What were your Favorite SF/F Movies of 2017?

[[deleted user]]

So, what were your favorite scifi & fantasy movies of 2017?


The year had a lot of superhero movies: Thor: Ragnarok, Wonder Woman, Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, Lego Batman Movie, Spiderman: Homecoming, Power Rangers. Lots of sequels: Blade Runner 2049, Alien: Covenant, Transformers: Last Knight, War for the Planet of the Apes, Resident Evil: Final Chapter (as if), Underworld: Blood Wars, Star Wars: Last Jedi, The Man from Earth: Holocene. (How could there not be a Star Trek flick?) A few remakes: King Kong: Skull Island, Flatliners. Some more adaptations: Dark Tower, The Circle, Ghost in the Shell, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. And a few original properties: Osiris Child, Okja, The Shape of Water, The Space Between Us, The Great Wall, Colossal, Downsizing, Life, Marjorie Prime. Netflix produced a number of SF/F movies in 2017, such as Bright, Stasis, and What Happened to Wednesday. And I assume several others I missed entirely.

Biggest trend: titles with colons.

[Violet]

The theater near my house finally began showing The Shape of Water and it was terrific--a definite must see--I was tired of scifi/fantasy superhero films, and this film delivered.

[Rachel]

So many of these were just MEH

[Andrea]

I really enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok, it was silly but that's what I like about Marvel, more fun and less doom and gloom than DC. Though I was surprised I also enjoyed Wonder Woman

Was Lego Batman this year? Because there was also Lego Ninjago which was ok but not as great as the first Lego movie.

Still need to see the Star Wars movie and The Shape of Water is drawing me in.

I liked Kubo of the Two Strings :) Not sure kids movies count...I think there were others but don't recall what they were.

[[deleted user]]

Rachel wrote: "So many of these were just MEH"

I kind of feel that way, too. Nothing in the "Wow you gotta see this!" category.

Andrea wrote: "Was Lego Batman this year? Because there was also Lego Ninjago which was ok but not as great as the first Lego movie...."

Yup, February. Despite generally positive reviews, I don't get the Lego movies.

Andrea wrote: "I liked Kubo of the Two Strings :) ...."

Now, that was last year.

[Jim]

Andrea wrote: "I really enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok, it was silly but that's what I like about Marvel, more fun and less doom and gloom than DC. Though I was surprised I also enjoyed Wonder Woman..."

Marvel seemed to be going to the DC side until this latest Thor. We really liked it, too. Just fun, what comics should be. We liked WW, too.

[Silvana]

I think my favorite ones - that I can watch over and over again - are Logan and The Last Jedi.

Spiderman, Thor, Underworld I am interested to rewatch but just once.

I have yet to see The Shape of Water, Alien : The Covenant and Collosal, those are the ones I think I would enjoy.

[[deleted user]]

Silvana wrote: "I have yet to see The Shape of Water, Alien : The Covenant and Collosal, those are the ones I think I would enjoy. ..."

I was disappointed in Alien: Covenant; seemed like more of same.

I just got Colossal DVD from Netflix today, so I'll get back you you on that.

[Allison]

I've heard good things about The Shape of Water, Thor and Bright. They're on the list. Wonder Woman gave me shivers! I cried twice from joy! It wasn't the best movie in the world but it got a lot more right than I anticipated. Guardians vol. 2 was fun but nothing very special. I'm not sure I'm allowed to see Logan (it looks so sad!). Last Jedi was hands down the best movie I've seen most recently ;-)

[Silvana]

Cool, looking forward to it!

[Silvana]

Ah I crossposted with Allison :)
Thas was meant for G33z3r.

Anywho, Allison, why aren't you allowed to see Logan? It was sad but really, really good in storytelling, acting, pacing and action.

[[deleted user]]

Jim wrote: "Marvel seemed to be going to the DC side until this latest Thor. We really liked it, too. Just fun, what comics should be. We liked WW, too...."

What's the "DC side" ?

Of the comic books, I liked Spiderman, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy and Wonder Woman. Don't think I hated any of them, but none were as fun as last year's Deadpool.

I was disappointed in the Ghost in the Shell adaptation, possibly because I've watched Mamoru Oshii's animated version many times, and I couldn't believe they used so many identical shots. Apparently director Rupert Sanders has no style of his own, so he just stole Oshii's. (There are worse he could steal from, but they should have given him co-diretor status the copies were so numerous.)

