“Throughout most of the Depression, Americans went assiduously, devotedly, almost compulsively, to the movies… the movies offered a chance to escape the cold, the heat, and loneliness; they brought strangers together, rubbing elbows in the dark of movie palaces and fleapits, sharing in the one social event available to everyone.”                         

- Director Carlos Stevens

Although the Great Depression has been long forgotten in the consciousness of today’s generation, it is surprising to know that in 2016, it is estimated that Americans will be spending $30.9 Billion on movies (theater, dvd, downloads).

I love watching movies because it’s a form of escapism. For just a few hours in the cinema or even just seated in front of your laptop, you get to forget the pressing stuff of the real world and just be entertained. 

Below is a list of 13 movies that I have enjoyed watching this year:

13 Chronicle

What would you do if one day you wake up and realise you have powers to move objects and fly? Me, there will be no hesitation. I will make a costume and become a superhero. But the characters in Chronicle did the exact opposite. The movie was an awesome warm welcome to a year full of superhero films.

12 Safe House

Denzel Washington is just a badass actor. He can do whatever he wants. There were a lot of action/thriller movies that came out this year but Safe House stood out the most in my opinion.

11 Ted

I’ve been a fan of Seth McFarlane’s works ever since and I knew I had to watch this movie the first time I heard about it. The dude just keeps on proving to everyone that he can deliver. The story is about a dude who lives with a teddy bear that came to life as a result of a childhood wish. 

10 Bourne Legacy

I’ve always been a fan of Bourne movies. In my opinion, I think the Bourne Identity revolutionized the way Hollywood made spy movies. It made the creators of Bond films rethink the way they treat their main character and had to reboot. Bourne Legacy is the fourth installment of the franchise but Jason Bourne isn’t even in the movie. It has the longest car chase I’ve ever seen and it was shot in the streets of Manila, Philippines. The only thing that sort of made this movie become included on this list.

9 Argo

Ben Affleck is rapidly turning into one of today’s best directors in Hollywood. He’s been on a roll from Gone Baby Gone to The Town and now this, Argo. It’s a true story about the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a CIA specialist who develops a plan of  creating a cover story that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, scouting “exotic” locations in Iran for a similar sci-fi film titled “Argo”. The last half of the movie made me bite on my nails so hard that I’m still having a hard time typing this.

8 Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World

This year is the end of the Mayan Calendar and there are a lot of theories suggesting that it will be the end of the world as we know it in a few days. I can’t say entirely that I don’t believe in it but maybe I’m just too scared to believe. I would like to believe in what the other skeptics say: it won’t be the end of the world it will merely be a renewal of a cycle. It will be just like throwing away last year’s pocket calendar during New Years. Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World is a movie about a lonely guy who meets a girl just a few days before an asteroid hits earth.

7 Brave

When the first trailer came out, I thought it was going to be a story about Goldilocks and the three bears. Instead, it’s a story set in the highlands of Scotland about a skilled archer named Merida who defies an age-old custom, causing chaos in her kingdom. After consulting a witch for help, her family becomes cursed and Merida is forced to undo the spell herself before it is too late. Simply the only computer generated movie I enjoyed this year.

6 Skyfall

Daniel Craig returns in his final Bond movie as an aging 007 who has fallen from grace but comes back, although rusty, to stop a terrorists who targets the MI6. Now it could make for a boring James Bond movie but it’s not. It still has that dark and more realistic theme that we have seen in Casino Royale but it also has some fun and throwbacks in reference to the old school classic James Bond that fans wanted. We get the James Bond movie that we deserve. And the one we need.

5 Rurouni Kenshin

Samurai X was the best anime in my opinion. Or maybe I just don’t really watch a lot of anime but regardless. The first time I heard that they were going to make a live action adaptation my initial reaction was rage. It could ruin the legacy of the anime and the manga just like what happened to Deathnote and worst, Dragonball. But then I started to hear a lot of good things about it on its initial release, I gave it chance. And surprise surprise! It’s as close to perfect! The part where Kenshin wore that red kimono for the first time gave me chills. It was a legit all around awesome movie. 

4 Dark Knight Rises

One of my most anticipated movies that came out this year. Although I was quite adamant at first when images of Anne Hathaway as Catwoman came out. But in the end I thought it was a great way to end the trilogy. It’s a fact that no one will ever live up to Heath Ledger in the The Dark Knight but Tom Hardy also did a great job. I do hope though that Nolan will reconsider and make another sequel.

