Imad for Movies' Year End Blitz

Welcome to Imad's Vague Opinion! 

Have a seat, preferably like so-

Jurassic World, amarite?

Let us begin with the thespians who dominated the year...

Actor of the Year 2015  .

Domhnall Gleeson

The Revanant, Ex Machina, Star Wars, and Brooklyn

2014 - Liam Neeson

Actress of the Year 2015  .

Alicia Vikander

The Man from UNCLE, Ex Machina, The Danish Girl, Burnt

2014 - Keira Knightley

The cast of Ex Machina is 2015 in a nutshell. 

Gleeson (Left), Vikander (Center). 

If there were a second place award for Actor of the Year, it might go to Oscar Issac (Right) but I'm not here to talk about losers. 

Across the Finish Line  .

The following is a ranking of films that were released (either limited or wide) during 2015. The final count as of 12.31.15, the natural deadline for such lists, stood at 46 film watched and will be added to as more films are watched. 

Please note that this ranking is relative and doesn’t necessarily represent how great a film is. 2015 had such a high volume of quality films, garnering more 10's on my IMDb ratings than any year prior. Filmmakers truly delivered on their promises and showcased the growing diversity of talent Hollywood has to offer. Even the franchise juggernauts were experimenting with timeless stories to fantastic results. They also still refused to let Matt Damon be abandoned. Even just the action in films this year might be the most thrilling in the history of cinema! 

Relativity in mind, the top ten is truly my top ten and the bottom four are, no doubt about it, the garbest of garbage. Here, now, is the…

2015 Rankdown  .

1.             Star Wars Episode VII – The Force Awakens****

2.             Mad Max: Fury Road****

3.             Spotlight***

4.            Kingsman: The Secret Service****

5.             Creed***

6.            The Martian***

7.            Me and Earl and the Dying Girl**

8.            The Hateful Eight***

9.            The Big Short***

10.          Bridge of Spies**

11.           The Man from UNCLE****

12.           The Revenant**

13.           Ant-Man***

14.          Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation****

15.           Jurassic World***

16.          Shaun the Sheep*

17.          Predestination**

18.          Furious 7****

19.          Inside Out**

20.          Spy***

21.           Avengers: Age of Ultron****

22.          Pitch Perfect 2*

23.          Experimenter*

24.          Run All Night*

25.          Straight Outta Compton

26.          The Walk

27.          Bone Tomahawk

28.          Sicario*

29.          Room

30.          Beasts of No Nation

31.           The Good Dinosaur

32.          Trainwreck

33.          Dope

34.          What We Do In the Shadows

35.          The Final Girls*

36.          Paddington*

37.          The Water Diviner

38.          Goosebumps

39.          Ex Machina

40.         Brooklyn

41.          Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

42.          Jupiter Ascending

43.          Terminator: Genisys*

44.         Black Mass

45.          Spectre

46.         Slow West

47.         The Night Before

48.         American Ultra

49.         Crimson Peak

50.          Chappie

51.           Everest

52.          The Gift

53.          Fantastic Four

54.          Pixels*

55.          Inherent Vice

56.          Mortdecai

(*denoted rewatchability)

2015 Yet-To-Sees  .

1.        The Lobster 

2.       Sisters 

3.       It Follows

4.       The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay 

5.       Steve Jobs 

6.       Carol

7.       Southpaw 

8.       The Last Witchhunter 

9.       Masterminds 

10.    Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser

11.     Victor Frankenstein

12.    Pan

13.    Cooties 

The Martian (2015) - A true sum of all its parts.

Directed by Ridley Scott (Kingdom of Heaven - Director's Cut)

Screenplay by Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods)

Based on the novel by Andy Weir 

Starring:

Matt Damon (The Departed)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (Serenity)

Jeff Daniels (Looper)

Jessica Chastain (Interstellar)

Sebastian Stan (Kings)

Kate Mara (We Are Marshall)

Michael Peña (Ant-Man) 

Askel Hennie (Headhunters)

Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire)

Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids)

Donald Glover (Community)

Benedict Wong (The I.T. Crowd)

Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings)

The Appeal  .

