Posts Tagged ‘ten’

22 Dec

Best of 2024: Top 5 Disappointments

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2024, Games, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

So that was a bit of a turbulent year for entertainment media, huh?

I don’t do an annual “top news stories” list, because year-to-year there’s no guarantee there would be enough to even make one; it would also be kind of difficult to rank their impact when certain headlines seem outwardly positive while so many others skew negative. But wow, it sure would have been fun to tackle one in 2024. By the end of March alone there was already enough content to knock out a solid top five, as the three main videogame console manufacturers had already provided more than enough twists and turns.

For now, the standard disappointments format will have to do, which means only stuff that undercut some form of my own personal expectation counts. Hey, if ain’t broke…

The list is once again a top five this year, so I’ve tried to group each entry into some kind of common trend wherever it makes sense. Let’s get this out of the way.

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VR BEST OF 2024 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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5. This is Getting Ridiculous, Ninty

I just have to squeeze in a really personal whinge here. Even though Nintendo were guilty of moves much more worthy of other people’s disappointment shortlists this year, I’ve been following the company for so long now that nothing really gets my hopes up enough to shatter them these days – except the ongoing absence of the Nintendo Switch successor console in any official capacity throughout 2024.

The death by 1000 cuts started early: all the way back in January those sensational “internal delay” reports broke, suggesting the machine was planned for release this year but was pushed into 2025. Widespread assumptions that the house of Mario wouldn’t have enough games to fill out another year without a “Switch 2” were gradually proven wrong – and definitively so in a stellar June Direct – but even as the year rolled on and the system’s absence proved those January reports more likely every day, all the hype-fuelled YouTube channels and outlets turned their attention to the possibility that at least we’d see an official reveal this year… Right?

But things got real weird in the year’s second half. When Nintendo crammed a Museum Direct AND an unprecedented double-feature Indie World / Partner Showcase into the final week of August, a console reveal in the traditionally blockbuster September seemed almost guaranteed, but instead we got tumbleweeds; even a set of credible hardware photo / render leaks didn’t expedite Nintendo’s plans. Then came the weirdest October in recent memory: a new Nintendo alarm clock, a sort-of-secret online playtest for a mysterious multiplayer game, and a new mobile music streaming app each came out of nowhere and released almost immediately. Nintendo was trolling fans at that point.

I’m usually an absolute glutton for videogame console speculation, but by November I had well and truly checked out. This disappointment was largely self-inflicted, I admit, but whatever chaos was going on behind the scenes, the Big N’s marketing machine well and truly knew what it was doing.

4. The Wrong Kind of Aussie Film Nostalgia

It’s been a little while since living in Australia has felt like an outright disadvantage for active cinema movie-watchers, but 2024 had me feeling like the old days had returned on at least two oddly similar occasions throughout the year. To be fair, the second instance was a bit more worldwide, but it still formed a nasty pattern from my perspective.

Around April, the latest in a weirdly rapid-fire line of pulpy Guy Ritchie action flicks was set to release, and despite the relatively poor reception of his recent work I was still keen to switch my brain off and enjoy the unique brand of banter he so regularly delivers. But after release date listings all over reliable sites mysteriously vanished one day with no explanation, it was weeks until my friends and I were able to get any answers as to why The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare was not showing in any cinemas, despite Ritchie’s last effort making its slot on time as expected. Apparently it was a weird Amazon deal that wasn’t made massively public in Australia, and a couple of months later the movie unceremoniously hit streaming services. Just what a silly bombastic WWII movie needed. Yay.

Then in September came something even more drastic: I saw (and enjoyed) trailers for George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s much-hyped Oceans reunion Wolfs more than once in cinemas, and marked its late September release date on the calendar. Just one week before that very release date, chief bankroller Apple announced that the movie would no longer receive a cinematic run at all, going straight to the Apple TV+ streaming service instead to help boost subscribers. In terms of late rug-pulls, I’d never seen anything quite like it, but the gambit appeared to work, resulting in huge early watch numbers. Soon enough a major consequence came to light: director Jon Watts revealed he dropped plans for a sequel as a direct response to that exact big-screen backflip. Tell ’em, Jon.

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21 Dec

Best of 2024 Intro

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2024, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , .

They say the older you get, the quicker the years seem to go by, and usually I’d have to agree. 2024, however, did not go by quickly for me. That was partially because I had some spicy personal stuff going on, partially because the international sport on offer was a ridiculous embarrassment of riches all year long, and partially because I happened to come across this video on the “holiday paradox” right as things were starting to speed up.

But mostly, it was because 2024 had already felt like it had squeezed in several years worth of outlandish videogame news sucker-punches by the end of May, the JRPGs were out in force like it was the 1990s again, worthwhile movies were actually coming from wildly different sources and getting proper coverage in the wake of the blockbuster industry taking a long smoke break, and I went through yet another significant shake-up in my K-Pop / K-R&B listening habits.

It was also a bit of a highlight year for this site, if I do say so myself. I hit my personal goal of publishing a new post every month except February, making it the most prolific year for Vagrant Rant since 2019 – yes, the pandemic made me less productive, go figure – and it would have beaten even that year if Nintendo had just announced the stupid Switch 2. But I’m not bitter about that. Oh wait, no, I am, but more on that tomorrow, when we kick off another year of annual countdowns on Vagrant Rant!

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VR BEST OF 2024 DISCLAIMER

These lists represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting them as I have. My opinion is not fact. Nobody ever agrees with me 100%. Respectful disagreement is most welcome. Please enjoy.

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13 Aug

Ten* More 2024 Movies Summarised in Ten Words Each

Posted by vagrantesque in Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , .

*Not strictly true this time

Here we are again hovering around the two-thirds mark of the current year, and as the Olympics wrap up in Paris we rather fittingly have three French films helping to fill out the next quickfire cinematic batch. Beyond that, however, it’s kind of difficult to throw a thematic blanket around this eclectic set of movies, so I won’t try. We’ve got highly-anticipated sequels, mighty-strange original premises, and unconventional thrillers, with the odd poor execution thrown into the mix.

Oh yeah, we also have one extra movie this time, making this technically a batch of eleven. The extra flick is there to make up for two things: two of these films form one complete story and were released at the same time here in Australia despite a staggered release overseas; and that J.Lo visual album extravaganza really should not have counted as a whole entry back in April. So we’re squaring things up a bit.

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Challengers

“Best tennis scenes ever, but that’s not what you’ll remember.”

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

“What you’d get if Fury Road cared more about lore.”

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30 Apr

Ten 2024 Movies Summarised in Ten Words Each

Posted by vagrantesque in Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , .

We did know this would be the case to be fair, but hoooo boy it was a tough opening to the year for movies. It’s been a good while since I’ve started a fresh year with so few options on the near horizon outside of the previous year’s American film schedule off-cuts. For a while there it looked like Dune Part II was the only actual 2024 film worth anticipating, and I might have hit the ten-movie mark around June or something.

Luckily, a couple of odd streaming releases caught my attention when friends recommended them, and then around late April the various layered impacts of last year’s Hollywood strikes began to ease off, and suddenly a flurry of intriguing stuff began to hit our big screens. So we just make the customary April slot for the year’s first ten way-too-brief cinematic summaries, and it’s been a surprising amount of fun getting there. Here we go:

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Next Goal Wins

“Not Taika’s best, but underdog sport stories are easy wins.”

Ferrari

“Disappoints Angry Adam Driver fans, thrills Angry Penelope Cruz fans.”

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30 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 15 Games

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

There hasn’t been a “bad” year for new-release videogames in recent memory, and so many of the darn things are coming out all the time always that it’s hard to see a dud on the horizon as long as civilisation remains intact. And yet, maybe two or three times a decade it still feels like the major hype-magnets clump up together and conspire to form a mega Voltron of a year worth writing into the gaming history books as a truly “great” year for videogames. 2023 was unquestionably one of those, but the plaudits needn’t stop there.

Unfortunately 2023 may have been one of the worst years in history for games industry layoffs, but it was without a shadow of a doubt the best year for game releases since at least 2017.

In my opinion, it was the best of all time.

Throughout the whole year, it felt like every week brought a new game pushing above 85 on Open/Metacritic. Playing Fantasy Critic with friends was an absolute nightmare as hits kept coming from all directions. The pre-release hype-to-quality ratio over the whole year was higher than any I can remember. For the first time ever, all fifteen of the games on my list this year were nominated for at least one category at The Game Awards – and eleven of them were winners.

