I wasn't going to do any year end posts because I've kinda gotten over the whole concept. Time is fake and calendars are arbitrary. Nothing of consequence will change on January 1st and the changes that do occur do so over such a gradual amount of time that the culture of early 2010 feels like a different universe to that of late 2019. But Christmas falls on a Wednesday and there's no comics to review this week, so here we go.
Ordinarily I'd do an honorable mention section here but I've probably seen hundreds of movies over the past decade. So I'm just gonna go into it. This list is taken from any film or movie or TV special whatever that is over 70 minutes long from any country and in any genre. This are by no means "the best" but just my favorites. Let's do this.
10. John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017)
It's an R-Rated action movie featuring gun fights, martial arts fights, and even car fights. What's not to love? The first one was great but the second one went bonkers expanding the world of their weird Assassin's Guild and featuring a huge "Everyone vs. Samurai Jack" sequence. Love it. Never saw the third one.
9. Pacific Rim (2013)
Giant robots vs. giant monsters in a live-action anime made by the biggest nerd in Hollywood! This was especially a breath of fresh air after the mindless nonsense that was the Michael Bay Transformers trilogy. Even though most of it took place at night it was still easy to follow - you could actually tell the difference between the robots. The designs were cool and the worldbuilding was through the roof.
8. Kick-Ass (2010)
A normal guy puts on a suit, tries to help people, and gets his ass kicked. Superhero movies were already clogging the market when the decade began, so Kick-Ass was a nice change of pace. Matthew Vaughn's balls-to-the-walls visual style was unlike anything I'd ever seen.
7. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018)
I saw this movie in theaters four times. That's more than any other movie I have ever seen in theaters. It's great. it channeled old Warner cartoons like the Animaniacs and Tiny Toon Adventures while also being a massive tribute to every corner of the DC universe. And the best part about it is that it was practically made for the people who hate the show.
6. The LEGO Movie (2014)
This movie gets a lot of flack for being a blatant toy commercial. Here's the deal: every single kids movie is a toy commercial. What made this one special is that it was more than a toy commercial. It could've just used established LEGO sets and characters, but instead they created a whole new world inspired by the massive history of the toys while also telling an important story about the wonders of imagination and creativity.
5. Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen (2012)
I wasn't really into tokusatsu when I saw this movie. The 20th anniversery/trainwreck of Power Rangers Megaforce had me interested in checking out Gokaiger... and suddenly I had watched 51 episodes and a bunch of movies. After the series ended, I heard this was their next adventure. I had no idea what 90% of this movie was at the time, but it inspired me to check out Go-Busters and Kamen Rider Decade and OOO and from there I was hooked. I'd always loved Power Rangers, but this was the movie that made me love tokusatsu.
4. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
When I first saw this movie, I just thought it was cool to see a generic romcom full of video game references and random anime fights. But that was when I was 19, still technically a teenager. Since going through my 20s and experiencing the world for myself, I've come to see Scott Pilgrim as quite a lot more than an action comedy. It's a movie about growing up, and then having go grow up for real.
3. Digimon Adventure tri. Chapter 1 "Reunion" (2015)
Nostalgia.
2. Iron Man 2 (2011)
Yes, the only Marvel Cinematic Universe movie on this list is the one everybody hates the most. This has always been my favorite and no matter how many main characters you squeeze onto the screen it always will be. So many MCU movies have way to high stakes and always deal with too many crossovers and setting up other movies. Iron Man 2 is the only one that feels like an actual superhero comic book adventure. It's just another week for Iron Man. He's gotta fight a one-off villain, invent some cool new gadgets, hang out with some guest-stars, and then save the day. Not the whole world or the galaxy or the universe or the fricken multi-verse. It was small, simple, fun, and it had War Machine.
1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
As far as the decade goes, this is also my favorite comic book movie, my favorite animated movie, my favorite superhero movie, etc. It's a movie that doesn't look or feel like any other movie ever made about characters the likes of which no one has ever seen. I never thought I'd see a superhero's mom speaking Spanish to him while making arroz con gandules. I never thought I'd see a 3D Spider-Man hanging out with a 2D Spider-Ham and an anime girl whose dialogue doesn't line up with the lip flap. I honestly never thought I'd even see Miles Morales on anything but a crappy DVD movie, let alone starring in a movie like this. And some days I still don't believe it.
Those are my favorite movies of the decade as of this moment. This might change if I look back on the decade in 20 or 30 years, and it might be different from yours, and that's all okay. Let me know what your favorites were in the comments below.
