As an adjunct to our Best of the Year Awards, Comicon would like to also recognize the best in films based on comic books in the past year. Of course, fewer films were released in 2023, but putting them into a top 5 order of relative quality reveals how much potential still exists in the genre while also highlighting some of its unfortunate pitfalls. And with studios ever hungry to convert comics into films, they’d do well to pay attention what these five films fared in public opinion.
The following are Comicon’s Best Comic Book Films of 2023.
5. Shortcomings, directed by Randall Park, written by Adrian Tomine; starring Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, and Ally Maki; released by Sony Pictures Classics
There’s something wild in seeing Tomine’s work adapted for the screen and performed by living actors. The insensitivity and sarcasm of his protagonist becomes meaner. The indie rock malaise feels substantially less justified. Luckily, it’s clear Tomine, who adapted his 2007 graphic novel for director Randall Park, understands this and the film contours itself more closely as a journey of discovery for Ben (Min), who learns he was the bad guy all along. Of course, using that term is reductive even if the viewer recognizes from the jump that Ben’s behavior is at the core of his problems. Like Tomine’s other stories, nothing is simple because life is too nuanced and complex. The only black-and-white to be found is in the art of his comic books. Nevertheless, the film still captures a lot of what makes Tomine so compelling, if re-framed in living color and with some of the independent film sensibilities Ben himself comments on throughout the movie. The end result: a comic book movie a lot of people like Ben might misread if they’re not ready for that type of introspection.
4. Nimona, directed by Nick Bruno & Troy Quane, screenplay by Robert L. Baird & Lloyd Taylor; starring the voices of Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed and Eugene Lee Yang; released by Netflix
While the story behind making the film is just as much of a twisty tale as Nimona itself, the final product is remarkable. A fairly liberal remix of ideas and characters contained in ND Stevenson‘s original graphic novel, it still hits important themes about isolation and how groups perceive “the other.” An added conspiracy plot and a new antagonist are also welcome additions as it further muddles the notions of “hero” and “bad guy” Stevenson explored. The film is also unambiguously queer. All of its themes, ideas, and characters are presented in some truly great animation, proving Disney was short-sighted when it closed the animation studio behind it and cancelled the film itself.
3. Blue Beetle, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer; starring Xolo Maridueña, Bruna Marquezine, Becky G, and George Lopez; released by Warner Bros. Pictures
If you go back to my review of The Flash, I was (and continued to be) extremely burned out on DC superhero movies. But Blue Beetle sliced through all the static of Warner Bros. Discovery’s inability to do anything with the characters and delivered the most solid live action superhero film of the year. The difference: “lower” stakes and a focus on family. Every member of La Familia Reyes is as important as Jaime (Maridueña), the young man encased in the beetle armor. Their experiences and characters are distinctive and instead of the villain’s plot jeopardizing the world, the risk only really concerns the family — they also prove to be the solution to the problem. Additionally, the specificity of that Latin American family surrounding Jaime offers the film a texture that cannot be duplicated elsewhere.
2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, directed by Jeff Rowe, written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Jeff Rowe and Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit; starring the voices of Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, and Ayo Edebiri; released by Paramount Pictures
As a concept, TMNT survives thanks to a willingness to reinvent itself every seven years or so. Each generation since the initial Eastman & Laird comics (or the initial animated series) has a set of Turtles to call their own. Mutant Mayhem, though, feels like a reinvention every generation can enjoy. Finally casting teenagers to voice the four ninja teens creates a brilliant authenticity. The scratchy art style — and the occasional breaking away from that aesthetic — feels like the biggest leap forward in decades even as it honors certain touchstones of the past. And while holding the Shredder back for a sequel tease may be something of a cliché in modern superhero movies, giving the Turtles a chance to shine without the baggage of the Foot Clan is genuinely refreshing.
1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, & Justin K. Thompson, written by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller & Dave Callaham; starring Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, and Oscar Isaac; released by Sony Pictures
When people say they are fatigued with superheroes, they really mean they’re tired of rushed and ill-conceived films featuring superheroes. Across the Spider-Verse proves there is still an appetite for well-executed films showcasing costumed characters. Building on the visual and thematic experimentation of its predecessor, the film fights against the dogmatic use of continuity and emphatically states the Marvel multiverse is richer for Miles Morales’s presence within it. It is also a stealthy Spider-Gwen movie, with ideas from her earliest comic book stories bookending the film and providing a lot of pathos thanks to her relationship with her father. Visually, it is also a feast. The animation is breathtaking, the art direction top notch, and the references so deep people are still cataloguing them. In a year where the Multiverse became the enemy of storytelling, Across the Spider-Verse proves execution is essential to making any zany comic book or sci-fi trope inviting to newcomers, interesting to those already familiar, and compelling for everyone.
0 Commentaires