Well everyone, 2015 has come and
gone and 2016 has arrived. We’ve had our
share of ups and downs, box office bombs, massive hits, controversies and
surprises and like everyone else it’s time for me to say just what I think constitutes
as the best and worst in the year. Unfortunately
the year proved to be a busy one for me due to a move, school, a change in jobs
and trying out game mastering for DnD for the first time and I’ve had neither
the time nor the money to see every movie, play every video game, or read every
comic book to come out this year. So
whereas most people would do a top 5 or top 10 lists I’m limiting my choices to
one in categories of Personal Favorite, Biggest Surprise and Biggest Disappointment. So
without further delay, let’s see what I loved, what surprised and what disappointed
me.
Movies
Personal Favorite
Mad Max: Fury Road
In spite of a few noticeable hiccups
like Terminator: Genisys, 2015 was a
heck of a year when it came to reviving franchises from the 80s and early 90s
but for my money Fury Road is easily
the best of them. Tom Hardy was the
perfect choice for the titular character making us all but forget the man who
originally played the role. Charlize Theron’s
turn as Furiosa made for a great co-lead and surprised us all by taking over
the role as the main character. The
plot, though simple in nature, was loaded with a surprising amount of depth. The action sequences were easily some of the
best of the year, combining old school practical effects with modern special
effects and editing techniques. All
around, it was a kickass movie that was surprisingly smart and I can’t wait to
see what’s next for these characters.
Biggest Surprise
Jurassic World
After one subpar sequel, one
terrible one, and 12 years of development hell I really wasn’t expecting this
movie to even come out, much less be any good.
The fact that they chose Chris Pratt as the lead, (yes he was good in Guardians but I wasn’t convinced he
would be good for this), and the trailer showing that the main bad dinosaur
would be a mutant hybrid didn’t exactly help matters. In the end, the movie was pretty silly coming
off more as Jurassic Park fan fiction,
with most of the characters coming off as parodies of their stock roles, deaths
that more often hilarious then horrifying, and an final fight against the
mutant dinosaur that was so stupidly awesome that for a moment I thought I was
watching Pacific Rim or
something. But I’ll be damned if the
whole thing didn’t work. It may pale in
comparison to the original’s Adventure/Horror atmosphere, but for what it is
the movie was a lot of fun. Chris Pratt
was entertaining in the lead role. His
relationship with his Raptors was entertaining and in some ways cute and the
final battle was just so much fun. I
can’t honestly say that I think the movie deserves as much money as it made but
for what it was it was a fun ride.
Biggest Disappointment
Crimson Peak
There were plenty of movies that disappointed
and/or sucked but most of them we can probably say that the movies in question
sucking was something that we saw coming.
With Age of Ultron there was
no way it had any chance of surpassing the first Avengers or even The Winter Soldier and Guardians in terms of quality. The
Terminator franchise is one that no one seems to care about anymore and the
new Fantastic Four movie not being
any good was something that everyone knew about months before the movie even
came out due to the steady trickle of rumors of production problems plaguing
the film. But then we have Crimson Peak, the latest outing from
Guillermo del Toro; a man with an insanely impressive film resume doing a
haunted house movie. And it wasn’t any
good. Outside of two admittedly great
performances by Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain and some interesting
looking ghosts, the movie disappoints in nearly every other regard. Marketed has a horror movie, the film fails
to provide any legitimate scares and is truly more of a predictable, subpar
murder mystery and if the so called twists aren’t told to the viewer outright
in the first act it’s so heavily imply that they may as well have told
you. I honestly do believe that del Toro
is easily the most underappreciated living director of this generation but this
movie almost made me rethink that position.
Almost.
Video Games
Personal Favorite
The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
This was kind
of a tough one as there were three games that I really wanted to put in this
spot. Bloodbourne was a game I’ve sunk a lot of hours into and have
thoroughly enjoyed, even with its insane difficulty. Fallout
4 has also proved to be a fine game even if it does lose a lot of its steam
the moment you get to the Institute. But
for me, The Witcher 3 is the best
game of the year. With great graphics,
fantastically written characters, a campaign that both rewards and punishes you
for your actions and a slew of monster hunting quests that have you acting as
much as a detective as a warrior the game offers the absolute most you will get
out of any game this year. To put it
simply, it’s everything that Dragon Age:
Inquisition tried and failed to be and everything that Skyrim wasn’t interested in being.
Check it out.
Biggest Surprise
Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game
Since the
release of the first “season” of their Walking
Dead game, Telltale is a development company that has quickly devolved into
making games that consist almost entirely of QTEs and has very obviously over
extended itself, dipping its hands into a few to many franchises all at once, (Minecraft Story Mode anyone?) and at first their Game of Thrones game seemed to be just another middling Telltale
game. And to be fair, this game is not
one of their best outings. Once again we
have a game that only gives you the illusion of choice, that’s gameplay amounts
to QTEs and a story that pales in comparison to the media it’s based on. But, when all was said and done, I found
myself completely invested in the struggles of House Forrester and wanted to
see them succeed in their struggles against their enemies and it really does
capture “crap happens” effect of the source material as well as the idea that a
lot of your investment in these places and characters amounts to little in this
cruel world. All of the characters are
interesting and go beyond being the Jon Snow stand in or the Rob Stark stand
in, (although they do get close at times), and have the kind of depth that you
really wouldn’t expect in a licensed game.
