Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Its getting to the point where I can pretty much write the same review for 90% of these Marvel films. Basically I, for the most part, enjoy the viewing experience but most of them have the same two big issues.

1) Ever since The Avengers, whenever one of the stand alone characters has to deal with a major crisis you immediately wonder why they don't at least place a phone call to some of their super cohort. Iron Man III sort of got around this by barely acknowledging the wider universe, but since Captain America's conflict deals directly with the potential dissolution of S.H.I.E.L.D. it makes no sense that the other avengers wouldn't at least send an inquisitive text. I guarantee Hawkeye didn't have anything else going on.

2) My favorite part of the film is still just hanging out with the characters as they bounce off of one another and just go about their business. The big action set pieces, especially the end, just distract from this aspect (not to mention make me acutely aware of point #1), and end up being a little boring. I'd almost prefer it if the budget were cut and they made the conflicts a little more individualized. It'll never happen, but it would be nice. I guess what I'd really like is for Joss Whedon to make a TV show, with the Game of Thrones budget, to explore the world more deeply (this is part of the reason I'm so annoyed that agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't better).

Still, the fact that Marvel's achieved that hard part and made me enjoy being around the characters more that the action can't be sniffed at. I just hope that some of the future entries move beyond the current format and try something new (even if that means scaling down a bit).

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I'm all in on Wes Anderson so of course I enjoyed the film. Still, I'd probably enjoyed it the least of his recent offerings. Basically it works best as a screwball comedy, but whenever it tries to get serious the pacing really falters, and the stab at the profundity at the end really falls flat and feels tacked on. Its not that I don't think Anderson can effectively mix comedy and emotion (that was a poorly constructed sentence) - I just don't think he succeeds here.

Still, its worth seeing and I'm sure I'll watch it multiple times in the future.

Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is probably the most flawed T.V. show that I watched regularly (at least on DVD).* The compelling well-drawn central character and witty writing was often offset by supporting acting that ranged from sub-par (piz) to laughably bad (Duncan). Still, the central relationships between Veronica and her father (as well as some great side characters - Dick and Vinnie to name a few) meant that more often than not I really enjoyed the show. The movie, for better or worse, embodies both of these qualities. First the good. It was a lot of fun seeing (most) of the characters again, and the dialogue and relationships settled right into the rhythms that made the show much fun. There are too many in jokes for a non-fan to understand** but anyone who enjoyed the show should have a lot of fun with it.

That said, there are two main problems with the film. The first rolls over from the show, the second is new. The old one is that for some reason creator Rob Thomas thinks that Veronica's romantic life is inherently interesting. The problem is that every one of her major romantic interests (including the two in the film) are decidedly less than compelling screen presences (to put it mildly). As a result its difficult to care much about the relationships.

Second, they've really heightened the villainy to almost cartoony levels. The original show was never a bastion of reality, but it never had anything as blatant as the upper class using the police department to run roughshod over any semblance of rights for anyone else. I get that they want to go big for a film, but still it was jarring.

So there you go. Just like the source material, the film is really flawed but I still enjoyed it. Put that on the poster.

*Fr those of you who will throw One Tree Hill in my face, I can only say - How Dare You
**Seriously someone who hasn't seen the show is going to have no idea of what's going on

The Lego Movie

The film has been universally praised and I can't really deviate from that. Its really clever, has good voice work (will arnett as batman in particular) and actually doesn't come off as overly commercial. Buuuuut, there is still something disconcerting about a well made film that at its core is still a 90 minute advertisement for a toy company. Its not that I think this sort of movie shouldn't be made, or that its corrupting the youth, but I don't know, its a little weird. Whatever, I'll leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bdWgClU8vk

Wolf of Wall Street

This is an odd film. I'm not really going to get into the controversy of whether or not the film is glorifying its protagonists, Vince over at filmdrunk has a good take on all that. To me the movie was all surface, entertaining surface, but surface none the less. I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to feel about the protagonists (other than that they were incredibly lucky morons), and the stated point, from Scorcese, that the film is all about class and the financial system, was lost on me. I think the biggest problem is the movie just glossed over how they were actually so successful (we were just supposed to assume they were master salesman, what given what was shown wasn't that convincing) and what the actual effect on their victims were. We're told a about how much they stole, but it didn't have much gravity to it. Really it just came off as a a lot of spectacle, without much of a point. It is really funny at times, and well-executed, but its not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

Also three hours is way too long for this story. Two hours would have been plenty (you can now say 'shut up grandpa').

