Well-made Movies These Days

I haven't watched a Friday night movie in months.  I don't watch chick flicks regularly anymore.  Instead I've been out and watched movies on the big screen, movies that are layered, works of art.  Movies that are anticipated as they come, and when they're finally released receive publicity and stellar reviews.  They're movies of complicated morals, of true stories of remarkable people, of interesting and entertaining concepts.  These movies stay with you for days after you've watched them.

 

Some time in the holidays I watched Big Hero 6.  I'd say it was a mix between a Disney film and a Marvel film.  If any of you enjoy Marvel movies, you'll know that they're extremely complicated and also entirely possible to a certain extent.  They're stretching the boundaries of science to the point where you debate whether what they're doing is right or not.  The characters are so blurred between good and bad that you're not sure if the villain is a true villain, or if the hero is a good person at all.  Maybe they're all good characters, having just gone through some difficult times.  Experiences do make a person.

Big Hero 6 was one of these morally complicated movies, but much cuter seeing as it was a Disney film.  Was the bad guy really all that bad?  And I mean the bad guy in the end, who comes as a great surprise.  He did have a reason to act the way he did.  And what about the bad guy they thought was bad all along?  Was he actually innocent, just pushing the boundaries of experiments and knowledge too far?  And what about the main character, Hiro?  Was he so blinded by his brother's death that he would do anything, no matter how ruthless?  But I reckon, as long as Hiro helped save the day in the end, he was a hero (haha Hiro hero.  Get it?).

Another thing about this movie that stuck to me was the complete puffiness and frankness of Baymax, and the handshake.  *fist bump* deleleleleleh

At the debating thing I went to, we ended up watching The Imitation Game which is about Alan Turing, the man who invented the first computer, and his experience using this to crack the Enigma (a German coding device that sent out attack messages).  He was a brilliant yet extremely awkward man, preferring to work alone and unlikeable, but once gaining obedience and respect from his fellow teammates, which took a while, managing to create a solution for the practically impossible code.  Throughout the story we see Alan's past experiences, showing us why he's the way he is, and why he's trying to build this machine.  He is also homosexual, which is misunderstood as indecency and against the law in Britain at this time.

The thing about this movie is that it's entirely true.  Every saddening event that happens is true.  Alan really did help to end World War 2, saving many lives, but not having a very happy one of his own.  The thing about true stories is that they make you twice as emotional and hit you twice as hard. 

The movie has Kiera Knightly in it, just letting you know ;)

Another movie I saw in the last few weeks was Kingsman, which is a much much happier movie.  It's a British spy movie filled with big stars such as Colin Firth and Michael Cain.  The main character was pretty good looking too, and stylish with the glasses and suit at the end.  It's one of those movies where the main character came from the slums with a terrible domestic life and supposedly no future ahead.  But then, he gets himself into a place filled with posh people who look down on him, and is forced to compete against them for a spot in the Kingsman spy organisation.

Here's just a little quote from the movie that I really liked.  "A suit is the modern man's suit of armour."

It's such a modern film, referring to stars such as Iggy Azaela and using that really funny raw British humour in British accents.  The villain is some kind of wifi supplier and the issue is somehow morally complicated and completely hilarious at the same time.  There's so many scenes where what happens should be making you cry or scream in shock, but instead make you laugh, even in those incredibly gruesome scenes.

There's also one of those posh horse-riding-polo-playing-boarding-school British girls.

 

And the latest movie I watched was last night.  The Theory of Everything, based on Stephen Hawking's life. 

Anyone living with Motor Neuron Disease or living with someone with it must be an incredible strong person.  Stephen Hawking is a brilliant man, setting the basis of so many concepts and modern sciences today, being the man who discovered the big bang.  We see his obsession with time, and why time is so important to him, and how time can effect everything.  Time is such a major theme.  I wonder if anyone will ever find that one simple equation that sums up the beginning of the universe to the end.  The theory of everything.

His wife is also such a strong woman.  She fought for him.  Without her he wouldn't have lived as long as he has.  She loved him.  She was artsy, he was scientific, she liked English, he liked maths.  They all saw her as fragile and warned her away, but she stayed and she stayed for so long.  She tried so hard, and it must've been somewhat miserable living a life like that.  Maybe that's why she had to leave on mutual terms.

The movie had a happy ending but coming out I still felt so sad.  I still do.  The disease sounds like something out of anyone's nightmares.  Never being able to move.  But somehow he does it.  I wonder if a mind as brilliant as his needs to focus only on the mind, and doesn't have space to focus on movement or muscles.  He's so successful and they all end up in the best situations possible, but it still brings tears to the back of my eyes.

Being a true story, the movie had a massive impact.

Eddie Redmayne is also an amazing actor.  I know he can sing, from Les Miserables, and he's actually so cute.  Even at the beginning of the movie Stephen had awkward movements.  He was tall and lanky and wearing black framed glasses, and he was positively adorable.  I think I like guys with glasses, not that it matters all that much.

I suggest you watch all these movies, and do it right away.

I've discovered that movies are works of art, like a painting, made layer by layer, scene by scene, in only a particular order.  Stories are knowledge.  They may not all be factual, but they have the capacity to open your mind.

I admire the people who live them, which includes the creators imagining every moment in their minds, living it.

They let me in on remarkable experiences.

Love,
M