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The Fandom Portals Podcast
2024 Fandom Favourites Awards Nominations, Celebrating Cinema and Cinematic Heroes and Villains
FANDOM SHORTS: Join Aaron and Brash as we unveil the inaugural Fandom Favourites Awards, where we spotlight our top picks and invite you to weigh in. Expect a whirlwind tour of cinematic magic, from billion-dollar blockbusters like "Deadpool and Wolverine" to the adrenaline-pumping "The Fall Guy."
We nominate Award Winners for the following categories:
Best Movie of 2024
Best Hero of 2024
Best Villain of 2024
With more categories to come as we grow the show! Let's shape these awards together—cast your votes on our socials and share your fandom insights with us!
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hey everybody. It's aaron here from the fandom portals podcast, and this is the podcast where we explore fandoms and help you learn and grow. Today I'm here for a short episode. I am joined with brasha. How you going today, brash? Not too. Oh man, I'm going pretty well.
Speaker 1:Today's special episode is where we're talking about the year that was 2024. Obviously, this is being recorded prior to New Year's. It's been a great year of film and TV, so many standouts, and this is actually going to be the first annual awards nomination podcast show where we're going to be giving away awards for the fandom favorites is what it's going to be called of 2024. So far, we have three categories for these. We're hoping to grow these as the years go on, and the three categories that we have so far is the top film of 2024, the top hero of 2024 and the top villain of 2024.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're a person who has an idea for a category for us that we can give our fandom favorite awards to on a yearly basis, then please feel free to contact us on threads or Instagram or even by email. That is all in the show notes below, and we love social interaction, so come on over and share your ideas. So all of the nominations that go ahead today will be on our social medias for you to vote on. So if you want to have your say, definitely connect with us on there and vote, and the results of which will be posted a little bit later on in the year. So, brash, to introduce our first segment, which is going to be the top films of 2024. What are your nominations for the top films of 2024?
Speaker 2:So, my top films, deadpool and Wolverine, are four guys.
Speaker 1:Yep, and if Okay, three very different movies that you've got there. Obviously, the first one one, deadpool and Wolverine. Uh, it made over a billion dollars. It's a, it's a no-brainer, obviously for 2024. A beautiful cast with Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, directed by Sean Levy, and even the press junket for that had me hooked, like I was watching everything that came out for it.
Speaker 2:I tried to avoid it as much as possible. Hard to do?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. It was all over social media, the cameos, and I also loved that that movie was a love letter to the old box movies that we kind of grew up with and I love at the end, how they threw in all the old X-Men and some Daredevil.
Speaker 1:Behind the scenes stuff. I love that they included Daredevil because you know, elektra was in the movie. But I watched Daredevil before it was actually, before I was on the internet and everybody was like this is a really crappy movie. And I watched it and I was like I'm entertained, I'm a young teenage kid, I mean it's good.
Speaker 2:It was good Especially for the time yeah.
Speaker 1:I think it definitely pulled on the heartstrings and you know the tongue-in-cheek time of your life by Green Day Great. So, yeah, I think Deadpool and Wolverine will definitely be going on the list. The four guys. I did see Ryan Gosling different Ryan in this one, both Canadian, though starring alongside Emily Blunt. Thank you, yeah, just a great sort of the thing that stood out for that movie for me was the stunts. Oh yeah, yeah, this guy that's a director now was a stunt man for so long and he knows how much crap they go through as a job and now that he's a director, he's just paying homage to them left, right and center.
Speaker 2:Oh, I understand, and yeah, and again, this is also just a love letter to the unsung heroes of movies. 100%.
Speaker 1:All the stuntmen, yeah, yeah, and the director of this movie as well Fall Guys. He also did Bullet Train. Have you seen Bullet Train? I love Bullet Train. It was a sleeper for me, hey, really, yeah. Yeah, david Leitch is the director's name and I passed on it because you know it didn't really look like a movie that I'd be into, but I watched it recently. Very good film, oh, awesome. And he's definitely got his style back here in the Fall Guy as well. And then, what was your third pick for the movie of the year? What was that one If I third pick for the movie of the year? What was that one If I haven't?