We’ve already covered the sheer strength of the DLC expansions in 2023, many of which can stand head and shoulders above most full games released in the last few years. But 2023 also gave us quality potential rabbit holes just waiting to ensnare, like Wild Hearts, Diablo IV, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Like a Dragon: Ishin, Hogwarts Legacy, and Dead Island 2; some of the best “souls-likes” ever in the form of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Lies of P, and the reborn Lords of the Fallen; huge online multiplayer offerings like Counter-Strike 2, Remnant II, and The Finals; and great signs for families without Nintendo consoles thanks to Sonic Superstars, Lego 2K Drive and Party Animals. 2023 was also the year that Fortnite completed its fascinating metamorphosis from a game into a game launcher.

The year also brought a deluge of small-budget standouts like Venba, The Talos Principle 2, Jusant, The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, Darkest Dungeon II, Tchia, Humanity, Blasphemous 2, and A Space for the Unbound, each of which mopped up critical praise like it was going out of style, and none of which deserved to come out in a year this stacked with quality big-budget fare. Of the fifteen games on my list, just two are what I would classify as indie games – and this appals me.

Five hours of playtime is the minimum requirement for list eligibility (unless the game is shorter, has no perceivable end, or is primarily multiplayer in nature), and that sadly disqualifies Fire Emblem Engage, Mortal Kombat 1, Cassette Beasts, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, Wargroove 2, Planet of Lana, Persona 5 Tactica, Pizza Tower, and most upsettingly Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, despite the fact I was having fun with all of them before outside factors (usually other games) interrupted me. Also, I’ll be dead-honest, I have no idea how to classify Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line, but it’s amazing and you should play it if you’re even a little into Square Enix RPG soundtracks.

With that extremely long introduction out of the way, it’s time for my wordiest Game of the Year list ever, so strap in (parentheses indicate where I played each game):

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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15. Street Fighter VI (XSX)

Capcom’s absurd hot-streak of great new videogames is now long enough that the chatter around them centres less around whether a new release will actually be good and more about what will be the first game to break it. And yes, we’ve talked about Exoprimal already, but I maintain that the game is a ton of fun to play, not to mention technically rock-solid, and is just hamstrung by some baffling online multiplayer restrictions. You know what Capcom game doesn’t need a bunch of asterisks when you talk about how good it is? Street Fighter VI.

History is littered with examples of videogame sequels that take the wrong lessons from poorly-received predecessors and over-correct, but the extraordinarily meaty single-player offering that the sixth main SF has to offer is no mere apology for the bare-bones Street Fighter V; it is yet another shrewd utilisation of perhaps gaming’s most impressive publisher-internal game engine. Running around the full 3D environments of Metro City feels so natural you’d swear you were playing a different game at moments during the World Tour campaign.

But even if you don’t want to engage with any of that, Street Fighter VI boasts one of the most in-depth and impressive tutorials I’ve seen in a fighting game; it wants you to feel like you could rise up the ranks and become a genuinely good player, and it works. On top of all of that goodness is the best presentation in SF’s three-dimensional history, bringing together fantastic character art with fluid personality-packed animations, ribbons of colourful paint effects to highlight the benefits of the new Drive System, and a fresh level of commitment to Street Fighter’s, um, fighting on a street aesthetic that enlivens everything else around it.

14. Cocoon (PC/XSS)

Leave it to a bunch of ex-Limbo/Inside developers to make you feel like a genius again and again, even though all you did was follow their brilliantly gentle guidance through visual context clues and a you’re-getting-warmer musical feedback system that works like if the classic Zelda puzzle chime took a month off to study music theory at the most zen retreat ever. Cocoon‘s central premise sounds like it would either break immediately or become untenably complex as soon as you tried to take it beyond its first iteration, but Geometric Interactive turns a wordless adventure where you pick up entire worlds and use them to activate mechanical switches into a taut masterpiece that makes a five-hour run feel like an epic odyssey through cosmic possibilities beyond humanity’s wildest dreams.

