Keith's "How can I see this many movies with 3 kids?" 2018 Film Rankings

Despite increasing the number of kids once again this year, I actually managed to watch quite a few new films in 2018, being able to make an actual top 10 and even being able to leave one off if I wanted to. There are a few reasons that went into an increase in film watching; the fact I can go to movies just with Aiden now, the reality that movie nights are one of the easiest to accomplish date nights even with three kids, and the prevalence of streaming services and the fact new releases show up there faster than ever all played a role. What this means is that if these trends keep up, I might have to start being more discriminating when it comes to my yearly write-up, as it takes more and more time (this year I'm coming it at over 3500 words).

I appreciate taking an opportunity to look back however, ever since John released his inaugural list and I felt like I needed to create an alternate list with films people had actually seen. This year there is actually a lot of overlap, which is great as it allows comparison between what we saw and how we enjoyed it. I don't put nearly as much thought into my rankings as John has his; mine is skewed heavily towards my pure enjoyment of the film and the immediate emotional reaction it caused it me over any deeper considerations of what makes a film great, so keep that in mind as you're reading. 

Some notable omissions that I might have been expected to see this year include Venom, Ant Man & Wasp, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom & Incredibles 2, and I'm sure I will enjoy streaming them over the next year as they start to release.  With everything out of the way, lets start my list off with what has become a bit of a tradition now...

11. A Wrinkle In Time – For the third year in a row, Disney fills out the bottom of my list for the least enjoyable movie I watched that year (Beauty and the Beast and Zootopia being the previous films). When browsing Netflix to find a film to watch, my thought was why not this? I’ll almost always watch Science Fiction, and despite knowing it was not a well-received movie, I figured it was worth a shot. Maybe the book is better since people seem to hold a fairly high view of it, but whatever might have made the book a classic was not transferred over to film. From what I understand, the original held a lot of strong Christian and spiritual themes, which were unsurprisingly watered down for the film. What was left was a bland, uninspiring film.

10. The Grinch – Watching this movie live with my kids, I thought it was better than the second last film on my list for the year, but on reflection it’s hard to move it any higher. Like most of the movies I can be bothered to watch, it’s not a bad movie, but there was nothing all that good about it. My sister-in-law described it as feeling like a made for TV special, and I think that description does it justice. The unfortunate part of this is that we already have a made for TV special about the Grinch, and the cartoon from the 60’s is far superior in every way. I get that the filmmakers wanted to do something new, and I’m as hard as anyone on remaking classics that don’t need to be remade, but they basically ignored the 2 best parts of the original (The “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” song, and the “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more” at the climax). It’s no holiday classic, and I’m already dreading it replacing the cartoon in popular culture (we already have that abomination of a Jim Carey movie for inferior Grinch stories, now it’s doubled) 

9. I Can Only Imagine – This year’s entry for the overtly Christian movie I managed to take in, and out of all of the major Christian movies in recent years, this one is by far the best of them. It tells the best story, and given its nature the “message” aspect of the film is less shoe-horned into the rest of the story. It’s an inspiring biopic that does the job well if you have any familiarity or interest in the song it’s about. Unlike many lesser films in the subculture, it’s not a family drama with a come to Jesus moment, or a historical thriller with a come to Jesus moment, or a let’s bash atheist professors with a come to Jesus moment (plus a Newsboys concert!). The come to Jesus moment is more overt, but less glaring, and it serves the film well. Hopefully it can be a blueprint for how Christian works of art can get away from being just a piece of Message fiction and to tell better stories.

8. Annihilation – I’m interested to see where this film fits on John’s list for the year, as I’m guessing it could be the only overlap between the two (Obviously I know where it fits now, and it’s just one of 3 overlap, so that’s cool). John sparked my interest last year after it was on his list of top expected movies from 2018, and reading a synopsis furthered my own expectations. As I mentioned earlier, almost anything science fiction will draw my attention, and I went in with some excitment. Coming out of the film, I wasn’t sure what I thought about it or how it made me feel, and I’m still not completely sure. Maybe that’s one of the signs of a good film, but it certainly makes it hard to rank. I can say with certainty that it wasn’t exactly an enjoyable film to watch. It’s incredible unnerving and nihilistic, and the horror aspects are really not my cup of tea or what I go into films looking for. While I primarily watch films for enjoyment and I just said this wasn’t very enjoyable, it had enough going intellectually for it storywise to make it into the middle of my list.

