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

Rogue One Review and Star Wars Franchise Ranking

I finally got to see Rogue One for a second time, which means I can finally give it a proper review.  The problem is I have changed my placement of it in the series (see below) many times, so it’s a very fluid process.  But, first, the movie.  Obviously, many spoilers ahead.

To start with, the hype.  After the first trailer, I was very much looking forward to this movie.  Then I heard about the re-writes, and I was worried.  This was supposed to be a gritty war movie.  Was Disney destroying it?  The trailers still looked good, but I went into the movie with muted anticipation.

Let’s start with the beginning (a very good place to start).  No scroll: I guess I’m okay with it.  It’s not part of the main story, so something different is not a big deal.  And for people who said they were lost without it?  Give me a break.  You don’t need to read the book leading up to it to know exactly what is happening.  (Similarly, some people said they were surprised about the story, they didn’t know it was about the first Death Star.  Are you kidding me?  Did you watch any of the trailers?  It was quite obvious.)

I love the universe expansion.  That has always been one of the greatest things about Star Wars: the ability to visit innumerable places.  They did a really good job of showing a new side of the universe.  For the most part, the main characters are not in it, and where they are it works (except the droids, which are just kind of thrown in to say they’ve been in every one).

Speaking of main characters, DARTH VADER!!!  I knew he would be in it, but did not expect as much as we got.  I loved finally seeing his castle.  And that scene!  You know which one.  Wow!  That leads to one of my other favorite parts of the movie.

I feel like we finally saw the Empire being the Empire.  No-holds-barred evil.  Destroy a couple of cities?  No problem.  But it’s not for no reason.  I actually for once found sympathy for the empire, they’re doing what they think needs to be done to bring order to the galaxy.  That seems plausible.

What about the new characters?  I found them to be a mixed bag, and not necessarily in a good way.  The strength was definitely in the supporting characters, where there are a number of really great additions.  Chief among them is Chirrut, who has quickly become one of my favorites in all of Star Wars.  His blind faith made him quite the kick ass fighter.  His friend, Baze, is pretty cool as well in his reservedness (and his “little sister” comment is one of the great moments.)  Then there’s K-2SO, who is already the best droid (sorry R2) in the galaxy.  Not surprising since Alan Tudyk is the best character actor going.  Krennic was a pretty good villain as well.  He seemed to have a cool head and was driven, exactly what you would expect from his position.  I will also add I really liked most of the cameos (as mentioned the droids excepted) but especially liked Red and Yellow leaders and really liked seeing Bail Organa again.

Unfortunately, I was not as impressed with the main characters.  Jyn was just okay.  Maybe it’s bad comparing her to Rey, but she’s clearly not as interesting.  For someone who’s supposed to be strong, trained by a military expert, she doesn’t do that much (except one scene in Jedha).  Cassian has the problem of peaking early, like his first scene.  I felt like there was great potential for a character there – a good guy who is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, even killing a “friend” – but it was not fully explored.  I wanted to like both of them, and it’s not that I did not like them, just that I wanted more.

This leads me to one of my biggest problems with the movie.  I really did not like the CGI Tarkin and Leia, and thought they distracted from what was going on.  When at first they only showed Tarkin from behind, I thought it would work well.  As soon as they showed his face, I thought it looked bad, like those bad Zemeckis CGI movies.  I really wish they had not gone with it.

Let’s talk about the music.  I was kind of bummed when they replaced Alexandre Desplat.  After his Godzilla, I was interested to hear what he came up with.  I wonder if he recorded anything that we can hear?  That being said, they found the perfect replacement.  In fact, from the beginning I had assumed that if Williams didn’t score Star Wars, Giacchino would be the best replacement.  After all, he became famous by being a Williams-lite with the video games of The Lost World and Medal of Honor (which sounds very much like Saving Private Ryan).  First listen in the movie, I was a bit underwhelmed.  But then again, I said the same thing with The Force Awakens.  After a second viewing and listening to the score, I will say it’s a good addition to the best scored franchise.  He throws in the famous Williams themes at appropriate moments, and I really liked the transition of the original Darth Vader theme into the Imperial theme when Krennic meets Vader. It's especially impressive since he only had just over a month to compete it.

