Best Movies of 2014

[Kong Wen]

With 2014 coming to a close, I thought it might be fun to reflect on the best films we saw this year. I suppose we'll have to bear in mind that December is often a good month for quality "Oscar-bait" dramas.

The standouts for me were The Grand Budapest Hotel (one of Wes Anderson's better films, in my view), Edge of Tomorrow (a surprisingly fun Tom Cruise action film that made me fall in love with Emily Blunt), Guardians of the Galaxy (obviously), and Interstellar (obviously). I also had dumb fun with X-Men: Days of Future Past and Godzilla, but I wouldn't consider them movie of the year contenders.

My top film of the year is Interstellar, without a doubt. I don't want to say too much because of spoilers, but I loved the whole aesthetic and tone of the film. It's dark, melancholy, nostalgic, and exciting in perfect balance. The visual effects are enough to inspire true awe, and the film's take on the state of the Earth is interesting. The scientific background that engages the viewer's curiosity is icing on the cake. Also, this is one of the best film soundtracks I have ever heard. People are quick to jump on the "Nolan's ambitions exceed his talents" wagon, but I don't think the (almost necessary) gaps in a work of speculative fiction like this one detract from it.

As far as the rest of the year goes, I'm looking forward to The Hobbit, and I hope to have a chance to catch The Imitation Game and Birdman at some point.

[Bades]

I'm going to toss out a few and give brief impressions and I'll probably be back in January to fine-tune a Top 10 list with more in-depth reasoning. Is it just me or did 2014 prove to be a really great year?

The Lego Movie - I didn't expect a whole lot from this film but perhaps I should have with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller onboard.

The Grand Budapest Hotel - It's been awhile since I've seen The GreTennebaumsums and I haven't seen all of them but it's my favorite Wes Anderson film thus far

Captain America: The Winter Solider - I'm getting sort of superhero movie numb it feels but quite enjoyed this to make it one of my favorites this year. Great theater experience and I liked how the series progressed from WWII action movie to Cold War-esque Thriller

Transcendence - Everyone will probably hate me for this one but I quite enjoyed seeing this with my friends. It's an interesting science-FICTION movie and it felt sort of like an extended Twilight Zone episode. Most people found it boring and intriguing while I found it creepy and interesting. I also don't think it's message is "technology bad" as many people seem to believe.

X-Men Days of Future Past - Sort of close to not making it but still worth mentioning. Overall I'm actually not a huge X-Men movie fan but did like First Class. The continuation of that story plus the mix of original cast members was fun and the action was enjoyable.

Edge of Tomorrow - I don't think I enjoyed this quite as much as everyone else did but it was certainly an enjoyable action movie. Cruise and Blunt were both great leads.

Nightcrawler - Really enjoyed this one. Tense film that followed a creepy crawly guy played excellently by Jake Gyllenhaal. Sprinkle a little social commentary on-top and it was a pretty entertaining character study.

Gone Girl - I read the book before I realized David Fincher was making a movie around the story and the adaptation turned out pretty well. I guess given they had the author write the screenplay helped but very few characters or story ideas were dropped and I thought the overall film was fantastic. Sort of a Hallmark movie done right?

Interstellar - Great film overall. Saw it recently so I'm still sort of going over it in my head. People were complaining it was more exposition heavy than Inception but it didn't feel like it. Perhaps it'll take another viewing for me to really notice it. Overall I quite enjoyed it.

These are off the top of my head for now, I've seen many more. Still wanting to see Foxcatcher, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Big Eyes, American Sniper, Inherent Vice, Kill the Messenger, and probably a few others. Solid year it felt like.

[SkyPikachu]

The Fault in Our Stars - I haven't read the book but I really enjoyed the story.

Spoiler

I like movies where they don't have a fake happy ending.

Frozen - It came out Boxing Day 2013 here so I'm counting it as 2014. I fucking love this movie haha. Olaf is adorable.

Lego Movie -

Spoiler

EVERYTHING IS AWESOME

[Jelly]

Interstellar is my favorite movie of the year, I just cannot wait to see it again when it's out on DVD. I did enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy, but I tried to rewatch it about a week ago, and I stopped watching after seeing half of the movie. I remembered it and the jokes all too well, I knew everything that was going to happen, so it wasn't that funny or exciting on a second viewing.

Gone Girl was my biggest dissappointment at the cinema in 2014. I was very excited to see it, and it had some great moments and potential, but I ultimately found it awkward to watch and left the cinema unsatisfied.

[Kong Wen]

As far as the rest of the year goes, I'm looking forward to The Hobbit, and I hope to have a chance to catch The Imitation Game and Birdman at some point.

So I did catch The Hobbit on the weekend, and it was great. It's going on my list of films that helped make this year great. Still hoping to catch Birdman over the holidays with a friend of mine. Not sure when I'm going to get a chance to see The Imitation Game (it's not playing here for some reason). I also forgot to mention that I'm excited to see Theory of Everything.