gM Awards: Movie of The Year Nominees

here's the nominees for Movie of the Year

for the record, Astro Boy is loosely based on the archetypal manga and anime character of the same name created by the so-called "god of manga" Osamu Tezuka. the plot of the film takes place in the futuristic floating city/state Metro City, whose citizens live a fairly idyllic existence as they are waited on hand-and-foot by a race of robots of every conceivable shape size and function, while the city's refuse is dumped on the planet's ruined surface. Created to replace the dead son of Metro City's greatest scientist, Astro goes through a soul-searching journey worthy of comics' greatest heroes. The film's story balances complex ideas and shows a respect for its viewers that's uncommon for a kids' film. (read full review here)

Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi mockumentary-style sci-fi joint District 9 is one of these films that seems to be pretty galvanizing. From what I can tell, people have tended to either love it or hate it (if you have trouble guessing which one I am, go here for my review). the film takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa where an alien ship has been hovering for twenty years, and the shiftless aliens inside have been relocated from the dormant ship to the alien superghetto, District 9. the South African corporation MNU has designs on the aliens' technology, which will not work for humans, but as the documentary framing sequence foreshadows, something goes horribly wrong.

I was not excited to hear about a reboot of the Star Trek franchise. in fact, i technically never went to see it. I walked in on it at the sneakeasy after watching another of the nominees.  As it turns out, the movie is freaking AWESOME! Uhura is fine as hell. Spock is the shit. Kirk taps a green chick. Sulu kicks ass with his futuristic wu-tang sword style. scotty makes the impossible happen. Bones is a doctor, dammit! what more can you ask!?!

also nominated is the Disney/Pixar joint Up. despite my penchant for socio-political rambling and bad language, i'm really a big kid at heart. as such, a company like Pixar is a dream come true. they have mastered the art of the 'fun for the whole family' kid's movie, and in Up, they've cranked out another classic.

 Watchmen (directed by 300's Zack Snyder) does a great job of shifting between the storylines of the venerated comic's many characters, which I was  originally very concerned about. Snyder had the daunting job of cutting the fat out of one of the most highly celebrated stories in all of comicdom, and handled it admirably. Rorschach, the most popular character in the story, is handled perfectly without losing the other characters in the shuffle. in fact, the love triangle between Nite Owl, Silk Specter and Dr. Manhattan is handled better than i expected as well. (read my full review here)


anyways, that's the nominees for now. feel free to suggest more nominees via email or in comments, as this post will be updated. voting starts Wednesday, December 30 and ends New Years Eve at 11:59pm. for a complete list of gMA categories, go here.
-samax
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