There was a good run of thrillers and dark dramas and biopics though, and some of the best films of 2014 were the films no one expected.
So here is my final leaderboard for 2014! As I describe each year, this is a list of every film I have seen this year that I've never seen before; the films that are "new to me". So as well as theatrical releases I also have rentals that I saw this year.
People ask why I do this, but I believe that in the endless pantheon of film, all films can be compared regardless of when it was released.
(But don't worry,I will have a second list below this one that is exclusively theatrical releases!)
There's a total of 72 films this year!
Surprise! 2010's How to Train Your Dragon was a underrated masterpiece that really didn't require a sequel. In fact I was worried this would ruin the joy and novelty of the first film... and while a lot of people forget about this for their top 10 lists (probably due to a huge spoiler in its trailer, tip: don't watch the trailer) I still loved it!
Issues from the trailer were my only grievances, and it isn't fair to judge the movie on that. I felt right at home watching this film; a return to characters that I fully enjoy watching.
It is a joyous, happy and challenging kids movie that maintains the original's quality and style.
Yup, possibly Marvel's biggest surprise; appearing on top lists everywhere and changing so many people's minds. Harking back to old retro sci-fi and action concepts, Guardians is a popping, colourful and ridiculously quotable movie with the best soundtrack of the year!
Why is it second and not first place? It is incredibly close... But Guardians took me a couple of viewings to fully appreciate. I loved it, but at first it can be a total flurry of constant action, and throws a lot at you; if you aren't on board with it, it will leave you behind!
If you like Pina Colada! Gettin' caaaaught in the rain!
The first of my DVD rentals on my top ten list, sadly being the film I watched to lament the late Robin Williams. But Dead Poets Society was an excellent and moving movie and it is criminal I had not watched it until now!
Robin Williams gives such an impassioned performance as the sort of school teacher everyone would love to have; to teach them about how to be creative in such a monotonous and systematic society. Despite being an older film, its messages still ring with truth, and I can forgive some deliberate screenplay writing.
4. The Wolf of Wall StreetYes, The Wolf of Wall Street was in 2014!
What impressed me the most about Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's latest offering was how for a long (and arguably repetitive) film, I was captivated from start to finish, and never noticed how many minutes were flying by.
This is mostly due to DiCaprio who makes such a corrupt and deplorable lifestyle seem perfectly reasonable and sells his ethics with bold integrity.
Couple all of that with a black sense of humour, it was dynamic and hilarious all the way through.
5. Captain America - The Winter Soldier (3D)Probably Marvel's darkest and most violent film with gun play and more realistic brawls and carnage, Captain America 2 delivers a extremely strong punch to the comic book series.
It also does what Captain America 1 and even Avengers Assemble together couldn't manage: make Captain America himself look awesome.
A good supporting cast as well as great action sequences and a good villain/nemesis with the titular Winter Soldier.
The first of two incredible and dark thrillers that have surprised me this year, Gone Girl for me was a total gear change from the rest of this year's Marvel dominance.
While Ben Affleck is perfectly okay in his role, the show is completely stolen by Rosamund Pike as Amy, playing an incredibly complex character and quite likely a career defining role. Awesome movie!
Sadly I cannot say more without spoiling it, but David Fincher delivers here and if you want a dark, seedy thriller I highly recommend it.
It is only sixth on this list because it loses some of its traction and skill in the final act.
Basically what I just said for Gone Girl, only with Jake Gyllenhaal completely dominating the show.
Another dark and seedy thriller showing not only the depravity of the media business and their lust for violence, but also how far a human mind can sink to simply be recognised and feel meaningful.
It is a simple story, simpler than Gone Girl's screenplay, but it is extremely effective and very dark.
You are probably thinking: wtf? But upon release of this years Dawn, I wanted to finally watch all of the Apes films.
I was dreading it, mostly for how they may have dated extremely badly, and certainly many of them have (the last few are tragic) but the first film, the original, but this film still has a lot of relevance and great subtext if you can see past some old film making!
Watching this proves to me why the Apes franchise is so effective and how the new films have gripped me, they have a great foundation with this film!
While not as effective as its predecessor Rise of the Planet of the Apes, at least as a character piece, Dawn has incredible action sequences and evolves the story perfectly without missing many of the beats.
I think the moment you see a monkey riding a horse while firing two automatic assault rifles... and you aren't thinking it is completely stupid... you know the film is amazing.
Towards the end of the year I cramped three films of 2014 I hadn't managed to catch in the cinema, and Her was one of them.
Unlike every other film on this top ten, Her is a quiet, morose and sensitive story with a quirky near-future sci-fi twist on your usual love story. I enjoyed its subtly and its performances, but mostly its original setting and ingenuity.
This is an entirely likely future for us as human beings.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (3D)
The Lego Movie (3D)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2D)
Lucy
Edge of Tomorrow (2D)
Idiocracy
Snowpiercer
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pain and Gain
I Saw the Devil
Under the Skin
The Raid 2
Fury
The Imitation Game
A Serious Man
Interstellar (2D)
A Most Wanted Man
The Machine
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (3D)
The Zero Theorem
The Men Who Stare at Goats
The Great Gatsby (1974)
Gojira (1954)
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Hitchcock
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2D)
The Conjuring
The Guest
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1956)
The Amazing Spider-man 2 (3D)
300: Rise of an Empire (2D)
The Family
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2D)
The Purge: Anarchy
Before I Go to Sleep
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2D)
Hummingbird
Safe
Primer
White House Down
Godzilla (2014)
The Boxtrolls (2D)
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Welcome to the Punch
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Turbo
The Monuments Men
The Babadook
The Heat
Olympus has Fallen
Society
So they remade RoboCop.
