(Photo by © Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection. FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS..)
Heroes don’t get any bigger: Ant-Man celebrates its 10th anniversary!
Captain America: Brave New World debuts as the 35th MCU movie, and 33rd in Tomatometer ranking. But a bounce back sounds off with Thunderbolts*, the 28th Certified Fresh movie of the MCU.
It takes a lot of effort to get audiences the world over to believe that the fate of the universe should be entrusted to a talking tree and a sarcastic raccoon. First of all, you can’t just jump straight into it – you’ve got build up to it. Begin with a story of the repentant millionaire playboy who builds an iron suit with a nuclear heart from a box of scraps in a cave. Toss in a super soldier thawed from ice after 70 years. How about a magic hammer man from space, or the turncoat Russian spy who loses her accent real quick? It’s a good start – just add a few dozen more characters, mix and match them across multiple serialized movies, and as the physics-defying superheroics pile up, all of a sudden, putting all your faith in a trigger happy trash panda makes plenty of sense in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Not a bad world to build up for Marvel Studios, which originally had to put up the rights to Captain America, the Avengers, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and more as collateral just to get the funding to make 2008’s Iron Man. Clearly, the movie bet of the century paid off, as an empire of 25 films (and counting) has flourished under Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige. The MCU has allowed generations of comic book fans to ascend to the highest throne in pop culture, while allowing millions more who have never visually connected comic page panels together to become versed in Wakandan politics as well as where to find the bathroom at the Sanctum Sanctorum. Iron Man, Guardian of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Soldier are classics of the genre now, while Thor: Ragnarok, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther, and now Shang-Chi demonstrate superhero movies remain capable of reinvention for new relevancy.
The first 11 years of the MCU have spanned three so-called Phases, and the third closing after the epic battle royale of Avengers: Endgame and epilogue Spider-Man: Far From Home. The franchise barreled forward in a pandemic world with Black Widow, Eternals, Shang-Chi, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021 alone. In 2023, we kick off Phase 5 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is drawing some of the weakest reviews of the franchise. The whiplash continued with a bit of a spring-back for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, before the critical split of The Marvels.
2024 was a promised pump-breaking in the wave of interconnected movies and shows, with the entire year’s spotlight reserved for just Deadpool, who’s sucked into the MCU through the corporate wormhole created by Disney’s acquisition of Fox. And he’s bringing a guest in Deadpool & Wolverine, an R-rated meta road comedy that critics have called a bloody, hilarious good time. It’s Certified Fresh, with a Tomatometer score putting it in the thereabouts company of Ant-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Captain Marvel.
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(Photo by Sony Pictures Classics)
There isn’t a whole lot that can be consistently counted on to deliver in this crazy modern world, but Cate Blanchett movies come pretty close. From Elizabeth to Carol, the Lord of the Rings franchise to Blue Jasmine (for which she won the Best Actress Oscar), she’s tackled a preposterously eclectic list of roles — and she’s nailed pretty much all of them, consistently imbuing her characters with enough inner life to elevate even subpar material and earning a mantel full of awards along the way.
By just about any criteria, Blanchett has put together one of the most widely acclaimed careers enjoyed by any actor working today — which makes it only natural for us to celebrate all that success by taking a fond look back at all the steps she took along the way. From her first major role to her most recent release, here’s Cate Blanchett’s complete filmography, ranked from worst to best.
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(Photo by Marvel / courtesy Everett Collection)
Anthony Hopkins was such a fixture on the Oscars circuit during the ’90s that it was a shock to learn his nomination at this Academy Awards is his first in 20 years. After winning Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs in 1992, and getting nominated every two years after that for The Remains of the Day, Nixon, and then Amistad, the knighted actor would have to wait two decades before The Two Popes would put him officially back in the running for Oscar gold.
Of course, the awards are just one aspect of a legendary career that is now spanning into its seventh decade, one that started with a major role in 1968’s The Lion in Winter, starring Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn. A Bridge Too Far, Magic, and The Elephant Man would be among Hopkins’ highlights in the years that followed, opening into an epic run in the ’90s, beginning with immortalizing Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. Besides his Oscar-nominated hits, other films of the decade include Howards End, Legend of the Fall, The Mask of Zorro, and Meet Joe Black, guaranteeing Hopkins was inescapable no matter what movies you were into.
Hopkins returned to the Dr. Lecter for Hannibal and Red Dragon. And his most memorable roles in recent years play into his effortless gravitas, like a famed director in Hitchcock, Methuselah in Noah, Odin in the Thor trilogy, and one-half of The Two Popes, for which he was nominated for his latest acting Oscar. Lately, there was Elyse, and The Father, which drew some of the strongest reviews of his career. Now, we’re taking a look back and ranking Anthony Hopkins movies by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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Recently in May, Avengers: Infinity War arrived and marked the culmination of 10 years and 18 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, breaking box office records with its debut in the process. Last week’s Marvel release, Ant-Man and the Wasp, didn’t do quite as well, but it provided a bit of a lighthearted reprieve after the events of Avengers: Infinity War. With that in mind, we decided to take another look at every MCU release — including Ant-Man and the Wasp — organized by Tomatometer. Excelsior, superhero fans — it’s time for Total Recall!
