Welcome back to Rhode
Island Movie Corner’s end-of-the-year list of my Top 12 Favorite Films of 2015
and today we’ve reached the final part of this list. Today I’m listing my Top 3
favorite films from this past year. Not only that, but you can expect to see me
make an extremely passionate defense for my #1 film which, I’m not going to
lie, is a rather controversial pick. If you’ve missed Parts 1 through 3 of this
list, the links to those posts will be provided below. And now here they are;
my Top 3 of 2015.
For the longest time,
this was my favorite film of the year. But even though the next two films on
this list ended up overtaking the Top 2 spots, I’m still very much passionate about
this superb retelling of a classic story. And yeah you read that right… this
film is a remake. Deal with it, cynics!
3. CINDERELLA
Right now Disney is really big on live-action remakes of
their classic animated films. And while this has attracted quite a bit of flak
from people, especially now after multiple new films of that sort have been
announced like a ‘Mary Poppins’ sequel and a ‘Dumbo’ remake, I for one have
been fine with the current track record of Disney’s recent live-action
retellings. I haven’t seen it in a few years but I recall that I was ok with
‘Alice in Wonderland’ and I did like ‘Maleficent’. And although it isn’t in the
category of ‘remake’, I really, REALLY loved ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’, so
much so that it ended up being my favorite film of 2013. And this year, Disney
really delivered with director Kenneth Branagh’s take on the classic tale of
‘Cinderella’, previously covered by Disney in their 1950 animated classic of
the same name. It was actually because of that original film that I was really
looking forward to this new version. For you see, ‘Cinderella’ was actually one
of my favorite Disney films growing up, having watched it quite a few times on
VHS (remember those?). It’s basically in my Top 10 favorite Disney films of all-time.
So clearly, I was really looking forward to the new version. And at the end of
the day, I must say that I actually do prefer it to the original now. Now for
the record, before many of you pull out your pitchforks and condemn me, don’t
interpret this as me ignoring the original because I’m not. That’s the thing
about me when it comes to remakes like this; if I really like a film that is a
remake, that doesn’t mean that I’m going to completely ignore the original film
that inspired it. And hey, if the remake sucks, so what? The original’s still
there and despite what the internet is always claiming, its legacy isn’t
tarnished. Seriously, that whole ‘tarnishing’ theory is just a mentality, not a
reality. But as for this new take on ‘Cinderella’, it is easily one of the best
remakes of all-time because it both honors the original and updates it for a
new generation.
Each of the previous Disney ‘remakes’ took a different
approach to the original story. ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was a sequel and while,
again, ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ wasn’t a ‘remake’, it was a prequel to ‘The
Wizard of Oz’ that showed how the Wizard first came to Oz. In the case of
‘Maleficent’, it was the original story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ but told from the
perspective of the titular villain. ‘Cinderella’, on the other hand, is
basically just a straight-forward adaptation of the story. And while I know
that there are some out there (e.g. Cinemasins) who would argue that this makes
this film completely unnecessary, obviously I see things quite differently.
Because as I alluded to before, this remake does do certain things a bit better
than the original. Again that’s nothing against the original film; it’s just
that because it is a film from the 50’s, some parts of it are admittedly a bit
dated. Perhaps the biggest improvement that the remake does is a stronger
relationship between Cinderella and Prince Charming. In the original film, they
met once at the ball and then didn’t see each other again until they were
married. It was the very definition of a ‘shotgun romance’. And sure, their
relationship in the remake is still a fairly fast developed one but I do
appreciate that the filmmakers did spend more time in order to further develop
their relationship. This includes, but not limited to, having them meet before
the ball, having the prince invite all maidens in the land to the ball due to
his infatuation with her, having him recognize her right away when she arrives
at the ball, and having him be present to put the glass slipper on her foot at
the end. Other added elements to the story that I feel were nice additions
include more scenes with Cinderella and her parents before their deaths and
even a bit more into Lady Tremaine’s backstory, giving us a better sense of why
she’s been so cruel to Cinderella.
