Movies

The holidays are the time that we set aside to catch up on our movie watching. And we've been getting way behind with "current" movies so it was time to start watching again.

The latest James Bond movie came out over a year ago but it's one we had never gotten around to watching. It was $10 at iTunes this week so we went for it. If you haven't seen it yet either, we would give it a big thumb's up.

The last act had a little too much explosions and over-the-top villainy, but then again it WAS a James Bond movie so we'd say it was great. What I'd actually call it was the best BATMAN movie ever made. Comissionor Gorden was a woman (M) and Alfred was actually the caretaker, but all in all it's impossible not to watch this as a Batman movie once you see it. An aging Batman is forced to take down another version of himself who has completely gone mad from long-term torture. It worked well as a Bond movie. As a Batman movie it was even better.

Another surprise movie highlight was How to Train You Dragon II. The first movie in the series was a very good kid's movie, but we hadn't gotten around to this one because it was a sequel. Sequels of kid's movies are rarely worth watching. They are usually made just to sell kids more merchandise. BUT it also was on sale this week from iTunes so we went for it.

Turns out, not only is Dragon II, the better movie, it's one of the best movies we've ever seen. Just don't watch it if you haven't seen the first one. Much of what happens in the first is necessary  background for the second. It truly builds from there. It's a fantastic fantasy movie. It's a beautiful love story. It's an epic adventure movie. AND it's THE BEST animated movie ever made. Frozen came out last year and became popular because of ONE song. It really wasn't much of a movie. We refer to it in our house as "Barbie's Ice Castle," which shows you the level of sophistication it had.

Dragon II is so much better. I'm hard-pressed to find any movie I've seen in the last several years that I liked more. Even the villain had a good reason to be so dastardly. I think of the drek that was Avatar a few years back and compare it to that. This movie had similar themes of living in harmony with nature's creatures, but they did it in a way that was so much better. No preaching, just teaching. The results were fantastic. We'll be be watching this several more times in the years to come.

Now, back to watching more movies...