After barely surviving a mandatory shutdown in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, the executive class running some of the largest film studios in the world decided that they weren’t quite ridiculously rich enough yet and furthermore they hadn’t taken enough liberties – financial, creative and moral – with those employed by them.

And so the actors and writers collectively said no and downed tools for five months in a dispute over pay (including residual payments in the age of streaming), working conditions, and especially the increasing threat of artificial intelligence being used to not only write screenplays based on algorithms but to steal the likenesses of actors (living and dead) and store them in perpetuity without just compensation.

With Hollywood productions quiet for half the year and none of the “talent” allowed to promote those movies that were completed prior to the strikes, we ended up with a more limited and less enthusiastically received slate of major releases. Not even superhero movies or franchise sequels fronted by Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise were guaranteed hits anymore.

Despite all this, 2023 ended up being a pretty good year for cinema, with plenty of examples of not only memorable blockbusters but of distinct filmmakers leaving their mark and under-represented communities providing vibrancy and freshness to a myriad of new stories. Based upon UK release dates, these are my 10 Best Films of 2023.

Follow me @SSPThinksFilm on X (Twitter).

10. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah Review

2023 has been a great year for films about how Gen-Z processes their major life experiences, and this delightful, hilarious little film starring most of the Sandler clan (including Adam as an adorably schlubby dad) is up there with the very best.

As she approaches her her 13th birthday and the Jewish coming-of-age ritual, Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) is determined to make her Bat Mitzvah the most perfect and memorable of her peer group, including that of BFF Lydia (Samantha Lorraine). But things get a lot more complicated as hormones, teenage crushes and petty but damaging psychological manipulation via social media enter the mix.

Five years ago, Bo Burnham made his memorable feature debut with Eighth Grade and told one of the most connective, visceral stories about becoming a teenager in years. Sammi Cohen’s film has the same aim but demonstrates how seismically culture has changed in just half a decade, all through a Jewish cultural lens. There may have never been a more challenging time to be growing up in an always-online age, and Alison Peck’s insightful script in addition to the across-the-board wonderfully naturalistic performances help to make this an unexpectedly profound crowd-pleaser.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Review

#JusticeforJamesGunn incarnate, the final chapter of the unlikeliest a-hole superhero team’s story shatters expectations and satisfyingly delivers on almost every level.

After years of defending the countless worlds together, the Guardians team has reached a precarious place. Their leader Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) has slumped into a depressed, alcoholic stupor after losing the love of his life Gamora (Zoe Saldaña), and Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) past as a bio-engineered test subject comes back to haunt him in a very real way. Can the team come together one last time and save the galaxy, and themselves?

Marvel is seen as a pretty risk-averse studio and certainly much of their recent output has been received with a shrug from many viewers, but Guardians Vol 3 shows what happens when one of the best directors they partnered with is left to finish the story he wanted to tell. The action has never been more polished and visually dazzling, the performances from people and animated raccoons alike so honest and full of pain, Gunn’s love of animals so prominent as the team go up against a truly detestable figure who causes pain for the hell of it.

Recommended for you: MCU Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies Ranked

After months of casting reports and rumours, writer-director James Gunn has finally chosen his Superman and Lois for his next feature, Superman: Legacy.

David Corenswet will take on the role of Superman/Clark Kent. Corenswet recently starred opposite Mia Goth in the critically acclaimed Pearl, and played the lead role in Ryan Murphy’s miniseries, ‘Hollywood’. Corenswet will replace Henry Cavill, who portrayed the iconic character for close to a decade, starting with Man of Steel in 2013.

Rachel Brosnahan has been cast as Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane. She is perhaps best known for her leading role in the Amazon Prime series ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’. Her performance as the titular Mrs. Maisel was unanimously praised, garnering her an Emmy and two Golden Globes. Prior to this, Brosnahan appeared on ‘House of Cards’, which Corenswet also appeared in briefly, though the two did not share a scene. Brosnahan follows in a lineage of big and small screen Lois Lanes that includes Margot Kidder, Teri Hatcher, Kate Bosworth and most recently Amy Adams.

Reports indicate that final auditions took place over the weekend with stars such as ‘Sex Education’ lead Emma Mackey and Mad Max scene-stealer Nicholas Hoult also in the running. The latter also narrowly missed out on playing Batman in Matt Reeves‘ recent take on the caped crusader. While losing out on two huge roles like this will likely be frustrating for Hoult, an earlier report suggests he has also been testing for Superman’s arch nemesis Lex Luthor.

