#story and pacing descisions. but it is still good.

[cuntstable]

i have such a toxic relationship to sbr….. we are so fucking complicated……. except when they put the italian guy with fat tits on screen and let him do stupid and or disgusting things then im like a baby whos been handed a pacifier

[81scorp]

My top 8 movies of 2020 (and a bonus)

Hey kids! Its that time again! That day you`ve all been waiting for, when I talk about the movies I`ve seen in the cinema and rank them according to my own personal taste and bias!

But since Corona is still a thing and I like to play it safe there was no going to the cinema for me this year either. So this is more of a "The movies that I planned to see in cinema in 2020 but watched on DVD instead" list. Trolls world tour, I am Greta and Soul were originally not on my list but I decided to include them since thery were made in 2020 and I did get to watch them. There are two movies that I had on my list but didn`t find: Wonder Woman 1984 and New Mutants. If I find them I will either edit this list to include them or write some addendum.

And now... here are the movies.

8: Scoob! It has pacing issues in the beginning, which is fixed (and by "fixed" I mean "made worse") by clunky exposition, characters that could have been interesting take a backseat to reference humor that may work well with kids today but not so much with anyone over the age of 8. There are scenes that wants to feel important and emotional but just feel forced. There are some good ideas here that are unfortunately buried in bad execution. I wanted this movie to be better. It had one of my favorite tropes in it: guy disguises himself as attractive woman in a super-realistic mask. A Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe sounds like a fun idea but this ain`t how you start building it. It`s barely even a good crossover.

7: Trolls world tour The musical trolls return, now with some worldbuilding. We find out that there are more trolls in the world and more kinds of music. There`s techno, classical, funk, country and ROCK (Hells yeah!) And since Black Panther and Frozen 2 did the "your ancestors did a bad thing" trope this movie does it as well. I don`t really get why they made the rock trolls the bad guys since rock is the objectively better music and Queen Barb has a few scenes where she says some things that sound more level headed and reasonable than Queen Poppy`s wellmeaning but unrealistically optimistic philosphy. But maybe I`m biased since I`m over 30 and therefore have better taste in music than this movie`s target audience. Oh well, atleast it was entertaining. About as good as I expected.

6: Sonic the hedgehog Yes, I prefer the look Sonic has in the finished movie much more than that "realistic" look he had in the trailers. But what about the rest of the movie? The plot? The characters? It`s an OK movie. The idea of Sonic coming to our world feels like something from the plot of a movie from the mid 80s or early 90s. Jim Carrey as Dr Robotnik was an... interesting and unexpected casting choice to say the least, but it kept the movie entertaining. It was a real joy to see Jim Carrey bring back his old school style of humor. Not as bad as I had feared, not as good as I had wanted it to be but as good as I expected.

5: Onward Two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on a journey to find a magical artifact that will let them bring back their late father for one day. Pixar has set such a high standard over the years so that when something comes out that is good but not great it is often seen as a disappointment. Onward is not the next Toy Story, Ratatuille or inside out, but it is one of their modest good ones. I question the descision to have it take place in a modern, urban fantasy world and wonder if it couldn`t have gone more full on fantasy, but that`s just me nitpicking. It has heart, humour, likeable characters and it gave me the feels in places where it felt earned. This is one of Pixar`s better movies that are worth a watch.

4: Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn Feels like DC`s answer to Deadpool with it`s R-rated violence and reckless humour. If I may put on my Comicbook purist goggles and nitpick a little I think Ella Jay Basco should have played an original character instead of Cassandra Cain. But despite that minor little nitpick this movie has a lot going for it. I know I had fun watching it.

3: Jojo Rabbit Yes, I know, I`m recycling myself here, but I did watch this in 2020 so it counts. Just when you think that we have made all the movies we can about WWII this movie shows that there are still are a few angles left that we haven`t tried. Important, serious and funny.

2: I am Greta A documentary following Greta Thunberg from her schoolstrike outside the riksdag to her speech at the united nations. It gives you a little insight into who Greta is as a person. Even if Greta is just a messenger and we should pay more attention to the message, we understand important things better when we can put a human face on it.

Now, before I get to my number 1 movie, here`s my honorable mention!

Honorable mention: Raya and the last dragon I wanted to have this one on this list since it was technically made in 2020, but it`s release was delayed to 2021. A common criticism against this movie is that it isn`t very original. Neither is Star Wars: A new hope (Which was based on Akira Kurosawa`s the hidden castle.) or Toy Story. (Which borrows a lot from Jim Henson`s The Christmas Toy.) So, saying that this movie is not original is really the weakest form of criticism you can come up with. Another criticism against this movie is that it sends the message that you should constantly forgive the person who repeatedly stabs you in the back. Personally I see that this movie is trying to frame the narrative as if Namaari and Raya have wronged each other equally when really Namaari is the bigger bad guy here. That aside, I like Namaari as a character. She feels three dimensional and I buy her character development. Raya and Sisu are also likeable and add some conflict of ideologies to the dialogue. Tong, Boun and Noi are also fun but are not as well developed as the previously mentioned characters. It would have been nice if it had been a little longer,  just a few minutes for more character development, and if Namaari had a little moment of selfreflection. If I could place it on this list I would say that it`s better than Sonic but not as good as Onward. And so, with that out of the way...

My pick for the number one movie of 2020...

will come up after I talk about one movie I did see in the cinema this year. You see, my mom had collected a bunch of points, from shopping at a place, that allowed her to see any movie she wanted this year. It was basically a free movie ticket for her, me and my brother. The cinema was full, I wished they could have enforced some restrictions and only allowed a half-full movie salon, fortunately I was vaccinated and they encouraged hand sanitizing. And so... Drumroll please. The one movie I saw in the cinema in 2021 was...

No time to die First time I`ve seen a Daniel Craig Bond movie and the first time I`ve seen a Bond movie in the cinema. In a way this reminds me of On her Majesty`s secret service because like that movie, this one adds something to the Bond formula, a few things that I didn`t expect that shakes things up a bit. Not really the typical Bond movie but as good as a Bond movie should be.

And so... with that out of the way... Drumroll please. My number one movie of 2020 iiis...

1: Soul Seems that I can`t make these lists without putting an animated movie that made me cry at the number one spot. So yeah. Soul is really good. It gives you the feels AND the thinks. One scene that has stayed with me since I saw it is one where a character tells a short story about a fish who couldn`t find the ocean because of all the water. Inside out said someting about life by telling a story about being human, Soul says something about what it`s like being human by telling a story about life.

So, what are my movie plans for 2022? Well, My original plan was to wait till march, and if things haven`t changed by then, keep up my strategy of waiting for the DVD.

But the way things are looking now I`m not gonna wait till march, just wait for the DVDs and hope that 2023 will be better.

I keep hoping for a better tomorrow.

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Published on Deviantart Dec 27, 2021

Written stuff: 40 The tradition continues. Started writing this Nov 15, 2021