Speaker 2:seen, if. Talk to me about If, if, yeah. So another Ryan Reynolds movie, but with my boy, john Krasinski in it, one of my favourite actors. Most people know him from the Office as Jim. Yeah, it's a basically a story about not losing that like imaginative side of yourself as a child, like as you grow up, there's always room to keep that imagination. And, yeah, just everyone in that. And it's star-studded. There's so many voices in the movie, like all voicing the imaginal the same one. Yeah, there's Awkwafina, she does voices. I think even Jason's in it as well. Yeah, there's just a plethora of voices in it. But Ryan Reynolds, he plays his quirky self, but he plays more of a cynical side of himself. Yeah, it's almost sad in a way, but yeah, like he's lost that spirit, he lost that childhood.
Speaker 1:He's lost himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's like a sort of bit of like you know, it's like a huge twist. Yeah, like you can sort of see it, but there's a bit of a twist in it at the end.
Speaker 1:You know what it reminded me of. You know the. You know like back in the nineties or the early two thousands, when there would be movies that come out like like Richie Rich or the original Jumanji, and they were just like. They were kids movies, but they were live action kids movies for you to watch that wasn't animated, and there isn't too many of that coming out anymore, and I love that. This is. John presents his originals. Oh yeah, he wrote it as well, didn't he?
Speaker 2:Yep Also. Yeah, it was like something he had on the back burner that he wanted to make.
Speaker 1:Very cool, alright. So my picks for top movies and all of these will obviously be coming out on our social media for you guys to vote on so you can have a say on what our top movie of 2024 will be for the Fandom Favorites Awards. So for me, my favorite movie of the year was the Wild Robot. Have you seen that? No, but everyone tells me to watch it. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:The animation style in that is just breathtakingly beautiful. For one, it's innovative, from what I've seen of it as well, because the natural world is all painted in these pastels and these beautiful sort of colors and it's very bright. But then there's also the technological aspect of it that is all very sharp and traditional-like animation that you see now, where it's very computer generated, and that juxtaposition together just makes it so artful and I love that about it just technically, but also the message that is through it. It's essentially a story of motherhood, which I can't speak to because I'm a man and a father, but from watching it with my partner, kalia, it really just touches on some of those notes that mothers go through. It's almost like the unsung commentary that not many people hear about how tough it is, and it does bring a tear to your eye. It is very emotional and when a movie evokes that kind of emotional response, animated or not, I have to rate it highly.
Speaker 1:Five stars for me. The Wild Robot is my first nom. My second is probably going to be Gladiator 2. You've seen Gladiator 2? No, I haven't. Yeah, two for two. Gladiator 2 was critically up and down, so I don't know if you sort of looked into or seen.
Speaker 2:I've still looked into it. I think that's sort of what has stopped me from watching it, like going and watching it. When it first came out I was like oh, that might not be a bad watch, but then I was like I know Pascal's in it, which is amazing.
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't think it's enough for me to actually go and watch it until it comes out in something free is awesome to be a part of, and the fact that he builds all his own sets and hires all the extras. It's a hearkening back to the way that movies were made in the early 2000s, which I love. It would have been cheaper for him to CGI it, but I love the fact that he actually builds the set and Denzel Washington in interviews actually has said you know, ridley built the playground I was just in it and makes it real easy for us to do my for our job in there. I think that the Gladiator 2, just visually stunning the story of Macrinus, denzel Washington's character, carried me through the movie. For that one it's an epic. The soundtrack is awesome. I love movie soundtracks as it is, but that was one that you just sort of turn up in your car, notch by notch, and just feel the goosebumps rise on your arms. Absolutely loved it. So that's my second nomination.
Speaker 1:My third nomination is Furiosa. Oh right, see that one. No, I can't. That's not what I was like. Well, yeah, they're definitely using characters that they know about, for sure from Mad Max Fury Road, but obviously Furiosa is the telling of the character of Furiosa.