This news comes almost exactly a decade after Henry Cavill and Amy Adams made their comic book movie debuts in Man of Steel (June 2013). Each appeared in multiple DC projects over the last decade, in a shared universe that is due to end with the release of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in December. After a series of critical and commercial failures for Warnes Bros., new DC Films figureheads James Gunn and Peter Safran will helm the rebooted cinematic universe. Gunn, who was responsible for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise under the Disney banner, has spoken publicly about his desire to ‘focus on an earlier part of Superman’s life’ than the one Henry Cavill was portraying by the end of his run.

Superman: Legacy will be released on 11th July 2025. Gunn and Safran have stated that the film will follow a young Clark Kent during his early days at the Daily Planet. The film will follow him balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his life on Earth. Gunn is directing based on a screenplay he has written himself.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter for daily news updates.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Director: James Gunn
Screenwriter: James Gunn
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Bradley Cooper, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, Chukwudi Iwuji, Will Poulter, Elizabeth Debicki, Maria Bakalova, Sylvester Stallone, Nathan Fillion, Linda Cardellini, Asim Chaudhry, Mikaela Hoover

How many trilogies really stick the landing?

In 2018, writer-director James Gunn was unceremoniously fired by Disney after some bad taste jokes from his early days as a comedian were unearthed on Twitter by right-wing trolls who objected to Gunn’s outspoken political views. Following a passionate campaign from fans and Gunn’s friends and colleagues, a year later he was brought back on board at Marvel to finish what he started. If you love this particular bunch of a-holes, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is going to be an emotional one.

Scoundrel-turned-superhero Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) is in a dark place after making a mistake that doomed half the universe and lost him the love of his life, Gamora (Zoë Saldaña). The Guardians were restored following the defeat of Thanos, but a different Gamora – one who doesn’t even like Peter let alone love him – now stands in his paramour’s place. When an attack on the Guardian home base of Knowhere leaves one of their number mortally injured, the team set out on a quest that brings them into conflict with mad scientist the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) and causes Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) to confront his traumatic past.

What James Gunn has been hiding in plain sight up to now is that the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy is really about Rocket above anyone else. This is his journey, one that takes him from a bad start in life to being a full and happy person with people in his life he can trust and rely upon.

Much like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, if Rocket didn’t work as a VFX creation, then nothing else in this instalment (where he’s driving pretty much all the action) would either. Thankfully, the time-lapse transition between a terrified caged raccoon and Rocket’s older, cynically twitching nose that opens the film puts those doubts immediately to rest. Gunn’s empathy for all living things, but particularly those who have been mistreated, is what gives this story its power, and Bradley Cooper’s pitch-perfect vocal performance has the strength to make you feel all the feelings. Just as a raccoon crying over his lost tree friend made us shed tears in 2014, his relationship with his fellow abused creatures brings on the waterworks all over again here with some almost unbearably intense scenes in captivity. We don’t get to spend all that long with young Rocket’s animal experiment friends Lylla the otter (Linda Cardellini), Teefs the walrus (Asim Chaudhry) and Floor the rabbit (Mikaela Hoover), but we quickly grow to love them just as deeply he did.

This does have the feel of a victory lap, bringing everything full circle and giving everyone their time to shine. Everyone loves the literal-thinking lunk Drax (Dave Bautista) and towering tree-man Groot (Vin Diesel) but it is stoic cyborg Nebula (Karen Gillan) and eager-to-please empath Mantis (Pom Klementief), previously both pretty one-note, who end up being the undisputed highlights here. The former’s gruff and tough personality has gradually been eroded over her time with the Guardians, and the rare occasion when she lets down her guard and lets emotion overwhelm her really hits hard. The latter is the heart of the team, gets most of the funniest lines, and her unique power helps her and her friends out of a few tough spots in some unexpected ways.

Newcomers to this universe include Borat 2‘s Maria Bakalova as Cosmo the talking psychic cosmonaut dog who has an adorable film-long argument with space pirate Kraglin (Sean Gunn), Will Poulter as genetically engineered gold man-child Adam Warlock, and Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary, arguably the most evil and irredeemable bastard in the galaxy who will mutilate, torture and thoughtlessly dispose of countless living things all in service of his delusional mission to create a “perfect society”.

The action is all very polished and exciting, and because this is the team’s last ride it all feels a lot more dangerous for our heroes somehow. A fight in a corridor in the final act might be the finest couple of minutes of action in the MCU to date – not only is it meticulously choreographed, ludicrously entertaining and set to a killer Beastie Boys track, but it lets the team work in violent harmony and gives every member of the team a chance to showcase their special abilities, each getting their own big character moment at the same time.

James Gunn has always happily leaned into the sillier visual and conceptual aspects of space opera, and rarely have such strange ideas been more convincingly brought to life as here. From a bio-formed space station seemingly made of meat to learning that the city of Knowhere (built inside the skull of a dead space god) can actually be driven to a new location, and even to a mirror image “Counter-Earth” populated by humanoids forcefully evolved from lower lifeforms, big swings are taken. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is an epic, galaxy-spanning quest, but all this imagination vitally remains in service of a very intimate story. 

