Birdman, played by Batman

The first movie I ever saw with Michael Keaton was Batman from 1989, directed by Tim Burton. I'd say it's what got me on the path of becoming a superhero fan. In Birdman, the main character, played by Keaton, used to be the lead in a blockbuster superhero franchise called "Birdman", which I feel might be a reflection of the actor's history with the Batman franchise, though I would say the two Batman films Keaton starred in were good, despite being a little bit cheesy. Either way, Birdman shows a real challenge I'm sure many real actors face. I can imagine in the future, Liam Neeson or Dwayne Johnson might try to become more than just an action hero known for a bunch of blockbusters. Even if they are good actors, which at least one of them is, no one's going to take them very seriously if they try to make a stage drama or anything like that. I like the way it was made to look like one continuous shot. I'm not exactly sure what it was supposed to bring to the story or the idea of the movie, but I still like to see directors experiment with different filming styles. I also had fun watching the magic-realism scenes (those parts where Riggin flew, used telekenesis, or talked to Birdman himself). These were obviously just his hallucinations and dual personality disorder, but it was integrated into the story quite well. It was nice to see that no matter what happened, he always knew it didn't matter what people said about him, and he floated above them (literally) to show how much self confidence he had that people would worship him one day, and they kind of did. Of course, it came at a cost. I spent a long time thinking about this film after I finished it because of it's artistic side, but I also enjoyed watching it because it was exciting in it's own way. A

Fury

I'm not a huge fan of war movies because they're always the same thing every time. A few exceptions are 300, Zero Dark Thirty, and Fury. Now, I'm obviously only going to go into detail with Fury because that's the title of the review, but what I'll say about all of them is that they're all very unique. Fury is a WWII film about a small group of soldiers and their tank. The tank is why I love this movie so much. The tank is their little home that they all share as they ride across Germany and kill people. They built a bond with the tank, just as they built a bond with each other, naming it "Fury" as the title suggests, and putting little posters up because it really was their home. A new addition to their team arrives in the beginning, totally unprepared for battle, and he has to learn to get comfortable in that home and with those people. At the beginning, they went through that whole process where the new guy had to learn how to kill people, and of course he was very hesitant. He didn't want that on his conscience, but he did and got over it surprisingly quickly. It's as if the writers created a good moral conflict for the story, then thought of a better one and forgot to take out the old one while completing the script. At one point, there was a break from the action, and all the guys got together in a lady's house to calm down for a bit. I liked seeing them try to get back to a normal life and settle down for a bit, but have it all blown up and lost in an instant. The acting was great, full of people you could really tell had been changed by the war. Each of the guys seemed to have too much experience in tank warfare. They all had tons of grit and looked toughened up by years of battle. My favorite thing about this was the thought that this is what every tank was like in that time. I wanted to believe that all the tank operators had a sort of brotherhood built up within their tank, but as time passes, it shows that isn't the case. This wasn't just a day in the life of a World War 2 tank operator, this was a special war hero tank and I didn't like that. I want to see what it's like to just be a part of the crowd, the everyday experience of an everyday soldier. I've seen too many scenarios where the protagonists are outnumbered, I just want to view the real experience. I think that's why I liked the beginning and not the end. The beginning was just a soldier getting used to living and fighting in a tank, the end was the small band of brothers fighting off a ton of enemies and saving the day. It's safe to say the last quarter ruined what was an almost flawless film. You should still see it because it's 75% good, and the last 25% actually did have some cool moments, so it totals about 80%. B-

Interstellar

     Christopher Nolan is known for making very epic, large movies. He directed The Dark Knight, which happens to be #6 on my top 50 movie list, as well as a few other smash hits such as Inception, and Memento. Interstellar, his most recent production, is obviously no different, but at the same time, is completely unique. None of his movies are alike in any way, but his style always carries over, which is something I like about the best directors. I love when they all have their own special types of camera movement, dialogue, action, among other elements. This movie is exactly what I was looking for from Nolan, with the loud music and majestic shots, yet, like all his other work, it delivered something unique and new. Interstellar is a space exploration movie about a team of daring astronauts trying to find a new planet for humans to live on. Our main protagonist, played by Matthew Mcconaughey, was forced to leave his two kids to try and save the human race, on a voyage through a mysterious wormhole to somewhere far, far away. Throughout the movie, a higher force is hinted at and I enjoyed the way it pondered what was beyond our plane of existence. My favorite part was when we are shown how time is relative, and one hour on one planet could count as 17 years on earth. It's crushing to see how much everything changes in such a short time. We get to see lots of cool planets and feel exhilarated by all the adventure and action. I felt very hopeless at points, too, as it seemed things couldn't get any worse in the mission. It took me on a great journey through time and space, quenching my thirst for adventure for a long time. Sometimes, it almost got too crazy and I didn't have time to try and understand all of the mind blowing moments, which was annoying, but not necessarily a bad thing because it gave me something to think about afterwards. I wouldn't recommend this for people who like calmer, smaller movies, but the overall grandeur and brilliance of Interstellar makes it my favorite film of 2014 and one of my favorites of all time. A