Speaking of Cinderella, it’s time I delve into the primary
controversy surrounding the film. There have been a lot of complaints,
particularly from feminists (remember the whole ‘Black Widow’ controversy of
‘Age of Ultron’? Yeah that was only one of the many film controversies that
year of that sort), over the character of Cinderella. The character has always
been one of the more polarizing of the Disney princesses with the main argument
against her being that she’s too passive of a female lead and does nothing
until she’s ‘rescued’ by the Prince. Now to be perfectly frank, I’ve never
fully agreed with this argument in regards to the original film. I mean sure,
Cinderella doesn’t necessarily act very assertively compared to other Disney
princesses like Mulan or Anna and Elsa but there’s much more to her than that,
which clearly a lot of her critics are ignoring. Because after all, she goes
through quite a lot of s*** coming from her new stepmother and stepsisters. And
despite all that she has to put up with, she still maintains an optimistic
attitude through thick and thin. The same applies to this film’s version of
Cinderella as well. After all, as her mother told her before she died, “Have
Courage and Be Kind”. And really what better message to convey in this
increasingly cynical world that we live in (as you can see, optimism and
positivity have played a major part in the films in this year’s list) than that?
I’m actually surprised to find that there are people out there who thought that
this was a ‘bad’ message. Seriously if that’s the case, then what the hell kind
of messages do they view as ‘good’, then? That it’s okay to lie and cheat and
be cruel to everybody because it’s a ‘dog eat dog’ world? SHEESH!!
And to be perfectly frank, I don’t see this version of
Cinderella as a passive protagonist whatsoever. She very much has a decent
amount of control over her own destiny, to the point where she tells her
stepmother that she’ll do whatever it takes to protect the Prince from her,
even if it means that she won’t get to have a happily ever after ending with
him. Lily James perfectly conveys Cinderella’s inner strength and beauty,
making her, in my opinion, a perfect role model for young girls. And she is
backed by an equally terrific supporting cast highlighted by Richard Madden,
who is, for lack of a better word, extremely charming as the Prince, Cate
Blanchett’s terrific turn as Lady Tremaine, and Helena Bonham Carter’s
scene-stealing appearance as the Fairy Godmother. In short, ‘Cinderella’ is a
terrific adaptation of both the classic story and the original Disney animated
film. And while I’ll admit that in some ways I now prefer the newer film for
the aforementioned improvements that it makes over the original, that doesn’t
mean that this new film is meant to replace that film whatsoever. They’re both
equally terrific and this new film shows that these upcoming ‘remakes’ of
Disney classics are very much capable of being great if they have dedicated
people who love the original source material working on them like the cast and
crew of this film have clearly shown. If at least one or two of these upcoming
‘remakes’ are as critically successful as ‘Cinderella’, then I firmly refuse to
see why all of these developing projects are meant to be seen as a ‘bad’ thing.
But at the end of the day, even if they all end up flopping with critics (which
for the record I severely doubt that they all will), ‘Cinderella’ will, at the
very least, stand as a true bona fide success story no matter what the
naysayers (e.g. Cinemasins) say.
Okay I realize that I
haven’t put any major indie flicks on this list yet so I’ll make up for that
with my #2 pick. It was a nice little film from December that I was surprised
to find that I really liked… (snickers) ah forget it, I’m just messing with you
folks. Come on, you know what it is…
2. STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS
(WARNING: This is the one ‘spoiler-heavy’ entry on the list that I make
the most effort to warn about to people who haven’t seen the film yet given the
fact that it’s the most recent release on this list. So if you still haven’t
seen the film, please refer to my original Spoiler-Free review of it, the link
to which will be provided below. Also consider this to be my official ‘Spoiler
Post’ for the film. I was working on an actual Spoiler Post for the film but I
ended up abandoning that in favor of discussing the big spoilers here instead.)
All throughout this list I’ve shown prime examples of why
overhyping anything is never a good thing. But in the case of ‘Star Wars: The
Force Awakens’, this is actually a case where the film did live up to the
massive expectations laid upon it by fans. And I will admit that all of this
hype for the film did worry me in a way in the months leading up to its release.
