It’s been another long year of great entertainment. It’s time for the ninth annual round of new honorees for the borg Hall of Fame. We have several inductees from 2021 films and television – 16 in all, new borgs or updated variants of past members, bringing the borg Hall of Fame total to 281.
You can always check out the updated borg Hall of Fame on our home page under “Know your borg.”
Some reminders about criteria. Borgs have technology integrated with biology. Wearing a technology-powered suit alone doesn’t qualify. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was named an honoree because the Arc Reactor kept him alive, not because of his incredible tech armor. The Spider-Man suit worn by Tom Holland is similar to Tony’s, but it’s not integrated with Peter Parker’s biology.
Also, if the creators tell us the characters are merely robots, automatons, or androids (as in Westworld, and as in the Synths of Star Trek: Picard, and the new Dark Troopers of The Mandalorian), we take their word for it. Again, integration is key, but in the Hall, once a member, always a member.
After the first of our two pandemic years, when we created last year’s preview of 2021 movies we admit we thought the year was looking iffy from a movie standpoint–so many films delayed or held back, others expected but canceled early in production, etc. All year we wondered what we’d get to see and what we wouldn’t–and thanks to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vudu, and similar streaming services, a smaller but still impressive array of movies kept us entertained, especially by way of genre content.
Genredom. As always, we’re after the best genre content of the year–with our top categories from the Best in Movies. There are thousands of other places that cover plain vanilla dramas and the rest of the film world, but here we’re looking for movies we want to watch.
Come back tomorrow for our best print media picks and our annual borgHall of Fame inductees. And if you missed it, check out our Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroinesof 2021here and Best TV of 2021here. Wait no further, here are the Best Movies of 2021:
Best Superhero Movie– Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony). Overlooked like the original Venom, sharp writing and faithful adaptation of the comics made for the best, most fun superhero movie of 2021. Runner-up: Black Widow (Disney). Despite the delays it was worth the wait, and it stands as a rewatchable and fun movie. Honorable mention: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney), a great tie-in to characters from throughout the MCU.
Best Action/Adventure Film, Best Visual Effects: Jungle Cruise (Disney), another Disney rollercoaster ride translated to the screen; a film that surprised us as the next incarnation of a Raiders of the Lost Ark-level adventure. Runner-up: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Disney). A solid martial arts adventure, a bus scene out of Speed, and great finale action.
Best Film, Best Drama, Best Director (Simon Stone), Best Cinematography (Mike Eley) – The Dig (Netflix). A powerful film, exploring life at the precipice of change, missed and almost missed opportunities, the fleeting nature of life, and the survival of humanity through what we leave behind. Runners-up for Best Film: The Courier (Amazon), Black Widow (Disney), one of the MCU’s best contributions.
Once a year at borg we ask: What makes a great screen heroine? It’s time for borg′s annual look at the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines in film and television. We’re highlighting the very best from a slate of fantastic heroines, with characteristics to learn from and root for. Determined, decisive, loyal, brave, smart, fierce, strong, you’ll find no one here timid or weepy, but all rely on their individual skills to beat the odds and overcome any obstacle that comes their way. Over the years we have expanded the list to include any tough, savvy, gritty character played by a woman, so villains are welcome here, too. (Want to see previous years’ kickass genre heroines to see how 2021 compares? Here are 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015). Some may be frazzled, put-upon, war-weary, or human, but all have fought, some against difficult circumstances, others against personal demons (literally, figuratively, or both), and some against gun and laser fire. And they all showed what a tough, kick-ass, and often badass, character is about.
This year we add three superheroines, an amnesiac bounty hunter, four police detectives, a thief, a grifter, a hacker, 13 martial arts experts, three soldiers, a god, a duchess, two college students, three Russian assassins, a spy, an actress, a cyborg, a bartender, a forensics expert, a hitman, and a helicopter pilot, with eight characters we’ve seen in past years and 13 all-new characters we’ve never seen in any medium before–all in a roster split between 21 television and 13 movie characters. Credit goes to both the writers, costumers, and other creators of the characters and the actors and performers that brought them all to life.
