The month of January is now in the rear view mirror and you may have noticed the lack of January movie reviews on this blog. In fact, the only movies I even saw in a regular theater were "1917" and "Just Mercy," two 2019 releases that were expansions, not new releases. That means I didn't see any new January releases. But don't worry, it's not because I'm slacking. Yes, it's true that there was a huge lack of quality releases, but I was mostly preoccupied by the Sundance Film Festival. As such, I didn't get around to "Bad Boys for Life," "Dolittle," "The Gentlemen," or any of the four horror movies that were released. And I don't really know if or when I will. Regarding Sundance, I've lived most of my life within an hour of the festival, yet never even went to a single showing prior to this year, which is a huge injustice. My friend and I tried to remedy that last year, but failed epically. So we learned from the experience and remedied it this year, meaning I have four movies that I saw that I want to talk about. Also, since I researched a whole ton of Sundance films in order to figure out which ones I wanted to see, I do want to quickly mention a handful that I didn't get tickets for that I am looking forward to seeing whenever they get their regular theatrical or streaming releases.
WORTH
The first of four movies is honestly the one that I'm the least ecstatic about, but it's still a fairly interesting film that gives a perspective on 9/11 that I hadn't considered. It tells the story of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and all the controversies surrounding it when Kenneth Feindberg first set it up. Michael Keaton stars as Feindberg, with Amy Ryan playing one the people who helped him out and Stanley Tucci playing perhaps his biggest critic. All three of these people do an excellent job in their roles, yet it's Stanley Tucci that was the standout for me. He's adamantly against everything Feindberg is setting up, yet his approach is so calm and civil that catches everyone off guard, both the characters in the movie and me watching the movie. I think the biggest issue for me here is that the movie drags on quite a bit as it tries to fill two hours of run time, despite the content being better suited for a 45-60 minute documentary instead of a feature-length drama, so a lot of the sequences felt a bit repetitive. But it does also touch on the interesting subject of what the value of life is. Is it even morally right to assign a number value? Personally I'm used to stuff like life insurance and whatnot, so I didn't get the huge fuss. But the questions raised were still provocative.
KAJILLIONAIRE
This here was the highlight of my Sundance experience. It's funny, though. After my initial research, there was a reason why I put this on my list, but after we got the tickets and were waiting in line, I forgot what that reason was. Given that no reviews to these movies are available prior to their release here, I had literally no idea what I was getting myself into. And after seeing the movie, I have no idea how to properly describe this to you. The movie is just so wacky and bizarre that giving a brief summary doesn't do it justice. The initial setup involves a family of three who live by committing small heists and scams just to get by. All three are somewhat disconnected from reality in terms of their mental state. From that initial setup, the movie goes in so many strange directions, none of which I saw coming. Yet I loved every second of it as I was hysterically laughing the entire time. With this type of summary, "Parasite" is actually the best comparison I can come up with, although it is more comedy and less thriller, making something like "Napoleon Dynamite" another good comparison. The wackiness is infectious and there's enough heart in there to make you actually care. A24 purchased the rights to this. As soon as they release this, I will let you all know.
RELIC
If you've ever watched "The Babadook," this next film is the one you need to see. "The Babadook" is an excellent horror film because it's not just a creepy and intense ride, but it also has a lot to say about mental illness. Casual audiences complained about "The Babadook" not being scary enough or not revealing the monster. But I claim anyone who says that completely missed the whole point. I bring up "The Babadook" here because "Relic" is a horror film that follows the exact same formula. It's about a mother and daughter visiting their grandmother, who is not well. This old lady is both charming and sweet, yet extremely scary and crazy when she loses it. While the sequences of her chasing the two younger girls around the house do make for some classic horror sequences as it also combines reality with the supernatural, the movie is essentially a metaphor for dementia, meaning the themes here will last a lot longer than your average horror film if you give yourself enough time to digest it. The movie does leave some things open to interpretation, but lucky for me the director walked on stage afterwards and talked all about her movie, which helped make everything click. Gothic horror and some Eastern, Asian horror were some of her influences.
LOST GIRLS
Last but not least, the final movie I saw was perhaps the one I was most looking forward to. When I created my list of movies I wanted to see, this was at the top of the list and I was happy that we got tickets to it as it seemed right up my alley. The movie is a crime thriller focusing on the true story of the Long Island serial killer, a yet to be apprehended (or even identified) killer who preyed mainly on female prostitutes over a span of nearly 20 years from 1996 to the mid-2010s. What makes this movie fascinating, and quite somber, is that it tells the story from the perspective of the families who are missing their daughters/sisters. A huge injustice took place in this investigation because law enforcement didn't seem to care too much due to the victims being prostitutes. Yet the movie attempts to show that, even though perhaps these girls' lifestyles aren't the greatest, they are still human beings with families and lives who deserved better. In the previous three showings I saw, a loud round of applause ensued when the credits rolled. With "Lost Girls," no such applause took place because we were all in stunned silence with how sad and somber this is, which is a powerful sentiment in its own right. Netflix has the rights to this one and they will be releasing it in the U.S. on March 13.
OTHER MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO:
As I said in my introduction, in addition to talking about the four movies I saw, I also wanted to bring up some movies that I didn't see that I am looking forward to. There were 118 movies that played, making it impossible to see all of them, even if I was rich enough to do so. When you choose to see a Sundance movie, you're taking a big chance because you don't know which movies are the ones to see. I think my friend and I made four good selections, especially with "Kajillionaire," but here are some other ones that I will anxiously waiting their release.
- "Minari" -- This one wasn't on my radar at all, but it won the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance's top award, so it is on my radar now.
- "Promising Young Woman" -- This is the movie that I thought was going to win the Grand Jury Prize because this is the movie I was hearing the most buzz from. This is a thriller starring Carey Mulligan that apparently has a lot of crazy twists or some sort of shocking events that had audiences floored. So it now has my attention.
- "Palm Springs" -- This is a comedy led by Andy Samberg that broke the record for biggest purchase out of Sundance... by 69 cents. $17,500,000.69 was the official price tag. The movie is also a time loop movie surrounding a wedding. I'm a sucker for that type of movie. And this seems like a unique take on it with the romcom time loop angle. - "Save Yourselves!" -- A movie about a couple who decide to disconnect from the world and ditch their phones for a weekend, causing them to completely miss an alien invasion that happens. That premise alone is crazy enough for me to be intrigued. - "Shirley" -- I'm not exactly sure what this movie is or the genre it belongs in, but the premise involves a couple who moves in with a 1900s horror and mystery writer named Shirley Jackson, intending on starting a new life, only to be caught in a psycho-drama that inspires her next novel. - "Zola" -- A movie that is based on a tweet thread that went viral. That right there is enough to grab my attention as that's not often a source for movies. But said tweet thread was 148 tweets long and was about this girl's trip she took in Florida with a stripper named a stripper named Jessica. I need to make sure the content is safe enough before jumping right in, but I'm intrigued by the idea and the source material it came from.
- "Ironbark" -- This was a movie on the top of our lists when we were researching and planning out, perhaps because of the presence of Benedict Cumberbatch. It was also one that was really hard to get tickets to, which is part of the reason why we didn't see it. So the popularity factor seemed positive. It's also a true story about a man who helped the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program during the Cold War, so there's potential there.
- "Tesla" -- A biopic of Nicola Tesla. Biopics can go either way, but this has a good cast, led by Ethan Hawke in the lead role and is currently at 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. That's an extremely early score, but it suggests that the reaction was positive.
