The 2010’s

At the end of every year I post my top 5 films of that particular year plus 5 honorable mentions. This year however, marks the end of another decade, so I’ll be doing two lists this time. It was hard enough to pick just 10 after an insane 10 years of film, and it was almost impossible to rank them in order. These are my personal favorite films that have released from January 2010 through December 2019, not all of them are award winning by any means but just films that I thoroughly enjoyed and love to re-visit. I’ll start with #10 and work my way up the list.

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#10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Starting off my list is Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Story-wise this movie isn’t anything mind blowing, a pretty basic guy likes girl and pursues her, but visually this is a real treat. The constant visual transitions in this movie are extremely creative, every time one happens I feel as though I witnessed a magic trick. I really love Edgar Wright’s style as a director, and this movie I think expresses his style the best, the second (from the one’s I’ve seen) being The World’s End.

It’s an extremely bright and colorful film is a whole lot of fun and has a fast pace to it. This film is constantly full of laughs as well, Michael Cera gives plenty of awkward and comedic beats through the journey we follow him on. There are also several cameos that time has allowed to make even funnier. Most of the actors that cameo were nowhere near as well known as they are today, so it was hilarious watching them randomly pop up through the film. If you’ve never seen this movie, give it a shot, it’s awesome and it’s a fun time!

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#9. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy I believe to be the best trilogy that has come from the decade. Each film builds very well off of each other, story-arc’s are really solid, and the special effects of the apes themselves are astounding. This series revolutionized motion capture the way Jurassic Park revolutionized CGI, even in close-ups it’s hard to tell that the apes are not real. Fur in particular is extremely well animated, and even when it starts raining the appearance of the fur interacting with the rain is very detailed.

Each film in this trilogy is extremely solid, but I think that “Dawn” is the peak of the series. The struggle between the human race and the enhanced apes is at its most critical point, it’s the turning point of the series, and it somehow gets you to root against your own species. I love the amount of character each ape is given and no two apes look the same. The human protagonists in this one are easy to connect to as well and have clear motives that drive the story. I’ve revisited this trilogy a small handful of times since it’s entire release, and hope we get another film trilogy (not another apes trilogy, just a film trilogy in general) as strong as this one in the 2020’s.

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#8. Tangled

Disney released it’s final cell-animated movie in 2009 with Princess and the Frog, and the new era of Disney animation began in 2010. There were other 3D animated Disney films before such as Meet the Robinsons and Bolt, but I think Tangled is what really launched the new series of animated films. This is a gorgeous film, both visually and in story, it’s a classic princess tale with a little something for everyone such as chases, songs, and adventure elements. The animation in Tangled is very bright and vivid, with lots of blue skies and green forests, and lots of contrasting colors during the nighttime sequences. This movie also features one of my favorite animated sequences of all time, the animation of the lanterns reflecting on the water is still one of the most visually appealing and touching scenes in an animated film.

Several of Disney’s animated films are known for their soundtracks, even though I don’t think it’s the greatest soundtrack that they’ve produced (I’d give those awards to Tarzan and Aladdin), it’s still a very solid and fun one. Songs such as “When Will My Life Begin?” and “I See The Light” have become one of my most repeated songs in my Disney playlist, and the visuals that go with the songs add to both of them. Tangled is a film that I feel stands on its own, and I don’t really want a sequel, but if we got one I’d still watch it.

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#7. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

As someone who’s enjoyed all four of the new Star Wars films since 2015, I think Rogue One is absolutely by far the best of the new additions. A straight on spy/war film taking place in the universe of Star Wars, we’re thrown into a galaxy ruled by the Empire at their strongest. Director Gareth Edwards in 2014’s Godzilla made us not only see Godzilla’s size, but we really feel it and he has a great sense of scale in his cinematography. The same can be said in this film with the Empire and specifically the Death Star, the shot of the Death Star eclipsing the sun still gives me chills every time I watch this movie.

It’s a pretty gritty Star Wars film but it’s not without it’s humor. K-2SO quickly became one of my favorite droids in the franchise, and his humor and Alan Tudyk’s execution of the character was well balanced and I never found him annoying. And the entire third act of this movie is mind blowing, from the choreography of the space battles, visuals, and other elements that I can’t say because extreme spoilers if you’ve never seen this movie.

I would argue that Rogue One features the greatest VFX in the entire Star Wars saga, featuring a near perfect blend of practical effects and CGI. The Force Awakens also has great effects, but every time it showed something I would think, “wow that was fully practical, that’s awesome!” Other than a droid in the opening scene, I never once thought about the VFX being practical or CGI, I just accepted them as they came because they felt so real.

Rogue One takes place right before A New Hope, it serves as a great starting point, but it also can be used as a great ending to tie everything together. There’s enough context where you can watch this one without seeing the other films and you would be able to follow along with what’s going on pretty easily, and if you’re a die-hard fan there’s loads to appreciate here.

