#it just feels like a nothing-movie. kung fu panda 3 makes my dad cry every time and kung fu panda 4 is 90 minutes of blank space

[practically-an-x-man]

THEY BRING TAI LUNG BACK JUST TO 'STEAL HIS KUNG FU'??? Excuse me???

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Every Movie I’ve Seen That Came Out This Decade

Now, I saw many of these films as they came out, but a lot of them I ended up watching years after the fact.  There are plenty of movies that came out this decade that I still want to watch but haven’t gotten around to yet (Fury Road, Blade Runner 2049, Logan, etc)  And just because I have seem a movie doesn’t mean I liked it, nor that I even wanted to see it in the first place; there are many I wish I could unsee because they were a waste of 2 hours of my finite existence (Marmaduke, Hop, World War Z, most DC movies)

I’ve bolded my three favorites of each year; not necessarily the best films of their respective years, just the ones that I saw and liked the most.  As I add more titles to this list, I’m sure my preferences might change.  All of my choices are subjective, so I will explain and justify them as I go.

Let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start):

2010

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (February 2010)

Alice in Wonderland (March 2010)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (March 2010)

How to Train Your Dragon (March 2010)

Shrek Forever After (May 2010)

Marmaduke (June 2010)

The Karate Kid (June 2010)

Toy Story 3 (June 2010)

Despicable Me (July 2010)

Predators (July 2010)

Fred: The Movie (July 2010)

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (August 2010)

Piranha 3D (August 2010)

Saw 3D (October 2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (November 2010)

Tangled (November 2010)

Top 3: How to Train Your Dragon was phenomenal, I can’t recommend it enough.  Predators wasn’t super great, but it was fun, and I have a soft spot for the series because the original Predator is my dad’s favorite film.  Scott Pilgrim is hilarious; nuff said. Other Notes:  I was 12 going on 13 when the decade started, so I mostly watched kids movies.  I’ll probably go back and watch more as time goes on.  I loved the Lightning Thief book, but the movie sucked.  I tried out for Diary of a Wimpy Kid because they held auditions online (I lost, wa-waaa).  My first “date” was with a friend’s sister to see Shrek 4 (Good Lord was it awkward).  Toy Story 3 was fun, but not my favorite by any means.  Let’s pretend Fred never happened.  My dad took me to see Piranha 3D apropos of nothing (he never just says “hey, wanna see a movie tonight?”) and we ended up walking out thirty minutes in because he got offended by all the nudity (it’s a T&A movie)

2011

Rango (February 2011)

Rio (March 2011)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (March 2011)

Hop (April 2011)

Kung Fu Panda 2 (May 2011)

Mr. Popper’s Penguins (June 2011)

Cars 2 (June 2011)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (July 2011)

Final Destination 5 (August 2011)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (August 2011)

Apollo 18 (September 2011)

The Thing (October 2011)

Top 3: Rise of the Planet of the Apes was really good, and Andy Serkis gave what might be one of his top 3 best mo-cap ape performances (he has had many).  Apollo 18 sucked, but was fun.  The Thing sucked, but the 1982 version is my favorite movie of all time, and I liked the potential this prequel had.  Please remember that this list is subjective as hell; these are by no means my favorite movies of all time, in fact many aren’t even particularly good, they’re just the ones I saw that I would go out of my way to watch again, for whatever reason. Other Notes: none of the other films this year really did anything for me.   only saw Hop because my friend invited me.  Cars 2 was hot garbage.  Mr. Popper’s Penguins was forgettable.  I didn’t much care for the Harry Potter movies after Goblet of Fire.  I like the first two and a half Final Destination movies (the first two were clever, I liked parts of 3, but 4 and 5 are terrible).

2012

The Lorax (March 2012)

21 Jump Street (March 2012)

The Hunger Games (March 2012)

Mirror Mirror (March 2012)

The Pirates! Band of Misfits (April 2012)

The Avengers (May 2012)

Men in Black 3 (May 2012)

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted (June 2012)

Brave (June 2012)

Ted (June 2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man (July 2012)

ParaNorman (August 2012)

Flight (November 2012)

Wreck-It Ralph (November 2012)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 2012)

Top 3: I was delightfully surprised by The Avengers when it came out; it was the first MCU movie I saw, and I had no expectations going in.  It’s not GREAT, but it was fun, and probably the best of the series (I don’t care for Thanos and the expanded lore, I don’t read comics, I don’t want to watch them).  ParaNorman is awesome; Laika is awesome, they make awesome movies, moving on.  Flight was really good (I saw it for the first time just this August). Other Notes: Thank God I wasn’t on tumblr when the Lorax came out.  Hunger Games was fun, but I didn’t like some of the changes from the book (they’re too old, and how come only Katniss and Peeta have last names?) The original Men in Black is one of my favorite movies of all time, but MIB3 sucked!  Madagascar 3 was the worst animate film I have ever seen; I had a visceral response when I saw it in theaters, I can’t even explain why I hated it so much, it boggles my mind.  Brave was boring, Ted was crass (I only saw it because my sister rented it from RedBox), The Amazing Spider-Man was forgettable, as was the Hobbit.

