Never has there been a more exciting time for geek culture in the media than 2011: this year we were given a ton of comic book movies, fun sci-fi and fantasy movies, big ideas in TV, good music, and insanity on the internet.
MOVIES
We started our year with a lot of questions: we were given our first trailer of the new Spider-Man reboot, making some of us excited, and some of us wondering how truly “Amazing” the movie looked, in our “Round Table: The… Amazing… Spider-Man?“. Immediately afterwards we also found ourselves wondering just how good the new Batman would be after seeing released photos of “Bane and His Technicolor Dream Coat.”
Baaaannee!!! (Expect to hear his name at least threes a day for the next year).
But beyond conjecturing, we were given a breadth of comic book movies. We loved Captain America so much we had to write about it… and then write about it again. Batman: Year One debuted, the last DC Animated for the year, though we weren’t sure how well it stood compared to its predecessors. Conan was remade decades after Ah-nold played the part, and reminded us he’s “A Barbarian, Not a Thespian, Dammit!” And Conan enjoyed our review so much he introduced an Advice column to Infinite Ammo in “Ask Conan” and “The Return of Ask Conan.”
The surprise breakout of the year was definitely Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the ability of which to draw from the original franchise while successfully creating a damn good movie had us all saying: “Go See It Right Now. Seriously!” We were also gifted with some surprisingly great below-the-radar movies like “Attack The Block!” and “Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame“, but struggled to survive a “Bad Movie Night with Asylum Picture’s Mockbusters: ‘Almighty Thor’, ‘Transmorphers’, and ‘200 MPH’.”
This year in films brought out a lot of questions for us: we questioned the delicate balance of supporting nerd culture (even when it’s bad) in order to make it more successful in Hollywood with ‘SMH: You Want Me To See What?‘, questioned why “Fighting Games Movies ‘Sucks So ‘Ard!‘”, examined “The Curious Case of Shia Labeouf“, and we even tried “Meta-Reviewing ‘Real Steel’ Before We’ve Actually Seen It.“
TV
In TV we checked out the premiere of MTV’s Death Valley, but questioned whether it was “Horror Comedy Genius? Or B-Movie ‘Reno 911′ Knock Off?” We checked out what is probably the most expensive show on TV, Terra Nova, reviewing it for everything it does right and annoyed with what was wrong.
We questioned what would happen if “If Reality Shows Were Socially Conscious” and whether wrestling’s “WWE Could Change For The Better” with CM Punk’s metatextual analysis of the industry. We admitted to our Guilty Pleasures, with one of us explaining “Why Digimon Rocks My Socks“, and we mourned over the passing of a rising star with our post “Eulogy For A Warrior: Infinite Ammo Bids Spartacus’s Andy Whitfield A Fond Fairwell.”
Around The Net
Mortal Kombat Legacy
On the net we reviewed the overall success (or lack thereof) of Mortal Kombat’s net series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, questioning whether it was a “Flawless Victory or Troubled Fatality?“, and we introduced our “Viral Theater” feature, later following it with both an “Action Edition” and a “Music Edition“.
Music
In Music, the feature “A New Album Appears!” covered the albums “Wasting Light” by the Foo Fighters, “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” by the Beastie Boys, and “I’m With You” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
================================================
Click Here for Infinite Ammo’s Look Back at Gaming in 2011!
Click here to see Infinite Ammo’s Look Back at our Creed, Comics and Comic Con 2011!