A minor criticism that could be levelled at this particular Guardians iteration is that the soundtrack isn’t as memorable or pitch-perfect as in the previous two films, with John Murphy’s (Sunshine, The Suicide Squad) original score extensively incorporating choral singing provoking a stronger reaction than the vast majority of the needle-drops. Similarly, the final act of the film, after over two hours of putting every Guardian through one life-threatening incident after another, keeps piling on the jeopardy to an almost absurd degree even when it is already fit to burst.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 brings this unlikely team’s journey to an immensely satisfying and appropriately epic conclusion. It is spectacular to look at and really funny, but it is also easily one of the darkest stories in the Marvel universe and does not pull its punches to make its pretty explicit discussion of abuse and animal testing any more palatable. We may see some of these characters again down the road, but for now it’s a fond farewell to them all, especially the acerbic Racoon who just wanted to be loved.

Score: 21/24

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The recently appointed co-CEO of DC Studios, James Gunn, has finally given fans some concrete plans regarding the direction of the DC Universe, after months of teasing and speculation.

Gunn and co-head Peter Safran held a press conference on Monday 30th January to detail their upcoming projects, and released a video titled ‘Chapter 1 – Gods and Monsters‘ which breaks down plans for the fans.

Before getting into specifics contained within the video, Gunn gave some context to their plans.

Their mission statement is to create a DC universe that is consistent across film, television, animation and videogames. The characters will be played by the same actors regardless of the medium and each project works under one shared story.

Gunn also explained how the upcoming DC releases, which were produced before Gunn and Safran were hired to run DC Studios, will connect to their new universe. First, Shazam: Fury of The Gods will remain part of the DCU, with Gunn saying it has always existed in its own pocket of the universe, “so he connects very well.” Next is The Flash, which will reset the entire DC Universe. This is fitting for the character, who in the comics has been used as a vehicle for DC to reboot their canon. Blue Beetle and Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom will take place after Flash’s reset.

The main takeaway here is that contrary to speculation, Gunn and Safran’s DCU is not a complete reboot. Some characters will remain unchanged, such as Shazam and Aquaman, while others are out, like Henry Cavill’s Superman. As for Flash star Ezra Miller, it is unclear whether they will return after a slew of controversy, though Safran has suggested that the door could remain open for Miller once they have completed their recovery.

In the video, James Gunn detailed DC Studios’ 8-10-year plan and the projects involved. They are as follows:

Creature Commandos

Creature Commandos is the first instalment in the newly established DCU. It will be an animated series with each episode written by studio head James Gunn. In the comics, the Creature Commandos are a team of military superhumans operating during World War II. The series’ group will consist of The Bride of Frankenstein, Doctor Phosphorus, Rick Flag, Sr., Eric Frankenstein, G.I. Robot, Dr. Nina Mazursky and Weasel, who appeared in the James Gunn-directed The Suicide Squad.

Waller

Another character surviving the cut is Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller. This incarnation of the character has appeared in both Suicide Squad films, Black Adam and television series ‘Peacemaker’. This live-action series will take place between ‘Peacemaker’ seasons 1 and 2, and will include some of that series’ cast. ‘Doom Patrol’ creator Jeremy Carver will join ‘Watchmen’ writer Christal Henry as showrunner.

Superman: Legacy

In Gunn’s words, Superman: Legacy marks the true beginning of the DCU. This live-action film will introduce a new Superman as he balances his roles as a Kryptonian and Earth’s protector. Gunn is currently penning the script with no director attached as of yet. The highly anticipated film is due for release on 11 July, 2025.

Lanterns

‘Lanterns’ will be a HBO series focused on two of the most popular Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart. This will be a series set on Earth and apparently in the same vein as ‘True Detective’, in which the heroes uncover a terrifying mystery that will connect to the larger story of the DCU. The series will reinvent Green Lantern for general audiences, after the misfire of the Ryan Reynolds-led 2011 film.

The Authority

James Gunn describes this film as his passion project. The Authority are a group of heroes who firmly believe the ends justify the means. They will do whatever it takes to save the world, with their methods often being morally grey. It holds similarities to the critically acclaimed ‘The Boys’ and could offer a different tone for the DCU.

Paradise Lost

This series will be based on Themyscira, home of Wonder Woman. Gunn describes it as ‘Game of Thrones’ with the characters from the Wonder Woman mythos. It will be set before Diana’s birth, so it’s likely we will see how the island’s political landscape changes into what we are familiar with today, as multiple Amazons attempt to seize power.

