BEST OF 2017
It’s almost a new year which means it’s once again time for my personal Top Ten movies of the past twelve months.
There have definitely been some less-than-great movies this year from true turkeys such as The Mummy and Alien: Covenant to movies that didn’t quite live up to my own expectations such as Justice League and Jigsaw. I would also add Star Wars: The Last Jedi to this latter category as, whilst not a bad movie, it personally left me feeling a little underwhelmed and didn’t live up to The Force Awakens or even last year’s Rogue One, both of which made my Top Ten.
Without further ado, please enjoy my Top Ten of 2017.
10. LIFE
With sci-fi blockbusters Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Blade Runner 2049 smashing this year’s box-office, it would be all too easy for this sci-fi/horror released way back in March to be forgotten about. However, with a great cast and even better story, it would a real shame if this were to happen. Life is essentially “Alien meets The Blob” and follows a crew of scientists on a space station who are the first people to discover signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life in the form of a small one-celled organism. When the organism quickly begins to learn, grow and evolve, they realise that the organism could be far more dangerous than anticipated. Released in the same year as Alien: Covenant, it manages to be ten times scarier and a hundred times more necessary with a killer ending to boot. A must-see for any sci-fi fans.
9. LOGAN
Out of all the superhero franchises, the X-Men cinematic universe has always been the most willing to push the boundaries and step out of its comfort zone; see last year’s Deadpool and next year’s horror-themed The New Mutants for evidence of this. Even with this in mind, I don’t think anybody expected such a stunning, artistic piece for Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine. Jackman is fantastic as Logan at his most tragic (and violent) but I felt Stewart’s performance as the aged Professor X was a personal highlight and I would put the “psychic seizure” moments up there with my favourite scenes of the year. If this is definitely the last we see of this incarnation of Wolverine on screen - a high likelihood thanks to the recent Fox-Disney deal - there could be no better way to go out.
8. THE DISASTER ARTIST
I admit I am a sucker for so-called “bad movies” and followers of my yearly movie lists will know the Sharknado movies have appeared more than one occasion. Needless to say, when I originally watched The Room - often referred to as the “Citizen Kane of bad movies” - I was blown away in the best way. As it turns out, the behind-the-scenes story of The Room is as fun and outright bonkers as the movie itself. The Disaster Artist follows the story of director Tommy Wiseau and wannabe actor Greg Sestero as they accidentally make one of the worst films ever made. Those looking for answers to some of the most-asked questions (how did Tommy finance the movie? where is Tommy really from?) may be left wanting but, within the confines of the movie itself, Tommy’s question-dodging makes for some of the funniest moments of the movie. As well as being a great movie about filmmaking in general, it also manages to be one of the funniest films of the year. The Franco brothers are fantastic as the co-leads but I genuinely believe James Franco should be in Oscar talks for his spot-on portrayal of Tommy. Considering Tommy’s misguided belief that The Room should receive an Oscar, I feel it would be hilarious for The Disaster Artist to be nominated.
7. MOTHER!
This is likely to be the most controversial and divisive movie on my list this year but I personally thought it was absolutely great and had to be in my Top Ten. Aronofsky has made some strange movies in the past but it’s fair to say this movie is way more abstract and unsettling that any before it which is why it seems to have alienated some of its audience. The movie follows a young woman whose life starts to unravel when her poet husband invites a stranger into their home. Saying much more would mean going into spoiler territory and Mother! is a movie that greatly benefits from going in blind. There is a lot to be read from the movie which is essentially one big allegory but, even without looking for hidden layers, I found Mother! to be one hell of an unsettling psychological horror. One scene in particular towards the end - those who have seen it will know exactly what I’m talking about - truly shocked me and caused an audience-member I watched it with to actually cry out in horror. Any horror movie that causes such an involuntary, visceral response from anybody deserves a place on my list.
6. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
Since his introduction to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) in Captain America: Civil War, I never thought for a moment that I would be disappointed by the new Spider-Man movie. That said, it managed to even surpass my expectations to become one of my favourite movies of the year. Tom Holland is an inspired choice for Peter Parker and I feel he manages to combine the characters of Peter and Spider-Man more seamlessly than either McGuire or Garfield before him. There were more MCU links that I’d expected and even more of Tony Stark than the trailers had suggested. However, rather than suggesting an lack of trust in the Spider-Man property, I felt that it actually grounded Spider-Man more in the universe the audience are used to and believe it would have actually been odd if they hadn’t taken this direction. Michael Keaton as The Vulture was another great choice and, even out of his mechanical flight-suit, he is a worthy opponent for the titular hero. Here’s to hoping for many more Spider-Man appearances in the MCU as, if they do it right, Peter Parker could soon become the real heart of the franchise.
5. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
When news broke that a live-action Beauty And The Beast remake was being made, most peoples’ first question was ‘why?’ The more negative critics said it smacked of unoriginality and cynicism on Disney’s part but, after watching it, it became clear that it better than the sum of its parts. For me, if the upcoming Disney remakes are half as good as Beauty And The Beast, I would be more than happy to check them out. It seems like the entire cast and crew had a blast making the movie but the stand-out performance is Luke Evans who puts his heart and soul into bringing the arrogant, villainous Gaston to life and clearly has fun hamming it up to the max. The general plot and songs are almost identical to the original animation and it’s clear the filmmakers have taken a “ain’t-broke-don’t-fix” approach but still add enough changes and a couple of original tunes to make it feel fresh. Possibly the most re-watchable of all the movies on my Top Ten this year.
4. PADDINGTON 2
When the first Paddington movie came out I went in with fairly low expectations. After all, how good could a quaint movie with a marmalade-loving CGI bear as its lead really be? However it managed to completely charm me in a way that I hadn’t expected and the sheer niceness of it and old-fashioned aesthetic totally won me over. Expectations were therefore high for the sequel and so I was pleased to find my expectations were more than exceeded. The story is so simple – Paddington wants to buy his aunt a present for her 100th birthday – but quickly escalates into a fantastic set of scenes where Paddington finds a job and eventually finds himself locked up in prison. The idea of throwing a young, idealistic character such as Paddington against tough, grizzled characters like the prisoners he is forced to live with is a touch of genius and the end result is more charming and heart-warming than any recent movie I can remember.
3. WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
When Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was released in 2011, I wasn’t actually a fan of the original Apes movies. However I was quickly won over by the story of Caesar the chimp and have enjoyed every movie in the franchise since. The third in the rebooted series is very much the end of Caesar’s tale and focuses on him and his group of apes as they attempt to survive one final stand against a group of desperate human survivors led by Woody Harrelson’s Colonel. Whilst Harrelson is great in the villainous role, full kudos goes to Andy Serkis whose mo-cap genius truly brings Caesar to life and the story is so enthralling it is almost easy to forget what a technology marvel War really is. Many of the shots of Caesar (along with the other apes) are done in extreme close-up which, even in the prior Apes movies, would have not been possible or at least would not look as incredible as they do in this movie. Wherever the Apes series goes now, it’s safe to say that this is a fantastic, fitting end to the current story arc and one of the most emotionally moving stories of the year.
2. THOR: RAGNAROK
Just when I thought Spider-Man: Homecoming would be the funniest Marvel movie of the year, Thor: Ragnarok came along and became probably the funniest Marvel movie of all time! When it was revealed that Taika Waititi would be directing the latest Thor movie, some people thought his particular comedic style could steamroll the film and reduce any potential stakes set up by the existing MCU movies. It clear after watching the movie that this is not the case; I mean did anyway expect the total destruction of Asgard to occur in this movie?! Thor: Ragnarok is effectively a ‘buddy movie” with Thor and The Hulk teaming up, along with Loki and a ragtag group of warriors, against Hela the goddess of death. Whilst the stakes are as high as they have ever been, the comedy factor is the biggest take-away from the movie and I simply cannot review it without mentioning Waititi’s role as benevolent rock-creature Korg who acts as a vessel for the director’s comedic chops and is by far one of the funniest MCU characters to date. Whilst the big event lies with next year’s long-awaited Infinity War, audiences have been truly spoiled after receiving such great MCU movies this year. Here’s to many more ahead!
1. IT: CHAPTER ONE
As a fan of all things horror-related, there was no way IT wouldn’t be at the top of this year’s list. It took 31 years but they finally did it. They finally made an adaptation of – in my opinion – Stephen King’s magnum opus that is worthy of the title and a whole lot of fun to boot. The basic story follows a group of children who are forced to fight for survival against a supernatural, killer clown that is killing the townsfolk. However the tale has always been much more than that; a coming-of-age story, a slice of nostalgic Americana, a twisted “adventure” tale of sorts… Everything that the 1990 TV movie got wrong, the remake manages to get right, from the children interacting the way children actually act with each other (see the 90’s version for the very definition of overacting) to removal of the more schmaltzy moments. There have been some criticisms of the amount of CGI in the movie – required, I would say, to pull off many of the weirder scenes from the book – and the lack of true scares. Whilst I agree wholeheartedly that the movie could have been a lot scarier, Skarsgard’s performance of Pennywise the Dancing Clown manages to be extremely unsettling nonetheless and I feel it may even top Tim Curry’s from the original for me. IT has become the highest-grossing horror movie of all time and it’s great to see it’s been commercially as well as critically acclaimed. We have to wait until 2019 for It: Chapter Two but I have no doubt it’ll be worth waiting for...
Well that’s that! It’s been another great year of movies and it would be utterly dismissive not to add some honourable mentions for the likes of Wonder Woman, Get Out, Baby Driver, Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol 2, Kong: Skull Island, John Wick 2 and The Lego Batman Movie, all of which were pretty damn great and made it very difficult choosing my Top Ten this year.
2018 looks to be a great year ahead in cinema with superhero big-hitters Deadpool 2, Black Panther, Ant-Man And The Wasp, The New Mutants, Aquaman and a little movie called Avengers: Infinity War as well as The Predator, Ready Player One, Insidious: The Last Key and, probably my most anticipated movie if next year Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
See you all on the other side!