Each moment the weird cicada alien thing at your fingertips leaps beyond the boundaries of yet another world to reveal an even bigger one is worth the time Cocoon took to develop all on its own. The bosses are extraordinarily fun to take on with little more than a single contextual gimmick and your wits. The secrets are rewarding and seamlessly integrated into the world(s) around them. The puzzles in the final third of the game are deviously tricky. The minimalist animation work is outstanding. The alternately booming and almost non-existent electronic score is a vibe and a half. Long may Geometric continue on their new development path, because on this form I would eat their next game on day one.

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29 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 10 K-Pop Albums

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, K-Pop, Lists, Music. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

As we head into the home stretch and say goodbye to 2023, we have a good chance to look at the output of some of the bigger names in K-Pop that skipped this year’s singles list; a few of them land here with unexpectedly stellar longer-form work.

Right after a year where all five LP entries came from soloists, the groups are back in full force after an unusually strong year, but it’s business as usual for the mini albums: 2023 brought a bloodbath of quality EPs and most of them came from girl groups.

Though all-English songs on albums are no big deal here, all-English song collections aren’t eligible, but I’ll give a quick shout-out to ex-SNSD vocalist Jessica’s unexpectedly great solo EP Beep Beep.

1-3 tracks = N/A

4-7 tracks = mini album

8+ tracks = full album

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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MINI-ALBUMS
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5. ASSEMBLE – TripleS

The whole song and dance around how TripleS functions mechanically is enough to give anyone a migraine, but their first album effort as a “full group” is a doozy; you just have to love the bravado that had to power the decision to do both the classy standalone tone-setting opening song AND the trendy nonsense-syllable salad designed to build up the title track. Rising thus sits comfortably in the Track 3 nook, where its inherent choppiness is improved by the warm, wide sound of Beam and the even choppier Before the Rise in almost equal measure.

Though the success of that little trick is the most standout characteristic of the EP, there is certainly more to enjoy here, as Colorful and New Look both push accomplished synth flourishes through the listener’s headphones in different flavours – the former buzzy and brash, the latter covered in gloriously city-leaning 1980s confidence. The Baddest serves as the palette cleanser between them, and the quality of the production ensures it comes out better than that threatening title – and some misplaced sing-talking – might suggest. Short-and-speedy closer Chowall lends the kind of symmetry I will probably always over-reward to the mini, and TripleS are off to the races.

4. OO-LI – Woodz

The man who can’t seem to leave this mini-album list alone brought more of the goods in 2023, although the way OO-LI shakes out is a bit different from Cho Seungyoun’ prior best. Rock influences continue to creep into his work – this 7-tracker feels fully half electric guitar-powered – but the more interesting characteristic on show here is that rather than a tracklist comprised of just hard songs and soft songs, OO-LI positions almost every track as a ‘builder’.

Only straight-roller Who Knows stays at one level the whole way through; the rest make sure to ramp up on their own individual terms. Smooth tunes like opener Deep Deep Sleep and closer ABYSS start with minimal instrumentation and add layers until they reach a fuller sound, while the choir vehicle Journey, saloon jam Ready to Fight and Nirvana-inspired Drowning go much harder with the marked goal of reaching a vocal tornado on the chorus and an absolute hurricane at the crescendo. No track goes bigger than the centrepiece, however: Busted is a stone-cold platinum star for Woodz’ career highlight reel, almost stopping itself dead in the final minute just to maximise the impact of a shred-and-growl finale.

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28 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 10 Gaming Moments

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

A stacked videogame year like 2023 means good news for the quality of this list, and awful news if you like scrolling through casually without major spoiler risks. This isn’t all plot-focused moments, of course, but if you have not completed all the big 2023 games you wanted to this year, firstly I get it, I’m right there with you; and secondly, you almost certainly will be spoiled on something if you continue to read. Do with that warning what you will.

Alright, let’s go – here’s the stuff that took my breath away in 2023.

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

SIGNIFICANT VIDEOGAME SPOILERS FOLLOW!

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10. Any Excuse for Portals – Spider-Man 2

It’s no secret that Insomniac Games has had a thing for instant teleportation in recent times: just look at the wonderfully flashy solid-state-loading showcase Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. But few would have predicted their follow-up game might find another equally brazen use for such tech – let alone with straight-up portals. But thanks to some cheeky contractual limbo, a Dr Strange-adjacent artifact finds its way into the climactic battle at the end of a Miles/Black Cat mission chain, and fireworks ensue.

