My Cinema Trips of 2017

Hello and welcome to 2018! Hope you had a fun week doing whatever it is you’ve been doing but it’s back to the usual routine now, I suppose.  Don’t be sad, it’ll be Christmas again in 356 days.

 

2017 was an interesting year for film, so I was wondering, if I could sum up my thoughts on each film I’d seen in the cinema that year, it might do for a blog entry, don’t you think?

 

I’ll go in chronological order of when I saw them and I may as well date it too, ey? So, let’s get started!

 

1. A Monster Calls – 7th January

A deep exploration of a young boy’s mind in turmoil.  It was interesting to see the way the story panned out over the duration of the film and the acting from every one involved was simply top notch.  Even if it did lose itself a bit in its own narrative toward the end

Rating then: 9/10

Rating now: 8/10

 

2. The Lego Batman Movie – 18th February

Fun, Lego action with everyone’s favourite overrated mental patient, Batman.  A good story in its own right, as its own thing and still gets quite a few laughs out of me but I feel the very climax of the film was a bit of a let down.  Hold hands to stop Gotham tearing in half? Really? It’s fine, it’s fine! It’s a kid’s film after all and there is a level of suspension of disbelief to take into consideration.

Rating then: 10/10

Rating now: 8/10

 

3. Logan – 2nd March

Hugh Jackman’s swansong (Maybe) Wolverine escapade.  A dark, gritty and realistic portrayal of the final days of the mutants.  Logan is one of those films that people will be talking about for a long time – and it earned that recognition.  Some say it’s bad, some say it’s a masterpiece.  I’m in the middle.  It’s a really well made film, but it was too drastic a change from the X-Men franchise.  Personal opinion, don’t torture me.  Seeing the Charles Xavier in the silo  having gone mad at the start hurt my childhood though.

Rating then: 9/10

Rating now: 7/10

 

4. The Great Wall – 7th March

One of those whitewashed films that was doomed to fail.  It was alright I guess.  Nothing to write home about, but fun enough to watch if you just want to switch off for a couple of hours and watch some urban historic fantasy.

Rating then: 6/10

Rating now: 6/10

 

5. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 – 29th April

The Guardians of the Galaxy return in my most anticipated sequel of the year, and proved to be ever so slightly disappointing.  It was great and I loved it, but the first one is still my preferred venture.  I think splitting the team up for so long is to blame for my preference of the first, but I enjoyed the two intertwining stories told throughout and Ego is by far easily one of the best villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far.  Can’t wait for Infinity War though.

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: 8/10

 

6. Wonder Woman – 11th June

With the advent of the Justice League monstricity, Wonder Woman stands as a beaming light of what a DC film could be.  By no means the best film of the year but definitely earned a spot in the top 5 of a lot of fans’ lists.  The trench scene alone perfectly captures Wonder Woman and showed an audience how little modern superhero films focus on actually actively going out of the way to save people.

Rating then: 9/10

Rating now: 8/10

 

7. Spider-Man: Homecoming – 8th July & 11th July

Saw this film twice, actually.  Easily the nest of the three MCU films to be released in 2017 as it once again focused on the littler stories.  No world-ending disaster plot or subjugation for all mankind. First time I went to see it the cinema ticket cut of “Spi” and “Home” so on the ticket it looked like I was going to see Der-Man Coming.  It has been referred to by that name ever since.

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: 8/10

 

8. Kingsman: The Golden Circle – 23rd September

Elton John.  Enough said.  What a great adventure from start to finish.  It was funny, sad and engaging all at the same time.  Though the start was a little too trigger happy with established characters in order to shoehorn in the American version. Elton John though.

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: Not out on DVD yet so would be unfair to judge *Sad face*

 

9. Thor: Ragnarok – 28th October

The weakest of the three MCU films this year, for me.  It was great fun and I enjoyed every minute of it… But as a trilogy the tone and pacing of this one doesn’t match Thor or Thor: The Dark World in any way whatsoever.  I get it was trying to be its own thing but at the expense of everything to happen prior to Ragnarok?

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: *Patiently awaits DVD release whilst listening to Led Zeppelin*

 

10. Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You – 6th November

Pure untainted nostalgia and a treat for the soul.  After 14 years of not being in the cinema Ash & Pikachu exploded back onto the silver screen in marvellous fashion.  I already did a review of this film which I’ll attempt to link in here but yeah, I really loved this one.