- "Amulet" -- My friend and I knew that we wanted to see a horror film given how many good ones have come out of Sundance. I think we made an excellent choice with "Relic," but "Amulet" seemed to be the other horror film that was getting strong buzz, so it's on my radar whenever it comes out. - "Bad Hair" -- This movie is another horror film we considered, although this one is more of a horror comedy about someone whose hair is haunted. I broke up in laughter when I read that premise and wanted to see it right away. The reaction was mixed, but the buzz was that it's a self-aware, B-movie type of horror film. So it makes sense that not everyone is on board.
- "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" -- This is a movie that is coming to theaters pretty quickly. Focus Features is releasing it on March 13. It's about two teenage cousins who embark on a journey to New York City following an unplanned pregnancy. Reading the premise made me think this could go either way in terms of quality, which is why we didn't pursue getting tickets, but so far it's among the large handful of Sundance films that have an early 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's looking quite positive at the moment.
- "The 40-Year-Old Version" -- This will be the last movie I bring up, but there's obviously a lot more. Feel free to search them out on your own and get excited for their releases. In regards to "The 40-Year-Old Version," it's about a New York playwright who becomes a rapper at age 40. It also took home the award for best directing at Sundance and also carries a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment, so that tells me it's worth looking out for.
Actual footage from my personal Pioneer Trek in 2004. Not footage from this movie
Pioneer Trek. It's a Mormon thing. That's the tagline of this movie, which is about the only thing the movie gets right when it comes to Trek. This is a by Mormons, for Mormons movie, as the filmmakers themselves have admitted, so I don't expect anyone who is a non-Mormon to even look at this review. Unless of course you thought by the title that this was some sort of Star Trek review. I mean, when I search this movie on Google or IMDb, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" is at the top of the list of things the internet thinks I'm searching for for. As fun as it would be to do a review of that movie, it's Pioneer Trek we're looking at here, not Star Trek. If you happen to be a non-Mormon and you are wondering what in the heck Pioneer Trek is, let me give a brief summary. In the early days of the Mormon church, which was organized in 1830, there was a lot of persecution. The early saints were driven from their homes on numerous occasions, causing them to cross the plains on foot, traveling from New York to Ohio to Missouri to Illinois and eventually to Utah over the course of about 15-20 years. A popular tradition today for Mormon youth is to do short reenactments of that where we dress up like pioneers and walk with handcarts for a few days. Pioneer Trek.
When I say brief summary, that's the extremely brief summary. Obviously the history of the Mormon church is a very long, complex history that I don't care to detail in this review, but the general idea is that they traveled west, often walking with handcarts carrying their stuff. I think in general it's a good idea to remember and honor your ancestors, regardless of what your current state of life is, so in the Mormon church, Pioneer Trek is one good way to remember the sacrifices that our ancestors made. Believe me, hiking in the mountains pulling a handcart behind you for just four days is tough work, even when your church leaders have everything meticulously planned out with plenty of food and water as well as ready medical attention if anyone needs it. You get to the end of that four days and you're ready to go back to your own house with your own family and live your normal life. But generally it's a very positive experience that makes you appreciate your ancestors who went through what they did over the course of several months or years. It was just a four-day reenactment for me. But for them it was life. If they ran out of food and water or got sick, there wasn't always a truck driving behind them ready to bail them out. They had to do their best and move forward.
I promise I'll get to this movie in a second, but the idea of this movie coming out sparked an interest in myself to go back and reflect on my personal experience with Pioneer Trek. The Trek that I went on with my stake was from June 29 - July 2 in 2004. I was 15 years old at the time. Don't be too impressed that I remembered those dates. All that means is that I saved my journal from that experience. I went back and read my thoughts at the time and watched the 55 minute DVD that they made of it, where someone took video footage of our Trek and added interviews of my peers talking about their experiences. I found it to be a really great experience to go back and read my thoughts and watch that DVD. I haven't done that in a long time, so doing so after so many years was pretty special. In fact, the pictures in this blog post are not of this movie that I'm reviewing. I took screenshots from my computer of said Trek DVD while I was watching, because I thought it would be fun to add those to this review. For me, this was a life-changing experience that I never forgot. Being only 15 years old at the time, it was a great way to shape my testimony. I especially loved listening to the testimonies of all my old friends from 14 years ago after this experience.
Actual footage from my Pioneer Trek. This is 15-year-old me
For sparking this desire to go back and reflect on my personal experiences, I really appreciate this movie. It also gives me a platform to talk about a personal experience that I had 14 years ago that I've not talked about much since. But if I'm being perfectly honest, a part of the reason why I immediately went back and watched my own Trek video and read my journal was to purge from my mind this awful movie that I had wasted $5 on. Normally I don't have a problem writing bad reviews, but in this instance I feel horrible doing so because these guys followed me on Twitter. I don't think it's because I'm a fancy movie person. I think it was because I was tweeting during General Conference and whoever was managing their Twitter page went about following people who were tweeting about Conference, which is a smart move on their part. Thus when they followed me, I tweeted to them that I was going to give this movie a shot and write a review of it. And they liked that tweet. So I decided to be a man of my word and fulfill my promise. Which means those people who made this movie could very well be reading this review right now. It's one thing to write a bad review that only your friends will read. But when the filmmakers themselves could be reading? Yikes. That is a bit intimidating to me.
All I can say if the filmmakers are reading this review is that I hope they appreciate honest feedback. I do keep in mind when it comes to locally made films that they're at an unfair disadvantage without the resources available to a normal big-budget Hollywood production. They often can't afford to hire major Hollywood actors or a professional Hollywood movie crew to make it look like a perfect Hollywood film, so it's unfair to judge in the same level. Even if said local filmmakers are rich and can afford to finance the whole thing, you can't spend $50 million making the movie because you're not going to make that much money in return. On the high on the things, "Meet the Mormons" made $6 million, while "The Saratov Approach" made $2.1 million and "Once I Was a Beehive" made $732,655. And those are movies that all had huge, positive buzz in the Mormon community. At the same time, though, all three of those movies were also made with the same handicaps as "Trek: The Movie" had. Or at least those last two were. "Meet the Mormons" is in a slightly different category with the Church itself making and financing it. But despite extremely low budgets, "The Saratov Approach" and "Once I Was a Beehive" were two quality films.
I think one of the biggest problems for "Trek: The Movie" was the idea itself. As you can tell, I loved my Trek experience. As do millions of other Mormon youth. But without even seeing any footage, how many of you would be intrigued at the idea of a Trek movie? I know I was concerned. That doesn't seem like a topic that translates well into an interesting big screen experience. I mean, most of Trek constitutes hours of walking while casually talking with your fellow handcart peers about life. How do you take that and transfer it into a traditional three-act movie structure that manages to keep the attention of the audience for an hour and half? I think the idea the filmmakers had was to take the idea and turn it into a Mormon version of a John Hughes-style high school drama. I suppose that sounds like an interesting idea in theory. But again. How do you translate that idea into an actual movie script that works? The correct answer is that you go talk to the people who put together "Once I Was a Beehive" and figure out how they did it. Because they talked the subject of Girl's Camp and somehow magically transformed that into an amazing Mormon film. In fact, that movie is one of the reasons why I had the confidence to purchase a ticket to this movie. Maybe it can work again?
