2018 was a crazy big year for comic nerds. It’s been 10 years in the making for Marvel to bring together the superhero all-star movie that really set the standard for most awesome moments and punch gut feeling of seeing your favorite heroes get beaten. My top list looks like a summer blockbuster top winners, but in retrospect, were smartly paced out so that almost three weeks I saw something amazing. While I didn’t get a chance to see everything I wanted to this year, these movies I ranked based on what really grabbed my attention and what awesome moment will be talked about for the next year.
1. Avengers: Infinity War: The excitement to see your favorite Marvel heroes finally coming face to face with the purple conquer. You cheered, you laughed and probably got really emotional when everything fell apart at the end. I knew this movie was going to be epic, but goddamn does it hit you right in the feels when shit goes bad. 2019 could get here fast enough to complete this story, and I am excited to see where this new phase of Marvel goes.
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: Okay, little biased on putting Spiderman movies in my top 10 list. But Spiderman was my first superhero I related to at a young age. While Miles Morales wasn’t the Spiderman I grew up with, I still enjoyed his origin story and the fun use of multiverses. With any Lord and Miller flick, the dialogue is sharp and witty, and the animation is groundbreaking. I was glued to the screen when I saw this in 3D and the whole movie breezed by. There was a ton of gags and references for any level of spidey fan and I hope there’s room for more projects like this. And of course, Noir Nic Cage was goddamn fantastic. Let’s see if he can appear in the live-action adaptation in the new Marvel phase!
3. Mission: Impossible Fallout: Convulted plot, international traveling, and real-life stunts that endangered the cast. Mission: Impossible movies never fail to be fun and exciting, and this latest installment was an action pack treat. Henry Cavill was a good cast choice, with a Superman ruining mustache, but all worth it in the end. I think.
4. Black Panther: It’s like Hamlet with a happier ending, Black Panther is a fun flick with great visuals and a world expanding plot that enriches the Marvel cinematic universe with some fun action. Michael B Jordan steals this movie as Killmonger and plays the charming and sinister villain role perfectly.
5. Deadpool 2: Making some use of the R rating, the first theatrical version of Deadpool 2 still has the laughs and a silly plot that made for a fun movie experience. A bit toned down from the original, this movie brought in some fun characters and hilarious sequences that you did not expect.
6. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Paul Rudd is back to be his charming and clumsy self in this team-up sequel that plays like a super-hero buddy cop comedy. It was a little weird to go from the gloomy Avengers: Infinity War to Ant-Man and the Wasp, where part of me was screaming “THANOS IS COMING, DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE GHOST WOMAN”. It’s a fun entry that showed off Evangeline Lilly suited up and kicking butt.
7. Aquaman: With a December release, Aqua slide in at the last moment to be a surprisingly interesting movie. Judging by the character’s first actual interactions in Justice League, the character wasn’t exactly fleshed out and needed that much important backstory to explain why he should be a hero. Got kind of a Black Panther vibe, there were familiar notes that played the movie safely and was pretty focused to deliver a tight story with lots of great visuals.
8. Game Night: Adult comedies seem to suffer from the same basic plots in the last 3 years. It’s something to do about drugs, kidnapping or kidnapping that later becomes about drugs. While Game Night isn’t that original, it was pretty entertaining to watch all the couples brick and go through the crazy situation.
9. Overlord: A lively World War 2 action-horror flick that could have swung to either genre, but rode the fine line between being a straight-up zombie movie or an episode of Band of Brothers. The pacing of the story gave the plot enough time to give a sense of American soldiers infiltrating Nazi-occupied France that felt tense and dramatic and didn’t rush to bring all the sci-fi horror so soon. While I was expecting the Overlord to be more of survival horror, the acting and story was decent and kept me interested the whole time.
10. Upgrade: In contrast to Overlord, Upgrade a movie that blends action-sci-fi and runs straight into the deep end of ultra-violence. It’s a story about revenge in a world full of crazy future technology that adds some engaging fight sequences. This is like Jackie Chan’s movie The Tuxedo that went hard into the R-rating and wanted to warn about the deadly possibility of gun arms.
Honorable Mentions
- Rampage – Giant Ape and the Rock team up to mess up a city fighting large animals. Pure summer flick fun.
- Cargo – A zombie movie that focuses more on character development than survival since a father has to plan for his demise while protecting his daughter. A mature take on the zombie genre that plays up the drama.
Best Hipster Remake: A Star Is Born – Four times this movie has been remade. It’s a super sad story and gets a generate to appreciate music.