Rating then: 7/10

Rating now: I keep checking Amazon every week for a DVD release date but it never has one. This makes me sad.

 

11. Justice League – 19th November

From sheer nostalgic beauty to tainted nostalgic dread. This is another film I reviewed at the time of release but I will never stop hating this filth.  As a film, it was stupid, as a comic book story, it was badly done, as a superhero film it was insulting and there are no redeeming qualities in this thing whatsoever.  Avoid at all costs.  Linking the review in if possible here.

Rating then: 2/10

Rating now: Negative 2/10.  Not wasting any more time or money on it.

 

12. The Disaster Artist – 9th December

Oh hi Mark.  An interesting look into the filming process of one of cinemas greatest duds – The Room.  It was light and entertaining, silly and serious, and had the ever loveable Tommy Wiseau in the end credits.  It makes me so happy, and I love Lisa so much.

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: It’s bullshit, I don’t have it yet. It’s bullshit.  It is not! Oh hi Mark.

 

13. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 9th December

So what happens if you put Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan and Kevin Hart in a game of Jumanji? A lot of controversy and needless hate.  I liked this film.  It wasn’t perfect but give me it over a lot of other films *Cough*JusticeLeague*Cough* any day.  While not every joke hit the mark it got a few laughs out of myself and the people I was seeing it with (One a die-hard cynic of the thing) and all in all it was a bit of harmless fun.

Rating then: 7/10

Rating now: You know the drill by this point.

 

14. Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi – 16th December

Following on from the Force Awakens a lot was expected to be revealed in this installment of the Star Wars saga.  In the end not a lot was actually revealed and the film suffered from existing in the Star Wars universe.  Had it been its own one-off film, yeah, it could have worked, but as Episode VIII of a 9-part saga… It left a lot to be desired.  It wasn’t all bad though.  Mark Hamill gave the performance of his career and it was interesting to see Rey & Kylo Ren’s relationship grow throughout the film.

Rating then: 8/10

Rating now: Blu-Ray.  Surprise! Nah, I’ll be getting the DVD… Whenever that comes out.

 

Caught up in the now.  It’s interesting looking back at the films you saw over the space of a year.  Almost all of them [NOT YOU JUSTICE LEAGUE] were good and I don’t regret seeing any of them.  Barring the black sheep of the universe. There were of course some films I had wanted to see but never had the opportunity for one reason or another – Murder on the Orient Express, Blade Runner 2049, It, War for the Planet of the Apes  etc but nothing to be done about that now.

 

As for 2018 there are a few films I’m looking forward to seeing.  Avengers: Infinity War, The Incredibles 2, Black Panther to name a few but others I’m slightly dubious about… Looking at you Solo: A Star Wars Story.   I suppose there’s one way to find out though, ey?

 

Thank you for following my posts in 2017, next year will continue on as usual, posting on Wednesdays with reviews, look-backs, top 10s or whatever takes my fancy during the week. Should probably get around to finishing my reviews of the David Tennant Doctor Who Big Finish audio stories though.

 

Hoping you had a Qwark-tastic new year and are settling into the first year with an 8 in it since 2008.

 

Spectacled Observer. 🙂

Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! Review

Part One – Introduction

Ash meeting Pikachu for the first time.

As you’re probably aware by now, I’m a big fan of the Pokémon franchise and have been for a large majority of my life.  I have fond memories of my childhood playing the games, watching the anime, and as a special treat, once a year going to the cinema to see the newest Pokémon film!

So, now a 25 year old adult, when the 20th Pokémon film was revealed to be having special screenings in my local cinema, I knew what had to be done.  I made contact with my usual cinema-going friends and other fans of the franchise to find out if they wished to join me in seeing it but due to work and other boring commitments, all but one was unable to go.

Cut ahead to the 6th November 2017 and the day had arrived.  My friend, Gavin,  and I headed to Newcastle for the 4:30pm screening of Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You.  Gavin’s motivation for going to see the film was similar to mine, but unlike me he had fallen out of favour with the series during the beginnings of the 3rd generation (Ruby & Sapphire) and had not ventured very deeply into the franchise in over 10 years, so the nostalgia was a big part of his wanting to see it.

