2023 Films League Table

[The Doctor]

Film of the year.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

1. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
2. John Wick: Chapter 4
3. The Three Musketeers Part I: D'Artagnan
4. The Three Musketeers Part II: Milady
5. Oppenheimer
6. The Marvels
7. Godzilla Minus One
8. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
9. Napoleon (theatrical cut)
10. The Equalizer 3
11. Babylon
12. A Haunting in Venice
13. The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
14. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
15. Sisu
16. Blue Beetle
17. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3
18. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
19. M3gan
20. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
21. Haunted Mansion
22. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
23. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
24. Scream VI
25. The Creator
26. Expend4bles
27. Meg 2: The Trench
28. Hypnotic
29. The Flash
30. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
31. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (TV movie)
32. Plane
33. Renfield
34. The Enforcer
35. 65

Really enjoyed Aquaman 2. My enjoyment may have something to do with finishing work for Christmas at lunchtime, but I genuinely think this is the first DCEU film that is infinitely better than its obvious MCU counterpart. (Though of course its MCU counterpart is Thor 2.)

Great that the writers have realised

SPOILER: Click to show

you don't _always_ have to kill a superhero's parents.

Martin

[The Doctor]

Thor 2 better than Thor 1? ARE YOU MAD??!!

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Dec 22, 2023 20:17:08 GMT The Doctor said:

Thor 2 better than Thor 1? ARE YOU MAD??!!

What are you talking about??? That's not what I said! Who here mentioned Thor 1???

Martin

[legios]

Martin was comparing Thor: The Dark World to Aquaman 2, and stating that Aquaman 2 was the superior film, or so I understood...

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Correct. Whereas in most cases, I have found DCEU films to be inferior to their obvious MCU counterparts.

(Wonder Woman inferior to Captain America: The First Avenger
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice inferior to Captain America: Civil War
Justice League inferior to Avengers Assemble
Aquaman 1 inferior to Thor 1
The Flash inferior to Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Martin

[Pinwig]

Just watched Dial of Destiny on Disney. Oh my word I enjoyed that. A proper film. I haven't enjoyed an action film like that for as long as I can remember.

[Bogatan]

1. Avatar The Way of Water
2. Puss in Boots : Whatever this ones called.
3. Antman 3:
4. 65
5. The Whale
6. RRR
7. John Wick Chapter 4
8. Shazam 2
9. Creed 3
11. Dungeons and dragons
12. Super Mario Bros
13. Guardians Vol 3
14. Fast X
15. Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse
16. Transformers Rise of the Beast (Imax)
17. The Flash
18. Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny
19. Mission Impossible Dead reckoning Part 1
20. Elementals
21. Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse
22. The Meg 2.
23. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Disney 100)
24. Barbie
25. TMNT : Whatever this ones called
26. Bambi (Disney 100)
27. Cinderella (Disney 100)
28. Peter Pan (Disney 100)
29. Blue Beetle - fine.
30. One Hundred and One Dalmations (Disney 100)
31. Equalizer 3
32. Expendables 4
33. Dream Senario
34. The Marvels (Imax)
35. Wish (Superscreen)
36. Napoleon

37. Godzilla Minus One - So so good.

38. Muppet christmas carol - Finally the proper version on the big screen. I was sat way to close to the screen. Giant muppets everywhere.

39. Aquaman 2 - Im not sure its saying much, but much better than I expected. I mean I dont think it was very good, Im pretty sure there have been some big edits/reshoots that dont always gel that well, but I mostly had fun which considering I was running on 3 hours sleep and coming in to the start of the film while Muppet Christmas Carols credits were still running isnt nothing.

[legios]

