Movies/TV Show/Music - A Year in Review 2024

[kamikazekeeg]

Similar to the game one that always get posted, here's a setup for other stuff we enjoyed this year.  Feel free to leave out categories you don't have anything for and I'm not gonna post general categories to keep it from getting to big.

Favorite Movie Released in 2024: While Godzilla x Kong gets close to the top, with Deadpool & Wolverine behind that, I think it's gonna be Furiosa.  I wanted this to be good, I didn't know if it would be good, and I think it turned out to be close to, if not as good, as the original Fury Road.  It might also have my favorite role for Chris Hemsworth, he's chewing up every bit of scenery with his scumbag character.  My love for Godzilla is strong, and I did really like Godzilla x Kong, I think my want for a pure Godzilla movie that is less over the top than what we got kinda lowers the bar on it just a smidge, and Furiosa itself is such quality.

Favorite TV Show Released in 2024: It's a strong battle between Penguin and Arcane Season 2 for sure.  I don't know if I can choose as I like both for very different reasons.  Ones a high quality crime drama, the other a high quality animated show...I might just give it to Arcane for the sake of it doing so much interesting stuff visually, but again, it's hard to say.

Favorite Album Released in 2024: Unfortunately I have to bow out of this one as I don't think I listened to anything new that released this year lol It's actually hard to find new albums I feel, as I use Amazon Music and it's garbage for showing me new album releases from bands I like or may like and most of what I listened to was stuff from last year.  I guess Trollslayer from Wind Rose counts, but I only got around to listen to a few songs from it lol

Lease Favorite Movie Release in 2024: I might say Civil War, it's got a good idea, but it's kinda middling in places and the ending flopped for me.  Could say Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also, same thing where it does have a lot of practical effects and charm that I like, but story wasn't good and I think some characters missed the mark.

Least Favorite TV Show Released in 2024: Stars Wars: Acolyte is definitely the choice for this.  I think it has good characters and story, but utterly failed with it's tone and pacing.  I think it could've turned things around with a second season, but it got canceled, so we'll never know.

Sleeper Hit of 2024 (Pick any Movie/TV Show/Album): Terminator Zero might be it for me, I expected nothing as Terminator media is mostly trash anymore, but this turned out good and is probably the best Terminator thing they've done in years.

[marvelvscapcom2]

Movie - Mufasa: The Lion King is truly a heart rattling prequel.  I love every fiber of it.  2nd? Maybe Inside out 2.


Album - Eh. Modern music suffers imo.  But 100 percent Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard And Soft.  Billie is one of those modern musical talents I enjoy. Her voice is meloncholy and relaxing in the best ways


Tv Show - If Netflix series count. Mr. Mcmahon is an entertaining spill of all of WWEs tea from the early days through attitude era and now. Brilliantly done.


Least favorite movie - killers of the flower moon is a drag but since its 2024. I'll choose Wicked. I dont love the vocal work or direction of the movie.


Biggest shocker - on the other spectrum of her work. Ariana's album is fairly listenable and her artistic direction is swell. She actually surprised me with that. Her last few works have missed her sweetner level. I enjoyed this project.

[Cartagia]

Favorite Movie Released in 2024: Dune Part Two and it's kind of not close.  I did love The Substance (a strong second place), but Dune really hit that sweet spot for me.

Favorite TV Show Released in 2024: I've not watched The Penguin yet, so it's got to be Shogun.  Just a really stunning period piece, and the closest thing to the heyday of Game of Thrones that has been released since.

Favorite Album Released in 2024: I genuinely could not tell you if I've listening to any music that was released in 2024.

Lease Favorite Movie Release in 2024: The Indian horror film Shaitaan.  It's got some good ideas, but it is just way too long, and never goes far enough with any of it's themes and really pulls it's punches.

Least Favorite TV Show Released in 2024: The final season of Star Trek: Discovery.  Handily my least favorite Trek series, and this season didn't do anything to dissuade me of that idea.  Probably a little more consistent that previous years, but the story in particular is weak, despite having a strong initial hook.  And that epilogue is big swing and a miss.

Sleeper Hit of 2024 (Pick any Movie/TV Show/Album): Hundreds of Beavers is one of the most creative movies I have seen in years.  I literally only knew the name. I assumed it was a horror comedy like Zombeavers or Tucker and Dale. Instead, it's a bugnuts crazy, nearly dialogue free love letter to Looney Tunes and silent film stars like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.

[dhaabi]

I suppose this topic is as good as any to mention my listening stats for the calendar year.

Favorite Album Released in 2024
Out of the 87 albums released in 2024 that I listened to last year, I have five marked as being regarded as something of a favorite. Music is incredibly subjective, and I'm generally not one to review it or talk about it in any depth, so I'll just mention those albums by order of release.

The Umbrellas - Fairweather Friend | January 26, 2024
MGMT - Loss of Life | February 23, 2024
Tierra Whack - World Wide Whack | March 15, 2024
Jpegmafia - I Lay Down My Life for You | August 1, 2024
Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia | October 28, 2024

For context, I listened to 711 total albums last year with 27 marked as favorites. I'm generally open to all sorts of genres and welcome suggestions.

Edit: I'll also just go ahead and list some listening stats about those 27 favorites too:

Nationalities
BR: 1
CA: 1
DE: 1
ES: 1
FR: 3
ID: 1
JP: 3
UK: 2
US: 14

Decades
?: 1
1970s: 5
1980s: 4
1990s: 1
2000s: 1
2010s: 4
2020s: 11

[wolff242]

I don't have a favorite or least favorite movie that i can think of off the top of my head.

