Imagine, if you will, if Comic Book Movies really could win Academy Awards.
It’s the end of the Summer, another batch of comic book movies has hit the scene, and for the first time, since I
started the awards, there has been more CBMs than ever in a span of 8 months! Thought I’d spruce things up for the special occasion, since this is easily the hardest year yet. I hope you're wearing a tuxedo, because I present dear readers, the 4th Annual
SUPERHERO OSCARS!
First, some background: 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.
So…about the rules:
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Comic book movies only (Obviously). Even though my overall favorite movie of the summer is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, I'm trying to stay site-specific here. So the movies have to be based off properties that originated in comic form. That means no Transformers or Robocop either- even if they got comic treatment later on.
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Categories can range from 4-6 nominees, however ALL CBMs are technically eligible for Best Picture. Winners are picked on personal preference, though I do feel obliged to make sure every movie gets recognized for at least one nomination. I will try to plead a case for every nominee and every winner, so as to be as objective as possible.
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All 12 picks are based off Oscar categories except "Best Villain" and "Best Action Sequence", which are favorites from the MTV Movie Awards. "Best Fanboy Moment" is original. My old tally system is out, so now it is possible for a film to not win anything at all and still be declared my Favorite of the Year. Does that mean Ninja Turtles might upset the dominating Captain America 2, which leads the pack with a whopping 11 nominations? Let’s find out!
The Following Fake Awards Presentation Contains Spoilers. Reader Discretion is Advised.
BEST VILLAIN
It took a ridiculous amount of time to narrow down the best villains of the year. Nearly every movie had two of them! Even with the expansion to six, I had to drop some names to find the foes who had the biggest impacts against our heroes, or on the films as a whole.
Artemisia (
300: Rise of an Empire) Winter Soldier (
Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Green Goblin (
Amazing Spiderman 2) Mason (
Snowpiercer)
Roark (
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) Pierce (
Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
Tough to decide between Goblin and Electro, but Electro, while very powerful, wasn’t as interesting as the troubled Harry Osborn, who affected Peter in a more personal way. I couldn’t pick just one from Cap 2, so they both got noms; The Winter Solider for being an unstoppable force, and Pierce for the Hydra takeover. Powers Boothe as Senator Roark really chews up Sin City 2 with his evil persona, as does Tilda Swinton’s eccentric and ridged train minister Mason in Snowpiercer.
Winner: 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE!
Even with all these names (and I could have added a half dozen more), none of them could have touched Eva Green anyway. Artemisia completely OWNS Rise of an Empire, on a level none of these other nominees reach. Green is just as delicious as the venomous Ava Lord in Sin City 2, but I elevated that performance to the "Best Actress" category.
BEST MAKEUP
Best Makeup returns for the first time in a while, and I'm glad, because it's such an underappreciated art. Makeup sells everything, and boy did some of these fantasy worlds need them.
Amazing Spider-Man 2
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Snowpiercer
Guardians of the Galaxy
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Electro and Goblin?! Garbage, right? I might be a little more forgiving because I appreciated seeing Dehan's facial expressions this time, as opposed to the Power Ranger helmet the original movies went with. The folks in Snowpiercer are appropriately dirty and grimy, the type of effort that post-apocalyptic tv shows should be looking at for reference. There's a lot of good work in DOFP with mutants like Blink and Beast. GotG is similar, though I heard complaints that there isn't much to the aliens besides color-coded skin, and maybe they could have been more creative.
Winner: SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR!
It' minimal, but the work is so striking, and adds even more to Frank Miller's visual style. Manute's gold eye and Marv's brick-like mug still pop off the screen. Nancy's scars tell her story better than she does. And holy crap, what is Stacy Keach?
BEST COSTUME
It's practically become a geek national pastime, to mull over the details of what Hollywood did with our favorite costumes. The threads of 2014 aren't revolutionary, but there should be a decent amount of new cosplay here all the same.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (design by Judiana Makovsky)
X-Men Days of Future Past (design by Louise Minenbach)
Hercules (design by Jany Temime)
Guardians of the Galaxy (design by Alexandra Byrne)
Ninja Turtles (design by Sarah Edwards)
Note on TMNT: Almost disqualified because the turtles are entirely CGI and no physical costumes were sewn. However, their looks still needed to be designed, and I think the variety of what they wear (Raph has soup cans for arm gauntles) individualized the Turtles like never before. DoFP is standard Singer: black leather till Sunday. But I appreciate more splashes of color, and they had to do twice the work for all the 70s-style duds. GotG also springs for the leathery look. Its fine, but its easy. Most people liked Cap's faigues for his first movie. I didn't. I loved his more comic-accurate suit for Avengers. Others hated it. Can we all agree that TWS finally finds a compromise we can all appreciate?
Winner: HERCULES!
More period accurate than 300 was. But let's get to the point. He's wearing a lion on his mother*cking head! Can't beat that. Ridiculous? Or Amazing? Believe it or not, but in the movie, The Rock makes it work! Know your Role.
BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE
Supporting Actor was a fun category to sift through. Most of the movies this year owed their credit to having very enjoyable backup players to counter some mostly stoic heroes. In some cases, they were simply scene stealers. Either way, this category has some great noms.
ANTHONY MACKIE as Sam Wilson MICHAEL FASSBENDER as Magneto
KANG HO SONG as Namgoong Minsoo BRADLEY COOPER as Rocket
NOEL FISHER as Michaelangelo JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT as Johnny
JGL was a coin-flipping wildcard in the better of Sin City's two original stories. While I could have gone with Sam Jackson's Nick Fury again, I thought I'd throw some love to Mackie's Falcon, who surprised me as a solid *ahem* wingman for Captain America. KangHo Song turned out to be smarter than his drug addict would let on in Snowpiercer, and Fassbender put in strong enough work in DofP for me to declare him the best character in the franchise. Michaelangelo is the big surprise here, but what can I say? He was the best one in TMNT.
Winner: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!
There was only one clear front-runner here, and that's Guardians' Rocket Raccoon. He's pretty much THE reason to see this movie, and if you imagine the team without him (and his silent giant Groot), I don't know that GotG is even half as good. Props to Bradley Cooper.
BEST ART DIRECTION
The best-looking movies of the year weren't necessarily about amazing 3D (Spiderman) or dual timelines (X-Men). It came down to being visually strong enough to set yourself apart.
300: Rise of an Empire
Snowpiercer
Guardians of the Galaxy
Sin City 2
The space in GotG is pretty cool, but the standout concept for me was "Knowhere." I didn't think a new director would be able to replicate Zack Snyder's style for 300, but Rise of an Empire does a seamless job of it. A Dame to Kill For also feels as if Rodriguez hasn't missed a beat, but what was once stunning and fresh seems to have worn off this time around.
Winner: SNOWPIERCER!
Snowpiercer probably applies the most physical set design out of the 4 movies nominated, and the coolest thing about it is how many environments clash. Each car of the train is practically a different world, and the nuclear winter outdoors acts as a constant reminder of death outside those train walls.
BEST FIGHT/ACTION SEQUENCE
The hallmark of a great superhero movie is obviously a great action sequence. 2014 may have been the best year yet for edge-of-your-seat thrills. I could have picked 3 or 4 from many of the movies that came out.
Captain America vs. the Winter Solider
Spiderman vs. Electro climax
Quicksilver and the prison break
The hatchet tunnel trap
Downhill snow chase
Captain America 2 has some of the best fight choreo I've seen (from a non-kung fu film). The concensus about TMNT is the mountain chase is the best scene in the movie, and I'm inclined to go even further and say it's one of their all-time best movie moments. I thought Spiderman's battles with Electro were awesome the way he worked things out with his brain (basically a franchise first). The tunnel is the first kickass scene in Snowpiercer, as Mason's hatchetmen await the defenseless rebellion with bloodthirsty eyes.
Winner: X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST!
Yeah, so, I don't know if anything tops the Quicksilver showcase. Perhaps the best scene of the entire summer, Bryan Singer finally made something to rival Nightcrawler's White House attack from X2. Not to be outdone, the "new mutants" vs the sentinels in the movie's future scenes are pretty sweet too.
BEST FANBOY MOMENT
We come again to my favorite category. This is the Geek-out Award, and it was bar none the hardest one to pick this year!
Gwen Stacy dies!
Wanda and Pietro sneak peek!
Apocalypse tease!
Howard the Duck bonus!
Winner: THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2!
Hard choice, but I'm going with the thing I've been wanting for soooo long! They wouldn't do it in the original trilogy, the wouldn't do it in the cartoons- people are just afraid to kill the girl. The other stuff are just cute little treats. This iconic moment for Peter Parker was a long time coming, and it makes TASM2 a bolder film than people give it credit for.
BEST SCREENPLAY
My other favorite category, as a fanboy, the more a movie can draw from the source material, the happier I'll be. Changes are expected of course, but at the end of the day, all the plot needs to do is hold up as an engaging story.
"The Winter Soldier." Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
"Days of Future Past." Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
"Le Transperceneige (Snowpiercer)." Joon Ho Bong, Kelly Masterson, Benjamin LeGrand, Jean-Marc Rochette
"Hercules: The Thracian Wars." Ryan Condol, Steve Moore & Evan Spiliotopoulos
"A Dame to Kill For: A Tale from Sin City." Frank Miller
I would have liked to include 300: Rise of an Empire, but its adaptation, "Xerxes," is oddly still not out yet as of this writing, and thus does not qualify. We'll have to settle for Frank Miller's other story, however, A Dame to Kill For is more disjointed than the original Sin City, and the invented stories are relatively weak. I think if Hercules was marketed as a comic adaptation it might have done a little better, even though it looked stupid. The Winter Solder is the best of the bunch, with Marvel crafting a conspiracy thriller and perhaps the tightest superhero script from the studio. I should say DofP loosely, follows my favorite X-Men tale, and by loosely, I mean hardly at all. Even as a film, it never addresses continuity problems. Only avoids them all together by pushing the reset button. Arg! Why did I even nominate it? lol
Winner: SNOWPIERCER!
There are some differences to be sure, but the French graphic novel explores deeper themes than any of the aforementioned movies, which, while enjoyable, are kind of fluff. This screenplay does a hell of a job getting the viewer to think about social class, fascism, religion, ecology, and freedom.
BEST ACTRESS
Tracking this category over the years, I'm happy to see women's roles in CBMs really grow. Only just in 2011 they were all just girlfriends. They've been kicking more butt ever since.
SCARLETT JOHANSSON as Black Widow
EMMA STONE as Gwen Stacy
JENNIFER LAWRENCE as Mystique
MEGAN FOX as April O'Niel
EVA GREEN as Ava Lord
Megan Fox? Wtf?! Now hold on. Lest we forget, she's the only true full-fledged female lead of this bunch and she had to carry TMNT all by herself. Not saying she did a good job, but I believed in her... Scar-Jo is really coming into her own as Black Widow, and practically co-stars with Chris Evans in CA:TWS. J-Law as well, who was a much better, layered Mystique than her bratty portrayal in First Class. I thought Emma Stone was flawless in TASM2. The romance people hated was important in making us care when she died, and I did.
Winner: SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR!
Making Superhero Oscar history is the first two-time winner, Eva Green. Without a doubt the best thing about both movies she starred in this year, Green slaughtered the competition. It's hard to take your eyes off her in Sin City 2, and I'm not just saying that because she's naked for almost 3/4 of her screen time ;)
BEST ACTOR
Outstanding achievement by a male in a leading role is a lot of pressure. Entire franchises rest on the shoulders of these men, and for the most part, they brought it.
CHRIS EVANS as Steve Rodgers
JAMES MCAVOY as Charles Xavier
CHRIS EVANS as Curtis
DWANE JOHNSON as Hercules
CHRIS PRATT as Peter Quill
Ignoring my feelings for how Xavier is used in these movies, I gotta hand it to McAvoy for killing it everytime. Star Lord is a star-making turn for Chris Pratt that is easily the role of his career. The Rock isn't on the level of the rest of these guys, but he does some of his personal strongest work in Hercules and it shows. It doesn't hurt Chris Evans' odds to get a dual-nomination (another first). He's excellent as the rebellion leader in Snowpiercer, but...
Winner: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER!
...he will win for Steve Rodgers (something he should have done maybe the last time). Society's taste is shifting towards the anti-hero, but Cap continues to be a paragon of good, and not in the boring way. The boyscout is an underappreciated influence on our moral values, and Captain America has come to exemplify my favorite hero in CBMs today.
BEST DIRECTOR
Not the most robust year for directors, as only 4 nominees really stood out to me for doing an outstanding job.
ANTHONY AND JOE RUSSO, Captain America, The Winter Soldier
BRYAN SINGER, X-Men Days of Future Past
JOONHO BONG, Snowpiercer
JAMES GUNN, Guardians of the Galaxy
James Gunn is without a doubt an mvp for what he accomplished with Marvel's biggest gamble yet. But there's not much to the movie besides the comedy. I was thrilled to learn Singer returned to the X-Men franchise, and plotholes aside, I feel like the franchise is finally back on track. Joon-ho Bong has a style all his own, but while the second half of Snowpiercer sings, the first half could be considered a turnoff.
Winner: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER!
The Russo bros made a clean, taut action movie, that satisfies as the first true sequel to The Avengers, and the only Marvel movie that has a plot with some depth. A somewhat dark entry compared to the more "fun" stuff, this is a movie that has changed the course of the MCU in an exciting way going forward. Well done, boys.
BEST PICTURE
This is it, the big one. Favorite CBM of the year. It's nice to have so many to choose from, and its crazy I saw them all just to make sure each film would be on an even playing field. Everything was okay, even the weaker stuff, but I confess there has been a case of overrated/underrated going around the community with certain movies that will go unnamed.
If I were still tallying up, no movie won more than two awards, which shows how spread out things were. I feel pretty good about the nominations and winners so far for everyone. But if I had to pick the best five of the crop, The true BP noms would look like this:
Winner: SNOWPIERCER!
Too close to call, really between Snowpiercer and Captain America 2. The Winter Soldier is a popular, safe, choice. And it's one of the few movies that I have 0 criticisms for. But there's something freeing about taking a break from the Marvel/DC war, and going with something meaningful. What's left of the entire world's population all lives on one train, Snowpiercer functions like what I call a "gauntlet movie", as the rebellion moves from car to car, almost like progressing levels or boss fights in a videogame (not unlike Dredd or The Raid, and yes, it gets batshit crazy too). If could leave readers with anything, it would be that Snowpiercer is the most original movie of the year, and I hope people check it out. Will it be for everyone? Not in the way that a popcorn movie is, but I want to be a little more challenging this year. I'd like to think that's what the Oscars are about too.
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So I hand it over to you, fine sirs and gentleladies. Did anyone see Snowpiercer? Should Spiderman really stack up against the best of everything else? Who thinks Guardians of the Galaxy should sweep? Where do your "Best Of" trophies go?