We took our seats in the surprisingly full screening and (as a sidenote, I overheard a tid-bit of a conversation going on in the row behind us about rumours of an Alolan Oddish debuting in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon – Watch this space) were soon greeted by trailers for Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon.  Seeing those on the big screen was enough to get me even more hyped for the film than I already was and then, quite suddenly, we were faced with a Pidgeot soaring through a valley and the adventure began.

I’ll try and keep this review spoiler free, sorry in advance if anything slips under the radar, though.

 

Part Two – Animation & Music

Ash & Pikachu look over the mountainous landscape of Kanto.

From the very first shot of the Pidgeot soaring through the valley and opening up onto the coliseum I knew we were in for a treat with the quality of the animation.  The Pokémon films always seem to be that little bit extra effort into making the films the best animation quality they can get at the time and this one really showed that off. The movements of the characters and the lighting effects were perfect throughout the entire film and the background, scenery and… “Vibe” of the Pokémon world were perfectly realised.

The stellar animation was only complimented by the music, which I feel was one of the stronger parts of the film.  The soundtrack alone stirred feelings of happiness and sadness at the perfect times and stirred into the happenings on screen so perfectly you were barely aware of it some of the times but you felt its effects all the same.

There’s a small melody throughout the film that I really liked, it had the chimes tingling through it and it played in the calmer moments of the film.  If anything, that’s the tiny but of music that’ll stick with me the most but it’s hard to describe from memory.  I’m looking through YouTube for it as I write this but having no such luck. May have been and English dub addition.  I’m sure I’ll find out in time.

Of course, I have to acknowledge the re-mastering of the original Pokémon theme song from the anime.  It was perfect, seeing Ash going through his early travels with Pikachu with the instant classic blasting throughout really drove home the nostalgic feelings in both myself and Gavin.  Is it better than the original? Nostalgia says “Of course not” but a more level headed opinion may give it some serious consideration.  Which am I? I’m on the fence.  I’d have to listen to it again to be sure but I’ve never been the most nostalgic person… For the most part.

 

Part Three – Story & Pacing

The story, while entertaining, was not perfect.  In recent years the Pokémon film stories have been very lack-luster, slightly forced or just plain boring (ie. Hoopa & the Clash of Ages, Zoroark: Master of Illusions & Kyurem & the Swords of Justice) so to have a pretty decent story in a Pokémon film was actually much more of a breath of fresh air than I anticipated.

Ash & Pikachu find the Rainbow Wing after seeing Ho-Oh at the start of their journey.

The thing I enjoyed the most of the story of this film was that it was simple.  There were no doomsday plots, or magic floating castles that ran on ancient gear-based Pokémon, or some madman trying to capture God for the badly conceived lols.  It was just Ash, Pikachu, Verity & Sorrel out looking for Ho-Oh after Ash was gifted the Rainbow Wing at the beginning of his journey.  Catching glimpses of Entei, Suicune & Raikou through their travels as the legendary beasts seem to be keeping an eye on Ash and the others to report their progress back to Ho-Oh.  Of course, there are other elements to the film than a simple search quest.  Cross, a trainer who believes the best way to train Pokémon is to be a drill sergeant and not a friend is out to find Ho-Oh, battle it, and prove he is the strongest trainer of all.

However, a legend says that should the Rainbow Wing be touched by the “Heart of Evil” it shall lose its colour and fail to summon Ho-Oh, enter Marshadow – the Generation 7 Ghost/Fighting Mythical Pokémon debuting in this film.

I praised the story for its simplicity, but it is also its weakness.  The motivations of the characters were a tad weak, I thought.  There’s nothing driving them forward other than the off chance they might possible have a slight chance of battling Ho-Oh at the end of it all.

As for the pacing, it is a tad rushed at the start, but I understand why.  It wants to get Ash up, out of bed and Pikachu on the clothes line getting dragged out of Pallet Town ASAP but there’s not a lot of breathing space for the first 5 minutes of so of the film.  That changes once Pikachu electrocutes the Spearow and he and Ash start to become friends.  The time lapse with the aforementioned re-mastered original theme song playing over it shows their friendship growing as time passes and then the pacing evens out considerably as it moves on from recreating the first episode of the anime into telling its own story.

