New Year Column – Year 2018

2018 provided some surprises, blockbusters and indie-films that we will always enjoy from now on. But it feels more like a middle-year where you wait for the good movies and series. Not that many happened so fluently this year. More so, most series was either cancelled or finished this year.

Considering everything that has happened these latest three hundred days, for me personally – it hasn’t been the best year and seems so to have been that for the industry as well. The 2018s Oscars… Anyone remembered who won what for what movie? Like every year, barely anyone does that which has become more like a common thing from now on.

EVERYTHING THERE AND BETWEEN

Occasionally, we get the celebrity death that touches us all and somehow affect you on a daily basis. One of the major chocking news this year was Avicii who passed away this year. An artist who influenced so many and brought some of the modern-day music on display in so many ways, even in the film industry. He, like many, has influenced the every-day use of their craft and brings something internal and effectualness to their work such like Jerry Van Dyke, Margot Kidder, Hugh Wilson and R. Lee Ermey just like so many others. In Sweden, Ingmar Bergman is a GOD. There’s no denial. He is a master director. 2018 was the year he would have his 100^th year. One hundred years. This occasion was celebrated all through the year. All twelve months. Several documentaries were conducted and presented to initially have it’s premiered this year. He was one of its kind and it’s peaceful to see world-known directors and actors to talk about him with a kind heart.

THE 90’TH OSCARS

For once, the Academy Award provided a decent host that didn’t exaggerate everything and makes inappropriate songs and jokes. Seth MacFarlane was one of those hosts that made everything more like unwatchable in a pathetic manner. Most of the winners were more rather predictable. Gary Oldman, Guillermo del Toro, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell was one of the self-sustained winners. This year of the historic ceremony played a safe card. With Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as the top winners, there was no risk or tragedy that collide everyone’s expectations. It was a nice, decent ceremony that ended as you might be expected. Although, Frances McDormand’s Oscar for Best Actress got stolen during the after-party but managed to get it back shortly after. A safe ceremony with a run of over 4 hours claimed it on the net to be boring and safe. Yet, 2019 ceremony, has no host what so ever… for the time being.

FILMS

The aftermath for the overrated #MeToo Campaign in November 2017 keeps reflecting on the entertainment industry even a year after. Most of the hype of 2018, was Avengers: Infinity War, where Thanos is the big winner and everyone is shocked over the hard-smashing ending which leaves the audience in despair. It’s another entry of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It’s partly an ending for one of their phases and a continuation of the new beginning. The second half premieres in April/May 2019. As a part of the MCU, it’s a movie that combines several characters from different franchises. One of these is the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. 2017s sequel with Volume 2 was decent and caught some interesting storylines. Thor: Ragnarok was one of those as well. The comic-con in July brought on some unsettling news regarding the third film of the ensemble of the cosmic heroes.  According to several sites, it got hyped up and the news was that James Gunn got fired from Marvel and Disney because of inappropriate tweets he made ten years back. To date, it’s still unclear who the director is and the production for the movie is now on hold.

Most of the movies for 2018 was okay. It’s mediocre and most of the films weren’t the same after the premiere of Infinity War. Once more, Netflix took the effort to make their voices heard.  There were, as usual, these days, several Comic-book/Superhero-movies which includes Black Panther, Aquaman, Deadpool 2, Ant-Man &The Wasp and Venom was also a big deal together with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, The Incredibles 2 and The Grinch. A lot of sequels took place as well; Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Johnny English Strikes Again, Mary Poppins Returns, Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Creed II. But out of all these, which might be considered commercially movies, there is some movie that reckons some popularity and credibility; Green Book  – A small film that deserves more than what it shows on. It proves some of the best acting of this year and an emotional roller-coaster that echoes all through the film.

Christopher Robin – A film about a grown man that gets his need clarified and in-store. Christopher Robin re-lives some of his childhood memories and is determined to not return to a place that he now doesn’t care that much about. A good family movie. Capharnaüm – A Lebanese/American drama about a 12-year boy who sues his parents for their neglect while he serves time for a horrible crime. The heart-breaking tone with realistic conduct shows a different reality of the world that is worth to embrace.  A Star is Born was as well a good and well-made film. Not to forget the awesome and funny Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph Breaks the Internet, which utterly premiered in November.