Actual footage from my Pioneer Trek. I'm not in this picture
I suppose it could work with the right team in place. If you have an experienced Mormon filmmaker like T.C. Christensen who knows just the right strings to pull when it comes to pleasing his target audience, you could've made this work. But the director of this movie is a man by the name of Alan Peterson whose previous IMDb credits are highlighted by two extreme political documentaries called "Hillary: The Movie" and "Hype: The Obama Effect," both from 2008. So, political propaganda films to a Mormon teen movie? That's quite the transition. Not quite the experience I look for with films like this. And the screenplay was written by David Howard, the guy who wrote "Galaxy Quest"? Well that's an idea. Apparently he's done nothing since "Galaxy Quest," though, in terms of writing screenplays. And the other credited writer is a man by the name of Jongiorgi Enos, who acted in a few Mormon movies, such as "Brigham City" and "The Testaments," but this apparently is his first time writing a major screenplay. Now if this writing and directing team with no prior experience in this genre actually works out, then props to them. But when the entire screenplay is an outright disaster and the direction is awful, you look back at that and suddenly it all makes sense. They could've used a different writing crew on this one.
Now I don't know if any of the actors in this movie are going to find this review or even really care about the opinions of a random movie blogger. But they're the ones I'm actually going to compliment. Austin R. Grant, Joel Bishop, Stefania Barr, Clint Pulver, Ryan Mitchel Brown, Spencer Loftus, Avery Pizzuto and Spencer Marsh are the major players in this and they all did a fine job with what they were given. But it's that last part that's the problem. What they were given to work with. This is an awful representation of Trek from start to finish. It's so bad, that it's hard to come up with specific examples as to why, but I suppose we'll start at the top. This is supposed to be a Pioneer Trek for this whole stake. I know not all stakes are the same, but I imagine that if stake leadership made the decision to do a stake Pioneer Trek, there's going to be a lot of planning and preparation put into said Trek for months in advance. And if you have 100+ kids going, you're going to have more than five adult leaders going with them. And all the leaders are going to be well prepared as to what they are doing. Here we have the main leader who is written as an oblivious man to all of this, as if he was asked to lead a few days before, and the other leaders are exaggerated to the extreme.
So said leaders are taking this large group of kids up the mountains five minutes to a place where it looked like all the kids could walk home if they wanted to. Their handcarts are practically empty. And they aren't fed anything. Like, seriously. They walk for half the day and when it's time for lunch, they get a single orange. Then we have one of the drill sergeant leaders yelling at them every five minutes. This isn't Trek. Just look at the pictures I've provided of my real Trek. That's what Trek is. This Trek is just a joke. I don't know the personal backgrounds of these filmmakers who wrote this, but it looked like they had no idea what actual Pioneer Trek was like. At least I hope that's the case. If they ever volunteered as leaders on a real Pioneer Trek carefully organized for months in advance by stake leaders who wanted nothing more than to give the youth in the stake a life-changing experience, then that's even more embarrassing because at the very least this movie should've been able to capture what Pioneer Trek was actually like. I mean, maybe I just went on the most celestial Pioneer Trek ever, but I'd be willing to bet that anyone who loved Trek will watch this movie and be confused as to how off this is. It's the type of movie that could be watched for the sake of laughing at it for the wrong reasons, Mystery Science Theater 3000 style.
Actual Footage of my Pioneer Trek. I'm at the back right
Then we have the curious case of the youth involved. Now again, I think the actors themselves did a good job at what they were given, even though most of them looked like they were at least in their mid-20's as if this were a college Singles Ward going on Trek instead of youth aged 12 to 18. But how they were written was embarrassing. Granted, I can't say everyone involved in going to Trek with me back in 2004 were jumping for joy, but I think for the most part we all had a good attitude about it. All of these kids, and I mean all of them, were written as snobby, annoying teenagers who were dreading this experience. We had a long sequences of the exaggerated, mean adults lining them up to check to see if they snuck stuff in that they weren't supposed to, and all of them had candy, food and electronic devices hidden everywhere and were completely brokenhearted that they had to give them up. And nearly all of them continued to be extremely annoying throughout the whole movie. I think the only "normal" teenager portrayed in the movie was the girl who was playing the non-member. The rest of them were written as a exaggerated Mormon teenagers who drove me crazy, with little realism and way too many romantic subplots.
So yeah, when the whole setup is bad, that's a problem. This is supposed to be a good movie about Pioneer Trek, but the leaders were incompetent, the setup of the Trek itself was way off in terms of accuracy and all of the teenagers that are leading the way in this movie are written as exaggerated Mormon teenagers who all hate the idea of this Pioneer Trek. But OK. Fine. Maybe this is just a really poor setup. Maybe I'll get used to the characters and get something out of this movie in the final two acts. Well, they tried. The major storyline involved our main kid who was lacking in faith because one of his friends died a year previously. There was potential there. But even that fell flat. And the final act of the movie involves them getting lost in the woods because one of the girls got sick since these incompetent leaders decided to starve everyone, so the only normal leader had to drive her home in the truck, while leaving our rebellious main kid in charge of everything. Logically that had me screaming inside, dramatically it all fell flat, spiritually it felt artificial instead tear-jerking, and comedically it was just cringe-worthy. I tried to be patient with this movie, but it was bad to begin with and just kept spiraling downward to the point where I wanted to walk out.
After I left the theater, I didn't want to write this review. I didn't get the impression that many people had even heard about it and I certainly wasn't hearing any buzz after it's first week in theaters. I think this is a Mormon movie that will disappear from theaters rather quickly, so I was thinking that I could get away with just keeping my miserable experience to myself and no one would know any different. But there's a few reasons why I decided to write this. First, I said I would on Twitter after this movie's Twitter page followed me. Second, I honestly had a great time looking back and remembering my personal Trek and I'm glad I had a platform to discuss that for a bit before diving into the actual review, which is why this post is longer than my normal reviews. Third, if any of my other Utah friends saw these previews and were curious about this movie, I'm here to rescue you. Don't waste your time and money on this movie. There's plenty of other good Mormon films that you can watch, with "The Saratov Approach" and "Once I Was a Beehive" being my two prime examples. Yeah, I know, it's an uphill battle making this low-budgeted Mormon films, but for every one of them that succeeds, there's movies like this that don't make it. My grade for the movie is a 3/10.
In the last several years, there have been countless memes and false alarms claiming that today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future. Those frustrated me. Why would someone think it was cool to post a false meme like that. And it was almost more frustrating to see how many people fell for it. Anyone who knows Back to the Future knows that in the second movie Marty, Doc, and Jennifer go to October 21, 2015. Well, go look at your calendars. It's October 21, 2015. This time it's no false alarm. Today is the day that Marty McFly has arrived in the future. Come tomorrow, the future will be the past. Trippy, right? I've grown up on this trilogy and I never imagined that this day would arrive, but now it has. I've known for a long time now that when this day does arrive, I want to do a Back to the Future marathon where I watch all three movies in one day. This will most definitely be accomplished later on today. A few months ago, I decided that I wanted to do something in addition to that because this day was so epic. My initial idea was to write a review of all three movies and release the first one on the 20th, the second one on the 21st, and the third one on the 22nd. Instead, though, I've decided to something funner than that. I wanted to detail their predicted future and compare it to what has actually happened.
Before I get to that, though, I did want to quickly review all three movies in one paragraph so you get an idea of what I think of these movies. There is definitely a nostalgic aspect for me because I've been watching them since I was young. But yet as I continue to watch them, they still hold up as good movies today after 30 years. Time travel is always a fascinating subject for me and this is definitely the best time travelling franchise that I have ever seen. In fact, this is one of the best trilogies of all time. These movies are full of great characters that experience great character arcs. The acting is fantastic. There are an endless supply of quotable lines. The cinematography still stands today as amazing. The score is one of the best ever written. The stories in all three movies are exciting and fun. Finally, the trilogy leaves you with an amazing message that has literally stuck with me and inspired me for my whole life. If I'm going specifics here, in the first movie, Marty goes back to the time where his parents are in high school and accidentally makes him Mom fall in love with him instead of his dad and needs to try to set them up before he disappears from existence. Genius. The second gets extremely complex as we start in 1985, jump to 2015, go back to 1985, then end the movie in 1955 again. This could've ended up as convoluted, but instead is brilliant, especially when we go to 1955 and weave in a second story in as the plot of the first movie also goes forward. I loved it. Then we end up in the Old West in the final chapter. 1885. That one is a lot of fun as well.
