PixlBit

Funny, just as the same time as i'm expanding my gaming horizons and i'm trying to discover many more music, i'm seem to have mostly left movies behind. Don't get me wrong, I still love cinema as a medium, but because of not paying much attention to it since the 2013 Oscars, I still have many movies i'm eager to see, but still haven't gotten the oportunity to do so. It's also because of this, and other factors as time and lazyness, that 2013 was a very light year with movies. Still, I managed to catch some of the bigger releases and to keep track of a list of the few ones I saw, so without anything else to say, here's the movies of 2013 (from my personal best to worst):

1) Gravity (10): Honestly, I can simply post my review I did on Tumblr, since it covers what I loved about the movie, but to give a short summary, it was an excellent expectacle of action, suspence, drama and acting, with great story, scenery, special effects and I really felt like I was in space and knew how dangerous everything is.

2) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (10): What can I say, I love the first two books of The Hunger Games and the first movie one was just as great. But, I gotta admit that this one was better. I don't know, but I all fit so well and seeing everything from the second book again was an expectacle.

3) The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (9.5): The reason why I didn't put this one higher is because, much like the first Hobbit film, it took a while before it got set and even if Bilbo is supposed to be the protagonist, the movie felt like the Thorin show and the small romance between Tauriel and Fili felt a little forced. That said, once the film got itself set (which was aroud the barrel scene), it became very entertaining. I really liked the combat and action scenes, the characters were interesting and I must say that Jeremy Cumberbatch does a great Smaug. I also don't mind the changes Jackson has done to some scenes in comparasion to the book, since I kinda see how hard it's to translate them how they were originaly and I quite like the how he is integrating The Hobbit to the events next to happen in The Lord of the Rings.

4) Iron Man 3 (9): My favorite of the Iron Man trilogy. Maybe the reasons for the real villain felt petty and some characters only got few moments of glory, but as it is, it's a very fun film, with humor, action and one best pieces of character development for Tony Stark and his role as Iron Man. I also thought the plot-twist (you know which one) was one of the best things i've seen in a while.

5) The Man of Steel (8.5): I can understand the hate for this film.

It's not perfect. Much like The Hobbit, it took a while before it got set, the shaky camera was an annoyance, the blatant product placement was unnecesary, some characters didn't get much character development and some parts were morally kinda dobius (like the ship full of Kryptonian embryos, which to not spoil anything, had something happening to it). But I still don't get the vitrol for anything else and I thought the other things fit nicely. The story was a great origin to Superman, I had a great time with the action scenes, when I saw Superman, I felt like he was really flying, the special effects were great and I actually liked the characters, and I must give props to Henry Cavill on his permorfance of Superman. If I have to put The Man of Steel with movie that got a lot of vitrol but I still really liked, I would say Prometheus, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises (the last two odly enough, Superhero films).

6) Oz the Great and Powerful (8.5): Taking this as someone who hasn't seen the original Wizard of Oz film, I thought this was a very entertaining film. Odly enough, I can't seem to remember any particular flaw I had with this film, but at the same time I almost forgot about it because of being an early release. Maybe the fact that the 3D wasn't as eye-popping as I was expecting. But I digress.

7) Oblivion (8.5): Much like the above entry, I almost forgot about this film too. Between this and After Earth on apocalypse on earth films, this is the better film (wait for my entry on After Earth). At first, I thought "Holy Shit! This is a masterpiece", but then I started seeing some flaws like the love triangle, maybe plot holes and.... dammit I can't remember anything else. But I digress, it had good characters, interesting story, the scenery was incredible and I must give props to M83 for the beautiful soundtrack. If you like sci-fi, I think you'll like this one.

8) Monsters University (8.5): This won't bring you back to the glory days of Pixar and it's not their best, but it's better than Brave (as someone who actually enjoyed Brave), it's very fun on itself and those who watched the original Monster's Inc will like the nods and references to future events. That, and the story is very touching, if not original and the character development is good for the main protagonists.

9) The Lone Ranger (8): Unlike The Man of Steel, I still don't know why this got so much hate. Perfect it isn't, but it ain't a trainwreck either. I thought it was very fun. Sure, Johnny Depp was a scene stealer of the bad kind, but other than that, I thought it was a fun movie to pass the time, and I like the relationship between the titular Ranger and Tonto (even with the spotlight stealing).

10) Thor: The Dark World (7.5): I put this in the same level as Iron Man 2 on sequels that have some problems, but still had nice things to it and were fun. Now, on the problems; First, the villain was very one-dimensional and wasn't interesting at all, then the fact that I felt that Jane didn't have a very important role except carrying that red stuff of death, the humor is mostly miss than hit, everything kinda not being very impressive and exciting after everything I saw in The Avengers, and despite what Tumblr fangirls will tell you, Loki didn't have a very prominent role and even had less screen time..... which is a shame because he was brilliant when he appeared. But, I still had fun. Some scenes were exciting, the special effects were great, there were still some hilarious parts (like Thor and Loki's discussion while escaping Asgard) and it did bring some character development and depth to Thor (though also sacrificing the screen time of other characters). Like Iron Man 2, flawed, but fun and still with qualities to it.

11) Now You See Me (7): Stupid, contrived, godawfull CGI, but it's good to pass time and I would lie if I say that it doesn't have certain charm that makes it entertaining.

12) The Purge (7): At first I was going to see Elysium, but due to a misscalculation of time and place where the movie took place, I ended up on the wrong theater. I still wanted to see a film, so instead I decided to watch The Purge, which was the closest interesting movie they were showing. It's a very normal house invasion thriller and except for some small tense and atmospheric moments, it wasn't anything especial. The acting wasn't anything remarkable either. However, I apriciate the movie alone just by the premise of the setting and social commentary. It's a damm great premise and one with a potential for something great, since the setting could create many stories that I even feel like they fit on television. Let's see if something comes up in the future.

13) After Earth (3): Blegh. You know, i'll let my lengthy rant I posted here (it's on the Movies section) do the talking. But just to fill this part something, it's a badly done film and it seems they didn't know anything about pacing when they made it. It won't discourage me from trying other M. Night Shyamalan films, but it does give me a warning when I try to see his other works (or atleast, anything after Unbreakable).

Well, that's all for today. Sorry If I wasn't very descriptive, but I kinda wanted to do this out of boredom.