Summer's over, and the dust has settled. Welcome back to the Comic Book Movie Awards! This year will be all-new, because for the first time, I'm not picking the winners, and I open the categories up for your votes!
I like to do these every year as a sort of way to summarize my thoughts on what the genre offered. The Academy format is a great way to cover all the aspects of a movie that matter most to me (I should really think about adding Best Original Score), and I get to offer my sort of mini-verdicts on what I thought of these films. I don’t write too many CBM reviews, so ‘Superhero Oscars’ is kind of my version of that, all collected in one editorial.
This should be an interesting year in particular because 3 of the 4 major comic book movies were for the most part, pretty strong. I have a clear favorite though, and another reason I'm letting viewers decide this year is because if I had my way,
Kingsman: Secret Service would ostensibly sweep the show, and that wouldn't make for a very interesting read, lol. So I nervously place my Superhero Oscars in your hands, dear readers. Go easy on me!
The Following Fake Awards Presentation Contains Major Spoilers. Reader Discretion is Advised.
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Best Villain
The comic book villains of 2015 are a refreshing batch of new faces and characters. Marvel in particular, doubles down and you can see the effort they are making to try to make them more memorable. Does it work?
Part Bond villain, part Lex Luthor, Samuel L. Jackson had one of his most enjoyable roles in a long time, playing the wealthy philanthropist who nearly sent the world into mass hysteria. Paired with the deadly Gazelle, Valentine’s plan to save only the world’s most influential figures before purging the planet was deliciously dark. Ultron as a concept was inspired. He gave The Avengers more than they bargained for, and finally managed to kill a a superhero in the Marvel Universe. Ultron also had some comedy to him, but perhaps a little too much, to feel as threatening as he should have. Darren Cross falls into the same boring formula as most of Marvel’s businessman-turned mad baddies. But In a way, Cross is the one who really sells Ant-Man. It was a joy watching him turn his enemies into goo. But does goo trump exploding heads? Victor Von Doom shows more power than perhaps we’ve seen in a F4 movie, and was seemingly unstoppable. Unfortunately, he was completely mishandled, his powers made no sense, and may go down as one of the worst in CBM history.
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Best Costume
Didn’t see too many of these at the conventions, which means I’m not sure how these outfits will fare for the kids come Halloween, but as comic book movies rise in prominence, costumes are becoming more and more important.
Trank opted for functional threads for the F4, that would play into controlling their powers. But F4’s costumes end up looking neither like anything we know and love, or like anything memorable or interesting. Captain America gets another costume overhaul in AoU, and Iron Man even gets the “Hulkbuster Armor.” Avengers is the typical stuff, but I would have liked more creativity for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver... and Hulkbuster is CGI anyway. There are few things cooler than looking GQ and knowing that your 3-piece suit is also bullet proof! Even I bought a new suit as soon as I left
Kingsman, it was so inspiring.
Ant-Man’s costume reveal was the first major headline to come from the movie, and it looked great onscreen. The suit went a long way to legitimizing the character, and letting the audience know this silly hero can work.
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Best Actress
I have a bone to pick with this category because imo, this wasn’t the strongest year for actresses in CBMs. I say that because while all of them are strong and smart, there is also something about the way they are all written that feels very much like ‘female overcompensation’ because they can basically do everything, and have no flaws, and maybe its just me, but writing women in this way is beginning to become uninteresting.
Kate Mara’s Sue Storm is focused. That’s all I can say about her, because she’s so focused, she has no relationship with the other characters in the movie, including her supposed love interest and her own “brother”. I can’t even say she’s better than Jessica Alba’s Invisible Woman, and that’s pretty sad. Scarlett Johansson is yet to win as Black Widow (her 3
rd nom) despite being consistently great. Scar-Jo’s last two outings as were awesome, but
AoU decides to soften her way down, by giving her sappy love drama with Bruce. Something this assassin has never needed. Evangeline Lilly makes an impressive comic book debut as the feirce Hope Pym, and she’s every bit as capable as the men in the film. But in all honesty, Hope was somewhat of a bitch for at least half the time she’s in the movie, and she is frankly, the only thing I didn’t like about
Ant-Man. She gets better by the end though, and it should be exciting to see her as Wasp. One of the smaller surprises of
Kingsman was fellow recruit Roxy, who ends up taking the honored moniker of “Lancelot”, the top Kingsman, and bucking expectations. Sophie Cookson is a great agent in the movie, but I do wish she had more to do in the climax of the film, where she basically disappears.