Overall, if I were to assign grades to all three movies, the first would get a 10/10, the second a 9.5/10, and the third a 9/10. The trilogy as a whole is most certainly a 10/10 and one of my favorite trilogies of all time. It's right up there with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings in terms of my personal enjoyment. Now with that in mind, let's dive into my initial purpose of this post. Yesterday in preparation for this post, I went and watched the first part of Back to the Future Part II where they go to October 21, 2015, and I took notes on all the details of their future. Now I want to go through those things one by one, seeing what they got right, what they got wrong, what I wish they would've got right, and what I'm glad they got wrong. Those type of things. After I'm done, I would love your personal input on what points I may have missed, what I got wrong, or just your own comments on their future. Let's have fun with this day!
1-Trash as Fuel - At the very beginning of the movie when Doc comes to pick up Marty to go to the future, he goes to the garbage and pulls out a bunch of trash to use as fuel for the time machine. I don't actually know if this is the fuel for all cars or just Doc's time machine. I want to say it's the latter. But either way, trash is not used as fuel today for our cars. But wouldn't it be nice if it was? I spend way too much money on gas each month.
2-Flying Cars- This is the big takeaway from this movie. If you've only seen this movie once and only remember one thing, I can bet that flying cars is what you remember. No, we don't have those today. Instead, the direction our society seems to be going is electric cars. We're not at the point where everyone has one, but I personally think that's not too far away.
3- Correct Date - This is a simple one, but they did their research. October 21, 2015 is on a Wednesday, just like the movie said it was.
4- Perfectly Accurate Weather Service - Man this one would be nice. Apparently in the future, we were supposed to be able to perfectly predict the weather to the exact second. Nope. People still laugh at the weather man when he says there's a 90 percent chance of rain and it's sunny all day. Although most of us do look at a weather app on our phones, tablets, or computers, which is kinda what Doc did.
5- Post Office Not Efficient - After bragging to Marty about how awesome the future is at predicting the weather, he makes a quick remark that he wishes the Post Office was that efficient. This isn't elaborated on, so I don't quite know what Doc means, but our postal service is actually pretty good. I can order something on Amazon and have it arrive a day or two later at the exact time it says it's going to arrive.
6- Rejuvenation Clinics - This is a weird part of the movie. Right when they get to the future, Doc pulls the skin off his face to reveal a slightly younger face. While he's doing this, he's telling Marty about these rejuvenation clinics in the future that make you look young again. My expression while watching this is still similar to Marty's slightly creeped out look when he sees this.
7- Phone Booths - They're still there. When Marty first sees Marty Jr., Marty Jr. is walking up to a fancy looking phone booth to make a call. Technically these do still exist, but most of them died out when cell phones became a big thing.
8- Power-lace Shoes - These shoes that Marty puts on are quite fascinating. He puts his feet in, presses a button, and the laces automatically tighten to fit his foot perfectly. I want a pair of these. Now, this is one of those self-fulling prophecies in that they did create a pair of shoes like this in honor of Back to the Future, but for the most part we all still tie our shoes. No power laces.
9- Power Jacket - This is another awesome piece of fashion from this movie. This jacket adjusts to meet your arm length in just a push of a button and later in the movie when Marty falls in the fountain thing, the jacket automatically dries itself. In the real 2015, our jackets are a lot more boring and lame than that.
10- Horrible Sense of Fashion - Outside the awesome shoes and jacket that Marty wears, the fashion style predicted by this movie is hideous. I mean, the style today is much different from that of the 80's, but we didn't get quite as crazy and off-the-wall as they did. Although it will make for some fantastic Halloween costumes this year.
11- Newspapers Still Exist - Yes, they do still exist. So they do get some points for that. But journalism today is a whole heck of a lot different than it was even a few years ago, let alone in the 80's. A physical copy of the newspaper would not be how Doc gets his main source of news if he went to 2015, unless of course he could adjust that fast, which seems unlikely given how fast he adjusted to everything else.
12- Cubs Sweep the World Series in 5 Games - This also comes up a bit later in the future sequence, but it's first revealed when Doc hands Marty the newspaper. A few things to take from this. First off, apparently the system was adjusted a bit in this version of the future because you have to win five games, not four. That adjustment didn't happen. As far as the Cubs winning, the honest truth is that if Marty came to the future, the story would be that the World Series hasn't yet started. We're still in the round right before the World Series. The Cubs still haven't won the World Series in over a hundred years, but the impressive thing is they are still in it at this point. And there will be a baseball game played tonight involving the Cubs. Speaking of sweep, there also could be a sweep involving the Cubs tonight, but the Cubs might be on the opposite end of that as they are trailing the Mets 0-3. Only one team has ever crawled out of that hole, so the Cubs are needing a miracle if they are going to make Back to the Future's prediction come true. Stay tuned!
13- There's a Baseball Team in Miami - While on the subject of baseball, when Marty actually realizes that the Cubs have won the World Series a bit later on, he is more surprised when he looks at who they defeated. Miami. There wasn't a team in Miami back in 1985. This is one of the big things that Back to the Future nailed. A few years back, the Florida Marlins moved to Miami and became the Miami Marlins. So yes, there is a team in Miami now. Sure, they're in the same conference as the Cubs, so they wouldn't meet in the World Series. Also, they sucked it up big time this season. But hey! They exist. So let's not be too harsh here.
14- Slamball - Back to the newspaper that Doc gives Marty, another one of the headlines is that the Slamball playoffs begin. I don't know what Slamball is. It doesn't really exist. But someone needs to create this sport because it sounds pretty epic.
15- Queen Diana - The newspaper said that Queen Diana was supposed to visit Washington today. Sadly, Princess Diana never made it to the status of Queen as she passed away tragically in 1997. Rest in peace Princess Diana.
16- Swiss Terrorist Threat - Switzerland has had a long history of armed neutrality and while it was predicted by Back to the Future that this would change, Switzerland still stands as a neutral country. We've had our fair share of terrorist threats, but none of them have come from the Swiss. Let's hope that doesn't change tomorrow because this is technically the newspaper from October 22, 2015 that they are looking at.
17- The President is Female - The newspaper article here reads, "President says she's tired." Technically they don't specify that this is the President of the United States, but that's what I'm assuming they are talking about. Our current President is not female. Barak Obama did beat out Hillary in 2008's election and no female ran in 2012. But this could change soon as we have two females running for President right now, so I don't think they are too far off with this.
18- They Abolished All Lawyers - Marty is reading the paper and is shocked when he learns that his son was sentenced to 15 years in prison just two hours after his arrest. Doc responds that the justice system works fast now that they've abolished all lawyers. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but lawyers are still here and the justice system still works slower than a snail.
