So, let's look back over 2016.
There isn't really a solid connection amongst my favourite films of the year, but I was lucky enough to see a lot of impressive, fantastically entertaining movies. Most of my favourites existed outside of blockbusters and films in the midst of sequels, which is probably the first time that's happened (though that's more due to me actually seeking out those films now). I actually saw more films after I headed off to university, which I definitely didn't expect, given how I balance my time. The level of quality among these films dipped a bit at times, but the high spikes over the year were very satisfying. I discovered a lot of new talented writers and directors, and I'm very excited to see what they'll do in the future.
TV was great this year as well. Game of Thrones had one of its best seasons, filled with a ton of satisfying moments and setting up the end of the show very effectively. Bojack Horseman's third season was also beautiful and heartbreaking, and featured one of the best episodes of television of the whole year. Mr. Robot also delivered an amazing second season, and further cemented itself as my favourite show currently on TV. New science fiction shows saw fantastic debuts, like Stranger Things and Westworld. Stranger Things is arguably Netflix's best original program now - certainly the one that I'm most excited to see more of - and Westworld is a very promising new HBO series. The beginning of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season has featured some of the tightest and funniest writing in the entire series so far, which left me very happy. I also want to give a special shout-out to Bo Burnham's comedy special, Make Happy. This special will remain my favourite of his, and probably my favourite in general, through its musical brilliance and emotional punches.
If there's any franchise that ran on a hot streak this year, it was the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They released Captain America: Civil War, arguably their best film and certainly one of their most successful, both critically and commercially. It was a real turning point for the universe, and I'll be very interested to see where these characters go in future films. While the effects on the characters might not be obvious, Civil War changed the fabric of the MCU in significant ways. Doctor Strange was also released, and while it didn't exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of superhero origin movies, it was a very unique and entertaining adventure, and opened up the magical side of the universe very well.
Marvel also had a lot of success with TV. The second season of Daredevil was pretty great, although it lost a bit of steam in the second half of the season when it focused more on the mystical elements rather than the grounded, realistic ones. It did set up a perfect version of the Punisher, and his forthcoming spin-off series has a lot of potential. The first season of Luke Cage also came out, gaining a lot of critical acclaim and being generally good. While I will admit that I didn't absolutely love it - and it also faltered in the second half of the season - I did appreciate that Marvel is representing more diversity, which was also on display in Doctor Strange. Stylistically, Luke Cage was certainly one of their most unique products. Agents of S.H.I.EL.D. also underwent a very interesting development by introducing Ghost Rider, with impressive visual effects that surpassed what I would have expected from the show's budget.
All in all, it was a pretty solid year for entertainment. Despite the good being somewhat overshadowed by the underwhelming, I was very happy with this year, which gave me a lot of satisfaction from the past and intriguing stories for the future. Hopefully 2017 will be able to deliver on some of that promise, although a lot of stuff that I'm excited for extends past next year. I explored some new genres, and discovered the potential that those genres have. Really, this was a huge year for expanding my taste and discovering new things, and I hope to do even more of that next year. Some films that were certainly great, but didn't quite make my top 10 list of the year were Hacksaw Ridge, Moonlight, High-Rise, and Hail, Caesar!
And, to close out the best of the year, here's my list of my 10 favourite movies of 2016:
10. Swiss Army Man
9. Sing Street
8. The Nice Guys
7. The Witch
6. Zootopia
5. Captain America: Civil War
4. Hunt for The Wilderpeople
3. Hell or High Water
2. La La Land
1. Arrival
It's DC. It's pretty much just DC, and since I only generally go to see movies that I think I'll enjoy, DC doesn't get to just be classified as "disappointments". The films that DC released this year were beyond disappointments, arguably beyond being just defined as "bad". They were so incompetently made, so fatally flawed, so aggressively terrible that if you told me they were being made ironically, I wouldn't doubt it. It's almost like they were produced by Marvel Studios, in some twisted effort to make everyone associate the DC brand with garbage filmmaking. But it's real. It's all too real.
I could write pages upon pages about the current DC movie universe, but there's nothing more to say than what I've already said. The series is fundamentally broken, and I have no idea how Warner Bros. plans to save this turkey. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ruined most of the heroes, and Suicide Squad ruined most of the villains, so DC is now scrambling to find anything that will work. What else could explain an upcoming Gotham City Sirens movie and a Deadshot spin-off? They're throwing everything together haphazardly, based only on what audiences responded somewhat well to, and nothing makes sense. It's just a waste of time and money.
DC also managed to screw up one of their most iconic stories in the animated adaptation of The Killing Joke. They couldn't even make one of their most famous stories work, even though the story and visuals were already there. DC's TV division took a pretty major hit with the second half of Arrow. A show has never hurt me as badly as Arrow did this year (although it also began to redeem itself in the same year). It got worse than I every thought possible, and became what I would consider to be one of the worst shows on television. I can't even begin to understand how it went so far downhill, especially since it was so good before.
