Films of 2015: Hits and Misses

Hits

Jurassic World

Jurassic World was one of the most anticipated films of the year, and it most certainly delivered. A brand new cast gave it a refreshing boost that proved it is a franchise that will stand the test of time, as it does not rely on particular actors. It was a classic Summer blockbuster, and rightly became the third highest grossing film of all time.

The Martian

There was very little talk of the Martian until it was in cinemas, but it deserved the attention it ultimately got. It was a very timely film; with much talk about manned missions on Mars, it created a "what if" scenario that many would not have considered, and that's an interesting concept in itself. It was able to be funny while still taking itself seriously, which put it a notch ahead of other Sci Fi films of recent times.

It Follows

Personally my favourite film of the year, and one of my favourite films of all time. It's everything a horror needs to be. It's scary without needing to frighten you, the tension will have you trying to pause it or look away and the imagery is second to none. There's no such thing as the perfect film, but It Follows comes pretty close. 

Bridge of Spies

Steven Spielberg is still at the top of his game. The atmosphere, theme and emotional fluctuation is so trademark Spielberg that the film almost feels sentimental. He's a real magician with a camera. Tom Hanks put in a great performance, and the score is memorable too. The combination of people involved meant that anything less than amazing would have been disappointing. Thankfully, it wasn't.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Like Jurassic World, it was highly anticipated. It could have fallen victim to being too nostalgic and not producing a worthwhile storyline, but it didn't at all. The new cast stole the show and the old cast offered some memorable moments. The story made sense and didn't feel forced. The film's cycle hasn't quite finished yet, but it's likely to become one of the highest grossing films of all time. It makes Star Wars the number one franchise in the world once more. 

Honourable Mentions: Inside Out, Song of the Sea

Misses

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond

This isn't a miss because it was a bad film, it just promised to be so much more. It had moments where it was great, but it never really packed a full punch. The film succeeds in terms of trying to restore and reproduce old values and inspire the audience, but fails in terms of telling a story. It was an enjoyable film nonetheless and the visuals were wonderful, but I'm not quite sure who the target audience is. 

Poltergeist

The original is a great film. This remake is absolute muck. There's not much else to say really. Avoid at all costs.

The Good Dinosaur

I really wanted this film to be good. A combination of aspects landed it in the miss pile. It was released at a really bad time, with Star Wars coming out in the same month. Pixar had also released a film earlier in 2015, and people weren't excited about The Good Dinosaur. The characters weren't all that interesting and the story never made me want to continue watching. It's an okay film, but poor by Pixar's standards.

Krampus

You can never really expect a horror film to be good, so it didn't exactly disappoint but it was just visually too dark, and couldn't decide if it was a horror or a comedy. It had potential to be good, it could have capitalized on an interesting concept, but it never delivered. David Koechner's typecast character is intolerable and should never have been in Krampus, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. 

Poltergeist (2015) Review

The Poltergeist remake is the latest addition to a quickly expanding group of poor and unimaginative horror remakes. It's hard to look at any remake as a standalone film without making comparisons to the original. It would have been more exciting to see a sequel years on from the original, like The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) and Scream 4 (2010). Maybe we could have seen Carol Ann grown up with kids of her own and seeing the story develop in that way. But no, this 2015 remake regurgitates the exact same story from the first but in a contemporary setting. 

Modern aspects add nothing to the film. Mobile phones, drones, and GPS systems are used and the only way they actually contribute to the story is that we get to see inside the other world as a camera is flown in on a drone. Do we really need to see what it looks like where the child goes? It just looked like a CGI zombie movie. Some things are better left to the imagination. We don't see inside in the original because we don't need to. 

The original 1982 Poltergeist was written and produced by Steven Spielberg, and we can see that evidently in the qualities of the film. He describes E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982) as a suburban dream while Poltergeist (1982) was a suburban nightmare. We see a Reagan-era family growing up in American suburbs and it was probably easy to relate to that in 1982. The 2015 film fails to possess these same qualities as we see the struggling family move into a really big house. All of the character are difficult to engage with from the beginning. 

On the topic of qualities, there is some pretty poor CGI in the original, but it adds a sense of charm to it and makes it feel like an 80's classic. This obviously cannot be reproduced in the remake, but the CGI in place was just boring and annoying. This is going to be a problem with the new Ghostbusters film if it ever happens. On top of all this, jokes are recycled from the original film, and that might generate a laugh or two, but it still offers nothing new. It relies heavily on jump scares to make the film seem scary, but it only made it feel like a Blumhouse film. 

The evidence of lazy writing and general film making is so clear throughout this film. The original can't be surpassed so why bother making a remake? It's a lazy method of generating money for movie studios. Original films like It Follows and Unfriended have been released this year and that's really exciting to see, but the Poltergeist remake is a setback for the horror genre. If anything good can come from it, remakes might stop getting made. Revisit the original at home instead of wasting your money on this film.

Oh, and a blue flatscreen has nothing on a static television set, but I guess that epitomizes this remake.

1/7