Yet another "Didn't Suck" list? Yes of course! This is
Critical Writ's list of awesome movies for 2016! In case you missed it, we had a few samples of
news earlier in the week, followed up by a mega list of kick-ass
comics. Stick with us this week to also get our list of TV and Games that didn't suck in 2016.
Disney’s
Moana was perfection. This animated film is about a young woman from a Polynesian island that has to answer the call of the sea to save her people. Everything about
Moana is awesome from a feminist point of view: a brown woman, with lush crazy-beautiful curly dark hair, heir to the position of chieftain of the tribe, and someone who actually gets to be a hero, instead of watching someone else do things. The soundtrack to this film is gorgeous, especially with star Auli’i Cravalho’s fabulous vocals, with music by Lin-Manuel Miranda. For the last few years, Disney has been diversifying its films, and
Moana was easily one of the best efforts so far. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should. (
Ivonne)
It’s amazing to not only see two animated feature films from Disney in 2016, but to have both of them be amazing pieces of art
and tell stories that needed to be told, is unprecedented. In addition to
Moana, there's this:
Zootopia takes the world of talking animals, and tells a crime story. But this isn't just any average crime drama; it tells a timely story of prejudice, both systemic and internalized. It’s brave of its creators to show one of the main characters as not only suffering from biases, but as guilty of them herself and becoming aware of her own shortcomings. That’s something we needed this year.
(Dominik)
Well, it's yet another Disney movie, but we can't not include
Star Wars: Rogue One on this list. If you haven’t seen this movie, what are you waiting for? This is the story of how the Rebellion obtained the plans for the Death Star that allowed them to defeat it later in Episode IV.
Rogue One features a diverse cast, including a female lead, and a bunch of fabulous POCs, including Diego Luna. And a droid voiced by Alan Tudyk, which is not something you realize you need in your life until you see it. Many a critic and
Star Wars fan have spoken the words that could potentially be sacrilegious: this may be the best
Star Wars movie yet. Or at least as good as
Empire Strikes Back. (
Ivonne)
Star Trek Beyond was a pleasant surprise for me. Unlike the previous two movies in this particular version of the
Star Trek universe,
Beyond genuinely felt like it was crafted with fans of the original in mind. It had the original show’s heart and optimism for the future coming out of it’s ears, which I have needed in this shittiest of years. Also no gratuitous nudity. That was a nice touch. (
Miz Opifex)
You might have missed this one, especially since it's barely managing to register as part of the tail end of 2016 (limited release on Dec 25, but wider release in January 2017), but you really need to see
Hidden Figures. Taraji B. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae tell the real story of three black women scientists who were instrumental in NASA's first space missions. Most people have never heard of Katherine Johnson (Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer), or Mary Jackson (Monae), but without these brilliant mathematicians, it's likely the US would have lost the space race. That's right, in 1962, we had three awesome black lady scientists who have mostly been obscured in American history.
Hidden Figures tells their story, with powerful performances delivered by the leading ladies. (
Ivonne)
As a feminist blog, it would be wrong to totally miss mentioning
Ghostbusters, which caused such a fuss this year among the dudebros of the world. Incensed by the idea of ladies busting ghosts, the internet went on a hate-filled campaign to try to tank this film. It wasn't the success it deserved to be in terms of box office dollars, but as a lady-led film, it was still a damn fun time. Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon star as the Ghostbusters for a new generation, and they were pretty hilarious.
Ghostbusters was by no means a perfect film, but it was well written, well acted, and as a bonus, it pissed off a lot of internet dudes. (
Ivonne)
And finally... we're a geek blog, so we would be remiss to completely leave out any and all superhero movies, right? Well, not if they all sucked, or were mediocre at best. But thankfully, in a year full of Marvel (
Captain America: Civil War and
Dr. Strange) and DC (
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and
Suicide Squad), we have a clear winner in terms of awesome superhero movies, and it wasn't any of the ones I already mentioned. The Superhero Movie Award of 2016 clearly goes to
Deadpool. Yes, it's filthy as hell, yes there are tons of off-color jokes, and yes the lead is a white guy (Ryan Reynolds), but
Deadpool was hilarious and joyful and wicked fun. It helps that girlfriend Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) was treated with respect despite originating as a sex worker, and that she wasn't entirely a helpless damsel. It also helps that one of Deadpool's sidekicks was badass Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand), and that he lived with a blind and black lady (Leslie Uggams). So much about this movie was wrong, wrong, wrong, but so right. Most fans of the Merc with a Mouth would agree: this movie captured the character perfectly well. (
Ivonne)
Did your favorite movies this year not make it on the list? Let us know what we missed in the comments!
