Top 5 movies of 2017

2017 might have been soft or harsh on you, but this has been an awesome year for movies in general, definitely better than 2016. Ignoring the bad ones, let's end this year on a positive note. Here are 5 movies that made 2017 better for me. I'm keeping the list short because I haven't seen all the good ones and I'll begin by listing the honorable mentions that didn't make the list.

Honorable Mentions

Spiderman Homecoming: 

Marvel Cinematic Universe had a great year absolutely nailing all the three movies which were released this year but Spiderman homecoming stood out for me. I've mentioned several times in my reviews that Marvel can never go wrong with their casting and that's the main reason for their success. Starting with Robert Downey Jr. as Iron, Benedict Cumberbach as Dr. Strange, Chris Evans as Captain America and Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, the list of great castings is never-ending. Tom Holland joins the list, he depicted a version of Peter Parker better than Peter Parker himself and that's what made this such a huge success. Its almost as good as Spiderman 2 which is still my favorite Spidey movie of all time but homecoming was a treat to watch and I'd watch it multiple times just like any other Marvel movie. Maybe its Iron Man's cameo, the action sequences, the score, I'm just not sure what makes this movie the spectacle it is. Huge credit goes to Michael Keaton who acted ruthlessly as the Vulture and in my opinion, is the best villain in the MCU till date replacing Loki from Avengers.

The Lego Batman Movie: 

We all thought that we're done getting awesome Batman movies but this movie came from nowhere and thrilled fans of the caped crusader throughout the world. Continuous entertainment, Easter eggs scattered everywhere, Robin was awesome, Batman was awesome, everything about this was just pure gold, DCEU should learn from this.

La La Land:

Technically, this was released in 2016 but I got to see it only in 2017 so I'm adding it to the list. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone gave us a mind-blowing performance which earned this movie quite a few Oscars at the Academy Awards. It was a visual spectacle and the soundtrack is on my everyday playlist.

Justice League:

Some might call it the biggest disappointment of 2017, it already earned the name of the biggest box office bomb ever but all that didn't seem to bother me as I caught this in theatres a couple of times. I loved the way the league was formed, the casting was great and this movie felt like a step in the right direction if not a complete course correction for the DCEU. I'm looking forward to the solo movies, DC probably should have made a few of those before giving us the Justice League and I think that's the reason for its failure at the box office. Superman's return was more than satisfying and I hated what they decided to do with Batman's character which is why I'm not going to include this on my main list. Hopefully, we can get to see an extended cut because I'm sure they won't release the Snyder cut. Definitely the best DCEU movie yet.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle:

This is the second movie on my list which didn't earn a positive response from the critics or the box office. This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year and I wasn't disappointed with what I saw in theatres. I'm a huge fan of the first part and I absolutely loved this. It had some of the best action sequences ever and a great soundtrack. Merlin and Harry were my favorite parts. The weak villain and the strange response from the president and confusing politics are what that made the movie weak but I'd still watch this multiple times in the future and I'm waiting to see Channing Tatum join Eggsy and Harry at Kingsmen for the next sequel.

GET OUT and Wind River almost made the list, don't forget to watch them.

THE TOP 5 LIST:

5 - IT

Horror movies these days are becoming very predictable. The jump scares, the crooked old man, the Jesus imagery, the old woman with the scary face, we have seen it all. IT was a Stephen King adaptation done perfect justice. It took the horror genre to a different level, showing us new things and it focused more on the people than the beast. I guess that's where IT managed to win our hearts. The losers gang are the highlight of this movie and I still think that it earned its 'R' rating because of the dialogue between the kids and not because of the violence and gore. Definitely one of the best horror movies of this year and something which you can watch multiple times and be entertained. Can't wait for the next part and Bill Skarsgard definitely deserves an Oscar nomination.

