Best Of 2014: ‘The Big Screen Edition’

8. The Lego Movie

This had very little promise from the get go. Many months after its release, it almost seems impossible that The Lego Movie could be anything but awesome. This animated film is the ultimate tribute to the creativity we all had as children. We have a huge cast of big names with signature voices that emulate the exaggerated sounds we made when we made our own toys come to life. We see the never ending imagination behind the set, character and world designs that remind us of our own creations and even the problems we faced (did anyone else relate to how the toy helmets would snap easily?). Even the way the movie is animated in a way that makes everything look stop motion is a pleasure. Then there’s the fact that the movie is funny, exciting and just a resounding success. I feel like a massive fool doubting this movie’s possibilities. There’s a Batman Lego movie coming out, and I’m already feeling doubtful. Maybe I will be wrong again, but I won’t be as wrong as I was about this electric movie that made all of our childhood dreams a reality.

7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It is a great genre flick with Super beings in it, quite like, what Nolan did with The Dark Knight, a great Crime Noir movie with The Bat. Simply put, it is a political thriller done right. The opening sequence so fantastic, most movies usually reserve such grand scenes for their closing chapter. Plot wise it is certainly the most rich till date, the socio-political statement is superb, honing in the NSA/Snowden/Drone angle to the setting, this reminded me of Captain America’s stand in the Civil War. The dialogues are sharp and the tone is just right to make it dark but not dreary.Marvel must be using The Eye of Aggamotto for choosing their directors, and this time too they chose the unconventional but the right people. The Russo Brothers, whom I was familiar only with their work on Arrested Development and the audaciously ambitious, Community. The very best moment for me was the re-introduction of Arnim Zola, played by the indomitable Toby Jones. A villain so hilariously cartoonish in appearance in the books only Marvel could pull it off with almost a perfect source to screen version. Hail Hydra.