Because I think we all remember what happened the last time that a ‘Star Wars’
film was hyped up this much. The film in question, ‘Episode I: The Phantom
Menace’, ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of all-time for many
people, a disappointment that is still felt today around the internet (as well
as being one that the internet should really get over by now). So even though I
was really excited for the film, namely because one of my favorite directors
working today, J.J. Abrams, was directing it, I tried to keep my expectations
in check while also worrying that the film would end up being another case
where fans hyped it up too much. But thankfully in this case it didn’t and ‘The
Force Awakens’ ended up being one of the greatest movie-going experiences that
I’ve ever had. This was the first ‘new’ ‘Star Wars’ film that I had ever seen
in theaters. I waited nearly five hours in line, and then two more hours in the
theater, and was completely blown away by the film on my first viewing. Then I
saw it IMAX just two days later and it was even more awesome the second time,
especially on that big screen. It also squashed any sort of skepticism that
certain people should have over the idea that Disney, the new ‘owners’ of the
franchise, would ruin it. I mean come on, haven’t the MCU films proven already
that Disney is allowing their newly acquired brands to do their own thing
without any major interference?
But alas, the film hasn’t been completely free of criticism.
In fact, the backlash towards the film has sadly been growing these past few
weeks (that’s always the case with a film as popular as this… there’s always
going to be a vocal group of haters to crap all over its success), with the
main argument against the film being that it is nothing more than a ‘carbon
copy’ of ‘Episode IV: A New Hope’. What does this mean? Well it just goes to
show that not only is hype a bad thing if overdone, but you also can’t please
everybody, especially in recent years. So with that said, is ‘The Force
Awakens’ just a clone (I guess we can go with pun intended in this case given
the cloning aspect of the ‘Star Wars’ universe… there’s even a passing mention
of it in the film when Kylo Ren suggests to General Hux that perhaps a clone
army would be more efficient) of ‘Episode IV’? I mean yes there are quite a few
similar plot beats that the two films share, like the fact that the main plot
of the film revolves around both sides trying to acquire a valuable piece of
information from a droid, which in this case was part of the map to find Luke
Skywalker, or that the finale revolves around a battle on the villains’
planet-destroying super-weapon, Starkiller Base. But even with that in mind, I
never saw that as a bad thing. Hell, I’m surprised no one was complaining that
much about ‘Creed’ for doing the exact same damn thing. So to answer that previous
question about whether or not ‘The Force Awakens’ is just a rehash of ‘A New Hope’,
my response is a resounding No! Instead, I view these callbacks in ‘The Force
Awakens’ as J.J.’s way of respectfully paying homage to the original films
while still being able to effectively continue the story. It very much does its
job at establishing its great new line of protagonists and antagonists while
also doing just enough to further the character development of the original
trio of leads. So now let’s talk about our new ‘Star Wars’ trio; Poe, Finn, and
Rey.
As the film begins, we are introduced to Poe Dameron, whom
Oscar Isaac has referred to as ‘the best freaking pilot in the galaxy’. While
he disappears from the film for about 45 minutes or so as the result of a
fairly obvious fake-out that makes us think he’s dead (yeah sorry JJ but I saw
through that ruse right away… don’t worry though I didn’t hold that against the
film in any way), Oscar Isaac very much is responsible for re-establishing the
series’ fun and light-hearted atmosphere right from the moment where he asks
Kylo Ren “So who talks first? Do you talk first?”. Not only that but he also
very much lives up to his claim of being the ‘Best Freaking Pilot in the
Galaxy’ and immediately strikes up a terrifically-developed friendship with
Finn as the two escape from the First Order’s Flagship. However, the real focus
of the film is more on the duo of Finn and Rey. The former is a Stormtrooper
who defects from the First Order when he is unwilling to follow their
villainous commands. In doing so, he more or less gets in a little too over his
head now that’s he a ‘Traitor!’ of the First Order (by the way, I’m amazed at
how the Stormtrooper that yells ‘Traitor!’ at him, the one that wields a riot
control baton, has become a viral legend here on the internet) but he has a
great redemptive arc and at one point even gets to wield the lightsaber once
owned by Luke Skywalker (and before that his father Anakin) himself. However,
despite what the marketing may have suggested, Finn was not the force-sensitive
one as we were led to believe. Instead, Rey, the no-name scavenger from Jakku
who finds herself thrown into the fight between the Resistance and the First
Order, is revealed to be the Jedi of this new trilogy. It’s a very neat act of
deception and I’m very interested in seeing her growth through the rest of this
trilogy, primarily as the new apprentice of Luke.
