THE BEST OF 2018 - The Best MOVIES Of The Year

THE YEAR IN MOVIES - 2018


- When I think about the movies of 2018, the main thing that comes to mind is ... wow, it was an amazing year for action. From January through December, we were treated to one great action movie after another - including a number of instant-classics that are absolutely best-in-class in the genre. Action is always a tough category of movie to talk about - we're conditioned to inherently think of it as a "lesser" genre, despite action films being some of the biggest box-office earners and some of the most beloved films by audiences year after year. I know that when I make my year-end lists, I'm never quite sure how to rank the year's best action films. Is an incredible action/adventure movie as worthy of top-honors as a more traditionally critic-friendly drama? Well, the action movies were so damn good in 2018 that it sort of forced the issue. There was no way, for example, that I could omit Mission: Impossible - Fallout from my Top 10 list. It's flat-out one of the best action movies I've ever seen. Same goes for Black Panther - perhaps the pinnacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. Similarly awesome was Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse - it absolutely blew me away. So yeah, the quality of action movies this year - be they live-action or animated, superhero or spy movies - was undeniable. And that goes for big-budget sequels like the awe-inspiring Infinity War, as well as indie gems like future cult classic Upgrade.

2018 was also the year that Netflix became a major factor in my Best of the Year list. Sure, they've had occasional gems over the last few years - like last year's Mudbound - but man, Netflix upped their game in 2018. They delivered some absolute masterpieces, like Roma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Sure, they still had their share of duds (The Cloverfield Paradox, anyone?), but when Netflix wasn't putting out new films from some of the best directors working today, they were generating massive viewership for movies like Bird Box - going so far as to steal thunder from major studio box office releases. Netflix's ability to generate viral excitement for their films - and to get them in front of a massive audience - felt game-changing in 2018. And hey, I've got to applaud them for getting more liberal with their theatrical release strategies as well. I mean, as nice at is to have instant access to movies like Roma or Buster Scruggs via at-home streaming, it's also great to be able to catch these films on the big screen. As a Coen Bros. die-hard, there was no way I was going to miss my chance to see their latest in a theater.

In terms of the big prestige films ... this is probably going to be one those years where my own tastes don't necessarily match up with the Oscars'. I mean, I enjoyed movies like A Star Is Born ... but I wouldn't put it on the same level as less-hyped gems like Eighth Grade, Searching, Suspiria, or First Reformed. The hype machine on certain movies gets so out of control sometimes. Conversely, the hit squad often comes out for movies that don't deserve it. Sure, there are some movies that are flat-out bad - but that is very, very rare. More often, we need more nuanced conversation about a film's merits - not simply hot takes that pile on a movie that the internet has decided needs to be hated. In any case, that's why I'm here - to set you all straight! Seriously though, there's nothing better than discovering a great under-the-radar film - be it an action movie like Upgrade, a dark comedy like Blindspotting, or a mind-melting doc like Three Identical Strangers.

So here's to seeking out cool new movies and discovering interesting new voices in 2019.


DANNY'S BEST MOVIES OF 2018:


1.) Eighth Grade

- Eighth Grade was the movie that truly floored me in 2018. And I was not expecting it at all. First-time writer/director Bo Burnham absolutely kills it with this one - delivering a movie that's hilarious, emotional, and spot-on in its depiction of life as an eighth grader. Sure, some of the details are specific to 2018 - but the genius of the film is that it hits on universal truths that anyone who's ever been 13 can immediately relate to. Elsie Fischer is phenomenal in the lead role, too. What put Eighth Grade over the top for me is this: it's a dark, at times bleak movie - people have even called it horror because of certain scenes that are so uncomfortable as to be downright nerve-racking. But - the movie also finds hope in the darkness. Not in a cheesy way, but in a way that feels real and earned. The film's closing scenes are perhaps the most powerful statement, to me, that any movie made this year: it's a messed-up world we live in, but maybe (just maybe!) the kids are going to be all right.


2.) Roma

- It takes a little time to get into Roma - director Alfonso Cuaron takes his time, more concerned initially with setting up the time and place and vibe of the film than with building any sort of narrative momentum. But soon enough, one can't help but become completely immersed in this movie - more so than almost any film I've ever seen, it feels like a window into another time and place. It creates the effect of watching old home movies, of living a life alongside its characters. Of course, the "home movies" here are among the most gorgeously-shot moving pictures I've ever seen - they're like painted postcards brought to stunning life. What Cuaron achieves here is remarkable - the movie feels both lived-in and alive in a way that will make it a film studies must-watch for many years to come. And the story it ultimately does tell, about a family's housekeeper and her quiet struggles - is both low-key and in its own way incredibly epic. This is life on-screen, captured gloriously.


3.) First Reformed

-Several years ago, I went to see a screening of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair at the New Beverly theater in LA. The film was preceded by a hand-picked set of vintage trailers, curated by Tarantino as examples of movies that inspired Kill Bill. One of the movies was Rolling Thunder - and it looked awesome. At the time, the movie wasn't available at all on home entertainment, but my friend procured a copy. We watched it, the movie was incredible and badass, and from that day forward, the name Paul Schrader was on my radar. Obviously, I should have known about him sooner - the guy wrote Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, after all. But suffice it to say, when Schrader has a new movie out, I pay attention. And First Reformed is one hell of a new movie from Shrader. It's a pitch-black, jaw-dropper of a film that is a scathing look at the world we live in today. It's a meditation on faith and morality and it's got Ethan Hawke giving an incredible lead performance as a priest experiencing a crisis of conscious. To say too much more is to spoil it, but I can't recommend this one enough.


4.) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

- It's amazing how new Coen Brothers movies can be so good and yet so perpetually underrated. Their more comedic films in particular tend to fly under the critical radar - only to be rediscovered years later and appreciated after multiple re-watches. But I am here to say that Buster Scruggs is the real deal - a legit new Coen Bros. classic that you need to watch right now (and it's on Netflix, so get to it). The film - a Western anthology - is the Coens' version of Weird Western Tales - darkly funny, brilliantly executed parables about life and death and tragedy and violence in the Old West. It's got some of the year's drop-dead funniest moments and some of the year's most shocking moments. As you'd expect, the writing is shamefully good and the dialogue so sharp that it shakes my confidence as a writer. How are these guys this talented? Perhaps the movie is just too strange for some, but man, I feel thankful as a film fan that we are still being treated to new films with the Coens' particular brand of offbeat genius.


5.) BlacKkKlansman

- Spike Lee is one of our best filmmakers, and this is one of his best films ever. An often hilarious, often intense, always entertaining look at the real life story of an African-American man and a Jewish man who infiltrated the KKK, BlacKkKlansman is also one of the most angry (and therefore cathartic) movies of 2018. It draws a direct line from David Duke (played as a hilarious Evil Ned Flanders by Topher Grace) to Donald Trump, and pulls no punches in saying that this film's story is part of an ongoing saga that is very much still being told (sadly) in the here and now. Lee's righteous anger infuses the film with an energy and passion that is exciting to watch unfold on-screen. This felt like the movie we needed in 2018.


6.) Searching

- I'd heard good things about Searching going in, but I was not prepared for what I got with this movie - which will go down, I think, as one of my favorite mystery-thrillers ever. What could have been a cheap gimmick - the entire movie is told via us seeing what's on the protagonist's various screens (PC, phone, iPad, etc.) - is a slick, highly effective storytelling device, thanks to director Aneesh Chaganty. Chaganty somehow pulls the whole thing off in stunning fashion - giving the film a voyeuristic sense of mystery and a you-are-there sense of immersion and intensity. What's more, the mystery here is told to perfection, with some big twists that hit me like an atom bomb and left me breathless. And John Cho is so good here - if he's not cast in more lead dramatic roles after this, it will be a huge missed opportunity. I don't know if Searching will end up with any awards love, but it should - this one is one of the true surprises of 2018.


7.) Black Panther

- Like I said above, it's sometimes hard to talk about the big superhero movies - especially the Marvel movies that are funny and colorful and comic book-y - as relates to the Best of the Year. How to rank a movie like this? But look, this year, it was a pretty easy choice to put Black Panther in my Top 10. The movie is arguably the best MCU movie to date - while it's still very much a Marvel superhero movie, it also transcends the genre in many ways. It's an epic fantasy. It's a spot-on social/political film, delivering a powerful message about building bridges and fighting for positive social change. And it's also a damn good superhero movie, delivering stunning visuals, locations, and costumes as well as some seriously kick-ass action sequences. Plus: Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger is perhaps the best Marvel villain yet - a nuanced and somewhat sympathetic Big Bad who, in some ways, may just have a point. Black Panther did the legacy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby proud, and it also delivered an inspirational message that will resonate for generations to come. Wakanda Forever, indeed.


