Category Archives: Movie Analysis

My Top 10 (and Bottom 3) at the Movies in 2014

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2014 has come and gone, and while there were some definite highlights to the year of movies, overall I’d say it was a bit disappointing compared to years past.  There were some movies that I really loved, but I wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic in 2014 as I usually am for the world of cinema.  However, things are looking up for 2015, with a lot to be excited about, plus there are still a few movies I need to catch up on from 2014 that I either missed or haven’t gotten around to (Big Eyes, Selma, The Imitation Game, etc.).  But now that 2015 is underway it’s time to take a look back at the highs and lows of 2014 at the movies.  Instead of a traditional top 10 list of movies, I like to list out my favorite cinema-related things from the year.  Some of them are movies, but others might be scenes, characters, moments, or even just announcements.  So without further ado, here are my top 10 and bottom 3 of 2014 at the movies.

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Analysis: Into the Woods – Why do people not understand musicals?

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Into the Woods - "On the Steps of the Palace"

I rarely pay much attention to those around me in a movie theater.  We all have experienced a myriad of awful behavior from both adults and children, and it’s driven some people to stay home and simply watch movies on Netflix (or pirate them), but I’ve mostly learned to tune them out.  There are exceptions, when I want to see how people react to a particular moment in a film I’ve seen before, but mostly I ignore people rudely talking or checking their cell phones and such.  However, I started to notice an interesting trend during Into the Woods that brought a lot of questions to my mind, particularly as it pertains to the state of musical films in today’s pop culture landscape.  And it all made me wonder whether movie musicals will ever be popular enough again to have a regular place at the table of major film genres, and why, exactly, people stopped loving musicals.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 2005

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(Note: This is a fictional creative thinking exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

The Best Voice Performance category at the 77th Academy Awards was considered something of a letdown.  All five nominees came from only two films, and the winner was neither unexpected nor particularly exciting.  However, 2005 proved to be a much more diverse year for voice performances.  Pixar wouldn’t be releasing a new film, but both Dreamworks and Disney both had new movies to contribute.  One film in particular, Madagascar, seemed to be gunning for nominations by recruiting a high profile cast of comedians of who featured prominently in its advertising campaign even before the film was released.  However, no one could have predicted the variety and quality of the performances that would eventually earn nominations.

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Jurassic World director responds to spoilers in an interesting way

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Spoilers have become an increasingly big problem for filmmakers, and most tend to overcompensate for them in one way or another.  Movie shoots are often incredibly secretive places, with scripts numbered and collected at the end of the day and excessive at filming locations.  This makes some sense, as any set photo or leaked plot details might affect the public’s desire to see a film.  Of course, leaks are bound to happen and there are a variety of ways to respond to them.  You can completely ignore them, which is the most common tactic.  You can take the J.J. Abrams route and deny them even though Benedict Cumberbatch is obviously playing Khan.  You can simply shut down your movie before it ever gets started, like Quentin Tarantino did after the entire script for his film The Hateful Eight leaked earlier this year.  Or, you can do what Colin Trevorrow, the director of Jurassic World, the upcoming fourth entry in the Jurassic Park series, did when the general plot of his film leaked.  He confirmed the rumors about his film, while taking time to lament the era of the spoiler.

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What it means to have a gay character in How to Train Your Dragon 2

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For those who haven’t seen the news, it’s been revealed that How to Train Your Dragon 2 will feature one of the characters from the first film coming out as gay.  In an interview with E! Online, the film’s director, Dean DeBlois, explained that one character will be coming out and told the interviewer which character that was.  (I’m not going to spoil that here, but if you want to read the interview which does spoil it, you can find it here.)  The moment comes as an offhand comment, ad-libbed by the character’s voice actor, and was not a part of DeBlois’ original script, however the openly gay DeBlois said, “I think that’s a really fun [and] daring move to put in.”

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Do women prefer “tortured” villains to “boring” heroes?

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Recently I received a message from my fellow blogger/friend, Teanna (find her online here or here), and she had this to say:

You, honored Pirate Blogger, need to write a blog about why women swoon over Dark Heroes (Wolverine, Batman, Hawkeye, Sherlock, Thorin) and Tortured Villains (Loki, Loki, Loki, Bucky, Loki) and find Nice Golden Hero types (Cap, Coulson, Superman… OK, that’s a weird set right there, but…) boring.

