Happy new year folks!
Welcome to my annual daft wee movie blog post, recapping my year in cinema and aiming to give you a few laughs for a few minutes. Bit late this year. I usually post it on December 31st, but truth be told- I'm just knackered. I think we all are from 2021.
And what a year it was- musicals to multiverses, with everything in between. There were plenty of highs with the arrival of a few blockbusters that were delayed from last year, as well as quite a few lows, with studios occasionally missing the mark and making 'checklist' movies with no originality or point for existing (except $$$).
Will try to keep this year's awards more upbeat and focussed on celebrating the year in film, rather than putting down films- as even the most misguided, cynical, or failed movie will have had hard working people in the crew. People who don't deserve to see something they've been involved with shat upon, by me.
Oh and don't worry I will have NO SPOILERS for any movies throughout this post.
With that all said, here's the running order for the post!
1. End of year statistics
2. The Scottscars Awards
3. My predictions from last year
4. Finally, a brand spanking new set of predictions for 2022
Let's get to it!
My 2021 in Numbers
Watched 82 movies (not including shorts)
Most watched actor/actress - JK Simmons
Most watched director - Lana Wachowski (due to my Matrix marathon)
Visited the cinema 30 times - :( again, thanks COVID for keeping us locked down the first half of the year.
Streaming Vs Physical Media-
Streamed: 30
DVD/Blu Ray: 17
Notable Films I didn't see this year
Raya and the Last Dragon
Encanto
Pig
West Side Story
The Green Knight
The King's Man
The French Dispatch
The Croods 2
Outside the Wire
Malcolm & Marie
Willy's Wonderland
I Care Alot
Judas & the Black Messiah
Cherry
Thunder Force
The French Exit
Paper Tigers
Another Round
Riders of Justice
Army of the Dead
Cruella
Infinite
Old
Reminiscence
Ron's Gone Wrong
Last Night in Soho
Spencer
Belfast
House of Gucci
Red Rocket
Sound of Metal
The Courier
The Wish Dragon
Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
With that in mind-on to the main event!
The 2021 Scottscars
Best Comic Book Film
Sponsored by Ben Affleck's Daredevil
Winner : Spider-man No Way Home
No Spoilers here, don't worry!
Spider-man: No Way Home is the latest entry in the MCU, as well as the wrapping up of Tom Holland's Homecoming trilogy. Beyond that, it's also a celebration of all previous Spider-man incarnations on the big screen, with the inclusion of the most iconic villains from the past 20 years of Spider-man movies (and Electro, for some reason). While not a perfect movie by any stretch, with some convoluted storytelling, pacing issues and a bit too much reliance on having seen external movies to get the full experience, it succeeds overwhelmingly in giving Tom Holland's Peter Parker proper growth, as well as some incredibly memorable and joyful moments.
Runners Up
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
The Suicide Squad
Scott's Thoughts: The MCU Move to TV
2021 saw the mainline MCU venture into a new realm for the first time, (sorry Agents of Shield, you don't count) - TV, with WandaVision, Falcon & the Winter Solder, Loki, What If? and Hawkeye. For me, this shift away from movies has done the MCU alot more damage than good, even if these shows have succeeded in Disney's main goal- to get people to subscribe to Disney Plus. Stretched out out pacing, lacking the punch required when conforming to a 2 hour movie runtime, with little narrative interest to keep people engaged. IT's obvious that Disney are focussing on the end of episode stingers/gimmicks, aimed at showing up in Twitter's trending bar rather than filling their episodes with worthwhile content. Plenty of the casual audience have dropped off, not wanting to commit to these shows, so it remains to be seen if this will affect future MCU movies/Avengers films.
The Award for WTF Moment
Sponsored by Boris Johnson
Winner : Annette (the entire film)
Annette is an absurdist musical/drama film starring Adam Driver, Marian Cotillard and Simon Helberg and to pick just one WTF from it would be impossible as it continuously blew my mind throughout its 140 minute runtime. One moment Driver is singing to the audience while performing oral sex and the next, his daughter is being lifted through the air by a set of drones, to an stadium of screaming fans. Oh and by the way, his baby daughter is a moving marionette doll, which is the stuff of nightmares. It's a compelling watch, especially if you're looking for something you've never experienced before, with fantastic performances from Helberg and Driver in particular.
