Cinema trips in 2019

Another end of year review.  I saw 10 new films at various cinemas this year, as well as a special screening of Labyrinth for Cathy's birthday.

Selfie with a film star 

Subdividing those 10 films into subcategories, I saw 5 animated films, 4 superhero films and the latest episode of the Star Wars franchise.

Here are the films (BEWARE SPOILERS):

How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World

I don't really remember much about this. There was a theme about the world not being ready for humans and dragons to co-exist peacefully so the solution is for the dragons to be hidden away. Not the most positive of messages. 

The Lego Movie 2

Another disappointing sequel. The first Lego Movie was excellent with a reveal of the human world in the final third of the film. Unfortunately the sequel uses the humans as a plot device from the get-go almost and it just doesn't work. There was a great song midway through and I really liked the subtitled velociraptors, but that wasn't enough to make the movie pop like the first one. Cathy was also very upset at the way Fabuland animals had been enslaved in subterranean mines.

Captain Marvel

I really enjoyed this. Lots of humour, a cracking 90s soundtrack (including Garbage's Only Happy When it Rains), Skrulls, and some backstory in the "Cosmic" part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe including a bit more about the Kree and their homeworld. I thought Brie Larson played the main role very well, being vulnerable enough to be believable as a human and soldierly enough to be believable as a member of an elite Kree battle group.

Shazam!

This vies with Captain Marvel for my favourite comic book movie of the year. Zachary Levi is a brilliant comic actor and he carries off the role of child who finds himself magicked into an adult mage's body in a much more credible way than should be possible. Mark Strong was a great scenery-chewing villain as well. There were some scary scenes which juxtaposed a bit awkwardly with the knockabout comedy. But, overall, this is the first DC Comics Movie in a long while that I've actually wanted to watch again (or at all!)

Missing Link

A stop-motion animation about an explorer who finds an intelligent "missing link" and tries to help the sasquatch find his Himalayan relatives. There's a very funny joke about the name of the valley where the yetis live but not much else really stood out. Worth a watch, though. 

Avengers Endgame

The conclusion of the 10 and a bit year movie arc and, whew! It was about time. There are some good bits. Chris Hemsworth as Thor gone to seed was very funny. The film was also interesting for showing the after effects of the Thanos "snap", with support groups and people trying to rebuild their lives. Superhero movies don't often do introspective like that.

Overall, I quite liked the quantum time travel nonsense plotline because it had to be something like that and as far as time travel can ever work in a movie, it worked. Iron Man's closing line to Thanos was suitably momentous. There was quite a protracted goodbye scene, which dragged as such scenes tend to do. When superhero movies aim for an emotional punch they rarely land it on target.

Toy Story 4

I was very disappointed by this. In fact I wrote a massive blog post about why it annoyed me, although I didn't post it because I felt like I sounded like an old man shouting at the clouds. But, basically, there was no real warmth in the script and the characters I've loved from previous films were sidelined. The real thing that irritated me is that Bonny, the toys' new owner, doesn't really care about her toys. She treats them disdainfully and it may feel strange to say this, but it felt disrespectful. It wouldn't have been so bad if the scriptwriters weren't treating the established characters equally disdainfully.

There were a few things I enjoyed - Bo's radio control skunk vehicle, and the new characters Bunny and Ducky - but I really didn't need this movie.

Spider-Man Far From Home

The Marvel Cinematic Universe returned post-Endgame with this slightly silly movie. I like Tom Holland as Spider-Man. Unfortunately I had spoilered this film for myself by finding out a key plot point, and I think that hampered my enjoyment of the film because I knew what was coming. (Mind you, Cathy spotted the 'twist' before it happened anyway.) It was also a bit juvenile being a school trip to Europe film as much as a superhero film.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

Another "well, that's finally over" franchise movie. My main criticism of this film is that it tried to ram too much in. It had about 3 or 4 stories in there and none of them were given enough time. The mystery of Rey's history was solved, sorta. The resistance won, sorta. Evil was vanquished, sorta. But by the end it felt like there were no original ideas being tapped. Bring back a character from the original trilogy - this time, Lando. Develop a planet-destroying weapon - this time on Star Destroyers. Make up for a plot hole from the original trilogy - in Cathy's words, "a great injustice has been righted". Go back to the idea of Force Power being linked to genetic heritage, because why not? 

Like several of the other sequels I went to last year this was a bit meh. You don't need any more Star Wars films than the Original Trilogy in my opinion. The sequel Trilogy isn't bad, but it isn't great either. 

Frozen 2
I really liked this. I went in with low expectations and it had a few story problems. But it has a great message of keeping on on dark times and if you can't see too far ahead just "do the next right thing", which is an excellent message. They wisely reined in Olaf as a character and there is a fab song with a montage spoofing 80s music videos, which had me laughing out loud. Of all the animated films I saw in the cinema in 2019, this was the best.


