Hugos: Long Form Dramatic Presentation
As of this morning, I've seen four of the five nominees in this category (i.e., movies), and I don't expect to be able to see the fifth. Without further ado, my rankings:
#4: The Lego Movie. OK, it was fun, and there were some nice Easter eggs in it, but it really wasn't substantial enough to merit a Hugo, in my judgment.
#3: The Winter Soldier. I'm trying to catch up on all of the recent spate of Marvel (non-X-Man) movies; I saw The Dark World this morning too. I haven't seen the first Captain America movie, except in bits and snatches, but this one stood pretty well on its own. I was partly spoiled, in that I knew who the Winter Soldier was (from non-cinematic discussions), but I still rate this as a solid actioner. Some of the fight scenes were a bit confusing, I'm afraid, and I never did succeed in identifying one of the good-guy characters - the other dark-haired SHIELD agent who switched sides and freed Steve, Sam, and Natasha. At any rate, a solid actioner, but really not much more than that.
#2: Interstellar. It was pretty downbeat during most of the scenes on Earth at the beginning, but believably so - it could have served as a reasonable prequel to The Nitrogen Fix, to mention a classic of hard SF - and the later part tried a little too hard for a 2001ish flavor. I enjoyed it, but there was a bit too much technobabble for a film with Kip Thorne as an adviser. Not quite good enough for the top rank.
#1: I've got to go with Guardians of the Galaxy. Just a fun romp; like most everyone, I particularly enjoyed Rocket and Groot. Starlord grew on me over the course of the movie, too. Drax and Gamora, being characters I more-or-less knew already, offered no surprises, but also no major disappointments - though I still don't buy Gamora in a short skirt, as in one of the late scenes!
Feel free to comment on the movies or on my choices. (Do not feel free to discuss Puppies, of any ilk.)
#4: The Lego Movie. OK, it was fun, and there were some nice Easter eggs in it, but it really wasn't substantial enough to merit a Hugo, in my judgment.
#3: The Winter Soldier. I'm trying to catch up on all of the recent spate of Marvel (non-X-Man) movies; I saw The Dark World this morning too. I haven't seen the first Captain America movie, except in bits and snatches, but this one stood pretty well on its own. I was partly spoiled, in that I knew who the Winter Soldier was (from non-cinematic discussions), but I still rate this as a solid actioner. Some of the fight scenes were a bit confusing, I'm afraid, and I never did succeed in identifying one of the good-guy characters - the other dark-haired SHIELD agent who switched sides and freed Steve, Sam, and Natasha. At any rate, a solid actioner, but really not much more than that.
#2: Interstellar. It was pretty downbeat during most of the scenes on Earth at the beginning, but believably so - it could have served as a reasonable prequel to The Nitrogen Fix, to mention a classic of hard SF - and the later part tried a little too hard for a 2001ish flavor. I enjoyed it, but there was a bit too much technobabble for a film with Kip Thorne as an adviser. Not quite good enough for the top rank.
#1: I've got to go with Guardians of the Galaxy. Just a fun romp; like most everyone, I particularly enjoyed Rocket and Groot. Starlord grew on me over the course of the movie, too. Drax and Gamora, being characters I more-or-less knew already, offered no surprises, but also no major disappointments - though I still don't buy Gamora in a short skirt, as in one of the late scenes!
Feel free to comment on the movies or on my choices. (Do not feel free to discuss Puppies, of any ilk.)