As for the original trio, the whole mystery of why Luke
wasn’t in the marketing is now clear as the opening crawl reveals that he has
disappeared. The main plot of the film revolves around both the Resistance and
the First Order trying to find him via a map stored in both BB-8 and, as it is
later revealed, R2-D2, the latter of whom shut down after Luke’s disappearance
but turns back on at the end. Ultimately he’s only in the film for one scene
and it’s right at the end, when Rey finally finds him at the location of the
original Jedi Temple and she presents him his old lightsaber. And I know that
some people were disappointed that he wasn’t in the film more but I didn’t mind
because A.) the build-up to his appearance was perfect and B.) there’s no
denying how awesome that final moment was. Instead of Luke, Han Solo is
basically the main character of this specific film and Harrison Ford perfectly
slips back into what is arguably the most iconic role of his career (either
that or Indiana Jones). His rapport with Chewie is still great and that also
translates well to his rapport with Finn and Rey. My favorite moment involving
him is during the finale on Starkiller Base. Even though he helped the
Resistance in finding the base’s weakness, Finn admits to Han that he only
worked sanitation while stationed there, leading to an excellent grumpy
response from Han, Finn replying by saying that ‘they’ll use the force’,
resulting in Han shutting that idea down with the perfect response; “That’s not
how the force works!” Of course Leia is back as well, now a General of the
Resistance, and although it’s revealed that a specific event (more on that in a
sec) strained their relationship, the scene where the two share one last
embrace before Han heads off to Starkiller Base is a perfectly executed moment
involving the galaxy’s most iconic couple.
But what about Kylo Ren, the badass looking Force user with
the tri-blade lightsaber? Well, this film reveals a major secret about him…
he’s Han and Leia’s son Ben (DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!). I must say that this is a
really nice twist and one that does a great job at paying homage to the
original rise and fall of ‘Star Wars’ that was Darth Vader. This reveal also
showcased the full extent of Ren’s true character and why he ended up being
such a terrific villain as the result of the film’s diversion on expectations.
I know that a lot of people were expecting him to be a big badass but that’s
not really the case here. Instead, he’s someone that is trying hard to be a
badass even though it’s clear that he still has much to learn. When something
doesn’t go his way, he reacts by angrily destroying whatever’s closest to him.
The lightsaber fights between him, Finn, and Rey lacked the choreographed
nature of the fights from the prequels instead paving way to a more brutal and
ungraceful (in a good way) style. By the end of the film, after he is defeated
by Rey, his ‘master’, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) tells General Hux
(Domhnall Gleeson) to bring Ren to him so that he can ‘complete his training’.
To me this suggests that come Episode VIII, Ren is really going to start acting
like the badass that everyone is expecting him to be in this film but wasn’t. This
ending also shows that all of the main antagonists of the film; Ren, Hux, and
Captain Phasma (who despite all of the build-up by fans is barely in the film,
though there’s a nice little nod to ‘A New Hope’ when Han, Finn, and Chewie
capture her and Han suggests throwing her in the trash compactor) all survived
the final battle in which the Resistance destroyed Starkiller Base. And that’s
a good thing because I think a lot of us can agree that one of the problems
with the prequel trilogy was the quick disposal of its villains, particularly
Darth Maul in ‘The Phantom Menace’.
But just like Episodes IV and I, this first installment of
the new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy had to end with the death of a main character and
in this case, sadly, it had to be everyone’s favorite smuggler Han Solo. As
already noted earlier, it’s revealed that Kylo Ren is his son Ben. Once a pupil
of his uncle Luke, Ren was swayed to the dark side by Supreme Leader Snoke and
killed his fellow Jedi trainees just like how Darth Vader destroyed the Jedi
Order in ‘Revenge of the Sith’. This resulted in Luke’s disappearance and the
straining of Han and Leia’s relationship. However, as Snoke points out to Ren,
his connection to his parents is what’s still keeping him connected to the
light side of the Force and unable to fully embrace the dark side. So during
the finale on Starkiller Base, when Han calls out to him and tries to convince
him to come home, Ren refuses and kills his father. While it is definitely sad
to see Han die, I guess you can say that this was bound to happen sooner or
later. Harrison Ford had previously suggested that Han die after being frozen in
carbonite in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ but that idea was rejected and he
returned in full for ‘Return of the Jedi’. But now the time has come and with
Han’s death, Kylo Ren is pretty much now fully connected to the Dark Side and
it’ll be interesting to see if he can ever truly be saved. The interesting
thing, though, is that apparently Ford will be returning for ‘Episode VIII’ as
well, which brings up one major question? Is ‘Episode VIII’, to be directed by
Rian Johnson, going to rely a lot on flashbacks as a way to further explore the
backstory of its main characters; Finn, Rey, and Ren?