I really wanted First Man to be the movie of the year but at the end, it felt empty somehow. It felt incomplete and sadly it wasn’t what I wished it to be. It’s one of the contenders of the Golden Globe on January 6^th and hopefully, it’s one of the winners. One of the best and fucked-up movies premiered THIS YEAR is Hereditary and A Quiet Place, which was two highly popular horror-movies that succeeded to get the genre right. At least, it isn’t the train-wreck The Nun that basically drowned a well-received franchise (The Conjuring-movies) and didn’t deserve the overhype, like Halloween desperately tried to convey. Ready Player One was a good and entertaining experience but the visuals were disturbing lacking to provide some credibility to the storyline.

TV-SERIES

It was crucially to fix TV instead of the film. There was sort of more entertaining TV-series that debuted and returned this year than it was with exciting movies. Even though the end of Game of Thrones wasn’t presented this year, we got some memorable and insightful stories in the TV-format. One of the best shows this year has been Wild Wild Country, The Americans, Maniac, Patrick Melrose, Better Call Saul and The Haunting of Hill House mixed together with other great and fantastic shows. Ironically, most of these series are streaming and all available on Netflix, HBO and Amazon. Daredevil, season 3, did finally arrived after a long wait in a dark cold hallway and to its surprising end – it got cancelled. In a heart-breaking reveal, it shattered some beliefs of the audience. All reportedly, it’s all because of the new DEAL with the emerge of Disney and FOX.

I love the Daredevil series like many others and with its cancellation – the third one, it seemed like so much before that it caught on fire and right after it, the Internets social media responded with harsh and doubtful messages. It became a dreadful trend to cancel popular series. Daredevil was the best product of the Marvel/Netflix combination – and probably the best show and season of this year. Daredevil wasn’t the only series that had its foot in the grave for a long time. Many other series like The Big Bang Theory and Homeland came to a final season. It seems that only The Simpsons and The Walking Dead has big trouble to come to a rightful ending. It was an interesting TV-year. Many news shows arrived and now that even A Series of Unfortunate Events has come to a concluded end on 1 January 2019. Even Making a Murderer got it’s season 2 where it depicted even more corruption in the law enforcement of the U.S. mixed with in-progress tweets from the documentary series lawyer. A year, filled with mixed signals from right and left ending up together with many concluded storylines, mostly in a decent manner. Not to forget that the female prison-drama Orange Is the New Black arrives with its final season now in summer 2019. The End of the F***ing World on Netflix appeared to also have some influence on the audience in a major manner.

UP NEXT IN 2019

However, 2018 is gone and 2019 is up next. Time to look ahead… Without a question this year will be once more a year filled with action-adventures movies starting with GLASS in January, Lego Move 2 in February, Captain Marvel and Dumbo in March, Avengers: Endgame, Pet Semetary in April, Aladdin in May, Toy Story 4 in June, Lion King, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Spider-Man: Far from Home in July, Artemis in August, IT: Chapter 2 and Downton Abbey in September, Joker in October, Death on the Nile, Kingsman 3, Sonic the Hedgehog and Frozen 2 with an epic conclusion of the final movie for the sequel trilogy;  Star Wars: Episode IX.

This week we just got the conclusion of A Series of Unfortunate Events with the third and final season. HBO’s True Detective returns once more just like Mindhunter, Taboo, Fargo, The Crown, The Punisher that will arrive later this month on January 18 and Stranger Things July 4^th. Without a question, there is some big movies and TV-series that enters the year in 2019. Next year (2020) we’ll see the continuation of Avatar 2, a film made in ten years. A lot of series returns as well in 2019. For sure, the series finale of Game of Thrones is promising, and don’t you think it will be epic just like Avengers: End Game and Star Wars: Episode IX?

Let’s wait and find out…