The Butler

Director Lee Daniel’s historical fiction film The Butler was good, but it wasn’t much more than that. The story follows Forest Whitaker playing Cecil Gaines, an African-American man who served for 34 years in the White House as a butler. The movie itself got fairly good reviews, but when it received zero Academy Award Nominations, it was considered “snubbed.” There wasn’t much wrong with the movie—the plot was interesting, the acting was great, and the characters were likable. But that may be where the film falls short—there was no controversy in this movie. While not every movie needs to have a huge shock value, nothing was particularly gripping about the story. The movie itself was a little too clean for a film about a time period in America’s history that was disturbing and tragic. While we see glimpses of the Ku Klux Klan and racism, when 12 Years a Slave was a competitor, The Butler seems to be too generous to America’s history. The ending dragged on and was predictable. The writers often tried too hard to create a message, but viewers aren’t stupid—we all know racism was a tragic thing that occurred too often, and movies about that time in history are commonplace. The Butler is a forgettable movie, even more so because so many successful movies have already been made dealing with similar subjects.

The Great Gatsby

While the book was published in 1925 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby was (re)made into a film this year. The movie brought in a wave of popularity for not only the book but also the decade of the 1920s as a whole. The film, directed by Baz Luhrmann, stars Leondardo DiCaprio as a young, wealthy party boy in the Roaring Twenties. The movie appears to be incredible: the sets and costumes are lavish and exciting, and the plot is beloved. The cast is full of talented actors, and the soundtrack was modern, an interesting contrast to the setting of the movie. The first hour was incredible. The parties are extravagant and exciting to watch—it’s obvious a lot of money was spent in making this movie. However, the rest of the movie dragged. It depended heavily on the production design, the best of which was shown in the previews. The previews were simply a condensed version of the only truly interesting parts of the movie. Anyone who has read the book was more easily disappointed by the movie. While Luhrmann nailed transferring the visual aspects from book to film, the story itself seemed to not get as much attention. The movie’s plot was similar to the book, but the movie may have taken even longer to watch than the short book took to read.

Gravity

My choice of the movie Gravity might upset the pretentious movie critics of the world. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards along with countless other awards, but the only thing I loved about this movie was its beauty. Watching the astronauts float across space was probably as close to being in space as I’ll ever get. I can’t applaud the CGI artists enough. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney led the movie strongly and gave the viewer a true sense of stress and fear. This technique worked in the beginning of the movie, but it became repetitive. The actual plotline was forced—it seems like they only made the movie to flaunt their skills in computer arts, and the progression of the plot did not make sense because the movie did not even attempt to be scientifically accurate. The plot was tied up a little too well. Gravity would have been more effective and interesting if it was made into a short film. The film was so long that viewers became desensitized to the anxiety that the film built in the beginning. Many critics think that this space drama was a miracle, and all the acclaim seems to go to Bullock. If viewers should give credit to anyone, they should give credit where it is due—the most successful part of the movie, the computer animation. Gravity was a movie that spurred anxiety in the viewer but didn’t give any payoff.

The Croods

The Croods would not have been a hyped film this past year had 2013 been fully equipped with quality, animated films. This greatly contrasted to last year’s choices, which included Brave and Wreck-it Ralph. The Croods was cute and had a great cast, including the always-funny Emma Stone and the always amusing Nicolas Cage, but they weren’t used to their full potential. The story itself was lackluster and overly-clichéd, the comedy often fell flat, and the movie heavily relied on sparse good jokes. Even so, the movie got a nomination for the Academy Award’s Best Animated Feature.     While Frozen will no doubt win, it is worth noting that the competition was so bad that this movie was nominated. It seemed that the movie was only nominated because it was the best of the worst. Other disappointing animated movies include Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University, but The Croods is just a tad more original because it is not based a sequel. The Croods was just lucky to be released in this year rather than a year filled with real competition.