Well whatever happens next, one thing is for certain and
that is that ‘Star Wars’ is back and in top form. Sure ‘The Force Awakens’
hasn’t been able to fully escape criticism, namely the argument that it’s too
similar to ‘Episode IV’ which I don’t agree with at all, but to quote an
argument made by my friend Jeremy Griggs from the website ‘Geeks+Gamers’, I
don’t see how it’s possible to ‘not like’ this film. It’s a true cinematic
experience and director J.J. Abrams and his dedicated cast and crew put their
all into giving this film everything that has made this series so iconic. The
action sequences are amazing, the characters are unforgettable, and the pacing
and tone is perfectly balanced. It’s even more impressive that this film
managed to overcome one of the biggest hurdles in film history; all of the hype
that was surrounding it. This easily has to have been the most anticipated film
of all-time but knowing that all of that hype ended up on backfiring on ‘Star
Wars’ fans the last time a ‘Star Wars’ film was hyped to this level, there
definitely must have been some fear that it would happen again and show that
‘Star Wars’ fans hadn’t learned their lesson since 1999. But suffice it to say,
that did not happen and I am extremely happy that this film didn’t fall victim
to the hype train whatsoever. If I had to rank this film amongst the other six
‘Star Wars’ films, this is currently my second favorite of the series, with
‘Empire Strikes Back’ only beating it by arguably the slightest of edges. What
else more can I say but… #ThankYouJJ.
And finally here we
are… my #1 favorite film from this past year. Choosing it was simple… in doing
so, I would be able to give it a shred of the honor that it truly deserves and
yet hasn’t gotten. And once I realized what this film would be, I knew that I
had to go all out when it came to writing about this film, so much so that it
has pretty much become a whole ‘thesis’ on this film. That’s how much I love
this film. The film in question is one that makes me both really happy and
really sad/angry at the same time. Obviously the former correlates to the fact
that it’s my favorite film of the year. I absolutely loved this film. But the reason
why it also makes me sad/angry is because when it got released, it got the
shaft from both critics and audiences. Critics were split on it and I partially
blame that for the film’s under-performance at the box-office. But unlike those
critics and audiences, I’m not going to let this film die. If you follow me on
Twitter, you’ve probably seen me retweet dozens of tweets from other users who
tweeted that they loved this film. And ultimately it was one ‘negative’ tweet
about the film that confirmed to me its status as my #1 of 2015. Well I’ve been
building it up so much that I think it’s high time that I finally start talking
about it. Ladies and gentlemen, my favorite film from 2015 is…
1. TOMORROWLAND
This is… ‘Believing
in the Future: In Defense of 2015’s Most Underappreciated Film’
This film deserved so much more and yet when it first came
out, it was almost immediately thrown aside while ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’,
released the week before, stole all of the attention away from it. How ironic
it is that a film about an optimistic outlook of the future that called out the
post-apocalyptic mindset ended getting overshadowed by a post-apocalyptic-set
action film. This film was lucky just to even reach its hefty $200 million
budget at the box-office but with a final gross of only $209 million, industry
insiders report that the financial losses for the film are around $120 to $140
million. It’s also the third time in four years that a big-budget live-action
flick from Disney has bombed at the box-office following 2012’s ‘John Carter’
and 2013’s ‘The Lone Ranger’. As my pal Kyle over at ‘Kyle’s Animated World’
will lament, this will probably lead to Disney relying more on ‘remakes’ of
their classic animated films than original content. And while I understand the
frustration, I’ve already gone over why I don’t entirely see that as a bad
thing when I talked about this year’s adaptation of ‘Cinderella’. If any of
Disney’s upcoming ‘remakes’ can be done with as much love and attention as
‘Cinderella’ did, then it won’t be ‘all for nothing’. Though seriously, given
the fact that online film culture is vehemently against all of these sequels,
remakes, and reboots, it makes you wonder why they decided to ignore an
original film even though that’s exactly what they’ve been yearning for.