8.) Suspiria

- Here's another one where I went in unsure of what to expect, and came out somewhat floored by what I had just seen. Suspiria is a remake of the classic Dario Argento horror film - and while that movie is legendary for its iconic, hallucinatory visuals - this new version ups the game by adding numerous layers of intrigue to the nightmarish plot and by filling things out with some intriguing social/political commentary to boot. There's so much to unpack from this one - after seeing it, I went down a lengthy rabbit hole of reading reviews, interpretations, and articles about the historical context of the film's 1970's Berlin setting. Aside from all that, Suspiria is flat-out creepy and disturbing as hell. It's a slow burn of creeping dread, punctuated by moments of abject horror, that culminates in a Grand Guignol display of holy-$&%# insanity. This is the kind of movie that people are going to walk out of - as for me, I hadn't been this delightfully disturbed by a horror movie since The Witch. I've also got to mention Tilda Swinton - whose multiple roles in the movie should rocket her straight into the acting hall of fame. I honestly had no idea, until after seeing the film, that all of those parts were played by her. Anyways, take my word for it: Suspiria is a must-watch ... just be warned that you may not sleep for a while after watching.


9.) Mission: Impossible - Fallout

- In year's past, a new Mission: Impossible movie would probably get a glowing review from me, but end up somewhere further down the list. This year, with Fallout, I knew there was just no way I could relegate this one to the bottom of my Best of the Year rankings. I mean, it's one of the best damn action movies ever made. Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie is simply operating on another level these days - delivering some of the most breathtaking action set-pieces ever put to film, with the help of his always-game star Tom Cruise. I don't know if a blockbuster action film has *ever* given us moments like Fallout did. Watching on an IMAX screen, you'd felt like you'd just been on the craziest roller-coaster ride of all time - a full-body, visceral experience. McQuarrie is so good partially because he makes sure that every action set-piece tells a very specific story, and that story and its beats and micro-beats are always paramount. Directors like Michael Bay, who just throw chaotic CGI randomness on screen and call it cinema, should take note. This is how it's done. McQuarrie keeps you hanging on every moment, every punch, every kick, every near-fall into an icy abyss. Awesome.


10.) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

- One more 2018 movie that many of us simply did not see coming. What appeared at first to be a non-essential Spider-Man side project turned out to be one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. It's visually astounding, legitimately hilarious, and bursting with heart in a way that few other movies in the genre can claim. In fact, the film brilliantly deconstructs the very idea of Spider-Man and superheroes in general, and shows us exactly how a regular kid like Miles Morales can go from hapless teen to multiverse-saving hero with the right push. The film is just absolutely cool-as-hell - a mash-up of various eye-melting animation styles, resulting in one of the most dazzling animated movies ever made. It's got a motley crew of awesome supporting characters, from the kick-ass Spider-Gwen to the grimly funny Spider-Man Noir. This feels like a movie that was sent back from the future to rock our worlds. A new all-ages classic.


JUST MISSED THE CUT:


11.)  First Man

- I struggled with leaving this one out of my Top 10, partly because it feels like, perhaps, 2018's most strangely underrated film. The fact is: more people should have seen and raved about First Man. Damien Chazelle ... I mean, what an amazing director. He once again dazzles with this one. It's got some incredible, visceral scenes of space travel ... but what may have thrown people is this: First Man is *not* an epic space movie in the vein of Gravity or even Apollo 13. Not really. In actuality, it's a very personal story about one man's quest to find meaning in an at-times cold and uncaring universe. And in turn, it's a profound meditation on humanity's collective quest to do the same. Ryan Gosling is fantastic in this one, too. So don't sleep on First Man - it really is among the year's absolute best.


12.) Mandy

- Mandy was 2018's surefire future midnight-movie cult classic - a straight shot of unfiltered madness, a heavy-metal fever dream that's like the ultimate 80's action epic that never was. Director Panos Cosmatos taps into something primal here, giving us a movie that's fun to laugh and cheer with (I mean, it's completely insane), and yet is dead-serious in its mission to deliver something unique and unforgettable. And man, in a career of memorable and over-the-top performances, this might just be Nicholas Cage's crowning achievement. This is Nic Cage at peak Nic Cage - completely unhinged and just entertaining af. Mandy demands to be watched with friends who will share in its awe and wonder and pure concentrated insanity. It's an all-timer, that's for sure.


13.) Avengers: Infinity War

- Man, what a year it was for Marvel movies. After the high water mark that was Black Panther, along came Infinity War to raise the bar for just how big and epic and awe-inspiring a superhero movie could be. What's truly admirable about this one is how it so easily could have been a complete mess - with its sprawling cast of characters and ridiculous scope. But the Russo Brothers and their collaborators made the brilliant decision to center the movie on the mad titan Thanos, and in doing so they helped bring to life (along with a shockingly great performance from Josh Brolin) a villain for the ages. This one flat-out delivered on the big moments, giving us amazing battles, "exclesior!"-worthy moments of heroism, and of course the already-legendary Finger Snap of Doom. Basically, the movie more than did its job of making Avengers: Endgame, easily, the most anticipated film of 2019. I can't wait.


14.) Destroyer

- Destroyer - directed by the always-interesting Karyn Kusama - is dark, gritty, grimy, pulpy ... and 100% badass. It's a savage and brutal crime thriller that goes to some very dark and disturbing places. What's more, it features a remarkable lead performance from Nicole Kidman - who plays a strung-out, beaten-up, hard-bitten rebel cop, as well as a younger and less world-weary version from twenty years earlier. It's quite possibly the best acting I've ever seen from Kidman - a tour de force performance in which the actor transforms herself into a blunt-force object that would make the likes of Dirty Harry soil himself. There are also a couple of action scenes here that are just brilliantly directed by Kusama - including a white-knuckle bank robbery bust that left me gasping for breath. This one may end up being too dark, pulpy, and twisted for the Oscars (shades of recent crime films like Zodiac, Nightcrawler, etc.), but it should very much be on the award-season radar. Kidman kills.


15.) Three Identical Strangers

- I sat through Three Identical Strangers in a constant state of disbelief. Was this real?! This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story is so crazy that it feels like it has to be made up. And it's so expertly told and presented that, at times, it feels more like a Christopher Nolan mind-%$&# thriller than a documentary. But it is true, and it is unbelievable, and I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling the film's various twists and turns. Suffice it to say, this story about three separated-at-birth identical triplets goes to some shocking places - so much so that not only is it one of the most gripping docs I've ever seen, but one of the best films of 2018, period.


THE NEXT BEST:


16.) Sorry to Bother You

- What a statement from director Boots Riley. Sorry to Bother You goes to some absolutely crazy places, and ends up in a place I *never* expected going in. But man, this is a must-see - a hilarious and surprising and totally crazy social satire that has to be seen to be believed.


17.) The Old Man & The Gun

- If this is truly Robert Redford's final film, then it's a fitting capper on a legendary career. A charming story about a bank robber who just can't call it quits - this one is a skillfully made and extremely watchable movie that reminds why Redford is so, so good at what he does.


18.) Ralph Breaks the Internet

-  I was lukewarm on the first Wreck-It Ralph movie, but wow - this Disney sequel is a major improvement in every way. It's funnier, smarter, more visually dazzling - and it's actually a sort of brilliant take on the internet and the ways it can be used for good and ill. The movie has a lot to say, and it does so with wit and humor and charm. Oh, and it's even got a couple of sweet Tron references. I am now officially a major fan of this franchise.


19.) Annihilation

- I'm a longtime fan of writer/director Alex Garland, and he gives us yet another slice of thought-provoking sci-fi with Annihilation. This one really takes you down a rabbit-hole of weirdness, horror, and existential dread - on a level that so few sci-fi films really reach for. Garland is always interested in the Big Questions, and this one is no exception.


20.) Leave No Trace

- This is another winner from Winter's Bone director Debra Granik - a tale of humans vs. nature that has a lot of interesting things to say about the way we live. It's a moving, thought-provoking film. And it features wonderful performances from Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie, as a father-daughter duo who choose to live in the woods, off the grid. Don't sleep on this one!


21.) Blindspotting

- This one flew under my radar at first, but I'm glad I caught up with it late in the year. It's a darkly funny comedy about race and class, and one hell of a statement from up and coming director Carlos López Estrada. Actor Daveed Diggs (best known for his role in Hamilton) is also a revelation in this one. His angry rap-rant to a racist cop - man, it's one of the best scenes in a movie this year.