[Updated on 7/9/18]
(Photo by )
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was a scene-stealing delight in Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers, so a Thor sequel throwing his character into an uneasy alliance with the God of Thunder could only be a good thing, right? For the most part, yes, but 2013’s Thor: The Dark World still felt like something of a squib grounder after the solidly satisfying long-distance thrills of its predecessors. What it might have lacked in impact, it did its best to make up for with a wider scope — a storyline pitting Thor against the Dark Elf Malekith in a cosmic battle for the fate of the Nine Realms — as well as a few fresh strands of franchise-building to help set up the next round of MCU movies. “The picture is a mess,” admitted Soren Anderson of the Seattle Times. “But it’s kind of a fun mess.”
(Photo by Universal)
Ang Lee‘s Hulk left Marvel wanting another crack at establishing a franchise for the big green brute, and they got their shot with The Incredible Hulk in 2008. With Louis Leterrier in the director’s chair and Edward Norton taking over as the gamma-afflicted Bruce Banner, this pass at the character’s origin story offered a more thoughtful take on Banner’s tortured existence as the Hulk while taking care not to skimp on the rock ’em, sock ’em action. When the end credits rolled, it was still dismayingly clear that building a compelling franchise around a guy whose most exciting moments came after he morphed into a non-verbal human wrecking ball remained easier said than done, but the second Hulk had its fans. Calling it “Broad, loud, straight-ahead and raucous,” Tom Long of the Detroit News wrote, “The Incredible Hulk may not be the smoothest or smartest movie ever made, but it sure captures the spirit of its giant green protagonist.”
(Photo by Francois Duhamel/Paramount)
Even without the glowering good time Jeff Bridges gave us in the original, Iron Man 2 still has plenty going for it. In addition to returning franchise stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, the sequel added Don Cheadle (taking over as James “Rhodey” Rhodes from the departed Terrence Howard) and Scarlett Johansson as the superspy Avenger Black Widow, all while working in a story about the core of Tony’s arc reactor slowly poisoning him to death. The only problem? The movie’s two villains, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) and Ivan “Whiplash” Vanko (Mickey Rourke), failed to offer much in terms of compelling dastardliness or a truly high-stakes threat. Still, even if it was a step down from the original, Iron Man 2 nevertheless offered a reasonable amount of fun; as Scott Tobias wrote for the A.V. Club, “It’s a clean, efficient, somewhat generic piece of storytelling and most of the additions are not subtractions. This passes for success in the summer movie season.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
Given how tough it must have been to pull off the bajillion-ring circus that was Marvel’s The Avengers, it stands to reason that the follow-up would, to some extent, fall prey to the law of diminishing returns. And so it was with 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, which added more of everything to the original’s CGI-coated stew and ended up with a sequel that most people liked well enough without being totally bowled over by it. Which is not to say there isn’t a lot to enjoy about the team’s second trip to theaters — or that the stakes aren’t appropriately high in a story that sees Tony Stark’s titular AI creation turning against him and deciding it needs to rid the world of the human race. “As he did in the first Avengers,” wrote the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday, “writer-director Joss Whedon avoids the fatal trap of comic-book self-seriousness, leavening a baggy, busy, overpopulated story with zippy one-liners, quippy asides and an overarching tone of jaunty good fun.”
(Photo by Paramount)
On the printed page, Marvel has made a mint with characters far sillier than Thor, the mighty Asgardian God of Thunder — but on the big screen, it’s an awful tall order to take a guy with flowing blond locks and a hammer and turn him into a modern-day action hero. Yet that’s exactly what director Kenneth Branagh did with 2011’s Thor, which effectively straddled the line between building the mystic mythology of the MCU and dispensing good old-fashioned wisecracking and butt-kicking here on planet Earth. It certainly didn’t hurt that in the title role, Branagh was working with Chris Hemsworth, who brought the perfect blend of light humor and burly physique — or that Hemsworth shared the screen with Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgard, and Kat Dennings. Toss in Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo as our hero’s royal parents, and you’ve got a fantasy action thriller with epic heft as well as enough sense not to take itself too seriously. “For those with a taste for the genre,” advised the Atlantic’s Christopher Orr, “Thor is a worthy addition to the pantheon.”
(Photo by Jay Maidment/Marvel Studios)
While he’s easily one of the more recognizable heroes in Marvel’s stable, Captain America has spent the last several decades battling the same perception that’s dogged Superman — namely, that he’s too noble, too upstanding, and too square to resonate with generations weaned on more morally ambiguous anti-heroes. With Captain America: The First Avenger, director Joe Johnston hurdled that obstacle by embracing Cap’s WWII origin story and making his first movie a period piece with a colorful Saturday serial feel. Anchored by Chris Evans‘ suitably patriotic performance in the title role, and enlivened by a supporting cast that included seasoned vets like Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones, The First Avenger compellingly laid the groundwork for one of the MCU’s central stories — and served as a springboard for the Hayley Atwell spinoff series Agent Carter in the bargain. “Of course it’s loaded with CGI. It goes without saying it’s preposterous,” admitted Roger Ebert. “But it has the texture and takes the care to be a full-blown film.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Pictures)
Enjoyable as the Iron Man movies are, the franchise has always had a big problem — namely, that Ol’ Shell-Head’s biggest comics villains aren’t exactly movie material. Director Shane Black took a novel approach to tackling this problem with Iron Man 3, wiping out the problematic stereotypes at the root of the would-be conqueror known as the Mandarin and reimagining the character as a nefarious warlord (played by Ben Kingsley) who turns out to be an alcoholic actor posing at the behest of the movie’s real bad guy, industrialist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). If it all sounds a little complicated, well, that’s to be expected from the third film in a trilogy—and after the relative disappointment of Iron Man 2, most critics saw it as a step in the right direction. “Downey is as funny as ever, if not more so,” wrote Bill Goodykoontz for the Arizona Republic. “He ensures that Iron Man 3 is a solid installment in the franchise, and helps to make it seem, at least for a time, that it might be something more.”