Unfortunately, this is the second directorial effort from
Brad Bird to flop at the box-office. But in case you forgot, that first film of
his to bomb happened to be ‘The Iron Giant’, which is now regarded as one of
the greatest animated films of all-time. So I’m confident that ‘Tomorrowland’
will eventually end up becoming another underrated classic in the years to come
from one of the best directors in the business. As I’ve stated a few months
ago, Brad Bird is my favorite director working today. He’s yet to make a bad
film in my opinion. Of course, his career might have gotten off to a rocky
start from a commercial standpoint when ‘Iron Giant’ bombed but that didn’t
stop the film from becoming a classic. After that, he joined up with his old pals
at Pixar to produce two of the studio’s greatest films, 2004’s ‘The
Incredibles’ and 2007’s ‘Ratatouille’, both of which won the Oscar for Best
Animated Feature their respective years. And then, in 2011, Bird made the bold
jump from animation to live-action, a move that I’m pretty sure is rarely seen
in the industry. But ultimately Bird made one damn great ‘first impression’ in
the live-action genre with ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, still the best
of the series in my opinion. I do hope, though, that this film’s
under-performance doesn’t put an end to Bird’s live-action career like it did
with fellow Pixar alum Andrew Stanton when ‘John Carter’ bombed. Thankfully
though it doesn’t look like Bird’s relationship with Disney has been affected
too much as he’s currently developing the long-awaited sequel to ‘The
Incredibles’. But anyway, back to ‘Tomorrowland’…
When you see the name ‘Tomorrowland’, you’re probably
thinking that the film will be based entirely around the themed area of Disney
parks, which could mean that the film would end up being nothing more than a
giant plug for Disney. But you’d be wrong because the final cut of the film
actually does not connect itself to the theme park that much aside from the
sequence near the beginning that takes place in ‘It’s a Small World’. Now with
that said, the deleted scenes featured on the Blu-Ray, as well as an
international trailer that was released a few months before the film’s release,
did imply that it originally would be connected to Walt Disney and the parks.
In the scene where main character Casey travels to the ‘Blast from the Past’
memorabilia store in Houston and talks to the owners, Ursula and Hugo, about
‘Tomorrowland’, originally the dialogue would note the connection to the parks
and Disney, with the owners saying that ‘the theme park was just a cover for
the real thing’ and that Walt Disney himself was ‘one of them’, ‘them’ being
the founders of ‘Plus Ultra’, the group of geniuses (including Thomas Edison,
Nikola Tesla, and Jules Verne) responsible for the creation of ‘Tomorrowland’.
But ultimately that dialogue ended up getting cut and there’s never a major
connection made towards Walt Disney and ‘Tomorrowland’. Hell, the utopia seen
in this film is only referred to by that name once during the entire film,
noted by Frank when he, Casey, and Athena arrive in ‘Tomorrowland’. And
ultimately I do think that it was the best move to take because as big of a
Disney fan as I am, I do think it was better to limit the connection to Walt as
far as the lore of this universe was concerned.
In a featurette for the film, Bird noted that the film ‘was
more about the journey than the destination’. And that’s very much true because
Bird and co-writer Damon Lindelof made the very smart choice to not have the
film be completely set in Tomorrowland. Instead, it’s like this; the film
starts out with a young Frank Walker, after his jetpack invention is rejected during
the 1964 World’s Fair, being given the opportunity to experience the world of
‘Tomorrowland’ thanks to a young girl named Athena. Many years later,
optimistic and scientifically bright teen Casey Newton also experiences
‘Tomorrowland’ by means of a special pin that ‘transmits’ a vision (or as Frank
put it, a ‘commercial’) of the utopia while still keeping her in the real world
(in other words, if she walks straight into a wall in real life, she walks
straight into a ‘wall’ in the ‘other world’). And for the record, in answer to
all of those who questioned the actual value of the pin to the plot, how the
hell do you think would anyone find out about Tomorrowland without it? Anyway,
the bulk of the film mostly revolves around Casey, Frank, and Athena, the
latter revealed to be a robot (or, to be more specific, an audio-animatronic, a
nice little nod to Disney’s iconic robotic puppetry work), as they attempt to
return to ‘Tomorrowland’ while being pursued by the ‘robotic’ ‘police force’ of
Tomorrowland. In taking this path, Bird and Lindelof are able to ease us into
this world without going all out too early. And while some may have found this
part of the film to be ‘boring’, I was fully invested in this adventure to get
to Tomorrowland.
