The Best Film Every Year Since 2010

Movies are great. They appeal to an incredibly vast and varied audience and have the ability to take you away from reality for a couple of entertaining hours. With 2020 on the horizon (and given the fact that I won’t be around next year to do this) now seems like a great time to tackle this list. The selection process for this list takes into account review scores, my personal opinion, and fan’s opinions. I do have to make a disclaimer that I may be slightly biased towards the action genre however, I will attempt to make this as fair as possible. Without further ado, let’s begin.

2010: Inception

Review Scores- IMDb: 8.8/10 Metacritic: 74% Rotten Tomatoes: 86%

2010 was a great year for animated films with titles such as Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon, Despicable Me, and Megamind. The action genre also had notable creations with the sequel to Marvel’s Iron Man and the critically acclaimed Sci-Fi Thriller, Inception. The movie of 2010 goes to Inception for its unique, imaginative story and visual effects. The film directed by Christopher Nolan won academy awards for cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing, and visual effects.

2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 

Review Scores- IMDb: 8.1/10 Metacritic: 87% Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

2011 was a pretty mediocre year for films with very few memorable creations. The action genre had decent additions with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and a decent reboot of the Planet of the Apes movies starring James Franco. Marvel made its yearly additions to the superhero genre with Captain America: The First Avenger and the admittedly mediocre, Thor. 2011 did provide some solid dramas with Moneyball (94% Rotten Tomatoes) and the movie of the year, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. This film wrapped up the exciting series of Harry Potter films that began in 2001 with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie, Favorite Action Movie, and David Yates won the Empire award for Best Director.

2012: The Avengers

Review Scores- IMDb: 8.1/10 Metacritic: 69% Rotten Tomatoes: 92%

2012 was a pretty solid year for films. Daniel Craig proved that people still aren’t tired of James Bond films even after (at the time) 24 had been released at the time that Skyfall was released. Christopher Nolan wrapped up his critically acclaimed Batman trilogy with The Dark Knight Rises and Disney released a couple of solid animated films with Brave and Wreck-it Ralph. The two most notable films of the year we easily The Hunger Games and Marvel’s The Avengers. The Hunger Games brought Suzanne Collins’ incredibly popular novel to the big screen with great success. As for The Avengers, this is in my opinion (and probably a lot of people’s opinions) Marvel’s best film in the MCU, even today. The film successfully brought four heroes from different story lines together into one fast paced and wildly entertaining film. The Avengers won the award for Movie of the Year (MTV), while Tom Hiddleston won the MTV award for best villian.

2013: Gravity

Review Scores- IMDb: 7.7/10 Metacritic: 96% Rotten Tomatoes: 96%

2013 was a good year for action movies with the critically acclaimed Captain Phillips, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Pacific Rim. There were also a number of notable dramas that came out in 2013 including 12 Years a Slave, Prisoners, and Short Term 12. 2013 was pretty light on superhero films with Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel being the only memorable films in that category. Hands down the best film of the year had to go to Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. This film tells the story of two astronauts who have to survive alone in space after an accident leaves them stranded. Gravity won academy awards for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Music Score.

2014: Guardians of the Galaxy 

Review Scores- IMDb: 8.1/10 Metacritic: 78% Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

2014 was the year of superhero movies with many incredible additions to the genre including Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men Days of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Big Hero 6, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Three novels made the transition to the big screen with The Maze Runner, Divergent, and Unbroken. The Lego Movie also came out this year and was very well received as it appealed to a surprisingly wide audience. The war movie genre also had a great year with the additions of Fury, American Sniper, and the previously mentioned, Unbroken. The movie of the year goes to Guardians of the Galaxy mostly due to how it perfectly blended action and comedy into an entertaining, unforced film. Guardians of the Galaxy won the Critic’s Choice award for Best Action Movie and Best Makeup.