4 - WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

We loved Rise of the planet of the apes because it was so unique, dawn took the franchise to a completely different level and we didn't expect it to be the massive hit that it is. Just when I thought they were out of tricks, Matt Reeves once again manages to surprise all of us with this masterpiece. Bad Ape was a great addition to the Ape gang and everything about the movie is beautiful. The special effects are top notch and we get a lot of humor in this, most of it coming from Bad Ape. Most of all, Andy Serkis, what an actor he is. This is my favorite of all three as Caesar leads his Apes to a safe place where they can finally live their lives. So many great moments in this movie, the set pieces were amazing and so was the acting. If this doesn't earn an Oscar for Andy, I don't know what will. This takes its place in history as being one of the great trilogies of all time and its been a while since we had an awesome trilogy ever since Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

3 - COCO

Disney Pixar is finally back to form. What I love about their work is that each and every movie is unique, Lion King, Frozen, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Incredibles, Up, the list is huge but the past few years, I felt like they're relying on their past success to make more money. Finding Dory, for example, I still loved it but the movie was not even close to its predecessor in all scales. The success of the movie was largely dependent on fans who loved the previous one and it robbed it of its chance to be original. Inside Out and Zootopia are great examples of how originality works and Coco definitely joins that list. Fantastic animation, emotionally overwhelming, and a beautiful ending. I can keep talking about this movie for ages but this movie is definitely one of the best Disney Pixar movies of all times and I love to see stuff like this. I can never get tired of the animations, I grew up with their work and I'm still growing up with their work. I owe this studio a lot and Coco is currently the best animated movie for me, I said currently because the list keeps changing, if I watch Wall-E now, I'll say its the best. This movie will win the Oscar for best animation.

2 - DUNKIRK

Christopher Nolan is the reason I started watching these many Hollywood movies. It all started with his Dark Knight trilogy, Prestige, Inception, Interstellar. For that matter, I think I should give the 90's Batman movies and the 1978 Superman movie for taking interest in Hollywood. I'll be honest, if  Joel Schumaker's Batman and Robin is on TV, I'd still go and watch just for the sake of nostalgia. Coming to Dunkirk, this was my most anticipated movie of 2017. I'm at a point where I'd do anything for Nolan. He's probably the only director in Hollywood currently who has a 100% success with all his work. Seriously, not one flop, this guy is a legend. Whatever genre he takes, sci-fi or superhero or fiction, hell even romance, I'm going to be there at the earliest and I'll support whatever decisions he takes. Nolan collaborated with Hans Zimmer again and the two geniuses gave us this spectacle. This movie wasn't character driven and it received a lot of hate for that. But Nolan is all about realism and when it actually comes to war, it's not won by a single person. We didn't hear about a tragic family story or a wife who is waiting back at home for a soldier to return. Dunkirk was about the moment at hand. It was shot in land, sea, and air and it gave us a feeling of sheer panic, terror, and despair felt by the soldiers and the possibility of everything being destroyed at the blink of an eye. Nevertheless, Mark Ryllance and Tom Hardy gave us great performances. The soundtrack filled the air with the exact feelings the soldiers were feeling. Zimmer's 'Supermarines' soundtrack is on my everyday playlist and Nolan yet again managed to catch my attention with this one. I expected this to be on top of the list but not everything meets our expectations. Definitely the best 'realistic' war movie of all time.

1 - LOGAN

Yes, Logan is my number one movie of 2017. Hugh Jackman reprised his role of Logan/Wolverine for one last time and fans all over the world wanted this to be a huge hit. This movie met my expectations and gave me much more than I was hoping for. This movie follows the Old Man Logan storyline and took everyone by surprise. It succeeded at the box office despite getting an 'R' rating. A dying Wolverine and a Charles Xavier are not exactly what I would have liked to see on the big screen but it was amazing. Patrick Stewart was amazing Jackman was awesome and the movie overall is astounding, to say the least. Laura is a great addition to the mutant gang and her scenes with Logan are pure gold. Some great action sequences, surprising entries, blood, violence, gore, emotion, everything one would expect from a Wolverine movie. The ending left me on the floor weeping like a 5-year-old who lost his superhero action figure because it managed to break more hearts than the total number of bones broken by Jackman. Seriously, that 'X' scene towards the end alone was enough for me to rate this as the best movie of 2017. Best sendoff for Jackman, playing one character so consistently for 17 years is next to impossible, easily the best superhero movie since the Dark Knight.