The Brave and The Bold

This will mark the introduction of the DCU’s Batman. Making his live-action debut is Damian Wayne, son of Batman, who will take on the mantle of Robin. Based on Grant Morrison’s legendary comic run, which many deem as the definitive Batman, the film will explore the caped crusader’s newfound role as a father while still serving as Gotham’s protector. Damian is the son of Bruce and Talia Al Ghul, so it’s likely the film will also explore Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Shadows, prominent figures in Batman Begins. Damian is the fifth character to take on the role of Robin in the comics, so fans are already speculating which other members of the Bat-family, such as Nightwing, could appear.

Booster Gold

This TV series will follow a loser from the future who travels back in time to become a superhero with his advanced technology. As Gunn states, it is the superhero story of imposter syndrome. It is possible that Booster Gold’s uniqueness and offbeat humour will allow him to take on a similar role to that which Deadpool has had in Fox’s X-Men Universe. Booster Gold has been a favourite character of fans for a while, so many will be pleased to see him make his DCU debut.

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Based of Tom King’s acclaimed comic run of the same name, this science fiction epic film will follow Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El. Kara was raised on a floating chunk of Krypton and only witnessed death and destruction. This more jaded character will contrast well against Superman’s positivity. It is unclear as to whether this Supergirl will be the same as the one who will appear in The Flash, played by Sasha Calle.

Swamp Thing

The final project on Gunn’s list will be a horror film based on Swamp Thing, a humanoid swamp creature that can control plant life. The film will tell the dark origins of the character, and is illustrative of Gunn and Safran’s willingness to explore different genres. Based on Gunn’s namedropping of other popular comic runs, it’s likely Swamp Thing will be inspired by Alan Moore’s highly successful take on the character in the 80s. Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold has seemingly already expressed interest in directing via a tweet, but as with the majority of these projects no named talent is currently attached.

DC Elseworlds

Popular characters who exist outside of the main DCU continuity, such as Matt Reeves’ take on the Batman, will be rebranded under the DC Elseworlds banner in an attempt to signify their difference from mainline DC stories. The Batman Part II will be released in cinemas on 3 October, 2025. Reeves’ version of Gotham will also continue to be explored in the HBO series ‘The Penguin’. Reeves himself has described his vision as an epic crime saga, and with the newly announced title echoing The Godfather Part II, it seems that vision will remain in tact.

Also included under the new DC Elseworlds banner are the Joker films from Todd Philips, Teen Titans GO! and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ untitled Superman project.

Even so, 2022 has proven to be the first non-pandemic year since 2017 to not enter a comic book adaptation into the billion dollar movie club, and has reportedly been tumultuous for the genre behind the scenes at almost every studio. As we press into 2023, Marvel continues its pursuit of longer form storytelling on its multitude of direct-to-streaming series and has come under criticism for building a cinematic universe in which everything must get bigger and bolder to remain satisfying to those who’ve already seen it all, while Sony succumbed to an internet meme to re-release Morbius without understanding that they were the butt of a joke, and DC most publicly of all faced scrutiny for late-in-the-year decisions regarding the future of the DC Extended Universe (now to be without Henry Cavill as Superman only weeks after his return) and a public falling out with the world’s highest paid actor, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, regarding his long-gestated DC film Black Adam.

Following 2021, a year of memorable debuts and the ultimate in superhero movie fan service, the comic book genre was forced to diversify in terms of its styles of storytelling in 2022, and as such offered everything from a David Fincher-tinged detective thriller to a horror master’s take on a superhero dealing with issues of the mind, from shallow children’s television-esque nonsense to deep ruminations on grief.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are comparing each of the 9 major superhero movie releases (not including direct-to-VoD features like Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse) in terms of their quality, their impact on our culture, their importance to the genre, and their attempts at evolving comic book adaptations beyond their previous limitations. These are the 2022 Comic Book Movies Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter.

9. Black Adam

For a passion project from a former professional wrestler who earned his career and reputation for being one of the most charismatic men on the planet, it was utterly nonsensical that Dwayne Johnson would play the role of a superhero completely absent of personality. The man formerly known as The Rock, who’d regularly brag about holding the “millions… and millions” in the palm of his hand, was essentially playing a narrative trigger rather than a character, a floating and invincible agent of violence who’d be better named as Mr. Anti-Charisma than the titular Black Adam; his self-serious (but not in a funny Peacemaker way), angsty and hyper-aggressive presentation proving a vacuumous presence that sucked the life out of what was already an uninspired mess of a movie.

With visuals that look like they were taken directly from a mid-2000s historical fantasy film, Black Adam was surpassed visually by even The Rock’s poorly presented Hercules (2014) and the black and blue drabness of fellow 2022 comic book release Morbius. Worse still, Black Adam himself was barely present for large periods, his role in the film taking a backseat throughout the 2nd act as a lengthy list of side characters went in their own directions, each equally as lacking in any kind of truthful essence.

With a narrative filled with conveniences and utterly illogical character decisions, a yellow hue over the entire presentation, a backstory twist that is among the most poorly presented in the history of cinema, and enough poorly generated CG-scapes to take even the most hardened of superhero moviegoers out of any given moment, Black Adam was among the worst superhero films of the decade and must certainly be considered the worst comic book film of 2022.

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On the screen, Marvel Studios’ trusted output has been received positively by critics and audiences alike, the majority of its thirty feature releases being well received and worthy of their hype, even their so-called “calculated risks” being more often refreshing to their already established formula than detrimental to their overall output.

Cinema has been forever changed by the dawn of Marvel’s big screen dominance and old-school serial approach to storytelling, Disney’s newly ordained crown jewel inspiring every rival studio and aspirational production company to gobble up trusted IPs and set forth plans for so-called Movie Universes based around everything from fellow superheroes to famous board games, reinvented children’s cartoons to horror characters.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are putting the world’s most influential film franchise under the microscope to compare every feature length Marvel release with one another to determine which MCU films are the best and which are the worst, judging each on artistic merit and cultural impact.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter. 

30. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

To this day, Louis Leterrier’s 2008 MCU contribution The Incredible Hulk is the forgotten member of the family. And, while this isn’t necessarily this distinctly average film’s fault and is actually more to do with Edward Norton refusing to return to his role as the Hulk following strained relationships with both director and studio, as well as how the rights to the Hulk character are locked in a contract that limits Marvel Studios from telling a standalone story with Mark Ruffalo, a lot can still be said for how dated this film is – The Incredible Hulk playing a lot more like Spider-Man 3, Fantastic Four and X-Men: Origins – Wolverine than the later and much more tasteful Marvel Studios offerings to come in this list.

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29. Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The worst of a bad bunch of uninspired sequels, Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World not only seemed absent of the comedy and much of the mythology of the original Thor film but it also hit at precisely the wrong time – that being between the much more highly anticipated Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the year after the original The Avengers.

Thor 2 was generic in a Suicide Squad “angry swirl of evil descending from the sky for no reason” kind of way; a movie so uninspired Chris Hemsworth has openly spoken about how he almost quit the role because of it; a perfectly serviceable sequel (especially at the time), but one of little consequence or imagination that few get excited to rewatch – an MCU entry that time hasn’t been very kind to.

28. Iron Man 2 (2010)

The first Iron Man was such a huge success creatively, artistically, critically and financially for Marvel Studios that a quick-turnaround 2nd movie was demanded to bolster Phase One’s launch – a period in the history of the MCU that was a lot more rocky than many are willing to admit.

Iron Man 2 was a failure in all of the ways Iron Man was a success, apart from financially, offering bland and sometimes barely comprehensible moments of action, dialogue and character. As a result, Iron Man 2 fits right in alongside the likes of The Amazing Spider-Man as a very particular brand of cheesy and uninspired comic book movie that was made more to earn a quick buck than it was to fulfil any creative or artistic need. It has its moments – which movie starring Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man doesn’t? – but thankfully the MCU has proven itself to be better than this in its other phases since.

27. Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)

Coming between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – ie, post-snap – Ant-Man and The Wasp was put in an awful position to succeed, the creative minds behind the film having to choose between embracing the actions of Infinity War or ignoring them altogether. They chose the latter (at least until the film’s final moments), but what fans wanted was something of an indicator as to what was to come in Endgame, or at least a taste of post-Infinity War’s MCU landscape, and the comedy-centred light-heartedness of an Ant-Man movie was an example of Marvel Studios not taking a minute to read the room.

More than that, Ant-Man and The Wasp felt scaled down from the original, its outlandish creative ideas brought into line with the wider MCU look and feel of things, making what seemed like a promising sequel to a moving and hilarious comedy one of the studio’s most formulaic and typically “superhero movie” releases to date – the “formula” not being necessarily bad, but certainly overplayed.

26. Eternals (2021)

Eternals Review

Eternals came with a lot of hope and expectation given the nature of the original material it was being adapted from and how it was the first MCU entry to be directed by an Oscar-winning director (Chloé Zhao). Ultimately, it proved too much of a mix of the trusted Marvel formula and director Zhao’s trademark directorial style, the clashes between action and existentialism forcing a disjointed rhythm in the filmmaking that made Eternals feel way longer than it was (which was one of the longest MCU films in history) and hit home way less effectively than anyone would have hoped.

As a product of the world’s largest production arm, Eternals was hopefully diverse from cast to crew, but ultimately this release had two authorial presences that seemed to clash on screen, this already troubling combination being amplified by its position in the MCU as a part of the studio’s fourth phase and thus responsible for a number of story elements and character introductions barely relevant to its standalone narrative.

25. Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Despite featuring one of the most empathetic and exceptionally-performed villains in Marvel Cinematic Universe history, Thor: Love and Thunder was a messy fourth instalment in the God of Thunder’s individual franchise, a film that flipped between tones as if at a loss at how to create both meaningful drama and laugh-out-loud comedy.

In comparison to post-2012 Marvel releases, the action was relatively poor too. Gone were the exceptionally choreographed sequences of the mainstream Avengers films or the differing styles of Black Widow, Doctor Strange and Shang-Chi, and in its place were bland and almost inconsequential battles repeated, a few moments of awe failing to rectify for a movie’s worth of oversights.

Thor: Love and Thunder is an enjoyable time at the movies. It will make you laugh and it does have some interesting moments, but these pros are simply too few and far between to make for a strong (or even meaningful) MCU entry.

24. Iron Man 3 (2013)

Adored by some and maligned by others, Iron Man 3 simply came about much too early, screenwriter-director Shane Black’s offerings of genre and trope deconstructions – most notably the choice to twist a genuinely fascinating villain into a trope-ridden stereotypical bad guy as a form of commentary – being things usually reserved for the dying days of a genre, not for one of its peaks.

This film was the follow up to The Avengers where Tony Stark had almost died, so Black’s smarts didn’t hit as they could have much later in the studio’s line-up – people wanted emotion and stakes, as well as suitable conclusions to character arcs, and Black’s work was seen to undermine that, the very strong work in several aspects of this film ultimately shunned to the background of a film dominated by a creator’s singular intention seemingly forced into the canon at the wrong time.

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One of the most popular franchises within the Marvel Cinematic Universe has long been Guardians of the Galaxy. Helmed by James Gunn, these operatic space adventures have been box office hits (totalling over $1.6billion worldwide) and fan favourites (an average of 89.5% on RottenTomatoes). Now however, the director is suggesting that this ragtag group’s third outing will be their last.

Speaking on Deadline’s Hero Nation podcast, Gunn stated:

“This is the end for us, the last time people will see this team of Guardians.”

While this doesn’t rule out future Guardians film, it does heavily imply that the team audiences are familiar with will likely come to an end.

“I want to give people the wrap up that they deserve for this story,” Gunn added, having directed and written the first two instalments in 2014 and 2017.

No story elements are currently known, but Gunn assures that the film will be a grand finale.

“It’s big; it’s so, so big and dark, and different from what people might be expecting it to be.”

The story will likely see the team deal with the consequences of Avengers: Endgame, which resurrected original member Gamora. Will Poulter (Midsommar; The Revenant) joins the cast as Adam Warlock, an artificial being created to destroy the Guardians.

Dave Bautista (Blade Runner 2049), who stars as Drax the Destroyer, has also opened up about the third film being the finale. Speaking to Marvel-centric podcast, Phase Zero, he says: “It’s our third film, we’re gonna wrap it up. And it’s been a hell of a journey with a few bumps. So, I’m looking forward to this, man. My cast and obviously the director, James Gunn, they’re like family to me.”

The Guardians films brought a lot of attention to Bautista from non-wrestling fans, and Drax allowed him to explore his comedic side as an actor. He adds, “This is kind of where my journey started. It’s come full circle and I’m looking forward to wrapping it up. And it’s bittersweet. I mean, I’ve been doing Guardians since 2013. When this comes out, it’ll be in 2023, so that’s a 10-year journey. All things must end. “I’m looking forward to kind of wrapping this up with my friends and family.”

Meanwhile in 2021 James Gunn directed The Suicide Squad for rival studio Warner Bros., based on characters from the DC universe. A spinoff series, following John Cena‘s character Peacemaker has recently began airing on HBO Max, created by Gunn. Warner Bros. executive Walter Hamada has confirmed that Gunn will return to DC for future projects.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is schedule to release on 5th May 2023, but fans can see the beloved team even earlier with this year’s ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special’, set to debut on Disney+ in December.

It is thanks in no small part to the seven releases of these three studios that cinema-going numbers reached a ten year high this Autumn, 2021’s late blockbuster season proving to be too strong of a pull for audiences desperate for a little bit of escapist fun.

This has been one of the most fascinating years in the genre’s history, with one of the year’s releases coming per the demands of fans and another leaning heavily into nostalgia for the early days of CG-driven superhero cinema, and yet there hasn’t been a necessarily terrible comic book movie release. In 2021, every comic book film from DC, Marvel and Sony has offered its own draw, creating a rich palette of post-Endgame superhero fun.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are judging each of 2021’s comic book movies by artistic merit, critical reception, audience perception and overall importance to the comic book sub-genre, to rank each from worst to best in this: 2021 Comic Book Movies Ranked.

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7. Eternals

Eternals Review

Eternals, Marvel Studios’ first comic book movie to be directed by an already Oscar-winning filmmaker (Chloé Zhao), sits in the lowest slot in this list not because it was bad but because it was simply too disjointed.

Perhaps the most fascinating mainstream misfire of the year, Eternals had hints of Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland peaking through the Marvel curtain but ultimately felt like the product of two contrasting visions that featured not nearly enough of the slow-burn existentialism of the director’s work or the colour-blasting visual extravaganzas of its studio.

It seems like each of the characters were probably far more interesting in earlier drafts of the script before Marvel had the chance to remind those working on the film that they had to include fight scenes, and the reputation of cast members like Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek speaks to that. Ultimately, however, Eternals was pulled in too many directions, mixing naturalistic lighting with CG effects to create a bland palette, and needing to include way too many titbits and character introductions to move beyond expository dialogue and trope-ridden narrative beats.

6. Black Widow

Black Widow Review

Despite suffering from the trademarked villain problem of earlier Marvel movies, Black Widow at least offered something fun and relatable for fans of the MCU’s longest-standing female Avenger to sink their teeth into.

Florence Pugh, David Harbour and Rachel Weisz were welcomed additions to the cast, and director Cate Shortland certainly made the most of each of their talents, creating a believable albeit disjointed family dynamic and solidifying each as memorable Marvel side-characters with the potential to one day lead their own franchises.

The frustrating lack of creativity that lumbered the final act with yet another Marvel “falling from the sky” ending, and the film’s out-of-place positioning on the Marvel calendar (coming after Avengers: Endgame), dragged down an otherwise solid MCU entry that will by no means be remembered as one of the studio’s best movies but will work as a strong final hurrah for an underpowered but vital Avenger.

Recommended for you: Marvel Cinematic Universe Villains Ranked

Making his name primarily as a screenwriter, and a screenwriter of comedy no less, Gunn’s earliest big feature film break was working as a screenwriter on the live-action Scooby-Doo movie in 2002. Though far from a critical success, the film gained a degree of mainstream appeal and opened a number of doors for Gunn, the filmmaker returning for the movie’s sequel and landing a screenwriter credit on Zack Snyder’s 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake somewhere in-between. There, Gunn would work alongside horror icon George A. Romero to get the story of the new adaptation in line with the original, setting the foundations for his directorial feature debut Slither, a horror of his own released just 2 years later.

Now the veteran of many a directorial gig, most of which have been on television, Gunn is a highly sought after creator of unique and marketable content in Hollywood despite his relatively small feature directorial experience. In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine will be analysing each of the five entries from James Gunn’s particularly influential list of directed feature films in terms of artistic achievement, critical response and popular consensus. Someone call Michael Rooker because these are the James Gunn Directed Movies Ranked.

Have an opinion? Make sure to let us know about it in the comments or tweet us!

5. Super (2010)

An early indicator as to what James Gunn could offer superhero films and cinema as a whole, 2010 comedy Super illustrated the director’s keen eye for an effective comic book story and is, at least from what we know of the man, the most Gunn movie to date.

The adult themes of this at times outlandish, dark and borderline offensive comedy are used in service of its intelligent and well intentioned deconstruction of the genre Gunn clearly knows and loves, its place at number 5 in this list illustrating that there are no bad movies in this director’s filmography, and that even with the reins well and truly off (outside of the studio system and working from his own script), James Gunn can deliver to a very high standard.

With an all-star cast led by Rainn Wilson (‘The Office’), it’s clear that fellow filmmakers believed in this unique and on-the-surface hard-to-sell project from the get-go, speaking to the quality of what must have been included in Gunn’s initial script.

Though more divisive than his later comic book-inspired work, Super remains an interesting vision into a filmmaker and his philosophies, as well as how much comedy and superhero cinema have changed in the decade since.

4. Slither (2006)

2006 James Gunn horror-comedy, Slither, was a directorial debut that mixed the talents Gunn had showcased in his short screenwriting career to offer a modern horror B-movie that is now considered to be something of a cult classic.

Starring Nathan Fillion and would-be Charlie’s Angels director Elizabeth Banks, Gunn assembled a strong tribute to the alien-invasion horrors of decades past in a movie that would probably have done better critically and financially with today’s more horror-aware and nostalgic audiences.

Slither was a film that leant into the absurdity of its premise and the genre it boastfully belongs to, ensuring that while it would never become an award-winning critical darling like a number of horrors in the 15 years to follow, it would be one of the most ideal sleepover watches of the era and as unique of a springboard to a career as we’ve had in decades.

With Slither, Gunn had arrived.

The Suicide Squad (2021)
Director: James Gunn
Screenwriters: James Gunn
Starring: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi

2016’s Suicide Squad was doomed before it ever hit theaters. Batman v Superman had flopped while Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War made over one billion dollars at the box office. Warner Bros. screened two cuts of the film, one from director David Ayer, and the other from editing company Trailer Park who created a lighter version driven by flashy graphics and classic pop music. The latter went to theaters, and while it performed well enough, the film was another sign of Warner and DC’s inability to create works on par with Marvel. Zack Snyder’s DC work was too self-serious and complicated, while Trailer Park’s Suicide Squad was so blatantly smashed together to become the complete opposite – lost in its levity and music was any real character or sense of what DC was going for. It felt like a wannabe Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Suicide Squad shows Warner Bros. might finally be on the rails after a shaky start to their DC transmedia universe. Following a dismissal from Disney, director James Gunn arrived at Warner, and he and his team have turned any Guardians comparisons into praise. The Suicide Squad brings fun, humor, and music, along with gory bits Marvel can’t show in their films. The Suicide Squad reaches deep into the DC villain roster to find effective and comedic characters that help balance the fun with somewhat serious-feeling comic book stakes. Watching it feels like watching a graphic novel come to life, and what more could one want from a bombastic comic book film about a group of villains?

The Suicide Squad follows the ragtag Suicide Squad as they infiltrate a country on behalf of the US government to halt experiments on an extra-terrestrial being run by a super intelligent scientist called The Thinker. The group explore their various backstories and bond through violence as they travel to the mission, making introductions and exposition more organic than the first film. While the action scenes are rather enjoyable, the relationships and dynamics are what drive the story, aided by stylized lighting and camera movement that is missing in Marvel’s house style.

DC chose for the characters to resemble their traditional comic designs, no matter how absurd. John Cena manages to play Peacemaker – an assassin dedicated to peace at all costs – entirely straight in an outfit that Burt Ward’s Robin could laugh at. Gunn uses Peacemaker’s ridiculous helmet to shoot a fight scene, and it’s an interesting, creative way to use a costume. Ratcatcher 2 (Daniela Melchior) and Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian) stay true to their comic outfits while receiving interesting backgrounds that play into the general themes of the Suicide Squad. On the other hand, Bloodsport gets a redesign that boosts the strong performance brought by Idris Elba. He engages in banter, but he’s the most serious of the costumed individuals, and who knows how difficult that might have been without Elba and the costume.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Suicide Squad film without Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. She gets her own storyline which keeps the wider narrative from feeling too stagnant. There are plenty of colorful lights throughout the film, but Quinn’s segments are what allow Gunn and company to bring a strong sense of expressionism, each moment stemming from her insanity being as comic book adjacent as you might expect. She has the kind of arc that adds to the feeling of episodic storytelling found in comic books – this is the one where Harley Quinn is taken captive by a dictator and he proposes to her; what shenanigans will she get into next time? With this film, it has become clear that Robbie and Quinn are ballasts for the new era of DC transmedia without being tethered to the Joker.

The Suicide Squad also uses Gunn’s proclivity for giving character to the animated. King Shark, voiced by Sylvester Stallone, is a bipedal man-eating shark that the animation and characterization make lovable. Ratcatcher 2 is flanked by a sentient rat who is essentially a live-action Disney princess sidekick, and he steals several scenes with his cute little cape. There’s even a starfish creature that is imbued with plenty of character despite its simplistic, comic-accurate appearance. The CGI for the animal-adjacent characters is not quite on par with 2019’s The Lion King, but it still looks solid with plenty of expression. The only complaint to be had about the animated characters is that Sean Gunn’s Weasel is woefully underused, but there are so many bizarre characters that he may have been one too many.

There aren’t many other complaints to be had about The Suicide Squad. Perhaps it could be said to be overly long (it runs for 2 hours and 12 minutes), or that it loses a bit of steam by the end, but that will ultimately be relative to the viewer. An issue with the 2016 film was the over-powered magical villain that should have outclassed the Suicide Squad. While the villain here is quite powerful, it’s not unreasonable that this group of super villains could actually take on The Thinker, or loads of soldiers with bullets.

Fans like to think of Marvel as the quippy franchise, but it’s a style that works for all comic book movies, and DC films like Aquaman, Shazam, and now The Suicide Squad show that DC doesn’t have to make something too different from Marvel to be successful. Putting the right people in charge with a specific visions for their films will lead to the best results. Maybe DC will never achieve the continuity standards Marvel has set for the industry, but it can at least produce enjoyable works that will get viewers into individual films that happen to be DC, rather than the property itself holding value as a brand universe.

It should be noted that the film does feature a post-credits scene that is sure to be a lead-in to new HBO Max episodic series, so it’s not like DC isn’t viewing this film as a springboard for further transmedia content. However, it’s far from guaranteed that any The Suicide Squad spin-off will manage to be as successful as Marvel’s recent spate of Disney+ series.

20/24