Paddington - Wow, did the people marketing this movie ever send it to die. This is really fun. I'd even go as far as to call it great. The only real complaints I could think of with it were that it had a somewhat typical villain, the CGI wasn't always the best, and it did have a joke that was a bit too gross for me. I do also think it went a bit overboard on the soundtrack at times, but this is from the director of the Mighty Boosh, so I guess that's to be expected. Whenever it did use well-known music, it felt like it was making fun of itself by doing so, and other family films, but I might be wrong on that.
I noticed similarities to Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, Scorsese's Hugo, and Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. The camerawork is bold and inventive, and the technical filmmaking at work is actually kind of impressive for this kind of movie. Along with the clever writing that wasn't about Marvel quips or dumb puns, and the maturity to some aspects of the story (it is missing in others), the material really seemed to be held up above any of its competition. Some of the humor will go over the heads of American audiences, namely the immigration angle. The slapstick in the movie reminded me of Bean a bit, with some clever concepts that brought me back to an older style of film slapstick.
One of my favorite aspects of the film is the way information is related to the audience, whether it be what characters are feeling, the state of the relationships, scene transitions, comedic timing and gag setups, smart editing, showing street addresses, etc. I found myself consistently wowed by the fresh and bold storytelling techniques at work. The only thing that felt like it was repeating itself was the director's love of flat overheard shots, but I appreciated the style to it. If you've followed people like Wes Anderson or Edgar Wright, you might feel like there's no technique here you haven't seen before, but I appreciated the class (outside of the one really gross joke), the inventiveness, the style, and the effort just to be genuinely smart filmmaking.
Saw this over American Sniper and I don't regret that decision a bit. Others may disagree. I'm sure the villain aspect or some of the music choices or the use of CGI at all will turn some off, but don't let the trailers do so. The trailers are pure ass and should be treated as trailers for an entirely different film. I watched them when I got home from the theater, and I was appalled at how much they butcher the film. Fuck those trailers. Peter Capaldi was a standout in the film, and it was really nice to see Jim Broadbent and Alice Lowe show up as well. It might be best to go in tempering expectations, though. I'm not sure on that. I did, and I ended up really enjoying the film. It just consistently surprised me.