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Best Supporting Performance
One thing about the movies of 2015, was the way in which supporting players stole the show. The biggest example of this is in the non-comic
Mad Max: Fury Road, a movie I wish I could include here, because it was the best of the Summer.
Vision makes
Avengers: AoU worth it. Plain and simple. His philosophy, and that ending scene with Ultron is perhaps the best material in the film. He raises the movie to another level. Dr. Storm lends F4 all its importance, and a lot of the plot actually revolves around his project. Sadly, Cathy is the only one trying in this movie, and there just isn’t enough in the script to help him out. (Evidenced by when his character dies and no one cares). Michael Douglas does so good a job, it makes us wish we could see him as the Ant-Man in a prequel spin-off. Many questioned the decision to go with the second Ant-Man, but Pym as a mentor is used in a pretty great way in this story. Colin Firth is an action revelation in
Kingsman; Unlike Storm, when he dies, it’s a gut punch because we’ve liked him so much. Harry Hart brings us into the world of the
The Secret Service, and Firth amazes at how he dives into this action role.
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Best Fight
These movies actually had some pretty great action, so I’m proud of Hollywood this year. Still waiting for the actual Oscars to recognize the great stunts that entertain us, but for now, this will have to do.
The standout sequence of
Kingsman has probably got to be the church rampage, which is shot with such kinetic glee, it has to be seen to be believed. The mayhem in the church is gloriously over the top, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it made me feel uncomfortable about some things. Arguably the most creative fight of the bunch, Ant-Man vs Yellowjacket is dynamic because it plays on many different levels, from a helicopter to a child’s bedroom. I really like the Ant-Man fight, for all the visual gags, but it borders on being a cartoon at that point. F4 practically has no action to speak of, besides a scrap in South America, and when they finally take down Doom. Much ado has been made about that tonal shift at the end of F4, but if the studio hadn’t insisted, there’d be no action in the movie at all. I should have nominated
Big Hero 6. The moment we’ve been waiting for in
AoU was the Iron Man v. Hulk fight, and it doesn’t disappoint. Avengers is always more interesting when they fight each other as opposed to villains. This is the highlight of the movie that finally puts Stark on the level of Hulk and Thor in terms of power.
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Best Art Direction
Ah, the look of a comic book movie. Concept and production need to marry to create something that makes us believe the world, because make no mistake, these are some crazy worlds.
You have the England ghettos, but its Richmond’s fancy base and the Kingsman headquarters that almost transport us into a stylized Bond film.
Avengers is very polished, perhaps the strongest example of a comic come to life from the movies this year,
AoU uses a combination of set design and visual effects to make everything about it “pop”, and for the heroes to look larger than life.
Ant-Man looks basically like your standard Marvel film at this point, with your required science labs and secret ops bases. And I might be the one person who disagrees with the decision to make the ants look “cuter”. The one nice thing I can say about
Fant4stic, is that it isn’t a bad looking movie. It’s got its labs and military bases too, but it looks appropriately high tech. Now if someone could just explain why the wasteland known as the Negative Zone is so important to Doctor Doom…
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Best Fanboy Moment
The fanboy moments are what we live for, and there was actually plenty to choose from. Screw it, I’m nominating
Big Hero 6 this time! Hey, it came out in 2015 in the UK!
Since
Fant4stic has no fanboy moments to speak of, the slot is going to Stan Lee’s most surprising, and cutest cameo yet!
AoU has quite a few to pick, from the assembly of the New Avengers, to seeing Thor with the Infinity Gauntlets, but I’m going with an actual chunk of the movie- Ultron’s visit to Klaw, and how his appearance basically establishes Black Panther, a hero we’ve all been waiting for. Ant-Man probably has the best credits tag of the year, when Hank Pym offers Hope the chance to be The Wasp. The fanboy moment in Kingsman is a “cheeky” play off the 007 endings, when Bond would celebrate his mission victory with a good shag. It's more of a "high five!" for viewers; something a little more adult, and won’t get dated over time.
