Best and Worst of April 2015

April, the summer gateway season. It was off to a pretty good start to say the least, certainly an improvement on March and hopefully, something to foreshadow the months to come as the quality was raised to a good standard here. In fact there weren’t that many bad films, even my worst of the month was just below decent, you’ll see when you get there. We’ve also had a blockbuster of a gigantic scale, as I am writing this Fast and Furious 7 has made an astonishing climb to become the fourth highest grossing film OF ALL TIME, only beaten by Avengers Assemble, Titanic and Avatar. Sadly it didn’t quite make my top three, but you can see what did.

3: John Wick

Keanu Reeves is back on top form in what could be his best performance in a long time, possibly of all time. It’s the American Kingsman, a fun, self-aware action film that is excellently directed, written and unsurprisingly has started its own action franchise. With a plot that’s basic enough to allow the action to flow quickly and easily but not so much as to make us feel like idiots, we get a more intricate look at a man trying to escape a violent world, but is repeatedly pulled back. But as I said before it’s still fun and immensely enjoyable.

2: While We’re Young

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good and balanced exploration of the generation gap, Noah Baumbach gives it to us with this heartfelt and hilarious comedy drama. It’s fast witted but leaves enough time for the emotion buried within to have an effect, even if you have to look a bit closer to spot it. It has to humour, style and morals of a modern Woody Allen film and we witness an interesting study of intergenerational envy to please people of all ages.

1: Avengers: Age of Ultron

Yes this may be the fanboy in me speaking out, but who cares. The second and final outing for Joss Whedon as a Marvel director is a blockbuster of the highest order and everything you would want a sequel to a film as big as Avengers Assemble to be. It raises the stakes, advances the characters, shines a light on anything that was left out of the first one (cough that sounds like the word Hawkeye). It’s darker, more complicated, offers an exploration of what it might be like to be a man among gods, wonderfully inventive in its action, as well as including all of the interaction and playful banter (yes I said banter) between our favourite heroes. All I can say is ‘More, more, more’ and boy do Marvel have just that to offer.

And the worst…

Insurgent

To be fair, Insurgent is not a terrible film in most respects. There’s some impressive direction and well-choreographed action sequences as well as a strong female lead in the form of Shailene Woodley. But there’s too much going on at once and too much attention on what the series is going to be rather than what it is now and to be honest what it is now is just another teen dystopian drama that’s far worse than the Hunger Games and only slightly better than the Maze Runner.