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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) created a post

Jan 16, 2018  
I know that it's a few weeks late, but I finally got around to doing my Best and Worst list of 2017 movies.


Quick disclaimer: I did not see every movie that dropped in 2017 and because I live in the UK, there are some movies that have been out in the US for months that have yet to be released here.
Lastly, this is just my opinion, so feel free to disagree with any or all of it.



The Best

Split (Jan)
iBoy (Jan)
Trainspotting 2 (Jan)

War On Everyone (Feb)
Lego Batman (Feb)
John Wick 2 (Feb)

Logan (March)
Kong Skull Island (March)
The Belko Experiment (March)

The Fate Of The Furious (Apr)
Free Fire (Apr)

The Wall (May)

Wonder Woman (June)
It Comes At Night (June)
Baby Driver (June)

Spiderman: Homecoming (July)
War For The Planet Of The Apes (July)
Dunkirk (July)
Atomic Blonde (July)
Detroit (July)

Wind River (Aug)
Logan Lucky (Aug)

It (Sept)
American Made (Sept)

Blade Runner 2049 (Oct)
Brawl In Cell Block 99 (Oct)
The Foreigner (Oct)

Thor Ragnarok (Nov)
Murder On The Orient Express (Nov)
Justice League (Nov)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Dec)





The Worst

Fist Fight (Feb)

Life (March)

King Arthur (May)
Baywatch (May)
Pirates 5 (May)

The Mummy (June)

The Dark Tower (August)
The Hitman’s Bodyguard (August)

Kingsman 2 (September)

The Greatest Showman (December)
Bright (December)




My Top 10 Of The Year (In no particular order)

Trainspotting 2
Logan
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Blade Runner 2049
Spiderman: Homecoming
Wind River
War For The Planet Of The Apes
Detroit
Baby Driver
Dunkirk




I found that when I was doing my list this year, that there were a quite a few movies that I was struggling to place on either the best or worst side. For example, Justice League and Murder On The Orient Express sneaked onto the best list, whereas Bright and The Dark Tower only fell onto the worst list because although I didn't hate them, I wasn't willing to label them the best 2017 had to offer. Maybe next year I should introduce another column titled "Films I felt pretty indifferent about."
     
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Joe Julians (221 KP) Jan 17, 2018

Ah I really liked Life and The Greatest Showman!

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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) Jan 22, 2018

I can't deny Jackman's talent as a performer, but it just wasn't my thing

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012)
2012 | Action, Family, Sci-Fi
5
6.8 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
A follow up to the 2008, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” here is another modern take on those beloved classic stories of the 19th century. “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” is based on the idea that Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, are in fact the same island which really does exist.

The movie opens up with the return of Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) getting caught by the police for climbing a satellite tower. To his chagrin, Josh is released into the custody of his stepfather Hank (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson), a former Navy man who wants nothing more than to be friends with his stepson. Sean’s reason for climbing the satellite tower was to get a hold of a satellite transmission code that he believes is the key to a message from his long-lost grandfather Alexander(Michael Caine).

Sean, with the help of Hank’s Navy expertise, attempts to decode the message which eventually leads them to the Mysterious Island. Along the way, the two hire a helicopter pilot Gabato (Luis Guzman), who provides the comedic relief and his daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) who, of course, is the eye candy and the romantic interest for Sean.

Upon arrival at the Mysterious Island, they locate Sean’s grandfather Alexander and they discover they must trek across the island, past a volcano that erupts gold leaves and run from dangerous creatures to find Captain Nemo’s ship. All before the island sinks!

You don’t have to be a “Vernian” to know what’s going on here. This movie was definitely geared toward a younger audience. The idea behind recreating Verne’s novels with a modern day twist was clever, however the execution was poor as the sequence of events didn’t flow from one scene to the next and the character relationships were not genuine at all. I must say, however the visual effects were stunning. as well as some of the action scenes which could have rivaled “Indiana Jones” or even “The Goonies” with just a bit more care and attention to detail.
  
Monster Hunter (2020)
Monster Hunter (2020)
2020 | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Contains spoilers, click to show
First off I'll start by saying that I've never played any of the Monster Hunter games so I went into this with no real point of reference.
For the most part I found 'Monster Hunter' a pretty average film, the story has been done many times before, a group of solders find themselves in another reality and try to find there way back. Excepted (Spoolers) most of the solders are killed off near the beginning and there is no explanation as to why Artemis (Milla Jovovich) comes back to life (or if there is it's a blink and miss it explanation), I'm guessing that this is something explained more in the games.
There is no real investigation to how they got there they just see a storm by a strange tower and figure that a storm brought them there so that must be the way back.
This all leads to there being almost no story, there are hints to back story's, Artemis keeps looking at a wedding ring, the Hunter (Tony Jaa) preys to icons of his (assumed) family and the Admiral (Ron Perlman) states that people from Artemis' world (earth) had been there before. But that's it, apart from one or to other one liners that's all the back story we get.
The essence of 'Monster hunter' is that it's a journey, mostly Artemis and the Hunter going from the dessert to the tower, but a journey with monsters. The monsters are part of what pushes the film (just) above average, TOHO were involved in the production of the film and, for those of you who don't know, TOHO were the people behind the original, Japanese, Godzilla monster and they have continued do monsters eve since so you know that, when they are involved the monsters are going to be more than just cannon fodder.
The other thing that raises the film up are the action scenes, especially the fights between Artemis and the Hunter.
If you have nothing better to do then maybe give 'Monster Hunter' a watch, just don't expect a master peace, there is nothing wrong with the film but I feel that I've seen it all before in other films.
  
The Dark Tower (2017)
The Dark Tower (2017)
2017 | Horror, Sci-Fi, Western
The last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter Padick, also known as the Man in Black, determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.

Jack Chambers is labelled as a troubled child, the visions he sees are just his way of coping with his father's death. But when he's confronted with the monsters that he's drawn he knows he needs to find the truth. Even if that truth lands him in the middle of the battle.



Yet another book that I haven't read. I know, I know. I'll sort myself out at some point. But if I'm truly honest, I've never really enjoyed Stephen King stuff. I think I mentioned before when I listened to Under The Dome, everything I've come across feels like it ends rather abruptly, and fairly often with a "Boom! Aliens!"

Knowing this was a series of books I wanted to know exactly what this film entailed... I'm not sure I'm any closer to understanding. Evidently this films has elements of several novels in the series. According to Wikipedia it "also serves as a canonical sequel to the novel series..." Honestly, the only way I'm going to understand it is to read all eight books, but with roughly 100 books in my TBR pile that's a fairly remote happening. I'll just have to convince my mum to see it so she can explain it all to me.

For something that crosses into multiple genres I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy to follow. It was an enjoyable watch. And although there were no aliens thrown in at the end, the film did feel like it ended too abruptly.

I'm not sure what the buzz is about this at the moment, but for a while there were certainly talks of another film, and/or a TV series. I really with all my heart don't want a series. Not after Under The Dome. But another film wouldn't be objectionable.
  
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