19- Jaws 19 is in Theaters - When Marty passes the theater, Jaws 19, directed by Max Spielberg,is the big name movie out. Luckily they only made it to four movies in this franchise. The fourth was so bad that they just stopped. There are a few interesting things to take from this, though. First is that the number one movie in theaters right now is Goosebumps, which is a monster movie. So they got the genre right. Also released this past weekend was Bridge of Spies, which is directed by Steven Spielberg. I don't know if Steven has any relatives named Max, but they do get points for predicting that there would be a movie out this weekend by a Spielberg. Also, in honor of Back to the Future this month, a Jaws 19 trailer was created. Check this gem out real quick before moving on:
20- Holomax Theaters - I'm giving them points for this one as well. When Marty looks at the theater, he gets attacked by this hologram shark. We haven't really decided to create movie technology quite like that, but in 2009, Avatar was groundbreaking in 3D and now most movies have the option of seeing them in 3D. We also have IMAX theaters that are becoming more and more popular and that even has the "max" in the name just like Holomax. So I'm calling 3D/IMAX theaters close enough for a win here.
21- iPad-esque Technology - In two separate occasions, side characters ask for a donation or a payment. One guy comes to Marty asking for donations for the clock tower. The other is Biff's cab driver. Both of them use devices that look a whole heck of a lot like iPads. The fact that they look similar is win enough for me.
22- No Waitresses in the Cafe - The 80's-themed cafe that Marty goes in has no waitresses to take people's orders. Instead there are these little computers there at the tables with menus and ordering capabilities. We don't know for sure that this is the case in every restaurant as we only see this one little cafe in the movie. But regardless, we do still have people working in restaurants. Technology like this with computer menus and whatnot is probably not unheard of, but it's at least not the norm.
23- Michael Jackson is Still Alive - The 80's-themed cafe that Marty goes into has a TV that is showing a Michael Jackson interview that looks like a current interview. The king of pop did have a controversial life, but I think it's safe to say that he is missed today. Rest in peace Michael!
24- Pepsi Perfect - Marty orders a Pepsi and it gives him a Pepsi Perfect. This here is another example of a self-fulling prophesy. I do believe that Pepsi decided to create Pepsi Perfect in honor of this day. Because, you know, why not?
25- Elijah Wood is in this Movie - Not really a prediction here, just a fun little fact here. One of the little kids at the gaming machine in the cafe is young Elijah Wood. Cool, right? Speaking of that gaming machine...
26- You Don't Use Your Hands to Play Video Games - Elijah Wood and his friend are trying to figure out how to play the archaic gaming machine in the cafe. Marty walks up, grabs the gun, and owns it in the game. One of the kids then says, "You have to your hands? That's like a baby's toy." In other words, gaming systems in this future required no controllers. This is not the norm, but it sounds awfully like the Kinect for Xbox. I'm giving them credit for this.
27- Hover Boards - We're working on them, okay? Yes, there have been various hover boards that have been created over the years, but we haven't quite mastered the hover board technology to the point where all kids ride one. We do have a bunch of fancy-looking skateboard-like objects that kids play with these days. I don't know what they're called. It's never been my area of expertise. But you get what I'm talking about, right?
28- Scenery Windows - At least one of the windows in future Marty's house had this window cover that projected whatever outdoor scenery they wanted. I'm sure technology like this wouldn't be that hard to create, but I don't think anyone really has the motivation to do so. I guess we like our natural window views, regardless of how ugly. This idea has been used in other futuristic movies, so maybe this aspect of the movie inspired others.
29- No Doorknobs on the Front Door - Jennifer is trying to escape the house, but can't figure out how because there are no doorknobs. Doc has to tell her to press her thumb to the plate in order to open it. I suppose no one had a real big problem with the technology of a doorknob, so we decided to go with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" motto in this situation.
30- Flat Screen TV's- Put another check mark in the win category. I don't know when the flat screen TV was invented, but they certainly weren't a popular thing when I was growing up in the 90's, but they are now and thus it's cool to watch Marty McFly Jr. walk into a room and start watching TV on their flat screen TV. He also does this thing where he watches six channels at once, which I do believe is a capability for some networks, but don't quote me on that. It's just what I see advertised during the NFL season when they are talking about NFL Sunday Ticket and how you can watch multiple games at once, or something like that. I'll move on now.
31- Dog Walking Machine - I don't know what to call it, but when Marty is outside, we get a quick shot of a dog being walked by some sort of dog walking machine, thus making it so the dog can get some exercise without the owner having to go with it. I'm kinda glad this isn't a thing. Going with the dog on the walk is a great thing for both the dog and the human.
32- Food Hydrator - I've always found this one pretty cool. They buy this tiny Pizza Hut pizza and put it in the Black & Decker food hydrator, tell the machine the level they want, and in an instant it's a giant, full-sized pizza. Dinner in seconds. Someone needs to contact Black & Decker and tell them to actually invent this thing. The fact that they don't really do kitchen appliances is beside the point.
33- Technology at the Dinner Table - Well they got the specific technology wrong. I'll get to that in a second. But the kids at the dinner table are too busy with their technology and thus don't really interact with each other at dinner. How many times in today's world have you been gathered at dinner or in the front room and everyone is playing with cell phones, computers, tablets, etc instead of socializing with each other? Yup, that's definitely a part of our culture today.
34- Phone Glasses - I told you the specific technology was a bit off. Now they do get some credit in my book for predicting that the phone technology in our day would be a lot more advanced. All of us have cell phones and most of us have smart phones. Marty would be fascinated when he found out all that a phone can do in our day because in his day all they did was call people. We do have bluetooth technology which allows some people walk around all day with an ear piece and others to make calls on the speaker in their cars. There's also Google Glass, which is kinda similar to what they have in the movie. But the specific idea of phone glasses isn't really a thing.
35- Video Calling - It's time to end this post on a positive note. When future Marty gets a phone call, it ends up being a video call that he pulls up on his TV. We don't make calls on the TV like this, but there are plenty of things on our computers like Skype and other things similar to Skype where we can make video calls like future Marty does. And not only are those things there, but they are actually very common. Yes, we still talk on the phones without the video part of it, but I say they get credit for this prediction.
Well, that's all folks! Now I know there's more that I missed and perhaps there are things that I said that aren't accurate, so please feel free to sound off in the comments or on facebook/twitter and brings those up. I'm just doing this for fun in celebration of Back to the Future Day. Or you can add your commentary on the things I did bring up that you find the most interesting. Like I said earlier, let's have fun this! And welcome to 2015 Marty!
Lost is by far my favorite TV show. No TV show like it. Just over two years ago when it finished, I was watching the finale live on TV. Shortly after I decided to create a list of the top 30 Lost deaths inspired by a YouTuber that had done the same thing. After watching his, I wanted to create my own. So I did and I kept it in an Excel file. Well, recently me and some friends decided to watch the whole series again, because some of them hadn't seen it all the way through. Watching it the second time through, I picked up on a lot more details and a lot more questions that I had were answered to the point where I have no questions about what happened. It all makes perfect sense to me. And there are so many reasons to love the show that I won't even go there. But during this process of rewatching the show, I also redid my list of top lost deaths, but this time I created it as I went, updating it as each death came up and switching up the order on occasion. I have just recently finished watching it for the second time and thus my list is done. If you have watched the series like I have, this will provide you with a good trip down memory lane as you go through this. If you haven't seen Lost, I recommend you skipping this because there are a ton of SPOILERS. Here is how I will do things. I will give a brief explanation about each choice and then provide you with a link to watch the death (embedding all of the videos in this case was too much of a headache).