Speaker 1:I just think as an Australian, it being an Australian film, it is a stalwart in the industry. It really shows what Australians can do. The characters and the storytelling across a generation of time, so across Furiosa's life, is just really well told, because I found that sometimes in storytelling if you have a lot of time jumps it can be disjointed. But it was really great to see especially the character of Dementus actually gradually increase in villainousness as the movie went on.
Speaker 1:So that's my three picks for the top films of 2024 and your top three picks as well. Those will go out on social media for you guys to vote on. We're going to go into our next category now, which is the Hero of the Year. Okay, so Hero of the Year is a category for our fandom favorite 2024 awards, where we pay homage to the people that we like to get behind in movies, these moral stalwarts, these people who drive this story to its conclusion, the good guys in the movie, if you will. These are the heroes of the stories. Brash, who have you got for the heroes as your nomination, or a hero for your nomination?
Speaker 2:Mine's actually.
Speaker 1:Ryan Gosling, the man himself.
Speaker 2:There you go, yes, yes guys feel this year for him like he's always a big actor, but I reckon this year specifically, he has just been just amazing. Yeah, like back like notebook and all that kind of stuff. It's like, oh yeah, ryan gosling, he's so dreamy, he's so hot, blah, blah he. I reckon this year he's actually like shown his proper, like just acting chops like him, yeah, like he's always been like the heartthrob sort of character, like, even with like the good guys. When he did the good guys with uh russell crowe, like that was really amazing too. But like him and four guys were like he had to play, had to play a stuntman he was just fun to watch act. And the scene where he's crying in the car and then he comes up trying to figure out what he's doing, he's like, nope, nothing's going on, nothing's going on. Yeah, all good. For me, ryan Gosling, this year has been phenomenal.
Speaker 1:He's been a standout. I think that for him, the way he portrays masculinity is hero-worthy because obviously he had the role in Barbie in 2023 as Ken Absolutely awesome and he then played this character here in Fall Guy two completely opposing views of what a man should be, but he plays it with such vulnerability both times and he plays it with such effortless charm. You might say that, yeah, he's definitely very sure of himself in a way that isn't really arrogant, like he knows who he is as a person. So he's not afraid to branch out and do different roles where it questions like who he is as a character and as a person. So I really like him as a role model and an actor. Good call, good call Another one of them alone Chang Tatum, Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, as Gambit, as Gambit. Good on him Actually. Yeah, good call, because that is perseverance personified, isn't it? Wow?
Speaker 2:And like the fact that he said for years that he wanted to play Gambit. He got his chance to play Gambit. It was a bit of a I reckon it was a bit of a piss take Yep Tongue in cheek, tongue in cheek, yep but it was good enough that it sort of skipped piss take into being like something that was genuinely Entertaining, entertaining and just downright awesome. And like even the look of him like he's a big dude, yeah yeah, whereas I think Remy Lebeau is a little bit more slender, yeah yeah. So when he was like wearing his gambit kit, he looked a bit probably too wide or too big, honestly, to be sort of properly pop a gambit, but it sort of made him look a bit like, you know, like those old wrestling yeah, Like you know, like those old, wrestling yeah the wrestling dolls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, weas dolls yeah, he sort of looked like that a little bit, but it was actually. Yeah, he was tremendous for that. I love that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely tremendous.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. And my second one is actually from the same movie, but it is name X-23. Daphne Keene Daphne Keene, daphne Keene. Yeah, like she brought I think she brought so much emotion, heart, yeah and heart back to that move like that movie. That was all comedy. Yeah, pretty much like.
Speaker 2:Even like the fact that Deadpool wants to save his what he says, his family wasn't really that hot wrenching yeah but as soon as Daphne King came back in his X-23 and like as soon as she sees Wolverine again for the first time after she lost him in the Wolverine movie and it sort of brings back that emotion like I can, that was very cool and realistically. Pretty much all those guys, yeah, like Electroblade, chris Evans as Johnny Storm back again, all them guys as backers like their old characters and getting those shots as kick ass, yeah was just amazing. But Daphne King and Channing Tatum from Wolverine very good, that's awesome. But Daphne King and Channing.
