15 for 15! My 15th Annual Top Movies of 2023!

A strange thing happened during the Covid pandemic. Ok, a few strange things happened during the pandemic (here's looking at you, mask rules covering the brief time period of walking to your table in a restaurant) but one strange thing that happened is that all of the movie studios kept postponing their movies until we got to a time and place where movies made money again. The problem with this plan is that if you keep not releasing movies, it turns out that people don't feel the need to go to the movie theater. There were a handful of movies that did well (Marvel, Avatar, my surprise of 2022- Top Gun: Maverick) but overall people need a reason to not just stream a movie at home.

I think there are movies that people will decide are worth a trip to the movie theater in 2023. In many ways this may be a "make or break" year for deciding if movie theaters exist on a small scale to show Marvel movies and a couple other big-budget films or if the movie theater is still an experience that you can never fully recreate at home. I hope movie theaters stick around.

I think the list of movies I'm looking forward to can't be narrowed down to only 10 this year. Some of these have been delayed for awhile and some came out of nowhere. Rather than risk repeating last year's mistake of leaving a Top Gun-level movie off the list, I'm going to make the list a little longer. Here's my list of the top  10  15 movies coming in the next year:

1. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30th)

I know what you're thinking, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was terrible. It was. This movie tops this list for two specific reasons: the movies from this series that are good (Raiders, Last Crusade) are some of the best movies ever and even if Harrison Ford is too old to be playing this character, I'd rather have another Indiana Jones movie on the chance that it's great than wish we'd gotten a better ending than Crystal Skull. James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari, Logan) steps in for Steven Spielberg so at the very least, we'll be getting a fresh effort.

2. Oppenheimer (July 21st)

The only movie on this list that probably deserves to be above Indiana Jones but couldn't overcome how much I love Indiana Jones movies. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Dunkirk, Tenet, The Prestige) makes movies that have to be seen on the big screen and the story of the creation of the atomic bomb is no exception. I enjoy Nolan's sci-fi a little more than his history films but every film he makes is worth seeing.

3. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 (July 14th)

This is this movie's third turn on these lists because it keeps getting delayed due to the pandemic. You can say a lot of things about Tom Cruise but he is committed to making movies that need to be seen in a movie theater. Every one of these movies has Cruise doing something crazier than he did before and I'll be there to see what he does this time as well. I underestimated Top Gun: Maverick but I won't do the same with this one.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (May 5th)

James Gunn has made two incredibly fun Guardians of the Galaxy movies and during the brief period that he was fired from this film,  I was mostly sad that no one could possibly finish this trilogy with the credibility that Gunn would have. Luckily, he was rehired and although he's soon to leave for the pastures of DC Comics, he appears to have poured himself into making GOTG3 as good as possible. Marvel has been a little hit and miss lately but I have a lot of confidence in this one.

5. Dune Part 2 (November 3rd)

Dune is not a Marvel movie and it isn't a Star Wars movie and it isn't afraid of that. The first half of this story came out last year and made a desert planet look beautiful on the IMAX and had a plot that kept me on my toes (especially since I'm currently stuck in the first 1/8th of the novel.) I tried rewatching the first one while stuck on a tarmac and gave up. It's a great movie but it's really only great on the big screen. If I wasn't intrigued enough to see how the story ends, they've added Christopher Walken. (Unfortunately, they still have Timothee Chalamet.)

6. The Little Mermaid (May 26th)

If this was just another live-action Disney remake it probably wouldn't make the list. Don't get me wrong, there have been some of this genre that I've really enjoyed (Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Lion King) there have been none that I have watched a second time. What sets this one apart is that Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Moana, Encanto) is producing the film and has written new songs with original songwriter Alan Menken.  I think this might finally be the live-action remake that I watch again!

7. Wonka (December 15th)

What's Timothee Chalamet doing on this list again? Director Paul King (Paddington, Paddington 2) has reunited with Simon Farnaby (Paddington, Paddington 2) to write a prequel to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The main thing keeping this movie so high on this list is that if you cannot tell, I believe Paddington and Paddington 2 to be outstanding. Outside of these two making a  Paddington 3, I'm looking forward to what they come up with here. (Even with Timothee Chalamet.)

