Everything is related. That’s what you’ll learn if you watched this year’s superhero movies, beginning with Black Widow, threading into Hawkeye. Loki and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings wove their way into the coming Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and even if you haven’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home yet, you know from the trailers it, too, ties into the Multiverse with the appearance of Doctor Strange. And we won’t say how, but if you decided to skip it (and it’s been available in different forms via theaters and digital home release for weeks now), Venom: Let There Be Carnage finally connects Sony’s Marvel world with the giant MCU you know from Disney (another big connection to tie the four corners of Marvel together this month if you’re paying attention). Sure, we may have thought the Sony tie was going to happen in WandaVision, when Sony X-Men’s Quicksilver showed up on Wanda and Vision’s doorstep, but for whatever reason it didn’t happen. The real deal finally began in the sequel to 2018’s Venom(reviewed here). Yes, everything is connected. But that’s not the only reason to make sure you watch Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
It’s been another long year of great entertainment. It’s time for the eighth annual round of new honorees for the borg Hall of Fame. We have several honorees from 2020 films and television, plus you’ll find many from the past, and a peek at some from the future – 44 new borgs or updated variants in all, bringing the borg Hall of Fame total to 265.
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.
When we created last year’s preview of 2020 movies we were pretty sure we were going to have some great movies this year, but we were surprised by what ended up being the best, mainly because what were to be the big box office hits were delayed to 2021 because of the covid pandemic. 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, an impressive array of movies kept us entertained, especially by way of genre content. Ultimately we think the Best Movies of 2020 will stand up against any other year.
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. What do all of this year’s selections have in common? In addition to those elements that define each part of genredom, each has a good story. Special effects without a good story is not good entertainment, and we saw plenty of films this year that missed that crucial element.
Come back tomorrow for our best on television and later this week for our print media picks and our annual borgHall of Fame inductees. And if you missed it, check out our Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroinesof 2020here. Wait no further, here are the Best Movies of 2020:
Best Film, Best Sci-Fi Film, Best Drama, Best Director, Best Cinematographer, Best Writing, Best Suspense/Thriller, Best Retro Fix – The Vast of Night (Amazon Prime). The man of many hats, writer-director-producer-editor Andrew Patterson dazzled us this year with the sleeper sci-fi film The Vast of Night, from Amazon Prime. Amazon hadn’t before stunned us with a feature film, but this one sure blew us away. We knew this was the #1 science fiction offering of the year at first viewing, but when we went back and watched films again, it also stood out as the clear winner for top prize. Part American Graffiti, part The Twilight Zone and The X-Files, and filmed as faithfully to the era as a Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece (with Orson Welles flair), this story sneaks up on the audience thanks in part to its two talented young lead actors. The script is impeccable and rich, dotted with great jargon that dances artfully like music from the characters’ lips. Expert Chilean cinematographer Miguel Menz adds just the right lighting and camera angles for a film we hope can get recognized by the Oscars, if only so we can see more of these filmmakers and actors in the future. Honorable mention for Best Sci-Fi Film: Altered Carbon: Resleeved(Netflix).
Best Borg Movie, Best Superhero Movie, Best Borg – Bloodshot (Sony Pictures). The story of slain soldier Ray Garrison provided the year’s best look at life as a borg. What do you do with cybernetic enhancements, how do you use them, and what toll does take from your humanity? Jeff Wadlow’s story really kicked in once the audience slides into the plot twist. The Six Million Dollar Man didn’t get to decide to get his bionics, and neither does Ray. Once you give up control of yourself to someone else, more and more of you vanishes. Especially if the person in control is using you as a tool of evil. The best superhero films tend to be about the B-level superheroes, and Bloodshot proved that true again this year. Honorable mention for Best Superhero Movie: The New Mutants(20th Century Studios).
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. Despite delays in releases due to the covid pandemic, nothing kept Hollywood from including great female characters on the screen, even if that meant moving movies to the small screen for a while. 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 2020 compares? Here are 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 masked superheroines, a CDC epidemiologist, aliens, assassins, martial artists, warriors, cyborgs, a telephone operator, an engineer, a bounty hunter, and a frog and a pig–with a roster evenly split between television and 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 2020:
Bo-Katan Kryze(The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars). In the animated series she would let nothing stand in her way. In a galaxy with villains like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Grand Moff Gideon, we’re lucky to have Bo-Katan on our side. Leading a team to find the Darksaber and restore Mandalore, she’s also willing to enlist a lone straggler, and help him for his efforts. With Katee Sackhoff, the actress behind Starbuck, in the armor, the coolness factor goes up by a factor of 100. Great heroines are great leaders, and, like Bo-Katan, they wield an incredible arsenal of skills. (Disney/Lucasfilm)
Sheriff Nicole Haught (Wynonna Earp). Katherine Barrell’s tough, savvy, and friendly sheriff is one of the best reasons to watch Wynonna Earp, now four seasons running. She’s the girlfriend of Wynonna’s sister Waverly, she is plugged into the local supernatural happenings, and she’s always available to lend a hand, when she’s not carrying out her sheriff duties. She’s an investigator who is loyal, driven, and smart. She’s also fun and friendly, making her the heart of the series. In a show about supernatural people, she holds her own as law enforcer simply by her own human wits. (Syfy)
Seven of Nine (Star Trek Picard). More than forty years of Star Trek have revealed some exceptional women leaders. This year we were lucky to see the re-appearance of one of the best, a character who was captured as a child and trapped in what amounts to a technological cult. With the help of a strong captain, Seven was able to break free, and re-learn what it means to be human. This year that meant helping a legendary former admiral, avenge the death of her closest friend, and fight for good long after her call to duty. (CBS All Access)
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.
