Earlier this week,
the CBM AWARDS 2014 hit the voting phase and really got me thinking, so I decide to create this article to express my thoughts and opinions on the various categories, what I voted for and some of what I wish was nominated, ETC. Please note that I left off the categories involving users of this site because I wish for my opinions on that to be left anonymous. These are my opinions and I have no idea on who is really winning nor did I have any participation in creating/nominating for the AWARDS. To quote John Constantine,
"Shall we then?"
BEST COMIC BOOK ARTIST
Greg Capullo
Greg Capullo's artwork on DC Comic's best series since the New 52,
Batman (prior to the New 52, the best was Geoff John's
Green Lantern), is what earns him the winning spot in this category. While his best work in the series was admittedly from the jaw dropping
Death Of The Family storyline from last year, Capullo is still moving strong (to say the least) and I can't decide what's better: Scott Snyder's ingenious writing or Capullo's masterful and brilliantly coloured (by FCO
Plascencia) penciling. But, for more diversity, I do think the site should add more of Marvel's critically acclaimed artists to the voting roster, even though I do think Greg Capullo was the best.It's true Alex Ross does Marvel work but he also works for DC, making all the voting nominees DC talent. I'm not by any means accusing anyone who nominated the artist for bias, I'm just giving constructive advice.
BEST COMIC BOOK MOVIE OF THE YEAR
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Only slightly beating the brilliant
X-Men: Days Of Future Past,
The Winter Soldier not only provides fans with a movie that does a great job adapting our favourite characters and loosely a fan favourite storyline of the same name but also provides spot-on political commentary and has something to say about the world we live in, making this movie not only a tie with
Iron Man as the best Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to date but quite possibly one of the greatest comic book movies of all time and that's a title I don't throw around lightly. It is hard to get me to give a movie that title, believe me.
WORST COMIC BOOK MOVIE OF THE YEAR
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I am huge fan of the Ninja Turtles. I've read the original comic books, seen the cartoons, own the original series (which spanned from 1990-2007 with four films. With the exception of the third, they're good, you should check them out), ETC and have been following this movie since it was announced several years ago. While I have been hoping for a really great
Ninja Turtles movie in the new age of comic book movies, things did not look good for this movie from early on. With Michael Bays involvement, the Turtle's being reported to be extra-terrestrials, Megan Fox's questionable casting, the awful leaked script ETC, I laid back for years with my fingers crossed that this movie doesn't suck but suspecting it would. That was before they began to change my mind.
After the confirmation that the Turtles would be...turtles, the amazing character character designs, and the impeccable promotional campaign, this became one of my most anticipated films of 2014 and my viewpoint of this movie was completely turned around. That was until the movie actually came out. Little did I know that what we were really going to get was a cliched/unoriginal, poorly directed, unsatisfying, and a (mostly) poorly acted action film with mostly failed humour. This movie wasn't wasn't even "so bad it's good" and I was bored a good amount through the film. While it had some redeemable qualities (two really cool action scenes, a modern take on the origin of the TMNT, the Turtles, William Fichtner, and Splinter) this movie was just dull and terrible. Personally, I am done with this version of the series and was dismayed at the announcement of the sequel. I got a speck of hope when a new director was announced but then I learned Michael Bay is returning to produce.
I definitely will not be participating in the sequel's theatrical run. The sooner they reboot, the better.
BEST ARTICLE
This has got to be the greatest, most spectacular article ever written in the history of
ComicBookMovie.com!
BEST COMIC-BASED TV SERIES
Agents Of SHIELD
While it was a tough decision between this show and
Arrow (the only DC/Marvel show I'm not up-to-date on yet is
The Flash), I had to go with
Agents Of SHIELD. The show is like a roller coaster as it takes you through all sorts of twist and turns, leaving you unsure of what to expect and on the edge of your seat. If you are a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or good TV in general, this show is a must watch that not only brings quality weekly entertainment but also seems to be building toward a certain phase 3 film...
Agents Of SHIELD has definitely grown a
LOT since it's controversial beginnings. I do also recommend
Arrow as a close second to
SHIELD, though I think
Constantine has the potential to eventually cross both shows as the best even though it's no where near that level yet.
BEST HERO
The Wolverine, as portrayed by Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Days Of Future Past
While I'd definitely rank Chris Evans' Captain America as the second best hero of the year, Hugh Jackman has been playing Wolverine for years and only seems to be getting better. His iconic portrayal still stands strong as Jackman has reprised his role as a single super-hero more times than any other actor for a reason. It will be sad on the day Jackman finally resigns.
BEST VILLAIN
Magneto, played by Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellen in X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Both actors are extraordinary in their respective role as the anti-villain who is not only this years best comic book movie villain but one of the most iconic villains in the Marvel Universe as a whole. It was a pleasure seeing these two great performances compare to each other in this movie, even if McKellen doesn't get much screen time. Magneto isn't your standard mustache-twirling villain and his motives are quite understandable, even if the same can't always be said about his actions.
WORST VILLAIN
Karai, played by Minae Noji in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
This character wasn't actually nominated because the entire category was reserved for
The Amazing Spiderman 2 villains, a movie that gets way too much hate in my opinion. For some reason, it's getting more than the worst film in the franchise,
Spiderman 3,
which is kind-of ridiculous to me (not to start a war or anything, I'm just stating my opinion. No disrespect to those who disagree is intended).
With those criticisms aside, the reason I think Karai is the worst comic book movie antagonist of this year's batch of films is because, not only does she have no character in the film, but she was portrayed as a coward who would get scared and run at the first sign of trouble. This was frustrating for obvious reasons, as well as the fact that the character she is based on is a fearsome bad-@$$ and, more importantly, an interesting character. Also, did they even establish that she was Shredder's daughter in the movie?
BEST SOUNDTRACK
The Amazing Spiderman 2 Soundtrack by Hans Zimmer
"Can't ignore the paranoia, something's happening, mind is threatening, agony, inside of me, my pulse is facing mental torture..."
While the movie itself was mediocre (but had some great moments and left a promising set-up for future sequels-arguably too much of a set-up), Hans Zimmer's score (which wasn't actually nominated) is in my opinion the best of this year's comic book movie scores/soundtracks.
The best track is
My Enemy (Electro's Theme), a track that was actually stuck in my head while leaving the theatre. I have to say, having Max Dillon's auditory hallucinations as part of the score was a stroke of genius and listening to what they were saying during certain scenes played a key role in Dillon's character development (even though the scene with his mother, an important scene during his development, was removed).
For example, during the Times Square scene, when Max Dillon first believes Spiderman is turning against him, the voices begin chanting:
"He lied to me, he shot at me, he hates on me..."
Then when he is knocked into the giant TV projector in the Square and the public begins cheering for Spiderman, the voices begin chanting just before Dillon attacks the public:
"They lied to me, they shot me, they hate on me..."
Other tracks were great as well, such as the Green Goblin's (Harry Osborn) theme being wonderfully creepy, Spiderman's theme gave the film a classic comic book feel (even if it is a little too Superman-esque), and the score that played during the Peter/Gwen scenes really set the mood.
Over-all fantastic score on Zimmer's part.
Those are my opinions regarding this year's AWARDS. Once again, the reason I didn't include the categories in this article regarding actual users and their articles or works on this site, ETC, is because I wish to remain anonymous as far as who I voted for. Agree or disagree with anything in this article? I read any and all comments/feedback in the articles I write, so let me know!