They made it a 12A.
Yeah so it crashed and burned: from the total lukewarm action sequences replacing the gory, memorable ultra violence of the original, to the utterly phoned in performances (especially from Samuel L Jackson)
A great example of how pointless and needless 12A remakes really are, providing no originality, nothing memorable and designed simply to soak up some cash with a brand.
The weakest Planet of the Apes film from the old series (yeah, ignoring the Tim Burton film) but mostly due to worsening budget cuts throughout the series, the concept of making a final epic battle with less than two million dollars was impossible.
Not only this, but there's roaring great continuity problems which is only comparable to the second worst Apes film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes.
A very disappointing and sad end to the Apes franchise.
Oh yeah, I watched the Starship Troopers sequels in 2014, I actually went there.
Marauder is instantly forgettable, but it does attempt to expand the universe with some integrity unlike the second sequel. It still has a lot of problems and reeks of television budget, but at least the tone and themes here are a little more in keeping with the original film.
Ugh... Insidious... again.
So Insidious was at the very bottom of my list, so having its sequel only in the seventh worst spot says something about it by comparison (or says something about the films lower down on this list!)
Chapter 2 is still as bad and not scary as the first film. Oh no, she walked into a child's toy and it made a noise! EEEEEK!
Seriously? But it doesn't have as much stupidity, and doesn't feature Darth Maul, grabbing maybe one or two scares at least...
Kevin Costner tries to do his own Taken to give himself cool points.
It fails.
Amber Heard is also starring, but only proving she cannot act, maybe due to her character being utterly perplexing to begin with.
A phoned in 12A action movie, it kills a couple of hours but certainly not three days, very forgettable.
I despise this movie. I despise what Disney has done with this movie, and more importantly what they have done to one of their most classic and symbolic villains.
I have so much venom for this film that I actively tell people to watch (or indeed re-watch) the classic Sleeping Beauty. I insist that you do. It is my favourite Disney film, because of Maleficent herself.
This. Is. Not. Maleficent.
Disney have potentially ruined one of their classic characters for future generations, and it physically hurts to think that they are even capable of changing a character as much as this. Polar opposite.
The best thing about this film: Jolie's casting for Maleficent.
The Purge has a great concept, a fantastic and original concept even. A concept that has endless possibilities and the best to create a franchise out of (unlike say, Paranormal Activity)
Luckily there has been a second Purge film that delivered the premise better...
... because The Purge is the most phoned in, boring and unimaginative interpretation of the concept imaginable.
A film that fails its own premise is pretty bad indeed.
Starship Troopers 2 was slammed and condemned when it first arrived, with a very low budget the story was held within one location and played out like an Alien-esque, shadowy horror film.
It has nothing of the original film's sense of humour or wit, instead trying to give the franchise a gory horror movie vibe.
That... isn't what Starship Troopers is about.
Oh RoboCop 3... how... how positively awful you are.
It is sometimes hard to put into words how bad a film is. I guess the best way to explain this one is how RoboCop himself is barely in it! Peter Weller doesn't return for the role, and the screenwriters still haven't worked out how to progress the character of Alex Murphy, so instead we get a ten year old girl for most of the movie!
No, I am not kidding!
RoboCop 3 is perhaps one of the first cases of a franchise getting milked to death for some quick cash.
Wouldn't buy that for a dollar!
And at the bottom of the pile, the film I boycotted for a year, the film I told myself not to watch, the American remake of my 20th favourite film of all time, Oldboy.
I guess I have no excuses to not watch the Twilight movies now...
This movie is so bad that even if you ignore the fact that it is a remake it is still an awful film. It reeks of Americanisation and the lack of honouring and adaptation that the worst of remakes can provide. It has none of the original's style or blunt force poetry.
It simply exists, like an infectious leech.
And now a quicker run through the THEATRICAL RELEASES ONLY list:
01. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (3D)
02. Guardians of the Galaxy (2D)
03. The Wolf of Wall Street
04. Captain America - The Winter Soldier (3D)
05. Gone Girl
06. Nightcrawler
07. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (3D)
08. Her
09. X-Men: Days of Future Past (3D)
10. The Lego Movie (3D)
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2D)
Lucy
Edge of Tomorrow (2D)
Snowpiercer
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Under the Skin
The Raid 2
Fury
The Imitation Game
Interstellar (2D)
A Most Wanted Man
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (3D)
The Zero Theorem
The Guest
The Amazing Spider-man 2 (3D)
300: Rise of an Empire (2D)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2D)
10. The Purge: Anarchy
09. Before I Go to Sleep
08. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2D)
07. Godzilla (2014)
06. The Boxtrolls (2D)
05. The Monuments Men
04. The Babadook
03. RoboCop (2014)
02. 3 Days to Kill
01. Maleficent (2D)
Ooft, that's right, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies is in the bottom ten for theatre releases!
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