The Best Films of 2017
2017 is in the history books now and we take a look back at the best of the best films in our five categories.
Action & Adventure
This field had some strong entries this year – the fun of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the amazing fight scenes in John Wick 2 and Atomic Blonde, and the over-the-top vehicular excitement from Fate of the Furious and Baby Driver. Honestly, I’ve gone back and forth on this one. I loved seeing Keanu Reeves back in action and Baby Driver is a surprisingly good thriller with great characters, but I have to give the node to Fate of the Furious. Given its amazing cast, the scenes with screaming tires, and the fight choreography (it’s hard to top Jason Statham) this was the action extravaganza of the year.
Fantasy
Unlike the preceding category, most of the fantasy films this year fell a bit flat. This was a shame too, since King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and The Great Wall held such promise given their potentials for epic tales. I tried to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales twice and fell asleep both times. This doesn’t recommend the film. The only fantasy to not drop the ball and to slay at the box office was Beauty and the Beast.
It could be argued that Star Wars: The Last Jedi belongs in the fantasy category and that is probably true, but given its tone and the treatment of its characters, it wouldn’t get the win here anyway.
Horror
Horror films had a busy year in 2017. But horror is usually well-represented, though quality for so many films is quite low. We saw the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s classic It. King Kong returned to the movies with ferocious style. Universal’s push to boot a cinematic Dark Universe with The Mummy stumbled in its wrappings. Get Out very artfully wove a thriller with humor and social commentary. But the film that created a sense of un-ease and growing suspense until its end was Split. McAvoy’s character and the depth and breadth of his psychosis are genuinely creepy to watch. It was also interesting to note the behavior of those who come in contact with him and attempted to deal. They didn’t make the usual “stupid victim” cliché choices, but it still didn’t help them.
Science-Fiction
2017 was an ambitious sci-fi year, but like other categories, it had its duds. Alien: Covenant largely proved how dull and incomprehensible Ridley Scott can make a franchise. Ghost In the Shell was a pale re-make of its manga origins bringing little in the way of any new ideas in spite of the intervening years. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets looked cool, but also managed to look silly.
The best sci-fi films of the year both dealt with the human condition through the eyes of beings who aren’t human – War For the Planet of the Apes and Blade Runner 2049. Notably each of these alternate future worlds predicted that the traits we would normally ascribe to humanity – courage, selflessness, nobility – would be taken up by our successors. “We are what they go beyond.” A scary thought, hopefully not a prophetic one.
Superheroes
We finally got our Justice League movie last year, but again DC Comics seems to have trouble translating its characters and stories to the big screen (unless it’s Batman, of course). However, Marvel cleaned up at the box office with Spiderman: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, and the dramatic swan song of Wolverine, Logan. Marvel did great, but the best of the year for its modern-day myth, great characters, and inspiring story is Wonder Woman. Patty Jenkins’ film with its iconic portrayal of Diana, the Amazonian heir to the Olympian Gods as played by Gal Gadot, simply set the standard by which the other films of the year were judged. Maybe we have a chance at retaining that humanity that sci-fi was giving up to non-humans after all.
Best of the Best for 2017
Adventure – Fate of the Furious
Fantasy – Beauty and the Beast
Horror – Split
Science-Fiction – (tie) War For the Planet of the Apes / Blade Runner 2049
Superheroes – Wonder Woman
- JC