Neil Burger’s Divergent, set in a segregated future world ruled by Kate Winslet’s sinister official, was adapted from Veronica Roth’s best-selling YA series, while a group of teens with their memories erased found themselves competing to escape from a deadly enclosed environment in The Maze Runner, based on James Dashner’s series of YA books.
Mankind’s past memories were downloaded into the memory of a boy (newcomer Brenton Thwaites) in Phillip Noyce’s The Giver, based on the 1993 YA novel by Lois Lowry. It featured Meryl Streep (in her first bad wig film of the year) as the leader of a not-so-perfect dystopian future, and singer Taylor Swift turned up in a cameo.
Two friends (Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry) were returned to a secret boarding school for teenage bloodsuckers in the box-office flop Vampire Academy, based on Richelle Mead’s series of young adult books.
Peter Jackson finally brought his overblown trilogy to a satisfying conclusion in the action-packed The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, which again featured Christopher Lee as the evil wizard “Saruman”.
Based on Mark Helprin’s 1983 romantic reincarnation novel, Winter’s Tale (aka A New York Winter’s Tale) starred Colin Farrell, a flying white horse and a demonic Russell Crowe.
Directed by Renny Harlin, who had an estimated budget of $70 million at his disposal, the truly awful The Legend of Hercules had little to do with the Greek myth beyond the wooden hero (Kellan Lutz) being the son of Zeus.
The same could also be said of the other two films about the character released in 2014. Based on a graphic novel and released in 3-D, Brett Ratner’s Hercules featured Dwayne Johnson as the mythological demi-god, supported by a cast that included Ian McShane, John Hurt, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes. Meanwhile, former WWE wrestler John Hennigan played the fallen hero in Hercules Reborn, which thankfully went directly to DVD.
At least Paul W.S. Anderson’s Pompeii had Mount Vesuvius erupting fireballs in 3-D, despite numerous historical and geographical goofs, and Russell Crowe’s gruff patriarch had to deal with a pesky apocalyptic flood in Darren Aronofsky’s controversial Noah. As if all that water wasn’t bad enough, he also had to contend with Ray Winstone’s scheming villain, Anthony Hopkins as an ancient Methuselah and giant stone monsters called “Watchers”.
Angelina Jolie starred in Disney’s Maleficent, which re-imagined the vengeful sorceress from Sleeping Beauty as a misunderstood feminist with an impressive pair of horns.
Set in London’s British Museum, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb concluded the family fantasy trilogy starring Ben Stiller as museum security guard Larry Daley with support from, amongst others, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais, Ben Kingsley, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Matt Frewer and an uncredited Hugh Jackman.
Meryl Streep wore another fright-wig as the blue-haired witch in Rob Marshall’s lively adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 revisionist fairy tale musical Into the Woods. Johnny Depp turned up as a creepy big bad wolf.
Chris Evans returned as Marvel Comics’ super-soldier in the superior sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which earned more than $200 million domestically in just three weeks. After Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) was apparently assassinated, Captain America teamed up with Black Widow (the busy Scarlett Johansson) and The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to uncover a plot by HYDRA to destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. from the inside. The impressive supporting cast included Robert Redford, Toby Jones and Jenny Agutter.
Meanwhile, James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy was based on a lesser-known Marvel Comics title. A likeable Chris Pratt starred as Peter Quill, who was kidnapped by space pirates in the 1980s. Now a grown-up thief, he teamed up with a group of alien misfits (including a genetically-modified racoon and a walking tree, voiced by Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel respectively) to prevent a mystical orb falling into the hands of an alien warlord. For those who stayed for the end credits, there was also a surprise appearance by Howard the Duck.
In a crossover between the two earlier movie series, Bryan Singer’s convoluted X-Men: Days of Future Past, the latest in the Marvel mutant franchise, saw Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) sent back in time to 1973 by Professor X (Patrick Stewart) to recruit the younger Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) in a battle against the robot Sentinels, created by Peter Dinklage’s Dr. Trask.
Director Singer was forced to pull out of doing publicity for the film following a false teen sex abuse lawsuit filed against him in April.
Having successfully re-booted the Marvel franchise in 2012 with the likeable Andrew Garfield in the title role, Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 3-D was a complete dud, thanks to its bland villains Electro (an over-the-top Jamie Fox), Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan).
Nobody really needed (or wanted) a $125 million Michael Bay-produced 3-D reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even if it featured Megan Fox as investigative TV reporter April O’Neil.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was a belated sequel to the 2005 movie, based on the stylised graphic novel and once again co-directed by creator Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. The all-star cast included Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Powers Boothe and Lady Gaga.
Three unlikely companions (Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard and Don Johnson) stumbled across a snuff film operation in Jim Mickle’s atmospheric Texas Gothic Cold in July, based on the novel by co-producer Joe R. Lansdale.
A trio of Nevada teenagers helped an alien go home in Earth to Echo, which borrowed from E.T. and other better children’s movies. This “found-footage” family film was originally made by Disney, who wisely sold it off to another distributor.
If you were eight years old, you might have found The LEGO Movie totally “awesome”, otherwise it was a tiresome 3-D adventure featuring CGI building block characters, including Batman (amusingly voiced by Will Arnett) and a few of the classic Universal monsters. It took more than $69 million during its opening weekend.
At least The Boxtrolls, based on the book Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow, used 3-D stop-motion to create its dumpster-diving gremlins. It featured the voice of Ben Kingsley as the social-climbing villain in a cheese-obsessed town.
The live-action Paddington was based on Michael Bond’s series of children’s books about a marmalade-loving bear from Peru. Nicole Kidman and Hugh Bonneville starred alongside the titular CGI character (voiced by Ben Whishaw, who replaced Colin Firth).
Good children’s cartoon movies during the year included the 3-D Mr. Peabody & Sherman (based on the 1950s TV time-travel comedy), The Book of Life (produced by Guillermo del Toro), Big Hero 6, The House of Magic, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and A Letter to Momo. Amongst the bad ones were a 3-D German-made Tarzan, the 3-D Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast.