Top 5 Movies of 2023

5. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

I know that a lot of people thought it was a very down year for Marvel. I tend to disagree as I really enjoyed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Is it a perfect film? No, it is definitely not one of those, but it’s a fun film with a lot of fun visuals. And I thought that they handled everything in a way consistent with how Ant-Man and the Wasp films have worked before.

I really enjoyed the quantum realm in this movie, which is good because it’s mainly in there. But they got to explore and have some fun with it and the inhabitants of it. And Kang the Conqueror (or at least the person who called himself that) was terrifying at times and powerful at times. Then, yes, the finale is a bit goofy, but I like a lot of what it does.

I think Quantumania works well if you go into it and think it’s on the lighter end of the Star Wars movies. I know that isn’t for everyone, as well, but it feels like some elements from those films. And not just the prequel pod racing goofiness or the celebration retread feeling of the finale of the Skywalker saga. But like the original trilogy where there are places and locations with just a bit of everything going on in them.

4. Across the Spider-verse

This one might surprise some people with how low it is. I got one main critique of this film in that it’s not a complete story. In fact it’s barely a story, it’s more of a bridge between stories. I’m going to say something that sounds very negative, but this is more about how trilogies are made, it has a bit of the feel of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3. I think it is better than those, but those two movies are one movie split into two. Across the Spider-verse is that as well.

Now with that negative out of the way, it is an amazingly gorgeous film to watch. And the characters are engaging in it. I think especially the older Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy really make the movie work. Miles Morales is solid as well, but Gwen in particular is kind of the lead and focus of the story, at least from how her character comes across and how she grows throughout the movie.

And I am very excited for the finale of this story. I’m not going to say end of the trilogy, they might do more. But the next Spider-verse movie should work together with Across the Spider-verse to make a great two part movie to show one whole story. And that is something that not all movies do, especially in trilogies. Often times I’m interested to finish it, but because the second movie isn’t it’s own whole story, I lose steam on it.

3. The Marvels

The Marvels might be one of the better surprises for me for the year. It’s really close between these bottom three of my Top 5 movies of 2023. But all of them are fun, and I think because I went into The Marvels with lower expectations I appreciate what it does even more.

The Marvels is just a fun movie. The characters are fun and work together and especially Iman Vellani who steals the show with basically every scene that she is in. But the other main characters do well, as well. And I think they leaned into Brie Larson’s wooden acting for Carol Danvers and made that more part of the story. Which I think is a smart move. She’s not the best superhero actor, so build around what is working.

Now, not all of the movie works perfectly. There are some rough patches. The singing planet is fine at best, and they really don’t spend enough time there to make it worth it. They also spend too much time there, so it’s a bit annoying. The planet didn’t fully know what it wanted or needed to be for the movie. But with good character development and a bunch of fun nods and good post credit type of scenes, this is just a fun movie to watch.

2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

Now the last Marvel movie on the list, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 is a fun movie but also not a fun movie to watch. It is a heavy movie with digging into Rocket’s backstory, but it is so good. And it is heartfelt too, I think that the High Evolutionary is one of the better bad bad guys. He isn’t trying to redeem anything really, he is just power hungry and wants to play god.

This is a great end to the trilogy of Guardians of the Galaxy films. At least as the Guardians as we know it. They gave a lot of the characters a good amount of time on the screen and left some in areas where they can continue in the MCU. I fully expect to see some of them back.

I think why this one is higher is that this one feels like there weren’t any missteps. The story works and you feel for the characters. And there is more character growth that happens as well for a lot of the characters figuring out what they want to do. It’s where Marvel is the best, when it’s about the characters and their arcs and growth across the movies.

1. Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Finally, it’s a non-Marvel film. Everything else was Marvel and the other one from 2023 I know I watched, Paw Patrol movie, was still super pups so superheroes as well. But let’s talk about what makes the Dungeons and Dragons movie the top on my list.

This is the type of movie that I like a lot as well in terms of a light action adventure movie. And it is set in a setting that I really like. I enjoy Dungeons and Dragons a ton. I play it a ton. But it’s not just that, it’s also one that has heart to it.

The characters all have fun development of building confidence, trust, balancing out ego, and letting go of the past. The themes are good. When coming out of the movie the best way to describe it is that it’s a fun movie with Dungeons and Dragons stuff in it, but it was a movie and story first, and that was put into Dungeons and Dragons perfectly.

I just watched it again about a week ago and I’ve seen it three times. And it is just as fun every time. It’s like The Marvels in that I would always watch it if I stumbled across it. But I think with Honor Among Thieves I would still want to watch it once a year anyways. And I hope, fingers crossed, that there is a second movie because I think people were hesitant to start. But now that people are seeing it, they like it. It just didn’t do as well as in theaters as it could have been.

Final Thoughts

I really don’t watch too many movies anymore. There are a few reasons, the big one being that with a kid, a lot of my evenings are shorter. But when I do, it’s almost always going to be Marvel. I’ll do a Top 5 anticipated movies for 2024 coming out.

What have you watched from 2023 that you like? Let me know if you think there are some I should checkout.

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My expectations were middling going into it. I’d heard from other reviews and people who have seen it that it was good. But where does that fall into the mix of being a good movie critically and mainly just a popcorn flick? Let’s take a look, there might be some spoilers but minimal.

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Plot

Edgin wants a simple life of doing what is right. Well, maybe not that simple as he throws in his lot with a group called the Harpers. He is partly tasked with keeping bad folks off the streets and then taking artifacts or things too dangerous to be in the world or at least the people’s hands who have them. However, that all goes wrong when his wife is killed by one of the evil groups he’s dealt with.

Forsaking his Harper vows he tries to lead a good life for his daughter but without his anchor falls into drink and depression. Things do get better when he gets someone who helps him through the process. But good things don’t last when he finds of a chance to get his wife back but is betrayed by someone in his own party. So breaking out of prison, how does he get his life back, wife back, and now daughter back, when everything has been taken from him?

Thoughts

Firstly, this is very much a popcorn flick. I tried to tease that it might be more but it’s really not. You sit down and watch it to get a lighter fantasy story with Dungeons and Dragons tropes mixed in. Now, aren’t those the same as fantasy, some of them, but generally how they are done is going to be different.

Use of Dungeons and Dragons

And that’s really the highlight of this movie. It could have easily juts been generic fantasy. They could have picked some random fantasy script slapped Dungeons and Dragons on the marquee and called it good. But that is not what this movie is. They spend a lot of time to make sure that it feels like Dungeons and Dragons, and not just that but to make sure they get it right.

That detail is going to be lost on some people. If you don’t know Dungeons and Dragons it’ll seem like a slightly different fantasy. It’ll still be a popcorn flick, but it will be missing some of that heart. When you play Dungeons and Dragons, or know it fairly well, it’ll feel like Dungeons and Dragons.

The Story

I think the story is where it really can start to drive in that Dungeons and Dragons feel. Things like the monsters, and some jokes about intelligence help, but to make it really feel, the story needs to feel like that too. So what does that even mean?

In a Dungeons and Dragons campaign you often go from one quest to another. Mainly think one set piece to another. Where you interact with some of the story, find new characters and fight something. That works well in a campaign at home because everyone is directly involved in the story.

On the flip side, it often doesn’t work well in movies or books which are meant for a longer sitting but also need a specific end. In Honor Among Thieves, though, it works. Why, because it matches the light tone. You expect them to go and get a random thing. How the party comes together makes sense even though it’s a random(ish) group. It isn’t as tight and nice a story as you want in a lot of movies, but it helps give it the Dungeons and Dragons feel.

But, and this will be a negative for some, it also has a Marvel feel to it. It has that super hero feel in some of the fights or moments where everything comes together. For me, this isn’t a major issue, but it definitely tries to lean on what is successful to find it’s success.

The Acting

Finally, let’s talk about the acting. Mainly because this is an interesting mixture in the cast. You have bigger names like Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, and Hugh Grant in the movie. But then you have lesser known talent to pair with them like Rege-Jean Page, Sophia Willis, Justice Smith, and Daisy Head. It’s an interesting combination of talents playing in main roles.

But that combination works well. I think they did a good job casting the characters so that they made sense for their roles. With a niche in a a niche genre of fantasy, you need a few bigger names, but also it’s nice that it’s not just big names so that you can enjoy what everyone is doing, not just have an actor who is in it for a paycheck. Yes, they all are, but the up and coming or lesser known all need to do well. And even with the more established, they do a good job of putting in effort.

Who Is It For?

Great question on this one, I think for a lot of people this is going to be a fun popcorn flick. In fact, I don’t think that many people are going to watch it and think that it sucks. But it isn’t also going to be one that people are seeking out.

I put it in that camp of people will often stop and watch The Fifth Element when that is on television. But is it a movie people seek out? I feel like it isn’t. That is a good thing, it’ll have staying power. It is also a bad thing, because people will wait on it.

Final Thoughts – Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

This is a movie that I really enjoyed. Is it great, no, but it is a ton of fun. And that is what I wanted in that movie. And the big thing is that it gets it right. I don’t mind movies taking liberties with the story it’s adapting. But with Dungeons and Dragons I am glad that they kept it close to the source materials.

It could have gone more generic with a fewer nods. But it does a good job of building on an really open world of Dungeons and Dragons. It leans into the source material so it stands out like it should. And they tell a true story to the source materials.

My Grade: B+
Critical Grade: C
Fun Grade: A

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Top 5 Most Anticipated Movies of 2023

5. Dune Part 2

This one is likely a lot higher for a lot of people. And I am very excited about this one. I didn’t see the first Dune in theaters, but I’ll likely go see Part 2 because the first one was good on a large screen at home, but having a huge screen and amazing sound in theaters, that is going to be even better. The first one was a lot of fun and dealt with a lot of the slow stuff, now the story is going to get even bigger, which I’m there for.

4. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Do I expect this one to be good, I do not. Do I plan on seeing it in theaters, probably not. But I am still looking forward to it. I love Dungeons and Dragons, it’s my RPG that I run. And this one looks like it takes a lot of D&D tropes and puts them into a movie. Will that work, I’m not sure, but it’s a duo of directors/producers who did Game Night which is a fun movie. So if Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is at that level, I’m here for it.

3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This is another one that I didn’t see the first in theaters, but when I did see it, I really liked it. And Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse looks like it’s even a bigger scope. I am still waiting to get a live action Miles Morales, but until that happens (please in Phase 5 or 6), Across the Spider-Verse will have to do. I hope that it can maintain the style, build on the world, and not give me too many Spider-Man versions that it becomes confusing. But either way, I’m really looking forward to seeing this one.

2. John Wick 4

I really like the John Wick movies. Keanu Reeves does a great job in them. The action in them is amazing. And oddly enough, the story and world building is really good. For something that’s built around awesome action set pieces, they do a lot of world building. And I want to know more about this world of assassins, which we are getting in some films coming up, and I think maybe a show.

1. Marvel Movies

Yup, this is the cheat one, but I didn’t want to have three Marvel movies and then two other movies. So Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 all make the list. If you want to know what order they go in, checkout the January 3^rd episode of 10 Minute Marvel. We went through and ranked all the Marvel movies and shows coming out in 2023 in order of anticipation. The movies are pretty high on that list.

Honorable Mention:

Yeah, let’s cheat a bit, but I feel like it’s worth mentioning, I’m curious about them.

• The Super Mario Bros. Movie, I don’t expect it to be great, but hopefully it’s fun.
• Renfield because it’s a weird horror comedy starting Nicolas Cage, or having him it.
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny just for one last Indiana Jones.
• Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One not based on the board game by the same sub-name but they are generally fun movies.
• Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem as I like the turtles.
• Kraven the Hunter as I’m curious about this one, but it’s a Sony Marvel movie, so probably not a see in theaters.

And well, that’s a lot, but those top 5, well really Top 7 I might see in theaters, the honorable mentions, much less likely.

So what movies will you want to see in theaters, if any this year?

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