One of the key reasons why I was so invested was the film’s excellent
trio of leads. George Clooney was his usual excellent self as the grizzled and
bitter inventor Frank Walker, who undergoes a great arc in which he regains his
hope in the future that he had lost when he was kicked out of Tomorrowland. But
the real stars of the film are the two main female leads, Casey and Athena. In
the year that was dominated with female leads like Furiosa and Ilsa Faust,
these two stand amongst them as some of the best characters of the year. As
Casey, Britt Robertson imbues the character with unabashed optimism that never
once gets annoying and she also very much holds her own against Clooney,
resulting in some great back-and-forth banter between them, like in the opening
when she keeps interrupting his narration. Going back to the deleted scenes,
originally Casey was going to be written the other way around and be the
pessimistic one, despite her father’s great story about the two wolves; one
light the other darkness and that the winner is ‘the one you feed’. I’ll admit
it would’ve been very interesting to see that take on the story, which I’m
guessing would’ve ended with her regaining her spirit, but I’m glad they
decided to make her optimistic throughout because it represents a mindset that
more people should abide by. Equally terrific is Raffey Cassidy in the breakout
role of Athena. Simply put, she’s a 12-year old ninja who fights robots… ‘nuff
said. Though I do want to add that I love that, even though she’s very
optimistic like Casey, she can get a bit frustrated when people don’t follow
her instructions correctly, like in the sequence set in 1964 when she’s trying
to give young Frank instructions on how to get to Tomorrowland and yet he’s
like five steps behind her.
So now let’s start talking about the one thing in this film
that has attracted the most criticism from critics; the ending. There seems to
have become a common theme on the internet that anything written by Damon
Lindelof, from the ending of ‘Lost’ to basically the entirety of ‘Prometheus’
to the big Khan twist in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, is subjected to high
scrutiny and ‘Tomorrowland’ is no exception. Now I’ll admit that while I do
think the ending wasn’t as big as we were expecting, as it ultimately comes
down to a simple power struggle, I seriously don’t think the ending was ‘that
bad’. One of the big points that critics were bringing up about this sequence was
the reveal that Tomorrowland’s governor, David Nix (Hugh Laurie), was
responsible for keeping on the tachyon machine, designed by Frank himself (hence
his banishment from Tomorrowland), that was projecting imagery of an
apocalyptic future, basically making him the ‘main villain’. First off, I
already knew that going in because I recall reading a post online in which it
basically said that Hugh Laurie was going to be the main villain. But
ultimately I conclude that the reason why this twist was so polarizing was
because after his first scenes in the past with Athena and a young Frank, he
isn’t seen again until Frank, Casey, and Athena, finally arrive in
‘Tomorrowland’ so you don’t really get to know him at all before he becomes the
‘bad guy’. But then there’s another question… is he really the bad guy here?
The reason why I bring that up is because of his big speech after the
aforementioned ‘big reveal’ about why he’s been keeping the machine on and hasn’t
been doing anything to change this apocalyptic outcome.
I’ll admit that the first time I saw this film, I kind of
zoned out during this speech so I guess you can say that at first I didn’t
really have a clue in regards to what he was talking about. But after seeing
the film a second time in theaters and re-watching this scene a few times
afterwards online, I realized how fantastic of a speech it really was. Nix
basically pointed out the obvious fact that our society basically ‘gave up’,
hence why an apocalyptic future is inevitable. Despite the fact that, thanks to
the tachyon machine, Nix was able to give the world a glimpse of this possible
future, they didn’t get scared of it, they just embraced it “with gleeful
abandon”. They started ignoring all of the signs of their impending doom and repackaging
the imagery they saw into books, video games, TV, movies, etc. “Meanwhile your
earth was crumbling all around you. You've got simultaneous epidemics of
obesity and starvation. Explain that one! Bees and butterflies start to
disappear, the glaciers melt, algae blooms. All around you the coal mine
canaries are dropping dead and you won’t take the hint!” To me it’s incredibly
ironic that people criticized this film for being preachy when in reality, they
aren’t doing anything to make the world better and are only proving the film
right. We’re living in a world that is dominated by mass shootings, overly
drawn out and in some cases extremely pointless controversies, and the
possibility that Donald Trump could be our next president. So don’t go
criticizing this film for pointing out the BS in the world when no one’s doing
a damn thing about that BS.