Sometimes a movie is exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re a fan of the coming of age or teen horror genres and the Xavier school superheroes weren’t exactly your thing, you have a new darker team of superheroes arriving on home streaming platforms this month in The New Mutants. The most eagerly awaited movie in years is here, one we’ve previewed and re-previewed new trailers for so many times we’ve almost lost count, all due to the 20th Century Studios merger into Disney and a pandemic. Much better than X-Men: Dark Phoenix and X-Men: Apocalypse, those who are bored with over-the-top, end-of-the-world plots and love the personal stories of the X-Men in the pages of Marvel Comics–and were really, really patient–will find it was worth the wait.
The most eagerly awaited movie in years received some nice treatment this week as part of San Diego Comic-Con@Home. We’ve previewed and re-previewed new trailers for The New Mutants probably more than any other movie in our past decade of coverage here at borg (just type The New Mutants in the search box to the right and you’ll see it all). The new and improved, post-merger 20th Century Studios even nicely mocks the delayed release dates in its Comic-Con@Home panel footage below, which features the director, cast members, and the legendary comic artist most closely aligned with The New Mutantsby way of his 1980s artwork, Bill Sienkiewicz. It also previews the entire opening scene and a trailer with new content from the film. All in all, some good stuff for a very patient fanbase for a film made in the summer of 2017.
In-person cancellations have not kept every event this summer from canceling entirely. One of those is typically one of the summer’s biggest events, San Diego Comic-Con. Events for SDCC 2020 are proceeding ahead beginning Wednesday, but this time providing an opportunity for fans of all things pop culture a chance to sit through the kinds of panels you might see were you to attend in person in any regular year–without standing overnight in lines. You can even grab a lanyard off the rack, print your own badge (for you and your pets), cosplay with your family, and load the panels up on as big of a screen as you have. It’s 350 panels over five days, beginning Wednesday, July 22, and wrapping up Sunday, July 26. Check out all our suggestions for building your own fun convention week experience below.
With all the changes at the movies, including delays for The New Mutants, originally scheduled for release two years ago and seemingly cursed to never get released by the studio, a television series also based on comics still doesn’t have a firm release date. That’s Syfy’s series Resident Alien, which currently is marketed to arrive this summer on the heels of Syfy’s current, similar vibe, sci-fi comedy Vagrant Queen. Based on a sci-fi/crime mystery mash-up series of comics beginning in 2012 by Peter Hogan(2000 AD, Tom Strong) and Steve Parkhouse (Milkman Murders, Doctor Who)–and first discussed here at borg back in 2013—the television series will be headlined by Firefly, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and Doom Patrol fan-favorite actor Alan Tudyk.
Tudyk plays an alien posing as a human doctor (a la Coneheads), but he’s cloaked, at least to some. The big news for the series is that Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Chuck) will co-star as a military general pursuing Tudyk’s alien visitor. Sara Tomko(Pandemic), Corey Reynolds (The Closer),Alice Wetterlund(People of Earth), Levi Fiehler (Mars), Mandell Maughan(Life), and Alex Barima(The Exorcist) co-star in the series.
While you’re waiting for this series, get caught up on the comics, released in five trade editions you can track down from Elite Comics or your local comic book store. In the first story arc we meet the alien and see how he goes undercover as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle in the first murder mystery. The second collection takes the alien/doctor to Seattle to try to help a new-found friend. The third finds him sleuthing out a criminal also hiding behind an alias in town. The feds arrive in the fourth arc, and the fifth arc/collection finds him on a trip to New York City.
Disney and Fox have no expectations for this one, so it would be great for X-Men fans to see it in the theater and make known the X-Men are as important to fans as the Avengers, twenty years after the first X-Men movie arrived in theaters.
We’re hoping The New Mutants was worth the wait. At last we have a trailer that shows the potential of these characters, with this week’s release of the final trailer for the final film of the longest running continuous superhero movie franchise, Fox’s X-Men. This is movie #13, and with it, the first horror superhero movie for Marvel. April 13, 2018, was the original release date for the movie, but it was bumped a few times by the studio to accommodate bigger superhero stories including Deadpool 2 and X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and then Marvel movies after the merger of Fox and Disney. We previewed it here at borg more than two years ago. It looks like M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass (and even co-stars that movie’s Anya Taylor-Joy) merged with the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, with Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton carrying forward the Johnny Depp look. Or a really haywire The Breakfast Club. As a result of the success of modern horror stories like Get Out and It, the original cut is in final reshoots by director Josh Boone to make it scarier. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s also easy to envision these mutant kids as an offshoot or tie-in story related to the lab that produced Laura aka X-23 in James Mangold’s Academy Award-nominated Logan.
And speaking of Anya Taylor-Joy, the film was made before these young actors’ careers really took off. Taylor-Joy filmed Split just before this and then Glass, was a lead voice (of Brea) in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and in Playmobil: The Movie, starred in Peaky Blinders, and filmed the lead role in a new remake of Emma, with five other films coming out in the next year. Maisie Williams grew up on Game of Thrones. And since filming The New Mutants,Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, and Blu Hunt have appeared in several movies and TV shows. The bad news of the reshoots is that Jon Hamm’s character Mister Sinister was reportedly cut entirely.
It’s the original roster of New Mutants (Cannonball, Mirage, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane), plus Magik from the second roster. Finally! Check out this great new trailer for The New Mutants:
