Top 10 Critical Disagreements Of 2014

Happy 2015 everyone, and as we ring in the New Year it is time for that great online tradition of the year-end lists. But before I get into my loved/hated films lists for the year, I thought I might try something a bit different. See, I have always had a couple of movies in previous years that I’ve disagreed with the critics on: Dark Shadows, Machete Kills, Zero Dark Thirty. However, upon looking at the list of movies I’ve watched this year… there’s quite a few more this year than previously. So, as a means of airing out this dirty laundry that is not conforming to what other people think, here is my list of the Top 10 films I disagreed with other critics on in 2014.

Big Hero 6 (2014) - Movie Review

 

There’s a certain high expectation that comes attached with anything animated by Disney/Pixar, and for the most part it’s deserved: Whether it’s older classics like Fantasia and The Nightmare Before Christmas or more modern successes like Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, Disney has a good pedigree for quality entertainment… mostly. The last few years have muddied the waters a bit for the company, what with the baffling continuation of the Cars/Planes franchise which is seriously bad enough to throw their entire filmography into question. However, they are still releasing good family films, one of the few studios that still is, so my expectations are still at a decent level for today’s feature: This is Big Hero 6.

Walking With Dinosaurs (2014) - Movie Review

  

While, at first glance, it’s an easy assumption to make that the director has sole creative control over a film, there’s also the matter of the producers to consider. The producers and production companies attached to a film are the money backing it, and they get a considerable amount of sway over what ends up in the final product; they can pull funding to the film if they don’t agree with what the director wants to do with it. Sure, you will occasionally get the auteurs that partially or even entirely fund their own movies themselves, but in the Hollywood system this isn’t always the case. Not to say that this is always a bad thing, mind you; just that it occasionally leads to bad decisions. To further illustrate this, let’s get started with today’s film: This is Walking With Dinosaurs.

August: Osage County (2014) - Movie Review

 

On the surface, it seems that adapting a work of theatre into a movie would be a lot easier than adapting from a different work like a book or a video game, and to a degree it is. But they are still two different media, however similar they may be, and in order to do it right it can’t just be a simple copy-and-paste job.  For a good example of stage to screen adaptation done right, look at 11 Things I Hate About You, a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Taming Of The Shrew: It took what is, in the modern age, the most difficult Shakespeare work to portray due its rather screwed-up gender politics and essentially left only the framework and changed the rest in order to make it work, and for the most part it did. A bad example of this? … Let’s get into today’s film: This is August: Osage County.

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (2014) - Movie Review

 

Peter Jackson may serve as one of the greatest cinematic success stories in recent memory: From his humble beginnings with bat-shit insane cult films like Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles and Braindead, he went on to craft himself as a directing legend through his adaptation of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, making himself one of the most critically and financially successful filmmakers of all time. Not only that, Weta Digital, a special effects company co-founded by Jackson himself, has also become a powerhouse in Hollywood due to their work on the LOTR films and have gone on to do SFX work for films like Avatar, The Avengers and the Planet Of The Apes reboot series. Today’s film marks the end of an era, as after 13 years and over a thousand minutes of screen time, this is the (supposed) final film Peter Jackson will make based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (2014) - Movie Review

It’s a very bittersweet experience seeing a film like this; Robin Williams is one of my favourite comedians of all time with a wide pedigree of talent (despite a couple of film clunkers) whether it’s his excellent stand-up shows, his classic film roles like the Genie in Aladdin and Peter Pan in Hook, or his surprising talent at darker roles like One Hour Photo and his guest spot on Law & Order: SVU. It is a tragedy when anyone dies, but knowing who he was and how it happened… I’m getting choked up as I write this just thinking about it. But his works still remain to warm the hearts and tickle the funnybones of audiences for a long while yet; I firmly believe that men live on so long as they are remembered, and I doubt that Williams will be forgotten anytime soon. With that, let’s take a look at his final live-action film role that was also dedicated to his memory.

Into The Woods (2014) - Movie Review

The plot: A baker (James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) have been cursed by a witch (Meryl Streep) so that they can never have children. In order to stop the curse, they need to retrieve four items: A cow as white as milk, a hood as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold; but in order to collect them, they run into some rather familiar characters.