The
Paddington 2 *
Patient Zero
Pitch Perfect 3
Power Rangers
Rock That Body
Same Kind of Different as Me
Sense of an Ending, The
Shack, The*
Sleepless
Smurfs: The Lost Village
Snatched
Snowman, The
Solutrean, The
Space Between Us, The
Star, The
T2: Trainspotting
Table 19
Transformers: The Last Knight
Tulip Fever
Unforgettable
United Kingdom, A
Victoria and Abdul
Villa Capri
Wilson
Youth in Oregon