The 2016 Halftime Report

Hard to believe but half of 2016 is already over and with that it is time to sound the half time siren and assess the year so far.

Unfortunately I have to say that the year so far in movies has not been that good, don't get me wrong it has not in any way at all been a bad year in film not at all but it has also been so bland and so blaze and so bleh that with 1 or 2 exceptions so little has stood out for me, those being X-Men Apocalypse and the Hateful Eight.

And I can't help but feel that this has been building under the cinematic fog that fell over me in the last 3 months of last year (the September to December quarter) which is also the period where Oddball dominated to such a degree that it left a very large shadow over the other new release films (some of which I did like such as the Martian, the Intern and Miss You Already) that it kinda made them all feel all the same in terms of their tone and look (nice, soft, middle of the road, crowd pleasing and not too far out there on the edge.)

And all of that built to such a degree where I just wanted to tear my hair out to the point where I became Bald Charles Xavier style that I just thought to myself "That's It after I've seen the Force Awakens I am taking a break from new releases" though that would change somewhat as Joy and the Good Dinosaur beckoned as well.

But enough about that as I wanted to make the point more clearly that that shadow finally lifting in January has only really revealed a dry depleted desert of a cinema going landscape where it all feels the same and nothing really sort of stands out and for me I just don't like that as I want those darker and more serious films to go to as I enjoy going to those the most.

All of that aside there is still half a year left to go on the cinema going front and a lot can happen in that time so things could turn around, it might turn out to be a faint hope but after the last 9 months I have to hope that things will get better.