30- Anthony Cooper - There are a lot of great actors in this show and Sawyer (James Ford) is certainly one of them. Haunted his whole life by the death of his parents due to the con man Anthony Cooper, it is rather awesome when we finally get to see him face up against Cooper on the island in the third season.
clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emMq_r1BrGE&feature=related 29- Cladia (Jacob's birth mother) - How extremely brutal it is for Jacob's "mother" to help a young mother give birth to twins, beat the mother to death with a rock, then raise the babies as her own. It puts an interesting spin on the Jacob / Man in Black story. Before it was all white and black, but after this episode you kinda feel for the Man in Black. All he wanted to do was go home and escape this lady, while Jacob is just willing to do what she says. So who is bad and who is good?
28- Danielle Rousseau and Karl Marin- You really feel for Alex in this one as she watches her boyfriend and mother get shot within moments of each other by Keamy's men. It's especially surprising to see Danielle get shot and killed just like that after being invested in her character since the very beginning.
27- Anna Lucia Cortez and Libby Smith - What lengths will a man go to in order to save his son? I don't know about you, but killing two innocent women is going a little to far. Too bad Michael came to that realization long after he did this. It's interesting to note that Lost probably wanted to keep Michelle Rodriguez longer, but she got herself into some trouble in real life and they had to write her off. The Libby death is devastating because her and Hugo had just begun to fall in love, but it gets cut short abruptly right before their first date. It was awesome that they got to have that date later on in the 6th season during the flash sideways.
26- Caesar - Caesar wasn't a huge character, but his death at the hands of Ben was pretty cool. "This gentleman and I are taking a boat. Anyone else have a problem with that?" No, you don't mess with Ben Linus. Unless of course you are the Man in Black, then you can do what you want.
25- Michael Dawson - As mentioned in #27, Michael goes really cold in the name of Walt. After he finally realizes what a horrible mistake he made, its great to see him come back and do his best to make up for what he did and die saving some of the main characters from the show.
24- Dogen and Lennon - Dogen was pretty boss and it turns out he knew what he was talking about. Sayid killing him and his translator Lennon was pretty brutal considering it directly caused the Man in Black to enter the temple and kill the people remaining there. And Sayid knew exactly what he was doing. That's him being in one of his "I don't care about the world" phases before he changes and tries to fix things again.
23- Ethan Rom - Ethan was a great season one villain as we are just beginning to learn that the survivors of the crash aren't the only ones on the island. The Charlie and Claire story line throughout the season is one of the best romances in Lost and it is rather awesome seeing Charlie get his revenge here after Ethan had kidnapped him and Claire. This fight beforehand in the rain is also pretty epic.
22- Boone Carlyle - This death is monumental as it is the first death of a main character. It also teaches us for the first time that Lost isn't afraid to kill off main characters, which keeps us all on our toes as we continue through the series. Watching him go right at the same time Aaron is being born is rather touching. Although not shown in the following clip, it is probably the most fitting scenario with the "Life and Death" song that always plays when a character dies because we experience a life and a death.
21- Martin Keamy - If we were to rank Lost villains, Keamy would certainly be up there. He is a great actor and does such a good job of being a cold-hearted killer that you hate and want gone. He actually died twice, the second time being in the flash sideways in the second season, but for purposes of this list, it will be the first death focused on. Ben gets his revenge over Alex, but Keamy had the bomb detonator strapped to him so when Ben couldn't resist, the freighter exploded killing Michael amongst others. I apologize for the following video and the music, but it's the best I could find for Keamy.
20- Charles Widmore and Zoe - If we hadn't figured it out before, this scene showed us that the Man in Black was purely evil in the way he killed Zoe. Years of being trapped on the island really got to him. In this the second to last episode, we also once again question if Ben is good or bad after seeing him shoot down Charles Widmore, one of the few remaining disciples of Jacob.
19- Jacob's "mother" and the Man in Black's body - This right here is a very critical scene in Lost. We once again feel for the Man in Black. All he wanted to do was leave the island and live a normal life. He had found a way to leave, but yet that was squashed when their mother ruins it all. He kills her in a moment of rage and thus Jacob gets mad and throws him into the heart of the island, thus in essence killing his old body and transforming him into the Smoke Monster. So who is the victim in this whole scenario? This scene is also cool because we learn who the "Adam and Eve" skeletons were that were found in the caves in season one.
18- Ilana Verdansky - This isn't the first or best death by dynamite scene, but it is a pretty good death. With the role Ilana had as a follower of Jacob, you didn't expect her to get blown up like that but she did and suddenly that was the end of Ilana as she got scattered all over the beach. Moral of the story: be careful with dynamite. Don't carelessly throw your bag on the ground when you have four sticks of it.
17- Daniel Faraday - One of the more tragic deaths on the island right here. Daniel was awesome and Eloise his mother was a very creepy lady. And how about those last words. "You knew this was going to happen. You always knew. But you sent me here anyways." "Who are you?" "I'm your son." Ouch. That's gotta hurt.
16- Neil (Frogurt) - Frogurt wasn't a main character, but nonetheless his death was one of the coolest deaths. It was a cleverly written death. Right as he is complaining about fire, specifically right when he says the word fire, he gets shot with a firey arrow. I mean, come on. How awesome is that?
15- Gary Troup - Who? Gary Troup was the first death shown on Lost. Yup, the guy that got sucked into the engine, causing it to explode. That was a pretty boss death and I bet you didn't know that the writers of Lost were creative enough to give that guy a name and a background that is mentioned in passing. Check him out on Lostpedia to learn more about him. In the meantime, enjoy this awesome 15 second death clip.
14- Goodwin Stanhope - Goodwin was the less epic version of Ethan for the back of the plane. He was an "other" that is quickly forgotten once you get passed the second season, but despite being an unimportant character, the manner in which he died was rather epic. Anna Lucia was definitely boss during this fight. The only clip of this I could find was from the YouTuber's countdown that I mentioned in my introduction. My list is much different, so just ignore the number 27.
13- Ryan Price and Tom Friendly - This scene here is quite the funny and awesome turn of events. Stuck in quite the sticky situation, Hurley comes in and saves the day by running over Ryan Price, Sayid then snaps the neck of the other unnamed guy, then Sawyer shoots Tom Friendly after he had surrendered. Way to go Lost writers!!
12- The Pilot - Frank Lapidus was supposed to be the pilot of this plane, but lucky for us he wasn't because his character was awesome and what happened to this pilot was gruesome. When I first saw this part, I jumped pretty good as he was snatched from the cockpit by the Smoke Monster. Our first of many experiences with the Man in Black in his black smoke form leaves the pilot all bloodies up in the top of the trees. Yikes.
11- Leslie Arzt - Ok, I mentioned back in number 18 that despite Ilana's awesome death by dynamite it wasn't the best death by dynamite. Here in the season one finale is where we see the best death by dynamite scene. The crazy science teacher is lecturing the group about dynamite safety when it explodes and send him all over everyone. Then comes the epic line by Hugo, "You've got some Arzt on you." Haha!
10- Mr. Eko - The death of Mr. Eko was a very sad death because Mr Eko was such an awesome character and it was hard to see him go. He was really only there for just over a full season, but yet he was a character that everyone really liked. Combined with that I put this death so high because it is the first major clue we get about this mysterious Smoke Monster thing that we are really confused at this point in the third season. When you watch it over again knowing what you do about the Man in Black, this death becomes quite epic and foreshadowing. You realize that the Lost creators weren't just drunk. They knew what they were doing and where they were going with everything.
9- Jacob - You hear so much about Jacob throughout the whole series and one of the many questions you have is that is he or is he not real? The season five finale comes around and you realize that he is indeed a real person guarding this island. At the end of the episode when Ben and the Man in Black confront Ben, you don't think Ben is going to follow through with what he's been asked to do my the Man in Black, but the shock factor hits you pretty good when Ben actually does kill Jacob right there and suddenly this character who has been spoken of for so long dies in his first episode appearing.
