Same rules as the previous post. I must have watched/listened/read the thing. I only have so much time so two movies missing is Suicide Squad and Rogue One. I will be seeing Rogue One next week and will absolutely want to write about it so yeah. I will see Suicide Squad whenever. I'm in no hurry.
One more thing, no 2015 versions (mostly) because this got long. Everyone knows Mad Max:Fury Road is my favorite movie of 2015. Star Wars is maybe a runner up? I dunno. Anyway, to the list.
Best Movie of 2016...
I actually didn't write a review of this because I didn't see it until way later. The hype around it was a bit much plus I'm so burned out on superhero movies. After seeing it, I still think it's a little over hyped but holy crap. 2016 is an awful year for movies.
Deadpool actually feels like a faithful comic book movie which is becoming increasingly rare. Most Marvel movies just feel like Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make them start to blur together. If I was shown some random Iron Man clip, I'd have a hard time figuring out if it was in Iron Man 1, 2, 3, Avengers 1, 2, or Civil War. It is all so "samey". Deadpool is a breath of fresh air in comparison.
I liked the mix between gratuitous violence, humor, 4th wall breaking, and even some humanizing characterization. The movie had to rely on those aspects since it didn't have a budget of a Zillion dollars like any MCU or DC movie and mostly avoided spectacle. The spectacle it did have at the end on the ship, well, at least it wasn't an entire city. The movie is so well balanced but I have a feeling the 2nd one is going to double down on the outrageous stuff with the larger budget and end up being a worse movie. Here is to hoping that doesn't happen.
Side note: Hollywood, especially DC, learned the exact wrong lesson when Deadpool became the highest grossing R rated film ever (finally knocking off the godawful Passion of the Christ....pun intended). This is why Batman v Superman got an R rated cut. The lesson Hollywood should have learned is that superhero movies can have more fun and be less serious gritty business. The Dark Knight came out in 2008. Get over yourselves.
Runner Up Movie of 2016....
NOTHING.
It's worth noting that I'm writing this before seeing Rogue One and as the last The Force Awakeness defender on the planet who is also a reformed Star Wars nerd, Rogue One might end up on here or even beating Deadpool.
There were plenty of movies I liked alright but virtually nothing I thought was great. Civil War, Ghostbusters, that Harry Potter movie I didn't understand cause I'm not a HP fan but my wife is....they were all varying degrees of okay to meh. Nothing really worthy of my prestigious list.
Best Movie of 2016 that came out in 2015 that I didn't see until this year...
I have a hard time believing this movie was made by Ridley Scott. This is the same director that made the incomprehensible mess that was Prometheus, which might be the worst AAA movie I've seen in the last decade. Luckily, this movie has nothing to do with Alien and...what's that? Oooooooooohhhhhhhh. No way that isn't getting fucked up.
The Martian is great though. It has a nice balance of that fake-space realism that Neil DeGrasse Tyson loves so much and more outlandish action pieces. The movie has a great deal of tension in it's climax too even if that is when the more unbelievable parts happen. I know a lot of people rip on the space potatoes but hey, I thought it was fine. If there is a plant that can live in shit soil (pun intended), it's potato plants.
Worst Movie of 2016...
huuRRRRNNNNGGGGGGHHHHH
X-Men Apocalypse
Review here.
This movie is so bad you guys. I think it's actually getting worse with age. The Wolverine cameo, plus the cliffhanger from Days of Future Past, like....why? Why is this scene in the movie if you're not even going to justify it with the need to resolve that cliffhanger? Why does Oscar Issac, who is a good actor, seem to be drastically overacting as Apocalypse? How is that even possible when Apocalypse views himself as a god? Why is Magneto such a dumb shit? How does Xavier ever lose a mind fight? Why can't we have an X-Men movie where Cerebro isn't used as a weapon against the X-Men?
The worst part of this movie is that it fails where even some bad-bad movies succeed; it's boring. I know that can be pretty subjective but a whole lot of nothing happens so Apocalypse can build his team and the X-Men can build their team while giving back story to characters we already know. Strangely, almost no back story is given to the new characters in the universe like Psylocke. It's obvious nobody wanted to make this movie except maybe James McAvoy who...tries so hard. You weren't enough buddy.
Runner Up Worst Movie...
I've only JUST watched this but it's bad. The two biggest problems with this movie is Zack Snyder and Lex Luthor. There are, like, a dozen other things that suck about this movie but I don't want to spend too much time on this. I will point out that the scene where Batman is talking to Alfred before fighting Superman has one of the worst lines of dialogue ever. Hall of shit fame worthy. "...and if we believe there's even a one percent chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty" Uh, no. That's some Trump logic right there. Some random Canadian insulted bald eagles on Twitter! Slight chance but hey, ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. Better go to war.
Zack Snyder doesn't know how to tell a story. Things just happen in his movies and sometimes they move the plot forward seemingly by accident. The movie borrows heavily from the
*Batman is an asshole in this movie because of Frank Miller. I don't know why so many people get a boner for Frank Miller but he's a piece of shit human and a hack writer. All of his popular work is edgy 90's bullshit that was edgy for the sake of edgy. No real reason to it. Sin City is ass. 300 is ass (Spartans are your democracy champions Miller?!?! Seriously? Sparta was a dictatorial military Junta. Yes, women had more rights there than anywhere else, but that was only for the upper class and for birthing more soldiers). Also, Miller is a Nazi so fuck him.