2013

The Croods (March 2013)

Star Trek Into Darkness (May 2013)

Despicable Me 2 (June 2013)

Monsters University (June 2013)

World War Z (June 2013)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (September 2013)

Gravity (October 2013)

12 Years a Slave (October 2013)

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (November 2013)

Frozen (November 2013)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (December 2013)

Top 3: The VFX in Gravity are amazing, perhaps the best of the decade, it’s beautiful to look at and feels grounded in reality (for the most part).  12 Years a Slave made me cry; it’s one of the few Award Bait movies I saw, and it totally deserved its Best Picture win.  I read the Walter Mitty short story my freshman year of high school, and we saw the movie on a field trip during my senior year; it was excellent, and I had never related to a character more. Other Notes: The Croods was forgettable, Despicable Me 2 was forgettable, Monsters University was forgettable, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 was forgettable; this was a bad year for animated movies.  I didn’t hate Frozen, but it’s not my cup of tea; I think the best song is “For the First Time in Forever,” not “Let it Go.”  World War Z was disappointing, because it is one of my favorite books of all time.

2014

The Lego Movie (February 2014)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (March 2014)

Godzilla (May 2014)

The Fault in Our Stars (May 2014)

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (May 2014)

22 Jump Street (June 2014)

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (June 2014)

Big Hero 6 (October 2014)

Interstellar (October 2014)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (November 2014)

Into the Woods (December 2014)

Top 3: How to train Your Dragon 2 wasn’t just more of the same,it expanded on the world and had real character development; 10/10.  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes had a lot of faults, but I really liked the world building and the uneasy equilibrium the human and ape societies have reached (the equilibrium is upset by the end).  Interstellar is magnificent; the VFW are breathtaking, the docking scene is phenomenal, and I love how grounded the Earth scenes feel even though they’re set in the future (it doesn’t feel like a science fiction movie, it feels more like a science movie) Other Notes: Lego Movie wasn’t my cup of tea, at all.  Winter Soldier was alright.  Godzilla was okay, I just wish Brian Cranston had been the main character.  Into the Woods was fun, but jarringly stylized; it was like watching a Broadway play on screen rather than a movie adaptation of a Broadway play.

2015

Avengers: Age of Ultron (April 2015)

Jurassic World (May 2015)

Terminator Genisys (June 2015)

The Martian (September 2015)

The Hunger Hames: Mockingjay – Part 2 (November 2015)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (December 2015)

Oh Boy: I didn’t particularly like any of the movies I saw this year.  Genisys was stupid, but it’s sort of a guilty pleasure of mine.  I love The Martian book, and the movie wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.  I liked The Force Awakens when it came out, but but I think I was nostalgia blind, and I can’t in good conscience continue to consume Disney movies now that I know how the evil corporate conglomerate sausage is made; they all feel like disingenuous cash grabs (and before you Disney Apologists jump down my throat, I acknowledge that there are teams of passionate artists working on every film, but you can’t look me in the eyes and say that the company isn’t micromanaging everything they do to focus group the stories and make them as profitable as possible)  I think Fury Road would probably be my top choice of the year; I’ve seen clips of it, and it looks really good.

2016

Deadpool (February 2016)

Zootopia (February 2016)

10 Cloverfield Lane (March 2016)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (March 2016)

Captain America: Civil War (April 2016)

X-Men: Apocalypse (May 2016)

Finding Dory (June 2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence (June 2016)

Star Trek Beyond (July 2016)

Ghostbusters (July 2016)

Suicide Squad (August 2016)

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (September 2016)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (November 2016)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (December 2016)

Oh Boy 2, Electric Boogaloo: these were not great years.  10 Cloverfield Lane was excellent, and everyone should go see it right now (because according to the box office, nobody saw it when it came out).  Deadpool was funny but not groundbreaking for me.  I disliked Zootopia because it was copaganda and another saccharine Disney focus grouped movie product (for the record, I only saw it because they were playing it for free at my university one Friday night a few years later).  Batman v Superman sucked.  I liked Civil War, but again, Disney.  Finding Dory was disappointing because the original is so good (Marlin basically had to relearn everything he learned the first time).  Independence Day was terrible, but it genuinely felt like a sequel made in the 90s, so there’s that.  Ghostbusters wasn’t that funny to me; it’d be like if they remade Young Frankenstein, you can’t just remake a great comedy and expect it to work with a different cast.  Suicide Squad sucked, Miss Peregrine was disappointing because I liked the book, Fantastic Beats was forgettable, and Rogue One was bland throughout with a horrible ending and one (1) fun scene with Darth Vader.

