The Good, The Bad, The Crushingly Disappointing, and The Tragically Overlooked.
I never imagined things could get much worse than last summer but where 2015 featured a landscape of well crafted but unremarkable blockbusters, 2016 failed to even put forth the well crafted part.
While slogging through these films was a substantial chore, there’s something about watching audiences refuse to reward the laziness of the film business’ use of glossy visuals as a gilded coating for hollow and structural messes. Perhaps it would have been sweeter had they not still been more successful than even better films but I digress.
Summer 2016 has winded down and these are the results.
The Good
Captain America: Civil War
The flick to kick off the season and the best of the lot bar none. Summer 2016 may have turned out a dud but “Captain America: Civil War” managed to give it a powerful kick off by being the thoughtful, low key, emotional and self assured polar opposite of the garbage clogging this season’s arteries.
In scaling back the stakes from their typical apocalyptic levels, the film sells an impactful human driven drama with larger than life figures dealing with the consequences of blockbuster action rather than lavishly exacerbating the scope of destruction for the sake of spectacle, becoming a serious deconstructive study that its genre is in desperate need of at the moment, without forgetting the humor and heart serving as the glue that holds its franchise together in the first place.
It offers flashy and entertaining superhero action getting by on creativity rather than scale but still manages to pay full service to its hard hitting conflict that it never cops out on by providing an easy answer to, even up to the moment its credits roll.
Best Superhero film ever made? Perhaps not but pretty damn close.
Star Trek Beyond
With the general lack of planning in regard to this franchise apparent, “Star Trek Beyond” was more or less a write off until it somehow defied all expectations by somehow being actually good.
Justin Lin’s trademarked utilization of characters and motivation as a driving force for action adventure set pieces that helped to elevate the “Fast and Furious” movies lends itself perfectly to the “Star Trek” franchise. By letting his sensibilities come to the forefront while putting the self reverence of its own mythology into the background, the resulting film comes together as an excellently balanced and lightly brainy crowd pleaser providing the perfect celebration of what “Star Trek” was conceived as to begin with.
“Star Trek Beyond” is quite possibly one of the biggest surprises of the year and a shining beacon of big budget Hollywood blockbuster genre filmmaking, along with being a superior cinematic entry of its own franchise.
The Conjuring 2
At a time when high school kids can cobble together unscripted found footage on triple digit budgets for wide theatrical release, the notion that anybody would put any form of technical effort into horror, let alone actual artistry and human warmth, is about as sadly futile as it is laudable.
Finding the perfect presentation of skeptical views into a faith driven subject matter that both feed into the best elements of horror isolation, “The Conjuring 2” is an oasis in the desert that is the state of modern quality horror and proof that James Wan is not only destined to be the next big name in horror but a master storyteller in general.
The extra money going into this sequel to an impressive original goes right where it needs to in the name of enhancing the intimacy and humanity of the characters, which in turn ratchets up the thrills when they come into swing, questioning the faith and notions of its religious subject matter without outright disbelieving it.
Best of all, it knows that the best way to make this a franchise was by playing loosely with the true story it’s based on, effectively portraying the Warrens as down to earth humanistic folk heroes. Looking way more forward to a 3rd one of these led by Wan than another “The Ring.”
The Bad
Nine Lives
What more can really be said about this thing that its own existence doesn’t proclaim for it?
“Nine Lives” is the first bad movie I’ve sat through in years that I would honestly wholeheartedly recommend. Especially if you can find it now. If there’s a theater still playing this, the family crowd has moved on far passed it meaning you could actually demo a drinking game for it before its video release.
Independence Day: Resurgence
Living proof that excuse-plot driven special effects extravaganzas are on their way out from commercial favor, until “Transformers 5” makes a billion dollars and sucks all joy out of my life in the process once more, “Independence Day: Resurgence’s” liveliness and sense of humor can’t quite cover up how little is going on under its own surface.
While the light tone is admirable and the film never quite drags, its hollowness is too obvious to ignore and throws out a fairly intriguing setup regarding the development of a potential proto-utopia faced with a threat to its existence in favor of the same blockbuster formula of CGI explosion that forsakes what little sense of character developed up to that point.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I guarantee you that when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird started writing the original and one of only 2 good incarnations of this franchise in comic book form, they never believed this series was meant to exist for more than a few years. This is partially because they probably knew it didn’t have that kind of longevity.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” has gotten by on being nothing but a money maker for over 25 years and “Out of the Shadows” can’t even fall back on that defense. This franchise is a relic of decades past that was lame and pandering even at the height of its popularity. Let it die.
Crushing Disappointment
Pete’s Dragon
Some will be surprised to see this on the list but I have my reasons, most of which will be elaborated upon in a special post to come later this week.
In short for the present however, “Pete’s Dragon” is disappointingly schmaltzy and inferiorly derivative of movies old and new; not just the classics that it clearly takes inspiration from but more modern less obscure and more unique ones that trump it easily.
I acknowledge that while it’s nevertheless decent enough watch for children, as a sucker for the “Boy and his pet monster” concept, I was more or less underwhelmed by a dramatically inert and manipulative production that skates by only on a timeless feel and thoughtful performances.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Dear lord, what happened?
It’s sad when you realize that thing that you praised as brilliantly plotted and constructed in a way that’s genuinely breathtaking was more or less a fluke.
Brian Singer’s directorial skill is on full display but unfortunately languishes in a bloated story more focused on chasing the grandiose productions of MCU and the DC Extended Universe that “Captain America: Civil War” criticized than developing the themes and characters that have carried this franchise cinematically for almost 20 years.
Add to that how little story structure appears to be in place for future movies and it’s become increasingly obvious that the good ideas that justified the continuation and soft rebooting of the “X-Men” franchise are more or less used up. That makes me fear the landscape of the future if this and the DCEU are Marvel’s only competition.
Tragically Overlooked
The Nice Guys
And now my sinking depression about what gets rewarded with consumer dollars has returned full circle.
“Angry Birds” makes franchise levels of capital skating by on the bare minimum and the brilliantly crafted buddy cop comedy about 2 of Hollywood’s finest leading men sharing excellent chemistry against the seedy backdrop of 70's California and all of the morally ambiguous debauchery that it entails struggles to break even.
“The Nice Guys” is one of the funniest movies that I’ve seen of the last 5 years and if you didn’t see it, go away and use this time more productively by finding a Red Box and rectifying that.
Kubo & the Two Strings
Speaking of rectification, it’s not too late to actually give this one theatrical support.
Like the teacher coming down harder on the one student in class with genuine passion and potential in hopes that one day he can rise to meet the occasion and be the shining star you always hoped he would, so too is my relationship with Laika, a studio whose creativity and technical artistry I have had nothing but consistent love and admiration for despite not loving anything they’ve done with the exception of “Coraline.”
While my tough love on Laika’s problematic grasp on story structure is well meaning however, so too can loving criticism become damaging. For this reason, I blew off “Kubo & the Two Strings” for weeks, knowing my inevitable criticisms of it would lead to a better product in the future while the families carry it to financial success.
Obviously, neither of those things happened. This hits especially hard after seeing the film, which has just about the amount of problems with it I expected it to have; problems that were drowned out by the myriad of bold content that I couldn’t even conceive of being put to screen in a kids movie.
For that, I repent right now. “Kubo & the Two Strings” will go down as one of the flawed yet underappreciated masterpieces of 2016 and you should go out of your way to see it while you have the chance.
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