John asked for feedback, so I’ll try and give it here. After watching the film I forget if I actually talked to John about it or not, any record of that conversation would have died with BBM. Despite an early desire to talk more about the film, it’s deeper themes and ideas didn’t grab me in the same way they did John. Unlike Ex Machina, which I could relate to themes I see in the world around us every day, what was present in Annihilation didn’t strike me as much until I read John’s thoughts in this blog (I mean, ya, it makes sense it’s about rebirth and self-destruction, but that didn’t occur to me at the time. They’re not subjects I think about much in my own life to be honest). Maybe the unnerving nature of the nightmare bear or the alien, amongst other things, short circuited my ability to think comprehensively about anything deeper. The film created a strong emotional reaction in me, so in that sense it was extremely successful, however the mental reaction didn’t line up.

7. Black Panther – It’s kind of the quintessential Marvel movie. It’s an enjoyable watch, fills the role of the modern day popcorn-eating blockbuster, but I can’t really pull any larger themes or meaning out of the film. When I think back on the film, nothing stands out as a “wow” moment or something I haven’t seen before. I guess it had black people in it, if you’re the type of person for whom that is “wow” inducing moment (which describes a large portion of our media, John makes the counter point about the importance of representation in his post), but outside of a great Andy Serkis it was only so-so. The fact that this movie is up for all sorts of year-end awards is just insane, and I say that as someone who loves seeing actual popular films represented in award shows. 

6. The Greatest Showman – This movie was technically released in 2017, but because I saw it in theatres this year, I’m making the call to add it to my list. This is probably the anti-Annihilation on my list, as it’s rather enjoyable but the story can’t really be described as intellectually gripping (whether The Greatest Showman is unnerving or not probably depends on your thoughts on bearded ladies and little people). I have a soft spot for musicals, and this one does the music portion well. It’s uplifting and inspiring, potentially too uplifting as all of the major conflicts in the movie are kind of glossed over and resolved in a relatively quick fashion (probably the biggest criticism of the movie). However, despite its flaws and its relatively simple story, it probably made it higher up my list of 2018 movies than it deserves just because of the impact it had on me.

After seeing the film, the only thought I could come away with was “I need to start my own business”. Not exaggerating at all, I probably spent a good month’s worth of mental energy mapping out what it would take to start an enterprise of some sort. This is out of place for me, I’ve never really dreamed of it prior and the feeling has since died off (mostly), but to say the film had a profound effect on me is an understatement. As the only film on the list I’ve had a chance to rewatch, I can state it doesn’t live up to my initial impressions on 2^nd viewing, but for original impressions it was certainly in the upper half of 2018.

This is also the point for the musical interlude, and a long distance dedication to one Aaron Clapperton. I enjoyed hearing about your career change and the obvious passion you have to continue in financial management on the podcast. While I can't imagine getting excited about money and investing, I fully approve of you chasing something that gets you excited, and of the fact that you'll be sticking around in Medicine Hat. In that vein, here's the song stuck in my head for hours after coming out of the film, and a shout out to you.

5. Aquaman – Despite seeing it in 2019, I make exceptions for any 2018 release I still get to see in theatres (call it the Last Jedi rule). For a movie that had the potential to be a mess, it turned out pretty well, due in large part to how well Jason Momoa was able to sell the character and a director that could pull of strong action pieces and create an interesting aesthetic. If I’m being completely objective, it was enough of a generic superhero movie that I could have fit it in beside Black Panther, however the fact that I’m an unabashed DC fan allows me to put it higher on that basis alone.

This is as good of a time as any to give my take on the state of DC comics at the movies. I think they have finally found a way to establish their footing in the whole extended universe sphere. For a while there it was shaky, and despite the fact that I enjoy Batman v Superman the most out of all of them, the bad vibes around the projects had me worried we would see a shelving of the franchises (in a sense we have given the uncertainty around future films involving Batman and Superman). However, the fact Wonder Woman and Aquaman have been solid successes despite being lesser known characters, and that Shazam looks to be shaping up pretty well, gives me hope that the business side at DC will be able to let the creative side work out their kinks.

The downside is that while DC might have found their footing, it has come at the cost of copying more of what Marvel has done with theirs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I miss the feeling that filmmakers are shooting for something higher that I got with Man of Steel and BvS. While I’m not expecting it, I’ll hold out hope that Aquaman 2 goes full Lovecraft and teams up Aquaman and Black Manta into fighting fish people and Eldritch horrors (seeing what other films James Wan has directed, maybe it’s not out of the question), given that it would be a daring choice and would build on the absolute best parts of the film. In the meantime, I’ll settle for more of the same.

4. Mission Impossible: Fallout – Maybe if we were subject to 2 or 3 Mission Impossible movies a year, the same way we are Marvel films, I would feel the same way about Fallout as I did Black Panther. It’s tough to say what stands out from this movie for me, and to be quite honest I couldn’t tell you exactly what differentiates Ghost Protocol/Rogue Nation/Fallout from each other, only that I always enjoy myself watching them. I’ve come to appreciate what they’ve turned the Mission Impossible franchise into, and even as the number of my kids gets higher, Karalee and I still manage to show up and see them in the theatre. I might totally forget about the series between each installment, and it might surprise me every time they come out with a new one, but they have created a pretty solid niche as good, dependable action films, and their stunts and action remain a breath of fresh air in an industry too reliant on CGI extravaganza.

3. Solo: A Star Wars Story – After The Last Jedi left me disillusioned with the future of the franchise, and the general underwhelming response from fans and critics, I passed on seeing this in the theatre (I might not see a lot of movies these days, but given my level of fandom, I shouldn’t be skipping Star Wars in the theatre). I can say now, that was a mistake. Solo is the best Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi, narrowly edging out Rogue One, and delivered exactly what fans(and I mean me) have been wanting since the end of the original trilogy, fun adventures with the characters we love (rather than turning them into depressing losers). Surprisingly I thought the actor they hired to play Han actually played the part well, given what he had to live up to, and Donald Glover was a good choice to play Lando. I loved the humour and the callbacks to original trilogy (“I hate you” “I know”, Thermal detonator tricks, Chewie ripping someone’s arms off, “I have a really good feeling about this” all made me smile and feel good in a way that the sequel trilogy hasn’t been able to match).

This is a good point to give my thoughts on the state of Star Wars, considering widespread sharing of my thoughts towards Last Jedi contributed in making Solo a financial disappointment. The studio obviously wants to keep creating epic trilogy style sagas, however they and the directors they keep choosing to helm these trilogies have no vision for what they want to accomplish, or at least no vision that lines up with fan expectations. In the meantime, they have shelved the “one-off” films, despite these stories better lining up with the feel of Star Wars. Both Solo and Rogue One have a better aesthetic and Force Awakens or Last Jedi, as the idea that the galaxy is a dangerous and oppressive and that the characters are trying to survive a dark era in order to recreate a time when things were better makes sense in the context of these two films than the other sequels. Any maybe the sense that our characters are striving to rediscover something that was lost is where I diverge from Riann Johnson and his vision that Jedi/Sith, Republic/Empire are both equally flawed and that there is no “good old days” for our heroes to 

actually reach.

Writing this out actually helps me to better understand why there was such a divergent reaction among Star Wars fans following TLJ. The story that was told was one of our original trilogy heroes discovering you can’t rebuild the past, and it takes a new generation to let go of old ideas and build something new unencumbered by tradition. On the other hand, the original trilogy is all about rediscovering a lost past and the importance of traditions. Now it’s Riann Johnson’s Last Jedi vision that lines up better with the current zeitgeist and that you think would resonate with people, but we see the opposite and in my biased opinion it’s because a tearing down of tradition has become so commonplace it is cliché and boring.