2017

Get Out (February 2017)

Kong: Skull Island (March 2017)

Baby Driver (March 2017)

Alien: Covenant (May 2017)

Captain Underpants (June 2017)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (June 2017)

War for the Planet of the Apes (July 2017)

The Dark Tower (July 2017)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (September 2017)

It (September 2017)

Jigsaw (October 2017)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 2017)

Top 3: Get Out was excellent, I had no idea Jordan Peele could do drama as well as he did comedy (and I loved the ending where the white family gets their comeuppance and the black protagonist doesn’t go to jail!)  Baby Driver is easily one of my favorite movies of all time; this was the first time I watched a movie and knew immediately that it would be nominated for an Oscar (it should have won, dammit; the sound editing was perfect).  Three Billboards made me cry, it’s so good. Other Notes: Kong was fun but forgettable.  Alien Covenant was fun but dumb (I was able to guess the twist immediately because they included ONE shot of David reaching for a knife; exclude that ONE shot, and I never would have guessed it).  Captain Underpants was fun (I loved the books growing up), but it was distracting to hear adult voices coming out of these 9 and 10-year-olds; I think the Netflix show does it WAY better.  War for the Planet of the Apes was disappointing, because I loved the first two; they never actually show the war, all the soldiers die in an avalanche at the end. It’s more like Great Escape fro the Planet of the Apes, if anything.  It was fun.  Jigsaw wasn’t not fun.  Last Jedi was a movie.

2018

The Cloverfield Paradox (February 2018)

Black Panther (February 2018)

A Quiet Place (April 2018)

Deadpool 2 (May 2018)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (May 2018)

Incredibles 2 (June 2018)

Operation Finale (August 2018)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (December 2018)

Top 3: A Quiet Place was really good, and I liked how they got a real deaf actress to play the daughter.  Operation Finale was cathartic and I’m surprised it didn’t do well (I think it was weird that Ben Kingsley played Eichmann because he played Itzhak Stern, a Jewish worker, in Schindler’s List; he’s got range, I guess?) Spider-Verse is the best animated film of the decade, best Spider-Man film ever made, and one of my favorites movies of all time. Other Notes: Cloverfield Paradox was disappointing because I liked the first two so much.  Black Panther was good, but I just don’t like the MCU.  Deadpool 2 was fun, but I probably won’t see it again.  Solo was forgettable.  Incredibles 2 was not as good as I hoped it would be.

2019

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (February 2019)

Toy Story 4 (June 2019)

Spider-Man: Far From Home (July 2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate (November 2019)

Knives Out (November 2019)

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (December 2019)

As it stands, I only REALLY liked Knives Out this year; it was an excellent whodunit and I cannot recommend it enough.  I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, I am never this engaged by a movie anymore, I had no idea where it was going, but I loved the ride the entire time (it was a SOLID movie, very tight, very well made).  How to Train Your Dragon 3 was disappointing; not a great ending to the series, and none of the characters have grown any (all the comic relief idiots are still comic relief idiots, and in fact there’s a whole scene where the villain gets annoyed with one of them and let’s them go to have some peace and quiet, which undercuts his villainy by making him look like a Loony Tunes character rather than a real threat).  I am swearing off Marvel movies from now on; I get nothing out of them anymore,and Disney will keep making billions regardless of my lost ticket revenue.  Terminator 5 was not great, but probably the third best of the series (I’d probably watch it again, but like Genisys it is a guilty pleasure, not a movie I enjoy unironically).  1917 looks good, and I am excited to see it.  Star Wars 9 look like a movie; after I see it, I am swearing off Disney movies entirely.  I would skip this one, but my mom insists that we all go see it as a family for Christmas, so it’s literally a holiday chore for me.  I want to see how it ends, but I don’t want to pay for it.  Oh, and it’ll never end.  They say this is the end, but we all know that’s a lie.  They’ll start production on Episodes X, XI and XII before the decade is out (the 2020s I mean).  Audiences haven’t reached Marvel Fatigue (and probably never will), so they sure as hell aren’t gonna reach Star War Fatigue any time soon; Disney will keep churning them out forever, at least once a year, maybe more.