Favorite 2014 Movie

2014 was a year of great movies. Many of them matched the hype, such as big hits like X-Men and Cap 2. Others fell below the hype, disappointing some even, such as hits like the second Amazing Spider-Man film and new teen craze, The Maze Runner. Animated movies continue to move forward, the most noticeable being The Lego Movie, sheerly off of a surprise factor. Who knew a movie about Legos would be so cool? Even spawn a franchise.

A real treat this year was the mainstream return of DBZ to theaters with "Battle of Gods" premiering for American audiences. I do and don't count it as a 2014 movie, though. On the one hand, yes, it did release this year in the English dub. On the other hand, several people had already seen it last year when it premiered in Japan. Still, it was a fun time to see.

In terms of direct-to-DVD movies, there was yet another "Pokemon" movie out, as well as three DC animated films, two of which continuing the pretty awesome DC Animated Universe and the third, Batman: Assault on Arkham, saw the legend Kevin Conry reprise his role as Batman (sadly, no Mark Hamill...).

Next year I expect to be even better, and I think a lot of people are looking forward to what's coming out. 2014 just felt like the set-up year, the one that will introduce all the big movies being announced. Certainly that was the case for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as it did nothing but put in a forced story-line and introduce the Sinister Six. Basically, it was one long "guess what's coming next" type of thing.

This year also saw the expansion on the whole "teenage-end-of-the-world" thing. We're past calling them the new "Harry Potter"--thank God--but now its has its own genre of predictable plot points and bland characters. Need a lead? Attractive female/ male. Need a premise? EVIL EMPIRE MWAHAHAHAH. And how's about we make our villains as obvious as they come?

Thus, my least favorite movie of the year was The Maze Runner. Not only was it barely an adaptation of the book--the only similar were the names (which weren't explained) and the fact they were trapped in a maze--but it was a pretty bad movie anyway. It was boring. You knew, spoilers but don't see it anyway, Thomas was going to survive the whole thing. The movie puts up that all these things are happening because of him, and that he is probably some sort of Chosen One. You can tell that he is just some bland dude, and the feats he pulls off are no more impressive than those anyone else could have. Plus, it freaking molded with the beginning of the second book! The only movies to do that right were the "Lord of the Rings" films because even though they weren't faithful adaptations at least they were fantastic movies on their own!

It's another reason I didn't particularly enjoy The Amazing Spider-Man 2. We knew too much too early on. There were a lot of things that could have, and should have, been left a secret. If they had simply advertised that Electro was the main villain, then the surprise of some sort of prototype Rhino suit at the end would have been a cool segue introducing us to a new Spidey villain for the third film. But no, they had to reveal everything that happened. You could just watched the trailer and know what happens, point by point, in the film, all the way through to the climax. Heck, if you watch all three trailers, you see the entire final battle! Um, HELLO?! That's not what we're supposed to do! The movie was ruined before it hit the screen, and killed the only good elements that it had within the movie because, well, there's a popular comic storyline we have adhere to and we have to be full-on Sinister Six from now on! GAH. Bad movies are bad.

But there was one movie that left itself wrapped nice and tight in secrecy. There was one movie that had awesome trailers, an intriguing title, and a movie that cemented itself as the best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, topping both Avengers and Guardians.

I'm talking, of course, about Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Sweet pacific rim job this movie was killer! The action is the best I've seen on-screen in a long time, there was a lot of suspense throughout the movie, the characters were great, there was so pretty good humor tossed in, and, best of all, nobody saw the huge plot-twist coming. And my goodness, the scope of this movie was enormous! It's changed everything in the MCU, and you felt it all the second it was revealed.

Maybe the reason this movie was so good was because it felt like "Revenge of the Sith" done right, all the way down to the "Order 66" moment and the feeling of, basically, confusion as to what the heck can happen next. It excited me to no end to want to see what was going to occur in Avengers: Age of Ultron. 

I was most hyped to see "Days of Future Past" because of how awesome it looked--and it delivered, easily becoming the best X-Men film so far. But this movie was just incredible. Really it was something to behold. Out of all the MCU movies, this one had the tightest plot with the best characters. I can remember every single major character, from Cap all the way down to Agent 13, aka Sharon Carter. Yes, it did set-up big things to come, but if you're just watching it as a movie, it's pretty freaking awesome.

Though the identity of the Winter Soldier was really no secret to anyone whose read the comics, and they sort of give it away in some of the promotional posters, it wasn't that big of a shock as I expected. Not that it was glossed over, but the movie had already dedicated itself to this big scope and basically destruction that even Cap knew this reveal wasn't as big as the overall crisis about to unfold.

Also: Doctor Strange confirmed. What more do you want?

In terms of post-credits scenes, I loved this one, as it gave us our first look at the Maximoff twins, but then I saw the DOFP post-credits scene and I flipped.

Too bad ASM 2 didn't have a post-OH WAIT. It did and they didn't include it. Laaaaame.

It still surprises me that Cap 2 was a good as it was. I knew it was going to be great, because the last Cap movie was pretty good and this one was leading up to Avengers 2, but I mean as far as story and twists go, this one came completely out of left-field in a good way. Instantly, when I left the theater that April 4th morning, I knew this was the best of the Marvel movies so far.

Avengers 2, you've got a tough test ahead of you. But, as far as 2014 goes, I'd say this was a good year. Disappointments? Sure, but, 2013 was also a really dry year for movies. Yet, for every dud there is a diamond, and this year certainly had many of this.


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