The MRFH Revue 2008 – Al!

I don’t like being wrong. I’m happy to say I can admit when I’ve screwed up, but it doesn’t make it any easier realizing that I’ve been on the wrong side of a fight or I’ve totally miscalculated something. Look back at 2008, I think I must admit that I was wrong.

Last January, with all of the bright, shiny possibilities for the year, I believe I actually said the words “2008 is going to be a fantastic year!” There were sequels and sequels and sequels to look forward to, like Rambo, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Batman, Star Trek, and Narnia. Interesting original projects were popping up like Tropic Thunder, Be Kind Rewind, Pineapple Express, Hancock, and Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? New stuff was in production from Kevin Smith, Spike Lee, Bryan Singer, Simon Pegg, and Pixar. It was a lot to look forward to, and I worked myself up into a frenzy over it.

Then Brad Renfro and Heath Ledger happened. Then Vampira. And Roy Scheider, George Carlin, Isaac Hayes, Paul Newman, Stan Winston, Charlton Heston, Bernie Mac, Don LaFontaine, Michael Critchton, Eartha Kitt, Majel Barrett, and too, too many others. Our forums list twenty-one RIP threads from January to December. Twenty-one!

The movies that I had expected everyone would unite behind left us divided instead. Indiana Jones, Cloverfield, and Quantum of Solace left viewers either hot or cold with very little middle ground. Prince Caspian, X-Files: I Want to Believe, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno fizzled unspectacularly. A few blunders, like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Speed Racer, made people outright hostile.

And yet 2008 also yielded some of the best movies I’ve seen in years. WALL-E was one I missed theatrically but was a brilliant trip of a film that looked absolutely gorgeous. The Dark Knight lived up to all it’s hype and then some. Iron Man surprised the heck out of me with its personality and wit. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was unexpectedly engaging and intelligent, as was The Ruins, but in a totally different way that involved more amputation and self mutilation.

The Mutant ranks faced the same kinds of extremes. Sue battled giant floods and malignant neoplasms and actually sat all the way through Twilight. Drew became a daddy, while Justin prepped his own sympathy pains by watching Junior. We saw a significant downturn in the number of footnotes-per-review with the loss of Shalen midway through the year, but, like the hydra, compensated by sprouting Kaleb, Heather, and Courtney, who all helped keep the good times rolling.

Now, faced with another January, looking at the possibilities of Harry Potter and Star Trek (there’s another one of those downers—delays!), Watchmen and Wolverine, Terminator and Transformers, Coraline, Fanboys, Dragonball, Inglourious Basterds, and plenty more that I’m sure will keep my interests piqued, I think I can say that things are looking up for 2009. Naturally, some of these will be everything I’ve wanted and more, and others will bomb miserably. I’d like to think that I’m not so foolish as to make another prediction using the world ‘fantastic’ in it, but you know what? Screw it. 2009 is going to be a fantastic year. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Now hit me with your best shot.