I mean, I think.
Runners Up
First trailer for Dear Evan Hansen has Ben Platt looking like a melting ice cream.
The end of No Time to Die
The pointless post credit scene in Spider-man: No Way Home
Turd of the Year
Sponsored by Wetherspoons
Winner : Dear Evan Hansen
Uncomfortable. That's how I would sum up the experience of watching DEH.
Ok, so first thing's first- I'm not putting this here because they cast 27 year old Ben Platt as a teenager.
I understand the desire to put Dear Evan Hansen to film, to 'immortalise' it, as well as the desire to include Platt in the lead role, with him being the original Evan and becoming quite synonymous with the show. On the contrary, I would have felt some disappointment if Platt WASN'T cast as the socially awkward teen and have no problem suspending my disbelief at actors not looking their age. (Look at Grease).
However, ignoring the decision to cast Platt, this film fails on so many fundamental levels that it almost certainly has caused more damage to the musical's reputation than good. For a start, they try to make Platt look young with far, FAR too much make up and a truly old man hairstyle. It makes him feel.... wrong.... amongst the other high schoolers. Direction wise, Platt has been allowed to keep his exaggerated and over the top stage expressions, which leads to some truly hilarious over active facial expressions and movements, whereas all the supporting cast conform to the more subtle, traditional film style of acting.
To make all of this more uncomfortable and jarring, the majority of the songs happen while characters are sitting down! No choreography, no clever dance moves, no making use of the film medium at all- just Platt bursting into song- sometimes mid-conversation, menacingly screaming at Amy Adams and Julianne Moore with coke fuelled eyes, while they awkwardly stare back at him, waiting for their checks to cash.
P.S. My turd of the year may have been the pointless and morally questionable remake of West Side Story, but I watched it on 1st January 2022 so it's not eligible!
Runners Up
My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission
The Eternals
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Shang Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings (the CGI filled nonsense second half)
Cinema Experience of the Year
Sponsored by Avengers Endgame
Winner : Spider-man: No Way Home in IMAX, Belfast
NO spoilers
Spider-man No Way Home, packed audience, in the first IMAX screen in Belfast was one hell of an electric atmosphere. Tense moments, familiar faces, laughs, tears and cheers. The Sam Raimi Spider-man movie franchise is the reason I work in the film industry today and the Tobey Maguire trilogy means so much to so many people. That combined with the fact that Spider-man is by far the most popular comic book character and you're looking at a film that had a mountain of expectations. So when it delivered, the audience responded and it was a truly memorable cinema experience that I won't forget.
Runners Up:
Dune
The Matrix (original) in 4DX
My Film of the Year
Sponsored by Sam Raimi's Spider-man 2
Runners Up:
Dune- This NEARLY took the title, especially as it was such a fantastic experience up on the big screen. All consuming sound design, unbelievable epic visuals and engaging narrative that leaves you begging for more information about the world. Found a good mix of the more far reaching sci-fi concepts and mainstream appeal.
King Richard - The story of the Williams sisters, the two most successful female tennis stars of all time with a truly heartfelt and engaging performance from Will Smith.
Spider-man: No Way Home- A wonderful and respectful celebration of Spider-man's film history, as well as a satisfying arc for Tom Holland's Peter Parker
Don't Look Up- An entertaining, if a little depressing parody of how information is shared, prioritised and received today. How far is the truth stretched? Debatable, depending on who you ask. But this is a film that sums up today's world and will get people talking.
drum roll.......
Winner : Tick...Tick...Boom!
Tick...Tick...Boom is the directorial debut of one Lin Manuel Miranda, who you may know from any musical released in the last few years. It's based on a one-night-only autobiographical stage play written and performed by Jonathan Larson, the writer of Rent and stars Andrew Garfield with a truly career defining charismatic performance.
In TTB, main character Jonathan, a theatre writer and part time waiter, is freaking out about turning 30, comparing his career unfavourably to successful writers who have achieved success earlier in their lives. The film follows him as he tries to finish writing a show that he's dedicated 8 years of his life to writing and deals with his struggles at maintaining relationships, enthusiasm and drive to continue his journey in the arts while those around him choose more typical lifestyles and office jobs. Jonathan's tunnel vision of not planning for what happens if his musical fails is a particularly prominent point.
