My Top 5 Films Of 2014

Last year was definitely an amazing year for film and before 2014 is in our distant memory i want to countdown my top 5 films released during the year.

5) The Maze Runner was the film adaption of the best selling first book in The Maze Runner series. I've already done a review of this film before (read about it here) so i shall keep this one quite short. The main reason why this film made my list is the visuals. The maze and the grievers were produced so real and life like it really made the movie a masterpiece to watch. The casting was also a huge success for the film and it definitely managed to boost the hype of the movie having young actors such as Dylan O'Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter and not forgetting the leading lady of Kaya Scodelario. There were quite a lot of changes to the book which could be seen as a negative, but overall Wes Ball whose first directing job was on this film did a great job!

4) The Imitation Game is the film based on Alan Turing's life. It especially focuses on his time working to solve the enigma code at Bletchley Park. The film was beautiful and incredibly emotional. The casting was brilliant and Benedict Cumberbatch played Alan Turing with so much powerful emotion and heart. He really took on the character and portrayed him with high standards. This film gave us an insight in to the world of Alan Turing. It portrays him with all of his flaws and struggles and in a way this makes the character even more likable. What the film may have lacked in factual substance it definitely made up in Character.

3) The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies is the final film set in middle earth and is the concluding chapter of Bilbo Baggins' adventure in The Hobbit. This is a film that definitely lives up to it's name with a big percentage of this film being a action packed battle. In my opinion The Hobbit chapter sadly did not live up to the standard's of The Lord Of The Rings, but this film was definitely the best and closest to living up to the original series. In my opinion this film managed to create a good mixture of action, emotion and humour. However it could have been deemed a little slow at some points.Richard Armitage deserves a big credit for this film as he portrayed the internal struggle of Thorin superbly.
Overall this film was a good end to The Hobbit Chapter and did a good job of wrapping the plot up and paving way for the plot of The Lord Of The Rings.

2) How To Train Your Dragon 2 comes second on my list. It's the second in the trilogy in the computer animated story of Hiccup, his dragon Toothless and his friend's. This film is a family film that can reach people of all ages. This is mainly because of the loveable and relatable characters created. No matter what age you are you cant help, but love Hiccup and Toothless. This film was a very big shock to me as although it was a family film it made me (a teenager) cry in the cinema. The emotional storyline about family and loss just made this film even more loveable and taught the audience all a lesson.

1) We have finally reached my top film released lat year. Guardians Of The Galaxy. With the movie world being taken over by superheros left right and center Guardians Of The Galaxy brought something fresh: Humour. Although all Marvel films have been known to contain bit's of humour none of them focused on it as much as this film. Even during the dramatic near death experiences this film couldn't help, but make you laugh. The soundtrack of this film was also another reason that this film was so successful and has made it to the top of my list. The soundtrack was absolutely perfect and whether you knew the songs before the film or not, one thing was for sure you would be humming along to them once you left.
The characters in this film were amazing and Chris Pratt really played an outstanding and breakout role as Starlord this movie. Zoe Saldana once again playing a badass female. Bradley Cooper voicing the loveable and hilarious Rocket Raccoon, Dave Bautista slowly making us become more understanding and loving of Drax. And finally Vin Diesel bringing so many different emotions to just one line and providing probably the most loved character of 2014: Groot. It's fair to say that this film was amazing and i can't wait for the sequel.

So there we have it they are my top 5 films of 2014. Let me know if you agree/disagree and which films you would pick. My next post will be a continuation of this and will let you know which films i'm most looking forward to next year. So watch out for that!

Sherlock Series 3 Review

   Nearly two years since series two finished, series three of Sherlock returned with it's biggest critical acclaim yet. In this article I will be reviewing all three episodes and summarising my opinions on the series.

John Watson (Martin Freeman) and Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch)

   Series 3 started with a bang. Episode 1 jumped in (literally) with the first of two (maybe 3) fake scenarios of how Sherlock Survived the fall. It kept the audience on edge throughout keeping their eyes peeled and watching every move intently to try and keep up with the quick pace of the scene. However, it was soon revealed that this scenario was in fact a fake and was devised by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss (the writers) after they saw the explosion of fan's theories on the Internet to how Sherlock survived. 

   This theme of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss providing scenes which would count as 'fan service' occurs a lot during this episodes and in my opinion gave us some of the best scenes. For example in the second fake scenario there is a near kiss between Moriarty and Sherlock to whom which many of the fans want to be together.

Moriarty (Andrew Scott) and Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch) Near Kiss scene

   Another example of 'fan service' would be the long awaited reunion of John and Sherlock. The scene was exactly as fans wanted and speculated it to be and maybe even funnier. With Benedict Cumberbatch reaching the height of his acting skills by bringing a comedic side to the generally stoic character of Sherlock by posing as a french waiter serving John and indirectly spoiling John's plans to propose to his partner Mary. John however did not let Sherlock back in with open arms like he expected, but instead in several small scenes afterwards John comically punches Sherlock every time Sherlock tries to explain himself.

   The relationship of John and Sherlock however developed and reached a new peak and was probably one of the best parts of the series in a whole. With scenes such as Sherlock saving John from the bonfire and Sherlock's reaction to being asked to be the best man to John's wedding showing us a heartwarming insight to how much they do care for each other.  The best example of this would definitely be the loved best man speech at the wedding. With Sherlock starting with what sounds like a obnoxious speech and then turning around to a sentimental speech that showed a different side to Sherlock and made us all fall more in love with him. 

   This series also introduced us to new characters as well as showing us new sides to old ones. John's partner Mary (played by Martin Freeman's real life partner Amanda Abbington) is introduced in this series. Instead of Mary holding John back from going on cases with Sherlock (like many people believed would happen) we find her pushing John and Sherlock to spend more time together which made us all instantly fall in love with the character. However, her character played a dark twist in the story and managed to shock the audience by shooting Sherlock. Like many of the characters in this show she had a dark and secret past which was later found out and in someway it maked us forgive her for what she had done. 

   

   Another new character in the series was Charles Augustus Magnussen (played by Lars Mikkelson) who was the main villain in the finale episode and "the one man Sherlock Holmes truly hates."

With documents of everyone's "pressure points" stored in his mind palace he was by far the scariest villain yet in Sherlock and succeeded in making my skin crawl.

   

   Talking about villains i come to my main problem about this series. In my opinion with episode 1 and 2 there were no big solid cases for Sherlock and John to solve and in turn there were no major villains. Yes these episodes may have took a different route with more comedy and being more of character development episodes, but i do feel that they lacked what we all have come to love about Sherlock which is Sherlock and John racing to solve a big crime and trying to stop the villain's plans. 

   However, this may be resolved next series because of the shock return of Moriarty in the cliffhanger of the last episode. Hopefully this means we shall see the return of a major villain creating many cases for Sherlock and John to solve in series 4.

   In conclusion I think this series of Sherlock reached a new high and was at it's all time best. With golden nuggets put in especially to please fans and being the most comedic series yet! In all I give this series 4 stars out of 5.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                          

                                                             BBC Sherlock Series 3 Trailer