It’s been a week, guys, but I have weekend plans and so I have high hopes for how this Saturday’s going to turn out, if for no other reason then I’m planning a trip to 2nd and Charles so things should turn out okay.
I’ve also been watching a bit of Castlevania and Locke & Key, the latter because I just finished the main comic series and I wanted to get to that series as quickly as I could.
Best Standalone Book: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
I just finished this one this past week, and before that it was going to go to Redshirts by John Scalzi (Star Trek parodies for the win!). Which is also great! I also think it’s worth noting that I don’t read that many standalone books. And if I remembered more of Uprooted by Naomi Novik, then it might have had a good chance at this spot.
But epic fantasy man! Which Uprooted also is, but Priory is a globe-spanning eight hundred page epic that seeks to tell something similar to a Saint George-type story, except driven by female characters in a fantasy world. It’s not a perfect novel, I think--the love story felt a bit underdeveloped at first, in my opinion. But it’s darn good. A self-contained story about facing an oncoming threat where people from all over the world must unite or die in the face of seemingly unstoppable evil, The Priory of the Orange Tree is a great novel that tells the story it sets out to tell without leaving any loose ends dangling.
Also it has dragons! Dragons out the wazoo! Chinese dragons! Japanese dragons! European dragons! Wyverns!
Best Finale: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
And possibly the saddest finale. It doesn’t feel as polished as some of Pratchett’s other novels, but The Shepherd’s Crown wraps up Tiffany Aching’s story in a way that feels just right. And it felt especially touching for me too; it was through the Tiffany Aching stories, and The Wee Free Men that I got my first introduction into the Discworld books, so knowing that the final book in the series for all time was a wrap-up for that was… something.
Pratchett sets off the story with the death of one of the most beloved of his characters, and bringing back some longtime foes, the author doesn’t really slow down from there. It’s a the kind of story that feels like a final story for the series: one in which a young character has finished her process of growing up, and taking the place that she needs to not only to protect her world, but also for herself and her self-realization. Because that’s where she was always meant to be from the beginning.
If there was ever a finale that will make you cry, it is this one.
Best Unfinished Work: The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milan
The webcomic The Fox Sister is also pretty up there. But this is yet another work by a deceased author. Milan (and there should be an accent over the ‘a’ but I don’t know how to do that in Google Docs) passed away after releasing the third novel.
The first book is basically Game of Thrones with dinosaurs. Which is AWESOME. Set in a world suspiciously like ours in the middle ages, The Dinosaur Lords asks the all-important question of: what if knights rode dinosaurs? And the story could have stopped at that, but instead he also wraps it up with international politics, magic, religious conflict, the Fae, zombies, and also some weird robot archangel things? I’m a bit unclear on that last one.
This could have just been a goofy fantasy series, and there are some scenes where it definitely comes across that way, to its own detriment. But overall, it’s a solid epic fantasy series and I’m sad to see that it’ll never be finished. Especially since the ending of the second book contains one of the greatest final duels I have ever seen in fiction. And look, if you’re not interested in knights riding dinosaurs, I don’t know what to tell you.
Best Nonfiction: March by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell
Hey, what if someone did a comic explaining the Civil Rights movement? Well chill, ‘cause Senator John Lewis decided to do exactly that. This comic displays that a comic doesn’t just need to tell outrageous stories to be an effective medium; March instead goes through John Lewis’s life, and showing how he got involved with the Civil Rights movement.
I’m not one who usually reads nonfiction, and definitely not usually in the form of comics. But March just works, and it’s effective. Telling a biography of a social movement could very easily be boring, but this isn’t; it’s not just because the framing device connecting it to the presentish day (specifically, Lewis attending the inauguration of Barack Obama, thus displaying how far Civil Rights has come, though by no means at the end goal yet), but also because it’s a personal story. We see Lewis’s life growing up, his ideals being formed, and how he met many of the big name Civil Rights leaders.
If you’re ever curious how to do a good nonfiction comic, or if you’re interested in the history of African-American rights, it’s worth checking out.
Best Comic Book Movie: Kingsman: The Secret Service
I heavily considered putting Avengers here, but ultimately I thought that Kingsman (and I mean the first one; there’s something off about The Golden Circle that doesn’t sit quite right with me) deserved this spot because of a few reasons:
A) It helped bring back actually good action sequences, admittedly in an over-stylized way.
B) It was also a really good science-fiction spy movie that plays a bit with expectations and themes, such as actually having death be seen as a horrific thing.
C) It’s really funny.
It’s a very English movie, I realized upon rewatching, and it is, at times, very silly. But it’s one of the most unique big budget action movies to be released in the last decade, and it’s definitely the most memorable comic book movie by virtue of sheer panache.
Best Art Book: Assassin’s Creed: The Complete Visual History by Matthew Miller
I really like Assassin’s Creed, as will probably become obvious later on in this list. So when they released an art book explaining the decisions behind the design and art style of the games, along with plenty of pieces of concept art (which I also love in any form), I really had to get my hands on it. So now I’ve got this lovely book full of concept art depicting guys and gals in hoods at different points in history.
Not only does the concept art show how ideas and characters developed over time, but why their design went the way it did. For instance, Ubisoft wasn’t sure they going to carry the eagle theme through the entire series; when designing Ezio, they heavily considered giving him a raven or crow theme. And Templars aren’t just given crosses out the yin-yang, they’re also often designed with boxes and squares in general shape and fashion choices, because those are very orderly and reflects their ideals.
Best Radio Drama: BBC’s Neverwhere
On some days I think that Neverwhere is my favorite of Neil Gaiman’s books. But it wasn’t released this past decade. That being said there was a very good radio drama with an excellent cast (James McAvoy as Richard! Natalie Dormer as Door! Benedict Cumberbatch as Islington!) and every time it’s free on the BBC Radio website I find myself listening to it.
The story was apparently motivated by Gaiman asking: what if your life didn’t turn out the way you planned, and you go on a quest to get everything you’ve ever wanted back? And would it really be worth it, in the end? This is of course told through a Scotsman accidentally falling into London Below where there are monsters, mercenaries, magic, and also an angel chilling out deep underground.
Also, pro-tip: all of Neverwhere makes much more sense if you have a basic familiarity with London. I remember thinking it was good; after visiting London and taking a course on the history of London and the literature it inspired, I think it’s downright amazing in how many little Easter Eggs there are, and how much detail is put into the names and characters.
Best Science-Fiction: Inception
Alright guys Inception got a reputation for being a really complex and hard-to-follow film, which it’s not, really, so I understand that if that was your introduction to the movie it maybe didn’t live up to the hype. But it is a great movie and does what a really great sci-fi movie does: works with one piece of technology beyond what we have now and builds the story around it. In this case, it’s a device that lets you go into people’s dreams.
It’s a bit like a reverse heist movie in someone’s brain, because instead of trying to steal something, they’re trying to plant something: specifically, trying to get someone to plant an idea in someone’s head, and if Cobb pulls it off, he’ll get to finally go home and meet up with his family. It’s carried by a phenomenal cast who are giving this movie their all, so that you find yourself liking most of the named characters who appear on screen.
And this movie has a ton of things that keep adding layer upon layer to its construction, though you don’t need any of those to fully enjoy the movie. Like hey, the main character’s name is Cobb, an old-fashioned word for a spider, and he weaves these elaborate dream worlds that people are stuck in? And the student that helps them design the perfect dream that’s like a maze is named Ariadne like the Greek mythological character?
….intertextuality is kind of my jam.
Best Animation: Loving Vincent
...I was talking about intertextuality being my jam, yes?
I want to qualify that this is not the best animated film, but it was the best animation; though the animation in Klaus was also noteworthy and worth taking a look at. And also The Peanuts! But back to this one, because the point of this film was not just to do a character study of Vincent Van Gogh, but also to make the movie look like a Van Gogh painting.
I’ve seen several critics claim that the story was kind of dull; I didn’t get that. But basically, we find a young man trying to discover everything he can about Vincent Van Gogh and what led to his suicide. It’s something like a mystery, but it’s more of a inquiry about mental health and art and how the two connect. Because Vincent Van Gogh was not a mentally or emotionally healthy man and the film doesn’t shy away from that.
But gosh look, it looks like a painting! There are films that have shot composition or design that look like paintings or drawn art, especially in animation, but taking an entire movie and making it look like Van Gogh’s paintings? Down to scenery, character design, and choice in colors? That’s a brilliant move and I’m happy to see it pulled off.
I loved Coco to death (and so should you, go see it), but I think this one should have won Best Animated Picture for its contribution to animation.
Best Action Film Series: John Wick
The basic Plot of the John Wick series is kind of dull. But dang do these movies still push all the right buttons because it’s all so cool. The fight scenes are amazingly choreographed, but not to the point that they’re overly stylized like in Kingsman. They’re rough, and harsh, and often regress to people just beating each other with what they have handy. The worldbuilding is well-delivered and incredibly awesome: this idea that there’s this secret world of criminals and assassins covertly run by “the High Table” with which no one can argue. And the movies have several colorful and interesting characters. Yeah, you may hate some of them, but you’re meant to hate the ones you hate.
In an age when Hollywood became obsessed with nostalgic properties and superhero films, it’s refreshing to see an original series of action movies that relies on providing enjoyable action sequences and a straightforward story. John Wick is an ex-assassin. A Russian mob prince kills his dog. Wick goes and kills everyone because of it. And it is absolutely lovely to watch.
And storywise, that’s kind of all there is to it. But the sheer number of fight scenes, the style of the fights, the aesthetics of the secret world of the High Table, and the colorful cast make this one of the best action series I’ve ever seen.
Best Animated Movie: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The LEGO Movie was under consideration for a while, and there were a few days where I thought this was going to go to Song of the Sea. Both of those are great and you should check those out. But in the end, it goes to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse for sheer, absolute joy of seeing a CGI animated film that’s as good as this movie is. Not only does it have spectacular animation, in an attempt to look like a comic book, it has an exquisite story that proves why Spider-Man is one of the most durable characters in popular culture: because given the chance, it could be anyone behind that mask.
I did not expect this movie to be this good. I remember seeing the teaser trailer and thinking that this was probably going to be something like a straight-to-DVD movie that was somehow getting a theatrical release. When full trailers came out, I guess I thought it looked good, but as a good kid’s movie in the way LEGO Batman was (and that’s a great movie too, please watch that). I wasn’t prepared for how amazing this movie was, how much it was a celebration of Spider-Man, how it had lovable heroes and an understandable, if still dickish, villain.
And how this movie, from its acting, to its animation, to its style, to its script, to its music, to its coloration, to its message was all just so good. This won the Oscar when it came out, and it absolutely deserved it.
Best Stop-Motion Animation: ParaNorman
Of the LAIKA films Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings are good, alright? I assume that Missing Link is as well, but I haven’t seen it. And outside of LAIKA, The Little Prince is pretty darn great too! But ParaNorman is, I humbly think, the best of the bunch. As an original story about a boy who doesn’t quite fit in because he talks to ghosts, ParaNorman is an unforgettable story about acceptance and what happens when society pushes some people to the side.
Also it’s a zombie movie for kids, which isn’t… I don’t know if there are a lot of those. Like I know Disney Channel is doing them now I guess but that’s kind of different.
ParaNorman has the added challenge, in the animation department, of making ghost characters? Which sounds fine until you remember that this film is stop-motion, and so the fact that they make moving characters who are also see-throughable is mind-blowing. And yes, not knowing how it was done it’s possible that CGI was used to aid in this effect, but it doesn’t look out of place and fits with the rest of the animation smoothly, which is impressive as all get out.
By all means, look up all of LAIKA’s movies, but if you have to prioritize please pick ParaNorman.
Best Popcorn Flick: The Magnificent Seven
What if I told you there was a remake of a classic Western film (which itself is an American remake of a Japanese film but NOT THE POINT!), with fantastic action scenes, an ethnically diverse cast of awesome characters, and a great score which was the last thing the composer did before he died?
Yeah, Magnificent Seven. And it’s brilliant.
You don’t generally expect a Western to have a diverse cast, but this one does. The titular Seven are: a black government agent, a white gambler, a white ex-Confederate sharpshooter, an Asian knife man, a Mexican outlaw, a white frontiersman, and a Native American loner. Sadly, not all of them get enough backstory, but you get enough that you have a feel for their characters, and all of them have awesome moments and lines.
[And hey, if you watch, there's not a lot of ‘spray enemies with a hail of bullets’ thing. Just about every single shot the protagonists make hits the intended target. Which is another thing you don’t see a lot in movies.]
There were some great popcorn flicks this past decade. This is the one that really struck me as being a great one that I could watch its scenes over and over again just because it’s so much fun.
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And that’s it for part two! Next week will be part three, which I fully expect to be the last one.