On the other hand, I liked Valerian more than most seemed to, probably because I got into the BD during some lengthy work assignments in France in the 70s. American comics took a lot of travel to find, and I couldn't read French well enough to read books without pictures :)

I watched Netflix's Bright the other day; suppose Lord of the Rings was a history, with orcs & elves living in LA. Combine with some bad boy "last honest cops" and do a lot of shooting.

Haven't seen Last Jedi.

[Allison]

Silvana wrote: "Ah I crossposted with Allison :)
Thas was meant for G33z3r.

Anywho, Allison, why aren't you allowed to see Logan? It was sad but really, really good in storytelling, acting, pacing and action."

Ach, sorry I muddled up the timestream! I'll likely get around to Logan someday, but I don't usually handle... sad tense movies well in general. The Incredibles is about as sad as I can handle and that's like a 0.5 on the sad scale.

[Silvana]

Come to think of it, I might want to rewatch Wonder Woman but skip all the romance stuff. Would replay Gal Gadot climbing the trench to the battle field over and over, and over, again.

Allison wrote: "Silvana wrote: "Ah I crossposted with Allison :)
Thas was meant for G33z3r.

Anywho, Allison, why aren't you allowed to see Logan? It was sad but really, really good in storytelling, acting, pacing..."

No worries, that happens. I use the app most of the times and AFAIK no quoting feature.

I just realized I usually avoid sad movies when they involve dogs. I ended up watching them though.

Back to SFF, I remember liking Blade Runner but probably will only rewatch it to 1) see Mackenzie Davis again - loved her a lot in Halt and Catch Fire. 2) to see all the cinematography - one of the best looking movies in 2017 aside from The Last Jedi.

[Jim]

G33z3r wrote: "What's the "DC side" ?"

The angsty, whiny, gloomy, serious side. It usually doesn't work well for me in comics since I can't take them seriously. Wise cracking around plot holes, laughing at themselves & the ridiculous situations they find themselves in the way most of the Marvel one do is the touch I prefer. Tony Stark & DeadPool do it well. The latest Thor did that too.

[[deleted user]]

Jim wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "What's the "DC side" ?"

The angsty, whiny, gloomy, serious side...."

Not usually a fan of angsty whiny gloom in my scifi or fantasy, books or movies. That said, I thought "serious" worked pretty well for the Nolan Batman trilogy, but other than that, yeah, the DC movies usually aren't "fun".

I'm going to continue in the TV topic...

[Kivrin]

Let's see...I enjoyed Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, The Last Jedi, and even King Kong. Alien: Covenant was stupid. The Great Wall was completely mindless but had some cool scenes.

[[deleted user]]

G33z3r wrote: "Silvana wrote: "I have yet to see The Shape of Water, Alien : The Covenant and Collosal, those are the ones I think I would enjoy. ..."

I just got Colossal DVD from Netflix today, so I'll get back you you on that. ..."

Enjoyed Colossal quite a lot. Original, very weird, funny, dramedy, casting Anne Hathaway as a kaiju destroying Seoul. Really, just go with it. Indie production I never heard of it until it started showing up on some "best SF/F of 2017" lists and put it on my Netflix queue.

[Rachel]

Started bright last night - liked the first third or so but it started going downhill - just a little too many ridiculous gun battles ......

[Silvana]

So haplens that Colossal was in my cable today so I watched it... And liked it a lot! Not that I would want to watch it again, it is rather depressing but what a wonderful, quirky, evocative movie.

[Allison]

See, we could not get into Colossal. We watched it for 30 minutes and didn't laugh, gasp, wonder, or any other verb other than stare. So then we switched to Future Man.

[Silvana]

I also watched The Great Wall. What a trainwreck (Matt Damon, why?) but those color-coded ARMORS are awesome.

The new Jumanji was also fun. I watched it with my extended family and we had tons of laugh. Jack Black is just fabulous, playing an Instagram-crazy teen.

[Andrea]

Must admit I'm oddly tempted to watch the new Jumanji, I like the idea of the kids being put into those other bodies. The first movie used to scare me though LOL Think I still have it on VHS, need to dig it up...