22.) The Incredibles 2

- I wasn't sure what to expect from this one - it had been a long time since the first Incredibles, and I wondered if Brad Bird and co. could recapture their old magic. In my view, not only did they recapture it, but they made an incredibly cool movie that might just exceed the original. This one is funny, it's got amazing action, it's got great characters, and it's got really well done messages about family and responsibility and sticking together. I loved it.


23.) If Beale Street Could Talk

- Barry Jenkins' follow-up to Moonlight is another fantastic film. It suffers a bit from the usual issues of novel adaptations - it tries to cram a lot into one movie, and some plotlines and characters feel short-changed. But even so, Jenkins give us a moving, resonant film filled to the brim with great performances. It's a movie about the positive power of love vs. the destructive power of hate - and while that may be a simple message, Jenkins delivers it with power and grace.


24.) Creed II

- While it was always going to be a challenge for Creed 2 to match the sheer, surprising awesomeness of the first Creed - this one is more than up to the task. The movie gives us a dream match of Adonis Creed vs. Viktor Drago, building on the classic Rocky mythology and giving us some very interesting reunions between old favorites (Dolph Lundgren is a badass in this one). And man, if this is truly Stallone's last go-round as the iconic Rocky Balboa, then it's a fitting final fight - giving us some satisfying closure to the long-running Rocky saga. This one feels like an exclamation point on the Rocky legacy, and kudos to uber-talented stars Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson for injecting new life into this franchise, and giving us a new generation of hard-hitting heroes to root for.


25.) Thoroughbreds

- Here was an indie gem that I really dug - a dark and twisted Hitchcock-ian thriller that features two outstanding performances from some of the best young actresses in the game - Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke. Watching these two square off was a ton of fun. And what a debut for writer/director Cory Finley to boot.


MORE GREAT FILMS OF 2018:


26.) Ready Player One

- Easily the most unfairly-criticized movie of 2018, Ready Player One was, in my view, a total joy to watch. Steven Spielberg is clearly having a blast directing this, giving us some all-time-classic action-set pieces. Sure, the story might have a couple of issues - but in many ways this was vintage Spielberg, at his magic-making best.


27.) Upgrade

- A new action cult-classic that any genre fan should watch asap. Upgrade is an awesomely innovative action film that defies its low budget to deliver kick-ass fight scenes, dark humor, and some really cool sci-fi twists.


28.) Tully

- Another excellent collaboration between writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman (together, they brought us great films like Juno and Young Adult), this one is a darkly funny take on motherhood with a couple of big, game-changing twists that also make it into something of a mind-bending mystery. Charlize Theron is absolutely great in this too.


29.) Mary Queen of Scots

- A historical epic with some interesting parallels to modern-day politics, Mary Queen of Scots features a commanding lead performance from the always-impressive Saoirse Ronan - who positively owns this movie in a way that really wowed me. The movie is a fairly epic dramatization of a fascinating historical period, and presents some very interesting between-the-lines commentary on power, feminism, corruption, and legacy.


30.) The Favourite

- Director Yorgos Lanthimos takes a genre that can often be stuffy and boring - the costume period piece - and gives it new life with his unique visual flair, offbeat sensibilities, and darkly biting sense of humor. It's got some fantastic performances from Emma Stone, Rachel Weiss, and Olivia Colman too.


31.) Boy Erased

- Director Joel Edgerton really impressed me with this one - it's an emotional gut-punch of a movie. Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, and Russell Crowe each turn in incredible performances. The movie is ultimately hopeful, but it also a reminder of the sort of chilling ignorance we need to vote against and fight against here and now.


32.) Aquaman

- Judging from my Facebook feed and various reviews, Aquaman was one of 2018's more divisive movies. And I get it - the movie is unabashedly weird and ridiculous and pulpy and insane - i.e., not for everyone. It's the kind of earnestly nerdy movie I loved as a kid, hearkening back to fantasy/sci-fi pulp like Highlander and Tron. But this made Aquaman a direct hit for me - director James Wan fills the screen with color and action and seems to just be showing off at times. This might just be my favorite DC Universe movie so far.


33.) Disobedience

- This one was a bit under the radar, but I found it to be a fascinating look at a world we rarely see depicted with much detail on screen: that of the Orthodox Jewish community. The movie looks at what happens when a women is excommunicated from a tight-knit Orthodox community after being outed as a lesbian, and what happens when she returns following the death of her father. Great acting from Rachels Weiss and McAdams help to elevate this one as well.


34.) Bad Times at the El Royale

- This twisty slice of pulp fiction from Cabin in the Woods maestro Drew Goddard is another one that should have got more attention. It's overflowing with great actors (including a vintage Jeff Bridges performance) and chock full of assured style. Drew Goddard is a favorite of mine in part because he's a great writer, but also partly because he seems to get away with making movies that feel like they're going against the grain of what's fashionable in Hollywood at the time. This one takes its time and does it's own thing, and I dug it.


35.) Crazy Rich Asians

- Far better than your average rom-com, Crazy Rich Asians was an endlessly entertaining film with a little something for everyone. It had a charming romance at its core, but it also had some very interesting and moving things to say about class and family and tradition and culture. Plus, it was genuinely funny - the jokes landed hard and helped make this a movie to remember. 


36.) Bumblebee

- Bumblebee was the Transformers movie we should have got all along - a fun, funny, nostalgic dose of pure Spielberg-ian action-adventure. This was WAY better than any previous Transformers movies and one of the best action movies of 2018. And how good is Hailee Steinfeld? She's great in everything she's in, and she helps elevate this film with a pitch-perfect lead performance.


37.) The Commuter

- This one had me leaving the theater feeling giddy - in fact, I gave it the rare five out of five Liam Neesons award. This one, from the fantastic Jaume Collet-Serra (who gave us the awesome The Shallows), shows the director's knack for doing best-in-class pulp-action. The Commuter knows exactly what it's doing, with a tightly-spun central mystery, a fun femme fatale performance from the great Vera Farmiga, and Neeson kicking ass like nobody's business.


38.) The Night Comes For Us

- Do you like kick-ass martial arts movies? Do you like brutal action films like The Raid? If yes, and you haven't yet seen the Netflix original The Night Comes For Us ... then dude, get to it! This one is one of the most insane, hard-hitting, uncompromisingly violent action/martial-arts flicks I've ever seen - with some truly crazy action sequences and some of the most jaw-dropping fights ever filmed. It's got some familiar faces, like The Raid star Iko Uwais (here playing the villain) - but I promise you, this is not quite like anything you've seen before.


39.) Assassination Nation

- This movie is raw and insane and pulls zero punches. It's just a direct katana-sword swing at Trump, toxic masculinity ... and it proved eerily relevant given the recent Brett Kavanaugh discussions/debacle. This may be the most dangerous and unsettling movie of 2018, and it deserves to find a bigger audience.


40.) A Private War

- First and foremost, A Private War features an absolutely powerhouse performance from Rosamund Pike in the lead role, playing real-life war correspondent Marie Colvin. The movie is a powerful reflection on Colvin's life and death, and on the bravery, in general, of journalists who report from war torn areas of the globe. And it is a sobering reminder of the devastation caused by war - it truly took a special kind of person to voluntarily go back to these places again and again to help get the stories of their people out into the wider world.


41.) The Maze Runner: The Death Cure

- Okay guys, hear me out: the third and final movie in the Maze Runner trilogy is legit pretty awesome. It's a great, epic finale to the saga. It's got twists, turns, and real stakes. It's got great set-piece action sequences. It's got a great cast - all of the young actors are really good, and then you've got arguably the three best TV villain actors of the last ten years (Giancarlo Esposito, Walton Goggins, and Aiden Gillen!) in key supporting roles. No shame - I'm a big fan of this franchise!


42.) Hearts Beat Loud

- A really well done, soulful little hang-out movie. Nick Offerman is really fantastic in it, and Kiersey Clemons (who was also great in Dope) shows yet again why it's only a matter of time until she's a superstar.


43.) A Star Is Born

-  This is, seemingly, the 500 pound gorilla of 2018 movies - and I really liked it overall. Lady Gaga was fantastic, the music was great, and I loved the first 45 minutes or so. However, I did sort of think it eventually went off the rails a bit, and lost track of the themes it was setting up early on. That said, I highly enjoyed the film, and think it's one hell of an impressive directing debut from Bradley Cooper. And yeah, "The Shallows" has been in my head for months now.


44.) A Quiet Place

- Amazingly shot and directed - A Quiet Place was yet another super-impressive 2018 directorial debut and a great time at the movies overall. Who knew John Krasinski had this in him? And man, did Emily Blunt ever kick ass in this one. No question, one of the best and most fun horror movies of 2018 - and one that, I suspect, will be oft-imitated in the years to come (or months - hello, Bird Box).