Speaker 1:Tatum from Wolverine Very good, that's awesome. So, heroes for me. I went with Deadpool for the nominations just because, in terms of the trilogy, that is, you know, deadpool 1, deadpool 2, and this one, deadpool and Wolverine, you really see him take off the mask as that wisecracking, cocky character to become a character that is really just fighting for love and family and heart. And he finds another found family in the, the sony characters, as you, as you just mentioned. But I feel like he becomes more of a wade wilson than he does of a deadpool, and that sort of character growth is heroic for me. Um, and where he learns that at the very end scene, that very famous one where you see deadpool and wolverine, uh, joining together to combine the reactors and share the burden, that's just such a good allegory for friendship, isn't it? Where you're looking at Deadpool who's taking on this burden he can't do it alone and Wolverine, or Logan, hugh Jackman, as the character, just really backs him up in that moment, and it's reminiscent of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's friendship in real life as well, which is great to see. I love it when an onscreen friendship matches an outside one. So Deadpool's my first nomination for that one.
Speaker 1:My second nomination for best hero of 2024 goes to Kate. Kate, who is played by Daisy Edgar Jones from the Twisters movie. The reason I'm picking her is because she single-handedly stops the cyclones or the twisters from devastating a region of Oklahoma and as a woman in STEM, that is just like literally saving lives. I think that as a character, that is a really great representation of the field, even though the science is a little bit janky through the movie. But I feel like she has this dream that she follows through. She sticks to her values. She does have some trauma that sort of stops her from pursuing that, but then the movie is about her overcoming that trauma and then facilitating and helping others with her gift. So that is definitely a hero pick for me.
Speaker 1:And last of all, I'm going to go with Poe from Kung Fu Panda 4. Uh, I think that Poe has been a lot of things over the years, from Kung Fu Panda 1, 2, 3, and now 4. Uh, it's a really great. I don't know if this is the culmination, whether it's the end of his arc, as as the hero of Kung Fu Panda. I don't know if they'll call it Kung Fu Fox after this or whatever Awakfina's character is, but he almost transitions from, you know, clumsy fool to dragon warwick and now to sage of the village, oogway, oogway, pretty much. That transition and that position of leadership he kind of takes on in his own way. He doesn't become another Oogway, but he becomes a leader in his own right and through his own mannerisms, and he doesn't change the character that he is because who he is is enough to be a leader and a role model himself. So for that Poe gets my nomination as well.
Speaker 1:So there for the best heroes. And last category, we're going to go on to best villains. Hear that guitar. For the best villains there. Great love it all right. So villains obviously carry a story. Sometimes they're my favorite characters in the actual story and this award for the fandom favorites of 2024 goes to those villains who are the most devious, who are the uh, the driving force behind the hero's journey, sometimes and often the antithesis of that hero. So I'll go first for this one.
Speaker 1:The villain in Gladiator 2 is a man who is called Macrinus. He is played by Denzel Washington. I will not be surprised if he gets an Oscar for this role for a supporting casting character, because his political mind in this movie is so strategic to the point where you're watching him with interest through the whole film to see when the penny is going to drop and then when it does, boy does he take action. Spoiler alert on this one. He basically just goes through and enacts his plan within the last 20 to 35 minutes of the movie and it's just such a speed run into his rise that is. He's just a character that you love to hate because of how clever and ingenious he is and the wordplay that he goes through in that movie is just so nuanced and I really love that about him. As a villain and as a character, I feel like Denzel Washington was the perfect person to play him. There are people that make critiques about him, saying he's got an American accent in this movie. It really doesn't detract or bother from the performance for me. I feel like his rise in that movie is the perfect villain arc and he's what kept me watching that movie. Everybody's complaining about Paul Maskell and how he doesn't really compare to Russell Crowe.
Speaker 1:That wasn't gladiator two for me.
Speaker 1:Macrinus and Denzel Washington was gladiator two for me and he gets my nomination for best villain of the year, the second one for me.
