Thursday Movie Picks: Characters Magically Aging Up or Down

If you read this on the day it originally posts, take a look at the countdown at the top of the page. You'll notice that it's wasting away to another birthday. It's less than a week away. I don't even like celebrating my birthday. Why did I put that thing up there? Because I had a senior moment. If you still smell like baby powder and breast milk, i.e. you're under 30, you might not know what that is. It's when you temporarily forget something you would normally know automatically. Have you ever completely forgotten the reason you walked into a room? You step foot in it and then stand there dumbfounded, trying to recall why you made the effort to move your creaky body from one place to another. It's enough to make you cry when you add in the fact you just had one child graduate from high school, and worse...for my youthful self-image....another child turn 21.

Sure wish I had a way to reverse this aging process...or just stop it all together.

I might not be able to do either, but they can in the movies. And that's what this week's Thursday Movie Picks hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves is all about- characters magically aging up or down. Since we've been talking about my unwanted but inevitable birthday, I'm going to take the topic in a different direction than what I think was intended. Instead of going with movies where characters were magically aged one way or another, I'm going with movies where the actors themselves were cgi'd to death magically de-aged to play younger versions of themselves. Yeah, it's not always a good look, not even when you're appearing in a gazillion dollar budget Disney production...

Tron Legacy

(2010)

Old Dude Magically Made Young: Jeff Bridges

When you release a sequel to a movie that's a quarter of a century old, and was a bust, you're not necessarily starting with sound decision making. So of course, you'd take the star of the original and run his face through Photoshop (or something) in order for him to play one of the two characters you need him to. The movie as a whole? Meh. The job they did on The Dude's mug? Ugh.

Captain America: Civil War

(2016)

Old Dude Magically Made Young: Robert Downey Jr.

This is the movie that introduced the idea of superheroes having consequences for their actions. It worked wonderfully and carried the movie. On the other hand, I'm guessing there were no consequences for whoever signed off on having Robert Downey Jr. digitized to play a younger, even brattier version of Tony Stark. I love the movie, hate plastic Tony.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

(2016)

Eternal Princess Magically Made Young: Carrie Fisher

We can argue it if you want, but this is one of my favorite movies in the Star Wars franchise. It introduced great new characters, some of whom we unfortunately may never see again, and made some bold narrative choice. A poor artistic choice? Insisting on throwing a drawing of Princess Leia on the screen and trying to pass it off as something human.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

(2017)

Old Dude Magically Made Young: Johnny Depp

I don't love the first movie in this franchise the way many of you do, but I enjoyed it enough that I was looking forward to the second movie. That second movie, I think I like a bit more that most of you, so I was like bring on the third. When the third came, it was TERRA-BOOOOL. The movies after that one were as bad or worse. That includes this one. You know what's worse than the movie as a whole? The five minute flashback it contains starring DigiDepp.

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