Although my moviegoing experience remains a mixture of theaters and streaming, in contrast with previous years, I’ve ended up going through the former a lot more, especially in the back half of the year. As a result, many more movies stood out to me than form previous years, for better and for worse. While I have also played a lot more short free games on Steam, I was able to play more affordable console games this year though rising costs have still made me more selective.
Each list is presented in no particular order, with links to reviews where applicable.
Top Movies
The first The Bad Guys film took the core of the book series and put it in a different direction, one which quickly became one of my favorite movies. The sequel takes this same approach and goes even further with it, quickly making it one of my favorite film series to the point of preferring its more grounded, yet still funny, direction over the books. Here’s hoping the series continues this momentum, especially with Pierre Perifel at the helm.
With the Marvel Cinematic Universe having lost its way after Avengers: Endgame with its largely aimless and disappointing Multiverse Saga, Thunderbolts* was a pleasant surprise. With its interesting plot and characters, as well as some John Wick-inspired battle choreography, this film is essentially what happens when you focus on quality over quantity.
After waiting 15 years for a new Tron film, Tron: Ares delivers in terms of pure spectacle and a banging soundtrack courtesy of Nine Inch Nails. While the writing could probably have been better, it is nonetheless a very straight-forward plot that moves at a decent pace, with Jared Leto delivering a solid performance as Ares. Despite its box office performance, I would hope that this doesn’t cause the franchise’s third chance at life to get derezzed prematurely.
For those who crave a more book-accurate depiction of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation delivers. Although it takes its own liberties with the source material, they still ultimately serve this take on the story, backed by some excellent casting and practical effects in addition to compelling pacing. While watching on the largest screen possible is more ideal, it’s still a must-see either way.
Chainsaw Man– The Movie: Reze Arc
As a fan of the Chainsaw Man anime, I went into the canon Reze Arc movie expecting something of similar quality and it did not disappoint. While it is still a shonen series at its core, featuring beautiful animation and a very catchy opening song (“IRIS OUT”), the film uses it as a means to tell a surprisingly engaging and emotional tragic love story that advances the plot of the anime in a meaningful way.
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional [Sans Music]
As a fan of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan drama, I found this to be a solid addition to the saga, even if it’s not quite as good as Rohan at the Louvre. Despite its shortcomings, it has some great Venetian scenery, perfectly captures the suspense of the original one-shot and Issey Takahashi remains the perfect choice for the title character.
The long-awaited follow-up to Zootopia takes what worked about the first film and runs with it, and even improves upon what didn’t work while it’s at it. In addition to further exploring Nick and Judy’s character dynamics, we also get a more in-depth look at the city of Zootopia itself and its seemingly endless storytelling potential that has yet to be properly tapped in to. Against all odds, it’s easily one of Disney’s best movies, not to mention sequels, in recent years.
Top Games
Following in the footsteps of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 comes a remake of the following two games in the series. Between the two games presented, the handling of Pro Skater 4 has proven to be the most divisive of the two due to fundamentally changing how it plays to fit more in line with Pro Skater 3, even creating a few new levels to compensate. The soundtrack is also largely different from the original, at the request of the bird man himself. Despite this, I still had fun with it and anticipate an eventual foray into the Underground duology. You can’t really go wrong with a good Tony Hawk game.
I may be biased about Tron tie-ins due to there being long gaps of time without any legacy support, but I thought this game showed there was a lot more to explore with the setting, even if it’s on a different Grid altogether.
After 14 long years, this game proves that the Katamari franchise is officially back and better than ever, sporting familiar gameplay against some new ideas and a lot more inventive level variety. Here’s hoping the series keeps rolling forward in the years to come.
Honorable Mention
Keita Takahashi’s laTesT game brings wiTh iT a loT of The whimsey seen in Katamari Damacy, alongside an ouT-There buT no less unique concepT ThaT only he could pull off. While The game may have underperformed, and isn’T withouT jank, iT is no less an inTeresTing experience ThaT fans of his games will enjoy.
Top Disappointments
The world of Minecraft presents a lot of storytelling potential, and yet it’s first foray into feature films goes the route of “safe” and bland. While Jack Black is clearly having fun with it and the creation aspect does factor into the plot in some way, I felt a lot more could have been done with it and the game’s unique setting to make it truly stand out.
From the World of John Wick: Ballerina
While it manages to stay consistent with its parent series’ world and tone, the fact that Ballerina wasn’t originally meant to be a John Wick movie shows through. Although it still does some things right, Eve Macarro is simply not as compelling a character as John Wick. The biggest issue, however, is a cameo from Wick himself that gets explained in a scene that was ultimately cut, resulting in his appearance as-is muddying the timeline. Not a bad movie, but not one of the franchise’s best.
Just as Pixar was starting to get its groove back with Inside Out 2, Elio is a reminder that the studio is not the powerhouse that it once was. Although there is a light at the end of the tunnel with its emotional climax, the largely uninteresting plot and characters are not worth the journey to get there. The upcoming Hoppers has potential to right the ship once more, but the way this film turned out tempers my expectations.
Shadow Labyrinth
A dark platformer based on Pac-Man sounds interesting on paper, but it ultimately fails in execution. Aside from not bearing much resemblance to the Secret Level episode promoting it (“Pac-Man: Circle”), the majority of the game bears little resemblance to Pac-Man at all, to the point that you start to wonder why it needed to be a Pac-Man game in the first place. Even hardcore fans of the IP may want to consider looking elsewhere for their Pac-Man fix.
Despite being a different studio, Little Nightmares III had potential to bring the Little Nightmares franchise one step forward, but ended up bringing it two steps back. Between a less interesting plot and a dreadful single-player experience that can easily lead to soft-locks, with no option for couch co-op, this entry is difficult to recommend to even seasoned players.
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional [Music]
Despite enjoying the film overall, one huge knock against it is the cacophonic and ill-fitting AI-generated soundtrack, which “composer” Naruyoshi Kikuchi proudly admitted to around the film’s theatrical release in Japan. Thankfully, some human-created music still made it in, but should the drama series continue and Kikuchi remain on-board, I sincerely hope he does better by the fanbase and deliver more authentic music next time.
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