Did not includeJustice League–
In non-caped crusades, space films soared and everyone loved a Zuck biopic?
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Peter Opaskar Ars Technica turns at the end of this year, but film coverage on site can’t exactly purchasesyntheholat the liquor store yet. Quietly, we’ve been reviewing movies on the Internet for 13 years now — a baker’s dozen years if reviews of (3D experiences count– starting with thisMax Paynepiecethat certainly qualifies as criticism. Butbeginning in (***************, we made film a regular topic on site. And these days we annually bounce from SXSWtoFantastic Festwith plenty ofregional film eventsin between.
Now, this ain’t Variety, and we do not write about everything (though we have coveredBeauty and The BeastandThe Jungle Booksomehow). But Ars has quite a few highlights in the 2013 s beyond just starting a dedicated culture section. We failed atVulcan salutes with Jake Gyllenhall and Ryan Reynolds. We caught thepremiere of a Academy Award-nominated movie at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Somehow, we even helpedsave aStar Wars– adjacent movie from obscurity(earning an IMDb credit and inspiring a full-length remake in the process).
So with the end of the decade rapidly approaching, we felt it was OK to indulge our film list-making impulses. This is not necessarily a Best Films of the decade list — undeniably great things likeLady Bird, Moonlight, The Master,Bridesmaids,et al. are fantastic films that do not really fall within our narrow wheelhouse of science, technology, and genre fare. It is not a list of the Most Important films, either, as this decade of streaming’s rise, female directors taking the reins, continued globalization of cinema, and a golden era for documentaries can likely be better explained elsewhere in the cinema-centric press. But the following is definitely a list of the stuff from the last decade that continues to come up in conversation around the Orbital HQ years later, and presumably these films will be forever fixtures of our streaming queues going forward.
So with apologies to the many close calls that felt too small (Anna and The Apocalypse
,The Guilty, Love & Saucers ******************************************** Who Is Arthur Chu?),too popcorn-y (pick your
**************************Fast and Furiousinstallment,(Stuber) ********************************************** Annihilation,Pacific Rim), or just too-good-but-not-great in the face of this competition (Zootopia, Inception, The Lobster ), here are Ars’ “ten” favorites, in alphabetical order:
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Louise and Ian are analyzing the alien language.
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Louise translates a heptapod sentence.
(****************************************************George Clooney assists Sandra Bullock, while in the background another hapless astronaut is hit by debris.
(************************************Bullock’s character is having a bad day in space.
(**************************************Mark Watney, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can grow potatoes.
(******************************************Author Andy Weir at left talks with real-life space hero Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, along with Hadfield’s spouse Helene Hadfield. At right isThe Martianproducer Aditya Sood. Please forgive the following set of iPhone photographs — it was the only camera I was allowed to carry into the gala.
(****************************************************Langley Research Center’s space program mathematician Katherine Johnson was pivotal in sending John Glenn to space.
(****************************************************Johnson and her colleagues from the “colored computers” group meet the charming John Glenn.
Arrival () / Gravity (2013) / Hidden Figures (2017 / The Martian ()A new space raceIt’s probably not a coincidence that during a decade when the most important and impactful technological change may prove to be the rise of the private space industry, audiences were treated to a renaissance of space cinema, too. It turns out a great space movie does not have to involve intergalactic war or precise period piece drama (though we all underratedFirst Man, folks).
If you want utter spectacle in the most realistic way possible, Alfonso Cuarón’sGravitymay have been the in-theater experience of the decade. The vastness of space has never been more vivid, even if some of the details may have irked our resident space purists. The Matt Damon- led The Martiansomehow made the intricacies of growing crops in space exciting, continuing the trend of excellent science fiction that leaned heavily into the science.