As expected of a Sony first-party game, Spider-Man 2 can claim a host of highlights worth a mention on a page like this – the opening Sandman boss fight, the flashbacks to Pete and Harry’s teenage years, the Hailey graffiti mission that puts the player inside the world of a deaf person, the emotional clash with a reimagined Scream, the brief moments spent in control of Venom – but that team-up fight with Black Cat is just exhilarating. The already-excellent locomotion the game has to offer is brought to another level when you’re hurtling through the air and suddenly you’re somewhere else entirely – and Erika Lindbeck’s sassy cameo as the Cat warping in for combo finishers is a real bonus.

9. The Mewtwo Raid – Pokemon Scarlet

Aside from Halo Infinite, there’s no question what non-2023 game ate up the most free time for me this past year. The starter Pokemon raid bosses that Pokemon Scarlet unleashed at an impressively regular clip throughout the year were often challenging enough that an entire metagame formed around them: one that required investment in Pokemon development entirely separate from, even contradictory to, the competitive-leaning builds players have been used to for decades. Communities formed and thrived around that raid meta, but in September, things reached an entirely new level when Mewtwo reared its legendary head.

Each player could claim a special free Mew with its own random Tera type, and this Mew would receive an automatic stat boost upon entry into the ridiculously powerful self-healing 7-star Mewtwo battle. This meant any other Pokemon would be a waste to bring in, so the optimisation theorycrafting began – and in no time at all the internet came up with the now-famous Bug Tera/Electric Terrain set that would stop the boss’ big heal turn in its tracks and keep it weakened for as long as possible otherwise. When you loaded up a Mewtwo raid, saw three other Bug Mews in the party, and one of them was running a support set? You knew you were in for a lengthy scrap, but you believed you could win, and the feeling of victory at long last? Haven’t felt anything like it since the first Destiny, mate.

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27 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 10 Movie Scenes

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

I love writing this list each and every year, at least in part because a “scene” in a movie can be great for so many different reasons. Some years, however, a single genre or sub-genre of film dominates my watch list so heavily that some of the fun range gets lost. 2023 was one of those years, but because said source of dominance happened to be non-superhero action movies, I don’t mind one bit. This was a year teeming with examples of kinetic, pulse-pounding filmmaking craft – among other kinds of standout moments, of course – and I’m so excited to dive in. So let’s do that.

There are, naturally, a ton of spoilers on this page, so tread carefully.

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOLLOW!

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10. No Sleep Till Brooklyn – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3

Hey, I didn’t say there’d be no superhero action scenes – and if you’ve seen Guardians 3 you had to know this one was going to show up. The hallway brawl at the climax of the movie is three crucial things all in one: a magnificently-choreographed speed-shifting one-shot filled with faux-gore and crowd-pleasing team-up moves; an amazing song from a series famous for its amazing soundtracks; and most importantly, an emotionally resonant fist-pumper of a final combat moment for the Guardians team, spearheaded by the film’s emotional centre Rocket Raccoon and finished by the effectively all-new, all-different Gamora. Marvel’s best three minutes of the year.

9. Village Raid – The Creator

A testament to the enduring power of great shot selection and sound design, the US Army raid on a fishing village at the climax of The Creator’s second act is an effective microcosm of the whole film: it looks way better than it has any right to, it doesn’t hide from utilising gorgeous wide shots that would showcase blemishes easier, and it packs an immense serving of dread into a lean package. Extended sections of the scene have no music at all, and the ominous accelerating clunks of the self-destruct tin can robots obscured by weapon smoke is bone-chilling partially because of this – and partially because of their pre-sprint dialogue.

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26 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 5 Game Consoles

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, Console, Games, Lists. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Better late than never, right?

In the world of dedicated videogame consoles, 2023 felt in many ways like the true dawn of a new generation; in hindsight the pandemic-punctuated pageantry of 2020’s eleventh hour now kinda reads like a pillow-soft launch with only trivia night technicality in mind. It may have been a rollercoaster of a year for PC gaming – an astonishing density of poor ports sprinkled among a fleet of immensely exciting pushes into the handheld space – but the console world brought some semblance of confident, comforting familiarity to 2023. The slow transition from the last generation is finally approaching its end with real intent – bringing a controversial return to normalcy for 30 FPS visuals along with it as Unreal Engine 5 leads the way down a road the last generation cannot travel.