45.) Isle of Dogs

- Things that surprised me about Isle of Dogs: a.) Pacific Rim: Uprising was not the only movie out on its weekend of release that featured crazy robot battles. b.) This was sort of Wes Anderson's version of Escape From New York. Seriously. But yeah ... I really liked this movie. It looked amazing, was very funny, had a fantastic voice cast, and a lot of interesting social commentary to boot. Wes Anderson is always a fascinating filmmaker to follow.


46.) Hereditary

- Another really, really good horror movie from 2018 - parts of Hereditary were just incredibly creepy and downright disturbing. And man, Toni Colette goes all-out here, with a performance that will absolutely rattle you to your core. I thought that the ending didn't quite deliver the payoff I was looking for, but still, this one really impressed me.


47.) A Simple Favor

- The latest from Paul Feig was really fun. Darkly funny in a way that reminded me of movies like To Die For. Anna Kendrik and Blake Lively were really great, too (Lively, in particular, just totally killed it - I didn't know she had this in her). This movie was a real treat - one that I think will gain a cult following over time.


48.) Won't You Be My Neighbor?

- This year, stories about goodness and decency were very much welcome. And this moving doc about Fred Rogers and the world of wonder he created was a poignant, earnest look at a man who shaped millions of childhoods spanning multiple generations.


49.) Pacific Rim: Uprising

- I can't understand the hate for this one from certain circles. I mean, Pacific Rim is one of my favorite sci-fi/action movies ever, and this one in my view is a worthy follow-up. I thought it was ridiculously fun. It hit all the big action movie beats to perfection. John Boyega was great. Burn Gorman is once again the absolute best. And the robot designs are all cool as hell. Underrated, in my view!


50.) Bohemian Rhapsody

- This is a tough one. As a movie, I don't know that Bohemian Rhapsody quite came together as well as it could have. On the other hand, there's no denying the out-of-this-world performance from Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, or the overpowering awesomeness of the music of Queen that powers the film from one rocking performance to another - including a fist-pumping recreation of Queen's famous performance at Live-Aid. Because I'm such a fan of Queen, I give this one the benefit of the doubt, and give it the final spot on my list - it was an imperfect movie, but it nevertheless was a powerful reminder of the anything-goes spirit of rock n' roll.


HONORABLE MENTIONS - OTHER RECOMMENDED MOVIES FROM THIS YEAR:

Unsane
Shirkers
Widows
On the Basis of Sex
Green Book
You Were Never Really Here
Halloween
The House With the Clock in its Walls
Vice
Ant-Man and The Wasp
Mortal Engines
Revenge
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn
Game Night
The Nun
Venom
Blockers
Deadpool 2
The Long Dumb Road
7 Days In Entebbe
RBG
Mary Poppins
Farenheit 11/9
Bird Box
Skyscraper
Overlord
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch


INDIVIDUAL 2018 AWARDS:


BEST LEAD ACTOR:

1.) Ethan Hawke - First Reformed
2.) Ryan Gosling - First Man
3.) Christian Bale - Vice
4.) Ben Foster - Leave No Trace
5.) TIE: Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody, John Cho - Searching


BEST LEADING ACTRESS:

1.) Nicole Kidman - Destroyer
2.) Yalitza Aparicio - Roma
3.) Elsie Fisher - Eighth Grade
3.) Saoirse Ronan - Mary Queen of Scots
4.) Toni Colette - Hereditary
5.) Rosamund Pike - A Private War


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

1.) Adam Driver - BlackKklansman
2.) Colman Domingo - If Beale Street Could Talk
3.) Josh Hamilton - Eighth Grade
4.) Tom Waits - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
5.) Michael B. Jordan - Black Panther

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

1.) Tilda Swinton - Suspiria
2.) Olivia Colman - The Favourite
3.) Nicole Kidman - Boy Erased
4.) Rachel Weiss - The Favourite
5.) Michelle Yeoh - Crazy Rich Asians

BEST DIRECTOR:

1.) Alfonso Cuaron - Roma
2.) Bo Burnham - Eighth Grade
3.) Spike Lee - BlackKklansman
4.) Christopher McQuarrie - Mission: Impossible - Fallout
5.) TIE: Aneesh Chaganty - Searching / Damien Chazelle - First Man


BEST SCREENPLAY:

1.) Eighth Grade
2.) BlackKklansman
3.) First Reformed
4.) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
5.) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
6.) Sorry to Bother You
7.) Blindspotting
8.) Searching
9.) Destroyer
10.) Black Panther


And that's a wrap on the Best of 2018. Here's to all the great movies of 2019 - happy movie-watching in the New Year!

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Is the Pinnacle of the Marvel Shared-Cinematic-Universe Experiment

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Review:

- CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR is the new pinnacle of the Marvel Studios movie model. You've got to sort of step back and admire all of the things that this movie accomplishes in one fell swoop. It successfully caps off a trilogy of way-better-than-anyone-expected Captain America movies. It successfully serves as a culmination of slowly-building Avengers-related storylines from the last couple of Cap, Iron Man, and Avengers films. It successfully sets the stage for the next set of Marvel movies - including the next Avengers, Black Panther, and Spider-Man. Those last two are particularly remarkable. CIVIL WAR leaves fans chomping at the bit for a Black Panther solo film - desperate for more from a character who many likely have never heard of prior to this movie. And it single-handedly resurrects Sony's struggling Spider-Man franchise, making Spider-Man awesome again in about fifteen minutes. Sony execs have to be ecstatic at the major solid that Marvel just did for them (note to FOX: let Marvel take over Fantastic Four in a similar fashion - you know it's the right thing to do). And so, on a big-picture, meta level - CIVIL WAR is a pretty amazing accomplishment. But it's also a damn good movie. It's a testament to how a big blockbuster tentpole can juggle a ton of characters and sub-plots yet still feel thematically and tonally cohesive. The movie's got some of the most epic action scenes ever seen in a superhero movie. It's got a cast of dozens of heroes - old and new. It's setting up tons of stuff for future movies, and paying off tons of stuff from previous movies. But it somehow all works, because the film's central conflict is rooted in character in a way that makes sense - with clear stakes and a satisfying mix of gravitas and fun. This is what happens when there is a guiding hand overseeing a fictional universe - one that truly gets the characters, that has a vision for where this is all going and why.

CIVIL WAR picks up after the events of Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, quickly throwing us into the heat of battle as we follow Cap and his new Avengers in Sarkovia, trying to stop the totally unhinged Crossbones (Frank Grillo's character from the previous Cap movies - now sporting full super-villain regalia) from acquiring a deadly bio-weapon. But things go south when The Scarlet Witch uses her powers to stop Crossbones and save Cap's life - she ends up inadvertently destroying an entire section of a high-rise in the process. The fallout of the damage leads to The Avengers coming under scrutiny from the government, in particular from a returning General "Thunderbolt" Ross. The US - and the U.N. - want the Avengers to become an officially-sanctioned and accountable organization. Tony Stark feels that cooperating is the best and only way to keep the Avengers active. But Steve Rogers has his doubts. Since waking up in the modern era, Cap's become skeptical of government, and worried that he could be made to betray his values in order to serve someone else's agenda. Tensions become further strained when Cap's former best friend - Bucky, aka The Winter Soldier - re-surfaces, and becomes the target of a government manhunt. Cap, convinced that the old Bucky is still there beneath the years of brain re-wiring he underwent, is determined to find and exonerate his pal. But doing so puts him directly at odds with Iron Man and the new, government-friendly Avengers. This internal conflict fractures the team into two distinct factions. In order to get to The Winter Solider, Cap must go through Stark and those loyal to him.

The central conflict between Cap and Iron Man is handled extremely well here. In an ideal world, we'd get even more time understanding the two characters' clashing ideologies. But the movie gets a lot of mileage out of every scene, and the face-off is set up in a way that makes sense and feels true to the characters. What's impressive is that both characters' points of view make sense. Steve Rogers, the idealist, sees the Avengers as having - as needing to have - a truer moral compass than any government. Stark, the realist, sees compromise as a necessary evil towards progress. What nicely muddles things though is that, generally, it might be easier to side with Cap. But when it comes to Bucky, Cap is clearly letting his emotions override his sense of duty and justice. He stubbornly sets off to save The Winter Soldier, on a slim hope that Bucky is being set-up as a fall guy, that the old Winter Soldier is no more, that the old Bucky is still buried somewhere beneath the emotionless killing machine he'd been transformed into. So while this is Cap's movie - while we are inclined to root for him and his faith in his friend - there are sections of the movie where you can't help but side with Tony Stark. And you've got to give credit to CIVIL WAR for giving their battle some layers, some complexity. Contrast that to the "Hey, let's fight! No, let's be friends." clash-of-wills that drives this summer's *other* big hero-vs.-hero movie, and CIVIL WAR looks that much better by way of comparison.

