2016 Movie and Score Awards

2016 was not the best year for movies.  In fact, I would say it’s probably the worst in awhile.  Most of the summer blockbusters were pretty disappointing.  I think I saw nearly every movie from the year I want to see, so it's time to give out some fake awards.  But first, some thoughts on this year's movies.

Let’s start with superhero movies.  Those are the biggest things going now.  There were a couple of good ones, and a couple of stinkers.  The best, for my money, was Captain America: Civil War.  This is not because of the airport scene alone, though that was probably the best scene of the year, but overall it was a solid addition to the MCU.  The second best was probably Doctor Strange, which was a little more fun than I expected.  Visually it was astounding.  The cape stole the show.  Then there’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the most polarizing movie of the year.  I would say it was not perfect, for sure, but it was a heck of a lot better than many people will say.  Ben Affleck was the best live action Batman I’ve seen, Wonder Woman was awesome, Superman was fine.  And, while people make fun of the “Martha” moment, I could not believe I had never thought of that connection before.  I was actually shocked!  Deadpool, which so many people loved, I thought was way overblown.  Suicide Squad was probably the most disappointing movie of the year.  Margot Robbie and Will Smith were excellent, but the rest of the cast was merely good to terrible.  The dancing witch is one of the worst villains I’ve ever seen.  Finally, X-Men: Apocalypse proved that the X-Men trilogies have no idea how to do a finale.  A truly terrible movie.

Science fiction had another solid year.  10 Cloverfield Lane was the most suspenseful movie of the year.  Rogue One and Star Trek Beyond were both excellent additions to their franchises.  In fact, I would argue that Beyond is the best of the new Star Trek so far.  Passengers, as I recently wrote, was disappointing though still well made.  Arrival is a beautiful movie with some interesting ideas that will leave the viewer thinking about them for awhile, and of course wondering what they just saw.  The only terrible science fiction movie was Independence Day: Resurgence, and boy was that one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen.

Let’s talk about the overhyped movies, because there were a few.  I already mentioned Deadpool.  Another majorly overhyped movie was Zootopia, which I thought was merely a decent animated movie.  I thought it was more annoying than great, and really the spoiled the best scene (DMV) in the trailer.

Speaking of family movies, I really liked Fanatastic Beasts.  Sure, it’s not Harry Potter, but it was still quite good.  Finding Dory was a very good return to form for Pixar.  Sure, it’s not as good as the original, but the octopus was a great addition.  The Jungle Book verges on the overhyped.  It was good, but not great as many people made it sound.  I thought it was a bit disjointed.

Then we have the disappointing movies, which is the largest amount of movies this year.  I already mentioned Suicide Squad, Passengers, and X-Men (plus I guess Independence Day).  The other most disappointing movie of the year was Jason Bourne.  That trailer had me really excited for one of my favorite franchises.  It wasn’t a bad movie, per se, and it had some great action scenes as you would expect from a Bourne movie.  The biggest problem was, as many people have said, it was exactly what you expected.  There were no surprises, it was paint-by-number, it only muddled the storyline unnecessarily.  Another disappointing movie, for me, was Hail, Caesar!  Now I’m not a big Coen Brothers fan, though I really like a few of their movies.  I thought this movie was a can’t-miss, but it ended up being boring and just bad.  And then there was The Girl on the Train.  I read the book because I knew the movie was coming out.  I didn't particularly like the book, but it was quite suspenseful.  With Emily Blunt I figured the movie would be good, despite the negative reviews.  Well, the reviews were right.  The movie was a mess and had none of the suspense of the book.  What a huge swing and a miss.

There’s also a few movies that were just kind of there.  This would include things like Criminal, Hush (which was pretty dumb), Money Monster, Risen (interesting concept not done well), and Now You See Me 2 (did we really need a sequel?).

There was also one very underrated and underwatched movie.  I remember seeing the trailers for The Nice Guys and thinking it looked interesting but not something I'd run out to see.  So I didn't.  And neither did anyone else.  I finally saw it streaming much later, and I thought it was really funny.  Certainly it's not as good as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, also from Shane Black, but if you liked that you will like The Nice Guys.  And it actually made me like Ryan Gosling, which I thought was impossible.

One other movie I have not mentioned so far, because I’m still not really sure what to make of it.  Silence.  I really wanted to love this movie.  I did like it…up to a certain point.  (Spoiler)  The martyrdom and the torture of the faithful was powerful, as was the psychological battle of Padre Rodriguez.  But the movie made a huge turn, for the worse, when he hears Jesus’ voice (as someone else said, how dare they put words in the Lord’s mouth?) and then completely destroys itself when he apostasies.  It almost make apostasy seem ok, which is not ok at all.  So while it was a beautiful movie with good acting, I left angry.

What’s left?  The best movie of the year: 13 Hours.  It was the first movie of the year that I saw, and it set a high standard.  It was not perfect, but all around it was the best.  It was very emotional (I left the movie very angry, but for the right reason).  It was shot very well.  The acting was good.  As a friend said, it was like a new Black Hawk Down.  And I finally saw Hacksaw Ridge.  Maybe it was hyped too much for me, but while I thought it was a good movie, it felt incomplete in some way.  I am happy to see Mel Gibson back making epic movies since, no matter what you think of him personally, he is one of the best directors for telling an epic story.

Best Superhero Movie: Captain America: Civil War

Best Action Movie: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Best Comedy: Finding Dory

Best Family Movie: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Best Suspense: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Best Science Fiction: Arrival

Best Drama: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Best Movie: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

Worst Superhero Movie: X-Men: Apocalypse

Worst Action Movie: Criminal

Worst Comedy: Hail, Caesar!

Worst Family Movie: Risen

Worst Suspense: Hush

Worst Science Fiction: Independence Day: Resurgence

Worst Drama: Money Monster

Worst Movie: Independence Day: Resurgence

5 Favorite Movies:

Rogue One

Captain America: Civil War

Fantastic Beasts

Star Trek Beyond

10 Cloverfield Lane

5 Best Movies:

13 Hours

Captain America

Hacksaw Ridge

Rogue One

Arrival

Best Actor: Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)

            Honorable mentions: Andrew Garfield (Silence), Chris Pratt (Passengers), Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling (The Nice Guys)

Best Actress:  Amy Adams (Arrival)

            Honorable mentions: Jennifer Lawrence (Passengers), Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train)

Best Supporting Actor:  John Goodman (10 Cloverfield Lane)

            Honorable mentions:  Daniel Bruhl (Captain America), Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman), Adam Driver (Silence), Will Smith (Suicide Squad)

Best Supporting Actress: Angourie Rice (The Nice Guys)

            Honorable mentions: Alison Sudol (Fantastic Beasts), Rebecca Ferguson (The Girl on the Train)

Now, let's talk about my favorite part of the movies, the music.  I hate to say that they have been on the decline recently, but so many of them are just white noise any more there's nothing really to distinguish them.  So, very few stood out for me this year.  I'm just going to name those that are worth mentioning, in no particular order:

Arrival (Johann Johannsson) - the best music in this movie isn't even the score, it's a track by Max Richter at the beginning and end

Batman v Superman (Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL) - another lackluster Hans Zimmer effort, with the exception of the fantastic Wonder Woman theme

Captain America: Civil War (Henry Jackman) - yet another mediocre Marvel score

Doctor Strange (Michael Giacchino) - finally a Marvel score that stood out, with some really interesting Eastern/70s sounds

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (James Newton Howard) - this would be solidly middle of the pack Harry Potter music

Finding Dory (Thomas Newman) - a solid follow up to Finding Nemo

The Girl on the Train (Danny Elfman) - Elfman in his most forgettable

Hacksaw Ridge (Rupert Gregson-Williams) - the music is fine

Independence Day: Resurgence (Harald Kloser & Thomas Wander) - like the movie, the music pales in comparison with the fantastic original

Jason Bourne (John Powell & David Buckley) - while it's hard to go wrong with Powell's Bourne music, there's nothing really that interesting here

The Jungle Book (John Debney) - uses the original Disney music well

The Legend of Tarzan (Rupert Gregson-Williams) - I listened to it, can't say I remember it

The Magnificent Seven (James Horner & Simon Franglen) - the last music the iconic Horner wrote, it's great to hear the original theme spliced in

The Nice Guys (David Buckley & John Ottman) - some decent 70s sound, but like most Ottman there's not much to remember it

Passengers (Thomas Newman) - I've listened to this more than any other this year, and it's so good it makes me want to see the movie again

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Michael Giacchino) - I wrote about this more before, but again I'll say he did very well in the short time he had

Star Trek Beyond (Michael Giacchino) - another good addition to the franchise

Suicide Squad (Steven Price) - there are moments that are good

X-Men: Apocalypse (John Ottman) - see: Ottman comment on The Nice Guys

10 Cloverfield Lane (Bear McCreary) - does a great job of building the suspense

13 Hours (Lorne Balfe) - like the movie, reminiscent of Black Hawk Down

Best Score:  Passengers (Thomas Newman)

Best Drama Score: Passengers (Thomas Newman)

Best Animated Score:  Finding Dory (Thomas Newman)

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Score: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Michael Giacchino)

Best Action/Adventure Score:  Captain America: Civil War (Henry Jackman)

Best Horror Score: 10 Cloverfield Lane (Bear McCreary)

Best Genre Score:  The Nice Guys (David Buckley & John Ottman)

Best Composition:  Michelle (from 10 Cloverfield Lane, Bear McCreary)

Best Theme: Is She With You? (from Batman v Superman, Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL)

Best Love Theme:  Spacewalk (from Passengers, Thomas Newman)

Best Action Sequence:  The Tunnel (from Captain America, Henry Jackman)

Best Use of Classical/Source Music:  On the Nature of Daylight (Max Richter, in Arrival)

Composer of the Year:  Michael Giacchino

Split and Shyamalan

I finally got to see Split, and I feel like I really need to talk about it and M. Night Shyamalan.  But before going further, know that there will be many spoilers, so please watch Split before reading this.  You should anyways, but I really don’t want to spoil it for you as someone did for me.

I will start by saying I am a Shyamalan fan.  No, not his newer stuff, but his early movies are some of my favorites.  I can still remember an idiot spoiling The Sixth Sense for me in speech class in high school.  It had only been out for a couple of weeks and he thought it would be funny to spoil it for everyone.  So when I finally got to see it, even though I knew the twist, I still loved it.  Then came Unbreakable, which is still one of the best comic book movies of all time.  Some people thought it was long and boring, but that’s what I love about Shyamalan.  He is deliberate, has a story to tell, and takes his time doing it.  I have to say I really liked Signs and The Village too.   The Lady in the Water was a somewhat surreal experience as I was the only person in the theater.  I did not think it was great, but it was pretty good for what it was (a fairy tale).  Then there was The Happening, one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen.  I skipped The Last Airbender, but I did make my way to After Earth which, while not great, is not as bad as many people say.  I wanted to see The Visit, but I have not had a chance to yet.

How big of a fan am I?  One of my most memorable papers in undergrad was for a class on Edgar Allan Poe where I compared the use of colors in Shyamalan’s movies to Poe’s works.  (Alfred Hitchcock, by the way, is the intermediary.  Hitchcock loved Poe, Shyamalan loves Hitchcock.)  This is what I’m talking about deliberate, watch his movies and look at his use of colors.  Mr. Glass always is in purple or there is purple around him.  David Dunn is surrounded by green.  Anything that a dead person interacts with in The Sixth Sense is red (that’s the biggest clue about Willis’ character).  I could go on, but you get the point.

