Friday, January 20, 2017

THE 2016 BLOOD AWARDS

THE 2016 BLOOD AWARDS!

Welcome all to the second annual BLOOD AWARDS ceremony! This is Blood Work's second full year end review where we will look back at 2016 and go over the movies, comic books, super heroes, giant monsters, and ninjas to have graced these blog posts over the last 12 months. We will sit in judgment once more and award the best and brightest of the last year.

Blood Work started in June of 2014 with the sole purpose of sharing my love of film, comics, kaiju, and more. That first seven months were sort of a beta test. This year marks the second full year of Blood Work. Let's kick off the new year with a celebration of the best of 2016! 

DISCLAIMER:

By "best" we mean what we here at Blood Work feel, in our own esteemed opinions, is the best according to our own personal preferences.

 By something not being on the list in no way means that we don't like it or it is inferior. It just means we haven't gotten to it yet. This post is in no way meant to put down any one or any thing or discredit anyone's work.

This blog is meant to celebrate everything we love in entertainment. We aren't haters. We're lovers. If by some reason we have offended you we truly apologize for it was not our intent.

So without further adieu... on with the blood!




KAIJU OF THE YEAR
(As the category implies this is merely a fun award. We here at Blood Work love all kaiju)
Artwork by Matt Frank
The kaiju reviewed this last year were:

And the Award for Kaiju of the year goes to...






Varan is a kaiju that, as far I'm concerned, doesn't get enough love. He is my personal favorite kaiju (behind Godzilla of course) and for no other reason than that am I awarding Varan the prestigious honor of KAIJU OF THE YEAR. A toast to you, the 58' Toho kaiju alum! May you see a future appearance in an upcoming kaiju film soon! But if not, we love you just the same.  

A big thanks to IDW comics for seeing fit to feature him in multiple of their recently published Godzilla comics Godzilla: Rulers of Earth, Godzilla In Hell, and Godzilla: Rage Across Time. I want to thank artists Matt Frank and Bob Eggleton for producing some truly amazing Varan art and especially to artist Jeff Zornow who contributed more Varan art than any other!





COMIC OF THE YEAR

 The comic books reviewed last year were:

Carnage (by Gerry Conway and Mike Perkins)

Doctor Strange (by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo)

Guardians of Infinity (by Dan Abnett and Carlo Barberi)

Drax (by C.M. Punk, Cullen Bunn, and Scott Hepburn)

Robbie Reyes ~ Ghost Rider (by Felipe Smith and Danilo Beyruth)

 The Infinity Entity (by Jim Starlin and Alan Davis)

Thanos: The Infinity Finale (by Jim Starlin and Ron Lim)

Kong of Skull Island (by James Asmus and Carlos Magno)

Godzilla: Oblivion (Joshua Failkov and Brian Churilla)

 Godzilla: Rage Across Time (many many writers and artists)

The highest rated comic book reviewed in 2015 is...


A comic book I thought I'd have zero interest in turned out to be just what I was looking for all along. It may have helped that expectations for this book were next to nothing. Writer Gerry Conway, the Marvel legend who killed Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn, created the Punisher and Werewolf By Night, returned to Marvel Comics for a new take on Carnage. What he delivered was a serious Marvel horror story surrounding the DARKHOLD, another creation of Conway's. This book became the spiritual successor to a horror book from the 90's titled DARKHOLD: PAGES FROM THE BOOK OF SINS, a book I enjoyed and never imagined being continued ever again, let alone in the most unlikely of places like Carnage.

Artist Mike Perkins was the other key element that makes this book so incredibly perfect. His art is good. Really good. And strikes the perfect tone for the book. I am now a big fan of his work because of this book. Again, I wasn't looking for this book, but I am so glad I found it.

Close 2nds to Carnage were Kong of Skull Island, the Infinity Entity, and Guardians of Infinity. 







HORROR FILM OF THE YEAR


The new horror movies reviewed this year were:

BONE TOMAHAWK
THE BOY
THE CONJURING 2
DARK WAS THE NIGHT 
DON'T BREATH (review pending)
THE FOREST
GOODNIGHT MOMMY 
THE GREEN ROOM
 KRAMPUS
LIGHTS OUT
 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE DOOR
THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR
THE SHALLOWS 
SINISTER 2
 THE WITCH

FYI, I've included horror films form 2015 that I missed. And might I add that this was an incredible year for horror cinema. Lots of good stuff was released and by and large the majority of it was enjoyable if not pretty darn good! There hasn't been a year as good as this for horror since 2013. And there were still many I didn't get to like BLAIR WITCH, 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, TRAIN TO BUSON, and many more! What a great year!

