2018 in film was really a year of two halves; on the one hand, we saw long-awaited cross-overs and sequels come to fruition and on the other, major franchises that were once widely beloved took drastic downturns in quality. Be that as it may, there was still plenty to satisfy cinema-goers this year. I’m taking a look back with my personal awards.
Film that just about made par
3rd The Meg: Plain old B-movie schlock at its finest; going in expecting something on the level of Jaws is the wrong way to look at it. It’s Jason Statham playing himself while battling the biggest shark imaginable, a formula that has worked for years ever since the Transporter trilogy.
2nd Tomb Raider: Going in with low expectations, you’ll find that this updated version of Tomb Raider, this time starring Alicia Vikander rather than Angelina Jolie, is a faithful recreation of the more recent video games, even if it commits the same mistakes as those titles.
1st Halloween 2018: Probably the best of the Halloween sequels, taking the characters from forty years ago and updating them in a fitting way. Held back by its unnecessary plot twists and inconsistent atmosphere. It simply isn’t quite as scary as the 1978 original.
Most underappreciated release
Many productions on the American Civil War have been released, but Hostiles is one that chronicles the time after that conflict; released at the start of the year, it’s an often-powerful tale of inner guilt placed against the westward expansion that took place in North America at the time. Hostiles possesses a staunch commitment to a balanced perspective of the two main sides. Throughout the film, both the Civil War regiment led by Christian Bale’s Captain Joseph Blocker and Wes Studi’s Chief Yellow Hawk are forced to come to terms with their differences and the crimes committed on both sides. It wasn’t quite a full success, making thirty-five million against a fifty million budget. Much like Annihilation (which I’ll talk about in a moment), the film’s slow, more careful pacing didn’t put audiences in the seats. It still deserves your attention however, mostly down to the visceral, emotional performances that resonate throughout.
2019 marks fifty years since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon; earlier this year, Damien Chazelle teamed up with Ryan Gosling again to make a biopic about Armstrong’s personal life. The film did manage to breakeven, making over one-hundred million against a fifty million budget but some, including myself, feel the film could have done better; the way it intimately delves into Neil’s family and the struggles they went to makes for very strong dramatic performances from Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy. What also made it work was how the politics concerning the space race are mostly left to the background rather than a central part of the story. It would have been easy for First Man to become too flag-waving and patriotic for its own good, but it wisely swerves around that pitfall. Add in the film’s excellent set-pieces that really take you into the Apollo Program and its space excursions and you’ve got a great, if underrated flick.
What is Annihilation? This single-word title only scratches the surface of this futuristic thriller; it’s slow moving, thought-provoking and beautifully atmospheric; unfortunately, according to Paramount Pictures, this wasn’t enough to put it in theatres. Lacking confidence over the film being too “artsy” for most, Annihilation was released exclusively on Netflix and it’s a shame, because once you get into it, this thinker’s sci-fi flick is one of the most dazzling and gorgeous looking releases of the year. Between this and Ex Machina, Alex Garland has established himself as a great science fiction visionary, but without mainstream recognition, it will be difficult for him to get the respect he deserves. Annihilation’s scaled-back distribution proves that beyond anything else.
Most disappointing film
There have been countless espionage thrillers that often boast unique stylistic filmmaking and others that get by on sheer razor-edged grit, delivering often complicated stories that really pull the audience in. Red Sparrow can’t count itself among them however; Jennifer Lawrence is an immensely bankable actress, that much is true. But she and the other cast members feel wasted in this production. Outside of the film’s often brutal background and subject material, Red Sparrow fails both as a modern spy thriller and as a showcase for its cast. Many plot threads are underdeveloped, but the big problem is when you don’t really care about the characters caught up in the conspiracies, the violence often feels gratuitous and lacking in context. It’s another film that hopes to get by with its strong production design and little else. You’re better off watching the likes of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the John Wick franchise instead.