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February 17th)

There are 3 Marvel films coming out next year but what puts this one on the list is that Ant-Man and its sequel are really good and that that the last few Marvel movies and Disney+ series haven't felt like they were building toward anything. With Jonathan Majors (Loki) in this movie as Kang the Conqueror, this movie will hopefully change that.

9. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 7)

As someone who has only owned Nintendo consoles in my lifetime, Mario has a special place in my heart. Video game movies are a tough needle to thread because there are so many bad adaptations (see Super Mario Bros 1993) but the best ones (see the Sonic movies) are the ones that use the characters faithfully but flexibly and from the trailers it seems like that might be the case here as well.

10. The Flash (June 16)

I would have to check but this might be the first DC Comic movie to make the list since The Dark Knight Rises. It has some things going against it (Ezra Miller makes Tom Cruise look normal) but it also has some things that have me looking forward to it, none more so than Michael Keaton returning as Batman. I loved The Batman movie from 1989 as a kid and it might be the nostalgia talking (it is) but I'm really looking forward to him showing up again here. Is it possible that this entire concept was already done better by Spider-man: No Way Home? Yeah.

11. The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (November 17th)

If a Hunger Games movie doesn't star Jennifer Lawrence because it's a prequel does it make a noise when it falls in the forest? As much as Lawrence is the glue that makes the original Hunger Games movies what they are, the background of the Hunger Games themselves in this novel was pretty interesting. 

12. Creed III (March 3rd)

Michael B. Jordan has taken these Creed movies and taken them from being soft-sequels to the Rocky films and made them better than they probably should be. Jordan takes the spot in the director's chair and takes this series away from having him fight the children of people that Rocky fought and instead takes the time to unpack who Creed is as a person. 

13. Elemental (June 16th)

Pixar has been more hit and miss than they have been in the past but no one bats 1.000. I'm more interested in their movies when they really do things that only they can do and the world-building of what it would be like for the elements of earth, wind, fire and water to live among each other is really interesting as a concept. I'm hopeful that I'll wish I had put this film higher up on the list after seeing it.

14. A Haunting in Venice (September 15th)

Kenneth Branagh has made two fun adaptations of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot detective. He's really good at getting a cast together that you wouldn't see anywhere else and is fun to watch as he plays Poirot himself. Are the movies as good as the Knives Out series? Maybe not. Are they a fun trip to the movies? Definitely.

15. Next Goal Wins (September 22nd)

If you say "I've never heard of this movie" I wouldn't blame you. It's the latest movie from Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit) and is based on a documentary of the same name covering a coach leading American Samoa's soccer team. Waititi has a unique sense of humor that he brings to all of his projects and I hope this is the sort of movie that shows that you don't need a $200 million dollar budget to be worth watching in a movie theater. 

Thanks Spider-Man, the Movies are Back! The Top 10 Movies of 2022!

When I wrote my list for 2021 last December we were facing a much different environment. Movies changed their release dates or switched to streaming so often that I had no idea how many (if any) of the movies on my list would even make it to movie theaters at all. As it turned out, 9 of the 10 DID make it to theaters and so the only returning member on this list is Mission Impossible 7. Covid still exists and continues to affect our lives but even in the midst of variants and other threats, I'm hopeful that we will continue to get back to a world where the only reason a movie doesn't come out is because it turned out so badly that the movie studio tried to forget it existed.

Did the movies actually come back? I only took a break from the movie theater from March 2020 to September 2020 when they were closed and I didn't want them to report me for breaking inside so for me, the movies never really left. I will say that even though I've been thankful to be able to continue seeing movies in the theater, there were two experiences that made me feel like I had taken a time machine to the simple non-Covid days back in 2019: Dune and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both featured plenty of clapping, responding to surprises in the screen and most importantly, full movie theaters.

There were many who thought that Covid would increase the switch from "going to the movies" to streaming them in your basement. That may still be the case. There is, however, no substitute to seeing a movie in a crowded theater full of strangers responding to the screen. Sure, are there times that I wish people next to me would stop talking but as the poet Linkin Park once said "You don't know what you've got until it's gone." 