Leading up to Split was a weird thing.  The first time I saw a trailer, I was mildly interested.  At some point I decided it was a “wait until home video” movie.  Then, when it came out, I started to hear good things.  I changed my mind and decided I would see it, but I just did not have time.  Then, sometime last week (after only a week in the theaters) I unfortunately saw a story on the frontpage of Yahoo that spoiled the ending.  “What does Shyamalan have in plan for Unbreakable 3?”  At first I thought it was a typo, but then I realized, no, Split is #2.  Well that’s great, thanks for spoiling it right away.  I figured I’d take it like The Sixth Sense and go anyways, though unfortunately instead of just watching the movie like most people I was waiting for the reveal.

Before getting to that, let’s talk about the movie.  It’s definitely signature Shyamalan.  It takes its time, spending extra beats on scenes that most movies would quick cut from.  I see it as a great callback to older movies that have similar paces, though unfortunately many people today just say “it’s boring.”  It’s also sometimes overly serious, especially with the psychologist.  It’s beautifully shot.  No matter what you think about his movies, no matter how bad they might be, they are always beautiful.

Then there’s James McAvoy.  WOW!  I’ve known for awhile that he’s a very good actor, but this was amazing.  He went for it with each of the personalities and knocked it out of the park.  So many people are talking about the little boy, Hedwig, and rightly so.

  For me, Patricia was the most impressive.

The rest of the cast was very good as well.  At first the main girl, Casey, seemed weird, but as we learn her history we definitely understand why she is the way she is.  I will agree that many of the other characters are not well fleshed out, that’s a legitimate complaint about the movie, but it is not a huge problem.

Now, let’s talk about the ending.  As the story is leading up to the beast, I was worrying how far they would go.

  In the end, I thought it was an interesting turn, and it is especially good when considered in the full story as the creation of a supervillain.  Since I already knew the connection to Unbreakable, I had an idea this was where it was headed, so I was not as surprised as some people and even had a different view on the beast.  As someone else said, Shyamalan has done a superhero origin better than DC and a villain better than Marvel.  It’s also interesting, and I did not catch this, that when he laid the flowers at the train station it is possible/probable that it is the train crash initiated by Mr. Glass, meaning he created both a superhero and a supervillain with one act.  This is a great comic trope.

The way Casey was spared was a bit weak, but it also kind of makes sense.  I just wanted to see her fight back a little more.  The good thing is that means the beast (or The Horde?) is still lose, which means Bruce Willis will hunt him down.

Speaking of…I really liked the reveal.  Even though I knew what was coming, when I started to hear the Unbreakable theme playing I started to get really pumped.  The comment from the random woman about what happened 15 years ago, I suppose it is unusual that someone would remember that, but not necessarily if it was well known how many people Mr. Glass killed.  That final shot of Bruce Willis was just a great nod to the fans.  I am very much looking forward to more in the Unbreakable franchise.  I remember reading back in 2000 that Shyamalan had been planning a trilogy from the beginning.  I am glad that he is finally getting a chance to finish that project.

So, I really liked the movie.  It was suspenseful, well acted, beautifully shot, and had me wanting more.  I’d give it a solid 8/10.

How would I rank the movies?  This is fairly simple.

The great:

The Sixth Sense

Unbreakable

The good:

Split

Signs

The Village

Ok:

Devil (producer)

Lady in the Water

After Earth

Ugly:

The Happening

Another great aspect of Shyamalan movies has long been his use of James Newton Howard (though unfortunately not in his last two).  This is truly one of the best director/composer combinations of all time.  This ranking is a little harder.  The amazing thing is all of these are good, if not great.

The Village (it does not get any better than Hillary Hahn’s violin in The Gravel Road)

Unbreakable

Signs

The Sixth Sense

Lady in the Water (if the whole score was as good as The Great Eatlon this would be much higher)

Split

After Earth

The Happening

The Last Airbender