And the award goes to...

LIGHTS OUT


Okay, this was a close one. There were so many great horror movies this year and many that I want to add to my collection (if I haven't already). But I really enjoyed The Shallows, The Conjuring 2, and Krampus, all for different reasons (I wish I could give them all the Best of 2016 award). But I am smitten with Lights Out for the sheer effectiveness, execution, and invention. It is a pure, visceral, exciting experience. But if there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that what scares one person may not scare another. It's like beauty, we all have our own specific tastes. THE WITCH may be the technical best horror film on the list, and I did enjoy it, but I simply enjoyed the hell out of Lights Out.


COMIC BOOK / SCI-FI / FANTASY / ACTION
FILM OF THE YEAR
 

I've included Hateful 8 because it came out on December 30th and I saw it in a theater in 2016.





And the award goes to...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR
Out of all the films based off of comic book properties to have been released this year (and there were a lot), Civil War really struck more of the right cords than any other (for me at least). As far as simply being an entertaining film it hit its marks with precision. There were a lot of good movies this year and well done films at that. Civil War wasn't perfect by any means but in my opinion, of the movies on my list, it was the best executed and most entertaining.

Star Trek Beyond was a very very close 2nd.

Next year I'll probably have to separate comic book based films into their own category, haha! It looks as if the number of these kinds of films coming out each year onward is only increasing.

It is a good time to be a nerd!





NINJA OF THE YEAR


 Now for the award you've all been waiting for! 

Who is the greatest ninja of 2016?

 Sadly, I kinda dropped the ball this last year on adding anymore ninja themed posts. As far as new ninjas go there was the latest TMNT movie. I guess Batman kinda acted like a ninja in that opening scene in BVS where he crawls along the ceiling... but that's a bit of a stretch.

 Here's the existing list of ninja posts on Blood Work
Shinobi No Mono 
(The film responsible for the status of ninjas today in pop culture.)
Way of the Ninja: Kunoichi 
(A brief examination of female ninjas and how cool and dangerous these women were.)
Viking VS Ninja 
(A survey in which I asked coworkers who they thought would win and a story based on the outcome.)
Top Ten Fighting Game Hombres
 (A list of my favorite fighting game males, some of which are ninjas!)
Top Ten Fighting Game Femme Fatales  
(A list of my favorite fighting game females, many of which are ninjas!)

Hero Worship: Hotsuma ~ The Ultimate Ninja
(I'm cheating a bit here since this was published in 2014 but I had to include it.)

 and the Ninja of the year is...

RYU HAYABUSA



Ryu is one of the longest running ninja heroes in gaming. He first appeared in the classic NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) game NINJA GAIDEN back in 1988 (in Japan. 1989 in North America). He had two sequels on the NES and a re-release of the NES trilogy on the Super Nintendo in one convenient cartridge. After this the Ninja Gaiden games took a long vacation, but Ryu would make an appearance in another video game series years later. 

The DEAD OR ALIVE fighting game series first debuted in 1996 in arcades and later in 1998 on Playstation. In the game one of the playable characters was none other than Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa. The series climbed in popularity with Dead Or Alive 2 for the Playstation 2 and DOA 3 solidified the series as a major video game franchise. Ryu was featured prominently in every DOA game released to this day. After the success of DOA 3 the game developers decided to resurrect the Ninja Gaiden series on the X-Box and PS3 and were met with another huge success. The new Ninja Gaiden series so far has two sequels (matching the original series) as well a spin-off game.


It's safe to say that Ninja Gaiden and Ryu Hayabusa are here to stay for the foreseeable future and we here at Blood Work couldn't be happier.





A big thanks to everyone who has frequented this blog and helped contribute! If it's kaiju, comic book, or horror expect to see it here! We here at Blood Work appreciate every visit and comment and are thankful for all your support over these last two and half years! It's hard to believe that 30 months have already gone by since we started this blog. Here's to another 30 months and beyond and a wonderful 2017!


And remember to keep the blood flowing!
As always feel free to comment and let us know what you think.
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