This year hasn't been the year everyone wanted. We emerged from the pandemic only to find ourselves... Well, still in the pandemic, and the complications from events have not helped the overall situation. Despite this, some roses have managed to peak out through the gloom of 2021 and today I want to focus on those, because what we focus on is what will grow.
10: Disney's Animated Encanto and Luca
Disney did not slouch this year with it's animated fare. First giving us Luca, the touching story about a sea monster who wants to be human told through a beautiful friendship and impressive visuals (Does anyone remember when Pixar cut a scene from The Incredibles because they didn't want to mess with hair underwater?). Following it for the holidays was the musical Encanto, an enchanting film about a magical family with music by Lin Manuel-Miranda, the talent that brought us Hamilton. Despite having no children of our own, the Encanto soundtrack has been all but on loop at our house.
9: Marvelous World of Marvel
I don't want this post to be Top 10 Things that Came Out on Disney+ This Year, unless they're going to start kicking over some sponsorship money, so I'm just going to say that Marvel had an excellent year and take a chance to plug my two favorites: Wandavisionand What If? The fact that Marvel can cater even to my esoteric nerddoms like all-powerful magic beings and multiverse-level threats shows that Marvel truly does have something for everyone.
Before I move past Disney let me also just mention:
This year we got three great Pokemon games (Two if you count Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as the same game), and each one gave hardcore nostalgia fans something we wanted. For fans of the fourth generation we got the afforementioned Brilliant Diamond and Shiny Pearl, and for N64 fans we got New Pokemon Snap , a remake of the classic game with about a billion new Pokemon. The franchise is alive and well, and any lingering doubts will probably burn away next month with the new Zelda: Breath of the Wild inspired Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
7: The Snyder Cut
As a DC fan it's been hard watching Marvel clock my favorite heroes in the box office, but this year we saw DC make one of its strongest strikes with The Justice League: Snyder Cut. A cinematic masterpiece featuring the original superhero team up. The film is rivaled only by Joker and The Dark Knight (I might be a Joker fan) in quality. It's no wonder cries of #RestoreTheSnyderverse can still be heard throughout the internet.
6: Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise
Animal Crossing: New Horizons got a lot of us through the roughest part of the pandemic, and became the 15th best selling game in history according to Wikipedia. As a farewell to the game Nintendo released a $30 DLC which was basically an entirely new game with all the cute animals our little gamer hearts could take. Most importantly: Wardell.
5: Loop Hero
It's hard to review games on our blog, since they tend to take 40+ hours these days and we have jobs and families, but they're are a few games, including the several already mentioned and the ones that will be mentioned, that just had to be played. Loop Hero is an indie darling that absolutely needs to be played to be understood. You rebuild a destroyed world almost down to one molecule at a time, all while running around a constant loop of ever increasing intensity. Play it, if for nothing else so then you can be like the cool kids.
4: The Suicide Squad
Controversial opinion I know since this movie is a hard R, but anything that releases with Harley Quinn or an adorable CG monster is my jam, and this had both. The film was a fun anarcic ride through a little slice of the DC universe and I rewatched it more times than I care to admit before it left HBO Max. Also if anyone knows where to get a King Shark Funko Pop that's not ridiculously priced hit me up.
3: Rick and Morty Season 5
Another controversial show, but one that needs to be discussed:
SPOILER
Season 5 gave us a complete picture of Rick's backstory, the reason that he's the angry antisocial drunk that we've all come to love to hate. We had a hint in season 3 that Rick watched his world's Beth and Diane killed by another Rick in order for him to be motivated to invent the portal gun. We then get Rick going on a multiverse killing spree, at first for vengeance but later out of nothing else to live for. It broke our hearts and explained everything.
Wubba lubba dub dub.
2: Monster Hunter: Rise
That wasn't an order sit down.
The latest in the long running Monster Hunter franchise was as usual a delight to play, with even more giant monsters to battle and turn into fashion accessories. It's odd how the gameplay loop of "Kill giant monster, skin giant monster, go after next monster wearing the last monster's skin" never gets old. Plus in this one you can have a cat and a dog as your companions. MULTIPLAYER IS DEAD IF YOU HAVE THEM!
1: More Temples Reopening
Oh, did you think they would all be geek related?
Nothing has warmed my heart more than stopping at my local ice cream place to find it packed with young people in white shirts and modest dresses. It always puts a smile on my face as I get back in the car and look for somewhere less crowded (I'm not waiting in that line!). It means that temple work is resuming in earnest. One of the darkest moments in the pandemic for me was the closing of the temples, a sure sign that things were very much not okay. But now the work of God is happening again and the world can start to truly come back to life. We may not be back to normal yet, but we're slowly but surely moving that way.
DC's Fandome is apparently going to be an annual thing now, and for that I am going to be eternally grateful. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, last year DC Comics hosted a live conference online for fans completely free, including celebrity interviews, cosplay contests, and most important to me, trailers for new stuff coming out.
Let's take a look at some of the best (And maybe not so best) trailers from DC.
Aquaman 2: The Lost Kingdom Teaser
Not really a trailer because they don't really have enough material for a trailer, but a fun behind the scenes teaser did come out. My favorite part is the concept art of Aquaman riding his giant sea horse Storm. If that doesn't make it into the movie I'm going to throw a fit.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
This game was announced at last year's Fandome and looked amazing... In concept.... The issue with the newest trailer is that, while the characters look fun, we have yet to get a hint at gameplay. A game can have all the snappy dialogue and interesting ideas they want, if the gameplay isn't fun then it's not going to be a good game. I am still interested to see what we get, but I'm not going to be excited until we see how the actual game looks when it's not heavily edited cut scenes.
