WHAM! BAM! POW! Comic Book Movie Awards 2014

WHAM! BAM! POW!

Comic Book Movie Award 2014 Edition

This year produced some of the best comic book movies of all time. 3 of the 4 superhero movies released gained traction as the best of their respective franchises, genres or comic book styled films.

Where Winter Soldier crawled into becoming Marvels sequel best and an enticing change for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then X-Men DOFP was a game changer for not only its franchise but in my books the CBM genre as a whole thanks to its time travel elements.

On the other hand Amazing Spider-Man 2 caused bad remarks amongst fans, but nobody can deny it produced the most heartfelt death in superhero cinematic history. Then finally Guardians of The Galaxy proved that Marvel Studios can do no wrong.

Overall it's been a heck of a time for CBM's this year despite the duds in between (TMNT, Sin City 2). This of course creates a huge dilemma for me. It's important for my upcoming Underdog Awards that I start watching the small indie movies from now, noting their prowess in terms of how amazing they are and how ignored they've been.

So the question remains whether I might want to add the comic book movies to this years awards to the nominee lists, like I did with my what if post. That post included CBM's of all natures, allowing wins for comic book movies like Ghost World, Road to Perdition, American Splendor, A History of Violence, V For Vendetta and Dark Knight to win big.

The question however remains whether those films can be considered Underdog in nature, simply because they've accumulated not only tons of wealth but immense critical acclaim as a cherry on top.

Then again this year quite a few geek movies didn't get the attention they deserved in some aspects. An example would be the acting of Andy Serkis but more importantly Toby Kebbell in Dawn of The Planet of the Apes, which many are touting should get Serkis an Oscar (I say throw in Kebbell to, for his stellar turn as Koba).

So for now what I decided is that I will give you a whole new set of awards, cause at this point I couldn't be bothered to blog about anything else (I just love having award shows...hehehe). Basically an awards for comic book movies for this year, yeah I know Big Hero 6 is yet to come out but I couldn't wait for that long. Anyways Big Hero 6 might just get an animation nod at the Oscars so it's okay.

By the end of the year and the start of next, I'll be able to decide whether it's worth putting these films into the Underdog awards as well depending on whether they actually make it into the nominations. Though geek movies will definitely be there.

Oh yeah and the next rule will be that like with the Underdog awards each award is on a separate post (for more views) and the awards itself will be starting from this Sunday onwards. I want to see if I can make like a nomination videos thing for each nominee.

Speaking of nominees, below is the full list of awards and nominations. 

