Huge year for Kiwi movies

In a year when vampires came back to life, Lego blocks built a new franchise and Hobbits were laid to rest, film fans learned to expect the unexpected.

One of the year’s top grossing films, and Cinemaddict’s film of the year, was a whacky spacecapade that came straight out of Marvel Studios’ left field.

Fans of the comics were chomping at the bit for The Guardians of the Galaxy, a sci-fi adventure comedy tentatively linked to Marvel’s massive Avengers- centred cycle of films.

There was no way of knowing if a story about an obnoxious conman who teams up with a green assassin, a hulking literalist, a talking raccoon and a sentient tree to fight for justice would strike a chord with Joe and Joanne Public.

But like a Kree Battleship, strike it did. Guardians has so far pulled in US$332 million just in the United States alone.

Internationally, though, the film that got the most bums on seats in 2014 was one Cinemaddict didn’t review: Transformers 4: Age of Extinction. There’s no accounting for taste.

Even though that film hung around in cinemas like a bad smell, it wasn’t one that did well straight out of the gate.

That accolade went to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar, which had the top grossing opening weekend – meaning it was the most widely anticipated film – of the year.

In 29 of the 35 countries in which Interstellar screened, it’s opening weekend made the biggest splash – a genuine blockbuster.

Here it pulled in NZ$683,000 in its first two days. That may not sound like much when you start looking at movie money numbers, but for little old Aotearoa, it’s mad chedda.

Interstellar deserved the attention too, returning sci-fi to its science roots with sweeping space vistas, deep ruminations on the nature of time and space and a strangely satisfying message of hope and human determination.

Watch out for Interstellar the Oscars next year.

Also in contention for the Oscars will likely be David Fincher’s Gone Girl, which heralded the return of crime cinema in 2014 ( The Drop and Nightcrawler followed in its wake to critical acclaim).

Controversial, brutal, and unforgiving, Gone Girl was an adaptation that took on a life of its own, propelled along by online speculation about the film’s male nudity (so rare in a big-budget American film) and sexual violence and questions about whether it’s responsible to tell fictional stories about false

at rape accusations.

The cinematic jury is still out on that one.

What they were decided on, though, was the calibre of the production and performances, which were outstanding.

Smaller films made a mark this year, too, with film festival must- sees Locke and Only Lovers Left Alive gaining mainstream releases on the strength of their reception at the New Zealand Film Festival in July.

Both films made our Best Of list, too, for very different reasons. Locke for its daring and Only Lovers for its charm.

And speaking of outstanding, it was a cracking year for New Zealand film.

From biopic/drama The Dark Horse to suburban horror Housebound, from Maori martial arts The Dead Lands to vampish horror- comedy What We Do In The Shadows, New Zealand independent film had a field day at the box office.

The best of the crop was The Dark Horse, which was in our humble opinion, cinema at its most perfect.

Capping it all off for New Zealand film was, of course, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the last of the Tolkienbased films that boosted Kiwi film into the world, enriching our film talent pool beyond measure. The Hobbit has already had a massive opening weekend in the United States and here and is steadily climbing the box office charts.

Moving, thrilling and above all fun, The Hobbit sends 2014’s cinema addicts into the silly season with a really big bang.