The Batman
We've really got to stop prejudging actors before we've seen them in costume. Once upon a time Michael Keaton was ripped into for being cast as Batman, only for the haters to eat crow. Years later people had the same issues with Heath Ledger, a former teen heartthrob and cowboy playing the Clown Prince of Crime, and the amount of crow that had to be eaten aferwards nearly drove the bird to extinction. Now the same issues were leveled at Robert Pattinson, of Twilight fame, for being Batman, and it looks like we're going to have to find some new recipes for crow because he looks like he nailed it based on what we've seen. The Batman promises to be the same dark gritty distopian Batman movie that Christopher Nolan gave us, and despite Batman's story being told more times than the Three Little Pigs at this point I'm looking forward to see how this adventure plays out.
Gotham Knights
See? This is what I'm talking about.
Gameplay.
The story here is that Batman is dead and has left Gotham to his cavolcade of sidekicks, specifically Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin (Damien Wayne) and Red Hood. Gameplay looks akin to the Arkham series, of which I am a huge fan. The main antagonist seems to be the Court of Owls, a relatively new and intriguing villain group.
This is a trailer that gives us what we need, story concept and gameplay.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, get your act together!
The Flash
Now rumors have been flying everywhere about this film. Between this and Marvel's Spider-Man: No Way Home it seems that every actor who has ever played a superhero is getting called back to reprise their roles. We only get a glimpse of Michael Keaton and a hint at his iconic Batmobile, but it's enough to get this classic Batman fan excited.
Side note: Ezra Miller, the 80's called and they said to keep the jean vest, that look barely worked back then and the less said about the chest hair the better.
Black Adam
I was going to mention Shazam: Fury of the Gods but like the Aquaman trailer this was just a behind the scenes thing, but unlike Aquaman there was a sister film that did get a trailer that I wanted to talk about far more.
Talk has been circling about Dwayne Johnson playing Black Adam for years, and now we finally get to see what it'll look like with this glimpse of the first few minutes of the upcoming film. Being a huge villain fan I can say without a doubt that this was worth the wait. Johnson was born to play this role and if the rest of the film is anything like the trailer I think we will be in for a treat.
A treat that will disintegrate anyone who disagrees.
With LA Comic Con, E3, Salt Lake FanX and D23 all being cancelled for the year, it was a delight to find DC Comics was going to put on an online event for fans to hear what the company is up to and give us all a momentary likeness of our favorite yearly events. The show overall was spectacular, featuring interviews with people from across the industry, from film makers to comic artists, all answering fan questions and giving us what we need: something to look forward to in the years to come. Here are a few highlights from the show.
Gotham Knights
What was the Arkham video game series missing? All the sidekicks in co-op of course! Gotham Knights allows players to step into the shoes of Batman's loyal sidekicks after his death, leaving Batgirl, Red Hood, Nightwing and Robin to defend Gotham. Can they stop the mysterious Court of Owls? Will they be able to fill the Dark Knight's boots? Will this thing be available on PS4 so I don't have to buy a new system? Time will tell.
The Suicide Squad Reveal
A lot of talk has been floating around the Suicide Squad sequel (Reboot?) titled The Suicide Squad, and Fandome gave us the full cast lineup with who they're going to be playing. Reprising the roles of Harley Quinn, Rick Flag and Amanda Waller are Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis, respectively. The rest of the cast is full of familiar faces including Nathan Fillian, John Cena and Idris Elba, playing villains for the covert Task Force X. We still don't have who will be the official villain yet but with James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy onboard, we know we're going to be in for a treat.
Wonder Woman 1984
Several panels focused on the sadly pushed back Wonder Woman 1984, reminding fans that it is still on its way. Along with an interview with both Gal Gadot and Linda Carter, we got a new trailer giving us more on the villains of the movie, The Cheetah and Maxwell Lord, plus more cameos from Chris Pine as Steve Trevor. The two have not lost their chemistry although speculation as to how he's come back and why he wasn't around for Justice League is still going strong.
Speaking of...
Justice League: The Snyder Cut
Fans have been begging for this since Justice League came out in theaters to underwhelming reviews. While The Snyder Cut was not announced at Fandome, a new trailer dropped with more hints as to what was removed in the theatrical release. We see more of Batman's vision from Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice with a destroyed Hall of Justice in the devastated city and more hints that Darkseid will be the big villain the League will take on. While I'm personally excited for this cinematic event, I'm still waiting to see the original cut of Suicide Squad. Call me biased.
Speaking of my bias...
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
As an avid Harley Quinn fan, I was incredibly excited to see Margot Robbie come back as the Joker's Favorite Henchgirl. My squee came again when it was announced that the Suicide Squad was getting their own Arkham style video game where they need to take out the Justice League. We don't know much about game play, the idea is enough to keep me intrigued until it comes out in 2022.
The Batman
I could go on with little anecdotes from interviews and other fun things that made the long lived DC fan inside me squee, but this is a highlight post so it's time for the biggest drop. We got a trailer for the upcoming Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson, and it looks amazing. Like, Dark Knight amazing. You've gotta check it out.