The clash between Cap and Iron Man also leads to some absolutely phenomenal action sequences - including the centerpiece airport smackdown that might just be the coolest superhero battle yet put to film. I can't say enough about this sequence - it really felt like an all-time great comic book action scene come to life - except that even the comic books rarely do big action as right as this. This is a sequence where every action beat tells a story, where every line of dialogue is on-point. Superheroes pair off for dream match-ups. But even as funnier and lighter-hearted scuffles occur around the periphery of the battle, there is a seriousness at the center of it all that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The airport sequence is a testament to how good writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are, and how freaking great The Russo Brothers are at directing these films.

Let's talk about the Russos. In The Winter Soldier, they departed fairly drastically from the first Cap movie. That first film was a two-fisted World War II adventure (and for that, I loved it). But the second film took on the vibe of a 70's conspiracy-thriller - delivering great action and superheroics, but also keeping the action rooted in a tension-packed atmosphere of paranoia and distrust. In CIVIL WAR, the brothers further expand this series' stylistic palate. The film carries over some of the vibe of Winter Soldier - it certainly feels like a direct sequel to that movie more so than Winter Soldier was to The First Avenger. But if I had to describe CIVIL WAR's vibe with one word, it'd probably be: Marvel. The movie partially maintains the spy/international intrigue trappings of Winter Soldier, but just expands and grows to become something much bigger and crazier and comic book-y. As many great comic books do (particularly the big crossover events), CIVIL WAR keeps bringing in disparate elements into its world, and having fun with the fact that all of these big mythic characters and ideas all exist in the same universe. By the time we get to that airport battle, the movie is operating on a level of sheer grin-inducing comic book euphoria, because we're not just seeing characters duke it out - we're seeing worlds collide. The Russos seem to effortlessly blend the movie's different type of action together, in a way that gives different sequences huge stylistic contrasts. The early scenes in Sarkovia have a Winter Soldier vibe - quick-cutting, neck-breaking action. Later, we meet Black Panther, and he's got his own unique fighting style - cat-like, vicious. And then that airport scene is just pure comic book splash-page - huge, epic, larger-than-life.

At the same time, what's so admirable about CIVIL WAR is that it takes its time between the big action set-pieces, and makes sure to devote scenes to the quieter (but crucially important) character stuff. There's one scene towards the end of the movie - involving Daniel Bruhl's villainous Zemo - that I almost couldn't believe was in a mainstream superhero movie. It was quiet, poetic, contemplative. It was a scene that Bruhl acted the hell out of. The fact that CIVIL WAR makes time for these sorts of moments is exceptional.

Those moments - the whole movie - work so well because this cast is just damn good. In some of the Marvel movies, it's been easy to forget the caliber of actors that are now a part of this universe. But man, CIVIL WAR - maybe more so than any of the Marvel movies to date - is a reminder of how great these guys can be. I've been a champion of Chris Evans since he shocked me in The First Avenger - but now, older and wiser, it's clear that he's really grown into the role of Steve Rogers - now really feeling like an iconic elder statesman and leader. Robert Downey Jr., meanwhile, turns in what may be his best overall performance as Tony Stark. RDJ has always been awesome at embodying Stark's quick-wit and charm, but here he gives him a real emotional core - this is a guy being pushed to his limits, at the end of his rope - desperately trying to keep both his team and his life together. Sebastian Stan is another real stand-out. In Winter Soldier he was mostly a silent badass. Here, he's got some great, memorable moments. Stan completely sells Bucky Barnes' inner turmoil - his joy at getting to pal around again with Cap, his torment at knowing that he has committed atrocities while not fully in control of his own faculties. Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch was a little iffy for me in Age of Ultron, but here, she's fantastic. Scarlet Witch is great here - she has her own, crucial arc that's played to perfection by Olsen. And her relationship with The Vision? So good. Paul Bettany kills it here, getting to play The Vision as more than just an AI, but a still-learning almost-human being trying to make sense of his budding feelings for Scarlet Witch.

And by the way ... the movie's Vision/Scarlet Witch arc? Emotion vs. logic? Putting personal relationships over duty to the team? See how it pretty much perfectly fits into the movie's larger thematic storytelling? That's why all these different characters and subplots work so perfectly in concert.

But going back to the cast for a second ... I think this is the first Marvel movie where I was actually reminded how good of an actor Don Cheadle can be. And Anthony Mackie. Scarlett Johansson seems rejuvenated, doing a great job of positioning The Black Widow as a woman caught between two friends, unsure of who to side with and keeping her true intentions close-to-the-vest. Age of Ultron didn't do Hawkeye many favors, but Jeremy Renner gets to show-up and be really fun and cool and likable here. Paul Rudd gets some of the movie's best and funniest moments. I thought the Ant-Man movie was pretty good, but Ant-Man in CIVIL WAR kicks ass.

Speaking of kick-ass ... Black Panther. Chadwick Boseman is another great actor who gets to be a great actor in CIVIL WAR. The prince of the fictional monarchy of Wakanda, Boseman's Panther is regal, contemplative, dogged. When he goes into action-mode, Black Panther is a sight to behold. But even out-of-costume, Boseman makes the character shine. And again, the movie's strong writing makes sure that the character isn't simply shoehorned in to the narrative. His arc of personal loss and revenge is a huge catalyst for the big events of the film, and yet another strong thematic parallel to the main Cap vs. Iron Man conflict.

The one character who is *maybe* a little shoehorned in is Spider-Man. But everything involving Spider-Man in CIVIL WAR is so good that it's hard to really care. And the character does serve a real purpose beyond simply hyping up his upcoming solo film. Because this Spider-Man, played by young, fresh-faced Tom Holland, is the perfect newbie to throw into the clash of established heroes. Spider-Man brings a sense of awe and wonder (and a strong supply of great, often hilarious quips) to the big battles - but his gee-whiz attitude is the perfect way to give those big fight scenes some street-level sense of perspective. Holland is great - a total natural. He feels like a kid from Queens who might actually be Spider-Man. His casting feels like a stroke of destiny. The scenes of him, as plain old Peter Parker, in his Aunt May's (Marissa Tomei!) dumpy apartment, feel so spot-on and authentic and perfect. And the movie takes such a clear joy in introducing Spider-Man to the larger Marvel universe that it's totally infectious. Seeing Peter Parker awkwardly confront RDJ's Tony Stark, or get the NYC born-and-bred seal of approval from Captain America - I mean, come on, this is geek-out material of the highest order.

I'll also mention Daniel Bruhl, who, as mentioned, plays the movie's sinister puppet-master Zemo. Like many, I became a big Bruhl fan following his phenomenal turn in the movie Rush. The guy is good, and he's great here as Zemo. The thing is, Zemo is not the kind of villain you might expect. This is not the raving-lunatic, pink-spandex-wearing supervillain from the comics (at least not yet), nor is he comparable to other Marvel movie big-bads. This is a much more understated role and a more subdued sort of villain - but I really dug that about the character and Bruhl's performance. Bruhl's Zemo is a unique, tragic character who I hope we see more of in future films.

Now, there is so much going on in CIVIL WAR that, inevitably, the movie suffers from some moments that feel rushed or that don't-quite-make-sense. It's the very rare big action movie these days where the plot actually feels 100% airtight (I will give a shout-out to Kingsman: The Secret Service for being one such film), but I've never stopped holding out hope for a supervillain scheme that actually holds up to any sort of scrutiny. The fact is, Zemo's plans in CIVIL WAR are ultimately a bit questionable - with a million lucky occurrences having to happen for his plans to have a shot of working. Again - sort of part and parcel for big superhero movies at this point ... but CIVIL WAR is so close to perfection that it would have been amazing if it had stuck the landing in this regard. By the same token, the movie sort of pushes things too far in its climactic final showdown between Cap and Iron Man. No spoilers, but RDJ's final bout of berzerker rage just feels too contrived to fully buy into. Evans and RDJ both do a fantastic job of selling each character's determination and grief in that final battle - but it seems to come at a point when cooler heads should probably have prevailed. As good as the movie's script is - for the most part - it seems to grasp at straws a bit in order to set up that final confrontation.

But CIVIL WAR does so many things resoundingly right that it's hard to dwell too much on the few instances where it falters. This is a movie that feels like the strongest argument to date for why Marvel is doing things the right way - for why their shared universe is the gold standard for cinematic shared universes. What Marvel nails above all else is that they capture the essence of why people love these characters and what makes these characters great. The fact that Black Panther and Spider-Man resonate so much in CIVIL WAR - with so little relative screen-time - is proof positive of the Marvel magic that the studio currently possesses. So is the fact that a movie starring Captain America - a character who was a joke to the general populace in the not-so-distant past - just had the fifth highest-grossing opening weekend of all time. For all the fireworks in CIVIL WAR, the heart of this particular series - the journey of Steve Rogers - has been handled with remarkable skill by the Marvel braintrust. Credit to the Russo Brothers, to Chris Evans, and to Marvel for (excuse the phraseology) making Cap great again. The success of this movie is well-deserved.

My Grade: A-

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2's Great Cast Can't Quite Overcome Its Tangled Web of a Script

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 Review:

- There's a lot of rage out there being directed towards THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. On one level, I get it: the movie is, in many ways, emblematic of everything that is frustrating with the current blockbuster movie landscape. On one hand, you have the mighty Marvel Studios seemingly doing just about everything right. On the other hand, the other studios - especially when it comes to beloved Marvel characters - well, not so much. Everyone wants to see Spider-Man revert to Marvel Studios, star in the next Avengers movie, and just generally be in movies as awesome as, say, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And then there's the other thing that Spider-Man 2 represents, which is an increasing frustration with empty-feeling blockbusters that seem to feel less like a coherent story and more like a collection of marketing-friendly moments. It's likely no coincidence that a lot of the recent big movies that felt the brunt of this type of criticism were written by the Kurtzman-Orci team. In the past, I've defended some of the movies that they've written. Star Trek: Into Darkness was one where, whatever failings the plot had, the crackerjack direction of JJ Abrams mostly made up for it. But THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 has some of Kurtzman and Orci's most glaring, most perplexing plot-holes yet. And when you combine those very noticeable logic-gaps with the perception that these films exist largely as a way to keep rights from reverting to Marvel ... a real dark cloud of cynicism begins to creep in.

With all that said, I enjoyed the movie. I like director Marc Webb a lot, and he really nails the look and feel of Spider-Man. The majority of the action scenes look fantastic, and the physical/visceral essence of Spider-Man is captured better than it's ever been. What's more, the cast is, again, excellent. I liked Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the original Sam Raimi trilogy, but I also always felt that there was something a little off about them. Maguire was always too dopey for me - he never seemed like the wise-crackin' Spider-Man of the comics and cartoons. But Andrew Garfield - to me, he's the definitive Peter Parker and the definitive Spider-Man. What the movie - and Garfield - get totally right is the way in which Garfield's Spider-Man does his superhero thing: swinging into battle with fluidity and grace, all the while kicking ass while never failing to accompany each strike with a well-timed quip. Spidey feels like Spidey. And Spidey - and Peter's - relationship with Emma Stone's Gwen Stacy is superb. Say what you want about this film, but you can't deny that the scenes between Garfield and Stone sparkle with a chemistry and likability that was never really there with Maguire and Dunst's Mary Jane Watson in the originals. Chalk it up to the real-life relationship between the two actors, sure. But I do think that you've got to give some credit to both the script and to Webb (who made his mark with the charming rom-com 500 Days of Summer) for the equally-charming banter and evolving relationship between the two leads. And there's the rub: aside from a couple of fun action scenes, what THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 does best, by a country mile, is the teen romance stuff.

But what's super-weird about the movie is that the Peter-Gwen scenes, as in the first film, feel pretty naturalistic - almost like something out of Webb's 500 Days - and yet, many other scenes in the film are seemingly from an entirely different movie. A superhero film from the dark days of the mid-90's, when Joel Schumaker gave us Batman villains that would make you laugh at their ridiculousness, if you weren't too busy cringing from their awfulness. Suffice it to say, the tonal shifts in this sequel come often and come hard. Relative to the first Amazing Spider-Man, it's sort of jarring. That whole film seemed to be going for a bit of a darker, edgier vibe than the Raimi trilogy. Here, the Peter-Gwen stuff, mostly, retains the tone of the first film. But the scenes introducing the new villains - in particular Jamie Foxx's over-the-top-to-the-extreme Electro - reminded me less of anything in the first ASM, and more of stuff I had semi-blocked out of my memory from the infamous likes of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

If there's one major disaster in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, it's Electro. And oddly, the character of Max Dillon starts out as sort of interesting, but soon completely devolves into a guy who just wants to destroy stuff and kill Spider-Man for no real reason. From the first moment we meet Max, something, to me, felt off. Foxx seemed to be playing him too broad, too cartoonish and silly for the movie that he's in. Still, the movie seemed to be going for something interesting by making Max a truly tragic villain - a well-meaning if slightly-strange guy who can't seem to catch a break. A low-level technician at OsCorp who is sort of a punching bag, the Spider-Man-obsessed sad-sack gets a life-changing shock when an on-the-job accident transforms him into the bright-blue, electricity-charged Electro. But as soon as Max makes the transition to supervillainy, he inexplicably seems to lose all traces of humanity. And Spider-Man, despite knowing Max's tragic origins, seems to have little regard for the once-amiable dude's well-being. Whatever potential Max had to be a very different sort of villain very quickly evaporates. In short order, he's just some low-rent Dr. Manhattan-looking antagonist who wants to fight.

The generic nature of Spider-Man's fights with Electro highlights another major oddity about the film in general: Peter Parker is sort of a jerk. It's not something that's there, overtly, in the script. But time and again, Peter doesn't seem to have much in the way of compassion. He promptly stops caring about Electro's tragic origins. And when his childhood friend, Harry Osborn, asks Peter to help him secure some of Spider-Man's blood - which Harry believes might be the key to curing the degenerative disease that's killing him - Peter flatly refuses. In reality, the problem is not so much with any obvious agenda on the movie's part to make Peter a jerk. It all stems back to the script's jumpiness. 1+1 doesn't equal 2 in this movie. Electro is a tragic villain, and then not. Harry finds out that his middle-aged dad is dying from a slow-burn degenerative disease, finds out that he has the same ailment, and then for some reason is sure that he has only a matter of weeks to live. Peter refuses to give Harry any of his Spider-enhanced blood, but as far as we can tell, there's no good reason why he wouldn't. Basically, Peter - as far as he knows - could save the life of his friend with a quick blood sample - but refuses for reasons that aren't quite clear to us. Only later does Peter actually find out that the radioactive spider that bit him, that made him Spider-Man, was genetically-engineered by Peter's scientist dad to work only on members of the Parker family. Unnecessary changes to the mythos aside, this is a clear case where clearly Plot Point A is coming to light after Plot Point B, when the reverse should have been true.

This is just one example (and you can find many exhaustive articles online calling out many more) of why THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 has, regrettably, one of the most poorly-structured plots of any recent big blockbuster movie I can think of. Countless plot points seem conspicuously omitted, only to resurface after the fact. Character motivations surface up out of thin air, making characters feel two-dimensional and silly.

Harry Osborn's transition to the Green Goblin is another example of this. In Raimi's original trilogy, Harry slowly but surely turned against Peter and Spider-Man. Here, Dane DeHaan's Harry is set up from his first scene as having a dark side. But he goes from merely dark and brooding to evil and murderous with the flip of a switch. The whole thing feels rushed. It's a shame because a.) DeHaan is a great actor and does gradual villainy well (see: Chronicle), and b.) Harry Osborn is by far the more compelling of the movie's two villains, but what could have been a gripping, movie-spanning turn to the dark side is instead a total rush-job. When Harry eventually becomes the spiky-haired, green-skinned, sharp-toothed, stark-raving-mad Goblin, it's sadly pretty laughable. Just as Electro is set up to be the tragic villain, only to become a generic criminal, so too does Harry go from multidimensional adversary to random rogue who just wants to blow stuff up and kill people. Strangely, the goofiness of the villains is only amplified by their costumes and character-design. As much as Spider-Man looks exactly right, the bad guys look like conceptual design-work gone very-wrong.

The movie seems to just give up on trying to tie any of this together thematically. Peter and Gwen's romantic storyline is completely separate from the story of the two villains. And the two villains' plotlines are also completely separate from each other - eventually coming together in the same way that a kid might mash two random action figures together - just because.  What this means is that when the big finale brings Peter, Gwen, Electro, and the Goblin together for the big final showdown, it all feels very random, and there's little emotional weight to it all. In a different Spider-Man movie, that could have been not-that-big-a-deal. But, without spoiling anything, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 is *trying* for a big, huge, emotional moment in its final act. And that moment, which should have been absolutely devastating, is instead only marginally affecting. Why? Because it's so forced in the context of the story, and so removed tonally and plot-wise from anything that's come before.

