2018 Year in Review

The year is almost over and I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the films that came out in 2018. To clarify, I'm talking about the films that I saw in 2018 (I can't fairly comment on ones I haven't seen!). I saw 14 new movies in theatres this year (one less than last year) and whereas in 2017 I ended up watching a bunch of good ones, this year I saw a whole lot of OK ones and a few disappointing ones. To illustrate, look at the average stars I gave per film: 3.8 for 2017 and 3.4 for 2018. While this isn't the lowest stars average I've awarded in a year – that distinction goes to 2011, 2.9 stars on average – it does indicate that there were a lot of films I reviewed this year that were around three to three-and-a-half. It just seems that there were fewer standout films that I ended up seeing; less spectacular ones and less awful ones. But today I'm going to give a brief overview about the movies this year that did stand out to me.

Best movie: Mission Impossible: Fallout

In a movie series that only seems to get better with age, Fallout is a blast. Loaded with those high-octane action scenes that make you hold your breath, this sixth Mission Impossible film maintains the same level of intensity as at least its two predecessors did. Tom Cruise turns in another great performance as Ethan Hunt, the fearless IMF agent who is basically Captain America without the shield. Costars Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ving Rhames are great additions as well and the story nicely ties in with that of previous instalments. The only negative I can say is that Fallout doesn't always ace it when it goes for emotional moments. That complaint aside, it's still a fine action film.

Runner up: Avengers: Infinity War

Worst movie: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Don't get me wrong, Solo isn't a terrible movie but it is a very dull and forgettable one that I have no cause to ever watch again. Imagine The Last Jedi but without all the cool stuff and also without all the (most) aggravating stuff, and that's more-or-less Solo in a nutshell. A lacklustre story (that is barely self-contained), dull characters, and Hollywood's inescapable political agenda make this a film that's difficult to admire in spite of its jaw-dropping budget. It's clear that Disney didn't make this film because they were artistically compelled to, not because they had an epic story to share or something new to offer. They put it out simply because they could – or rather they had to considering all the money that was sunk into this black hole of a project. For the first time in years a December will go by without a new Star Wars movie being released and considering the current state of the franchise I think that might be a good thing.

Runner up: Venom

Most disappointing movie: Venom

A Venom movie is not an idea that was doomed from the start. Who wouldn't want to see one of Spider-Man's most dangerous and ruthless foes given life on the big screen? Two months later, and I feel as if I still haven't seen such a thing. What we ended up with was an edited-for-TV buddy action movie in which Venom isn't even a villain! But when you've got a film that has a generic script full of plot holes, an odd choice of lead actor, a conflicting tone, and dismal special effects I guess you've gotta take what you can get. The film is certainly watchable and if you've never heard of the Venom character before then you probably won't be too offended by its missteps. But from where I'm sitting Venom was not the film it should've been. It should have had an R rating, a grittier tone, and (preferably) some relation to the comics it's based on. What a shame.

Runner up: The Girl in the Spider's Web

Previous Years' Rundown

You know, just for the heck of it I'm going to give you a quick rundown of how I viewed each years' movies since 2011 (the year I began writing film reviews). Here's a brief list of the previous seven years' best movies, most disappointing movies, and worst movies (or in the case of those marked with an *asterisk, the least-good movie I saw that year).

Year	# films reviewed	Average stars /5	Best	Worst	Most Disappointing
2011	7	2.9	Captain America: First Avenger	30 Minutes or Less	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
2012	10	3.7	Looper	* The Bourne Legacy	The Dark Knight Rises
2013	10	3.1	Gravity	After Earth	Thor: The Dark World
2014	13	3.4	Interstellar	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Amazing Spider-Man 2
2015	13	3.8	Mad Max: Fury Road	Project Almanac	Halo: Nightfall
2016	15	3.1	The Revenant	God's Not Dead 2	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
2017	15	3.8	Blade Runner 2049	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales	Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Movie Review -- Bohemian Rhapsody

  So I finally got around to watching Bohemian Rhapsody and to my great disappointment it wasn't a two-hour music video for the song of the same name. Talk about false advertising! Instead it's a biopic about Queen and its lead singer Freddie Mercury. So can this movie spread its wings and breakthru or will it bite the dust? Let's check it out.

  So yeah, as stated above the film follows Mercury from his days as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport all the way to his performance with Queen at 1985's Live Aid at Wembley Stadium. And yeah that's about all there is to say about the plot. It covers a few major events of the band's life up to 1985, detailing the origins of their most popular songs interspersed with Mercury's relationships and sexuality. It is, regrettably, a lot of surface-level stuff. I didn't know all that much about Queen before seeing this film and after seeing it I still don't feel as if I know all that much about them.

  Apparently there's also a lot of historical inaccuracies to Bohemian Rhapsody. For example, in real life Freddie Mercury didn't learn that he had HIV until after Live Aid, not before. Also Queen never broke up, which means that Live Aid wasn't really a reunion gig as the movie suggests. If you're like me and you're not overly familiar with Queen's history then these stone cold crazy glitches shouldn't bother you too much (I had to look these up). I can accept biopics often require little changes to real life stories in order to streamline events into movie script material. But if you're a big fan of Queen then you may be disappointed that the band's history was oversimplified to this degree. Plus Bohemian Rhapsody suffers from that old familiar problem of a lot of musical biographies: anyone who's familiar at all with the subject already knows how the story is going to end.

  In the director's chair we've got Brian Singer and his work here is kind of a mixed bag. One can't deny how well-shot, energetic, and fun the concert scenes are but on the other hand there are a bunch of scenes that overstay their welcome. For example the movie's climax is Queen's performance at Live Aid and this legendary 21-minute set is almost fully recreated (I think they only left out “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “We Will Rock You”). But as good as this scene is, I couldn't help but wonder is it over yet?

  As one might expect of a Queen movie the main character is Freddie Mercury, played by Rami Malek. Malek does a fantastic job with his somewhat weird performance and it definitely grows on you after a while, as Freddie becomes more comfortable with himself as the film goes on. The other characters are alright although I suspect that some of them fall prey to the aforementioned oversimplification, especially with regards to the film's antagonist.

  So that's Bohemian Rhapsody, an ordinary musical biopic that, while lacking in staying power, does manage to have some scenes of genuine fun. If you're already a hardcore Queen fan then you may end up going slightly mad at this one vision. For everyone else who's thinking about seeing it, don't stop now because it will rock you.

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