However long we have movie theaters, I will always be thankful for that unique communal experience of laughing and reacting with strangers.

Now onto this year's list:

1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6)

The main feeling for me after watching Spider-man was "What comes next?" and so that's why Doctor Strange gets the top spot on my list. Through Wandavision, Loki and Spider-man, Marvel has been building the direction of their post-Endgame direction and it seems like the multiverse will come to a head in an intriguing way in this movie.

2. Mission Impossible 7 (September 30)

This is one of the last movies that has been suffering continued delays due to Covid and it was a high-ranking movie on my list last year and it's still one I'm really looking forward to. Tom Cruise might be a crazy person but he makes great spy movies.

3. Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8)

This one probably deserves to top this list and only doesn't because of the strength of Doctor Strange and Mission Impossible. You've got a great director (Taika Waititi), it's got Thor, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Christian Bale. If I had to guess one movie on the list that I'll see more than once, it'd be this one.

4. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (November 11)

Chadwick Boseman made the character of T'Challa/Black Panther something special. His passing is a blow to any follow up and the only reason I have confidence in it is that the original's director Ryan Coogler wrote and directed this movie with the purpose of honoring Boseman's legacy. 

5. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (April 15)

Are the Fantastic Beasts movies as good as the Harry Potter movies that preceded them? No. Is it still fun to revisit the "Wizarding World"? Most definitely. The movies are strongest when they don't rely on nostalgia but I also understand that nostalgia sells tickets. Mads Mikkelsen replaces Johnny Depp as Grindelwald and Mikkelsen is great in whatever he shows up in (ex: Casino Royale, Rogue One) and I'm sure he'll elevate the role even further.

6. Avatar 2 (December 16)

A long time ago, in a movie theater far far away the first Avatar movie came out. Was the plot roughly the same as Pocahontas or FernGully? Sure. On the plus side, was it like an amusement park level attraction when seeing the movie in 3D? Absolutely. Director James Cameron is dedicated like George Lucas before him to pushing the limits of special effects in movies and so even if they decide to copy The Lion King this time, it'll still be a fun trip to the movies.

7. Jurassic World: Dominion (June 10)

I loved the original Jurassic Park movies. I think I've seen the original over 50 times at least. I still remember where I was when I saw the poster for Jurassic Park III, a movie that middle-school aged me didn't know was even coming out at the time. That being said, I'm not sure I could tell you what the plot of the first two Jurassic World movies was besides that I know Chris Pratt and Bryce Howard show up and run from dinosaurs. I'm not sure I'll remember the plot of this one either but it's the perfect "popcorn movie" to see during the summer.

8. Downton Abbey: A New Era (March 18)

I have no shame in admitting that I am a huge Downton Abbey fan. The show deals with things that don't seem like they should actually matter to someone who isn't a wealthy British person in the early 20th century but somehow they make you care about things like who is inheriting the house or what fork is used with the salad. The first movie felt like an extra long episode but I don't think that's a bad thing, if it isn't broke don't fix it! I'll be grabbing some tea and scones and seeing this as well.

9. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One (October 7)

I enjoyed the original movie even though I felt like I was betraying Tom Holland's Spider-man series by watching it. The animation style takes a bit to get used to (I must not be cool enough to appreciate it) but the story of the first one ended up being really interesting. There's so much than they can do with a Miles Morales Spider-man that they can't do with the main Spider-man series or live action in general. It might not be MCU but it still is a lot of fun.

10. Lightyear (June 17)

Finally, a movie I can't believe made it on this list. When Pixar announced that they were making a movie about the "real" Buzz Lightyear, I couldn't believe it wasn't something from The Onion or the Babylon Bee. When the trailer came out, however, I was hooked. This looks like a fun animated science fiction movie that wouldn't need to be connected to Buzz Lightyear to be good but will probably make a lot more money since it is.  I don't really understand the internet outrage over Tim Allen not voicing the character since this isn't about the toy but the "real" Buzz but I do hope that Michigan's most famous tourist voice still makes a cameo appearance at some point.