3 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

For those of you who know me and those of you who don’t, I am an enormous LOTR fan. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is part one of a trilogy that takes place before The Lord Of The Rings that tells the story about Bilbo and his adventure with Gandalf and a bunch of dwarves and how he found the ring that changed the fate of everyone in Middle Earth half a century after. Bilbo Baggins is being played by Martin Freeman and he owns it as Bilbo! You watch this movie and you’re like, “this is the only Bilbo Baggins that I want to know”. You don’t even think about Ian Holmes, I mean I love Ian Holmes in LOTR but all I’m saying is, Martin Freeman is completely perfect. We also have Ian McKellen back as Gandalf and he is back to being Gandalf The Gray again because we’re back half a century in the past and he kills it in the the movie also. We get a lot of Gandalf screentime this time and any movie that has a ton of Gandalf screentime is a pretty good movie to me. There are a lot of dwarves in the movie and they all have their own personalities that stand out but Thorin was a complete badass. I wanted to like this dude in the movie and I liked him as much as I wanted to. His and Bilbo’s relationship is something that you wanna grasp into and how they try to become friends is the movie’s whole centerpiece and I loved it. The Last two hours just completely blows all the cylinders. It’s everything I wanted The Hobbit to be. The riddle in the dark segment with Gollum was awesome. I could watched that in 3 hours and still be completely entertained. That was a great scene and Gollum looks awesome. The tech they used on Gollum is now advanced ten years and he looks picture perfect. The movie is a great welcome return to Middle Earth and if you’re an LOTR fan, watch it and if you’re not an LOTR fan and if LOTR didn’t win you over, I think this movie will. I want to watch it all over again.   

2 Prometheus

Prometheus is a Sci-Fi movie directed by Ridley Scott. The setting takes place in the same universe as Ridley Scott’s previous Alien movies and it follows a crew of scientists on a ship called Prometheus who are convinced that they have found the origins of us and all lifeforms and it’s from a certain planet deep in space and they plan on going there to say hi. So afterwards, they land there and then bad shit starts happening and at some point IQ’s start dropping to zero. I mean it’s a typical sci-fi movie, you know that getting in the movie but what I like about it is the premise. Where did we all come from? Why are we here? Don’t tell me those questions haven’t crossed your mind at some point in your life. What if the answer is in the heavens, but instead of a bearded deity, what if our creators were extraterrestrials? And, if so, who or what created them? Movies like this makes me think and be entertained at the same time and that’s the reason why it’s number two on the list.

1 The Avengers

Four years ago in the movie Iron Man, we were promised The Avengers and even then we were all, “is it real?” And this year it has come to fruition. The movie is like two hours and twenty minutes long and that’s completely perfect. In fact, when you’re watching the movie you’re like “dude I don’t want this to end”. Usually for a two hour and twenty minute movie, by the time it ends you’re ready for it to end. Now in the Avengers movie you’re like “no I wanna see him Hulk out more!” and “I wanna see Thor smash Loki with his hammer more!” The last twenty minutes of this film is worth it. It was just awesome and kickass but also, you get the first two hours that is also pretty good like it’s the end of an era kind of stuff. I know they will make another Avengers movie again and they will all come together again in the future but it won’t be as cool as the first time you see all these great characters together in one movie ever. It’s a sort of feeling that you don’t quite get in movies these days anymore.

Runners up: (Cabin In The Woods, 21 Jump Street)

I was like Micheal Jordan in the apex of his career on a game six versus Utah today. I’ve been hustling trying to finish my display because it’s gonna be due this Monday and I’m only about 56% done. I’m pretty happy with how it’s turning out so far. It should be done (I hope) by Saturday and I should be able to start filming by Sunday morning. I don’t have any photos today because my camera is on hibernation -_- I should get a new one ASAP.

I was really curious when I heard about the announcement a few days ago that Marvel’s going to have another “super-blowout”. The Avengers going up against The X-Men? Now that I wanna see! I’m really excited to see Scott Summers going up against Captain America. They are both leaders and pretty much share the same ideals and principles and I would like to see how it’ll turn out.

I dug out some more and found out that this is not the first time the two teams went head to head. So much for “There’s never been an Avengers vs. X-Men super-blowout, so it’s like, we have to do it,” (lol Bendis). They sorta had a run in back in 1987 (lol a year after I was born) and it was a stalemate. It was a fight over Magneto. The X-Men were trying to protect their fellow mutant Magneto who has reformed while the Avengers wanted to capture him to face trial for his sins against humanity.

From what I gather, the new conflict will be about the Phoenix Force returning and everybody is assuming that Hope Summers is going to be its new host body. The Avengers want to lay hands on Hope, possibly to do something drastic. The X-Men want to protect her. (Fight! Fight! Fight!)

I think the X-Men will win this thing, hands down. One does not simply fuck around with mutants man. But what I’m really bugged out about is, which side will Wolverine choose? He is the busiest man in Marvel. He runs a school, leads the covert X-Force team and is a member of two Avengers teams (although I’m not really sure what happened after the events of Fear Itself because I’m not done reading it).

But anyway, I bet it’s gonna be pretty sick and I can’t wait for it to get started.