Fish and Cherries Productions

All right, let’s start off the new year by catching up with some of last year’s stragglers. Gotta fill out the best and worst lists, right?

Passengers

Starting out our new schedule is a weekend of sequels. Here are my Reel Snippets of Jurassic World and Ted 2. Which did I like? Which couldn’t I stand? Take a look and find out.

Jurassic World
Ted 2

Guardians of the Galaxy was, as expected, a lot of fun and a great direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to go. It’s interesting because apart from being a new, untested property, Guardians also has the least continuity connection with the rest of the movies (apart from one significant plotline), which was refreshing, but at the same time I sorely missed some reference to the Asgardians or having the only human scene have a Stark Industries billboard in the background. It’s also a new direction because this is the first straight up comedy in the franchise; while Iron Man and Thor definitely straddled the line between action and comedy, Guardians of the Galaxy dives in head first and decides it doesn’t want to come up for air. Sadly, though, the comedy water didn’t penetrate all of its internal organs, as the villains are both lacking in humor and personality. They’re cool, but that’s about it. While we’re on the subject of weak characters, I felt that Gamora was underutilized and didn’t really live up to her reputation as the deadliest woman in the universe. The rest of the main cast is great fun, though I have to give the award to Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon. That man truly nailed the part. With all that said, I’m worried that there’s a bit of a quirkiness to the directing, writing, and editing that may put people off a bit, though I personally enjoyed it. All in all, though, if you can get past that, you’ve got a great experience that I will personally recommend (could’ve used more “I am Groot,” though). Now, Marvel, if you could now do a Captain/Ms. Marvel and Black Panther movie, that would be great. Don’t keep me waiting now.

The LEGO Movie took me completely by surprise and blew my socks off. By all rights, it had no right to be good, as it seemed like a complete complete cosh cow movie. But somehow, it turned out to be the one of the most imaginative and fun movies for the whole family that takes a twist into straight up meta commentary by the end. The big thing that makes the movie run so well, apart from the really fast comedy coming at you most of the time, comes from the fact that it is, in fact, a LEGO movie, thus everything is based around LEGO physics, motion, and logic. This leads to a lot of jokes and clever use of the set pieces, which I mean quite literally. Honestly, I don’t think the movie would have worked if it took itself completely seriously, but since the plot runs on complete irony, that’s not a problem. Oh, and the acting is superb too, including Charlie Day, who I never would have recognized were it not for the credits. I’m not sure if anyone who hasn’t played with LEGOs or had a kid who did so would enjoy this movie as much apart from the subtle adult jokes that would slip past the kids, but maybe they could. It’s one of the most upbeat, charming, grin-inducing movies that I’ve seen in a while and I think it deserves a watch. Go out and feel like a kid again.