As we all know there are always opposites in the world, and now that I have done my list for 'Best Films of 2016' it's time to reflect on the bad, the ugly, the horrible and the horrific films of the year, the ones that made me want to walk out the cinema within minutes.  WARNING THIS CONTAINS MY ABSOLUTE HONEST OPPINIONS WHICH INCLUDES VARIOUS RANTS AND SHOUTS SO PLEASE DON'T BE OFFENDED IF YOU LIKED A FILM I TALK ABOUT I AM HAPPY FOR YOU BUT I PERSONALLY DIDN'T ENJOY IT. Here we go...

I can't believe 2016 and the first year of HMBW is almost over! It has been such a journey with all of you and I would just like to say thank you to everyone for such support and helping to set up such a strong community here at HMBW. 2017 is going to be a blast with the arrival of  Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man, the live action adaptaion of disney's magical french fairy tale Beauty and the Beast and revisting old friends later on next year with the return of Kingsman back with a brand new mission to take us on. But before we close up for another brand new year, we must look back on this years treasures and list my personal favourite movies of this year. Let's get into it...

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicty Jones, Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn and isn't the thought sequal to last year's 'The Force Awakens', but set long before, between 1977's 'A New Hope' and 2005's 'Revenge Of The Sith', and tells the untold story of the rebel alliance who plan to make a risky move in which they steal the plans to the Death Star. 

Rouge One see's a perfect ending to an incredibly pleasing year of the film indstry. After last year's delgihtful 'Force Awakens', I had my mind set on the sequal, rather than jumping backwards into the early days of Star Wars. Therefore I didn't have any expectaions for Rogue One. However this turned out to completley exceed my expectations and I can certainly say Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a MUST SEE.

Whilst the first third of the film was escruciatingly slow and felt completley unnecessary as it rushes through setting up dozens of characters without giving them any purpose of being there. Although the film opened with beautiful landscape shots the story was clunky and took it's time to get going. However once the film got going it flowed wonderfully with every scence adding to the excitment  more and more. The film's protanist 'Jyn Erso' was integral to the succes of the film, she didn't fall into the classic clichés of modern day main characters, but stood out on her own as a strong feamle lead who was incredibly quick whited and knowlegeable and Jones carried the entire film perfectly. K2SO must also be mentioned as he deleivered most of the film's jokes however the droid's compasion and dedication was increibly heart felt and gave a strong contrast to the charcter; Mendelsohn also added to the film nicely, he was incrediby evil and wicked as Krenic and certainly showed us how hard it is to come by great villans in cinema nowadays. However Luna was extremly stale and boring as Cassian and the only reason this is such a problem, is because he is the film's supporting actor. Forest Whitaker was in the film for about five mintutes and added absouletley nothing to the film but a very annoying case of laringytis. Like many big budget films we have seen this year, the cinematography was to it's best, the world of star war was once again brought to life by amazing camera work and visual effects and this was most apperent in the end beach sequence.

The most impressive aspect to Rogue One was it's diversity and it's ability to create a fasantatingly story that has almost absolutley no ties to any of the other films. Yes 'The Force Awakens' was very good and increbibly energetic but it's biggest flaw was it's lack of story telling, comparing the two films; Rogue One is far superior as it manages to create a story that is so well thought out and so cleverly crafted together. A strong theme explored throughout the film is the idea of war, and one can ceratinly say that Rogue One puts the WAR in Star WARS. The dialog bewteen characters and the idea of the trenches taken from the war to end all wars is explored in full depth. Not only does this film have a nobel morale to it but Rogue One feels like a old war story that has been passed down from generations that tells of those who risked there lives for the fate of the galaxy.

The serious tone of the film meshes together perfectly with the fantastic story line and it still does have fun elements to it as well. The big question, Is is this film necesarry?..., I can strongly say, Yes, it certainly is. Rouge One's amazing story telling allows it to fit nicely into the star wars universe without feeling scattered and confusing, it's diversity and ability to stand out as a Star Wars film witout being dependent on any ties to the originals. This film can't be over done, it isnt going to be obliterated with sequals and prequals, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is perfect as it is.

So, with strong lead characters, fantasticly fleshed out plot lines and one of the best, most suprising film endings, I personally have ever experinced. I can whole heartedly say Rogue One is quite possibly the best star wars film ever made.

I am going Rogue One: A Star Wars Story:

9.5/10

Moana is directed by Ron Clements and Don Hall, stars Dwayne Johnson and introduces Auli'l Cravalho. It is set in an ancient Polynesian island, where we see a young Moana answer the ocean's call to  voyage across the seas to retrive the demigod Maui and return the heart of Te Fiti, a mythical stone, to its rightful home. Moana is a fresh take on the princess genre as we see a beautiful culture being explored in an exciting new world of Disney animation.

Whilst I quickly became sick of Fozen's flimsy story line and incredibly irrataing charcters  (not to mention a song that will forever be stuck in my head - and not in a good way!), Moana spends more time creating a tropical paradise in great and rewarding depth. Disney, branches out beyond it's recent works and delveries a fresh, new fantasy world. There are a few classic disney clichés slipped in alon the way - think 'She is the chosen one' - but Moana never strays from trying to make something orignal. The most stunning part about the film was certainly it's animation, It's safe to say this is one of Disney best animated works to date. The ocean is brought to life with beautiful details of  the waves, and stunning mixes of blues that make the sea so realistic. Off land too the swaying palm trees, the lucious green leaves of Hawii and it's array of coloured flowers are set as a beuatiful background for the happy Islanders

The charcter design is certainly something special. Moana is a strong, indepedent teenager as the films protaginst. Only at aged sixteen, Cravalho created an unforgetable young female lead that sets so many admirable examples as a new, teenage role model. The character that most suuprise me (to say the least) was Johnshon's Maui. What seemed like another incredibly annoying wise crack through the trailers, Maui turned out to be a hilarious addition to the Disney universe. The charcater's design was fantstic, the way his tatoos came to life and interacted with the audience was amazing.

In more serious moments of the film they dial his charcter down and give him more depth rather than only showing one side to his character. We instantly fall in love with the two characters and exactly like Zootropolis earlier this year the chemistry between Maona and Maui was so stong that they completmented each other perfectly. This film was also wonderfully scored, the music added so much to every single scene and really gave it the Polynesian feel it was trying to achive. The musical aspect of the film was not at all over used, songs were sloted in at just the right time and fit into the scences perfectly. 

Moana took us all on an exciting journey across the seven seas, it stuck to it's roots throught the entire film and it felt they made such an effort in refining every single detail. Senstivley writen, incredibly scored and stunningly animated, Moana is a perfect ending in what has been an amazing year for Disney.

I am going to give Moana 

9.2/10