[Roger]

Andrea wrote: "Must admit I'm oddly tempted to watch the new Jumanji, I like the idea of the kids being put into those other bodies. The first movie used to scare me though LOL Think I still have it on VHS, need ..."

I heard it was pretty good, I am always weary of remakes but man I really like The Rock, Kevin Hart and Jack Black...

[[deleted user]]

The Saturn Awards finalists for 2017 (±3dB) have been announced. The Saturn Awards, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, wishes it were the Oscar™ & Emmy™ of Science Fiction & Fantasy, though they don't restrict themselves to SF&F genres. They also apparently don't care about the calendar year, because that would be conventional.

Best Comic-to-Motion Picture

Black Panther
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Logan
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Wonder Woman

Best Science Fiction Film

Alien: Covenant
Blade Runner 2049
Life
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
War for the Planet of the Apes

Best Fantasy Film

Beauty and the Beast
Downsizing
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Kong: Skull Island
Paddington 2
The Shape of Water

Best Superhero Television Series:

Arrow
Black Lightning
The Flash
DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Gotham
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Supergirl

Best Science Fiction Television Series:

The 100
Colony
Doctor Who
The Expanse
The Orville
Salvation
The X-Files

Best Fantasy Television Series:

American Gods
Game of Thrones
The Good Place
Knightfall
The Librarians
The Magicians
Outlander

Best New Media Superhero Series:

Future Man
Marvel's The Defenders
Marvel's Iron Fist
Marvel's Runaways
Marvel's The Punisher
The Tick

Best New Media Television Series:

Altered Carbon
Black Mirror
The Handmaid's Tale
Minderhunter
Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams
Star Trek: Discovery
Stranger Things

Best Actor in a Film

Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther)
Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049)
Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Hugh Jackman (Logan)
Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)
Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes)
Vince Vaughn (Brawl in Cell Block 99)

Best Actress in a Film

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Lupita Nyong'o (Black Panther)
Rosamund Pike (Hostiles)
Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Emma Watson (Beauty and the Beast)

Best Actor on a Television Series:

Jon Bernthal (The Punisher)
Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead)
Sam Heughan (Outlander)
Jason Isaacs (Star Trek: Discovery)
Andrew Lincoln (The Walking Dead)
Seth MacFarlane (The Orville)
Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks: The Return)
Ricky Whittle (American Gods)

Best Actress on a Television Series:

Gillian Anderson (The X-Files)
Caitriona Balfe (Outlander)
Melissa Benoist (Supergirl)
Lena Headey (Game of Thrones)
Sonequa Martin-Green (Star Trek: Discovery)
Adrianne Palicki (The Orville)
Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story: Cult)
Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Fargo)

They have lots more categories if you're interested:

[[deleted user]]

The Hugo Award finalists for "Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form", aka Movies, are:

Blade Runner 2049, written by Hampton Fancher and Michael Green,
Get Out, written and directed by Jordan Peele
The Shape of Water, written by Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, written by Rian Johnson
Thor: Ragnarok, written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, and Christopher Yost
Wonder Woman, screenplay by Allan Heinberg, story by Zack Snyder & Allan Heinberg and Jason Fuchs

(Technically, this is a writer award, e.g. screenplay. Don't believe it. :)

[[deleted user]]

G33z3r wrote: "The Saturn Awards finalists for 2017 (±3dB) have been announced. The Saturn Awards, presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, wishes it were the Oscar™ & Emmy™ of somethingorother..."

The 44th Saturn Awards winners have been announced:

Best Comic-to-Film Motion Picture: Black Panther
Best Science Fiction Film: Blade Runner 2049
Best Fantasy Film: The Shape of Water
Best Superhero Adaptation Television Series: The Flash
Best Science Fiction TV Series: The Orville
Best Fantasy TV Series: Outlander
Best New Media TV Series: Star Trek: Discovery
Best Actor: Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)
Best Actress: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
Best Actress on Television: Sonequa Martin-Green (Star Trek: Discovery)

They have a lot more categories if you're interested, the better to give more awards: 44th Saturn Awards.
(hint: Better Call Saul won the most awards, and it's not even in the so-called Academy's stated SF/F/H charter.

[[deleted user]]

The Hugo Award for "Best Dramatic Presentation – Long Form", aka Best Movie, winner was Wonder Woman.