Going back to Kurtzman and Orci, lack of structural integrity in their films has been the biggest knock against them for years. They tend to do well with the witty banter and they tend to have a knack for setting up imaginative set-piece sequences that translate well from page to screen. But for some reason, plot always takes a huge back seat. Now, historically, blockbuster action movies don't always have the tightest of plots - and there's many a big blockbuster that is ripe to be picked apart by those looking for logic gaps and plot holes. But THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 does feel particularly problematic. Maybe it's because the movie is so good in other ways, from the eye-popping visuals to the great chemistry between its leads. Maybe it's that the gaps here are ones so central not just to the plot, but to the core characterizations of the main players, that you can't just separate them out in your mind. I mean, look, in Star Trek: Into Darkness, it annoyed me that Spock only learns about the extent of Khan's evil through a Spock Prime-provided info-dump. But at least in that case, the structural laziness was solely an issue with the plotting, and didn't really affect characterization. Here, the issues are much more interconnected, and less easy to isolate. Peter not helping Harry by giving his blood isn't just a plot hole, but, like I said, it makes Peter look like an irrational jerk. Harry and Max's villainous meltdowns aren't just examples of bad plotting - their sudden transformations into uber-badguys completely undermines the characterization that had been used to establish who they were as people. It was only recently that Captain America: The Winter Soldier gave us a superhero film that smartly delivered a plot about a hero having to fight against his former best friend. In that film, the Cap vs. Winter Soldier conflict was not just the film's plot, but the center of its entire emotional core. Here, Harry vs. Peter is just a rushed set-piece. The emotional core that should be there - two lifelong best friends tragically having to fight to the death - is almost entirely absent.

At some point too, you can't just blame Kurtzman and Orci for this. As director, Marc Webb has to tie each scene together, and has to find that connective tissue, that emotional core, at the heart of his film. But because scenes feel randomly-assembled, and character motivations seem to come and go on a whim, all of the movie's big emotional beats hit only at the surface level. There are a lot of moments that feel like they are, perhaps, *supposed* to be emotionally resonant, but that simply feel cold and unaffecting. We know that Webb is capable of better. I'll still defend the first Amazing Spider-Man as a very solid, well-done superhero flick that was, overall, a lot more effective and affecting than its sequel. Now, the first film had a different set of writers (some of whom worked on Raimi's trilogy), and more leeway to breathe and just sort of establish this new take on Spider-Man. The second film seems to be boxed in by all kinds of studio pressure. I don't know the full-story, but this, again, feels like a throwback to the 90's when it was all about more=better. Two villains are better than one. Twelve subplots are better than three (and indeed, this film is overloaded with mostly-useless subplots - from Aunt May's training as a nurse to the secret history of Peter's dad and Norman Osborn). Ultimately, the film seems to be building to some vaguely-outlined Sinister Six movie that, again, feels less like a natural extension of the story, and more like a studio-mandated directorate to give Spiderman his own connected movie universe - just like what's happening over at Marvel Studios. There's really no solid narrative through-line that takes us from this film to Sinister Six. It's just "oh hey, remember those villains from this film? Well, there's a bunch more that we haven't shown you yet, and soon they may just decide to team up!" So you've got to wonder: did Kurtzman and Orci's tendency to place minimal importance on structure, combine with the studio's insistence that various stuff be unnaturally shoehorned into the film, to create a perfect storm of superhero schlock? Doesn't seem too far-fetched.

And yet ... the movie generates enough goodwill - through Peter and Gwen's charm, through the cool visuals, through the fantastic score, and through the odd individual scene that really works well - to help sort of cover-up all of the gaping holes. I mean, man, the movie's first big Spider-Man set-piece (following a slightly meh flashback opening to Peter's dad's final days), is pretty awesome. We see Spidey take on Paul Giamatti's low-rent criminal Rhino in a pretty glorious sequence that nails Spider-Man to a T (Giamatti is mostly wasted, but that's besides the point here). Everything I said before about Spider-Man feeling 100% spot-on in this film - from the look of the costume to the wise-cracks to the way he fights - is all there in this sequence. The scene is all Webb, and it's Webb at his best. I don't know if anyone has directed better Spider-Man action sequences, ever, and that's a credit to the director's talent and feel for the character.

For those moments where THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 so perfectly nails ol' web-head, I think that it is well-worth checking out, despite its flaws. Certain moments will bring a smile to the face of new and longtime Spidey fans alike. And for those who are able to tune out all the sound and fury of the villains and larger plot, what you're left with is a very charming and likable love story between two goofy-yet-lovable kids named Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. At the same time, this is a long movie, and one that's jam-packed with characters and plot. And at some point, the plot holes and weird characterizations and goofiness of the villains begin to weigh down the movie. And ultimately, the weight causes the movie - held up by the flimsiest of structures - to collapse, and sink. This is a film that's heavy with plot, and the plot simply doesn't hold up - and what's more, it actively undermines the film's broader emotional and thematic intentions.

I think that this director and this cast are more than capable of giving us a classic Spider-Man movie. They already gave us a really solid one with the first film. But here, things begin to unravel a bit, and now I am slightly worried for the health of this franchise. This sequel certainly has its moments. Like I said, I enjoyed it, overall. But it's also a prime example of how a big franchise film can start to go off the rails, by worrying so much about being a big franchise film that it forgets the basics of good storytelling. The first ASM defied the odds and successfully re-booted Spider-Man. But hey, Spider-Man himself said it: with great power comes great responsibility. And filmmakers should have faith that if you prioritize first the responsibility to tell a good story, then good things will follow.

My Grade: B-

Hey, True Believers! Spidey Returns in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!

 THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Review:

- No matter what, there is going to a specter hanging over this latest effort to bring Spiderman to the big-screen. It was only a few short years ago that the third Sam Raimi-directed Spidey film was released, a film that ended up being the finale of a trilogy that was a big part of the modern superhero cinematic boom - a trilogy that made Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's 1960's creation more popular than ever. And anyone who follows movies knows that this latest Spiderman flick was a movie that, essentially, *had* to be made by Sony. If they didn't make a new one, they'd forfeit the rights to the character, and the property would revert back to Marvel Studios. So yes, we get a new Spiderman movie now, but if Sony hadn't retained the rights, then hey, Peter Parker and friends would be back home at the House of Ideas, free to co-mingle with Iron Man, Captain America, and Nick Fury. So sure, there is a certain cloud if cynicism and corporate politics that hangs over The Amazing Spider-Man. And yet, my own long-held skepticism about the film slowly but surely began to wear away as I watched it. No, this one never reaches the loopy comic book highs of the still-brilliant Spiderman 2 (the pinnacle of the previous series), but it helps make the same ol' origin story semi-fresh again - with a more-than-up-to-the-task cast, a slightly darker and more modern feel, and plenty of classic Spidey action.

The fact is, even if Sam Raimi's Spiderman 3 has a small but vocal group of supporters, I've rarely seen a more disappointing entry in a beloved blockbuster franchise. To me, Spiderman 3 was a huge black mark in Marvel movie history, and so I was ready for a clean slate. Sam Raimi remains one of my all-time favorite directors, and he did great things with the character. But there were certain things that did intrigue me about a reboot. For one, I've become a big fan of Andrew Garfield, and he seemed to be a great choice to play Peter Parker. Tobey Maguire always seemed a little off to me as Spiderman, so I was eager to see if Garfield could bring a little more of the wise-cracking, smart-alecky Spiderman of the comics to the big screen. As it turns out, Garfield does a pretty great job here. He is appropriately awkward as Peter, but there's also a toughness in him that makes him feel like a natural as a superhero. He also has great chemistry with Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Peter's pre-Mary Jane gal pal. No, they don't have the will-they-or-won't-they drama that Peter and Mary Jane did in the earlier films, but that's okay. It's fun to see Peter with someone who's less a fantasy object and more a partner in crime. So yeah, even though Garfield and Stone are pushing believability a bit as high school students, I really enjoyed both, and they definitely brought some real depth and sense of fun to the two lead roles. They've created versions of Peter and Gwen who I'd gladly follow into future sequels.