Ridley Scott is at the helm, Drew Goddard, fresh off of Netflix and Marvel's Daredevil (2014), is penning, and the cast is a swarm of A-list talent. I've not read the novel, and a plot centered around a stranded astronaut comes across as potentially clichéd and uninteresting. Add to that the red setting and how few filmmakers have been able to transcend the general blandness of the fourth planet from the sun and I'm left with a lukewarm intrigue towards the whole deal. These big names, however, had me at least curious. Can they all come together and fulfill their potential?

The Verdict  .

Absolutely. Set The Martian along side Sunshine (2006), Interstellar (2014), Moon (2009), and Serenity (2005) to join the upper echelon of modern space odysseys. 

A smooth mixture of Interstellar's scope and Gravity's (2013) realism without both films' tendencies to induce a bit of vertigo. The Martian is a film that yields a stirring and triumphant return to form for Ridley Scott. A film that captures the vastness of space as an instrument of our future rather than a gargantuan uncertainty. Stunning visuals are on display without a daunting hopelessness that usually accompanies disaster films. It's a pleasant change of pace. 

The science is exhilarating while also being relatable. There's a multi layered sense of humor, too. This survivalist adventure uses cinematic and dramatic limitations (censorship, time delay, gravity, trust) to great effect. With a depiction this sharp, you have to wonder what the point is of actually going to Mars if we can pretend this well that we already will have done it. (That last sentence works if you let it.)

The scenic details are a treat to behold as Mars is given center stage. The planet certainly needed as big a win as Scott did after the critical beatings they've both suffered (Scott more recently and Mars more consistently). This not only compensates for Ghosts of Mars (2001), Red Planet (2000), Mission to Mars (2000), Mars Needs Moms (2012) and John Carter [of Mars] (2012), but also, Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), The Counselor (2013), and Prometheus (2o12). That's some heavy lifting for a single film.

Andy Weir's novel provides a strong narrative paired excellently with Goddard's resonant screenplay to give the actors and Scott every opportunity to soar. The shifting perspectives feel natural on camera and the performances are provided by a cast whose resumes are wonderfully eclectic. At the heart is Matt Damon's terrific performance as the ever-quotable, stranded, resilient botanist, Mark Watney.  

The supporting characters are thankfully diverse. We get to witness a decent melting pot with the power dynamics between genders, cultures, and ranked officials are never insulting. It's nice to know, too, that there was an effort to be more diverse. Ejiofor's character (Surname: Kapoor) was definitely supposed to be an Indian guy and only wasn't due to scheduling conflicts. 

There also isn't a role in the movie that induces a face palm. Each person makes believable, rational decisions with good intentions. There isn't a slimy publicist, there's a rational publicist. There's no callous boss, there's a decisive boss with hard choices to make. 

While that means that there's no true villain here (not even Mars), it also show's that there doesn't need to be one. Bonus points for not forcing a romance to take center stage while still having a gentle touch of love floating about. On the whole we are given a clichéd story that avoids clichés. 

Lightness aside, The Martian succeeds at being a survival tale that never feels predictable. The run time is two and a half hours but you'll be so enraptured by the film that you'll hardly notice. 

Spotlight: The highlight of the film was most certainly the moment when Project Elrond's significance is explained by an attendee of Elrond's Council. Glad whoever forced Scott to keep that in the film succeeded. Sean Bean's Mitch Henderson shines bright in the film as a guy who's clearly seen the middle seasons of every drama on the CW and knows the value of honesty. I'm sure Bean's character would have had a more gruesome fate were he at any point in space but, fortunately for him, he is safely on Earth the entire 
time. 

And now for the placement...

2015 Rankdown  .

1.      Kingsman: The Secret Service****

2.     Mad Max: Fury Road***

3.     The Man from UNCLE****

4.    The Martian***

5.     Me and Earl and the Dying Girl*

6.     Ant-Man***

7.     Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation***

8.     Jurassic World***

9.     Avengers: Age of Ultron****

10.   Furious 7***

11.     Shaun the Sheep*

12.    Spy***

13.    Sicario*

14.    Inside Out**

15.    Predestination*

16.    Run All Night*

17.    Dope

18.    Straight Outta Compton

19.    Black Mass

20.   Terminator: Genisys*

21.    Paddington*

22.    What We Do In the Shadows

23.    The Water Diviner

24.    Ex Machina

25.    Jupiter Ascending

26.   Slow West

27.    Everest

28.    The Gift

29.   Fantastic Four

30.   Pixels*

31.    Inherent Vice

32.    Mortdecai

(*denoted rewatchability)