8- Alex Rousseau - This is such a brutal scene that makes you really hate Keamy. It is really well acted and extremely emotional. You feel bad for Ben and can empathize him when he kills Keamy later on, despite the consequences that came with killing him. And how terrible is it for the last thing your daughter hears you say is that she doesn't matter to you? Ouch. Poor Ben. You thought the whole scene that Alex was going to make it, but the shock factor his really hard when she doesn't.
7- Juliette Burke - Getting close to the top 5 deaths, we have the very sad death of Juliette. Season 5 was a little odd and pointless at times. Specifically the 1977 storyline - the 2007 storyline was great. But one good thing that did come from that storyline is Sawyer and Juliette. Some of the best acting and best chemistry come from those two, the finale being especially great. The fantastic acting between the two when Juliette is slipping down the well is what makes this scene so sad and emotional.
6- Sayid Jarrah - One of the greatest aspects of Lost, if not the greatest aspect is the character development of the main characters in the show. Sayid's progression is one of the most interesting storylines along those lines. It is great to see him go out as a hero in the way he did when he died after just recently in season 6 as well as season 5 being this cold hearted killer who doesn't care about anything. Great progression for him.
5- John Locke - This scene is quite amazing because it doesn't really hit you as extremely emotional and sad until the fifth season finale a few episodes later and I think that is brilliant writing. You get the impression in the episode that despite being murdered in a cold hearted way via Ben (it seems like a lot of the great Lost deaths are at his hands), he gets resurrected by the island. Nope. It turns out it was just the Man in Black taking his form and suddenly you are saddened at the deaths of one of the greatest characters on the show.
4- The Man in Black - The unnamed brother of Jacob is referred to as the Man in Black. It is revealed in the final season that Jacob got angry at his brother after he murdered their "mother" and shoved him to the heart of the island, thus transforming him into the Smoke Monster that has appeared in the show since the pilot (see death #19). When Desmond unplugs the light in the heart of the island and turns the Man in Black into a mortal man once again, the ensuing battle between him and Jack is quite awesome, finished in an epic way as Kate comes to the rescue and saves Jack's life. It turns out that Jack never fully recovers from injuries he sustained in this fight.
3- Jin and Sun Kwon - If there is one scene in all of Lost that would make you cry, this is the scene. There are several good love stories in Lost, but I think that this one is the best and it gets topped off in this scene when Jin shows a true act of love. They spend all of season five and most of season six apart from each other, a total of three years in the storyline of Lost. Shortly after reuniting they find themselves in the sub trying to escape the island only to find out in is a trap. The whole group gets saved from death by Sayid's sacrifice, but the explosion traps Sun. Sun begs Jin to save himself, but instead he decides to stay with her and they die together holding hands. How romantic!
2- Charlie Pace - The dearly beloved Charlie was easily one of the best characters on the show. Him and Claire also would contend for best love story in Lost. With this said, seeing Charlie get killed off was really sad and devastating. Not completely surprising, though, as they built up to this moment for a good part of the third season. I had this death listed at number one for the longest time until I decided to change my mind at the last moment.
1- Jack Shephard - As I just barely mentioned, I didn't originally have this as the top Lost death, but after going through and watching Lost for a second time and contemplating on the series, I had to put this as number one. Many people didn't like Lost and were frustrated at how it ends, but I would strongly disagree with them. I personally believe that the ending to Lost is really epic and I don't know if I will ever find a TV series that I like more. Now is not the time to discuss the details as to why, but if you wish to discuss this with me on a personal note, feel free to do so. The death of Jack is incorporated into the final scene as they flash back and forth between him dying and the reunion in the church and so my choice to put Jack as number one is because both of those scenes together, not just the death of Jack. But in speaking of the death of Jack it is totally awesome they did it. Lost begins with Jack opening his eyes while lying in the bamboo field, Vincent the dog walking up to him and licking him, then Jack getting up and wandering out. It ends by him wandering into the bamboo field, lying down, Vincent walking up and licking him, then finally ending with Jack closing his eyes. Very well done!
In case you didn't get the memo, Hollywood is on a Superhero craze right now. Now there has been Superhero movies for a long time, but until the new millennium Superman and Batman were the only Superhero movies that were really popular. X-Men in 2000 and Spider-Man in 2002 were really the two movies that changed that and ever since those two we have had ten years of what seems like non-stop Superhero movies. And it's not about to stop anytime soon. Next year we get another try at a Superman movie and if that works out well, Batman may get another reboot in order to attempt a Justice League movie. And of course Avengers phase two will begin as Marvel has already announced it's lineup of Iron Man 3, Thor 2, Captain America 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man. We'll also get the sequels to the newest Spider-Man reboot and I'm sure plenty more. With all that we've experienced and all that we are now looking forward to, I feel it's time to pause and reflect for a second on my personal favorite Superhero movies thus far in the form another top 10 list. Like always, these selections are my personal choices, so don't hurt me if you disagree.
#10- Spider-Man 2- There was much debate in my mind over this choice. The first nine spots were pretty easy to pick, but in my mind there was a bit of drop off after those. I contemplated The Incredible Hulk or Captain America. I also thought about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) since that was one of my favorite movies as a child. I even thought about putting Megamind here, but in the end I decided to give some credit to Sam Raimi and his Spider-Man trilogy. Yes, X-Men came two years earlier and had decent success, but it was probably Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in 2002 that turned everyone's heads in Hollywood as it earned 403M here in the states. That total at the time was not only the highest grossing Superhero movie of all time but the fifth highest grossing movie ever behind only Titanic, Star Wars, ET, and Star Wars: Phantom Menace. Yes, the trilogy had it's problems with questionable lead roles, a story line that strayed from the comics quite a bit, and an awful third installment, but I still enjoyed the first two and the second one especially deserves credit as I thought it was a really good movie with a movie story and an amazing villain.
#9- The Dark Knight- WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?! The Dark Knight comes in at number 9 on the list? Am I on drugs? I realize that this will be a controversial selection and I risk the chance of getting stoned because The Dark Knight is at least in the top 3 of 95% of people's favorite Superhero movies. But not mine. I had issues with this movie. Main reason is that it was really dark. Nothing happy happened the whole movie as it was just bad luck after bad luck after bad luck for Batman, ending with him being seen as a criminal or a villain in the eyes of most people from Gothom. The other main reason was what they did with Rachel. First off, the casting change from Batman begins. Sure, Katie Holmes leaving wasn't really in their control but they could've cast someone a lot better because Maggie Gyllenhaal was awful. Second, they blew her up after building up that romance story line for a movie and a half. It kinda shows that Nolan sucks with romance in his movies. But with that said, this wasn't a bad movie. I did enjoy it as you can see it made this list. I just thought it was a bit over-rated as it is not good enough in my eyes to be any higher than this.
#8- Iron Man- I don't imagine there being much question with this choice. Now I am not a huge comic book fan, but I know enough to say that Iron Man isn't exactly up there in popularity with other superheros like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, so this movie being such a big hit is impressive. Robert Downy Jr. made Iron Man legendary as his performance was brilliant. The second movie had it's issues, but the first movie was an all around good movie in addition to Downy Jr.'s excellent performance and definitely deserves a spot on this list as one of my favorite superhero movies.