Now, the two biggest positives.  First, it ended up being what I hoped it would be.  For the first time, I felt like I was watching a war in the stars.  Some people say it lagged a bit in the middle.  I did not think it was that bad, and anyways the final act is fantastic.  In some ways, it reminded me of Return of the Jedi (that’s a good thing) with the relentless final third of action.  And it wasn’t just action for action sake.  It also thankfully avoided a trope I really dislike; I call it going “Phantom Menace”, where everyone seems to be done at the same time before they all turn it around and save the day (see also: The Avengers).  Oh, and I was really looking forward to the AT-ACT beach scene, and while it wasn't long it was good.

Which leads me to my second biggest positive: they did not hesitate to kill everyone off.  I was worried about this, especially knowing Disney had a hand in it.  Not everything has a have a happy ending, in fact the best Star Wars movie (see below) obviously did not.  Not that Rogue One has a “sad” ending, but it’s certainly not happy for everyone.  I’m very glad they went that route.

Some people are upset with the very end, saying it makes the beginning of A New Hope not make sense.  He just saw them leave, why is Vader questioning them then?  Two points: I doubt A New Hope happens right afterward (after all, Tatooine is probably far away from Scarif).  Also, the Corellian Corvette is not a unique ship, in fact there are many, so it would probably take them awhile to track down the right one.

So, the movie is not perfect of course.  There are a few somewhat major faults.  Overall, the greatness definitely outweigh the problems.  I give it a solid 8 out of 10.

And now, let’s look at the franchise.  The definitive ranking of the Star Wars movies, which could very easily change as soon as you read this:

1.      The Empire Strikes Back

No surprise here.  Everyone knows it’s the best, the most perfect.

2.      A New Hope

Picking the second best is actually the most difficult choice.  I have this #2 because it’s the one that made it all happen.  If it wasn’t this good, we wouldn’t have the rest.

3.       Rogue One

I really have changed this ranking at least 6 times since I saw it the first time, everywhere from #2 to #5.  I’m pretty happy with it here, though again it’s pretty flexible.  The biggest thing is, as I said, the strengths greatly outweigh the weaknesses.

4.       Return of the Jedi

Proving I have no bias, this has always been my favorite movie, because it showcases my favorite character (Luke) in the best way.  It still does not get any better than the fight at the Sarlacc Pit.  The ewoks (and Han not flying the Millennium Falcon) are the only thing keeping this from being #2.

5.      The Force Awakens

I really like this movie, and it’s hard to have it this low.  I have no problems with it being a “rehash” of A New Hope.  In fact, I thought that was a good thing.  I liked all the new characters.  It left me wanting more (I’ve always said if Episode 8 was in the next theater I would have immediately gone there).  The only real problem with it is that terrible rathtars scene.

6.      Revenge of the Sith

I really like this movie, and nearly had it higher.  The Obi Won/Anakin duel is one of the best scenes in the franchise.  Unfortunately it comes right after “Anakin, you’re breaking my heart.”  I also really like the ruthless Anakin in the Jedi Temple.  Also, the opening space battle is the best space battle in the franchise.

7.      Attack of the Clones

Some people have this as the worst, but I cannot do that.  This is the most extreme of the movies.  On the one hand, I love the Kenobi spy storyline.  On the other hand, that love story.  Ugh.  The Kenobi story and Yoda’s lightsaber fighting make this clearly not the worst.

8.      The Phantom Menace

Jar Jar, young Anakin, politics, just bad.  Then there’s the final battle, where two-thirds of it is atrocious but the Darth Maul fight is the best in the franchise.  So it’s not all bad.