The direction from Miranda is energetic and the pace can speed up or slow down when it needs to, with the film cutting back and forward from Jonathan performing the musical on stage, to the actual events that inspired it. The choreography is inspired and it's so full of life that I doubt you'll be able to watch it without smiling.
Anyone who knows me can probably tell why I can relate to all of the narrative points I've just listed and why I engaged with this movie more than anything else in 2021, thus deserving it the title of my film of the year!
Oh and the soundtrack slaps.
Scott's Thoughts: The Matrix Revolt
NO Spoilers.
The Matrix Resurrections could have been a contender for my film of the year, if it had fully committed to its overall promise. It positions itself as an anti-modern blockbuster, an anti-cash grab, an anti-sequel in today's world of reboots, nostalgia exploits and pandering. With a truly meta script, Lana Wachowski delivers a small-scale, low stakes epilogue to the original trilogy, focussing just on two of her beloved main characters, rather than setting up a launching pad to a brand new epic franchise. However, for all its criticising of the cynical modern Hollywood studio system, the Matrix 4 falls into many of the traps it mocks, shoehorning in old recognisable characters for seemingly no narrative reason and delivering a rather weak villain, with an open, and easily exploitable open ending for a hungry studio to cash in on down the line.
LAST YEAR'S PREDICTIONS
Let's see how I got on!
1. After all the delays, 007: No Time to Die is released on streaming the same day as the theatrical release, whenever that may be.
Result: NO.
Amazon bought the rights but still gave it an exclusive theatrical release, instead of shovelling it straight onto Prime Video. Bravo!
2. Black Widow also comes out in cinemas and on Disney Plus on the same day.
Result: YES
3. The Seth Rogen Ninja Turtles movie gets a trailer and the character design looks more like the 90s live action films.
Result: NO
We have a title card, but no trailer.
4. The Snyder cut scores lower critical ratings than the 'Josstice League'
Result: NO
It has reviewed much, much higher on Rotten Tomatoes
5. Marvel's Spider-man 3 gets delayed to 2022.
IF it does come out, it's a mess. Tries to put in too many characters and becomes convoluted. Also cops out of really dealing with the identity crisis.
Result: NO, it came out.
Jury is out on the second part of this.
6. The next Avengers movie is announced with a hugely different 'next generation' lineup
Result: NO
7. Godzilla Vs Kong is turd of the year.
Result: NO
It wasn't particularly good, but Evan Hansen was a proper log.
8. The Matrix 4 is criticised for being too safe and formulaic. Let down of the year.
Result: NO
9. At least one MAJOR cinema chain shuts its doors
Result: NO
Glad to be wrong on this and theatres seem to be slowly recovering thanks to high profile releases like Bond and Spidey.
10. My film of the year is The Tomorrow War
Result: NO
I liked it, quite a bit but it wasn't my FOTY
Overall: 1/10 Why are you reading this blog, I clearly know NOTHING about movies!
2022 PREDICTIONS
Let's hope I can do better than last year!
1. The Batman is the highest grossing comic book movie of the year.
2. Dr Strange & the Multiverse of Madness is overstuffed with cameos and too many side characters, with the finger being pointed at Disney for ruining Sam Raimi's vision.
3. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is my turd of the year
4. Lightyear flops compared to Toy Story standards
5. The Flash movie faces huge fan backlash when it wipes the Snyder DC films out of canon
6. Across the Spider-verse reviews (somehow) even better than Into the Spider-verse
7. Chris Pratt's Mario voice acting has a borderline offensive accent.
8. The Rock and Vin Diesel will kiss and make up, with Dwayne returning for the last instalment of Fast and Furious. The real reason for the make up is actually $$$$
9. Avatar 2 has some kind of technological gimmick, maybe high frame rate?
10. My film of the year is Avatar 2
That's all folks! Thanks alot for reading, it's really appreciated.
Have a great 2022. Stay safe and support local cinemas if you can :)
Comments
Post a Comment