For TV shows, i don't watch much TV, but I did watch the 2024 season on Law and Order SVU and it was really good (Too short though)

My favorite album of the year is easy. Best album I've heard in YEARS,

Aurora- What happened to the heart?

I've always loved her work, but I think the production by Brian Eno put it on a whole new level.

[kamikazekeeg]

I realized with this how little new music I listened to this year that wasn't just random singles lol  One album I can count that is technically an EP with 6 songs, was Hanabie's "Bucchigirl Tokyo".  Pretty fun mixture of metalcore alongside pop vocals.  They were originally a Maximum the Hormone cover band so can definitely feel that influence.

[redblaze57]

I'm just going to to stick with Music as I didn't really watch any shows at all, and the only Movie I saw released in 2024 was Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

ALBUMS

Lucifer: V - Lucifer is a band for me that really can't put out a bad Album at this point. I honestly can't say there a single bad track on this Album to the point it's hard to choose a single song to check out. I highly reconmend if you want a modern band that does it's own thing with a classic rock/metal sound to check out this band. I consider III as their best Album and I say this is right up there.

Static-X: Project Regeneration vol. 2- not as good as Volume 1 but still really good. High points for me JIC BOI, Disco Ostego, and Kamikaze

Opeth: the Last Will and Testament - Solid. Nice to hear the more Death Metal vocal style make a return. Little hard to remember which song is which though as they're numbered as §I, §II, §III, etc.

the Warning: Keep me fed-  Again another solid Album. Started listen listening them because of the Single they released with BAND-MAID. Favorites tracks are Six Feet Deep, Hell You Call A Dream, and Sharks

Honorable Mention:
Black Sabbath: Anno Domini 1989–1995 - A Remaster/Remix Set of the Tony Martin Era (Minus the Eternal Idol). the remixes make the worst parts of Forbidden and Cross Purposes listenable and Headless Cross is my Favorite Black Sabbath Album. wanted to mention it even though it's technically not new albums, but it's the first time these Albums have been reissued.

SINGLES

BAND-MAID/The Warning: SHOW THEM- Best Song this year

The Hellacopters: Leave A Mark

Adrian Smith/Richie Kotzen - White Noise

Shadow Falls: In The Grey - Glad to hear these guys putting out new music, sounds just as good as their old stuff

WORST ALBUM THIS YEAR

Incubus -Morning View XXIII - a rerecording of this album with a Whine in the vocals and the absence of Bass in Bass heavy Songs. Just stick to the original Recordings.

[stealthrush]

The Aquabats - Finally! : culmination of their discography that feels like a homage to their various styles.



P.O.D. - VERITAS : return to roots with a loaded album front to back of heavy anthems.


Linkin Park - From Zero : surprise release with a new lead vocalist that has lots of nostalgia influcence on each track.


Seether - The Surface Seems So Far : continuation of the heavy metal style with touches of ambiance.


A few honorable mentions from Project 86 - OMNI, Pt.2 dystopian technocratic concept album, besides Static-X - Project Regeneration Vol. 2 which had a handful of unreleased songs, Stryper - When We Were Kings, A Killer's Confession - Victim 1, Galneryus - The Stars Will Light The Way, and The Browning - OMNI new albums.

Personally I was disappointed by two of my favorite artists Mushroomhead - Call the Devil, and KMFDM - Let Go. Looking forward to upcoming releases in 2025 from: Korn, Staind, Weezer, Limp Bizkit, Tetrarch, Julien-K, 40 Below Summer, A Killer's Confession, Omerta, and Jeffrey Nothing (Doom Candy project).

[marvelvscapcom2]

The Aquabats - Finally! : culmination of their discography that feels like a homage to their various styles.



P.O.D. - VERITAS : return to roots with a loaded album front to back of heavy anthems.


Linkin Park - From Zero : surprise release with a new lead vocalist that has lots of nostalgia influcence on each track.


Seether - The Surface Seems So Far : continuation of the heavy metal style with touches of ambiance.


A few honorable mentions from Project 86 - OMNI, Pt.2 dystopian technocratic concept album, besides Static-X - Project Regeneration Vol. 2 which had a handful of unreleased songs, Stryper - When We Were Kings, A Killer's Confession - Victim 1, Galneryus - The Stars Will Light The Way, and The Browning - OMNI new albums.

Personally I was disappointed by two of my favorite artists Mushroomhead - Call the Devil, and KMFDM - Let Go. Looking forward to upcoming releases in 2025 from: Korn, Staind, Weezer, Limp Bizkit, Tetrarch, Julien-K, 40 Below Summer, A Killer's Confession, Omerta, and Jeffrey Nothing (Doom Candy project).

Refreshing to see someone praising Linkin Park's new recruit. That girl got absolutely dragged by the media. I tuned in expecting Emily to be a slouch or abrasive to the sound. What a vocalist she is!! I think she reinvents the sound subtly and doesnt try to be outside of who she is as an artist. I understand mourning and the tragedy. But the fans should see this as a new band with old elements not a fill in for Chester. She really does crush it imo

[kamikazekeeg]

Linkin Park - From Zero : surprise release with a new lead vocalist that has lots of nostalgia influcence on each track.

I need to check this out eventually, I didn't like how the new singer was when she did some older stuff live, which doesn't have to do with being a fanboy of Chester, I'm a complete casual with the band, it just wasn't sounding right, but I liked that Heavy is the Crown song that was in Arcane.  I think it's just gonna be one of those things where she's best on the new stuff built around her vocals.