After two excellent entries with 2008’s Cloverfield and 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane, the franchise really stood out as an anomaly amongst all the cinematic universes in theatres today. It was a mystery box format where each new entry would quietly slip into cinemas, making use of different stories all based around the same paranormal thriller premises. Sadly, when The Cloverfield Paradox came out this year, it was an enormous step backwards in quality; while the special effects were relatively strong, the film’s narrative and characters utterly failed to captivate in the way the first two movies had. Most analysis and online breakdowns point to Paradox being a wholly original production at first; but closer to release the rushed decision was made to connect the film to others in the Cloverfield franchise and bumping it to Netflix as opposed to a general release. As we all saw, this didn’t work, and the horribly flimsy efforts to tie everything together didn’t do the film any favours. Where the series goes from here is anyone’s guess.
After an eight year wait, the iconic Predator finally returned to the big screen and it had everything it needed to make it work; a high budget, wide array of capable actors and on top of it all, the man in the directing seat was Shane Black; a cast member of the original 1987 classic that surely knew the franchise better than most. Primed for its return to glory, 20th Century Fox and Black himself managed to cook up a tremendous let-down. I hadn’t been so disappointed since Godzilla 2014 when I left the theatre. 2018’s The Predator is endlessly baffling in how it disrespects the mythos and character; it throws in all these elements ripped from Black’s newer films and none of them work; the raunchy comedy is both distracting and unfunny, the plotline involving an autistic child is ludicrous and there’s almost none of the tension that made the original film so memorable. I’m certain the franchise will once again slip back underground for some time, waiting for another director to take up the mantle and finally do the series justice.
Biggest audience to critic split
3rd: Fifty Shades Freed
Most major film reviewers out there were more than happy to see the Fifty Shades franchise leave cinemas for good this year, but it certainly didn’t stop it from making money regardless. This of course, comes from the massive fandom surrounding EL. James’s original novels which compel a vastly female audience to flock to screenings around the world. Personally, I never wanted to support a franchise that glorifies abusive relationships and after seeing the bad reviews, I steered well clear of all three films. Be that as it may, they still make a ton of money and I have a sinking suspicion that the opposing perspective novel “Grey” may be next in line for adaptation.
When Hereditary was released in the summer of 2018, many critics hailed it as one of the best horror films in years; it’s certainly a production that casts off the endless clichés of genre from jump scares to found footage shooting. It’s a possession movie that gives the viewer time to get to know the family at its centre, while also weaving the horrors of real life into its story, particularly the weight of grief and mourning. Unfortunately, these kinds of films don’t always sit well with general audiences; much like 2014’s The Babadook, Hereditary was hit with a slew of criticism from the mainstream. Without direct scares or fast pacing, filmgoers are often turned off by horror films like this and it’s a shame, because Hereditary prides itself on being deeply disturbing. I saw the film with my dad earlier this year and he walked out afterwards thinking it was total nonsense. Truly horror has a hard time pleasing people nowadays.
While Venom sat alongside the worst reviewed films of the year, it certainly wasn’t a slouch when it came to earnings. The character of Venom is incredibly popular and his place as Spider-Man’s arch nemesis made him a very bankable property. Sony maintains a share on the Spider-Man universe and is continuing in their attempts to make another franchise. Despite a critical bashing, the film has gone on to gross over 855 million dollars worldwide, which is very surprising given its poor quality. It’s clear that audiences went for the character and not necessarily the film surrounding him. While it does get the former right, everything else is tired and forgettable, failing to capitalise on the symbiote’s more unhinged nature. Despite all the boasting about the “R” rating, Venom didn’t have much to show in that department either; I wouldn’t be surprised if people left feeling cheated but simultaneously, audiences (particularly in the States) are tired of sanitised “PG-13” films and get excited when a film bucks the trend. Sony is already getting into production on the sequel to Venom, but I still don’t think they’ve earned the right to make one. Guess we’ll have to wait until it comes out.
