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!

The Maze Runner Advanced Screening (Spoiler Free Review)

Three Months ago I wrote a blog post about the Upcoming movie The Maze Runner and why I thought it would be a success (10 Reasons Why The Maze Runner Movie Will Be A Success). Now this post is going to be a follow-up!

On the 30th of August, I was privileged enough to go to an advanced screening of The Maze Runner in London as I won a competition. There were three showings throughout the day with about one hundred people in each, so that meant there were roughly three hundred of us who saw it that day. I was in the second showing at 2:00pm.

We were let in about 15 minutes early and were presented with a free t-shirt and The Maze Runner book. There was a short clip introduction from Wes Ball (the director of the movie) and then we watched the film.

I have to say in the lead up to watching the film I was as equally excited as I was slightly apprehensive about the film because this was my favourite book series and I really wanted the film to do the first book justice. I can tell you that it definitely did it. There were a few changes from the book, but that is always to be expected when switching the medium of the story as some things work differently in a movie to a book.

All though there were a few changes plot wise the characters were kept true and the cast played them all perfectly. In my opinion, they couldn't have chosen a better cast to play the characters. (I was especially pleased with the fact that they kept Newt's British accent strong. Thank you Thomas Brodie-Sangster.)

My favourite thing from the entire movie has to be the visuals and scenery. When I heard the books were being made into a movie I found it hard to visualise what the maze and the grievers were going to look like because they are both such complex characters (because let's face it the maze is definitely a character i. When I saw them both I couldn't imagine anything better. It was perfect especially with the fact that this film was done on a low budget of $30Million. Wes Ball seriously deserves many awards for the effort and talent he put into producing this movie.

What I love about the film is that you can tell everyone involved with it cared about the story and the characters and wanted to stay true as much as they could to the phenomenal book. As a really big fan of the books, I can say they definitely did this. Including a brilliant way of cameoing the author James Dashner so watch out for him,

I want to thank the maze runner uk for giving me the chance to see it so early and the cast/crew of the film for doing such an amazing job at creating the movie.

I recommend everyone to go see it when it comes out in cinemas. You seriously won't regret it!

Some Pictures From The Day

10 Reasons Why The Maze Runner Movie Will Be A Success!

The Maze Runner Movie Poster with Dylan O'brien

1. It is the film adaption of the first book in the highly successful young adult, dystopia series - The Maze Runner so it already has a huge fan following!
2. The lead man! Dylan O'Brien has been cast as the lead character Thomas. He is a highly talented actor and has a huge dedicated fan following because of playing Stiles in the hit MTV show Teen Wolf.
3. The rest of the cast. With highly popular young actors such as: Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Will Poulter and also actress Kaya Scodelario cast in the movie it is sure to bring in a huge young audience.
4. It is Director Wes Ball's first big project which will give him room to express his new and unique director style.
5. It is the first young adult book to film adaption in a while that is centered around a male lead instead of female. So it brings something new and will bring in more of a male audience too.
6. The ongoing themes of Friendship, Self-Identity, Persistence and Freedom are relatable to the young teenage audience who will be watching the film.
7. You enter the movie with the same knowledge as the lead Thomas (which is nothing). This means that you learn and discover things at the same speed as him and therefore it means people will connect very well with the lead character.
8. If the first movie does well then the second and third books: The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure will also be made in to films and everyone loves a good movie series!
9. Everyone loves a well created villain and with the grievers: creatures described as resembling "a gigantic slug sparsely covered in hair and glistening with slime" and it's body is riddled with metal appendages like: spikes, shears and rods. The Maze Runner definitely has one.
10. Finally, The trailer has been released and it was brilliant. The imagery looks amazing and the trailer sure does leave you wanting to find out what happens in he movie.

I am sure that The Maze Runner will be an amazing movie and I recommend everyone to go and see it when it is released in September/October this year.

The Maze Runner Trailer