And that's the thing with this movie - its biggest accomplishment is probably that it lays some fantastic groundwork for future sequels, establishing a great new cast and a fresh start for Spiderman's cinematic adventures. Not that the movie isn't well-done and entertaining in its own right - it's just that, again, the shadow of the Raimi films looms large. What I mean is that you can almost feel this one stretching to avoid major beats from the first Raimi movie. The film's villain, Dr. Curt Connors - aka The Lizard - works at OsCorp, but Norman and Harry Osbourne don't factor into the film. Peter still takes the inspiration for his Spidey costume from a pro-wrestler, but this film avoids the protracted wrasslin' sequence of Raimi's. Uncle Ben utters a variation of his famous credo - "with great power comes great responsibility" - but paraphrases, in a moment that seems to scream "this is not the Spiderman you know." And yet ... certain sequences mirror the Raimi original almost to a T. Even the font of the movie's title is almost identical (calculated move by Sony, given that they later co-opted that font for the PS3?). Point being, movie fans now have a taste of what comic book fans have long suffered through - having to see your favorite character's growth endlessly stunted by a continual cycle of reboots and retcons, the same origin stories told over and over and over again - always tweaked for more modern audiences, but always familiar to longtime fans. So here it is, mainstream: your chance to know the unique anguish of the comic book fanboy. Ironically though, the film reintroduces one of the main concepts that comics fans complained was absent from Raimi's films - the idea that Spiderman's webshooters are mechanical - invented by boy-genius Peter Parker - rather than an organic part of his spider bite-induced transformation. Personally, I can take or leave the mechanical webshooters - while they are comic book cannon, it *does* seem a little silly that web-shooting isn't just a power of Peter's ... ya' know?

Still, The Amazing Spider-Man surprised me in a number of ways. Not through any crazy plot twists, per se, but more so in how much it actually did get right. I mentioned the strength of Garfield and Stone as the leads, but let me mention Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben. He rocks. Sheen plays the hell out of ol' Uncle Ben, and the strength of his performance really anchors the early part of the film. Sally Field is also really good as Aunt May. No, she isn't the vegetable-esque grandma of the older comics, but that's fine by me. At this point, I don't mind May being more of a three-dimensional character and less a one-note joke. Another big surprise for me was Denis Leary a Captain Stacey, father of Gwen. Leary makes what could have been a minor character into a memorable badass, and really steals a couple of key scenes. I also enjoyed Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors. While his motivations for villainy were a little silly, Ifans did a nice job, I thought, of making The Lizard into a more multidimensional villain than probably was written on the page. I know some couldn't get over some of the goofier aspects of The Lizard's evil plan (he wants to ... turn all of NYC into ... lizard people?!), but it didn't bother me that much given that Ifans sells the character well and makes him into a formidable menace. And no, I didn't love the character design of the CGI-created Lizard (looked more like Killer Croc from Batman), but I also didn't think it was that bad. Personally, I was won over by the fact that we had numerous, fun, kinetic action scenes of Spiderman fighting a giant reptilian monster.

On that note, I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the film's action scenes. They're mostly smaller-scale and less over-the-top than some of the big set-pieces in the Raimi films, but I thought there was some really solid stuff here. The action definitely has a fast-paced, videogame-esque sheen to it, but I thought that there were some pretty kickass moments, with plenty of interesting, web-slinging moves that we've yet to see on the big-screen. A fight between Spidey and The Lizard that takes place in the halls of Peter's high school was particularly fun and innovative-feeling (and featured a fantastic cameo from Stan Lee!), and was a major highlight. I also admired the use of first-person during a few web-swinging sequences - if it was overdone, it could have been annoying, but given that it was used sparingly in a couple of key moments, I enjoyed it. That said, Marc Webb is a talented director, but he follows in the footsteps of one of the most visually-innovative modern directors in Sam Raimi. All three previous Spidey flicks had a couple of those jaw-dropping, vintage Raimi moments (think the Doc Ock transformation scene in Spiderman 2) that helped elevate those films. I don't know that the new movie has that one sort of instant-classic visual moment, per se. But it still looks great overall, and given that this was Webb's big leap to blockbuster action, I think it's a great first step.

Where Webb is 100% in his comfort zone though is when dealing with the quirky-cute Peter/Gwen relationship. It's no surprise that the guy who made the charming 500 Days of Summer would do a bang-up job with the young romance portion of The Amazing Spider-Man, but still ... Maybe it's just that we've had to endure so many lame, forced-feeling romances in superhero movies over the years, but man, this one was refreshing. Not for any melodramatic stuff that occurred, but more so just for the little moments of banter and flirtation between Gwen and Peter. In short, most superhero movies - yes, even the mighty Christopher Nolan Batman films - make you cringe at the romance subplots. But not here - you can't help but root for these crazy, mixed-up kids to find love.

One final surprise for me was that, despite being smaller-scale, the movie had a couple of big, heart-filled emotional beats that caught me off-guard. Maybe I'm just a sucker for any superhero story where a whole city rallies around their local hero (I am), but I thought that the film did a nice job of remembering that Spiderman is of and for New York City. Even if it's a bit darker than the Raimi films, this one still has a very New York feel to it (Garfield even does a pretty good NYC accent), and I liked that - even if the setup to get there was a bit contrived - the movie eventually paints Spiderman as a hero to the people of New York, even if the police and media think of him as a menace. And, even if the Raimi films owed more visually to the old Lee/Ditko comics, I still thought that this movie maintained a bit of that old Marvel feel, with certain shots evoking the comics both old and new. Sure, purists might complain about superficial updates like Peter now being a skateboarder, but to me, there was no doubt that this was the Peter Parker we've known and loved. In particular, the way that Garfield's Parker seemed to revel in the web-slinging and wise-cracking ... that to me was more OG Peter Parker than the version we often glimpsed in the old trilogy.

The biggest problem with the movie? It feels like it's in too much of a hurry. It almost seems like the movie is on the same page as us going in: "yes, we realize you want to skip past the origin and get to the good stuff." That's fine, but the movie is very much structured as a full-on origin story, and so it jumps between all the usual origin-story beats (Peter is bitten, he's horrified by his new and uncontrollable abilities, he goes off and tests his abilities, he puts on a ski-cap and all-black and foils a crime or two, he dons a prototype version of his costume, he constructs the actual costume, etc., etc., etc.). It can all feel very by-the-numbers - and so you have to ask ... did we need it all? I always think back to the beginning of Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman, where he brilliantly lays out the classic Superman origin story in one page, and then gets right to the good stuff. I'm not sure why that couldn't have been done here. Because the side-effect of spending so much time on the by-now tired origin story tropes is that we miss out on some potentially cool moments that are only briefly touched on. For example, it feels like we really only see about 3/4 of the full Lizard story. We never find out how he lost his arm, we never learn exactly how and when Dr. Connors is able to transform back-and-forth into a reptilian monster. We never get the full explanation of his sinister plan for the citizens of New York. And we never see much of the hinted-at inner conflict he has, where part of him has affection for Peter and Gwen, and part of him - the monster part - wants to destroy them. Some similar jumpiness exists in the Peter/Gwen relationship arc. There are tons of great little moments between them, but there's also a slight sense that we've skipped over some key beats in their story. Of course, a lot of these sorts of problems are just inherent to translating serialized comics to two-hour movies ... these stories were designed to be multi-part soap operas, and so you inevitably miss out when cramming everything into one film - particularly an origin film.

And yes, some random other moments in the film bothered me. Ironically, many were similar pet peeves I had with the Raimi films. For one, I get that you're paying your star a lot of money, and thus don't want him behind a mask the whole time, but DAMMIT ... Spider-Man needs to keep his mask on when in costume. For one thing, he's got a secret ID to protect, and for another, Spider-Man looks cool with the mask on, but without it, he's just a nerd in tights. But similarly to the previous flicks, The Amazing Spider-Man finds every contrived way in the book to get Garfield to lose the mask. Lame. Also, few superhero flicks have ever done a good job of having heroes interact with kids (Captain America is one of the only ones that had a great hero-meets-kid scene). And this movie has a very groan-inducing Spidey-saves-annoying-kid moment that grated on me (even more so because Spider-Man took his mask off in the process of saving him for no good reason). Finally - and this has been a problem with most Marvel movies to date - the score is ultimately pretty forgettable and not iconic like it should be. Spider-Man deserves an awesome theme, dammit. Get Hans Zimmer or John Williams on the phone, Marvel, and stat.

Ultimately, The Amazing Spider-Man didn't necessarily 100% wow me as a standalone movie, but at the same time ... I thoroughly enjoyed it and liked a lot of the creative choices it made. It did give me a lot of hope for the franchise going forward, and I could see a sequel really blossoming once more distance has been achieved from the Raimi movies, and now that the origin is out of the way. Certainly, this is a huge step up from the abysmal Spiderman 3, and certainly, this is one of the better big blockbuster films we've gotten so far this summer. Those who say this is one of the worst Marvel movies are, quite frankly, on crack. No, this isn't The Avengers ... but this to me is a crowd-pleaser - a fun and charming superhero flick that's true to the spirit of Spider-Man.

My Grade: B+