#7- Thor- Now I know that this will be my second controversial pick at least because for some odd reason, a bunch of people hate Thor, but I really liked that movie. It was my favorite of the pre-Avengers movies. The movie had a great story line with amazing special effects. Thor was great as a superhero. He was both funny and awesome and his character went through great character development. Loki was one of my favorite villains and the scenes between him and Thor were fantastic. Natalie Portman as Thor's girlfriend was a useful girlfriend I thought as opposed to the girlfriends that do nothing but get captured and need rescue. Can I also compliment an excellent cast that includes Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings? Thor defended.
#6- The Incredibles- I didn't think about including this one at first, but when I thought of it, I couldn't leave it out. This list isn't my favorite Superhero movies based on comic books. It's just a list of my favorite Superhero movies in general and the Incredibles certainly fit the bill. It's funny when I think about Pixar movies they have recently been attempting to join the sequel kick, but doing sequels of movies that don't make sense. Of course the Toy Story sequels worked out brilliantly, but Cars 2 was a disaster. The Monsters Inc prequel Monsters University doesn't make sense in my mind and neither does a Finding Nemo 2 if they go forward with that. Pixar needs to realize that if they are going to do a sequel kick, an Incredibles sequel would make the most sense. This movie was just brilliant.
#5- The Amazing Spider-Man- As you will shortly see, I was a huge fan of all three Superhero movies that came out this year. It was really a good Superhero movie year. As far as The Amazing Spider-Man goes, I was really skeptic for a long time. It didn't seem right to reboot Spider-Man after just five years, but it happened and it turned out to be a great decision. Yes, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies were groundbreaking and all were all box office monsters, but this version was surprisingly better. It was a lot more true to the comics. Andrew Garfield is a much better Spider-Man than Toby Maguire was. And Emma Stone. Oh my goodness. I am in love with that girl. She was so awesome. Also, while a lot of Superhero films are nearly 100 percent action oriented, this one had depth and character rather than just forced action. And when the action did come, it was well. Being cliche, this movie was amazing.
#4- Superman- Yes, the 1978 version. You honestly can't create a list like this and not include this classic on the list. It was pretty much the father of Superhero movies. Sure, it wasn't the first one, but it was the first hugely popular one earning 134M back in 1978 which is equivalent to 450M today after adjusting for ticket price inflation. No this isn't a list of most well done Superhero movies because it wouldn't necessarily make that list, but this is a list of my favorite Superhero movies and I do really enjoy this one. It was one of my dad's favorite movies to watch and so I thus watched it a lot and it is enjoyable movie and certainly a classic. Classic to the point that when you think Superman, you think of Christopher Reeve and when you think of Christopher Reeve, you think of Superman. He is Superman. Superman is a tough comic book character to adapt to the big screen and make it done well, but I think this one did a good job and so far no other Superman movie has come close to topping this original Superman movie.
#3- Batman Begins- There have been a lot of Batman movies made, but now that Christopher Nolan's trilogy is complete, we can officially crown Nolan the Batman King. He totally rocked this one. True I was mildly disappointed with the second one, but it still made this list and so did the most recent one (a precurser of things to come on this list), meaning that the whole trilogy made my list of favorite Superhero movies, which is impressive. It's also rocked the box office as The Dark Knight was the second movie to ever pass $500M domestically and now The Dark Knight Rises is closing in on that list as well. Batman Begins was a very good start to the trilogy and provided a great message that just sat well with me. While not as epic as the Joker or Bane, this movie still provided great villains with Liam Neesan and Cillian Murphy portraying Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow respectively. It also had a great story arch that just left me feeling great afterwards and a great romance story line that sadly got ruined in the second one, but was great in the first.
#2- The Dark Knight Rises- I just gave praise to this trilogy, so no need to do that again, but I must say that in my opinion, The Dark Knight Rises was the best movie of the trilogy. Sure there were several things negative things that I could point out about it, but the level of epicness certainly outweighs those negatives. It's still early in it's release, so I won't say much right now so that I won't spoil anything if you haven't seen it, but this movie was just so epic. And by epic, I specifically mean the ending. I praise how Nolan closed this. I praise Bale for being a great Batman throughout the trilogy as well as Michael Cane and Morgan Freeman for their excellent performances throughout. Lastly for this specific movie I praise Tom Hardy, Joseph-Gordon Leavitt, and Anne Hathaway for making this movie what it was.
#1- The Avengers- I'm sure you knew by now that this was on top. Either you talked to me, read my Avengers review, or noticed that this movie wasn't in places 2-10 and thus had to be number one. This movie was just so totally awesome! Ever since Nick Fury appeared at the end of Iron Man, I knew that The Avengers movie was going to be a thing and I was very excited about that for the whole four years that I had to wait. Making it that hugely anticipated and making five movies to build up to it was certainly a high risk thing, but in this case high risk turned into extremely high reward as it was just as epic and possibly even more epic then I even thought. Seeing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk alongside the SHIELD squad, specifically Hawkeye and Black Widow, was so awesome because they all did so good. I went and saw it four times in theaters and loved it every time. In fact, I just recently saw a trailer for it in the dollar theater movie that I went to and got excited again. Definitely the best Superhero movie of all time and also easily one of my favorite movies of all time in general. Go Avengers!!
I don't know about you, but personally the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was a decently big part of my childhood. It was the game system that I grew up on. I remember when I was five or six on Christmas Day walking in to the front room before I was supposed to and learning that Santa had given us a Super Nintendo. I was very excited. So excited that I ran into the kitchen where everyone else was beginning to gather around the table to eat breakfast and announcing to my family that we had a Super Nintendo. They were all annoyed that I had spoiled it to them (I was one of the younger ones), but I couldn't help myself. So growing up that was our gaming system. We never had a Sega, N64, Playstation, or anything else. Just that Super Nintendo. Now yes, we would eventually get a Gamecube and a Wii, but that wasn't until make later. So to this day, the Super Nintendo is probably my favorite gaming system because it brings back a lot of great memories and the games on it are just so fun in a classic and non-complex sort of way.
So what is the point of this you are asking? Well, one of my favorite games was Donkey Kong Country and recently I have gone back and played it again. On my laptop with a SNES emulator. So its not quite the same, but it is still way fun. After beating it again, I made the decision to record the end part of the game. So in answering the question of what is the purpose of this, the real point is to unveil my two new YouTube videos I have just unloaded of me doing just what I mentioned. Recording the end credits. Now you may find it silly or boring, but I actually enjoy watching the end credits of Donkey Kong Country. One, it is brings great feelings of accomplishment. Two, the classic SNES music is just great. And three, its more than just credits, there is also a parade of characters and a lecture from Cranky that makes it mildly entertaining. So here it is. The end credits of Donkey Kong Country. Maybe it will bring back great memories and feelings of nostalgia as you watch. Or maybe it will just give you something to make fun of me for. 'Adam, you really just recorded the end credits to a video game and put them up on your YouTube account? You are an idiot!' But anywho, the deed is done and I am sharing. :) Here it is:
Now you may recall that I did in fact say I had two videos to unveil. Yes, after beating Donkey Kong Country, I decided to take on Donkey Kong Country 2. The second game isn't quite as epic and classic to me as the first one, but it is still a fun game. Donkey himself is not a playable character, as the story line is that he's been captured and you have to save him, but Diddy and Dixie are both fun characters. Now the second game is also slightly more complex and more difficult. The end credits are also a lot more elaborate than the first as you will see. But like I said, the game is still fun! Here is the end credits video of it that I have posted:
So there we go. That will be a wrap for today. Yes, I am just promoting my videos with that and I am perfectly ok with that. While you are checking these out, you might as well my other YouTube videos. There is a total of 7 of them. My channel is alienator345.