Best and Worst Trends
Best: Culminative filmmaking with late sequels
2018 was a year in which franchises reached their peak after a long string of preceding films; of course, the obvious choices are Avengers: Infinity War and Mission Impossible: Fallout, both of which leveraged their respective strengths to the highest scale yet seen but other releases also delivered strong impressions. The long-awaited Incredibles 2 was a colourful, rip-roaring good time despite the large gap between it and the original, as was Mary Poppins Returns. Creed II and Halloween 2018 to a lesser extent reworked and adapted older material from the past into a more serious and engaging package while Sicario II ranked as a surprisingly worthy follow-up to the superb original. Even the Transformers franchise finally got its share of quality, having moved on from Michael Bay’s controversial style with the spin-off film, Bumblebee. All told, many films that consolidated or followed up on previous efforts succeeded at a high standard throughout the year.
Worst: Popular franchises taking nosedives in quality
On the other side of the spectrum, we have films that generated a major downturn for their respective franchises; what was once widely beloved has now taken a turn for the worse. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Predator and Cloverfield all suffered downturns in 2018 which ranged from mediocre to awful in their execution. Was it bad production cycles? Was it franchise fatigue that caused the studios to run out of ideas? In all four cases, these franchises either tried to do too much or completely disregard everything that made them work in the first place. Some showed signs of bad filmmaking, such as the difficult production of Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Predator and The Cloverfield Paradox while others such as The Crimes of Grindelwald appeared more stable but let audiences down regardless. It seems unthinkable that the four above franchises could put out such lacklustre flicks but 2018 was a rough year for each of them. Here’s hoping future efforts work to correct the mistakes made.
My top five worst films of the year
5th Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom: Another brainless blockbuster sequel that goes smaller, only to devolve into the same underdeveloped action and characters that very few audiences will care about. The fact that it made over a billion worldwide doesn’t bode well…
4th The Cloverfield Paradox: Where the third Cloverfield film went so wrong stems from its production; desperately and haphazardly attempting to form connections to its predecessors, Paradox is incredibly sloppy, confusing and simply not worth watching.
3rd Venom: While it claimed to offer a different take on the saturated superhero genre, Venom is nothing more than what we’ve seen already with a hackneyed plot, unlikeable characters and an all-round lack of creativity.
2nd The Predator: Almost everything about the Predator is a misfire, from the ridiculous plot, annoying comedy and stripped production values. It possesses almost nothing that made the 1987 classic so memorable.
1st: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: A dark turn for the once brilliant franchise, offering everything and nothing in equal measure across its runtime. JK Rowling has sunk into bad prequel territory with her writing and the film falls completely flat.
My top five best films of the year
5th You Were Never Really Here: A sombre, gritty and emotional ride which focuses heavily on character and atmosphere; there’s a haunting quality to it, a sense of grim pasts and dark secrets brought to the forefront as Joe moves to rescue a trafficked girl.
4th They Shall Not Grow Old: Peter Jackson made an immensely poignant narrative of World War One, weaving together old war footage, interviews and images to give an incredibly detailed picture to mark the conflict’s centenary.
3rd A Quiet Place: This unassuming horror flick delivers nerve-shredding tension and frights throughout its brilliant premise, delivering all of it with very little dialogue while taking cues from the best in the genre.
2nd Mission Impossible: Fallout: An outstanding action film, one which somehow continues to top its predecessors while delivering the most death-defying stunts of the year. Both Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie are masters of their craft and the sixth film continues that trend.
1st: Avengers: Infinity War: The ultimate culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; a massive scale, impressive villain and some of the most thrilling moments in the franchise. Never have so many characters come together in such a rousing yet balanced way.
With the two halves summarised, that closes out 2018. Next year will bring more crossovers and surely, higher numbers when it comes to releasing on streaming services. Personally, I’m hoping for a cutdown on franchise misfires and gimmicky action and horror flicks. See you then…
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