Given that the name of our website is Lords of Gaming, it may be surprising to see a Movie of the Year category. Yet, we appreciate the kinds of experiences that cinema can offer that games do not. The ability to craft a well-written and complete story in a two hour chunk for instance. Movies had a rough year this year, with COVID again hitting the theater industry particularly hard. Nevertheless, we carved out time to celebrate some of the best films released in 2021. With that in mind, here are the recipients of this year’s Golden Lance Award for Movie of the Year.
Winner: Shang Chi
Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings captured the hearts of MCU fans and moviegoers alike. It’s the first MCU film with an Asian lead and a full Asian cast to tell the coming-of-age story of master martial artist Shang-Chi. Like Black Panther, the MCU DNA is well-embedded into Shang-Chi, but its cultural and contextual influences breathe much-needed new life into the franchise. Action scenes are invigorating and gritty thanks to the excellent fight and camera choreography. At the heart of the action-packed comedy is an emotional story about a father and his son. You won’t be needing a tissue box, but you’ll leave the film seeing another bright example of how powerful familial love can be. By its end, we get another genre-defining hero to root for that we can’t wait to see more of.
Runner Up: Dune
While Dune didn’t win movie of the year here at Lords of Gaming. This film is number one to me. The countless years that this film took to make is amazing. Being told that Dune was unable to transition to film, Denis Villeneuve has succeeded. Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel is a respected and well loved classic. It is time that the fans of his work can now openly talk about a movie that goes with the book. We never need another version of the convoluted 1984 version from David Lynch.
Runner Up: The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
With a release on June 4th 2021, The Conjuring 3 was trying to pick up off the popularity of the other Conjuring movies. Based in the Conjuring universe, Conjuring 3 had people on the edge of their seats with anticipation of the next thing to come as you watched the movie. A big thing that also helped get people into this movie is that is based on a true story. We know all the Conjuring movies, Ed and Lorraine the paranormal investigators that were called in to help with the situations. Being based on a true story, all this makes you think can you really prove in court of law the Devil really made you do it?