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Walt Disney Studios)
Comics creators have dozens of weapons at their disposal when it comes to establishing a level of narrative context to aid the suspension of disbelief a reader needs in order to truly invest in outlandish stories. For filmmakers, it’s a little trickier — they don’t have dozens of comics issues, or those ever-so-helpful thought balloons, to lay the emotional groundwork that makes viewers ignore a silly costume and really care about the character. All of which is a long way to say that Ant-Man had a lot of cards stacked against it from the beginning, and the problems only seemed more insurmountable when the film’s original director, Edgar Wright, parted ways over creative differences with the studio. In the end, however, it turned out to be yet another smoothly delivered burst of superpowered entertainment for the MCU, with Paul Rudd proving a perfectly charming action hero while an ace supporting cast — including Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly — added the finely calibrated doses of humor, genuine emotion, and universe-building context Marvel fans have come to expect. Praising it as “One of the more entertainingly human fantasies to come out of the studio,” Time’s John Anderson added, “it also defies the bedrock fanboy aesthetic that you don’t want to merely watch the superhero — you want to be the superhero.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
When the first Guardians of the Galaxy arrived in 2014, it offered a colorful antidote to the serious tone that had gripped many superhero movies since Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy proved fans were ready for their comics adaptations to go dark — and while the MCU has always made room for plenty of laughs, Guardians took it to another level while proving there were still vast unexplored reaches of the Marvel Universe just waiting to be adapted for the big screen. Needless to say, fans were eager for more in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — and the movie delivered, perhaps somewhat to a fault. While the vast majority of critics and moviegoers enjoyed the Guardians’ next adventure, more than a few reviews pointed out that the proceedings couldn’t help but feel a little familiar the second time around, and what once seemed effortlessly fresh had started to show some slight signs of creative strain. None of which is to suggest that Guardians 2 is anything less than an action-packed, quip-filled thrill ride; on the other hand, the laws of diminishing returns to seem to apply to us all, even if we’re a profanity-spewing raccoon-like creature or an adorable alien who looks like a teeny-tiny tree. “If it’s overstuffed in the way of most sequels,” shrugged the New York Post’s Sara Stewart, “well, at least it’s stuffed with good cheer.”
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
With the fate of the world, universe, or galaxy perpetually at stake, it can be hard to retain a proper sense of perspective while watching MCU movies — especially since the studio’s so good at striking a balance between high-stakes action and guffaw-inducing one-liners, and hasn’t always stuck the landing when it comes to pitting its heroes against truly imposing bad guys. That all goes out the window with 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, in which Thanos — the big bad who’s been making his way over the horizon since the first Avengers — shows up to forcibly collect the full set of cosmic gems required in order to wield enough power to wipe out half of all life in the universe. It’s a nefarious enough goal for the sort of cataclysmic battle Marvel fans expect, and screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely do their best to ground it by giving Thanos something approaching an actual motive — he wants to restore balance — and adding extra emotional stakes by fleshing out the father-daughter dynamics between the big guy and his adopted “daughters,” Gamora and Nebula. It’s still an awful lot for a single film to tackle, and for some critics, Infinity War couldn’t help but feel like a mad dash of quips and set pieces, all rushing toward a cliffhanger ending setting up the next installment. On the other hand, in attempting to put together an action thriller juggling dozens of established characters while offering solid entertainment value for longtime MCU watchers as well as those who might not have seen all (or any) of the preceding films, directors Anthony and Joe Russo were basically attempting the impossible, so it’s to their immense credit — and Marvel fans’ pleasure — that they ended up pulling it off as well as they did. “Marvel has pulled off all sorts of cinematic flavors in its 10-year legacy, from heist films and political thrillers to space operas and fantasy epics,” wrote USA Today’s Brian Truitt. “Now it boasts a full-fledged Shakespearean tragedy.”
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
After opening with the relatively low-stakes Iron Man, the MCU has steadily gotten bigger — and so have the threats facing its heroes — but all that cosmos-shattering drama can get a little numbing after a while, and in order for people to truly feel the ebb and flow of life on Marvel Earth, it helps to maintain some narrative dynamic. Fittingly, the Ant-Man franchise has helped serve as a palate cleanser — which is why it made perfect sense for the sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, to arrive as a chaser for the IMAX-ready symphony of action, humor, and gut-punching death that was Avengers: Infinity War. This time out, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is under house arrest for his role in fighting against the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War — which is awfully inconvenient, given that estranged compatriots Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) need his help to rescue Hope’s mom and Hank’s wife Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) from the Quantum Realm. Toss in the sudden appearance of Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) and the nefarious plans of tech broker Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins), and you’ve got enough plot for a couple of movies — so it’s that much more to director Peyton Reed’s credit that the end result was still wrangled so successfully. “For the most part, the two hours you’ll spend running around with Marvel’s Ant pals is fun and doesn’t have the same emotional investment Infinity War or even Black Panther did earlier this year,” wrote the Toronto Sun’s Mark Daniell. “And, for once in the MCU, that’s kind of refreshing.”
