Reply To: Hobby Weekender 15/03/2019 – The 2000's

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1. ‘…what books, movies, comics, TV series or anime from the 2000’s surprised you or was most memorable?

Movies

 

There were good movies in the 2000s all in all. While there were a lot of flops (Stealth, Pluto Nash, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles), failed reboots of movie series (Red Dragon and in fact everything after silence that was a continuation just plane sucked, and declining careers of certain stars (Martin Lawrence springs to mind but there are certainly more). There was good too like Along came a Spider, From Paris with Love, Superbad, and The Hangover. Also Taken.

There was the stuff I did not like but curtailed to some and was successful or significant enough to pop culture in its own right such as Mamma Mia, the Sex and the City movie and the Bridget Jones movies. Not to mention all the Disney / Pixar stuff that gets churned out like clockwork on a yearly basis.

What stuck out to me though were Tolkien, Star Wars and Marvel.

With the Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) (I cant believe there was talk about changing the name of this movie based on a book from 1954 after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks, my heart go out to the victims and Emergency Services of New York City, but Gates of Hades that is ridiculous; only a simpleton would link the two and it is a tenuous link and then have to deliberately take offence in a contrived manner) and Return of the King (2003) the early 2000s opened with a bang. It was a sign of changing times where movie theatres were taking chances on new ideas and properties, though sadly this became a trend and a safe bet with so many bad clones coming out in the form of the Golden Compass and Erragon to name a few. Anyhow back on topic. It showed that full scale battles, awesome high quality props, and computer generated effects had reached a new benchmark and level. Truly this was a beacon to what could be attained moving forward. Not to mention GW doing the game, as well as a bunch of other companies making board, card and tabletop RPG games of it.

Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) mark two different periods for me. While none of the Prequal trilogy movies were great, the setting they occurred in was interesting enough. Also they look a lot better after seeing the Last Jedi. Poor Luke. Attack of the Clones is something me and most of my year in school went to after after-school study to a packed Cinema. It was a great experience to share. The movie was boring to be fair but seeing the planet Kimino, a conspiracy uncovered by Kenobi, the confrontation with Jango Fett, the Jedi rescue at the slave coliseum and the epic clone battle at the end? It wasn’t that bad a movie! Meanwhile Revenge of the Sith released while I was in college when I wasn’t in a good place with a cousin who had cancer (who ultimately died not too long after) in a course I hated, with not really any friends and no time for gaming and being spread waaaay too thin with work/college/commuting it kind of all seemed a little ‘meh’. It finished a pre-told paint by numbers slap-a-bow on it plot. So yeah, with everything we got from the Lord of the Rings we kind of came level with with Star Wars, unfortunately. But this is cool!

And of course Iron Man (2007) kicked off the shared film universe to a level, consistency and success that nobody else did before, during or has tried to replicate after (sorry DC Comics and Warner Brothers). Even now it has permeated into our pop culture with notepads, toys, computer games, cartoons, board games, miniature games, clothes, offshoot media and yearly movie releases that nothing needs to be said. It would be unnecessary to do so: it has become ingrained into our pop culture. Heck some of us were talking about Captain Marvel last week!

Also Star Trek (2009)…