As a guy, I don’t feel like I have the right to speculate over what women find attractive or the characters they’re interested in, and the last thing I want to do is say something that comes off as judgmental or sexist, so I thought I’d open this question up to you.  If I get enough feedback, I’ll post some of the most interesting things I heard.  If not, I might write my own article from the perspective of whether these types of characters are more popular in society on a more general level.

You can of course leave me a comment right here on my blog, or if you don’t want to post something publicly you can send me a message via my feedback page.  You can tweet me @lovepirate77 or find me on tumblr or send me a message there.

So I’ll leave you with some possible questions, not intending to make any judgments about the question, but just to get the conversation flowing.  Do women really prefer tortured heroes to boring villains?  If not, why is there a perception that they do?  If true, why is that?  Is it simply a reflection of the popularity of these characters generally, regardless of the fan’s gender?  Is it because of they types of actors who generally play tortured villains?  Are those characters simply better written?  Is the mere question offensive?  Is there any danger in being attracted to villainous characters when it translates into real life relationships?  Is it a reflection of living in a more forgiving or less black-and-white time period?

I look forward to hearing from you, as I’m sure there are a wide range of opinions about this topic.

Star Wars Episode VII Cast Announced!

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The news that many of us have been waiting for has finally arrived: the cast for the new Star Wars movie has been announced!  And while at this point there wasn’t a lot of doubt that some of the cast from the original trilogy would return, it’s still fantastic to see it confirmed, especially when accompanied by this awesome photo from what appears to be a script reading.  So lets get the big news out of the way first.  Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) will all be reprising their roles in at least the first film of the new trilogy!

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Is Agents of SHIELD about to become The A-Team?

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Obviously, there are spoilers for Captian America: The Winter Soldier ahead, so wait to read this until after you’ve seen the movie if you don’t want it ruined for you.

Agents of SHIELD has recently been calling itself Agents of SHIELD: Uprising, along with momentarily replacing the SHIELD logo with Captain America’s shield, and the events of the last episode led up to the events of the film.  Clearly, Captain America: The Winter Soldier will have a big impact on the show going forward, not to mention the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and I have some quick thoughts about what this might mean for Coulson and his crew going forward. Continue reading →

Some Advice About Digital Copies

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If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably bought many DVDs and Blu-rays over the years that have come with “digital copies,” which you proceeded to ignore.  Until recently, I had no interest in digital versions of my movie collection.  I had no interest in watching movies on my computer when my TV is just one room away, I didn’t want my hard drive filled up with movies I would never watch, and I didn’t own a portable device capable of playing a digital copy.  However, for the past couple weeks I’ve been in the process of going through my many boxes of empty DVD cases (I keep all of my DVDs in sleeves/booklets) and while removing the paperwork from the cases I ended up with a stack of redemption codes for digital movies.  When I combined that stack with a newly purchased computer and my iPhone, I started to reconsider digital copies.  In the process of sorting through these movies and codes I learned a few things that might be of interest to anyone else out there like me, who has these codes but doesn’t know what’s involved in obtaining a digital copy or why such a thing would be appealing.  I would imagine at this point most average consumers still don’t care much about owning digital copies of movies  (and this is without getting into the whole Digital Rights Management debate, which is a topic for another time), and are content with their physical copies or streaming services like Netflix.  However, I would bet the average movie watcher owns at least a few “combo packs” that came with a digital copy, and might be curious about it.  So here are some things that you might find it useful to know. Continue reading →

Review/Analysis: After the Dark (aka The Philosophers)

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I had come to believe that I’d never get to see The Philosophers.  The trailer came out almost a year ago and I quickly became obsessed with it, but it seemed like the film itself would never materialize.  It made the film festival rounds in 2013 but after that I heard no more about it.  On a whim last week I decided to dig through the internet to see if there was any news about the movie and discovered two surprising pieces of information.  First, The Philosophers had received a new name and was now called After the Dark.  Second, After the Dark had actually received a limited release in theaters last month and was right this second available on demand on my TV.  Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity to watch the film that had hung steadily at the back of my mind for a year, like an itch I couldn’t scratch, and what I found was something unique and beautiful, that both lived up to my every expectation while subverting them at the same time.

After the Dark tells the story of a philosophy class at an international school in Jakarta, on the seniors’ last day before heading to college.  Continue reading →