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Walt Disney Studios)
Death in the comics is a lot like death on your average soap opera: timed for maximum story impact, and very often temporary. It can have the unfortunate effect of undercutting the narrative stakes of a character’s demise, but it’s also pretty useful sometimes, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a perfect case in point. Mirroring the classic Marvel Comics story that sees Captain America’s old sidekick Bucky returning decades after his presumed death in World War II — only brainwashed into being the murderous bad guy known as the Winter Soldier — the First Avenger sequel dropped Cap into an emotional conflict that posed thought-provoking questions about real-life politics while paving the way for Civil War. As Owen Gleiberman wrote for Entertainment Weekly, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the first superhero film since the terrorist-inflected The Dark Knight that plugs you right into what’s happening now.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
In the early days of the MCU, it seemed perfectly reasonable to question the wisdom of bringing lesser-known — or simply weird — comics properties to the big screen. But as we approach a decade of Marvel cinematic supremacy, it looks like there might not be a title the studio can’t successfully adapt, and for further proof, here’s Doctor Strange. An eminently trippy comic book whose earliest adventures took Marvel in a thrillingly psychedelic new direction, Strange faced all sorts of obstacles on its way to theaters: Would audiences even be interested in suspending their disbelief long enough to watch a goateed dude in a cape save the world with magic? And how best to deal with the comics’ frankly dated racial subtext? With director Scott Derrickson at the helm, the 14th MCU movie sidestepped those potential troubles with dazzling special effects and a top-shelf cast that included Benedict Cumberbatch as the Doctor, Mads Mikkelsen as his adversary Kaecilius, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo, and Tilda freakin’ Swinton as the Ancient One. Although it still added up to yet another origin story in a genre lousy with them, the end results were still thrillingly entertaining; as David Ehrlich wrote for indieWIRE, “If Doctor Strange can be dispiritingly safe, it can also be just as impressively bold – an hallucinogenic trip along a very familiar path, watching the film is like adding a large dose of LSD to your morning commute.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
It took a long time — and a lot of box-office receipts — before Marvel was finally able to eradicate the old notion that there was only one kind of “superhero movie,” and it needed to be based around immediately recognizable characters who fit a simple mold. Over and over again, pundits doubted that audiences were interested in seeing the big-screen adventures of characters perceived as either outdated (Captain America), silly (Thor), or second-tier (Iron Man) — but with 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the studio may have erased those doubts permanently. After all, if you can score a hit with an adaptation of a comic about a team of do-gooders whose ranks include aliens that look like a tree and a raccoon, you can do anything, right? Of course, it didn’t hurt that director James Gunn took a suitably irreverent approach to the material, or that he rounded up an outstanding ensemble led by Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, and Vin Diesel (those last two providing, respectively, the voices of the raccoon and tree). Like most Marvel movies, Guardians came packed with laughs and action, but this tale of intergalactic derring-do also boasted surprisingly poignant moments. Describing it as “Part George Lucas and part Chuck Jones,” TheWrap’s James Rocchi wrote, “Guardians of the Galaxy has enough scrappy heart and smart humor to make it seem like the best possible kind of product, one where the talent of all involved makes it easy to enjoy their hustle.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
Comics are built upon the never-ending conflict between good guys and villains. But what happens when a pair of heroes find themselves so irrevocably at odds that the only solution is fisticuffs? The answer lies in Captain America: Civil War. With Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel laid the groundwork for a story about the real-world implications of super-beings; here, those ideas come rushing to the fore as Cap and Tony Stark find themselves on opposite sides of an ideological divide drawn when the world’s governments seek to impose regulations reining in the growing population of “enhanced” individuals. Naturally, there’s a lot of weighty sociopolitical subtext inherent in its themes, but this is still a Marvel movie, with all the action and quippy one-liners that implies — and a darn good one, according to the vast majority of critics, who deemed it one of the better efforts to come out of an increasingly complex cinematic universe. “With Civil War,” wrote Barry Hertz of the Globe and Mail, “Marvel Studios has proven, once again, that the world’s heroes remain in good hands.”
(Photo by Chuck Zlotnick/Columbia Pictures)
Getting lightning to strike with one movie is hard enough, let alone an entire franchise — so when Sony’s plans for the first Spider-Man reboot fizzled after a pair of films, it wasn’t hard to understand why the studio turned to Marvel for a series-steadying hand. Sharing the creative reins turned out to be exactly what the web-slinger needed. After hiring Tom Holland to play Spidey, Marvel introduced his version of the character in Captain America: Civil War, which turned out to be a mighty effective teaser for the main event — Spider-Man: Homecoming marked a rebound for the flagging franchise while sending our hero back to his high school roots. Part superhero adventure, part coming-of-age story, it delivered the action comics fans craved — but the quieter moments in between the battles might have been its strongest. “It delivers eye-popping spectacle in spades,” wrote the Tribune News Service’s Katie Walsh, “but it’s the characters that make it count.”
