1. It's All In A Kid's Imagination - The Lego Movie
The Lego Movie has - rather surprisingly - seen itself poised as a major contender for best movie of the year: what could have been a straight-forward exercise in cinema as an advertisement for consumerism inadvertedly presented itself as a brilliant meditation on the power of the imagination. Relentlessly enjoyable for the entire length of its runtime, The Lego Movie also unleashed a bold and mostly unforgettable twist in its final third that completely justifies its place at the very top of this list. Which is to say, The Lego Movie initially presents itself as existing within its own self-contained universe, and you accept this because... well, why wouldn't you? Suddenly, though, the film - which up to this point has been animated - cuts to live-action, and you realise that everything you've seen so far has been the sum of a child's playtime. You've been witnessing what has been occurring inside his imagination, with his own father (played by Will Ferrell) cast in the role of the movie's main bad guy. This twist could have been detrimental to the entire picture, of course, but it's played with such conviction - and so charmingly - that it works. From this point, the movie relishes the opportunity to switch back and forth between the Lego world and the real world, imbuing the picture with an added novelty for the remainder of its run-time. The Lego Movie was undoubtably made as a means of shifting more bricks to consumers; the genius of the movie, and indeed its big twist, is that it never feels that way for a single second. Like this article? Any twists from 2014 that we missed? Let us know in the comments.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
