Kevin's Best Movies of 2017 (that I've seen)

Do you have a friend who is so supportive of what you do and is so encouraging in all of your endeavors that you get excited about the possibility of returning the favor someday? I have a friend like that and his name is Michel Tetrault.

Mikey and I met in film school. Little did I know that I made a horrible first impression, but he stuck me out long enough to become excellent friends. Him giving me a chance would prove to be the first of many acts for which I’m eternally grateful. Now, once a month, Mikey ventures to Jacksonville to fulfill his Air Guard requirements and at some point each of these weekends we go to a movie together. He’s so encouraging and supportive that he’s often the first to “like” my top 10 movies lists as well as all of my social media endeavors. This week, he asked me for my Top 10 Movies of 2017 and out of my absolute appreciation, admiration, and LOVE for my friend Mikey, there is no way that I’d ever deny him such a simple request. Without further adieu, here is my Best Movies of 2017.

10. Spider-Man: Homecoming – If you know me at all you likely know that I’m a Spider-Man fanatic. He is my absolute favorite comic hero of all time. I love him so much that literally my very first tattoo was a Spider-Man tattoo. The Spider logo became my logo for years, marking anything that I made or owned. Even my golf balls I marked with Spiders to signify they were my property (I am horrible at golf and have only played a handful of times). Anyway, here lands Spider-Man: Homecoming at number 10. Why so low on the list? I’m not really sure, I just feel some things were missed. Tom Holland is easily the best Peter/Spidey combo ever and he delivers the light-hearted as well as the heavier moments, but this Spidey is too reliant. Peter Parker makes his own webbing, is so brilliant that he can go toe to toe with some of comics top minds and yet he is unable to make his own suit? I love this Spider-Man and Homecoming would land in my top 3 Spider-Man films to date, but Homecoming as far as movies that came out this year… it just missed for me. I wanted more of Peter being self-reliant and less Tony Stark’s imprint on him. I get the choice and context within the MCU but this didn’t feel like Peter Parker Spider-Man, it felt like Tony Stark’s Spider-Man. And don’t misconstrue my sentiment for Spidey or the movie, I still love it, I only wanted my character to shine as brightly as I know he’s capable of.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – Guardians 2 is the movie I was most excited for this year. James Gunn did such a fantastic job with the first film that maybe my expectations were too high. I absolutely adored the second installment but once again it felt like something was missing. It wasn’t until later that I realized what it was; Danger. I never once feared for the characters. The “will they, won’t they” was missing. Kurt Russell was fantastic and the rest of the cast delivered on their respective roles, but when you have characters like Drax set up from the beginning as indestructible, it takes away any worry that he may not survive. Example: Drax in the opening fight jumps down the throat of the big bad and begins comically stabbing the creature from the inside. He emerges unharmed and the Guardians move along with the story, laughing at seemingly everything. Next, Drax once again puts himself on the line (figuratively and literally) by jumping out the back of the Milano to shoot pursuing aggressors. As the ship crashes, he smacks off and through a forest of trees. He again emerges unscathed. This first 20 minutes does nothing but show the audience that you need not worry about any of these core characters for the rest of the movie, and I didn’t. Every other element was entertaining and enjoyable and I loved it! I feel like I’m beginning this list as a gripe session and yet these are my top movies… let’s see if we can turn it around. Bright, happy thoughts, people!

8. Coco – I have a 4-year-old daughter and quite enjoy our movie nights and occasional trips to the theatre. I love the opportunity to get lost in the magic through her eyes with films like the live-action Beauty and the Beast and Coco. Coco was a bit of a surprise for me, as it just wasn’t on my radar. It was a family outing which upon leaving the theater my daughter, wife, and I were all in high spirits and joyful. The beauty about Disney-Pixar is that you know exactly what you’re going to get with every new movie and you know that you’re going to be an emotional wreck at some point. The twists came but popped up on our (wife’s and mine) radars pretty early, but somehow doesn’t cheapen the emotional gravity in which they hit you with. Maybe it’s because our daughter lives in the moment so everything is big in real time. Either way, Coco delivered on all its promises and we as a family really enjoyed it. Coco lands at number 8, not too shabby when you see what’s coming!