Wham Bam Pow Award for Best Film	Wham Bam Pow Award for Best Director
Guardians of The Galaxy	Bryan Singer for X-Men: Days of Future Past
Snowpiercer	Anthony and Joe Russo for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
X-Men: Days of Future Past	Bong Joon Ho for Snowpiercer
Amazing Spider-Man 2	James Gunn for Guardians of The Galaxy
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Mark Webb for Amazing Spider-Man 2
Wham Bam Pow Award for Powerful Protagonist	Wham Bam Pow Award for Amazing Antagonist
Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine for X-Men: DOFP	Dane DeHaan as Harry Osborne/Goblin for Amazing Spider-Man 2
Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique for X-Men: DOFP	Sebastian Stan as James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes/The Winter Soldier for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America for Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Ed Harris as Wilford for Snowpiercer
Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord for Guardians of The Galaxy	Eva Green as Artemisia for 300: Rise of The Empire
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow for Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr/Magneto for X-Men: DOFP
Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man for Amazing Spider-Man 2	Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro for Amazing Spider-Man 2
James McAvoy as Charles Xavier/Professor X for X-Men: DOFP	Eva Green as Ava Lord for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Chris Evans as Curtis Everett for Snowpiercer	Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce for Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy for Amazing Spider-Man 2	Tilda Swinton as Mason for Snowpiercer
Bradley Cooper as Rocket for Guardians of The Galaxy	Karen Gillan as Nebula for Guardians of The Galaxy
Wham Bam Pow Award for Super Sidekick	Wham Bam Pow Award for Terrific Team
Jamie Bell as Edgar for Snowpiercer	HYDRA
Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon for Captain America: The Winter Soldier	X-Men
Evan Peters as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver for X-Men: DOFP	Guardians of The Galaxy
Dave Bautista as Drax for Guardians of The Galaxy	Captain America and His Kooky Quintet
Song Kang-Ho as Namgoong Minsu for Snowpiercer	The Tail Section
Vin Diesel as Groot for Guardians of The Galaxy	Sentinels
Wham Bam Pow Award for Best Screenplay	Wham Bam Pow Award for Dynamic Dialogue
Frank Miller for Sin City: A Dame To Kill For	'No Future' X-Men: Days of Future Past
Simon Kinsberg for X-Men: Days of Future Past	'Groot' Guardians of The Galaxy
Christopher Markus and Stepher McFeely for Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'Best Girl' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Bong Joon-Ho and Kelly Masterson for Snowpiercer	'Revelations' Snowpiercer
James Gunn and Nicole Perlman for Guardians of The Galaxy	'End of The Line' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Wham Bam Pow Award for Super Fight Scene	Wham Bam Pow Award for Awesome Character Moment
'Blood Sisters' Guardians of The Galaxy	'Bucky' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
'Escalation in the Escalator' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'Being a Villain, Being A Leader' Snowpiercer
'Into Darkness' Snowpiercer	'Choose Your Path' X-Men: Days of Future Past
'Electric Showdown at Times Square' Amazing Spider-Man 2	'In The Astral Plane' X-Men: Days of Future Past
'Ultimate Fighting' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'Doing What's Right' Snowpiercer
'Sentinel Hunt' X-Men: Days of Future Past	'Hope for the Future' Amazing Spider-Man 2
'Friends in Arms' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'Protect Them' X-Men: Days of Future Past
'Incy Wincy Spider' Amazing Spider-Man 2	'With You Till The End of The Line' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
'Assassin Hunts' Snowpiercer	'Owe Me A Dance' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
'The Arm vs. The Shield' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'For Old Times Sake' X-Men Days of Future Past
Wham Bam Pow Award for Laugh Out Loud Moment	Wham Bam Pow Award for Tearjerker Moment
'On Your Left' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	'A Strand of Web' Amazing Spider-Man 2
'12% of A Plan' Guardians of The Galaxy	'We Are Groot' Guardians of The Galaxy
'Dance-Off' Guardians of The Galaxy	'Peggy's Problem' Captain America: The Winter Soldier
'Escape from Kyln' Guardians of The Galaxy	'Old Class Reunites' X-Men: Days of Future Past
'Time in A Bottle' X-Men: Days of Future Past	'Quill's last letter' Guardians of The Galaxy
Wham Bam Pow Award for Tantalizing Tease	Wham Bam Pow Award for Exciting Future CBM
'Sinister Six' Amazing Spider-Man 2	Age of Ultron
'Age of Miracles' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Dawn of Justice
'My Mom Knew Someone Like That' X-Men: Days of Future Past	Apocalypse
'Not Terran' Guardians of The Galaxy	Guardians Again
'En-Sabah-Nur' X-Men: Days of Future Past	Hunt for Winter Soldier
Wham Bam Pow Award for Epic Set Piece	Wham Bam Pow Award for Best Geek Movie
'Sentinel Hunt' X-Men: Days of Future Past	Lego Movie
'Engine Blowout' Snowpiercer	Lucy
'Bad Ass MuthaF*' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Godzilla
'Quicksilver Heist' X-Men: Days of Future Past	Dawn of The Planet of The Apes
'Price of Freedom' Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Edge of Tomorrow

So don't forget to tune in for the awards.


'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia  

The Curious Case of Hindi Film Awards

The Curious Case of Hindi Bollywood Film Awards

A Prelude to The HIndie Awards

The road to or the Awards season itself is upon us. The Oscars are coming up next year and it's a race between the fall releases this time round to see who makes the cut to win big gold at every major function.

