2022 flew right by and now we’re face-first in a pile of 2023. But before we get too stuck in the new year, I want to highlight the five works of entertainment that I enjoyed the most.
Before I get into my 5 #1s, I want to quickly touch on all the other IPs I reviewed this year. I watched and reviewed a bunch of stuff that I thought was either really good and/or I found myself enjoying it quite a bit.
The king of dumb fun for me this year was Morbius. It is what it was but I would be lying if I said I didn’t like watching it. It’s not even close to good but I still had fun. Plus the memes alone should make it the winner of the Most Memiest Film of 2022.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was both a fun video game film and a good sequel. It was full of action, humor, and Jim Carrey at his Jim Carreyest.
Both Black Adam and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were fun to watch. It’s a shame that Dwayne Johnson might not be coming back but I’m glad we got what we got. MoM was fun too, and visually more stunning than the first one.
I’m also glad I got back to reviewing comics with Nightmare Country. Expect a full review of the rest of the issues of that, as well as more comic book reviews in 2023.
Dishonorable Mention
I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence if I didn’t talk about how you shouldn’t watch Lightyear. If you do end up watching it, stop right after all of his friends out-age him and he’s all alone. That’s when the movie goes from profound to phenomenally disappointing. It was pure wasted potential, and does a disservice to this beloved character. At least the cat was fun.
#5: Obi-Wan Kenobi
I fully gave into nostalgia with this one. I loved seeing the faces of Star Wars from my childhood return and just kill it. Ewan McGregor is Obi-Wan Kenobi forever and his journey back to heroism was compelling from Episode 1 to Episode 6.
Darth Vader was at his most evil and malicious. The Inquisitors, especially Inquisitor Reva, were one of my other favorite parts. The lightsaber fights and laser shoot-outs were spectacular too.
#4: Andor
While I loved Kenobi for how it felt like pure Star Wars, I loved Andor because it felt so new to the Galaxy Far Far Away. Tony Gilroy gave us a hard-boiled spy thriller where heroes don’t get along and the enemy is just as dubious. Diego Luna was given his chance to expand his character who didn’t get any backstory in Rogue One.
Gilroy did for Cassian Andor what James Gunn did for Peacemaker. The slow burn storytelling and well-written characters drive the show, and when the action happens it feels like it has weight and isn’t fluffy. Star Wars needs more shows and movies like Andor.
#3: The Batman
There is no other superhero movie that came out this year that had the same impact on me that The Batman had. It brought back the glory Batman had when Christopher Nolan was making his films. We see a young hero make mistakes and grow as he fights the biggest enemy of his life. He finds love and finds himself over the course of the film.
Paul Dano’s Riddler is the best villain since Heath Ledger’s Joker, and everyone else in the film fit their parts perfectly. I’m excited to see where this Batman goes and how its world expands and grows. The Batman is how Batman is supposed to be.
#2: The Sandman
I’ve been waiting for this show to come to be for a long time. The Sandman is one of my most favorite DC characters, and I was worried that this show could end up being another one of DC’s big disappointments. I am so glad it ended up being so good.
The show is near perfect in every single way. Visually it looks like the comic book comes straight to life. The casting was spot on for every role, with each character being a spot on representation of their comic book character. Lastly, it was one of the best written comic book shows and TV shows period.
#1: Peacemaker
Getting to watch Peacemaker after having followed its trailers, and having it be as good as I hoped was incredibly satisfying. It was a thoroughly exciting show from beginning to end that had me anxiously waiting for every new episode to come out.
James Gunn was able to take a character that some consider to be one of the worst comic book characters, and made him into one of the most loved. If John Cena hadn’t been so good it would have completely fallen flat. Over eight glorious episodes, I laughed to tears and was blown away by this epic, hilarious, and fantastic show.
Onto 2023
Well that’s all folks, the stuff from 2022 that I thought was the best. I know there’s other shows and movies that I didn’t get to that were also good, but I had to stick to what I wrote about for A7. I’m all juiced up to give you all more reviews of cool stuff that comes out in 2023, and I do hope you take the time to watch these gems from 2022 sometime this year.
Advent Seven 
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