7. Justice League – Alright, before I begin on this perhaps you should read my Justice League quasi-review. I really liked the movie and the Justice League as a team and collection of characters is my absolute favorite. Yes, I’m a Spider-Man guy and tend to lean Marvel, particularly with the movies, but nothing will ever trump my love of the League. (If you want to see the definitive dynamic of these characters, go watch the Justice League cartoon. Amaze-sauce!) The JL movie delivered on so many things and I absolutely love the Momoa take of Aquaman. Overall the cast shown brightly, Aquaman, Superman and Cyborg being the best. Aquaman I loved for his reinvention, which the comics have done in the past but this time there really seems to be a sense of identity about him. I dig it. This Supes was the best I’ve seen since the aforementioned cartoon and reminded me of the Christopher Reeve rendition. And Cyborg, outside of some really crappy CGI, was very well executed from the performance/character standpoint. Wonder Woman and Flash were both fine, but both lost something along the way. Flash was very much the Wally West Flash and yet forced into Barry Allen’s story for some reason. Just goes to show the lack of character knowledge if you ask me. And Wonder Woman isn’t the leader. She’s A leader of the League, but never in a million years would Batman attempt to pawn off his role as the tactician, nor would he be so helpless in every engagement…. Crap, I’m doing it again. Time for the next movie!

6. Thor: Ragnarok – Ok, outside of the first Thor movie, this was my favorite Thor yet. And I understand the gripes about the humor of the film, like somehow it detracted from the weight of the story, which admittedly it did a little bit, but my argument to that has always been M*A*S*H. The Korean War should not be taken lightly or have been the setting of a sitcom, and yet it was. M*A*S*H didn’t belittle the conflict, but it got us through the atrocities of war as anyone would. I’ve been deployed downrange and I can tell you that those men and women often turn to humor to get through the day and onto the next. Thor: Ragnorok was no different. The story was heavy. The events carried so much weight to them. The humor is what personally kept it bearable. Otherwise it might as well have been released on the CW where every character cries in every episode. These are my feelings on the subject anyway. I quite enjoyed it and cannot wait for Black Panther this February.

5. Wonder Woman – Gal Gadot, with her whispy voice and stunning looks absolutely owns the screen in Wonder Woman. Every movie has its flaws, yada, yada, and yada, but I really enjoyed this one. It was very much the same as so many other superhero movies, comparisons can be made to everything from Captain America: The First Avenger to Thor. And you know it was just like every other comic book hero movie with one glaring difference. She’s a woman. That’s it! That’s the only real difference. She’s a woman in what we’re accustomed to seeing as a male role, essentially. They make this switch of gender roles with such sincerity that we think that it’s some amazing new thing. That’s the saddest part about it all, and simultaneously the best thing about it. I shudder to think if a man like Snyder had directed this one too…

4. War for the Planet of the Apes – I saw the first new Planet of the Apes movie at some point after it was in theaters. I watched the original movies on TV. I even suffered through the Burton Apes movie in what, the 90s/early 2000s? As far as remakes go, I felt that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was one of the best I’ve ever seen. I never watched the second in the series, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes until just before I watched War for the Planet of the Apes (Mikey let me borrow his box set!). Look, here’s why I enjoyed it so much. The 3 part series has one of the absolute best and most intriguing characters ever put on screen. Following Caesar from birth to death was captivating. Andy Serkis deserves so much more credit than he gets for dawning those motion capture suites and bringing to life such iconic characters. I truly think that Caesar may be his best work yet. Again, films have issues, but the War for the Planet of the Apes was an incredible bookend to one of my favorite characters in recent memory. It felt right to see Caesar’s story end in the manner it did. They did the character justice and that’s what matters to me.

3. Get Out – If you know me, you know I’m opinionated and try to be extremely socially conscious. Get Out was freaky enough, but to any black American… shit, I can only imagine! I won’t spend a lot of time on this because if you haven’t seen it, I can’t recommend it enough and I don’t want to spoil too much. I’ll only say that end of the 2nd and into the 3rd act did a fantastic job of raising the stakes but I wanted to see it go in a different direction. I felt that it was going somewhere else and though the manner in which it ends fits the rest of the movie, I just felt that it was organically going in a different direction. It in no way detracts from the movie, though. It’s a definitely enjoyable and be sure to put your thinking caps on before the movie!

