Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

#69 at the time of writing.

Animation is as old as movies, but this film proves it can still do something that feels brand new. The exaggerated comic book style transports you to a universe where a beaten-down black kid from Brooklyn can be Spider-Man. As can a confident and graceful young woman. And a cartoon pig. All at the same time.

Yes, this film introduces the idea of infinite parallel universes where strange variations of our beloved superhero characters exist, allowing Sony/Marvel executives (and imitators) to recycle old favourites and dodge continuity problems forevermore. Which sounds immensely cynical, but it is executed with irresistible style. I can hardly believe how fresh and fun this film was, even after so many tired reboots of the same old superhero.

The animation style is seriously impressive, the story is tense and funny and bonkers and all the things you didn't know you wanted, and I applaud the confident nudge towards more diverse representation in a traditionally monochromatic genre - a trend that thankfully continues.

Yet again I find myself needled that superhero films have so dominated the Hollywood box office (and the IMDB Top 250) for so long, and yet willing to forgive because the movie is so damn good.

Avengers: Infinity War

#65 at the time of writing.

When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was first spitballed in the mid-2000s, even the most ambitious studio executives didn't dare dream how successful it would become. We're now 30 films into the arc, but for me the franchise reached an incredibly satisfying crescendo right here in film #19.

With a story so epic it needed a whole extra film (Endgame) to wrap up the loose ends, and an ending so unexpected it got me excited about the superhero genre all over again despite so much overkill, this film made watching (most of) the other 18 worth it.

This film sees a slew of comic book heroes, introduced to us in the decade since Robert Downey Jr's addictively charismatic star turn in 2008's Iron Man, come up against their biggest threat yet. But despite the ensuing battle being on the grandest scale, each character gets enough time to shine on-screen - an impressive feat given the diversity of the motley ensemble (ranging from ninjas to gods; from a blue-skinned cyber-alien to a talking raccoon).

The ultimate popcorn blockbuster - but I wonder how well the story, and the emotional beats, would stand up for someone without the context of the preceding 18 films?

This is the highest ranked Marvel Cinematic Universe film in IMDb's Top 250, but my personal MCU favourite is Thor: Ragnarok, mainly because I can't get enough of director Taika Waititi's irreverent sense of humour. I'm spellbound that despite being a MASSIVE Hollywood behemoth, Marvel Studios' creative process allows for such gratifying idiosyncracy (see also: WandaVision).

Everything Everywhere All At Once

#142 at the time of writing.

More than a third of my top 30 films of all time are from the years 1999-2001 - check out my list in the sidebar - and I think that's testament to the age I was when I first watched them (19-21). I was young and impressionable, and the mark those films left on me will stay with me for life.

But that means new-to-me films start at a monumental disadvantage; how can anything new possibly hope to change my life now that I've seen it all before? After thousands of films and increasingly entrenched tastes, how can anything blow my mind anymore?

This is how.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is the most bonkers and ambitious film I have ever seen - and it's about laundry and taxes. That mismatch is part of its genius; it tells an impossibly grand story while remaining grounded throughout. The Daniels went for a maximalist style that conveys how overwhelming our modern world is - but ultimately this is the story of a struggling Chinese immigrant family just trying to get along.

This cerebral sci-fi kung fu thriller does so much exactly right, and manages to be like nothing else I've ever seen. I love that the characters switch between Chinese and English throughout. I love the bagel and the googly eye symbolising nihilism and existentialism. I love the myriad of references to some of my favourite films, especially The Matrix, Ratatouille, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I love that this was Ke Huy Quan's first major on-screen role since Indiana Jones and The Goonies. I love that Michelle Yeoh cried when she talked about how validated she felt by being asked to play such a versatile character (and, wow, she knocked it out of the park). I loved it so much, that I went back to watch it a second time at the cinema... and then a third time... and then once more at home with my daughter, all within the space of a couple of weeks.

It was released at the same time as another multiverse movie, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which had eight times the budget and wasn't even half as good.

Everything Everywhere All At Once rockets into my favourite films of all time - not just into the top 30, not even the top 10, but the top 3. I'm thrilled that my mind can still be blown.

Guardians of the Galaxy

#58 at the time of writing.

Much like its predecessor Avengers Assemble, which I blogged about here, this Marvel comic book adaptation makes silliness into a virtue. It has all the wrong ingredients, yet somehow it manages to bundle them together into a witty, well-paced, ambitious and compelling story. You may even end up empathising with a talking raccoon and a fighting tree.

For me, this is the best Marvel film since Iron Man. Although I say that without having yet watched the other recent Top 250 entry X-Men: Days of Future Past. Meanwhile, the snob in me squirms at the readiness of the Top 250 list to embrace all of these brash big budget superhero flicks.

That snob impulse is mollified by the insider knowledge that director James Gunn cut his teeth making weird sexploitation films with Troma Entertainment.

Avengers Assemble

#124 at time of writing.

Back in 2005, an enterprising Marvel Studios executive (Avi Arad) decided to produce a slate of films about individual super-characters, to establish their identities and familiarize audiences with them, before merging the characters together in an epic Avengers movie.

They got off to an excellent start with Iron Man, which was followed in quick succession by The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America. And now, finally, the motley crew are brought together.

I must admit that I expected this film to be poor. For one thing, the concept is a huge example of what Blake Snyder calls double mumbo jumbo. A god-alien in the same movie as an artificially enhanced soldier from the 1940s and a giant green id monster? Sounds dubious.

But whilst it is indeed silly, this film is never cringeworthy. Rather, it is thoroughly pacey and entertaining, gloriously irreverent, and often laugh-out-loud funny. This quote from director Joss Whedon sums up the spirit of the film: "The whole movie is about finding yourself from community. And finding that you not only belong together but you need each other, very much. Obviously this will be expressed through punching."

Legal rights issues prevented a number of "Avengers" characters from being included in this film, such as Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, villains Magneto, Doctor Doom and Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin. Though all characters are owned by Marvel/Disney, the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters were licensed to Fox Studios, and those of Spider-Man to Sony, before work began on an Avengers film. Marvel has said that in the future they hope to regain the rights to all licensed properties, that the aforementioned characters might have a role in subsequent Avengers films.