Best & Worst Movie And TV Moments Of 2017
- Jan 2, 2018
- 7 min read
2017 is almost complete, and it wasn't without its thrills, chills, and tear spills. We've picked through all of it, and now present our favourite and least favourite scenes or events from films and TV shows released this year.
SPOILER WARNING!
Spoilers inside for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Split, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Life, The Good Place, Sherlock, Alien Covenant, Justice League, Star Wars Episode XIII: The Last Jedi, Doctor Who, Atomic Blonde, Transformers, House Of Cards, Stranger Things 2, and Arrow / The Flash / Crisis On Earth-X.
Honourable Mentions - Best
Best Movie & TV Moments
Merlin's last song - Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Despite the questionable purpose of his death, the loss of Merlin was one of the most heartbreaking moments in cinema this year. After Eggsy stepped on a mine, Merlin sacrificed himself for the very person he trained, but not without taking a few enemies with him. With one last rousing rendition of his favourite song, "Country Road", he drew the enemies in, looked over at Eggsy, and... now I'm sad again from thinking about it.
The music videos - Baby Driver
Baby Driver had many moments where elements on screen synced up to the music. From the fast pace of the incredible stunt driving scenes, to the gunshots in time with the music during the "Tequila" shootout, to the lyrics on the walls in that incredible scene at the start when Baby is walking to and from the coffee shop.
The twist ending - Life
The best Alien prequel that isn't an Alien prequel ended on the greatest cliffhanger this author has ever seen on the silver screen. With their communications knocked out and a master killer lurking, the team needs to find a way to warn Earth and dispose of the alien known as Calvin. The plan is for David to lure Calvin into one of the two escape pods and send it into deep space, sacrificing himself in the process. In the meantime, Miranda will take the other pod to Earth to warn the world to nuke Mars before more Calvins come. So one pod heads for deep space to never be heard from again, and the other lands in the ocean on Earth.
But Calvin had knocked the controls, and Miranda ran into some debris. So as the pod on Earth is opened by some fishermen, Calvin is seen inside still digesting David, and it cuts to Miranda's horrifying screaming as her pod takes her further away from any form of civilisation or survival. It's as scary as horror movies get, considering the implications of both events, and that is where the film ends.
The twist ending - The Good Place
Kristen Bell-helmed NBC sitcom The Good Place seemed at first like a fairly normal sitcom, albeit one set in some version of heaven where people can fly and there's a magical personal assistant who teleports around giving people anything they ask for. Normal, right? But in the very last episode of Season 1, Bell's character Eleanor figures out that they were actually in 'The Bad Place', and the world the main characters knew to be heaven was actually designed to torment them. Typical sitcom writing, right?
The twist ending - Sherlock
Episode 2 of Sherlock Season 4 sees Watson in therapy dealing with the death of his wife while falling in love with a woman he met on the bus, and Sherlock making friends with the daughter of a billionaire CEO and murderer. But it isn't actually his daughter, nor is John seeing an actual therapist, or falling in love with a stranger. Sherlock believes he imagined his friend while under the influence of drugs, but actually, all three of these women are the same woman - and that woman is Sherlock's secret sister.
Alien in the shower - Alien Covenant
Calling back to the very first Alien film, the Xeno's very first kill, and horror films in general, the shower attack was a lot of fun. It wasn't overly long, nor was it particularly relevant to the film as a whole, but as far as delivering on a very cool death and some great monster horror, it's easily one of the franchises best.
Lego Batman's flashback - Lego Batman
Part of the fun of The Lego Batman Movie was its incredible self-awareness, and ability to make fun of Batman and his legacy. One such scene has Alfred talking about all the times when Bruce has gotten mopey about his parents, before launching into this montage of Lego-fied imagery from every Batman movie ever.
The headbutt scene - Justice League
It's difficult to describe how fantastic this scene is, but here's my best try. After the League resurrected him, a very angry Superman went toe-to-toe with them individually. When confronted by Diana, his first instinct is to headbutt her. This serves only to make Diana mad, so she headbutts back but even harder. In a fit of rage, Superman lifts Diana off the ground and headbutts her into the pavement. It's so out-of-place in a movie that takes itself so seriously, which I think is why it's so unintentionally funny.
Yoda returns - Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Towards the end of The Last Jedi it seems that Luke Skywalker, once a paragon of light, is lost forever. At least, until an old friend arrives. As Luke and Yoda converse, discussing the future, the past, it creates a moment that can be best described as pure Star Wars. It condenses the mysticism, the wonder and the power of the force into a few minutes, and it's great.