2. It – Admittedly, I never saw the original as I was petrified of clowns most of my life. Because I’m amazing and Mikey is just as rational as I am, we decided to go see this movie. From the theater experience I mostly just remember peering at Mike through the darkness, a seat away, and cursing him and everything he stood for. Likewise, he cursed me as somehow we both forgot whose idea it was to subject ourselves to this movie (for the record, it was his but I did agree to it so neither of us have the other to blame). After the fact, I realized how brilliant It was. Also, I did some research and learned about the lore behind it. Thanks Stephen King for sucking the fear factor right out of it with all your usual nonsense! It was another remake that I absolutely enjoyed and though I’m not really that afraid of clowns anymore, It and the clown room can go straight to hell. Oh, and the flute lady can suck it! When the lights are off and my mind begins to wander into uncertainty, it’s the f’ing flute lady that likes to visit me. Oh yeah, I highly recommend seeing this if you haven’t already. So well done, great cast and beautifully shot. Also reminded me of growing up in Maine and was pretty accurate in my experiences, outside of a killer clown thing chasing after me. On another note, I did end up watching the original recently… what a joke. If you were too afraid to watch the It mini-series, just watch this new movie and then the old and you’ll have no problems at all!

1. Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Wow, what a polarizing movie, huh!? Here’s my thing, I have not heard one legitimate gripe from the fan community yet. Mostly because the gripes I’ve read or heard have revolved around theories formulated since The Force Awakens or based upon non-cannon properties. Look, my favorite book series on this planet is a Star Wars series that was absolutely shit on by The Clone Wars cartoon. The cartoon is cannon, the books are not and the author literally stopped writing the books because of the complete disregard to all she created by the show. I would love the books to come back but I don’t hate the show for what they did. I mean, I definitely felt some kinda way about it initially, but guess what? Star Wars is at the core of it all, FOR KIDS. I fell in love with Star Wars as a kid. The prequels brought in a whole new generation that were, you guessed it, kids. These new movies are handing over the reigns to a new generation and their target audience is NOT 30/40/50 year olds. Not even the 20 year olds of the prequel era. It’s KIDS.

You people that are so upset are upset over a kids movie and business decisions. Disney spent a lot of money on Star Wars and your money. They know they have your money but want the younger generations money as well. So are they going to tailor their films to you? Hell no. They’re going after your kids, Marty! Your Kids! And guess what else? You don’t want to go see it? But who’s gonna take your kids and buy the toys for them? Ha! So why not kick back, drop the theories, drop the non-cannon and merely enjoy a movie… I watched the original trailer and stayed away from everything else. I would love to see some of the non-cannon characters work their way into cannon as they’ve done every now and then. I would love if one of my own speculations came to fruition. But I don’t care. I just want to enjoy Star Wars and take it for what it is. I didn’t much care for The Force Awakens but I absolutely loved The Last Jedi. Go figure. Oh, and in case you’re wondering what a legitimate gripe is, it’s pointing out WHY The Last Jedi doesn’t FEEL like a Star Wars movie. The new movies have done away with wipes. Wipes have been one of the most decidedly Star Wars elements since 1977, something taken from the old serials that Lucas used to watch as a kid. Without the wipes, if feels different. There are other elements as well that feel off from the Star Wars motif, but I’m not going to do your crybaby work for you. I loved it and it easily landed in my top 3 Star Wars movies, but I also had the luxury of enjoying it without all my baggage of childhood and beyond. May the Force be with you since everything else clearly is.

That’s it, boys and girls, my top 10 movies of 2017. I haven’t seen all the movies I’d like to this year and I suspect a few of these could’ve been drastically different if I had. Take it or leave it, these are my current favorites and as always, nobody’s opinions but my own. Have the happiest of holidays and a wonderful New Year. Also, leave Mikey some love in the comments and let him know how awesome he is!

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.