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
It’s one thing to turn a slew of comics characters into successful film franchises. But to fit them — and the actors bringing them to life — into a single movie? That takes moxie, not to mention millions of dollars. Fortunately, director Joss Whedon had both resources at his disposal when he wrangled the cast of the MCU’s Phase One into Marvel’s The Avengers, somehow managing to guideex his overstuffed assemblage of heroes and villains in an all-star bonanza. The movie’s 140-minute length suggested lumbering overkill, but even with a CGI-enhanced battle for the fate of humanity in the final act, Whedon’s Avengers remained light on its feet, balancing high-stakes action against an intoxicatingly zippy plot that gave each of its many characters at least a few moments to shine (not to mention a laugh-out-loud one-liner or two). “Audiences have been eagerly anticipating this first all-hero extravaganza for years,” wrote USA Today’s Claudia Puig. “The wait was worth it.”
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
Blond locks notwithstanding, Thor has been the black sheep of the MCU for some time — after all, his franchise’s second entry, 2013’s The Dark World, still stands as the saga’s low point on the Tomatometer. As it turned out, the secret to making the God of Thunder fun was always pretty simple: embrace the inherent silliness of the character’s cosmic roots, even when you’re depicting something as serious as the long-prophesied end of days. Director Taika Waititi went all in on the comedy for Thor: Ragnarok, taking a loose, improv-friendly approach to the dialogue and adopting a dazzlingly colorful aesthetic for a story that sees our hero exiled, imprisoned, mutilated, and orphaned; it isn’t a story that sounds like a lot of laughs, in other words, but it ended up being one of the funniest — and most all-around fun — entries in Marvel’s cinematic universe. As Philip de Semlyen put it for Time Out, “In a world of portentous blockbusters getting ever darker, it’s a joy to see one throwing on the disco lights.”
(Photo by )
All these billions of dollars in box-office grosses later, it’s easy to forget how many people thought the idea of an Iron Man movie was a little silly — as well as the not-unpopular notion that Marvel was taking a major risk by handing a superhero franchise to Robert Downey, Jr. Needless to say, those doubters were quickly silenced when Iron Man arrived in theaters in 2008, proving a comics character didn’t need Superman levels of name-brand recognition in order to send filmgoers flocking. With Downey in rare form as a quip-dispensing playboy/action hero and Jeff Bridges chomping cigars while exuding oily villainy, Iron Man hit all the requisite origin-story beats while establishing the first cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and offered plenty of blockbuster action in the bargain. “If every superhero franchise had a Robert Downey Jr.,” mused NPR’s Bob Mondello, “the genre might actually be watchable again.”
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe spent its first half decade defying expectations by taking superhero titles that were widely viewed as too niche (Iron Man), too outdated (Captain America), too cosmically silly (Thor), or simply too darn strange (Guardians of the Galaxy), and turning them into massive blockbusters. But after confounding the cynics for years — and raking in billions along the way — Marvel faced the ever-heavier weight of expectations, and Black Panther shouldered the franchise’s heaviest burden to date. To its credit, the studio refused to play it safe, hiring young director Ryan Coogler and trusting him to deliver a picture that could serve up set pieces and sociopolitical themes with equal dexterity. Mission accomplished: led by Chadwick Boseman in the title role and rounded out by a stellar ensemble that included seasoned vets like Angela Bassett and Forest Whitaker as well as a magnetic Michael B. Jordan, Panther proved once and for all that the superhero genre has more than enough depth and breadth to tackle entertaining stories with real-world heft — and it arguably solved the MCU’s “villain problem” in the bargain, with Jordan’s Erik Killmonger serving as far more than a stock nemesis to our hero. “Black Panther could have been just another Marvel romp — a fun but ultimately disposable entry in the studio’s catalogue,” acknowledged Slate’s Jamelle Bouie. “But Ryan Coogler and company had the power, and perhaps the responsibility, to do much more. And they did.”
(Photo by Warner Bros. /Courtesy Everett Collection / THE SUICIDE SQUAD)
To some fans, Idris Elba will forever be Stringer Bell from The Wire. To others, he’ll always be best remembered as John Luther. For still others, he’s the guy who gave us the Heimdall of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or — and this is admittedly a much smaller subset — finally brought gunslinger Roland Deschain to the big screen in the long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. All of which is to say that Mr. Elba’s done a lot in his impressive career, and by all appearances, he’s still just getting started: even if those persistent rumors about him taking over the James Bond franchise never pan out, he’s got plenty of projects lined up to add to an eclectic filmography that already includes some of the more popular and widely acclaimed TV and film releases in recent memory, including an original character in The Suicide Squad. Recently, he portrayed Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and went mano a gato in Beast. And now we’re ranking all Idris Elba movies by Tomatometer!
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We’re ranking the films directed by Taika Waititi! We start with his Certified Fresh films, including his Best Picture-nominated Jojo Rabbit (which did net him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay), his comedy lightning-infused Thor: Ragnarok, and vampire send-up What We Do in the Shadows. That’s followed with his MCU sequel Thor: Love and Thunder, and his debut Eagle vs. Shark. —Alex Vo
97%
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Summer TV means summer bingeing. And this month, we’ve got 10 series to get ready for. Among them, you’ll see an unusual amount of freshman titles returning for their second seasons – with five Certified Fresh first seasons to watch, total – and in preparation for Loki, we’ve got the rare feature film binge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So: Buckle up!
100%
Feel Good
(Netflix)
What it is: From creators Mae Martin and Joe Hampson, this semi-autobiographical series follows Mae (Martin), a recovering addict and Canadian standup comedian living in London, and her quickly blossoming relationship with George (Charlotte Ritchie), highlighting the high highs and low lows along their way to love.