Toward the end of the story there is an obvious call back to Mewtwo Strikes Back involving Ash & Pikachu.  It wasn’t really necessary and it didn’t really make as much sense as it did in the original film but it was a heartfelt moment nonetheless, though I totally and fully understand those people who disliked that particular moment of the film because it was admittedly a tad tacked on.  Anyone who has seen this film will know what I’m talking about, especially if they’ve also seen Mewtwo Strikes Back.

The pacing keeps a steady track of itself throughout the remainder of the film and no moment feels like it’s trying to fill in a runtime quota.  Even the calmer moments where Ash, Pikachu, Verity and Sorrel are travelling throughout Kanto manage to have relevance to the plot as they take those moments to develop the characters and enrich this new take on the Pokémon world.  Enrichment that really, really paid off.

 

Part Four – The Human Characters

Ash was, well, Ash.  Not much more to say.  Hot headed and eager to go on an amazing adventure, but with a good enough of a heart to make him likeable.  His arc in this story was one I did not see coming whatsoever and one I wish the anime had included a bit more of.  It’s no spoiler to say Ash wanted a Squirtle for a starter, failing that a Bulbasaur or a Charmander and Pikachu was a Pokémon he never even considered.  In the later half of the film when Ash is under the influence of the Heart of Evil he makes reference to this and almost destroys the friendship he and Pikachu had built up throughout the entire film, but their bond wins through and Pikachu saves him from the darkness of the real world. That isn’t a metaphor.

Sorrel & Verity

Verity and Sorrel’s stories were pretty simple but they did the job well enough.  Sorrel wanted to study legendary Pokémon and joined Ash & Verity to get a good look at Ho-Oh.  Raikou, Entei & Suicune were just icing on the cake.  Verity’s story was a tad more interesting as she had escaped from her home in Twin-Leaf Town, Sinnoh, to get away from a negligent mother.  In the end her seeing the bond of friendship and love between Ash & Pikachu inspires her to return home and work on her and her mother’s relationship.  Simple, but effective.

Team Rocket on the hunt for Entei

As for Team Rocket, well, they didn’t get built up to be much of a threat at all BUT I’m fine with that as they added some great comic relief which never felt forced or out of place. Jessie, James & Meowth got up to their usual antics but instead of going for Pikachu their focus was on Entei until they caught wind of Ash & co seeking out Ho-Oh & as a result shift their kidnapping schemes to the legendary phoenix. To disastrous, but amusing,  effect.

 

Part Five – The Pokémon & Acknowledging Death

Butterfree leaving Ash & Pikachu behind to live a new life.

One of the things I knew was going to happen when I ordered the tickets to see this film was that I’d be seeing a recreation of the scene Ash has to say goodbye to Butterfree.  I knew it was coming, but that did not stop the tears.  Gavin had been crying through a majority of the film at that point but it was the “Bye Bye, Butterfree!” scene that pushed me over the edge.  The Pokémon were handled really well in this film.  Ash was reduced to having only Pikachu, the Charmander line & the Caterpie line throughout the film as to not make it overcrowded, as much as I’d have loved to see the Squirtle Squad, I understand why they weren’t included.

Pikachu was undoubtedly at its cutest in this film, Caterpie was as eager as its anime counterpart to fly in the skies and when it finally did so, the goodbye scene was emotional and fantastically made all round and Charmander’s story got some improvements which effectively made it feel more genuine.

On the topic of Ash’s Charmeleon & Charizard obeying him as I know that’ll get fans riled up and throw hissy fits because it didn’t follow the anime to the letter.  My opinion is this – So what? It’s a retelling, not a remake.  Ash’s Charmander evolved in the anime he was at a point of skill where the resulting Charmeleon didn’t respect him and later Charizard only grew to do so after Ash proved he was capable of greater things.  It always niggled me in the anime that the cute little Charmasnder Ash saved from certain death would grow to resent him for so long, so to have their bond actually grow with the evolution made more sense to me.  Also, from a storytelling point of view should Charizard have shown no respect for Ash throughout the film it would have made the narrative very jarring and made the entire Charmander sub-plot pointless.

Lapras transporting Ash & co to Ho-Oh

 

Verity’s Piplup & Lapras were great additions to the film also.  It was great seeing newer generations of Pokémon taking up larger roles in a film set when there were only 150 known Pokémon so Piplup, and Sorrel’s Lucario, were very welcomed – Gen IV remake hints anyone?

