2019 has been an awesome year for film! I saw a total of 28 films this year, and enjoyed almost all of them, only a small handful of solid misses but the rest were generally fun or completely blew it out of the park. I’ll go through my top 5 films of the year, followed up by some honorable mentions which are essentially films 6-10 on my ranking.
5. Spider-Man: Far From Home
This film serves as an epilogue to not only Avengers: Endgame, but the entire first portion of the MCU as well. Spider-Man: Far From Home wraps up our first full phase and sets up the future in a really fun way. I was extremely happy to finally see Mysterio on-screen as he’s been one of my favorite Spider-Man characters, and I thought they did him very well! Some of the most comic book-looking scenes of the decade came out of this film, appearing to tear the images straight from the pages! I can’t wait to see what they do next in the MCU after seeing this, and especially can’t wait to see Spider-Man appear again soon.
Here’s my original review of Spider-Man: Far From Home
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/07/02/spider-man-far-from-home/
4. Terminator: Dark Fate
This movie was a pleasant surprise for me, I’m a fan of the Terminator franchise and think the concept of the series is great, but the last two films in a row have been pretty bad. I didn’t have very high hopes for this one going in, but it quickly turned into my favorite action movie of the year. John Wick: Chapter 3 is the only other movie who’s action I can compare this film to. Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor being brought back to the franchise felt like a breath of fresh air, but I do hope they eventually stop making these movies even though I really enjoyed this one.
Here’s my initial review of Terminator: Dark Fate
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/11/02/terminator-dark-fate/
3. Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year, and I was extremely excited to see how they’d end the Skywalker saga after being around for 42 years. Even though I didn’t think it was the greatest ending in the world, this movie was still a whole lot of fun with several surprises throughout. A few of the characters such as C-3PO and Chewbacca I think had their best performances in the saga in this film, and the return of Emperor Palpatine was amazing! He’s just as menacing as ever, and his performance is my favorite character performance of 2019! I’ve fully enjoyed the sequel trilogy, and I’m sad to see it end, but I can’t wait to see what they do with the franchise now that they Skywalker story is ended.
Here’s my initial review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/12/21/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker/
2. Toy Story 4
I was one of those who thought they had a perfect ending with Toy Story 3. An extremely touching and satisfying ending and I was skeptical about this movie because of how much I enjoyed the original conclusion. In short, this movie wasn’t needed, they could have left it off with the previous film, but Toy Story 4 was so good and I think I felt every emotion possible while watching this movie. Forky is a really fun new character and added a lot of humor to the film, and the animation was absolutely gorgeous as I’ve come to expect from any Pixar film. I don’t think this movie takes away from the emotional ending of Toy Story 3 in any way, and I really enjoyed how they wrapped up some of the characters story-arc’s in this film.
Here’s my initial review of Toy Story 4
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/06/20/toy-story-4/
Before I get to my #1 film of the year (although it’s probably an easy guess), here’s some honorable mentions.
- 6. Hobbs & Shaw
- 7. Zombieland 2: Double Tap
- 8. Aladdin
- 9. Jumanji: The Next Level
- 10. Frozen II
1. Avengers: Endgame
Other than waiting 14 years for Jurassic Park IV to finally happen, I have never felt hype and excitement for a film on this level before. After the events of Avengers: Infinity War, I absolutely needed to know what happened next. I had zero spoilers for this movie, but was extremely stressed in the final month leading up to this film that I was going to have something spoiled. I avoided spoilers at all costs, deleting any form of social media off my phone and powering off my computer for a few days and avoiding related conversations at work, and the hard work paid off. This was the conclusion I wanted, I had impossibly high expectations and this movie not only met, but exceeded those expectations. I was cheering, pumping my fist, and more excited than ever during this movie. The audience I saw this movie was was extraordinary, I’ve never quite seen theater reactions like this movie before. Avengers: Endgame is the best theater experience I’ve ever had which only added to my love for this movie, and I firmly sit in the camp that believes this movie was even better than Infinity War, not at all saying Infinity War is worse, that movie is still absolutely spectacular.
The level of hype, the payoff, and theatrical experience of this movie easily allow me to put this as my number one movie of the year, and also one of the biggest films to have released in my lifetime. I’m extremely happy I live now so I was able to experience this, because I believe this is comparable to seeing the original Star Wars trilogy in theaters as they released.
Here’s my initial review of Avengers: Endgame
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/04/26/avengers-endgame/
That’s my top 5, technically top 10 films of 2019! What were your favorite films from this year? Let me know in the comments below! I’ve been working on another “top films” list that will be coming soon. I’m hoping to have it completed before the end of the year, but there’s so many great films to choose from it’s very hard to rank them.
Here is a list of every film I saw in theaters this year, and the order I rank them against each other. I saw 28 films this year, but Aquaman released in 2018, so I don’t count it on this list.
- Avengers: Endgame
- Toy Story 4
- Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- Terminator: Dark Fate
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
- Zombieland 2: Double Tap
- Aladdin
- Jumanji: The Next Level
- Frozen II
- Ad Astra
- John Wick: Chapter 3
- Shazam!
- Captain Marvel
- The Lion King
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
- Joker
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters
- Child’s Play
- Detective Pikachu
- Doctor Sleep
- MIB: International
- X-Men: Dark Phoenix
- Dumbo
- It: Chapter 2
- Glass
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