Why you should watch it: The first 100% Certified Fresh season may run as a quick, digestible six episodes, but it won’t take long into the pilot for audiences to fall for — and really feel like they know — Mae. Inspired in part by Martin’s own experiences, the series is as intimate and unflinching as it is funny, striking a fine balance between heartbreaking and hilarious. Plus, Lisa Kudrow stars as Mae’s mother, so what more could you ask for! Its second and final season premieres June 4 on Netflix.
Where to watch: Netflix
Commitment: Approx. 3 hours (for the first season)
87%
Loki
(Disney+)
What it is: Tom Hiddleston returns to his beloved Loki in this crime thriller series, co-starring Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Wunmi Mosaku. Much of the series is characteristically being kept under wraps, but what we do know is that it takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and follows an alternate version of Loki after he’s created a new timeline and is brought to trial by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), which demands he corrects it.
Why you should watch it: If Marvel and Disney+’s joint venture into expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe via the streaming screen has taught us anything, it’s that no matter what it puts out, these series are going to be appointment viewing. We expect Loki to be just as satisfying a watch as its predecessors, WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and are recommending you watch all of Loki’s feature film outings to get ready: Thor (2011), Marvel’s The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Or watch the entire MCU, in order, if you really want to do your homework. Season 1 of Loki premieres June 9 on Disney+.
Where to watch: Vudu, FandangoNOW, Amazon, Disney+, Google Play, Microsoft
Commitment: Approx. 13.5 hours (for all six feature films)
98%
Betty
(HBO)
What it is: From one-of-a-kind creator Crystal Moselle and based on her film Skate Kitchen, Betty centers on a group of Gen-Z skater girls as they navigate the boys club of skating in New York City, personal relationships, and their own coming-of-age.
Why you should watch it: Utterly unique among HBO’s offerings in both scope and tone, Betty is a showcase for one of the liveliest freshman ensembles in recent memory and an encapsulation of the ties that bind in skating and in friendship.
Where to watch: Vudu, FandangoNOW, Amazon, Google Play, HBO Max, Microsoft
Commitment: Approx. 6 hours (for the first season)
92%
Love, Victor
(Hulu)
What it is: Victor is a teen who doesn’t quite know himself yet, as so many teens are: a high schooler in a new district whose family unit seems to be dissolving while he’s coming to terms with his sexuality, he’s got a lot on his plate! Love, Victor, from creators Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, is his story.
Why you should watch it: What’s not to love about Love, Victor? A welcome expansion — and in some instances, a subtle course-correct — on Greg Berlanti’s boundary-pushing studio feature Love, Simon, the series is a funny, touching, awkward, and at-times sexy ode to modern-day teendom in all its shades, featuring a standout, grounding performance from newcomer Michael Cimino. Season 2 premieres June 11 on Hulu.
Where to watch it: Hulu
Commitment: Approx. 5 hours (for the first season)
99%
Tuca & Bertie
(Adult Swim)
What it is: Tuca & Bertie is an odd-couple comedy following two 30-year-old birds who are best friends and neighbors. One’s care-free to a fault, the other’s too cautious and anxious for her own good.
Why you should watch it: No one’s happier than us that Adult Swim decided to pick up Lisa Hanawalt’s Tuca & Bertie after Netflix’s unceremonious cancellation in 2019. Featuring a stacked voice cast led by Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong — and including Nicole Byer and Steven Yeun — the cartoon rings as true to city-dwelling millennials as any live-action series could hope to. Season 2 premieres June 13 on Adult Swim.
Where to watch: Netflix
Commitment: Approx. 5 hours (for the first season)
90%
Rick and Morty
(Adult Swim)
What it is: Every mad scientist needs a sidekick – this one just happens to be his fretful and largely incompetent grandson. Rick and Morty follows scientist Rick Sanchez after he moves in with his daughter’s family, the Smiths, and as he involves them (and specifically grandson, Morty) on intergalactic, reality-jumping, time-bending adventures.
Why you should watch it: From the minds of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Rick and Morty is a show like you’ve never seen before. Brazenly dark and existential while also being charmingly unhinged and laugh-out-loud funny, the series’ 42 episodes will breeze by in no time.
Where to watch: Vudu, Amazon, Google Play, Hulu, Microsoft
Commitment: Approx. 15.5 hours (for the first four seasons)
100%
David Makes Man
(OWN)
What it is: From the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Moonlight, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s David Makes Man charts the life and hardships of David, a 14-year-old prodigy from the projects who, haunted by the death of his friend and relied on by his mother as caretaker, seeks a way out to a better life.
Why you should watch it: David Makes Man just may be OWN’s best original series to date, and more people need to be watching it. The young Akili McDowell delivers a star turn as David, and the ensemble matches him every step of the way. Paired with creative flourishes and an engrossingly dreamy aesthetic, it’s unlike most anything else on TV. Season 2 – which time-jumps to follow an adult David –premieres June 22.
Where to watch: Vudu, FandangoNow, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft
Commitment: Approx. 7.5 hours (for the first season)
95%
The Good Fight
(Paramount+)
What it is: Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) gets the leading lady treatment with Paramount+’s hit spin-off of The Good Wife. Set one year after the events of that acclaimed series’ finale (and picking up on the morning of President Donald Trump’s 2016 inauguration), The Good Fight follows Lockhart after she’s forced out of her own firm and teams up with goddaughter Maia Rindell (Game of Thrones’ Rose Leslie) and The Good Wife’s Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo).