2015: The Martian 

Review Scores- IMDb: 8/10 Metacritic: 80% Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

2015 was the year of reboots with the Star Wars, Rocky, Jurassic Park, Mad Max, and Terminator franchises all producing new films. Most of these reboots were very well received by fans and critics, especially Star Wars: The Force Awakens (92% Rotten Tomatoes) and Mad Max: Fury Road (97% Rotten Tomatoes). 2015 also brought us some refreshingly unique films such as Inside Out, Bridge of Spies, and The Revenant. We also had the film Steve Jobs, tell the incredible story of the man with the same name and how he created the iMac. This year’s movie of the year award goes to The Martian, starring Matt Damon. The Martian is about an astronaut who must survive on Mars after his crewmates leave the planet without him, assuming that he died in a storm. The Martian won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture whie Matt Damon won the Empire and Golden Globe Awards for best actor.

2016: Arrival

Review Scores- IMDb: 7.9/10 Metacritic: 81% Rotten Tomatoes: 94%

2016 was a year highlighted by Marvel, Disney, and a handful of great war movies. In 2016 Disney released Zootopia, Moana, the long awaited Finding Dory, a live-action version of The Jungle Book, and finally (in my opinion) the best of the recent Star Wars films, Rogue One. Hacksaw Ridge and 13 Hours both told incredible war stories inspired by real life events; the former taking place in World War 2 while the latter takes place during the Benghazi crisis. Marvel released three very well received films: Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Deadpool. On the other hand, DC attempted to cash in on the superhero genre that Marvel is popularizing by releasing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad both of which were despised by critics. As for the movie of the year, I have to go with the sci-fi mystery film, Arrival. Arrival (starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner) is a film that follows a linguist who has to race against time in order to communicate with aliens who have arrived on Earth before war breaks out on a global scale. Arrival won the Critic’s Choice Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie, an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and the Writer’s Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay among others.

2017: Get Out 

Review Scores- IMDb: 7.7/10 Metacritic: 84% Rotten Tomatoes: 98%

2017 was the year of horror movies with films such as Alien: Covenant, IT, and the movie of the year, Get Out highlighting the genre. Critically acclaimed movies in 2017 includes Dunkirk (92% Rotten Tomatoes) The Shape of Water (92% Rotten Tomatoes) and Logan (93% Rotten Tomatoes). Other notable films include Thor: Ragnarok, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Baby Driver. Movie of the year hands down has to go to the psychological thriller, Get Out. This film follows a man whose new girlfriend’s family has a dark and disturbing secret that he must deal with. Get Out won the Empire award for Best Horror, an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

2018: Black Panther 

Review Scores- IMDb: 7.3/10 Metacritic: 88% Rotten Tomatoes 97%

2018 was a very mixed year for films with no one genre or franchise sticking out. Well reviewed movies that came out in 2018 include A Quiet Place (95%) , A Star is Born (89%), The Favourite (93%) and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (97%) among others. The very long awaited sequel to The Incredibles also came out this year which was very well received by critics (94%). Movie of the year was difficult to choose given the competition but I decided to go with Black Panther. Black Panther follows a man named T’Challa as he must fight for the throne he rightfully deserves after the death of his father. Black Panther feels refreshing as a superhero film since it diverges from the overused formula Marvel has been recycling for many years.

2019: Us 

Review Scores- IMDb: 7.5/10 Metacritic: 81% Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

2019 obviously isn’t over yet so this year’s selection is subject to change however, we have definitely had some solid films already and there are many more that I am very excited to see. As for the films that are out, DC’s Shazam! has received very good reviews as has The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. This is also looking to be another fantastic year for both Disney and horror movie fans. This year, Disney will release live action versions of Aladdin, The Lion King, Dumbo, a fourth installment of Toy Story and a sequel to Frozen. Horror movie fans will enjoy the (current) movie of the year, Us while they await the release of titles such as IT: Chapter Two, The New Mutants, Brightburn, Pet Sematary, and Zombieland: Double Tap. Marvel fans also have a lot to be excited for with Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Avengers: Endgame. Other promising films include POKEMON Detective Pikachu, Star Wars: Episode IX, and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum. The movie of the year goes to Us for its great review scores and reception from fans. Us hasn’t won any awards because they wait until the end of the year for that kind of stuff.

So that was a pretty lengthy trip down memory lane for you, and I officially feel old despite the fact that I’m only 18 but, nostalgia does that to people. For more lists and reviews be sure to subscribe to odcspress.org and comment below if you think a different movie should have won in their respective year.