These are the Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2021:
Antonia Dreykov aka Taskmaster(Black Widow). Was there a more intriguing, surprising, gut-wrenching character this year than Olga Kurylenko’s super-powered cyborg? She was one of the best costumed villains this year and certainly the most sympathetic, leaving the question: Where does she go from here? (Disney)
Faye Valentine(Cowboy Bebop). Daniella Pineda’s spin on this classic sci-fi character couldn’t have been better. Always eager, always excitable, always refreshing, as she pursued the dramatic journey to discover who she really is. (Netflix)
It was without question Marvel’s biggest delay. Not only was Black Widow originally expected to arrive in theaters May 1 last year, getting a delay and never a proper theatrical release, it simply was Kevin Feige’s big misfire by not thinking to make it earlier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s 23 movies. Content-wise it could have arrived around 2013 as part of the Phase II of the series, and ultimately must be wedged somewhere between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. For those not yet ready to return to theaters, it’s been a long wait. Finally Disney+ has dropped its $30 premium for its subscribers and Vudu and other streaming providers have it where it should have been, at a sell-through price of $19.99.
So how does Black Widow stack up with respect to the previous Marvel movies, and did Marvel make the best superheroine movie of them all with Scarlett Johanson’s solo movie? First of all, the big word to describe this movie is “surprising.”
Two movie trailers in and it still is difficult to understand what Eternals will be about. It still looks like a cross between X-Men: Apocalypse,Jupiter’s Legacy and Inhumans. The final trailer from Marvel Studios for the third movie of Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (on the tail of both Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) doesn’t look like any other Marvel movie. Eternalshas a cast of familiar names–the central character fan-favorite actress Gemma Chan, who wowed us in Humans and Shetland, and created a great villain in Raya and the Last Dragon. She also played a friend turned enemy in Captain Marvel, as the alien Minn-Erva. And it features actors most wouldn’t think to cast for an MCU movie, like Salma Hayek, Angelina Jolie, and Kumail Nanjiani. But the strange takeaway from the first trailer (seen here) and second (and final) trailer is it doesn’t look like any other Marvel movie–there’s no hook, no exciting or funny element to reel in viewers after such a successful Phase III.
It was March 10, 2020, when Disney/Marvel released its “final” movie trailer for the final movie in the Infinity Saga–Black Widow. Another “final” trailer is… finally… here. It’s Scarlett Johansson as a younger Black Widow, and this trailer features the most we’ve seen of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, expected to take on the Black Widow role for the coming phase of the Marvel universe–along with a new cast of characters. We’ll all forever scratch our heads over why it didn’t enter anyone’s mind at Marvel Studios to get Marvel’s top superheroine her own movie before Infinity War and Endgame. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait.
Check out the new, final, trailer for Black Widow:
It looks like a cross between Jupiter’s Legacy and Inhumans. The first trailer from Marvel Studios for the third movie of Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (on the tail of both Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) doesn’t look like any other Marvel movie. Eternalshas an A-list cast, the central character fan-favorite actress Gemma Chan, who wowed us in Humans and Shetland, and created a great villain in Raya and the Last Dragon. She also played a friend turned enemy in Captain Marvel, as the alien Minn-Erva. So Marvel must be taking a leap of faith that audiences don’t assume this is the same character in disguise–Captain Marvel did have its share of shapeshifters. (Maybe this is an indicator Marvel would be willing to bring back Chris Evans as Johnny Storm?) The movie features Academy Award winners Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie and Oscar-nominated Kumail Nanjiani. But the strange takeaway from the first trailer is it doesn’t look like any other Marvel movie–there’s no hook, no exciting or funny element to reel in viewers after such a successful Phase III.