Why you should watch it: Sure, if you loved The Good Wife, you’ll love The Good Fight — but believe it or not, Baranski is even more astounding here and finds exciting new shades to the beloved Diane. Fans new and old rejoice. Season 5 premieres June 24 on Paramount+.
Where to watch: Vudu, FandangoNow, Amazon, Google Play, Microsoft, Paramount+
Commitment: Approx. 30 hours (for the first four seasons)
97%
Bosch
(Amazon Prime)
What it is: Titus Welliver stars as Harry Bosch, a steely, determined homicide detective keeping watch over the City of Angels in this Amazon Prime original series. Each season follows one major case and strikes the perfect balance between contemporary crime grit and smooth, yesteryear noir.
Why you should watch it: Bosch may be the best crime series you’ve never heard of. Change that! Co-creator Eric Ellis Overmyer is a seasoned vet of the genre; Homicide: The Movie and Law & Order both earned him Emmy nominations in 2000 and 2002, respectively. He knows his way around the daily dramas of LAPD homicide and proves the perfect collaborator for the source material’s author, Michael Connelly.
Where to watch: Amazon
Commitment: Approx. 51 hours (for the first six seasons)
97%
Central Park
(Apple TV+)
What it is: Save Manhattan’s famous Central Park from condo developers, save the world. And sing while you do it! That’s the basic premise of this animated series from Bob’s Burgers mastermind Loren Bouchard and co-creators Nora Smith and Josh Gad, which follows a family who live in the park as they fend off land developers vying to expand the city’s notoriously in-demand real estate.
Why you should watch it: Kathryn Hahn is doing more than stealing the show on WandaVision this year. She’s one of the many voice talents on Central Park, along with Gad, Stanley Tucci, Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom Jr., Tituss Burgess, and the list goes on! Plus, you’ll hear songs from Sara Bareilles, Fiona Apple, Meghan Trainor, Cyndi Lauper, Alan Menken, and more. Sounds like a recipe for success to us! (And Apple thinks so, too, considering the streamer’s already ordered Season 3.) Season 2 premieres June 25 on Apple TV+.
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Commitment: Approx. 4 hours (for the first season)
Thumbnail image: Patrick Harbron/CBS ©2019 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved; © Marvel Studios 2020. All Rights Reserved; © OWN
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(Photo by Marvel Studios / Disney, 20th Century Fox, Miramax, TriStar)
For their bravery, wit, general badassery, and unbroken spirit in the face of enormous challenges (be they gender discrimination or acid-hissing aliens), we pay tribute to 87 Fearless Movie Women Who Inspire Us.
How did we arrive at our top 87? With the help of a fearless panel of women critics made up of some of the best writers in the industry, including a few on the Rotten Tomatoes staff. Starting with a long list of candidates, they whittled down the list to an initial set of 72 amazingly heroic characters and ordered them, crowning the most fearless woman movie hero in the process. Want to know more about the ladies who voted? We included their bios at the end! Then, in addition to their contributions, which make up the bulk of the list, we also added a handful of more recent entries chosen by the RT staff.
The final list (you can watch every movie in a special FandangoNOW collection) gives compelling insight into which heroes have resonated through the years, women whose big-screen impact remains even as the times change. We have the usual suspects along with plenty of surprises (Working Girl, your day has come!), and the only way to discover them all is reading on for the 87 fearless women movie heroes — and groups of heroes — who inspire us!
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#1One of the appeals of science-fiction is the luxury to comment on modern issues and social mores, or even eschew them completely. Take a look at the diverse space crews in Star Trek, Sunshine, or Alien, where people are hired based on nothing but competence, and none have proven their competence under extreme pressure as well as Ellen Ripley. She’s tough, pragmatic, and cunning in Alien. Journey with Ripley into Aliens and we get to see her in a new light: mothering and nurturing with hints of deep empathy (Sigourney Weaver was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this performance), which only makes the Xenomorph-stomping side of her even more badass.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
#2And on the other side of the Sigourney spectrum, Weaver here plays Katharine, a particular kind of woman who’s nasty to the competition: other women. The object of her scorn is her secretary, Tess McGill (played by Melanie Griffith), who has her great ideas stolen by Katharine. The plucky Tess in turn pretends to be her boss’s colleague, and proceeds to shake things up in this corporate Cinderella story. Who doesn’t dream of one day suddenly arriving in a higher echelon of society? Of course, it’s what you do once you get there that’s important, and the glowing and tenacious Tess makes the most of it.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Marvel)
#3Hard-drinking, ass-kicking Valkyrie makes no apologies for her choices and draws solid boundaries. Sure, she’s flawed, but that’s what makes her successes so sweet. That she’s played by Tessa Thompson doubles the fun.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
#4Letitia Wright proved that a sister doesn’t have to sit in the shadow of her sibling simply because he’s king. Her Shuri has the smarts and the sass to cut her own path, making her technical genius essential not only to the Kingdom of Wakanda, but also the Avengers’ recent efforts to take down the tyrant Thanos.
(Photo by Fox 2000 Pictures)
#5Don’t ask us to choose a favorite among Hidden Figures’ Space Race heroines: Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson. The Oscar-nominated drama tells the story of a real-life team of female African-American mathematicians crucial to NASA’s early space program.