Although the game is kind of hard to give a glowing recommendation, it
makes for a decent filler story while you wait for the next book or show season
to come out.
Biggest Disappointment
Batman: Arkham Knight
In this
category I was torn between this game, Metal
Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Star
Wars: Battlefront. Ultimately I felt
that Battlefront was undeserving of
this spot mostly because I saw it being mediocre the moment EA announced its
revival and the fact that DICE would be developing it, (Battlefront 4 anyone?) and the game’s actual poor quality and lack
of content is an obvious result of large chunks of the game being carved out
for DLC; a practice so cliché for big shooters at this point that I think most
people are just numb to it. With MGSV what we had was a very solid game
and what was lacking was clearly the result of Konami’s poor business decisions
and the apparent conflict between Kojima and Konami executives. While this is good fodder for an article on
gaming controversy it doesn’t make the game any less good, even if it is easily
the weakest MGS installment.
The reason I opted to go with Arkham Knight however was because, when
you got right down to it, the developers simply failed to make a compelling
title or a satisfying ending to the Arkham
series. The game’s many problems
included a PC version that was utterly unplayable at launch and a lackluster,
by the numbers Batman vs. Scarecrow storyline with an insultingly predictable
twist. The gameplay relied WAY to
heavily on tank battles and side missions that had you doing the same things
over and over again and failed to take advantage of the interesting and unique
villains that populate the Batman mythos.
All of this was rounded up an ending that was so unclear as to just what
happened it negates any emotional impact that it was supposed to convey, walled
off by an infuriating 100% completion condition that would drive anyone up the
wall.
All around,
2015 was full of disappointing games but this one was the one that hit the
hardest for me. It’s not a bad game by
any means but it was hands down the one that let me down the most.
Comics
Before I go
any further on this section I should disclose that I’ve only read Marvel comics
this year. That’s not to say that DC
doesn’t produce great comics but I’ve simply fallen so far behind on DC’s that
catching up has proven to be a very difficult task, and while I do intend to
cover DC’s series this year none of their products will be appearing in this
section. So with that said, let’s get
this show on the road.
Personal Favorite
The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Verse
Technically
this one is kind of cheating, seeing as how half of the Spider-Verse event came out in 2014 but Marvel’s turnout was so
lackluster this year, mainly due to the Secret
Wars event, (makes you think I should expand my horizons doesn’t it?), that
the answer as to what would be my favorite of the year was always obvious to
me. Featuring probably the most unique
crossover event that I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing, the Spider-Verse event had everything that
most events both have and lack. The
characters were all three dimensional and had some degree of development, the
interactions between all of these versions of Spider-Man range from dramatic to
heart breaking to hilarious, and it gave us an insane but interesting storyline
that manages to capture the complexity of the character and Spider-Man mythos
as well as its ludicrous nature. It’s
the best kind of crossover that there is and I couldn’t recommend it
enough. Check it out.
Biggest Surprise
Darth Vader
I’ve already
talked about this one in a previous post and my feelings on it stay
unchanged. But it should suffice to say
that this was a comic that was a lot better than it had any right to be,
providing a new and interesting cast of characters, art work that perfectly
captured the mood, challenging obstacles for Vader to overcome and answers
questions that I, quite frankly, didn’t even think to ask. If you have to buy one Star Wars comic I recommend this one. It is worth your time and money.
Biggest Disappointment
Secret Wars
Oh dear. Where do I even start with this one? Should I talk about the insane number of
production delays? Should I talk about
how all of this was supposed to be over in October but will now be ending on
the 13th of this month?
Should I mention that the series was originally 8 issues but was
extended to 9? Should I go over the fact
that the event series has continued even though the rebooted Marvel Universe
has already started with several fantastic series? Is it worth mentioning that it doesn’t actually
have a plot? Should I go over the fact
that more than half the series is prolonged exposition explaining how things
work while failing to have a coherent narrative? Should I mention that the characters have no
apparent arc or development? Should we talk
about how the whole thing just skips from the exposition issues right to
climactic battle issues? All are worth
mentioning and all are the reason why this comic sucks and has been the biggest
disappointment of 2015’s comics.
Seriously, BURN THIS SERIES AND NEVER ALLOW IT TO BE REPRINTED AGAIN!
And that wraps
up my personal picks for my favorites, biggest disappointments, and biggest
surprises. This year will be one to
feature a lot more content and hopefully bring more readers and I am determined
that one way or another, this will be a great year.
So until next time please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let the new year begin! It's going to be a good one.
So until next time please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on twitter and let the new year begin! It's going to be a good one.
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