After I cut the field in half on Thursday, it’s time to do it again. Today we say goodbye to 16 more films, there are no real losers at this point, just better films in my opinion. Let’s start on left side of the bracket with the Toretto and Baggins Regions.
There are a lot of hard choices on this half. If I had to pick one as the Emma Bear Match-Up of this side of the bracket, I guess it would have to be American Sniper against X-Men: Days of Future Past. These are pretty even in my mind, and if it was X-Men: First Class instead, the Mutants would move on. It isn’t though, so Sniper getting an Oscar nomination gives it the edge, and a date with the folks from Bricksburg. Interstellar and Django continue their upset runs, but seeding is pretty irrelevant in this tournament. Django has as good of a shot at the title as the other 4 left in that region. Interstellar, however will get the Cap on Thursday after that movie easily beats Furious 7 in its own region.
Let’s move on to the other side of the bracket.
The best matchup in either the Everdeen or Feige Regions is The Avengers against The Martian. If we are going solely on how big of an impact on pop culture either film had, it’s The Avengers all day. That movie changed the game. It solidified the MCU experiment as a rousing success, and set us down the path we are on now. It also gave so many studios the idea of trying to create their own cinematic universes. I saw this one four times in the theater, and so many times at home since then. It’s great, but in terms of this matchup, there is one big point against it. We have had better Avengers movies after this one. We have not had very many science fiction films better than The Martian though. That point, and the fact there is another Marvel entry in this region I like more, is enough to advance The Martian, and leave us with only two top seeds remaining in the Classic. As for the rest of this side, only two upsets as Big Hero 6 beat Mockingjay Part 1, and the second Avengers adventure is taken out by Rouge Nation. Looking ahead to Thursday, I can already tell you the matchup of the round will be The Martian vs Inside Out. That will be just as hard of a choice as Inside Out/Lincoln was last round.
So, that was the Round of 32. Today’s happenings now set up some great matchups in the Round of 16. I have a few days to deliberate. I’m going to need them.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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