Now as we all know, the Oscars aren't perfect. Some would argue that they don't choose the best of the best of the year, but rather the best of the ones they like under their strict and snobbish judgment. The Academy Awards are by no means based on merit. 

But for many an Indians they are held in high regard, even though our films rarely make it to the foreign category (the last time it was Lagaan in 2002). Now let's face it, degrade us for our love or reverence for the Oscars all you want, but when you see the kind of hackneyed award functions we have you would understand. 

 

And this is why Hindi Cinema isn't taken seriously...at an serious award function, you have two of the current biggest stars cross dressing for some bad humor

For Hindi cinema, the awards season means just having these award functions hosted by not a body of film academics but rather media houses and big companies looking to churn profits of their TRP's. The only film award worth looking at are the National Awards and that too only on occasion.

Mainstream awards might avoid the American counterpart of annoying campaigning but they're close to the notion of politicking and that too on a whole other level. There's no denying that awards are bought.

Heck every new year, not only are they bought but made. Weird things such as Best Marketed film to Best Superstar who can't act to save his life are awarded to some of the worst hacks in Indian cinema. It's basically a shameless way to pat each other on the back.

Despite a few mistakes and misjudgments, 2012 and 2011 actually had the best Indian awards seasons giving it mostly to the right people and choices. Then last year (well we remember what happened last year) these awards go back to pandering to the superstars and the big buck people nominating the likes of Dhoom 3, Krrish 3 and Chennai Express over the BA Pass, Shahid's and Looteras of this world. 

From 2011 to 2012 Ranbir Kapoor (Rockstar and Barfi) and Vidya Balan (Dirty Picture and Kahaani) deserving won the awards amidst the people they were nominated against

I don't need to rant long you see, it's a known fact and around the internet that these Awards just don't matter. So I'm personally going to do the same thing I did with Underdog Awards and make a Hindi version of it; called the Hindie Awards.

Now while it will officially start from next year, I'd like to give due to the films from bygone years or just the prior decade with a what if styled revisit of these awards. So be prepared for my post on the HIndie Awards for the year 2012 (2013 was already done here). Do remember that for 2012 and 2011 my nominees and maybe even winners will be close to the awards I'm hating on (hypocrisy but because those two years, the awards people somehow just got it right).    

PS: Watch out for a lengthier examination on Hindi Film Awards and how that can be solved

'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia

Tintin's Top Ten The Big Oscar Prediction

Predicting The Lineup

For The Ten Pictures for The Academy Award For Best Picture

After Guardians of The Galaxy (I still have to review this) stormed the Summer season, it's time to mellow down for the long haul run towards the Academy Awards as the Festival/Awards circuit season kicks off.

TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) just ended and in its wake has left a lot of Buzz for Oscar potentials and hopefuls. 

Surprisingly, one of the best things of the year is how the major awards race seems so confounding and confusing. Not only in the lesser categories but the big one itself; Best Movie.

It's a year that might not necessarily feature the big nominees/a-lister's from the past half decade. In fact the buzz seems to be pin pointed on some typical Oscar films headlines by not so typical actors and directors (Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game) against big time comebacks in weird movies (Alejandro Innaritu and Michael Keaton in Birdman).

With the Oscars still a long way down, this could be because TIFF itself has failed to feature the major heavy hitters like in the past. Last year is a prime example where TIFF premiered eventual Best Picture winner 12 Years A Slave. Before that Argo.

TIFF in its entirety has been a strong premonition of the best picture race, although this year that might not hold true, saying that.

For this post, off the films I've touted for the ten nomination slots. Each of these films have either had a wide release, a limited release, a festival release or at the least a trailer to indicate what the film promises to be. As such serious touted contenders like Inherent Vice and Into The Woods are not on here.  

This means that films from TIFF are for now my major considerations for the Big One; the Big Award for Best Film. 

Also I'll include what other nominations for major awards such as acting we could see from these ten films and more (including actors in other films from TIFF

Enjoy my short analysis on their chances below...