2023 in Sci-Fi and Fantasy

[hammerofglass]

So I was thinking we could have a cheerful one and just list sci-fi and fantasy stuff we really liked this year.

Puss In Boots the Last Wish, technically very end of last year but I didn't see it until streaming. Great animation, good story, fun characters.

Across the Spider-Verse, pretty much the same comments. Although I'm kind of disturbed how much of the internet apparently missed that the whole "canon event" thing was something the villain said and the heroes rejected.

Nimona, I stand by my earlier gripes about it as an adaptation but as it's own thing it's a great movie.

Season two of Good Omens, first fresh content for a story I've loved for decades and just absolutely delightful.

Live action One Piece, I know nothing about the manga or anime but it was a fun silly time with surprisingly good effects and fight scenes.

Dungeons and Dragons movie, I did a whole thread on why I loved this one.

Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty, still salty about the new ending and the survival horror bit but otherwise it was a fun ride.

Baldur's Gate 3, still haven't finished it but love it. Just so open, such well written and performed characters. On a meta level it's really amazing to see the voice cast for a videogame getting the kind of fan love they have been, it's well deserved.

So what are your favorites for the year?

[hammerofglass]

Fall of the House of Usher, forgot that one. Poe's Greatest Hits

[Winter]

Didn't get to see many movies this year as I was very busy but I am hoping to see Godzilla Minus One in a few days as I've heard great things about but in regards to what I did see/played.

As I mentioned I saw The Marvels while at Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney along with the most resent Hunger Games movie and Wish. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two and thought the third one was at least alright. But the most notable story of the year for me was Insomniac's Spider-Man 2.

I greatly enjoyed this game and the only reason I haven't replayed it is due to the game not having a New Game + mode yet. I honestly don't get the critics saying the game lacks innovation and doesn't do enough new stuff when compared to the first two games, there's tons of new mechanics. Gliding, slingshotting, being able to pull a web-spin and loop de loops. That's not even getting into the switching between Spider-Men gimmick of the game which is helped by both heroes feeling unique from one another while still playing almost identical to one another. The bosses are also greatly improved as in the first game it basically boiled down to swing around until you had an opening and then attack them.

I also found the story to be an improvement as it handled the Disc Two Boss idea much better with a more engaging relationship between Kraven and Venom along with Kraven being more engaging then Mr. Negative in the first game. Speaking of which Mr. Negative is a MASSIVE improvement over how he was presented in the first game as we get to spend more time with him here and his relationship with Miles is so much more engaging then what he had with Peter.

This is also my favorite version of the Black Suit arc as it makes things more personal for Peter both in how he gets the suit and how it affects him and his loved ones. I also love how Miles is integrated into a story that he, as far as I know, has never been involved in.

There are still some flaws but honestly nothing really worth mentioning and I'm honestly willing to overlook them because I had such a great time and I look forward to replaying the game and it's upcoming DLC/Expansion Pack.

[stryke]

Nimona: Weird film. Certainly flawed, but oh man that some of it genuinely was that exceptional means I don't care that not all of it works. Any film with some of those visuals basically gets an automatic pass cause dang.

One Piece: Been slacking on this one. Seen the first four-five episodes, and I was pretty impressed. Trebly so as it's an anime adapation and those have always, always sucked. Mihawk and Buggy were both just spot the eff on. Put it down to going through some stuff this year, and I wanted to be in a space where I could appreciate it more. Ditto the reason I've been putting off Dungeons and Dragons which I'm really looking forward to.

Visions s2: Another one I haven't got round to finishing yet. Do want to mention it though as Screecher's Reech is one of the best things to ever come out of Star Wars for me. Superb.

Lower Decks s4: Really impressed by how they tied it back to where the concept started on TNG. I don't think they quite were able to reach the best of what they were capable of so there wasn't a No Small Parts or Wej Duj I can point out as truly 10/10 top tier, but I'm going to put that down to them not quite reaching the incredibly high bar they set for themselves which is so not worth complaining about. Case could be made that they peaked with the first episode cause dang was Twovix so much fun. The visual of one of the salamander babies, borged up, and in the captain's chair was inspired. Wait, yes I can think of one that was 10/10 worthy, and it was called Those Old Scientists. So I don't need to give SNW it's own section. Still good, but I do think it wasn't as good as the first season as it was a tad uneven. They tried to go DS9 levels of dark again, and to be fair it mostly worked.

Loki s2: Hmm. In places this was very good. Certainly miles, miles better than woeful efforts like Ahsoka and even more so for Secret Invasion which invalidates any need to rank the worst of 2023 cause it just wins that easily. There was just so much faffing about and characters that seemed just to be their to fill up the runtime. I think there's a strong case this with s1 could have been cut down into a really good pair of films. Excellent visual design and I approve of anything that gets Ke Huy Quan more work and he significantly improved the show anytime he was on screen.

Invicible s2 part the first: Continuing to be better than what I remember from when I was still reading the comic. Making Debbie much more of a character is really paying off.

Doctor Who: Makes me happy just to have good Who to watch again as I thought I'd entirely burned out on the show due to the 'efforts' of Moffat. Star Beast was solid. Blue Yonder was brilliant.

Huh that's a lot more than I thought there'd be when I started this comment. Shows that even though there has been some really bad stuff it's still been a pretty great year for Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

[Thebestoftherest]

Godzilla minus one is great

[Winter]

Putting this one in, I'm in Love with the Villainess. Hilarious, heartbreaking, exciting and VERY gay.

[McAvoy]

Does Godzilla Minus One count?

Honestly it is the first Japanese or American Godzilla movie where I really do care about the human characters. All of them. They were all fully realized characters that as a stand alone move even without Godzilla I would have liked.

The times Godzilla was in it I was fully invested in the characters surviving it. And the best part? You can feel it with the humans the entire time. World War 2 ended nearly 80 years ago and it's starting to become a fading memory. But in this movie it is there. In the forefront. A defeated people trying to defeat this mythical beast before it destroys what is left of Japan.

All made on probably less than 15 million dollars too.

You guys need to go see it.