As for Lex Luthor, what the fuck? His plan is Joker-ish and his characterization reminds me of Zorg from The Fifth Element but more quirky. Also, what is his motive? Why is he doing any of this? How does this benefit him even in the slightest way? He has connections to the Russian mob that superheroes might find out about? Okay but, why is creating Doomsday your contingency plan*? THAT. MAKES. NO. SENSE. That would be like a terrorist trying to evade the NSA by building a nuclear bomb.
*For comic purists out there, the Doomsday origin is so divorced from the comics it's insulting. I recommend this Max Landis video. It's long and has some questionable Gay jokes in it but has Elijah Wood.
Best TV Season of 2016...
My runner up is very, very close but I gave Stranger Things the slight edge.
This series has a lot in common with Deadpool actually. It's a series nobody wanted and every network looks like idiots for turning them down. Even Netflix was unsure about it as it was barely advertised. Word got around though and this is a great, great show.
Child actors are usually a burning hot garbage fire but these actors are great. The horror elements of the show are genuinely creepy and all the 80's callbacks are great. The series has a lot of Stephen King homages but there is also The Goonies, ET, Poltergiest, and more. It's also expertly produced for the binge watching nature of Netflix, so much so that I lost a lot of sleep one night. Every episode ends naturally but since the series is basically an 8 hour movie, it's easy to be convinced to watch just one more "scene".
Despite all the hype, I actually think this show is UNDERRATED. I'm not going to say anything more. Go into it (almost) blind like me. It's very good.
Runner Up Best TV Season of 2016...
Game of Thrones Season 6
I meant to write a review of this season, like I did with the previous one, but by the time I could it would have been old news. This season of Game of Thrones seems to have taken my criticisms to heart because this season was almost full fan service. Uh...I wasn't actually asking for that but it was nice that the hero characters finally got some wins. I do have some criticisms though but I can't do it without spoilers so....
SUDDEN MID POST SPOILER WARNING FOR GAME OF THRONES SEASON 6 IF YOU ARE NOT CAUGHT UP. Highlight to read.
Despite loving the shit out of the scene, I can't help but think Dany giving Tyrion the roll of Hand of the Queen after he kinda fucked up the whole slave thing is a little generous. Granted, Tyrion does come up with the plan to end the siege but it's still weird. I LIKE THE SCENE. Don't get me wrong. It just feels off.
The Battle of the Bastards is kinda dumb. Yeah, Ramsey gets killed for maximum fan service but there is little logic to that episode. How does a wall of bodies form like that? What was Ramsey's phalanx planning to do if that wall didn't happen? Why are our heroes saved by last minute help again? Almost every battle has been like that. I know the story needs drama and good military planning would reduce that but come on. I still like this season A LOT better than season 5 but one stand out there was Hardhome. That episode has been this series best battle episode by far.
END SPOILERS.
Lady Mormont is the best....just FYI. (Also, another spoiler).
And Now a Quick rundown of Other Media of 2016...
Pop Music...
I don't hate pop music in general. There is some I really like but holy shit this year was godawful. It's all slow jam EDM and, like, 3 dozen of them are from The Chainsmokers. Adele had a few songs that were barely hits but they are seriously lower in quality compared to her previous work. R&B was boring as hell this year doing almost exclusively slow jam club beats to be more like EDM. Also, 21 Pilots got big for some reason and that band is fucking shit.
It's also a year that Lady Gaga returned and I don't think I heard a single one of her songs on pop radio (sorry UZ). Just TRY to watch/listen to this list. For 100 songs, why do 90 of them sound so similar? Also, what happened to ripping the Black Eyed Peas for gratuitous auto-tune? The auto-tune on these songs is out of control. Seriously. It's a fucking epidemic.
Indie (hipster) music...
It's hard to get a good list because indie songs can debut in different parts of the country (and world) years apart. It's bizarre. This makes me forced to cheat.
I really like the theme to the new Mirrors Edge despite not playing the game.
I like this cover of Depeche Mode for the Ghost in the Shell movie. It's also a song I heard before the trailer.
And despite not personally liking this band, they are from Denver so props to Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats who seem like great dudes. Two summers ago I saw Machine Gun Blues in his backyard in Denver. It was awesome.
Obligatory Book Section...
Books of the year get sadly forgotten in a lot of year end lists so I'm including this just as a reminder. Unfortunately, I only read a couple new books this year and neither were all that great. (Yes literally two and yes I READ BOOKS). I did re-read How to Fight Presidents though so I'll make that my book of the year despite coming out in 2014. Weirdly....that title seems more poignant now. I wonder why?
Youtube Channel of the Year...
Look at me! I'm hip with the kids and including a Youtuber section! I will probably break my hip doing this kick flip....okay but seriously. This probably should be included right? Stranger Things, a show only on Netflix, is my "TV" show of the year so why not? Why do other media outlets not do this in their end of year lists?
I'm going with CGP Grey in 2016 cause his videos are great. He doesn't upload nearly as fast as other channels but there is quite a bit of obvious research and production so I can't complain. His best video is probably Americapox which came out in Nov, 2015 so I'm cheating a little here. Still though, this year alone he had fantastic videos on encryption, brexit (briefly), split brain patients, and The Rules of Rulers which you should absolutely watch if you haven't already. It's fantastic and simplifies structures of power in an easy to understand way.
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