But we can still fill out a top five for now, so let’s do that.

My ranking is based on new developments in each console’s wheelhouse, primarily concerning exclusive games but also taking in factors like firmware updates and hardware/accessory additions. As always, mostly due to how wide and varied their ecosystems are, Mobile and PC are disregarded for this list.

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

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5. Playstation 4

LAST YEAR: 4th

‘Twas the year the fourth Playstation home console effectively began its last march into the pages of history. Though plenty of major circumstances were out of Sony’s control this time, the company’s famous decade-long support plan for its numbered videogame machines has perhaps been a little easier to uphold in the case of the PS4 than its two older brothers: neither the PS2 nor the PS3 enjoyed quite this many of their allocated ten years as a lead platform for brand-new prestige videogame releases. Yet here we are at the end of 2023, and Sony’s lean exclusives lineup for the year has effectively skipped the fourth home Playstation. A couple of bigger third-party games have followed suit – although back-ports for the likes of Hogwarts Legacy and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor proved that the very biggest are still unable to resist the allure of that ocean of existing last-gen machines.

4. Xbox One

LAST YEAR: 5th

A pretty similar situation to the PS4 here, except the Xbox One console family did receive the same home screen UI update that the newer Series consoles got, so it’s kind of ahead by default. Furthermore, the comparison between the Game Pass and PS+ Extra offerings continues to favour the Xbox side by some margin, but when you filter down the comparison to just day-one indie titles – which invariably have no problem running on last-gen tech – the head-to-head picture becomes even rosier for the ol’ Xbone. With a game pass subscription and a cheap second-hand Xbox in 2023, you could enjoy the likes of Cocoon, Cassette Beasts, Bramble: The Mountain King, Sea of Stars, Thirsty Suitors, Fuga: Memories of Steel 2, Steamworld Build, Party Animals, Venba, The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Planet of Lana, and Roboquest – and the last three are currently unavailable on a Sony or Nintendo platform. Not bad at all.

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24 Dec

Best of 2023: Top 10 Movie Characters

Posted by vagrantesque in Best of 2023, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

It’s time to dip into the first of our three movie lists, and with that comes somewhat of a return to regular service as far as standout celluloid characters are concerned. After the class of 2022 brought an unusually high percentage of protagonists to the table, 2023’s roll is once again all about those dastardly villains and spicy supporting characters.

Although we aren’t in full-on spoiler territory yet, sometimes talking about what makes characters so impactful necessitates a mild plot detail or two, so keep an eye out for that if you see a movie title you would still rather watch first.

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VR BEST OF 2023 DISCLAIMER

This list represents my opinion only. I am not asserting any kind of superiority or self-importance by presenting it as I have. My opinion is not fact. If you agree with me 100%, go buy a lottery ticket. Respectful disagreement is most welcome.

Some spoilers may follow.

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10. Joyce – A Haunting in Venice

A Haunting in Venice is an ensemble murder mystery, so Joyce doesn’t have as much screen time as the trailers may lead you to believe, but I don’t blame the film’s marketing team for wanting to push Michelle Yeoh’s presence hard after the stellar couple of years she’s had. It’s also completely justified in the movie itself, as her creepy charisma as Joyce reverberates through every scene in which she holds the frame. Joyce’s is-she-conning-us / is-she-for-real commitment essentially transitions another standard Hercule Poirot mystery into the first full-on horror story of Kenneth Brannagh’s 21st century run with the character – and it absolutely elevates the movie – but it’s the wry smiles and flowery undercurrent of disdain in her dialogue that gets Joyce onto the list to kick us off.

9. Bowser – The Super Mario Bros Movie

A modern take on a Super Mario Bros movie was probably always going to lean comedic for as many side characters as it could get away with, but Nintendo’s own games – particularly their Mario-centric RPGs – have already poked a whole mountain range of fun at the absurdity of Bowser enough times that some fans worried Illumination’s perspective on the classic villain may come off a bit tired. But then the film cast Jack Black, and those concerns went away immediately. The movie well and truly lives up to the potential of a Bowser/Black pairing and then some, as the hammy specialist commits to the role wholeheartedly; if anything, the biggest surprise is how menacing he makes Bowser sound at the right times.

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