Her (with a cameo by American Hustle and Inside Llewyn Davis)

Lets knock the cameos out first. American Hustle is a lot of fun and worth seeing (and I'm still impressed how Jennifer Lawrence is able to convincingly play so much older than she looks), and Inside Llewyn Davis is yet another Coen Brother's film that I respect more than I enjoyed. Take that for what its worth.

Her, on the other hand, may be one of the most impressive films I've seen in awhile. This is due to the degree of difficulty it has to overcome. Basically its the story of a man who falls in love with his operating system that's not only believable, but not creepy, without feeling forced. Its the kind of high concept that would be an absolute disaster in the wrong hands, but writer/director Spike Jonze pulls it off. I was so impressed with the execution that I didn't even worry about the film's flaws.* The two main performances are also key to the film's success. Joaquin Phoenix manages to believably play someone who's socially awkward without coming off as a loser, and Scarlet Johannsen uses just her voice to create a fully realized 'character' that you can sort of understand how someone could be attracted to 'her' (the meta-question is if we didn't subconciously know what Johannsen looked like would it be as believable? Whoa dude, deep, I'm so high right now.).

Its also a really clever piece of science fiction, not calling attention to itself, but still painting a nice portrait of what the relatively near future might look like. In particular we are apparently no longer subject to the tyranny of belts:

Every guy wore these pants in ever scene. I approve, belts are for suckers. Anyway, check Her out if you get a chance. Its not perfect, but its incredibly satisfying.

*I'll relegate them to a footnote. A lot of Phoenix's character's writing is kind of trite, and some of the big speeches border on college english major level insights. Also I'm not sure they quite stick the ending.  Still these are just quibbles.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire/The Hobbit, something something something

The Hunger Games

This second installment of the franchise was better than the first. Partially because the new director moved away from shaki-cam, but mainly because the movie at least tried to expand beyond a rote  retelling of the books. Specifically, it at least made an effort to explore the world from other characters perspective (The books, which I love, are told entirely from the main character's point of view) which is the big opportunity the film has to differentiate, and build on, the books. Overall it still hues closely to the main narrative, but I still appreciated the effort to do something different.

Other than that there's not much else to say.  Jennifer Lawrence is still great, the action scenes are a bit long, and its reasonably entertaining. Unlike the next film I saw.

The Hobbit Desolation of Smaug (probably misspelled but I don't care)

It's long.
So long.
So so long.

Look I liked the Lord of the Rings films, but I found the first installment of the Hobbit to be incredibly tedious and boring. However I saw it on a plane so I'm willing to admit that maybe not having the proper visual environment colored my opinion. Nope. This was equally as tedious and drawn out. Yes they spent alot of time and money on the visuals but perversely I found the much hyped 48 frames per second shooting style to be a detriment. Specifically, it makes everything on screen so clear that the falseness of the CGI really stood out for me, particularly in the daylight scenes. Of course had the film not been a slog this wouldn't have been such a bid deal, but at three hours long it was tough not to miss any flaws.

I'm sure I'm being too hard on this, and had it been shorter I probably wouldn't be so annoyed. Its not horrible, simply boring. Which, as I've said before, annoys me more than almost anything.

Oh well since we're in full on awards mode I'm hoping to see the following over the next few weeks to cleanse my pallet:

American Hustle
Wolf of Wall street
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis