Macbeth, Hateful 8, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (spoilers)

[rmill3r]

A few months ago I made a big post where I reviewed every movie I've seen this past year, which was a bit of an undertaking as I've seen more movies this year than probably any other year in my life. I've seen a few more movies as the year closed out, and they were some very highly anticipated ones for me, so I've decided to put my thoughts down here.

In case it isn't clear, this post is going to contain SPOILERS for Macbeth, Hateful Eight and Star Wars: The Force Awakens!!!

Macbeth

I had been looking forward to this movie all year. Ever since I saw this teaser trailer I was hooked. Sadly, this had/has a very limited release. When it came out I eagerly looked for a showing in my area, but it was nowhere to be seen! I happened to be visiting family for the holidays these past couple weeks and there was a small, independent theater that happened to be playing it. I checked it out in the early afternoon only to find a rather uptight, rundown, incredibly tiny (and narrow) screening for this movie, filled to the brim with absolutely obnoxious people. Needless to say, it did not make for the best viewing for a movie as beautiful as this.

Still, I watched this from beginning to end and was simply stunned. I realized while sitting through the previews that I didn't know the Macbeth story. I had never read it, nor seen an adaptation of it--on stage or film or otherwise. So everything was truly fresh for me.

For those that don't know, this film portrays the entire Macbeth story in its original Shakespearean verse. As cool as I think that is, even I could admit that seemed risky for a modern day company to churn out a film adaptation to today's movie-going audience. Who would have the patience for that? Who would sit through it? Who would enjoy it? Who would even understand it.

Well, Shakespeare isn't "old" English per se...it's just..."older." So while it's not like our modern English language, it's certainly not unrecognizable! There were plenty of words I didn't completely understand, and phrases that I couldn't quite make out in my head with how quickly the actors were delivering their lines, but I still got the gist of everything they said and still enjoyed and comprehended the movie in full. Each line was delivered with such sincerity that it was always abundantly clear what was being said and done by the characters.

It was a violent movie, it was a beautiful movie, it was a dramatic movie, and it was entirely worth seeing. I pretty much want every single frame of this film hanging on the walls of my house.

Spotlight

This movie was excellent. Easily one of my favorites of the year, but definitely a tough pill to swallow. It deals with a small group of investigative reporters from the Boston Globe called "Spotlight" who uncovered the worldwide pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church in the early 2000s. While never being graphic, the content and the insinuations are really disturbing. This movie is far from a "fun night out," but it's also completely riveting. It's some of the absolute best acting I've seen all year (especially from Mark Ruffalo), and it's one of those movies that keeps you thinking and dwelling on even more than what its subject is about. It's more than just sexual abuse; the movie gets into all sorts of abuse and issues between people with power and those without.

The Hateful Eight

I'm a Tarantino fan boy. He's a very polarizing director--you either love him or hate him--but his direction just works for me. Every detail is so unusual but so essential to the whole picture that I find myself engaged with everything he does. I've been seeing fairly mixed reviews ever since the movie came out, but I can honestly say that this one is up there with one of my favorites.

I was very cautious when I realized he was doing a second western. I know Tarantino loves westerns and most all of his movies have somewhat of a spaghetti western vibe, so when he finally made an actual western with Django Unchained, I was a little unsure when I saw him making another one so soon. It just doesn't seem too creative for him. Still, I went and saw this thing in the "Ultra Panavision 70mm Roadshow" including the full overture and interlude, and was just entirely floored.

How can someone make a movie where the first hour takes place with the same 3-4 people in the same setting just going on talking about what happened and yet make it so engaging? The fact that this movie basically only has two main settings/sets makes this all the more impressive. The acting is phenomenal, the sets and setting are gorgeous, and the dialogue is engaging in the same way another action-packed western would be with its constant shootouts and standoffs. I was continually interested in everyone's backstory, as well as their motives and relationships with each other that there never felt like there was a dull moment. It has some true-to-form bloody and gruesome violent scenes, but there really aren't that many of them, and it goes to show how good Tarantino is when he's able to captivate an audience even without the spectacle of a constant "guns-a-blazing" scenario.

It's irreverent, occasionally violent as hell, and quite wordy overall, but probably one of my favorite westerns to date. The setting, the actors, and the dialogue more than make up for any shortcoming I could have come up with for this movie.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Here it is...the motion picture event of the year. The movie everyone, their mother, and their confused children born after the prequels has been waiting for years for... and...

It was all right!

I really don't even know how else to put it. There are so many reviews, articles, analyses, essays, etc., etc. written on this movie in the few weeks since it has been out that I'm no longer sure what hasn't been said on it anymore. Maybe it's because Star Wars began as a real game-changer in the movie industry and in popular culture at large, maybe it was because Lucas's prequel trilogy was so divisive, or maybe it's because people really don't have anything better to do with their time anymore, but the world at large seems to be dissecting what is essentially a rehash (albeit a good one) of Star Wars: A New Hope and Empire Strikes back combined.

Is it better than the prequels? Without a doubt. Did Abrams rectify a lot of what Lucas had destroyed for a lot of fans? You bet. Did they use some pretty excellent practical effects and real-life location settings? Uh-huh! Is it teh bestest movies of 2015 or maybe all of TIME??? Uhhh....

I have to say I enjoyed Kylo Ren's character. His aggressive, whiny, bratty combination of personality was altogether deadly, scary, laughable, and sad. I think he's a better villain than Darth Vader was, and I really loved the angle that his character has daddy issues but basically takes it out on the world by failing to live up to the over-romanticized view he has on Vader. It's wonderful.

Kiling Han Solo off was well done (and honestly something they should have done in Return of the Jedi). I loved seeing all of the beautiful locations they shot at, the lightsaber duels really felt powerful and emotionally driven, the humor was well placed (something that was deadly missing from the prequel trilogy), the overall pacing was fun and engaging (albeit a bit too fast at times), and did I say the practical effects were great? But it also just wasn't that ground breaking or "special". What in this movie haven't we already seen? The original SW trilogy did something that most movie goers hadn't even experienced yet. While Force Awakens is certainly a big step up from the prequels, it really isn't doing anything we haven't seen before. It's kind of just rehashing what Empire and Hope did years and years ago with some (admittedly) nice acting and direction.

Was it a bad movie? Of course not. Was it a good movie? Definitely. Was it a great movie? Debatable. Does it matter? Not really...

[rckymtn22]

Excellent stuff. You should do a 2016 movie review post like Mika does with the Formula 1 post.

[Starlet119]

great review, I had the chance to see The hateful 8 and it was the best movie i had seen in 2015.