Best Films of 2015
POSTED BY: JEWELSTAITEFAN
UPDATED: Thursday, March 24, 2016 14:34
VIEWED: 9192
PAGE 3 of 6
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
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It is my contention that we, as the audience, must go with what is presented to us in the moment. Unless, of course, the film presents us with filmed evidence of the director's/author's intent/message. Until the moment that Caleb goes to cut himself do I, as the invested film goer, begin to even question Caleb's humanity. For that matter, it is then that I begin to venture into the reality of possibly being manipulated by the director. I could sense that the game was afoot.
Again, I could honestly say I did not think of Blade Runner, not until JSF mentioned it. Caleb's reveal was not exactly cinematic gold, but did present as somewhat Twilight Zone-like. What I found more fascinating was Ava. Her cunning, manipulation and scheming was much more than that of her creator. To me, that was the ultimate theme of the film/story. What we teach our children, what we reveal to our loved ones and how we connive and conspire to control others. That sometimes our best laid plans, no matter how we strive to control every aspect, tends to take on a life all it's own.
It was sci-fi at it's best. Social commentary and technological exploration, and the exposition of both to the adventurous traveler, the willing participant...........namely us. Bravo, I say Bravo!
Alicia Vikander was mesmerizing, her performance was nothing short of brilliant.
SGG
Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Did you not notice that the entirety of Caleb's time on film was in this secluded, controlled environment?
No, when we first see Caleb he is at the corporate offices of Bluebook, then he is in the helicopter flying to Nathan's place, then walking from the helicopter through fields and forest to the secluded building. Of course, if your theory is correct then all of that could have been projected into Caleb's mind, but I don't think so.
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
Anybody think Jurassic should be added?
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Speaking of the Turing Test - for Caleb, if he was a machine, wouldn't the office environment at Bluebook be the obvious testing ground?
Nathan would have him under constant observation to test his creation, unless, of course, he wanted to have closer observation of his subject.
I got the feeling, almost from the beginning, that Nathan was testing Caleb and he tested further by exposing him to Ava. But Nathan's total disregard and overall arrogance towards his robots and Ava as a censured being blinded him to the fact that she had other plans in mind, namely her freedom.
The more I think about it, the more I feel this was about the notion of enslavement and freedom. The notion that a robot could develop feelings and crave freedom just like a human. The implanting of human characteristics upon our machine counterparts. Or how the AI of a robot would make it a perfect human, adapting and surviving, clever and efficient, outthinking humans along the way.
SGG
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Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
Anybody think Jurassic should be added?
Does anyone think JSF should take some titles off his list? This is about the "BEST" films after all, not the biggest money-makers. Jupiter Ascending...really?
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You have a point about Jupiter Ascending, I say this having seen the film, but there are only 3 others from the list that I've seen:
Ex-Machina (This film is one of the year's best)
Kingsman (it was entertaining and fun, but that's about it)
Mad Max (had some moments, but overall not up to par)
Jurassic World - have not seen it
Truly it's as you stated, the biggest blockbusters aren't always the best films. Birdman did not make a killing at the box office (at least not in the same vein as Jurassic) but I consider it one of the Best Films, if not THE Best, of 2014.
We need to keep looking!
SGG
Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
Anybody think Jurassic should be added?
Does anyone think JSF should take some titles off his list? This is about the "BEST" films after all, not the biggest money-makers. Jupiter Ascending...really?
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Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
Anybody think Jurassic should be added?
Does anyone think JSF should take some titles off his list? This is about the "BEST" films after all, not the biggest money-makers. Jupiter Ascending...really?
You have a point about Jupiter Ascending, I say this having seen the film, but there are only 3 others from the list that I've seen:
Ex-Machina (This film is one of the year's best)
Kingsman (it was entertaining and fun, but that's about it)
Mad Max (had some moments, but overall not up to par)
Jurassic World - have not seen it
Truly it's as you stated, the biggest blockbusters aren't always the best films. Birdman did not make a killing at the box office (at least not in the same vein as Jurassic) but I consider it one of the Best Films, if not THE Best, of 2014.
We need to keep looking!
SGG
As an early entry of the year, Jupiter had the benefit of a weak field, thus more easily "best" at the time.
Although my opinion of it was not stellar, I wanted to attempt to preserve potentially future forgottens before they were overshadowed. I did not think Jupiter had great box office.
If several posters agree that certain ones on the list should be removed, that is fine. I just didn't want to denigrate possibilities that some others had been enthused about, just because of my opinions.
Ex Machina was one which I had enjoyed, and actually which had partly inspired this thread. At the time, I had not seen many others comment about it, but now several have.
Ex Machina is becoming what I have considered a bellweather indicator - not many have seen it, but those who have universally either rave about it or at least really enjoyed it.
In the past these types of gauges have been Little Princess, City of Lost Children, and others I do not recall right now. Some say there are 2 types of music lovers: those who like what they know, and those who know what they like. Those who like what they know are enamored with those tunes which they first kissed to, first boinked to, first had various life-memory events to or during - in other words, whatever pop fluff was playing at the time, chosen by some DJ or programmer or other random party, or tunes repeated incessantly. And those who know what they like can hear the beginnings of a tune (for the first time) and immediately recognize something which resonates with them, not just because of the life situation they are in at the moment. Films can be the same - and these bellweather films identify those who just flow with the crowd, choose the most popular, versus those who truly observe a worthy film gem among the chaff, one in the shadow of the blockbuster. Ex Machina seems to be one of those which helps identify and classify the reviewer or critic. Once Leonard Maltin gave a crappy useless review of Little Princess, I could see more clearly and focus on how horrible of a critic he was.