1. Shin Kamen Rider.
2. Tenet
3. No One Will Save You
4. Glass Onion
5. Dune: *sigh* I wanted to like this, the cast are really good and it is a beautifully designed, shot, directed, lit and colour-graded... It's just... Look, I think there comes a time when we just have to face facts that somethings cannot be filmed, not and created a satisfactory result. This is probably the most true to the original book attempt yet, and still struggles with how to inject any humanity to characters who mostly lack it. I love Denis Villenueve as a film-maker. I have since I first saw Sicario, but this is far and away the least engaging, least interesting thing I've seen him do. It's sheer insane ambition, and just how beautiful it is gets it this far on my list. But there is nothing going on beneath the skin, fundamentally - and despite everyone involved's best efforts, this is a gorgeous but vacuous film.
6. Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucruz Doans Island
7. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts: This was a Sunday afternoon rental, as a matinee one rainy day. As a Sunday afternoon rental this was fine. The first two-thirds were a decent daft action movie, with a reasonable wit and pace to get it past the doldrums. Then it has the same last reel as several of the other films - with an infinite horde of enemy robots for our heroes to kill, a mcguffin and a Tower of Doom that will bring about the end of the world. I think I was done about twenty minutes before the film was. But it didn't make me want to throw objects at the screen or anything, so it was above average for these films. Competent nonsense.
8. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania.

[Andy Turnbull]

1. John Wick: Chapter 4
2. Hang 'Em High (yes I know it's old but only watched it for the first time, last week).
3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
4 . Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
5. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
6. Aquaman
7. Expend4bles
8. Fast X
9. The Flash
10. Meg 2: The Trench
11. Transmorphers: Mech Beasts

[Pinwig]

Tell you what, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is great. I love the original, Aardman's best feature, and Nugget is a solid sequel that stylistically fits the original. The plot is a bit of a recycle, but it's genuinely funny and probably the most entertaining film I've seen this year. Should have had a cinema fanfare instead of being hidden on Netflix.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Well, I think it's been an above average year for cinema. Four films that I would rate 10/10, as in I can't see how they could have been made any better. And the top two of those films (like last year's Top Gun: Maverick) showed me things I've never seen done on film before.

SPOILERS:




I'd be happy if 2024 gives me any films as good as this year's top four.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

1. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
2. John Wick: Chapter 4
3. The Three Musketeers Part I: D'Artagnan
4. The Three Musketeers Part II: Milady
5. Ferrari
6. Oppenheimer
7. The Marvels
8. Godzilla Minus One
9. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
10. Napoleon (theatrical cut)
11. The Equalizer 3
12. Babylon
13. A Haunting in Venice
14. The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
15. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
16. Sisu
17. Blue Beetle
18. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3
19. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
20. M3gan
21. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
22. Haunted Mansion
23. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
24. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
25. Scream VI
26. The Creator
27. Expend4bles
28. Meg 2: The Trench
29. Hypnotic
30. The Flash
31. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
32. Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (TV movie)
33. Plane
34. Renfield
35. The Enforcer
36. 65

The worst film of the year was an Adam Driver film, but he was redeemed by one of the best films of the year in its final week. Ferrari - cracking cinematography, great twists, and made a massive impact thanks to me not knowing anything about the true events it's based on. The final act did not play out in any of the ways I thought it would. Still recovering from the shock.

Martin

[Pinwig]

I think by the end of next year I'll have tried to watch everything Martin watched this year.

I watched Godzilla King of Monsters tonight, which has great action but truly awful clichéd dialogue.

[Bogatan]

1. Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse IMAX
2. Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse
3. Godzilla Minus One
4. Guardians Vol 3
5. Muppet christmas carol
6. RRR
7. John Wick Chapter 4
8. Barbie
9. Equalizer 3
11. TMNT : Whatever this ones called
12. The Marvels (Imax)
13. Elementals
14. Mission Impossible Dead reckoning Part 1
15. Transformers Rise of the Beast (Imax)
16. One Hundred and One Dalmations (Disney 100)
17. Cinderella (Disney 100)
18. Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny
19. Peter Pan (Disney 100)
20. Antman 3
21. Dream Senario
22. The Meg 2.
23. Dungeons and dragons
24. Wish (Superscreen)
25. Super Mario Bros
26. Bambi (Disney 100)
27. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Disney 100)
28. Creed 3
29. Blue Beetle - fine.
30. Fast X
31. Shazam 2
32. Puss in Boots : Whatever this ones called.
33. Avatar The Way of Water
34. Aquaman 2
35. Expendables 4
36. 65
37. The Flash
38. Napoleon
39. The Whale

End of year rankings. Honestly the top 8 could be in any order, really not much in it.

Napoleon and The Whale, I came out o both initially like yeah not bad, but besides the performances Ive found both have bothered me more and more as time goes on.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

'The Three Musketeers Part II: Milady' out on Blu-ray, yay!

Martin