All this has gotten away from Solo and why I enjoyed it so much, other than to say it’s a throw back to everything I’ve loved about Star Wars. Also the cameo at the end was bonkers, and I’m curious about why producers decided to go there, but that’s for another time.

2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse – I am really glad that John enjoyed the film so much, and I totally agree with how good a lot of the technical and comic-book aspects he pointed out are. This was a really fun movie to go and watch, especially because it ended up being appropriate for me to take Aiden to go and see. Aiden is perhaps overly obsessed with super heroes right now, and he ate the movie up, asking me all sorts of questions about the various Spidermen and the wider Marvel universe. Despite being in a golden age of Comic book movies, there are actually very few options that one can responsibly share with the kids who should be a primary audience for the characters. The meta awareness and hero introduction was refreshing in an age when most everyone understands these characters already.

John speaks much more about directors and auteurs than I do, but I’m firmly of the belief that Phil Lord and Chris Miller deserve more recognition when it comes to family friendly, humorous, animated story telling. They are responsible for all of my favourite animated movies over the past decade (Lego Movie, Lego Batman, Into the Spider-verse, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), and when you consider they are also partly responsible for #3 on my list(Solo, before leaving the project with creative differences), it’s my opinion they have really carved out a strong niche for themselves. Into the Spider Verse is not quite as good of a film as Lego Batman in my opinion, but both show that you can make fantastic comic book movies in a different way by being meta aware, funny, and earnest; as they truly show the level of esteem they hold the characters at. Live action comic book movies might be all the rage, but maybe the past and the future of the comic book genre lies in animation.

1. Avengers: Infinity War – If you remember back to early 2018, I chose Logan as my favourite film of the year, stating the film showed the downside of a shared universe in that it limited what you could do, and praised the fact that it’s limited scale worked so well. I liked Infinity War this year for literally the opposite reasons; it was the best that a shared universe has to offer, and the reason it worked so well was that you had 10+ years’ worth of character and world building to give what was happening a level of impact that is hard to match when it comes to filmmaking these days. I appreciate John’s critique that the film potentially jams too much into its running time, and it doesn’t really let you take the time to digest what it’s throwing at you. All that being said, the film was a true experience, leaving me wanting more the moment it was finished and despite the fact you know some of the big moments will be undone (See Spiderman in theatres, 

Summer 2019!), it still resonated.

I’m one of Marvel Studios’ biggest critics, and I’ve long lamented what their inability to take risks has done to comic book movies in general. This was as good of a payoff for sitting through mostly mediocre movies (with a few gems mixed in) as I could have reasonable hoped for, and at this point it was the most enjoyment I got out of movies in 2018 (Ragnarok might have fallen in here instead, if it didn’t get lost in the shuffle of it being a 2017 film I didn’t watch till the middle of ’18). Thanos was an almost perfect villain, the movie left me guessing at multiple points, and as hard as I might be on the studio in general, I have to give them credit when they deserve it.

As a wrapup, the one thing that is clear to me is that 2018 was not my favourite year in film; I think on the whole 2018 was a stronger list than 2017 (Everything from I can Only Imagine up would have been above the bottom of 2017), but Infinity War would have fallen in at #5 (behind Logan, Wonder Woman, Lego Batman and Dunkirk) if I combined the two lists. This year had less for me to really feel excited about, and whether that is due to the quality of movie coming out, or just my own life not letting me get excited about seeing movies, remains for you to decide.

I will have to say that I’m already more excited about 2019 than I was at any point for 2018: Glass, Lego Movie 2, Shazam, How to Train Your Dragon 3, Avengers: Endgame, Godzilla, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Joker and Star War IX all being movies I’m excited to see this next year (whether they are any good, or if I find time to with 3 kids still being up in the air). I’m also excited to see which Disney film I end up hating in 2019, as it’s an incredibly strong group of challengers with Dumbo, Alladin, Lion King and Frozen 2 making up a strong early field.