The Best Movies of 2018
Continuing my best of 2018, here are the best movies that I saw that came out in 2018. Unfortunately, I don’t get out to the theater much and usually my theater trips are limited to either comic book movies or kid movies.
Here are the 10 best movies I saw last year.
1. Avengers: Infinity WarI’m not surprised this movie was at the top of the list; we’ve been building to this for 10 years and 20 movies. Having read the source material, I had a general idea of how the movie was going to end, but it still got to me.
The acting was on par with all of the previous movies of the MCU and the writing/direction was top notch. The nerd in me went nuts seeing all of these characters together, many for the first time.
The downside to the movie has been waiting a year to see how it ends. Less than 4 months remain.
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
If there was one movie that I didn’t expect to make the list, it was this (or #5). An animated Spider-Man movie sounded good when I first heard about it over a year ago, but as I saw the previews popping up, I got excited. Add in my daughter started reading Ultimate Spider-Man weeks before the release, it was something we had to see.
It didn’t disappoint. The story was pretty complex (thank you Flash for explaining the multiverse to my family), but I don’t think the story was hurt by the complexity. The characters were all interesting, even the ones I wasn’t familiar with before see it.
Not only was it a good movie, it also had one of the best soundtracks of the year. The music was so ingrained in the movie that I could hear many of the songs outside of the movie and know the parts they were from.
If you would have asked me in May what was going to be the second best movie of the year, this would have been the winner. The late addition of the Spider-Verse knocked this down a spot. And it was nothing against this film. This is one of the top 5 MCU movies made so far.
I love BP as a character, but the secondary characters made the movie. Shuri came off as a female Tony Stark and would be a perfect successor for Iron Man. Okoye proved that Danai Gurira can play a badass in anything and could give any other strong female character a run for their money.
And Killmonger has been the best MCU villain since Loki. His motives felt more realistic than many super-hero movie villains.
If there was one thing I didn’t like, it was killing Klaue; while he’s not a huge villain like Magneto, Loki, or Green Goblin, but he’s probably the best suited guy to be a reoccurring villain for BP. Plus, Marvel has a problem with killing off villains, or making them unavailable to reappear.
Of the April/May movies, this was the one I was least looking forward to; not that I didn’t want to see it, but it was a train wreck coming out of production – fired directors, change in actors, acting coaches – plus it was coming out at a time when there was so much other stuff coming out and so soon after the most polarizing Star Wars movie released.
That’s a lot going against it. But it was a good movie. Not a movie we needed, but it was a fun exploration of a character that many Star Wars fans loved.
Alden Ehrenreich did a great job as Solo; he wasn’t Harrison Ford, but he shouldn’t and didn’t try to be Ford being Solo. He brought his own flair to the character.
Of course Donald Glover stole the show; from his first line sounding like Billy Dee Williams to the personality he brought to the character, Glover was Lando (so much so that I want a Lando movie).
The surprise cameo at the end of the movie really pushed this over the edge for me; I knew Maul was alive and had no clue he’d show up in the movie (although, I should have known since he was heavily in the underworld after the Clone Wars). A Crimson Dawn movie, exploring the underworld of Star Wars, is something I’d like more than a Lando movie.
Really, this movie had no right being as good as it was. It’s based on a real life group of friends that have been playing a game of tag for over 30 years. The movie was funny, but also had a lot of heart.
The only reason I wanted to see it was because of the “based on…” story. I know it’s fictionalized, but to think about adults playing a game of tag that encroaches on their real life is just mesmerizing.
The cast was solid and the story was well written. I thought this would be lumped in with many of the other many comedies that have tried to play with the Hangover formula; instead it stood out because of the comedic timing and essence of the story.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t an award winner; it was a movie that entertained me and had me laughing.
The MCU continued to deliver. AM and the Wasp definitely wasn’t the first movie, but it did a good job of moving Scott Lang’s story along and explaining his whereabouts during Infinity War. It also gave Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne more to do.
It lacked the heart of the first movie though. The visual gimmicks were still there (the giant Hello Kitty Pez Dispenser and the growing/shrinking car) and it was action packed.
It also lacked a villain that impacted the story and the MCU; Ghost was a much better comic character than movie character, although the changes to it were interesting.
I’ve been pretty negative on this movie so far, but I did like it.
Paul Rudd is perfect at Scott; his sense of humor and the way he interacts with the cast plays well with many of the other characters.
The movie also sets up Scott as a big part of Avengers: Endgame.
Deadpool is one of the 2 comic book characters that I absolutely love and will purchase anything related to. Unfortunately, I left this movie underwhelmed after having such high hopes.
I felt this this was trying too hard to be the first movie. Some of the jokes were played out. Some of the supporting characters came off flat. X-Force felt like a waste.
From each of the flaws though came some good stuff too. There were new and funny jokes still. Catching easter eggs made the movie very fun. Plus the cameos left you thinking “Was that really…?”
I love Deadpool and enjoyed the movie; it just didn’t leave me as blown away as the first movie did. It also makes me hopeful that Kevin Feige can add his spin to it and make it more like the first movie.
I used to believe that the worst MCU movie was better than the best DCEU movie. Then Wonder Woman happened and it got my hopes up. Then Justice League happened and I lost hope again.
Then Aquaman…
He had a fun introduction in the JL movie, but I questioned whether he could hold his own in a solo movie. He did, and then some. I consider Aquaman to be equal to Wonder Woman in quality and enjoyment.
Jason Mamoa took an inferior comic character and made him interesting. The story made sense (unlike most of the DCEU movies) and was much lighter than the other movies.
It gives me hope moving forward.
I was hesitant coming into this movie. Typically when there is a movie of a book I love, it’s not very good. Then the reviews started coming out and it killed my enthusiasm to see it.
I was wrong. RPO was not a groundbreaking movie. It looked cool and followed some of the aspects of the book. You could find easter egg after easter egg, which was very fun.
Many of the changes bother me, like removing the gates once you get the key; you’d have another challenge once you got the keys. It also doesn’t explain the real world as much as the book; plus the real life “resistance” against IOI just didn’t sit well.
If you have no reference of the book, the movie is very enjoyable. If you’ve read the book and can look past the changes, it’s very enjoyable. If you are a stickler for the source material, you’ll probably not like it.
One of the things people don’t realize about comic books is they aren’t all about Super-Heroes. I Kill Giants is one of those comics. In fact, there is little action and more drama than you would anticipate from a movie based on a comic.
The story centers on teenager (Barbara) who believes she can kill giants. But it’s really a story about trying to fight something you know you can’t beat. That something in this movie is cancer.
Barbara retreats to a fictional world where she can defeat her biggest fear rather than dealing with the issues within her family.
The story follows the comic closely, with Joe Kelly adapting his graphic novel. The GCI giants are pretty well done; so much so that one of my children didn’t want to watch the movie.
2019 looks like a promising year in movies and I’ll knock out what I want to see in the next few weeks.
