So how was your 2014? I’ve produced my most detailed cinema review yet to mark my fifth end of year review, links to which you can find below. But before you read that, spare a thought for the sad passing of my most momentous achievement in 2014. Ever since I witnessed his untimely demise in one of my local cinemas (the Carlton in Westgate-on-Sea, for the record), thanks to the producers of the Transformers: The Movie cartoon from the Eighties killing off Optimus Prime in the name of bringing in a new toy line, I have felt a deep attachment to the fate of Optimus Prime in the new films. He was my favourite Transformer toy as a child, as well as being my favourite in the TV cartoon series which preceded the film travesty, and recruiting the likes of Orson Welles and Leonard Nimoy missed the point. Imagine if you were a Spider-Man fan, then half way through his latest film they killed him off permanently and replaced him with the Fantastic Four. Childhood over, right there.
So in that spirit I watched the first three new Transformers films in the cinema, but the abysmal quality of the second (and most of the third) left me at a point where I’d decided that having survived three films, I was now ready to let Optimus Prime look after his own destiny, and if he didn’t make it through the fourth film then at least he’d had a good run. So I managed to avoid all temptation and avoided Transformers: Age Of Extinction in the cinema, and considered it a great victory over my historical baggage and issues. At least, I did until I visited my nephew and niece on Christmas Day and my niece and I spent several hours discussing the Transformers films at length, of which she is a huge fan (don’t judge her, she likes good stuff too).
So now, to keep up with the family discussion, one of my first acts of 2015 will be to rent Transformers: Age Of Extinction to be able to keep up to date with my niece in our film conversations. Thankfully, one of my last acts of 2015 should be to take her to see the new Star Wars film, which will be all the more exciting for experiencing it with family. While I try to work out what I’ll do in between those two events, please relive the posts I put together for the review of the cinema year that was 2014.
The (Half) Dozen Best Trailers Of 2014
The 10 Least Best Films I Saw In 2014
The Top 25 Performances Of 2014
The Movie Evangelist 