The Doctor goes blind - Doctor Who
In his sixth season as showrunner, I think even Steven Moffat knew that his iteration of Doctor Who is getting stale. So in the middle of series 10, the Doctor went blind, and stayed that way for two more episodes. Sure, he used his sonic sunglasses to gain information about his environment (in other words, he used the sonic phlebotinum to magic himself out of a situation because the plot required it) but it didn't give him full vision, which made for an interesting couple of episodes as the Doctor actually had to work harder to achieve basic goals.
Worst Movie & TV Moments
The twist ending - Atomic Blonde
Atomic Blonde is a movie that thinks it's far smarter than it is. This idea is summed up perfectly in its closing scenes. First it is revealed that James McAvoy's character was a traitor. Then we find out the Charlize is actually the traitor (don't think too hard about it). And then she's not a traitor, she's actually been working for John Goodman the whole time so she still is kind of a traitor. It's a stupid stupid mess.
The Earth is a Transformer - Transformers The Last Knight
Unicron, a literal transforming planet, is revealed, in a passing comment, to be Earth. Why? How? Who knows. The point is a character and idea that could have been interesting winds up being absolutely nothing.
Michael Fassbender kisses himself - Alien Covenant
One of the best parts of Alien Covenant was Michael Fassbender playing two distinct characters. Right up until they kissed. In what is otherwise a very interesting conversation about creation, sentience and all that good stuff, the kiss comes out of nowhere. Clearly intended to feel awkward and uncomfortable, it does it so well that it comes off a bizarre, strange and utterly uneeded. (Also see the flute scene)
The entire finale - Justice League
As the majority of The Justice League battle para-demons and their leader Steppenwolf, with the occasional bit of awful "humour", it seems all is lost. Enter Superman. Kal-El arrives on the scene, dispatches the villain with a grin and cleans everything up. It just makes everything that came before, the poor effects, bad writing and plethora of stupid moments, seem totally wasted.
Leia's "skywalking" - Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
In what seemed like a bold move considering the death of Carrie Fisher, Leia Organa seems to have been killed in the first act of The Last Jedi. But, as her body floats through the vacuum of space, she wakes, reaches out a hand and pulls herself back to her ship in one of the oddest Star Wars moments ever. A good idea turned into a weak, and poorly thought, cop out.
Bill comes back - Doctor Who
Doctor Who companion Bill Potts was killed or converted into a Cyberman 3 times in the last two episodes of Season 10. But then she came back or survived every single time, and then in the Christmas special after leaving, even after an emotional farewell flashback from the Doctor. After Clara took ages to leave last season, this all feels too fresh and leaves a luke-warm bitter taste in the audience's mouths for Moffat's final season.
Frank pushes Cathy - House Of Cards
In one of the final episodes of House of Cards' worst season yet, and in a very controversial move, Frank Underwood pushed Cathy down a flight of stairs in the White House when they began to disagree about something. But when Frank plays dirty, he usually does it in a very clean way that can’t be easily traced back to him, has no witnesses, and is vital for his plan. This seemed like a clumsy way to remove someone who generally works with Frank on everything, and it leaves fingerprints, potential witnesses, and Frank is easily placed at the scene. It reeks of lazy writing.
Eleven runs away and joins the circus - Stranger Things 2
It's pretty universally agreed at this point that episode 7 'The Lost Sister' is the worst episode of Stranger Things yet. Series favourite Eleven flees the town of Hawkins and finds herself running along with a gang of delinquents led by someone very much like herself. It's an interesting idea but it doesn't stick around long enough to be little more than a bizarre side story that adds nothing except bad fashion to the series.
Felicity ruins Barry & Iris' wedding - Crisis On Earth-X
The Arrowverse's annual crossover event, Crisis On Earth-X, should have been an event celebrating the size of this tiny "cinematic universe", which is so far the most successful one other than the MCU. But instead, if you didn't think Arrow had been spoiled enough by being all about Felicity, the same thing happened to the ending of Crisis. Iris and Barry decide spontaneously to get married, but then goddamn Felicity decides to marry Oliver at the same time. It's one thing to make someone else's wedding all about you, but it's a whole other kettle of fish to overshadow the bride by getting married at someone else's wedding.
Moriarity is wasted - Sherlock
The end of Season 3 and the Christmas special were all about setting up the return of Moriarity. And we discovered in the Christmas special that the only way he could return given the circumstances is that… he couldn’t, and he set plans in motion while he was alive. But in the Season 4 finale, besides setting a couple of things in motion, his role was relegated to short video clips whenever Eurus wasn’t talking. For a character who had been a huge part of the show from day one, and a setup that took place over multiple years, this felt like the creators of the show were just laughing in the faces of viewers.
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