Normally around this time of year, I produce a Midyear Recap
where I go through every single film that I’ve seen in the first half of the
year. It’s a Rhode Island Movie Corner tradition that I’ve thoroughly
maintained ever since this blog’s inception in 2012. But as you might have
guessed, there has been a major complication when it comes to this year’s
installment of the Midyear Recap. Yes, thanks to that pesky coronavirus,
theaters were forced to shut down until further notice, which means that many
of the biggest films that were set to come out these past few months had to be
either pushed back to later in the year (or next year, in some cases) or moved
directly to On-Demand and Streaming services. Personally, I only managed to get
four films in at the theater before this all went down, which isn’t even enough
to do the ‘Top 5 of the Year (So Far)’ segment that always ends these posts. However,
in the wake of all the nationwide closures back in March, I have since seen two
more films thanks to the On-Demand/Streaming circuit, effectively allowing me
to have a proper Top 5 of 2020 by the halfway point. And since I’m usually not
one to buck away from the traditions that I’ve established for this site, I
will still go ahead and deliver the 2020 edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s
annual Midyear Recap. For those who are new to this site, the annual Midyear
Recap is exactly what you think it is. In today’s post, I will be going through
all the new films that I’ve seen in 2020, whether it was in a theater or at
home, in the order of ‘least favorite’ to my current #1 of the year. And to be
clear, I’m only counting the films that I’ve seen that came out this year. In
other words, this isn’t going to be one of those cases where I go over
everything that I’ve been watching while being in lockdown for the past few
months since a lot of it consists of films and shows that had come out in years
past. And so, without further ado, join me as I proudly present what will
easily be the shortest installment to date of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s
annual Midyear Recap.
ARTEMIS FOWL
Well, to start things off on a controversial note… yes, I
did like this film. That said, though, I fully understand why a lot of people didn’t
like it. Artemis Fowl will surely go down in history as one of the
most infamous adaptations of a popular book series in recent memory as it makes
a bunch of radical changes to the title character and combines story elements from
the first two books in the series despite the fact that it does properly
maintain the first installment’s premise. But like I said in my review of the
film from a few weeks ago, I went into it without having read the book
beforehand. I did attempt to read it back when I was younger, but for reasons
that I can never explain, I wasn’t able to connect with it like I did with the
likes of Harry Potter. However, I fully recognize that if I had read it,
I probably would’ve taken greater issue with all these changes. In fact, this
is the exact same situation that I was in when I first saw the film adaptation
of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2010. At the
time, it was a film that I was really looking forward to since I was a massive
fan of the book series ever since I read the first one in my 8th
Grade English class. But while I didn’t necessarily ‘dislike’ the film when I finally
saw it, all I could think about was how it was far from being the most faithful
adaptation of its source material. Because of this, I’ll admit that I didn’t
see its sequel, Sea of Monsters, when it came out in 2013; and yet, from
what I can gather… I didn’t miss much. That one ended up being the last outing
for the film franchise, effectively making it a failed attempt at an
adaptation. Luckily for fans of the series, though, it has recently been
announced that a TV series is being primed for Disney+ that has the potential
to be a more faithful adaptation. In other words, it’s a lot like what happened
with A Series of Unfortunate Events. Its 2004 feature film adaptation
looked to be the start of a franchise that could rival the likes of Harry
Potter, but those plans stalled out after just one film. But then,
in 2017, it got a TV series adaptation on Netflix that was widely lauded for
being a far more faithful take on the franchise, and because it ran for three
seasons, it was able to do what the film couldn’t and see its story told to
completion.
But anyway, back to Artemis Fowl. As noted earlier,
the biggest deviations that the film makes from the books primarily revolve
around the title character. In the books, Artemis Fowl II is a 12-year old ‘criminal
mastermind’ who starts out as a more villainous character before he gradually
transitions into being more of an ‘antihero’ in subsequent installments. The
film, however, basically abolishes his ‘villainous’ traits to make him more of
a traditional protagonist who, instead of looking to recoup his family’s
fortune, is trying to rescue his father from a villain who didn’t appear in the
first book. Naturally, this didn’t go over well with fans of the franchise, who
promptly made it clear that the idea of having an antagonist as the main
character of the series was never an issue for them and that all these changes
robbed Artemis of the traits that made him interesting in the first place. Despite
this, however, the film ends up faring a lot better when it comes to other
aspects of its production. To be clear, I’m not saying it’s perfect (far from
it, in fact…), but with a brisk 95-minute runtime and some fun production design
to bring its fantasy world to life, it’s harmless, for the most part… you know,
if you don’t take the story and character changes into account. Really, the
only other thing that holds it back aside from its radical changes to the
narrative is how it’s surprisingly lowkey when it comes to being a ‘franchise
starter’. Sure, it maintains the idea of what author Eoin Colfer described as ‘Die
Hard with fairies’, but it doesn’t spend as much time within the
fantastical underground world of Haven City as it could’ve. And because of the
negative reviews that it’s gotten and its fate as a Disney+ release, I think it’s
safe to say that this won’t be eliciting a sequel that could make up for all this.
But like I said before, perhaps this will end up being a case like Percy
Jackson and A Series of Unfortunate Events where, sometime down the road,
Artemis Fowl will end up getting a new adaptation that would give fans a
far more faithful take on their beloved franchise.
And now, without
further ado…
MY TOP 5 OF
2020 (SO FAR)
5. BAD BOYS FOR
LIFE
So far, Bad Boys for Life has been one of the biggest
hits of 2020’s film slate when it comes to how it has fared with critics and
audiences. Even as the third installment of a franchise that has been around
since 1995 and hasn’t had a mainline installment since 2003, it’s currently the
highest-grossing film of the year with a worldwide total of $419.1 million. And
in an unexpected turn of events, it’s also the best-reviewed installment of the
franchise to date with a solid 77% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While the first
two Bad Boys films that were directed by Michael Bay were solid hits
with audiences to the point where 2003’s Bad Boys II is genuinely considered
by some to be one of the best action films of its time, they weren’t as
successful with critics. But with Bad Boys for Life, critics felt that
the directorial duo of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah were able to take the brazenly
chaotic escapades of Bay’s Bad Boys films and do something worthwhile with
it, and sure enough, that’s exactly what they did. Overall, Bad Boys for
Life strikes a solid balance when it comes to how Adil and Bilall maintain
the general atmosphere of the series. While they certainly do their part to
maintain that classic Michael Bay style through the film’s lavish cinematography
and flashy action sequences, it isn’t as insanely over-the-top in its depiction
of ‘Bayhem’ like Bad Boys II was. Instead, it’s more in line with the
original Bad Boys from 1995, which was Bay’s directorial debut, and
while it certainly showed signs of the figuratively and literally explosive style
of directing that he would become known for, nowadays one could argue that, by Michael
Bay standards, it’s one of his tamest films.
But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Bad Boys for
Life is how it managed to be its franchise’s best-written installment.
Granted, this is still just as much of a generally mindless action flick as its
predecessors, but the film deftly addresses the 17-year gap between it and the
release of Bad Boys II. It does a wonderful job of emphasizing how Mike
Lowery and Marcus Burnett aren’t the young hotshots that they once were,
especially when it comes to the former since the film quickly shatters the
image of Mike’s seemingly invincible persona that thoroughly dominated the
previous two films. And then, of course, there’s the big reveal that Armando,
the young assassin that’s been hunting him and Marcus, is the son that he fathered
with the film’s main antagonist, cartel leader Isabel. This and the subplot of
Marcus turning to religion after Mike nearly dies from one of Armando’s
assassination attempts helps give the film some truly unexpected bits of strong
emotional poignancy. And through it all, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence
properly maintain the strong camaraderie between them that made the previous
films the enduring hits that they are. Because of all this, it’s quite easy to
see why Bad Boys for Life ended up becoming one of this year’s biggest
hits. Not only did it deliver on everything that fans of the franchise have wanted
to see for years (especially since this film spent a considerably long time in
development hell for various reasons), but it also managed to do the unexpected
and show some genuine signs of maturity. And really, considering some of the shenanigans
that Mike and Marcus got into in Bad Boys II, that’s saying a lot. As I’ve
said before, the Bad Boys films are far from being my favorite action
films of all-time, but I assure you that I had just as much fun with one of the
best recent examples of an all-around crowd pleaser as everyone else.
4. SCOOB
Scoob was originally set to make its theatrical debut
on May 15th, but of course, that plan changed when the pandemic
forced all the theaters to close. So instead, Warner Bros opted to do what
Universal and DreamWorks did when they decided to have Trolls World Tour
released on On-Demand the same day as its intended theatrical release date on
April 10th, which was also fully compromised by COVID-19. Thus, both
films debuted with the ‘Theater at Home’ price tag of $19.99, and while I
understand why some might find this to be a bit much for just a rental, I do
feel that it’s a reasonable asking price given the circumstances. Plus, if
there’s at least two people watching the film together, I’d argue that this is
enough to justify what’s basically the equivalent of two theater tickets. The
same method of pricing also ended up applying to films that were in theaters right
when COVID-19 hit (e.g. The Invisible Man, Emma, and even an upcoming
film on this list), which resulted in many of them opting to fast-track their debuts
on On-Demand services. However, this practice has attracted some controversy
from theater owners, especially after Universal announced that, because of how
successful Trolls World Tour was on the streaming market, they were
considering doing simultaneous theater and On-Demand releases for some of their
other films down the road. In response, both AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas
announced that they wouldn’t distribute any of the studio’s films that are
released in that manner. And while that’s all I’ll say about this debate for
now, I’ll also admit that Scoob, the newest take on the classic
franchise that is Scooby-Doo, has been the only film forced to On-Demand
services by COVID-19 that I’ve rented at the ‘Theater at Home’ price range.
One of the biggest selling points of this reboot of the Scooby-Doo
franchise is how it looks to be the start of a potential cinematic universe
that revolves around the classic characters of Hanna-Barbera Productions. And
while I know that some people might groan at the prospect of another attempt at
an MCU-style franchise, especially since most attempts at following the MCU
formula haven’t even remotely come close to replicating Marvel Studios’
success, the idea of a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe is a genuinely exciting
one. This is especially if you’re like me and your experience with the company’s
properties is admittedly limited to the likes of The Flintstones and, of
course, Scooby-Doo. As such, one of the best aspects of Scoob is
how it spotlights some of Hanna-Barbera’s lesser-known characters like the Blue
Falcon (or in this case, the Blue Falcon’s generally aimless son Brian who took
up his father’s mantle in the wake of his retirement), Dynomutt the Dog Wonder,
and Captain Caveman. Sure, this does sort of come at the expense of the film
being a traditional Scooby-Doo adventure, especially since the Mystery
Inc gang is split up for a good chunk of the runtime, but it makes up for this
with some solid emotional depth through its handling of Shaggy and Scooby’s
relationship. After all, as the film clearly points out, they’ve always been
the heart of this franchise. And while I fully recognize why the decision to
recast the voices of the Mystery Inc. gang (save for Frank Welker as Scooby)
has led to quite a lot of backlash, the new voice cast does manage to do a
solid job in their respective roles. Like I’ve said before, though, this doesn’t
mean that I think that they should replace the series’ current voice cast. But
overall, I had quite a lot of fun with Scoob. While it does have its
fair share of modern references, it does a wonderful job of maintaining that
classic Hanna-Barbera style from its wide array of Easter eggs to animation
that perfectly reflects the franchise’s traditionally animated roots. All in
all, it’s a delightful little family flick that will hopefully get the chance
to spawn its proposed cinematic universe despite the COVID-19 based circumstances
that led to it forgoing its theatrical release in favor of an On-Demand debut.
3. SONIC THE
HEDGEHOG
By this point last year, the first live-action film
adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog was shaping up to be one of the biggest
cinematic disasters in recent memory. When the film’s first trailer was
released, literally the only thing that anyone talked about was how utterly
mediocre the initial design for the title character was. This more humanoid
version of Sonic quickly became a prime source of internet mockery in a manner
quite similar to what happened when the first trailer for Cats hit or
when the live-action Aladdin remake showcased its first look at Will
Smith’s Genie in the character’s traditional blue form. And yet, in a genuinely
unexpected turn of events, director Jeff Fowler announced that he and his team
would take the criticisms of the design to heart and completely rework it. They
even decided to delay the film to February of this year rather than its
original November 2019 release date so that the VFX artists wouldn’t have to be
forced to endure the dreaded crunch time that would’ve stemmed from such a severe
deadline. Granted, it’s been reported that this happened regardless and the
studio that worked on the visual effects ended up shutting down by the end of 2019,
which resulted in the VFX artists who worked on the redesign getting laid off, but
that’s another story for another time. When Sonic’s big redesign was officially
shown off in the second trailer, the film’s online reputation did a complete
180 as fans reacted far more positively towards this version of the character. It
certainly helped the film upon its release, where it managed to net over $306
million worldwide and stand toe-to-toe with last year’s Pokémon: Detective
Pikachu as one of the rare positively received live-action adaptations of a
popular video game. Sure, just like Detective Pikachu, the reviews weren’t
‘amazing’, per se, but both films certainly fared a lot better with critics
than most of the other films that have come from what is quite arguably the film
industry’s unluckiest subgenre. And in this instance, it’s easy to see why Sonic
the Hedgehog managed to avoid the same fate as other films based on video
games as it’s a solidly entertaining popcorn flick.
Now with that said, the film is admittedly rather basic in
terms of its plot. In other words, it’s your standard fish-out-of-water/road-trip
comedy that’s very straight-forward with its narrative/character arcs. Plus,
fans of the franchise may be a bit disappointed with the fact that the film
sees Sonic spend more time on Earth than he does on his home world of Green Hills,
even though, to be fair, the concept of Sonic interacting with humans in the real
world isn’t anything new for this series. Despite this, however, the film
manages to work around this thanks to its easy-going atmosphere and it boasts some
fun action sequences that do a nice job of utilizing Sonic’s super-speed
abilities (and yes, this includes some slow-motion sequences a la the
Quicksilver scenes from the recent X-Men films). And despite what I said
before about the film’s inherently predictable nature, it does have a lot of heart
to its proceedings thanks in large part to the strong bond that forms between
Sonic and a local cop named Tom Wachowski that’s spurred by the former’s desire
for friendship after years of isolation. As such, the film is very much bolstered
by the phenomenal duo of Ben Schwartz, who proves to be a pitch-perfect voice
for Sonic, and James Marsden, who makes the most out of his ‘best friend
archetype who spends most of his time interacting with a CGI character’ role as
Tom. And, of course, the one and only Jim Carrey is an undeniable standout in
the role of Sonic’s arch-nemesis, Dr. Robotnik. All in all, it’s legitimately
nice to see this film manage to overcome all the negative publicity that
surrounded the original cinematic look for Sonic, especially since there was a
good chance that this widely-maligned design could’ve easily derailed the film
entirely had it not been redone. And because of how successful it managed to be
at the box-office, a sequel was recently announced to be in the works, which
makes perfect sense seeing how the film ends with a mid-credits scene where
Sonic’s best friend Miles ‘Tails’ Prower arrives on Earth to look for him.
2. BIRDS OF PREY
The fact that Birds of Prey is one of the hardcore
DCEU fandom’s most utterly despised films (despite being one of the franchise’s
better-reviewed entries) is something that will always make me laugh. After
all, like I’ve said plenty of times before, one of the reasons why the DCEU
diehards have been one of the most toxic factions of modern film fandom is how
they’re blindly loyal to the works of Zack Snyder to the point where they
refuse to listen to anyone who dares to have a problem with his DCEU films even
though they’re certainly far from perfect. Thus, when this film came out, the
Snyder faithful grimaced at the idea of a film like this being made instead of
something like Man of Steel 2 or the long-demanded release of the fabled
‘Snyder Cut’ of Justice League (which, of course, will finally happen
next year). However, I do hope that this isn’t one of the reasons why Birds
of Prey admittedly underperformed at the box-office. While it did manage to
double its budget (which was around $82-100 million) with a worldwide total of $201.9
million, it didn’t reach the breakeven point of around $250-300 million. And to
be clear, this isn’t necessarily one of those cases of a film whose theatrical
release window was hindered by COVID-19 since it came out at least a full month
before all this went down… although it did end up fast-tracking its On-Demand
debut once the pandemic went into full effect. It could be argued that this may
have had something to do with Birds of Prey being the DCEU’s first R-rated
theatrical release (not counting the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman),
but it’s still sad that this happened to a female-directed film that was primarily
headlined by a female cast. In fact, to be perfectly blunt… it also speaks volumes
about how the DCEU diehards can often have the same sexist tendencies as the
haters of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Remember all those alt-right clickbait
videos on YouTube that I’ve talked about recently? Yeah, Birds of Prey has
gotten that terrible treatment too. Let’s just say that there’s a good reason
why the completely unrelated (though thematically similar in a lot of ways) Harley
Quinn animated series on DC Universe directly spoofed this kind of toxic behavior in the Season 2 episode ‘Batman’s Back Man’.
As for the film itself, I should probably start things off by
addressing the elephant in the room. While the film is named after the
superheroine group of the same name from the comics and does feature some of
its most prominent members like Black Canary and Huntress, Birds of Prey is
primarily a Harley Quinn story. It’s told almost entirely from her perspective
and revolves around her efforts to rebuild her life after breaking off her
relationship with the Joker while the titular squad doesn’t officially come
together until the final act. I’m also aware that there’s been some controversy
over the film’s portrayal of Cassandra Cain who, instead of being the
martial-arts trained mute that she is in the comics (where she becomes Batgirl),
is a street-smart pickpocket that Harley takes under her wing. Despite this,
though, the film does an excellent job of maintaining the character-driven
approach that the DCEU has thankfully been going with for their most recent outings.
Even if it does come at the expense of proper set-up for the Birds of Prey, this
film’s portrayal of Harley Quinn is superb, both in terms of how she’s written
and how Margot Robbie finally gets the chance to assert herself as the definitive
live-action incarnation of the character. And while they don’t get as much
focus as they probably should’ve, the other female leads are great as well,
especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress, who gets a lot of the film’s
best comedic moments thanks to all the playful jabs at her attempts at being a serious
vigilante (who still gets to partake in many of the film’s best action beats).
Plus, while we’re on the subject of action, did I forget to mention that,
during the film’s reshoots, any action sequences that were filmed by the second
unit were supervised by none other than John Wick’s Chad Stahelski?
Basically, what I’m getting at is that this film’s got some great action
sequences.
And so, in conclusion… yes, I’m part of the crowd that
really liked this film. As such, I’m also disappointed that it didn’t do as
well as it could’ve at the box-office, partially due to the growing problem of overly
entitled toxic ‘fans’ (and yes, as always, the term ‘fans’ is used loosely
here). To be clear, I’m not saying that it’s perfect, namely due to it being a
bit unfocused at times because of the whole ‘it being more of a Harley Quinn film
than a Birds of Prey film’ thing, but thanks to the solid direction from Cathy
Yan, it manages to overcome this to be another solid outing for the post-Snyder
era of the DCEU. If I were to rank this film amongst the other installments of
the DCEU, I’d put it at Number 4, right behind the Grade-A trio of Aquaman,
Wonder Woman, and Shazam but still ahead of all the Zack Snyder
DCEU films (plus Suicide Squad). Yes, as I pointed out a few weeks back
when I discussed the announcement of the Snyder Cut’s long-awaited release, I’m
not exactly as positive towards the Snyder-directed DCEU films as I was back
then. And while the DCEU diehards will try to argue otherwise, Birds of Prey
is simply yet another example of how the franchise has fared a lot better
since it moved away from the overly dour atmosphere of Snyder’s films. The only
real downside to all this is that the DCEU won’t be acknowledging the shared
universe format as much going forward… though, really, that’s more on DC and
Warner Bros for not realizing that perhaps rushing Justice League just
so that they could match The Avengers wasn’t such a great idea. Whatever
the case, though, while it may not be the most ideal interpretation of the team
that it’s named after, Birds of Prey does, at least, show that there’s
quite a lot of potential for them going forward.
1. ONWARD
While it goes without saying that I’ll probably have a new
#1 by the end of the year, my favorite release of the year so far has been Onward,
the first of Pixar’s 2020 releases (barring any new COVID-19 related complications
that could force the further delay of Pete Docter’s Soul, which is
currently tapped for a November release). Onward serves as the sophomore
directorial effort of Dan Scanlon, who had previously helmed the studio’s
heavily underrated Monsters Inc prequel, 2013’s Monsters University.
This time, however, Scanlon had the chance to do an original story that was
inspired by the death of his father when he was younger and the strong
relationship that he formed with his brother in the wake of their loss. This is
effectively translated into a fantasy adventure set in modern suburbia where
two elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, embark on a Dungeons and Dragons
inspired quest to retrieve a powerful gem that they can use to bring their deceased
father back to life for one day. While I’m personally not too familiar with D&D,
those who are will surely be delighted by all the references that this film
makes to it, including a scene where Ian and Barley are confronted by the most
terrifying foe of all… the gelatinous cube! But of course, Onward also
dutifully maintains the most definitive aspect of any great Pixar film by fully
delivering on its emotional poignancy, especially when it comes to its ending. It’s
probably one of the best examples of a bittersweet but ultimately happy ending
as Ian willingly gives up the chance to properly meet his dad to protect him
and Barley from a giant dragon just so that Barley can have one last moment
with their dad after he had revealed that he was too scared to say goodbye to
him when he was sick. And as for Ian, while he may not have gotten the chance
to meet the father that he never knew, the journey that they went on ultimately
helped him realize that Barley was the one who filled that void for him.
The strong brotherly bond between Ian and Barley is easily
the best part of this film, and it’s all thanks to the phenomenal voice work
from Tom Holland and Chris Pratt in their respective roles. And while the film’s
focus on Ian and Barley’s quest means that the other characters in the film don’t
exactly get as much to work with as they do, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Octavia Spencer
are just as great as Ian and Barley’s utterly dedicated mom Laurel and Corey
the adventure-loving Manticore, respectively. All this and the fun fantasy
world that it takes place in results in Onward being another top-notch
outing from Pixar… even if some felt that it wasn’t exactly one of their ‘best’.
Yeah, despite amassing an incredibly admirable 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a
common point that’s been brought up in a lot of reviews for the film is that it
isn’t quite up to par with some of Pixar’s most beloved outings. And yet, this
only continues to prove the point that my pal Kyle Ostrum and I have been saying
for years now about how Pixar films that aren’t considered an outright masterpiece
tend to get overlooked because of the intense expectations that come with every
new film that the studio releases. There’s also the matter of this film arguably
being the biggest release hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which went into
full effect just about a week into the film’s release, and because of this, it
was forced to join the increasing number of films that had to fast-track their
releases onto the On-Demand market. As such, I do hope that this film manages
to gain some greater attention on the home video market because I genuinely
think that it’s just as worthwhile as all the other Pixar classics. The fact
that it only did about $103 million worldwide on a budget of around $175-200
million is simply due to it being forced to experience the unlucky break of
being released at the worst possible time.
And that concludes
the [severely truncated] 2020 edition of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s annual
Midyear Recap. As always, thanks for following along even with everything that
made this the shortest Midyear Recap that I’ve done to date. With that said, I
should note that, despite what some may suggest, I’m genuinely optimistic that
we’ll be able to return to the concept of going to see films at the theater sometime
in the future. While it’s currently unclear as to when it’ll be safe to partake
in this timeless pastime again, hopefully there’ll be enough time this year to
see some of the biggest upcoming releases, and believe me, there’s a lot to look
forward to when it comes to films that I strongly believe should be seen with a
crowd in the theater. There’s the highly anticipated follow-up to one of the best installments of the DCEU, the MCU’s first installment of the post-Infinity Saga era, the epic live-action reimagining of one of the Disney Renaissance’s most underrated gems, and the long-awaited return of one of the most iconic duos to ever grace the big-screen… and yes, that’s just to name a select few. And
personally, I’d hate to see the theater-going experience die out just because this
pandemic forced us to stay at home for a few months. Thus, in conclusion, I’m
only going to say one thing, folks… WEAR A DAMN MASK so that we
can keep this pandemic from getting any worse.
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