When we created last year’s preview of 2019 movies we were pretty sure we were going to have some great movies this year, but we were surprised by what ended up being the best. All year we tried to keep up with what Hollywood had to offer and homed in on the genre content we thought was worth examining. We went back and looked at it all and pulled together our annual picks in our Best Movies of 2019.
Genredom. As always, we’re after the best genre content of the year–with our top categories from the Best in Movies. There are thousands of other places that cover plain vanilla dramas and the rest of the film world, but here we’re looking for movies we want to watch. What do all of this year’s selections have in common? In addition to those elements that define each part of genredom, each has a good story. Special effects without a good story is not good entertainment, and we saw plenty of films this year that missed that crucial element.
Come back later this month for our print media picks, and our annual borg Hall of Fame inductees. And if you missed it, check out our Best Kick-Ass Genre Heroines of 2019 here. Wait no further, here are our movie picks for 2019:
Best Film, Best Superhero Movie, Best Re-Imagining on Film – Shazam! (Warner Bros.). Movies are supposed to be a wonder, right? What brought the magic of the movies back to theaters more than Shazam? Why did DC take so long to adapt a superhero to the scene perfectly? Who cares–they finally did it. Faithful to the character from the #1 selling superhero book of the 1940s, this was the superhero movie many of us have been waiting for for the past 50 years (or more). Full of superhero fun, one of the best training montages ever, Zachary Levi’s boyish hero was perfectly matched to Jack Dylan Grazer’s take on best pal Freddy. It’s also the only superhero movie we can think of that got better as it went along, culminating in a fantastic, satisfying third act and finale. This is what we want more of. And it was the first DC superhero movie of the millennium that could be watched and enjoyed by the entire family. Honorable mention: Glass (Universal), Spider-Man: Far From Home (Sony Pictures).
Best Fantasy Movie, Best Adventure Movie, Best Comedy Movie – Jumanji: The Next Level (Columbia Pictures). The only issue with this film was that its status as a sequel will prompt some to not recognize it for the gigantic success it truly is. With adventure scenes bigger and better than anything in the entire Indiana Jones franchise, two movies in and director Jake Kasdan proved a sequel can actually be as good as the original. The four stars didn’t miss a beat, swapping roles and adding new laughs, and the new characters inside and outside the game were perfectly spliced in to tell a new tale. The bridge crossing scene is now the adventure film scene to beat. An epic fantasy that’s loads of fun. Honorable mention for Best Fantasy Movie: Shazam! (Disney/Marvel), Captain Marvel (Disney/Marvel).
Best Movie Borg, Best Borg Film – Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Carl, Terminator: Dark Fate (Paramount Pictures). It would have been almost impossible for James Cameron and director Tim Miller not to get this right, a new thread through time reuniting Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor and a new T-800 with Arnold back with another take on his greatest borg of all time. New characters and new effects kept the franchise from getting boring, but this was more than just getting by, a big sci-fi spectacle with great cyborg battles, and easily the best cyborg fix this year.