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#6. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

When this movie released, I had no plans on watching it because all the trailers looked extremely uninteresting. I only ended up seeing it because since I worked at a movie theater I was able to see movies for free, so I went in because I had nothing better to do that day. I’m curious how many good movies I’ve missed due to bad trailers because this movie was so good. Guy Ritchie’s style shines through in this movie with lots of pans and zooms through out most of the action sequences.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is an extremely fun spy movie and was very unexpected, soundtrack choices were fun and add to every scene they’re featured in. I loved the choreography of the action sequences, the comedy beats are well placed, and I overall had a really fun time watching this film and highly recommend it every time it’s brought up in conversation. Almost everyone I’ve talked to has never seen this movie, and I always have a great time showing it to people for their first time. I unfortunately haven’t been able to find another Guy Ritchie film that I’ve enjoyed nearly on the same level as this one (I enjoyed Aladdin but I don’t think that counts), and am definitely open to the idea of a sequel if we ever get one.

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#5. Guardians of the Galaxy

I still remember when they changed this from “Untitled Marvel Studios Project” to “Guardians of the Galaxy.” I had never heard of the group so I quickly found concept art and found a purple-ish guy with knives, a green girl with swords, a tree, a raccoon with a gun, and a regular guy. I had no idea what this was going to entail, and wasn’t thrilled by the first trailer that dropped, but I knew I would have to see this movie if I was going to continue my journey into the MCU. The second trailer dropped and it looked cool, and this movie finally came out and it was miles above where I thought it was going to be. The soundtrack was the best I had ever heard in a film at the time, and added heavily to the tone of the film. I love each and every character of the Guardians and think each brings their strengths and weaknesses to the team in ways that makes sense and don’t feel forced, made up, or last minute. You can tell the amount of love that James Gunn poured into this film and the characters, especially Rocket as he’s stated in interviews that he can relate to him on a personal level.

Guardians of the Galaxy was a bold move for Marvel Studio’s, but their leap of faith pulled off as it quickly became one of the highest grossing and most beloved films in the MCU. If you’d have told me 10 years ago that one of my favorite movie characters was going to be a talking raccoon, I probably would’ve called you crazy. Even though films such as Infinity War and Endgame are next-level films in the MCU, Guardians of the Galaxy was such a surprise and so different and they’re my favorite set of characters in the entire franchise.

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#4. Interstellar

My first Christopher Nolan film outside of The Dark Knight trilogy, as well as being my first film I saw in IMAX, Interstellar was an experience. I had never experienced a film on this level of storytelling before, the emotional roller coaster this movie sent me on was unreal and when it ended I felt like I had eaten this giant thanksgiving meal of a movie and needed a few minutes to just sit and digest everything that I had seen. I love Nolan’s way of storytelling, how two and sometimes three stories are happening at the same time, but then they all tie together absolutely perfectly by the end. I can’t think of another director I’ve seen pull this off, especially multiple times. Hans Zimmer scores this film as he does several of Nolan’s projects. It’s an extremely emotional score that I would compare to James Horner’s Titanic soundtrack in the sense that it makes you feel emotion even if you’re not watching the movie. I was with my sister one day and she had never seen the movie, and she was able to convey what emotion the scene was setting by just hearing the soundtrack by itself without any context to the rest of the film.

Interstellar features a great use of miniatures and practical sets which is common in Nolan’s films, The Endurance (the ship that carries the crew) is a large miniature that had low levels of lighting with long exposure camera shots to give it extremely realistic lighting. What was truly mind-blowing for me however, is an extremely complex set-piece that takes place at the end of the film that I definitely thought was CGI. However I recently learned that even though there is some CGI involved, it’s almost all one gigantic practical set that had a said-character on cables “floating” through. The scale and complexity of that set is so insane its a masterpiece on it’s own even without the rest of the film around it. This is not an all an action-filled movie, it’s very slow burning, but that doesn’t take away from the movie in any way.

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#3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

I was cautiously optimistic going into this one, I was excited for another Spider-Man film because he’s my favorite superhero, but this was the same company coming off the back of Hotel Transylvania 3 and The Emoji Movie. It quickly became my favorite animated film of the decade, and one of my favorite animated films of all time. There is a ton of detail that went into the animation style. Each character is animated in every other frame so they move in a slightly jumpy, comic book-feel. In a scene early on where Peter is teaching Miles how to web-swing, they’re each animated in different frame rates so they’re not in sync with each other, but as Miles learns how to swing properly, their frame rates sync up and they’re able to work more as a team together.