It’s been more than a year since Disney/Marvel released its “final” movie trailer for the final movie in the Infinity Saga–Black Widow. We’ll all forever scratch our heads over why it didn’t enter anyone’s mind at Marvel Studios to get Black Widow her own movie before Infinity War and Endgame. But Scarlett Johansson as a younger Black Widow, and a fun cast of Russian characters may finally see the light of day after a year and a half of pandemic shutdowns–although most of us will still be watching it on our TVs instead of the theater. A slightly modified, new trailer is out for Black Widow, with a new summer release date. Check it out:
It was only a year ago here at borg we were discussing some of the projects expected to arrive in 2020. That didn’t happen, but a pandemic later and some juggling by the execs at Disney and we seem to have a realistic schedule for the projects we’ll see in 2021. So let’s gather some excitement for Marvel superheroes heading our way, at least from the first looks at these shows we’ve seen via their movie and series trailers. What does it look like we’re going to actually see in 2021 via streaming Disney+ or Vudu streaming? As Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues with the final episodes of WandaVision on Disney+, next up will be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier starting on Disney+ March 19. Probably the most eagerly awaited of all Marvel projects since Spider-Man: Far from Home is Black Widow, delayed and delayed some more, now expected to arrive May 7, probably for a theater run and a pay version via Disney+. Which leaves the six episode mini-series Loki, also expected to arrive in May, via Disney+. The common link? All of these feature characters and storylines still heavily anchored to Phase III of the MCU, and all are an opportunity to tweak the past via time travel or a changed past to allow for new characters and new storylines.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is expected to arrive in theaters June 25, and Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings has a July 9 premiere date, but Disney hasn’t issued a trailer for either yet. As a bonus we’ll throw in the trailer below for the animated series What… If? which doesn’t have anything but a 2021 projected Disney+ series launch date, and the trailer for Morbius, a Sony production tying into the MCU–at least via a cameo by Michael Keaton as Vulture, the villain from Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. It’s now slated for a January 2022 theatrical premiere. Although an Eternals movie is expected around Thanskgiving and another Spider-Man movie could slip in around Christmas, all the other Phase IV projects have been pushed out beyond 2021–the next movies featuring Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Fantastic Four, and TV series featuring a new Hawkeye, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy (a special), Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, and a Wakanda series.
It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2021! But wait! Next year’s list sure looks a lot like the the films we previewed last December. The covid pandemic has delayed hundreds of film projects, but some made it through. When you walk back through last year’s list and compare it to movies released after theater lockdowns, you get some insight into how Hollywood thinks. Big movies and movies predicted to be successes were universally held back, while less popular films were released to low box office returns from theaters that remained open, and yet other films went directly to home streaming or related media platforms.
Last year we pulled 85 of the hundreds of films then slated for the 2020 movie calendar. The first two dozen made it to theaters (films like Underwater, Dolittle, and Birds of Prey) before the national shift began on March 11 with news of the NBA reacting to the pandemic by suspending pro basketball–the first national awareness of the scope of the problem. Suddenly we saw Vudu and other home platforms coming to the rescue for our entertainment fix, adding a new Theater at Home option, which captured movies like Anya Taylor-Joy’s Emma, Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot, and the animated Scoob! Disney began an interesting tiered release of Mulan, which for half the year showed a studio doing its best to maximize returns on what would have been a key release in any other year. After another delay The New Mutants made it briefly to theaters followed by home release after three years of getting kicked aside as the last vestiges of the Disney-Fox merger were shaken out. Other films, like Vast of Night, Extraction, The Old Guard, Rebecca,Radioactive, and Fantasy Island safely premiered on Netflix and Amazon Prime, with Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction standing out as the clear popular winner–the entire world needed some new entertainment and after what would only be the first of several months of shelter-at-home, it tentatively filled the void.
So our predictions for the year’s big genre films were flat wrong, every single one except Mulan was delayed to 2021, including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Black Widow, No Time to Die, a new Fast & Furious, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, and superhero flicks Venom 2, Eternals, and Morbius. Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to have a theatrical release by year end. Altogether 35 of last year’s 85 movies previewed on our annual list are back again below, plus we found more than 35 new genre films we think will appeal to borg readers.
So what’s left and what’s new?
Grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2021. Then compare the below list to our 2020 list, and look back to the 2019 list, 2018 list, 2017 list, 2016 list, 2015 list, or 2014 list. Last year we noticed studios moving genre content from the big screen to the small screen via streaming services, and the pandemic only stepped up that migration. Note: Warner Bros. has reported it will issue its 2021 releases simultaneously on HBO Max. Netflix has mostly dramas slated for 2021, but a few genre films are in pre-production, so expect a few surprises throughout the year. Amazon Studios has fewer, most partnerships with Blumhouse Productions.
As we learned well this year, many of these films will have revised release dates, and even get pushed to 2022.
January
Mortal Kombat. Based on the video game. New! Tentative release date: January 15, 2021. HBO Max.
Wrath of Man. Next Jason Statham action flick. New! Tentative release date: January 15, 2021.
The French Dispatch. Wes Anderson and his familiar actors in new quirky film about journalists. New! January 28, 2021.
The Dig. A film about a woman finding archaeological treasures on her land, starring Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, and Carey Mulligan. January 29, 2021. Netflix.