My aim for 2020 is to expand my horizons a bit and try to see some films that aren't animated, superhero movies or continuing an existing franchise. (I've already made good on that intent this month, so we'll see how I do over the course of the year.)

A massive list of films I’ve seen recently (and some spoiler ‘best bits’)

I seem to have seen quite a few films in the past few weeks both in the cinema and on DVD and not blogged about them, so here goes…

Alice in Wonderland (IMAX 3-D)
Tim Burton’s much-hyped remake that plays a bit fast and loose with the Alice story. I enjoyed it and it was very good but I felt it lacked a certain something, probably because I was very excited by the prospect what with being a bit Tim Burton fan. There’s always that thing that if you go expecting something amazing you’ll end up disappointed. In the end it was a bit more miss than hit really. The visuals like the way the card soldiers were conceived were very good though.

Best bit: An armoured Alice starts listing the six impossible things she believes before breakfast. “Number six! I can kill the Jabberwocky!”
Jongudmund’s rating: 7/10


How to Train Your Dragon (IMAX 3-D)
Dreamworks do a Viking saga with dragons, explosions and lots more. The storyline veered from average e.g. formulaic outcast inventor kid (see A Bug’s Life, Jimmy Neutron, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) becomes the hero and earns the love of a pretty girl, though to something a but unique, e.g. the reason the dragons have to keep stealing sheep. The film succeeds because by the end I wanted to own a dragon, so obviously it had an impact. My only (minor) gripe was giving the Vikings Scottish accents.

Best bit: The IMAX came into its own with the scene in the ash cloud as wispy ash seemed to float all around me. Otherwise any of the dragon swooping and soaring sequences.
Jongudmund’s rating: 8/10


Date Night (Cinema 2-D)
I have not laughed so much at anything labelled a comedy. That’s because usually Hollywood comedies are usually dire retreads of vaguely funny ideas. This was busting with funny moments, from Steve Carell’s exasperation that Mark Wahlberg won’t put a shirt on, through to lowlife criminals having a domestic, and constant horror that the main characters took someone else’s restaurant reservation. It had a bit of a too neat ending, but I can’t begin to count the laugh out loud moments, and there were one or two excruciating bite-your-knuckles-with-embarrassment moments too.

Best bits: Steve Carell licks a stripper pole (gross!); Tina Fey seeks to play down Carell’s insult to a mob boss – “It’s okay, when he says vagina, he means your face!”
Jongudmund’s rating: 9/10


Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (DVD)
Average animation really. A few laughs. As in How to Train Your Dragon (above), the nerdy protagonist inventor becomes a hero, although his creation (a machine that turns water vapour into food) eventually threatens all life on earth. I think kids would enjoy it, but it’s not going to be one I watch frequently.

Best bit: Honestly hard to think of one. Nice to hear Mr T doing one of the voices.
Jongudmund’s rating: 5/10


Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (DVD)
I loved the first Ice Age movie. The second one was okay, and this is similarly mediocre. For some bizarre reason Sid the Sloth decides to hatch some eggs he finds in a hidden underground valley. Turns out they are dinosaur eggs. What I liked about the first Ice Age movie was the vaguely realistic depiction of strange Ice Age animals, like giant sloths. But I’ve seen enough dinosaurs. Some of the other side characters like the possums are starting to get annoying. This franchise just ain’t cool any more. Although Scrat’s dalliance with a femme fatale who is trying to steal his nuts just about rescues it.

Best bits: One of the dino hatchlings has to cough up other ‘kids’ that he tried to eat in the play-park and keeps coughing up the wrong ones much to Sid's embarrassment; the Scrat versus Scratte love triangle with an acorn
Jongudmund’s rating: 6/10


Sweeney Todd (DVD)
Tim Burton’s bloody filmic version of Sondheim’s blood-letting musical. Bit of a complicated plot (although I followed it), and the usual grimy gothic sets you’d expect with Burton, plus lots and lots of blood. Spurting and splashing and oozing and bubbling blood. Johnny Depp is just scary as Sweeney. Helena Bonham Carter brings a lot of pathos to pie-maker Mrs Lovett. Sacha Baron Cohen is very amusing as a rival barber. And Timothy Spall and Alan Rickman are suitably loathsome as corrupt beedle and judge respectively. Pretty much everyone dies in bloody throat-slitting fashion and for good measure their skulls crack when they drop down the chute under Sweeney’s chair. Oh, yeah, and there’s blood.

Best bit: Feeling betrayed by his accomplice, Sweeney waltzes Mrs Lovett into her pie oven and slams the door on her as she burns.
Jongudmund’s rating: 7/10