In regards to Sorrel’s Pokémon though, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that we, as an audience, had definitive confirmation that a Pokémon can die of hypothermia. Sorrel’s Luxray succumbed to the cold after keeping him warm in a blizzard all night and we actually got to see the corpse.  For a kids film that’s pretty ballsy and I applaud them for not cutting it out of the dub.

Image found here: https://otakukart.com/animeblog/2017/08/31/find-raikouentei-suicune/

It’s always great to see Raikou, Entei & Suicune in the films too.  They tend to get overlooked in recent generations so it was nice for them to make appearances, especially in a film focused on Ho-Oh – even if Raikou’s inclusion was very little more than a glorified cameo. #JusticeForRaikou

 

Part Six – Fan Nostalgia

As a long time fan of the franchise having gotten into it during “PokéMania” in the late 90s/early 2000s I noticed a lot of very small references throughout the film.  Like how in the coliseum at the beginning the trainers battling were the trainers that made it to Mewtwo’s Island in Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.

Or, indeed, that the film seemed to be trying to have an appearance, however brief, of all of the original 149 Pokémon throughout the film.  From the inclusion of a Paras watching Ash & Pikachu train in the woods to a Voltorb impersonating a PokéBall in the end credits. That was a fun little thing to look out for throughout scenes with crowds in them.  The only ones I didn’t spot were the Dragonite line but I could have missed those before I realised what was happening.

I mentioned before, the recreation of the original theme song played a big part in the nostalgia of the film and was what set Gavin off on the nostalgic bender that we both embraced for the entire film.

The showing of affection that began it all.

One thing that I did pick up and thought “Hold on, that’s not right” in the film was near the beginning when Ash was battling Erika, the Celadon City grass type gym leader.  Once she was defeated (A feat anime Ash failed to accomplish) he commented that this would be his 3rd badge.  Hold on, wait a minute, 3rd badge? Third? Not sure if this was a dubbing error but a Google search will tell you Erika is the 4th gym leader in the Kanto region. Nit-pick, but a valid one.

As I said previously, I’m not the most nostalgic person for the Pokémon franchise because I never got out of it long enough for it to become nostalgic but there were a lot of moments which cranked it up to 11 in the nostalgia department, even for me.  Ash saying goodbye to Butterfree, finding and saving Charmander, even Ash & Pikachu meeting for the first time.  The stories I grew up with and cherished as a child

 

Part Seven – Future Hopes

My cinema ticket

Another thing I praise in this film is the lack of sequel bait.  With so many modern films (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) foreshadowing to events of future films is jarringly forced into the narrative, disregarding any kind of pacing and themes they had going in the film so far at that point.  So it was refreshing to see an open and closed story.

That being said, though, I’d love for the creators to follow this reimagining in future films.  I want to see how this Ash & Pikachu continue to grow in their travels.  Imagine seeing a alternate take on the Team Rocket/Mewtwo story? Or the strange new things that could evolve from the knowledge of 7+ generations worth of myths, legends & Pokémon.  It could really be a recipe for a unique take on the universe.

 

Part Eight – Conclusion & Rating

As you can probably tell, I like this film.  I like it a lot.  It made me laugh, it made me smile with sheer giddy joy at some points and at others it made me cry, seeing things that made me cry as a child 20 years ago.  It was a powerfully nostalgic experience and it had just the right amount of mix between new things and old things which really made it that much more special to me, as a seasoned fan of the franchise.

The franchise has a very dear place in my heart, I’ve come to meet new people because of it, made friendships that endear even to this day through our mutual love of those pocket monsters. I’ve had arguments about it, I continue to get as excited as I did 20 years ago when new information about new games is announced and I always go out of my way to see the newest Pokémon film in some way or another, even if I know it’s going to be a bad film… *Sigh* Hoopa… Why?

With this now behind me, my excitement for Pokémon Ultra Sun & Pokémon Ultra Moon has gone into the overdrive and in 9 days time, I’m going to journey back to Alola and take on Rainbow Rocket like it’s no one’s business. Who knows? I may take a certain cap-wearing Pikachu along for the ride.

 

Perfect for a long or short term Pokémon fan wanting to relive the glory days but not without its problems.

Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! gets my final rating of 9.5/10.  Nothing’s perfect, but this was damn close.

This is a very nostalgic Spectacled Observer signing out.