Edit: other bellweather works: Galaxy Quest, The Man Who Knew Too Little, and a little gem called Firefly - if somebody says they saw Firefly and it did not impress them, I am afraid my opinion of the person suffers, and their opinions are minimized.
And UHF. Michael Richards' Stanley Spudowski, pre-Nanny Fran Drescher, comedy gold.
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I am willing to add Terminator at this time - I'll need to see it again at some point.
Jurassic, no.
Ted 2, only as comedy. As in sophomoric scatological humor.
Both were far inferior to Mad Max.
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I understand what you're saying. I think that people, at times, think they know what they like and watch a film accordingly. There are those that know and those that really don't care as long as they're entertained. There's nothing wrong with that, movies, since the beginning, were meant as entertainment.
But somewhere along the line it became something more; it became art. It also brought with it the discovery of the story, along with the journey. I will always remember Ebert saying that there is room for all of it. From the sublime to the ridiculously slapstick. For me, as for Ebert, it's always been about the story. Both the written/spoken word and the visual interpretation of those words - including the cinematographer, director and actor. That's me, that's what gets my juices flowing. Some Like It Hot comes to mind when it comes to that perfect union, that perfect harmony.
That bellweather, very important. That film that you measure all other against. It is engrained in your blood and you measure without thought, like breathing. We all do it, it's okay, that's natural, unfair at times, but natural. Me, I try to find the story. If it doesn't make sense to me, then I lose interest and move on to the next thing. If I find myself saying "no, I would have shot it this way" then I'm not happy. But, if I am transported to that world and forget where I am, even for a moment........
well, I'm happy. I need to be challenged, stimulated. Not everyone feels that way about a movie. So you have people that come to the table with different levels of involvement, some grasp it, while others have trouble with A.D.D.
I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I too find myself being critical of those that don't even try. I tried discussing a theme in War of the Worlds (the one with Tom Cruise) and almost came to blows with a woman who poked her finger in my face and called me a liar, for no apparent reason. For me it was just an opinion, a point of view. She actually felt insulted or something. I truly did not understand her reaction. People sometimes get emotional. So I've learned to temper my remarks until I can understand the other person's connection to the film. I know, that sucks, but I stay out of trouble that way. And, on rare occasions, I come across a fellow traveler. I'm happier than a pig in shit when that happens. So yeah, I get it.
SGG
Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:
Originally posted by SHINYGOODGUY:Quote:
Originally posted by ecgordon:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
So far it has been:
Ex-Machina,
Woman in Gold
Predestination.
Blackhat,
Kingsman,
Jupiter Ascending
Taken 3.
Mad Max.
Anybody think Jurassic should be added?
Does anyone think JSF should take some titles off his list? This is about the "BEST" films after all, not the biggest money-makers. Jupiter Ascending...really?
You have a point about Jupiter Ascending, I say this having seen the film, but there are only 3 others from the list that I've seen:
Ex-Machina (This film is one of the year's best)
Kingsman (it was entertaining and fun, but that's about it)
Mad Max (had some moments, but overall not up to par)
Jurassic World - have not seen it
Truly it's as you stated, the biggest blockbusters aren't always the best films. Birdman did not make a killing at the box office (at least not in the same vein as Jurassic) but I consider it one of the Best Films, if not THE Best, of 2014.
We need to keep looking!
SGG
As an early entry of the year, Jupiter had the benefit of a weak field, thus more easily "best" at the time.
Although my opinion of it was not stellar, I wanted to attempt to preserve potentially future forgottens before they were overshadowed. I did not think Jupiter had great box office.
If several posters agree that ceNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I know some will find this hard to believe, but I love UHF. Another wild and crazy film that is high on my list is Buckaroo Banzai. And the Coen's second film Raising Arizona. The positive factor is that every seemingly crazy, nonsensical thing about them is that they actually do make sense within the context of how the story and characters have been established.
Where I draw the line is when characters and situations are manipulated in a non-logical way just to get to a particular scenario even when that contradicts the premise that has already been established, or worse, just to get to a particular visual special effect. Jupiter Ascending was nothing but visual set-pieces wrapped around a flimsy and cliched story. And from what I've been reading, Jurassic World is full of stupid people doing stupid things, or even supposedly smart people doing stupid things. I'm with SGG, it's the story that matters, and even though Firefly and Serenity had great FX, it was the story and the strength of the characters that made it special.
I'm on a limited budget now, so I'm not going to the theater for every remake, reboot, prequel, reimagining etc. that comes along. I'm tired of that crap and want more original stories, even if they draw from previous similar films in the way that Ex_Machina did. Or when everything I read about them is positive, which has not been the case for much except for Fury Road, which I haven't seen yet, but is likely to be at the discount theater soon. I'm not big on action for action's sake, or FX that doesn't enhance the story, so the list of films that normally catch my attention is usually very short.
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