Speaker 1:I was going to go with Dementus, but I feel like what Dementus does, macrinus does a little bit better, so I don't want to nominate both of them on similar terms. So the next one for me we kind of discussed this as to whether he can be considered a villain that we nominate or not is Vince McMahon from the McMahon documentary, who was a real life CEO or previous CEO of the company of WWF, completely villainous in real life. If you've watched that Netflix special, you know the crimes that he has sort of committed or alleged crimes that he's committed in the space To his credit as a businessman. Wwf WWE probably would not be what it is today without him. So with that in mind, and obviously the way that he got there, with a complete disregard for people or the safety of his actors and workers, it's just he's up there for a villainous nomination for me, but they're my only two. What about yourself, brash? What are your nominations?
Speaker 2:So I've got two. My number one is Josh Harnett. In the Trap that's Cooper, haven't seen it Go ahead. He just, he just like, oozes, like, just when he like. There's scenes where the camera, just where he's trying to because he's trapped in the stadium he has to try and figure out a way out just when the camera is. There's points where the camera is just looking at his face and you can see him mentally working out all right how I get out of the situation. But he just, he just looks sinister, like he's, but he just looks Sinister, sinister. He's got his daughter there next to him who's oblivious to the whole situation, and he's like, oh, happy, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then when he sees his finished talking to his daughter, he looks up and then the camera pans to him and his face goes from happy father to this almost not panicked but calculating villain. And oh, he just Josh Harnett. And that just amazed me in that movie.
Speaker 1:Well, that's going on the list You've sold me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he, just I, I didn't think he could pull it off and he blew me away. That's good, that's good, uh. My second one is Kevin Durand in King of the Planet of the Apes. Yep, he, he, oh, he, he, he. I don't know, he portrays an ape just so well. Yeah, it's just. Oh, the amount of skill it took for him to like, bring Proximus alive, like, and you see him in interviews when they, when they because they used to, when they did their interviews for it, they did their sort of interpretations of their characters and stuff like that. And just, even in interviews, the way he moved, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's almost I call it brave when I find out about actors that do motion capture, because some of it's voiceover, some of it's physical performance, but all of it is like coming together to actually be a character that isn't human, like physically acting as a character that isn't human in motion capture. That's the whole point of it. And they actually released I heard the copy of the film where where it shows the actors in their motion capture, just so people could see what these actors went through and to portray a villain that I haven't seen it, but a villain that seems to be so calculated and conniving in his space.
Speaker 2:But also do. That physical performance is just a testament to Kevin Durant as an actor, and all the noises they make is all them. The actors themselves did all the ape noises.
Speaker 1:Was this one directed by Andy Serkis as well? I'm not sure I know. At least he was there as a consultant, because he obviously played Caesar in the previous one. Yeah, caesar's, not in this one.
Speaker 2:Wes Moore was the director for this one. Okay, he did Mage Runner, he did the Mage Runner's Kingdom Upon the Apes.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, the king of motion capture in andy circus obviously had an impact on this, this, this movie. But yeah, kevin durant's performance in that and we were talking before about him and how he can play that, that asshole uh, we were talking about real steel before, where he beats the crap out of hugh jackman and, um, he, he, just sort of what from what you're telling me. Anyway, he brings it to another level with this.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, 100% yeah, kieran Durant. He's what made that movie.
Speaker 1:Very good. All right, so fandom portaliers. That is our three categories for the fandom favorites for 2024. Those are our nominations. They will come on the social media for you to vote. The actual award-giving episode will be held a little bit later, when we get the results for those, so stay tuned to those episodes. This has been a Fandom Portals short episode, so thank you for tuning in. As always, if you like our content, make sure you share it with some other people. It is the bread and butter for podcasters like us to get our stories out there. You can find us on Instagram at Fandom Portals and on threads at Fandom Portals, and we, both Brash and I, have Letterboxd accounts as well. That you can find in the show notes below if you want to track down the movies that we are watching and loving. And thank you for joining us. Everybody else that is listening. We'll catch you later. Thank you, bye you.
