Monday 5 January 2015

2014 in film and television

It's round-up time, so this is my review of what I've been watching this year.

Cinema
It's been more difficult to get to the cinema this year, as Arya is old enough not to sleep through films but not to appreciate them, so I can only really take her to kids films and even then she tends to lose interest after finishing her popcorn. Still, it hasn't been a complete loss.

January - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and 47 Ronin.
February - Mr Peabody and Sherman and The LEGO Movie
March - Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Muppets: Most Wanted
April - The Amazing Spider-Man and Noah
May - X-Men: Days of Future Past and Godzilla
June - Edge of Tomorrow
July - How to Train Your Dragon 2, Hercules and Maleficent
August - Guardians of the Galaxy
September - Nil
October - The Maze Runner and Dracula Untold
November - The Book of Life (partial)
December - Mockingjay Part 1, The Battle of the Five Armies and Interstellar

With only one fallow month and rewatches not accounted for (I saw GodzillaDays of Future Past and How to Train Your Dragon 2 twice each, plus For Kids showings) I'd say the old Cineworld card earned its keep again.

March was definitely my best month of the year, with The Winter Soldier blowing away my (already high) expectations of Marvel movies, and Muppets.

Best movie of the year, for me, was probably Interstellar, for all its flaws. It might not be the most fun (Dragons 2, Hercules, even Edge of Tomorrow) but it was a technical tour de force with surprising dramatic punch.

My surprise hits of the year are Hercules and Dracula Untold, both of which by rights should have stunk, while my let down of the year was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which unforgivably gave a kick-ass Gwen Stacey her Silver Age predecessor's fate.

New Television
This has been the first year in a long time that I've actually had access to current TV without illicit streaming, so I've caught a fair bit.
  • The 100 (Season 1)
  • Agents of SHIELD (Season 2)
  • Almost Human
  • Arrow (Season 2 - I'm a bit behind on this one)
  • Atlantis (Season 2)
  • Believe
  • The Blacklist (Season 1-2)
  • Constantine (Season 1)
  • Dominion (Season 1)
  • Dracula
  • Defiance (Season 2)
  • Doctor Who (Season whatever)
  • Fargo
  • The Flash (Season 1)
  • Gotham (Season 1)
  • The Librarians (Season 1)
  • Penny Dreadful (Season 1)
  • Sleepy Hollow (Season 2)
  • The Tomorrow People
  • True Detective (Season 1)
Four of the series that I watched were cancelled early in their run (struck through above.)

Triumphs of the year for me are True Detective and Fargo, the latter being my absolute top TV viewing of 2014.

Gotham and Agents of SHIELD lag behind the Arrow/Flash double act in the superhero stakes, and I am starting to get a little desperate in my hopes that Agent Carter will level the field a bit. 

Sleepy Hollow is an unexpected delight, while my guilty pleasures of the year are dumb as rocks angel vs humans throwdown Dominion and teen slaughterfest The 100. The Librarians is not a guilty pleasure; it's campy fun and I love it with all pride!

Penny Dreadful is my let-down of the year. I so very much wanted to love it and hug it and call it George, but it turned out to be a bit shit.

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