Fanboys Anonymous

Every year, one of the criticisms of the awards ceremonies is that there is a disconnect between what the average moviegoer appreciates and what the more artistic voters for these academies choose to represent the best of that particular year. Very rarely is any attention or adoration given to anything in the genres of comedy, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action/adventure and so forth as opposed to what is commonly referred to as "Oscar-bait" material.

Thus, here at Fanboys Anonymous, we want to extend our gratitude to those movies which are overlooked with the first-ever FANBOYS FILM AWARDS!

The only qualification for the nominees is that they must fall somewhere into the geek culture spectrum, which means superhero films and similar genres. Everything else is not eligible for any of the categories, so you won't see Dunkirk on this list, but you still might see The Great Wall. However...I haven't actually seen either of those movies, so no, those aren't on this list.


NOTE: All nominees were from the time frame of January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 as far as release dates. Plus, this is only one person's opinion and I admittedly haven't even seen every film that could potentially be nominated, so that's going to put a significant bias on this. You're encouraged to leave your choices for the nominees and winners in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

BEST PICTURE

WINNER = Logan

EXPLANATION = Man, did I really want The Last Jedi to be in this spot, but it just pissed me off too much. Logan, on the other hand, held up to its expectations. It's not perfect, but it gave me the sendoff for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in a way that I felt very pleased by the end of it.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = The Lego Batman Movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok

BEST ACTOR

WINNER = Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine in Logan

EXPLANATION = This is Wolverine, down pat. He's always killed this role and this time in particular, he put some extra effort into knocking it out of the park.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb in Split 

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER = Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney in Logan

EXPLANATION = Nobody else stood a chance, half because there weren't any powerful performances in these types of films (and no, I don't think Gal Gadot was amazing) and half because Keen was just pretty damn good in her part outright.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = n/a from what I've seen

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

WINNER = Jacob Batalon as Ned Leeds in Spider-Man: Homecoming

EXPLANATION = TBD

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier in Logan, Michael Rooker as Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes in Spider-Man: Homecoming

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

WINNER = Cate Blanchett as Hela in Thor: Ragnarok

EXPLANATION = Is she hammy? Sure, but that's the style of movie she was in. Plus, she didn't have much competition.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = n/a from what I've seen

BEST STORY

This is an alternative to Best Adapted/Original Screenplay where the execution of the overall product might not be the equivalent of Best Picture, but the idea was there.
WINNER = The Lego Batman Movie

EXPLANATION = Exploring the pseudo love story between Batman and The Joker, while also diving into Batman's family issues? How did such a funny kids movie end up doing more to inform people of some of Batman's psychology than some of the movies that preceded it? This was so surprisingly rich.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Logan, Spider-Man: Homecoming

MOST FAITHFUL ADAPTATION

Which felt like it was the most honorable to the source material it was trying to represent?

WINNER = Wonder Woman

EXPLANATION = While not the most compelling movie in the world, I did feel like I saw the best overall representation of Diana Prince that I've ever seen and I doubt even if the movie itself would have been better, that it would have heightened its own self-awareness of the character.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Logan, Power Rangers, Spider-Man: Homecoming (but your MJ and Liz stuff docked you points)

BEST VISUALS

This examines special effects, cinematography, production design and even editing.

WINNER = Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

EXPLANATION = As much as the movie itself annoys me with its story choices, it was a spectacle to watch in terms of its visual meal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Ghost in the Shell, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok (very close #2)

BEST ACTION SET PIECE

This honors the stunt work as well as the choreography and idea of an action sequence.

WINNER = Kylo Ren and Rey vs. Praetorian Guards in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

EXPLANATION = I would probably find things from Transformers: The Last Knight much cooler if I could tell what the hell was going on, which at least The Last Jedi is able to accomplish in this fight, that gave us some of the best "death by lightsaber" moments we've ever seen in the series.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = several scenes in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, opening Surtur fight in Thor: Ragnarok

BEST CHARACTER DESIGN

This combines makeup, costumes and the CGI build of characters.

WINNER = Thor: Ragnarok

EXPLANATION = Definitely a shame Justice League couldn't hold its own or that Wonder Woman had the awful looking Ares spoiling it. Thor had tons of different characters and they all popped.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Spider-Man: Homecoming, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (puppet Yoda takes it off the list)

BEST MUSIC

This category examines both the score and the soundtrack.

WINNER = Power Rangers

EXPLANATION = Star Wars doesn't get credit for recycling old themes and this was the only film of the entire year that I actively got the soundtrack for more than one or two songs. Even Guardians was a let down to me compared to the first film.

HONORABLE MENTIONS = Kong: Skull Island