I can't write about most of the other worst things of the year, since I did my best to avoid them. I don't really feel the need to pay for or support films that I know I won't enjoy. But the terrible things that I did experience were mostly based on things that I love, and they just sunk so horrifically low that it hurts me. It hurts me deeply, but while some things still show promise, some things are just dead in the water. Seriously, please stop letting Zack Snyder make movies.
* * * * *
THE GOOD
TV was great this year as well. Game of Thrones had one of its best seasons, filled with a ton of satisfying moments and setting up the end of the show very effectively. Bojack Horseman's third season was also beautiful and heartbreaking, and featured one of the best episodes of television of the whole year. Mr. Robot also delivered an amazing second season, and further cemented itself as my favourite show currently on TV. New science fiction shows saw fantastic debuts, like Stranger Things and Westworld. Stranger Things is arguably Netflix's best original program now - certainly the one that I'm most excited to see more of - and Westworld is a very promising new HBO series. The beginning of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season has featured some of the tightest and funniest writing in the entire series so far, which left me very happy. I also want to give a special shout-out to Bo Burnham's comedy special, Make Happy. This special will remain my favourite of his, and probably my favourite in general, through its musical brilliance and emotional punches.
If there's any franchise that ran on a hot streak this year, it was the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They released Captain America: Civil War, arguably their best film and certainly one of their most successful, both critically and commercially. It was a real turning point for the universe, and I'll be very interested to see where these characters go in future films. While the effects on the characters might not be obvious, Civil War changed the fabric of the MCU in significant ways. Doctor Strange was also released, and while it didn't exactly reinvent the wheel in terms of superhero origin movies, it was a very unique and entertaining adventure, and opened up the magical side of the universe very well.
Marvel also had a lot of success with TV. The second season of Daredevil was pretty great, although it lost a bit of steam in the second half of the season when it focused more on the mystical elements rather than the grounded, realistic ones. It did set up a perfect version of the Punisher, and his forthcoming spin-off series has a lot of potential. The first season of Luke Cage also came out, gaining a lot of critical acclaim and being generally good. While I will admit that I didn't absolutely love it - and it also faltered in the second half of the season - I did appreciate that Marvel is representing more diversity, which was also on display in Doctor Strange. Stylistically, Luke Cage was certainly one of their most unique products. Agents of S.H.I.EL.D. also underwent a very interesting development by introducing Ghost Rider, with impressive visual effects that surpassed what I would have expected from the show's budget.
And, to close out the best of the year, here's my list of my 10 favourite movies of 2016:
10. Swiss Army Man
9. Sing Street
8. The Nice Guys
7. The Witch
6. Zootopia
5. Captain America: Civil War
4. Hunt for The Wilderpeople
3. Hell or High Water
2. La La Land
1. Arrival
* * * * *
THE BAD
I could write pages upon pages about the current DC movie universe, but there's nothing more to say than what I've already said. The series is fundamentally broken, and I have no idea how Warner Bros. plans to save this turkey. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ruined most of the heroes, and Suicide Squad ruined most of the villains, so DC is now scrambling to find anything that will work. What else could explain an upcoming Gotham City Sirens movie and a Deadshot spin-off? They're throwing everything together haphazardly, based only on what audiences responded somewhat well to, and nothing makes sense. It's just a waste of time and money.
DC also managed to screw up one of their most iconic stories in the animated adaptation of The Killing Joke. They couldn't even make one of their most famous stories work, even though the story and visuals were already there. DC's TV division took a pretty major hit with the second half of Arrow. A show has never hurt me as badly as Arrow did this year (although it also began to redeem itself in the same year). It got worse than I every thought possible, and became what I would consider to be one of the worst shows on television. I can't even begin to understand how it went so far downhill, especially since it was so good before.
I can't write about most of the other worst things of the year, since I did my best to avoid them. I don't really feel the need to pay for or support films that I know I won't enjoy. But the terrible things that I did experience were mostly based on things that I love, and they just sunk so horrifically low that it hurts me. It hurts me deeply, but while some things still show promise, some things are just dead in the water. Seriously, please stop letting Zack Snyder make movies.
* * * * *
THE AVERAGE
A lot of movies just sort of came and went. Films like Kubo and the Two Strings, War Dogs, Sausage Party, Eddie The Eagle, Pete's Dragon, The Jungle Book, and Miss Sloane were certainly good, and I really enjoyed them when I watched them, but they didn't stick with me in the same way that others did. They fell just short of greatness, but being overshadowed by a bunch of greater films isn't such a bad thing. At least the majority of films I saw in theatres were good at all. Moana was the most disappointing, if only because I expected so much from it. It had been hyped up so much and it seemed lined up to be a new classic, but it was so formulaic, and fell short of what Disney animated films are capable of. The Jungle Book was pretty good, but it was more of a success as a technical experiment than as a story.
Preacher was another show that debuted this year, but unfortunately didn't quite live up to its fantastic source material. While there were certainly some high points in terms of comedy and action, it just moved pretty slowly. Hopefully now that it's actually getting into the story from the source material it can improve, and I'm sure that it will. The actors are certainly talented enough, and the writers do have the weird sense of humour that makes the world of Preacher work.