Kingsman ends with a hilariously frank moment of geeky wish fulfillment.
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Best Screenplay
All these movies saw big adjustments to their comic source material. And while this can be my favorite category, for what got translated well, 2015’s crop is proof that change can be good.
Josh Trank claims his F4 was based off the
Ultimate Fantastic Four (2004), which had a younger team, the N-Zone, and origin tweaks. The thing is, F4 bares virtually no resemblance to even that Ultimate version of the comic, and Trank obviously just cooked up whatever he wanted. It made no sense.
A change that actually did make sense was having Tony Stark create Ultron, because it works for what the movies have established so far. But for every good idea
AoU showed, they had bad ones, including some weird Thor vision pool, a Hulk/Widow romance that was unnecessary, and an intermission at Hawkeye’s farm that brings the film to a complete stop.
Ant-Man’s blueprint reminds me a little of
Mask of Zorro, where the old icon passes his legacy on to the new roguish hero. It works for superheroes that have had multiple people.
Ant-Man’s script is pretty solid, considering it went through so many different hands, though some story threads could have been tighter.
One of the coolest story changes from the Kingsman comic was the use of Arthurian legend for code names, and how they pulled two characters from one villain. Goldman and Vaughn have successfully adapted yet another comic book movie, this time writing directly with Millar to ensure it would be both entertaining and original.
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Best Actor
Expanding to 5 again this year, due to how on point both Evans and Downey continue to be in these Avengers movies. Both actors have a win a piece.
Downey nominations are automatic at this point because we are so naturally comfortable with his Stark, but this marks Chris Evan’s record 5
th nomination as a best actor in a CBM! Dude delivers. Miles Teller comes into F4 hot off
Whiplash, and he’s the only of the four with any meaningful characterization. Until they made him a coward that fled to South America? Egerton is a find, as “Eggsy” in
Kingsman, and I expect this is the breakout role of a promising career. Paul Rudd makes a great smartass as master thief Scott Lang, and also showed surprising heart in the scenes with his daughter. Many were skeptical, but I look forward to his interactions with other Marvel characters in the future.
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Best Director
With the exception of Matthew Vaughn, the helmers of the summer’s comic book movies had huge amounts of pressure on them. Do they succeed?
Matthew Vaughn knows how to make his comic book movies feel refreshing. What worked on
Kick-Ass and 2011 CBM Best Picture winner
X-Men First Class certainly feels injected into
Kingsman for yet another awesome ride. Joss Whedon had to do the impossible when he made the first Avengers (and won this category in 2012), and the world asked him to do it again. It’s big and it’s fun, but it also feels more like a set-up movie for other things instead of its own story, similar to
Iron Man 2. Peyton Reed had the un-enviable task of replacing a highly publicized split by original director Edgar Wright. (Speaking of highly publicized, essays and books will be written about Trank and whatever the hell happened with his ‘vision’ of Fantastic Four.) It’s hard to stress how impressive it is that Peyton was able to pull this movie together, when the results could have been similar to what happened with Trank. Ant-Man still has a lot of Wright’s credit to it, but Reed’s got some of himself in there too, including the hilarious Michael Pena quick-cut rants, which was surprisingly Reed, not Wright.
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Best Picture
Finally time to pick which CBM of 2015 brings it home.
Kingsman was the first comic book movie of the year, and remains the best comic book movie of the year. It’s made with style, class, and maintains a cool balance between good humor and loving spy homage. The story twists and turns with great surprises, and the action is like an adrenaline shot.
Age of Ultron isn't literally that comic of the same name, but instead pulls its plots- Iron Man's Armor turns into deadly AI, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver turn from terrorists to heroes, and many Ultron’s ravage a foreign nation- from
Invincible Iron Man Vol 3, Avengers #16 and
Ultron Unlimited respectively, and that's pretty awesome.
Ant-Man is the movie many are calling the best CBM of the summer, and perhaps one of Marvel's most refreshing in a while. It's got a great cast, and great ideas (subatomic!) and one particularly rad enounter with The Falcon. Seeing the shrinking in action, Scott Lang's fights are like something out of X-Men! "Tales to Astonish" indeed!
Fant4stic. May not have been what we expected (or maybe it was??), but they tried to be bold.