No one knew linguistics was this fascinating back in (**********************************************************************************************************************************************************, butArrival
just might be the overall best movie of the decade with the way it cleverly examines what we believe while simultaneously delivering a tense, gripping sci-fi story. AndHidden Figuresputs the familiar period-piece lens on an overlooked part of space history without glossing over the ugly bits while still feeling hopeful for what science and technology can achieve when the best and brightest can participate. Add any number of other fine space movies to this lot – Interstellar,Ad Astra, etc. — but this quartet revived a cinematic subset Ars will always have a fondness for.
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Wearing the futuristic armor created by his sister Shuri, T’Challa brings some bad guys to justice.
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He can fight, but can he be a good king?
(******************************************************Killmonger and T’Challa face off.
************************************************** Marvel Studios
(******************************************************This version of Logan is battered and yearning for death. But he can still be a hero.
Logan spends all his money caring for the ailing Professor X, whose Alzheimer’s has dangerous effects.
************************************************** 21 th Century Fox
With the help of the angry, strong young mutant Laura, Logan remembers what it means to have a family — and, more important, a fighting buddy.
************************************************** 21 th Century Fox
()Wonder Woman in the trenches during World War I, discovering that humanity may have a dark side she did not understand back on the Amazon’s island.
Wonder Woman uses her magic lasso for fighting as often as she uses it to make people tell the truth.
************************************************** Warner Bros.
Steve does his adorable sidekick thing while Wonder Woman contemplates her next move with steely compassion.
************************************************** Warner Bros.
This is basically a superhero movie, right?
************************************************** Warner Bros.
Black Panther / Logan (2018 /Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) /Wonder Woman (2017)Something different in a decade of superheroesThe
****************************************************************************************************************************************** s will undeniably go down as the decade of superheroes. By no means did it start here (the Nolan Batman trilogy began in the s, as did the MCU withIron Manin 2013), but it became an expanded universe, cinematic event these last 14 years. The firstAvengershit in , and box offices haven’t looked back since. Picking favorites among the standard superhero fare feels impossible. Your preferences of memorable Spider-Man (Into the Spider-Verse, Iron-Man (Iron Man 2), Captain America (Winter Soldier), or other regulation superhero flicks (Ragnarokever-so-slightly over the originalDeadpool?) May just depend on which hero your childhood allegiances line up toward. The true superteam event releases marked something slightly different and spectacular (Avengers: End Game
over the originalGuardiansby a hair). But the caped crusades we’ll remember a decade or two from now all busted out of the familiar formula to some degree.
****************************************************************************************************** Black Panthershowed not only was there audience appetite for a big-budget black superhero flick, but there was appetite for one that grappled with modern societal challenges like isolationism, oppression , and technological disparity.Logantook a hero long familiar to film-goers and turned the tropes of a superhero film into a Western that comments on universal themes like aging and the human condition in the process. And whileWonder Womanmay be the most straightforward super-hero-y of the three, it showed a female-led comic book conquest was worth doing, especially when it leveraged well-executed period-piece elements with delightful sidekick chemistry. For the future of the then-beleaguered DC Comics entertainment arm,Wonder Womanalso proved everything did not have to be dark and brooding in order to reach an audience (all the fun being had in HBO’sWatchmenseems to indicate DC took the hint).
And, OK, it’snota traditional superhero movie, but we couldn’t make an of-the-decade film list and excludeMad Max: Fury Roadentirely. Like more traditional caped-crusader flicks, this is an existing IP with an established hero that got a reimagining decades after the original. It starts with a very super villain-y evil plot (our titular hero is being sucked for blood to heal the bad-team War Boys; another hero has to help a group of women known as the Five Wives escape forced procreations). The film also offers extremely satisfying set pieces and action, plus ultimately some reveals that change how we previously understood our main character. Finally, perhaps most like the trio above, this newestMad Maxfilm took a decidedlydifferentapproach to its familiar post- apocalyptic world. Max Rockatansky may be back (invigorated by Tom Hardy), but the star of the show is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), the post-apocalyptic female hero sci-fi action fans deserve.
Listing image by Peter Opaskar
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