Maybe the series of bad things that happened over the year outside of movies and TV dragged down my overall feeling towards everything. It's not like I saw bad movie after bad movie, because there was no point in spending money on things I knew I wouldn't like. That's the problem with average movies, though. There's just not much to talk about.
* * * * *
THE SURPRISES
The biggest surprise came with the fifth season of Arrow, which somehow went rapidly from the worst it's ever been to some of the best. The action, the acting, the character work, the story, the effects, the villains, it's all pretty top-notch again. Given that I saw the death and resurrection of this show's quality in the same year, it made me all the more confident in Arrow's future. Now that I know that the writers and showrunners are still capable of producing great television. I hope that they continue to do so, and don't let the show plummet again.
Most things this year met my expectations, which is generally what happens every year. If anything really surprised me, it was just that I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected, and if anything went astronomically beyond my expectations, then I covered it in "Good" section. All in all, my ability to predict my enjoyment of things has remained on track.
Most things this year met my expectations, which is generally what happens every year. If anything really surprised me, it was just that I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected, and if anything went astronomically beyond my expectations, then I covered it in "Good" section. All in all, my ability to predict my enjoyment of things has remained on track.
* * * * *
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
The second half of The Flash's second season ended on more of a bang than a whimper, and while season 3 is pretty good so far, I can't deny that it was pretty average. Things weren't necessarily poorly handled, just handled with a very "meh" touch. Given the increasingly out-there material that the season was handling, it could have gone in some really cool directions, and while it ended on a fantastic note, it was pretty middling for the majority of the season. It goes without saying that the second half of Arrow was far worse, but I guess that it managed from so bad to so much worse classifies it as a let-down.
X-Men: Apocalypse was a pretty big letdown, especially given how fun X-Men: Days of Future Past was. Everything seemed lined up for a great movie, but it was just so goofy while simultaneously taking itself so seriously that it just became a mess. Characters were poorly developed and the actors couldn't elevate the weak script to anything that good. The villain was extremely lame, and what few good story beats that briefly shined through were overshadowed by the stupidity of everything else. Worst of all, it ignored everything that made the X-Men movies different from other superhero films for sake of a overblown, terrible-looking climax.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Star Trek Beyond both fell short of what predecessors in their series have accomplished, and I expected great things from them because of their respective casts and crews. While they were both certainly charming in their own ways, mainly because of the actors involved being so charismatic, the stories of the films were fairly bland. The Harry Potter series took a much bigger hit in quality with the release of The Cursed Child, which is without a doubt the worst published Harry Potter story out there. I probably shouldn't have been as excited as I was, but I expected a bit more than low-level fanfiction writing.
But the biggest disappointment of all, which trumps all other disappointments, is Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Being average is this film's biggest crime; it had so much potential and so many opportunities to ascend to greatness, but it didn't take advantage of any of them. The story was really choppy, the characters were almost entirely blank slates, and it just fell so short of what could have been a truly great war film (or a heist film, the underlying genre of the film is never really clear). Missed opportunity after missed opportunity created a Star Wars film that was just average, and I've never felt so little while watching a movie from my favourite film series of all time. Unfortunately, a really great third act and ending does not make up for two-thirds of "bleh".
Even though that so many blockbusters let me down this year, I have higher hopes for the future for some of these series. None of them have fallen to the depths of the DC cinematic universe, so there's still a possibility of recovery. I just want a great Star Wars movie again, is that so much to ask? Please, Rian Johnson. Don't drop the ball.
* * * * *
Overall, it's certainly been a long, difficult year. While I know that celebrity deaths probably shouldn't affect me as deeply as they sometimes do, many of the losses that the world suffered this year in entertainment hit hard. These talented, unique individuals made us laugh, cry, and the work they created forged deep, personal attachments to people. Even if we didn't know these celebrities personally, what they created could be so impactful, and could stick with us for years. There were a few losses this year that really hit me hard, because of how important these artists were to me when I was growing up, and it's strange to think that those bright lights have been extinguished. In some ways, they felt like iconic figures who couldn't ever actually be gone. In a certain way, they're not. We lost a lot of talented people, but their contributions to the world will live on for many more years.
Personally, I didn't think that this year was horrifically traumatic just because of the bad things that happened. I found a lot to enjoy this year; my life changed a lot, and I'd be lying if I said wasn't much happier now. I look forward to what the future will bring, in entertainment and in the world. I think because so much of this year was defined by conflict, and hate managed to find a much louder voice, people overlooked the good things about this year. They were many good things, and hopefully they'll shine through more in 2017.
So long, 2016. Please don't let Zack Snyder ruin any more things next year.
Personally, I didn't think that this year was horrifically traumatic just because of the bad things that happened. I found a lot to enjoy this year; my life changed a lot, and I'd be lying if I said wasn't much happier now. I look forward to what the future will bring, in entertainment and in the world. I think because so much of this year was defined by conflict, and hate managed to find a much louder voice, people overlooked the good things about this year. They were many good things, and hopefully they'll shine through more in 2017.
So long, 2016. Please don't let Zack Snyder ruin any more things next year.
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