Each of the Spider-Men add something to the movie, and I loved that each character had their own unique animation style. I particularly loved Spider-Ham and Spider-Man Noir, I thought they had the best comedic beats. I do wish, however, that we had gotten more screen time with these characters, they’re introduced just past the halfway point of the movie and since there’s so many of them it’s hard to give them all a satisfying amount of screen time. That is my one and only complaint from this movie, everything else was perfect.

This film does have some pretty heavy moments for a kids film, but isn’t too crazy out there where kids can’t enjoy the movie as well. It’s a well rounded, something for the entire family, extremely solid animated film that I’m extremely excited to see where they go with the sequel.

Here’s my initial review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/04/03/spider-man-into-the-spider-verse/

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#2. Avengers: Endgame

For me personally, The Marvel Cinematic Universe defined the 2010’s, releasing 2-3 films a year and all building up to this. Avengers Infinity War and Endgame together will always be a cultural moment in cinematic history, equivalent to the release of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Endgame became the first film to pass Avatar as the highest grossing film worldwide (not adjusted for inflation) and smashed numerous records across the board with it’s release, it was a monster of a film. This movie was the epic conclusion of an 11 year story arc, tying all 21 previous films together in an insane finale that seemed impossible to pull off and yet they did!

The only negative thing I have against this movie is its’ run time. I don’t think it’s unnecessarily long, it’s got a ton to it, but similar to the Lord of the Rings films, it’s hard to go back and re-watch even though it’s really good. Some say this isn’t a stand alone film, which is true, but I don’t believe that’s a reason to take away from this movie because it’s not meant to be a stand alone movie in the same way Guardians of the Galaxy or Captain America: The Winter Soldier are. I don’t complain when the season finale of a TV show isn’t a stand alone episode, and I think this is just the same.

The VFX in this film is astounding, closeups on Thanos looked as though it could’ve been practically done and I would almost forget that he’s an entirely CGI character. This movie has a lot of fan service, but I think it’s earned it after carefully constructing and building the story over the course of eleven films. Several moments in this movie had me cheering in the theater like I never had before, and the audience I saw it with made for an unforgettable experience. This combined with Infinity War, is a generational event film that won’t be seen again for who knows how long, and I’m extremely glad to have been a part of it.

I do go back and forth with which one I like more between Infinity War and Endgame, it’s extremely hard to tell which one I truly like more, but the sheer scale, epicness, and audience reaction I saw Endgame with ultimately caused me to place this one in my top 10 rather than Infinity War, but I rank them both extremely close together. Which one of the two do you like better?

Here’s my initial review of Avengers: Endgame
https://honestreviews.movie.blog/2019/04/26/avengers-endgame/

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Honorable Mentions

Before we continue into my number 1 spot, here’s some honorable mentions from the last ten years. They’re in no particular order, but these were other films that I loved and almost included in my top 10. Even though they didn’t quite make the cut, they were worth mentioning.

From top left to bottom right:

• Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)
• The LEGO Movie (2014)
• Moana (2016)
• Jurassic World (2015)
• Coco (2017)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
• Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

#1. Inception

I vividly remember the trailers for this movie playing in theaters, and my 13 year old self being extremely confused at the folding streets and exploding world and all this talk about dreams. I missed its theatrical run and didn’t see it until fairly recently when my brother picked up the 4K release. I’m not upset, however, because if I had seen it back in 2010 I wouldn’t have even began to comprehend the film and probably would’ve never given it a second chance.

Inception is Christopher Nolan at his finest, and he uses extremely complex, layered, and intricate storytelling. If you haven’t seen this movie and you leave the room for more than 2 or 3 minutes, you’re most likely going to be lost for the rest of the film. Everything seems all over the place but then it all comes smashing back together for an incredible finale leaving my mind blown as to how I didn’t pick up on things earlier on in the film. This movie benefits from a second watch because you’re able to pick up on those subtle hints that completely go over your head on a first watch and you almost start to interpret things differently each time you watch it.

Just like Interstellar, Nolan uses massive practical sets in his films and Inception is no exception. One set in particular includes a full sized hallway that rotates as an action sequence goes on. Watching it you’d think they just CGI-ed the hallway and had actors on cables, but the sequence features real actors actually tumbling through the hallway as they try to fight each other.

The storytelling in this movie is unlike any other that I’ve seen, and like I mentioned earlier if you watch this movie you have to pay extreme attention as to not get lost and get the full effect. Inception is easily my favorite film of the decade, and quickly became one of my favorite films of all time. Christopher Nolan has directed enough extremely solid films that I don’t even need to know the title, see a trailer, or know the plot of it to be in an IMAX theater on opening day. Tenet comes out this summer, and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next!

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This list was incredibly hard to put together and even harder to put in order. The 2010’s had some incredible and some not-so-incredible movies, and I can’t wait to see what the 2020’s have in store for us. What were some of your favorite films from the decade? Let me know in the comments below!