2013 was certainly a year to remember in the movie industry. During the year, theaters across the globe were graced with modern masterpieces such as 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. Both of these films were leaps and bounds forwards for the movie industry in terms of artistic storytelling and cinematography, respectively. However 2013 has come and gone and the 86th Oscars have ended. Now we are 4 months into 2014 and have already been greeted into the new year by a slew of films that are worth talking about and with plenty more films on the way, we have much to discuss.
January held nothing of much importance. The films that were released during the month were sub-par at best. The Nut Job and Devil’s Due being some of the worst films, while Her standing tall among a sea of terrible, terrible movies. February had some decent films, such as The LEGO Movie which definitely came as a surprise, and Robocop. Robocop did not meet the fantastic critic reviews that Her and The LEGO Movie received, but honestly was not that bad of a movie. It had a decent, straight-forward plot and good character development. The action scenes were okay as well. Robocop was probably the most underrated film of the month. March leads us into a wave of mediocrity featuring 300: Rise of an Empire, Need for Speed, and Divergent. The only redeeming film seems to be Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is Anderson’s first film to every gross over $100 Million at the Box Office, and rightfully so. Coming up is a summer and winter movie seasons which are sure to be host to all sorts of both masterpieces and atrocities alike.
Welcome to the rest of 2014. Godzilla, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Lucy, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, and The Expendables 3. There is so much to be excited for! One thing to notice however is that all of these movies, save for Lucy, are (akin to the title of this post) are either a sequel or a remake. This is a little disappointing, but nevertheless no reason to not be excited. Hopefully in 2015 directors will be more willing to break away from that cycle. Michael Bays somewhat unwanted return to the Transformers franchise has warranted much discussion form the fans of how to not repeat the mistakes of the previous films. So far the Godzilla trailers have made me very hopeful for a real, high-quality Godzilla remake. (1998 never happened). Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman star in the film Lucy, which looks definitely like a must see film. 2014 is a year filled with upcoming movies that are worth going to see and I patiently await the release date for all of these in hopes that 2014 will be a year to remember.
Drew's Movie Reviews 
Her and the LEGO movie were great movies, the LEGO movie definitely came as a surprise on how good it was. I can’t wait for the movies that will come on this summer, fall, and winter because all of them are going to be excellent. Downside I’m going to be spending a lot of money on seeing movies
I saw Divergent when it came out and thought it was good movie. I am excited for the multitude of movies that will come out this year.
Any good ghost movies coming out?
Paranormal Activity 5…. not necessarily good, but still about ghosts.
Those movies suck… They’re mainly just clips of rooms where nothing happens
nice reviews drew. In my opinion there hasn’t been a REALLY good movie in a few years. I think the most recent great movie to come out was Inception in 2010. And while there were still some very good movies to come out, like The Dark Knight Rises, Wolf of wall street, and Captain Philips. They were all very good movies but I don’t think they alone can redeem these past few years. But maybe interstellar can redeem the past few years. I don’t know much about it, but it’s a Christopher Nolan film, so it has the potential to be great
I would argue that Gravity is one of the best movies to come out this decade. The cinematography in that movie created a singular experience that I don’t think any other movie can recreate.
Nice reviews Drew. Who are some of your favorite directors? As a person who knows nothing about the film industry, I know little about what the director does and what his impact on the film is, and would like to know. You also said how you were “disappointed” that most of the new films coming out are remakes or sequels. Does originality really make a movie that much better to watch?
Christopher Nolan is probably my favorite director, Inception and The Dark Knight being some of my favorites. Alongside him I would say probably the Coen Brothers (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men) and Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men).