2018: A Look Ahead
10 Things I’m Looking Forward To This Year in Culture, Comfort, & Consumption
Solo: A Star Wars Story
The “A Star Wars Story” movies are off to a relatively shaky start. While “Rogue One” did big numbers at the box-office, it had a trouble production and wasn’t as critically well-regarded as “The Force Awakens.” “Solo” seems to be following down that same path. Little is still known about this movie other than it’s coming out this May and it’s about a young Han Solo. Then there’s the other little detail of the unexpected firing of its original co-directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“The Lego Movie”), whom were quickly replaced by veteran director Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”), who has reportedly re-shot most of the movie.
Isle of Dogs
Wes Anderson’s second stop-motion animation opus comes out in March. Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”), notorious for his signature cinematic styling, is at his nuanced-overly-art-directed best in the animation medium (see “Fantastic Mr. Fox”), enabling him to control every little last detail of the film. The story is somewhat straightforward; it’s about a boy searching for his lost dog on an island of garbage in near-future Japan (got it?). The voice cast includes well… everybody, including all your usual Wes Anderson favorites, but most notability Bill Murray.
2018 Midterm Elections
Fingers crossed. Do the right thing, America.
Annihilation
Based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer (The Southern Reach Trilogy), an expedition of four women journey into a massive anomaly only known as Area X. While nature has reclaimed the area, nothing is natural about it. As they venture further in, weird things ensue. Written and directed for screen by Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), he seems well-suited to match the intense and almost psychedelic aspects of the book. The first trailer looks a little too much like “Alien” than it does something like Lost, which has me a little concerned. The book is full of strange atmospherics, so let’s hope the movie retains that.
Vampire Weekend’s New Album
While I mostly liked their self-titled debut and the follow-up, “Contra,” I loved 2013’s “Modern Vampires of the City.” It was probably my favorite album of that year. Well, they’ll be releasing an new album at some point this year but minus founding band member and producer, Rostam. Here’s hoping the long layoff and band changes don’t hinder the final product.
Black Panther
Director Ryan Coogler did next to the impossible with 2015’s “Creed” and made an original movie within the Rocky franchise that people actually cared about. It was really good too and his reward: a big-budget Marvel Studios superhero movie, “Black Panther.” The titular hero and King of Wakanda returns after an appearance in 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.” We can only hope that Marvel has allowed Coogler the leeway to reinvigorate their usually formulaic but mostly well-received brand of blockbuster.
Atlanta, Season 2
Donald Glover returns to Atlanta fresh off his hiatus of playing Lando Calrissian in the aforementioned, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Atlanta’s first season demonstrated that this show could really go anywhere both narratively and visually. The show was even once described by Glover himself as, “Twin Peaks for rappers.” Robbin’ Season, the title for the second season, starts up in March.
Avengers: Infinity War
I guess I’m required to have “Infinity War” on my list? I’d have to say that I’m less excited than I’m curious about it. After a decades worth of Marvel movies where do we go from here? And after teasing Thanos — a big, evil, purple dude — and the Infinity Gauntlet for just as long, who cares at this point? Hopefully this movie will provide for a clean slate and a new trajectory, because it’s starting to get a little old at this point.
VS by Ivan Brandon and Esad Ribic, Bloodstrike by Michel Fiffe, and whatever Brian Bendis might do at DC Comics
This one is a tie, or a cheat, depending on your perspective. VS, from Image Comics, is a futuristic story about how war has become a spectator sport. To be honest, I’m more excited about the artist’s, Esad Ribic’s (Secret Wars), work on the book than the actual premise. Bloodstrike, also from Image, is another reboot of a not-so-classic Rob Liefeld (creator of Deadpool) 90’s series by an indie comic creator. This time the reboot is courtesy of Michel Fiffe, best known for his Suicide Squad homage book, COPRA. Finally, Brian Bendis has jumped ship from Marvel after an almost 20 year run. Once the most influential creator in Marvel bullpen, he’ll now be writing books exclusively for its rival, DC.
The Defeatist website
At some point soon — don’t count on that — I’ll start work on a stand-alone The Defeatist full-on news, blog, whatever website. Lord willing and time permitting, of course, the site will be done in calendar year 2018.