Yes, the ending may not have been what I think many of us
were expecting for a story of this scale but to me it works just through how it
sets up the messages and how we’ve come to care about the main characters. I’ll
freely admit that I did get fairly emotional during the scene where Athena, on
the verge of deactivating for good after being shot by Nix, replays a series of
messages for Frank that shows how, back when he was a kid, she was hesitant
about revealing to him that she was a robot because she didn’t want to hurt him
and damage his potential. Not only that, but she realized that even though she
thought that she was an emotionless robot, she had actually started to develop
feelings for him (and yes I know that this is being said while she’s still a
young robot and he’s already grown up but she’s basically a robot that hasn’t
aged so don’t go looking into it that hard). And to top it all off, one of the
best lines of the year comes from her; “Dreamers need to stick together… It’s
not Programming, it’s Personal”. She and Frank share a touching farewell
(“Frank, you want to know why you couldn’t make me laugh? It’s because you’re
not funny.”) as her self-destruct programming is used to destroy the tachyon
machine which then falls on Nix who has one of the best ‘final words’ ever; “Oh
bollocks!”
As the film ends, Casey and Frank begin to revitalize the
world of Tomorrowland and search for the dreamers that will ‘feed the right
wolf’ as they instruct a new series of young robots to do the same thing Athena
did and give people all over the world pins to show them the fantastical world
that awaits them. Which brings me to yet another argument against this film;
one that connects to, believe it or not, Ayn Rand and her work, something that
apparently is a theory that connects to all of Bird’s films. There have been
some who argue that Frank and Casey were looking for ‘the elite’ and not
‘regular people’ when they were finding new ‘recruits’. To that I say… so
apparently a guitar-player and some random lady planting a bush are considered
to be ‘elite’? Now I’ll be honest with you folks… I have never read any of
Rand’s stories nor am I that much of a political person but I don’t see how
this film is supposed to be inspired by libertarianism. It was inspired
directly by the legend himself, Walt Disney, who always dreamed of a better
future. That’s why he created the ‘Tomorrowland’ section of the Disney parks in
the first place, which weren’t meant to be seen as tributes to science fiction
but to science fact. Remember that box of old artifacts that Bird and Lindelof
had been previewing in press events, which included items like the original
plans for ‘It’s a Small World’ and an old copy of ‘Amazing Stories’ from 1928?
They used the items of that box to craft a story about their own take on the
‘experimental prototype community of tomorrow’ that Walt Disney had always
dreamed of making and was only partially realized in the creation of the Disney
World park EPCOT. In short, I’ll just end this discussion by repeating the same
words that Brad Bird himself said when asked about the comparisons between his
films and Ayn Rand’s work; that it is ‘ridiculous’ and a bunch of ‘nonsense’.
So yeah, I’ve gone through all that I can talk about in
regards to ‘Tomorrowland’. Unlike the rest of the internet, I’m not going to
let this film become one of the forgotten box office flops of 2015. I’ll be
perfectly frank with you, folks; I primarily blame the critics for this film’s
under-performance at the box-office. I mean I know that critics don’t always
influence a film’s commercial performance but in this case I feel that critics
did have some influence through the film’s polarizing reception and 50% rating
on RT. So for those who haven’t seen the film yet, take some advice from your
good pal Sean. Ignore the critics’ reviews of this film, don’t watch BS videos
like CinemaSins’ video on it that try and make it out to be worse than it
seems, and just please give the film an honest try. Who knows? You might just
like it. I know I said before that ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ was my
favorite cinema-going experience this year, which meant that I probably
should’ve given it the Number 1 spot. But if you recall last year, I basically
pulled a cop out and had two films listed at the Number 1 spot (note: after
mulling it over, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ is my favorite film of 2014 with
‘Interstellar’ right behind it at #2). I didn’t want to do that again this year
but I think the fact that ‘The Force Awakens’ is still at #2 is still putting
it in a terrific position. Like I said before, giving ‘Tomorrowland’ the #1
spot was my way of giving the film some form of the recognition that most
people wouldn’t. And that is why ‘Tomorrowland’, the most under-appreciated
film of 2015, is my favorite film of the year. Unlike the rest of the internet,
I ain’t giving up on it.
And there you have
it; my Top 12 Favorite Films from 2015. I’d like to thank all of you for
following along with me on this blog since I first started it back in May 2012.
This May will mark its 4th anniversary and I couldn’t have gotten to
this point without you all. Here’s to what I hope will be another great year of
film in 2016.
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