(Photo by )
#6As Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron blazed a trail for enslaved post-apocalyptic cult wives in skimpy clothing – literally. With an assist from Max (Tom Hardy), soldier Furiosa set the road on fire to rescue her charges from madman Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), leader of the Citadel.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Lucasfilm Ltd)
#7Daisy Ridley gave girls everywhere – and full-grown women, in truth – a fresh new hero to adore when she debuted in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of humble origins, scrappy Rey overcomes her circumstances living as an orphan in a harsh environment to become an essential component in the Resistance. It helps, of course, that The Force is with her.
(Photo by Clay Enos/Warner Bros. Pictures)
#8Despite her superpowers and privileged background, Gal Gadot as Diana – princess of Themyscira and the Amazons, daughter of Queen Hippolyta and King of the Gods Zeus – retains her humility and a genuine care for humanity. She’s also the most rock solid member of DC’s boys club of Justice League superheroes.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#9Come on…she’s Princess Leia. She leads the Rebel Alliance. She saves the galaxy again and again (with a little help from Luke, and Han, and Chewy). She eventually becomes a revered general, but from the very start – when she first confronts Darth Vader at the beginning of Episode IV – A New Hope – she shows a defiant, fiery nature that never dims. In her defining film role, Carrie Fisher brings impeccable comic timing to this cosmic princess.
(Photo by Roadside Attractions)
#10Before she was Katniss, Jennifer Lawrence was Ree, the role that made her a star and earned her the first of four Oscar nominations. A no-nonsense teenager, Ree dares to brave the dangers lurking within the Ozark Mountains to track down her drug-dealing father and protect her siblings and their home. With each quietly treacherous encounter, she shows depth and instincts beyond her years, and a willingness to fight for what matters.
(Photo by )
#11You can’t have any fear when you’re going up against Hannibal Lecter – or at least you can’t show it. He’ll sniff it out from a mile away. But what’s exciting about Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning portrayal of the young FBI cadet is the way she works through her fear, harnessing that nervous energy alongside her powerful intellect and dogged determination. Clarice Starling is a hero for every little girl who thought she wasn’t good enough.
(Photo by Universal Pictures)
#12Julia Roberts won a best-actress Oscar for her charismatic portrayal of this larger-than-life, real-life figure. Erin Brockovich is repeatedly underestimated because of the flashy way she dresses and the brash way she carries herself. But as a single mom who becomes an unlikely environmental advocate, she’s a steely fighter. What she lacks in book smarts, she more than makes up for with heart. Steven Soderbergh’s film is an inspiring underdog story.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
#13Jane Craig is the toughest, sharpest, most prepared woman in the newsroom at all times, but she isn’t afraid to cry to let it all out when the pressure gets too great. Writer-director James L. Brooks created this feminist heroine, this workplace goddess, but Holly Hunter brilliantly brings her to life. She’s just so vibrant. Even when she’s sitting still (which isn’t often), you can feel her thinking. And while two men compete for her attention, no man could ever define her.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#14It would be easy to underestimate Marge Gunderson. Sure, she’s in a position of power as the Brainerd, Minnesota, police chief. But with her folksy manner – and the fact that she’s so pregnant, she’s about to burst – she’s not exactly the most intimidating figure. But in the hands of the brilliant Frances McDormand, she’s consistently the smartest and most fearless person in the room, and she remains one of the Coen brothers’ most enduring characters. You betcha.
(Photo by Marvel/Walt Disney Studios)
#15Danai Gurira plays Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje who specializes in spear fighting and strategic wig flipping. Of late, Okoye has been seen keeping company with Avengers.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#16Things Bridget Jones is prone to: accidents, fantasizing about sexy coworkers, worrying about her weight, and running mad into the snow wearing tiger-print underwear. All totally relatable things, so it’s no surprise she’s the highest-ranked romcom heroine on this list. It also doesn’t hurt that, at their best, Bridget’s movies are what romantic comedies aspire to: They’re fun, cute, and just when it feels like everything’s about to fall apart, there’s the exhilarating little twist at the end that leaves watchers feel like they’re floating on air.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures)
#17It’s true that Cher is a little oblivious to the world at large, but she’s just so earnest and she tries so hard. She discovers a passion for doing good after successfully matchmaking a pair of teachers, and after a series of difficult lessons learned, she makes an honest effort to escape her privileged bubble and become a better person. Like we all should.
(Photo by MGM Studios)
#18Thelma and Louise, best friends who stick by each other no matter what. And when their girls’ getaway weekend quickly turns from frivolous to frightening, they find even deeper levels of loyalty to each other. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon have an effortless chemistry with each other, and Ridley Scott’s intimate and thrilling film never judges these women for the decisions they make — or for the lengths to which they’ll go in the name of freedom.
(Photo by Warner Brothers)
#19Enduring racism, misogyny, and emotional, physical, and sexual violence, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg in her film debut) transcends her traumatic life in the rural South, finding friends, strength, and her own voice.
(Photo by Sony Pictures Classics)
#20As a transgender waitress, Marina constantly endures cruelty and confusion from the ignorant people around her. When the one man who loves her for who she truly is dies unexpectedly, she finds herself in the midst of an even more emotional, personal fight. Transgender actress Daniela Vega initially was hired as a consultant on Sebastian Lelio’s film; instead, she became its star, and A Fantastic Woman deservedly won this year’s foreign-language Oscar.
(Photo by TriStar Pictures)
#21Sarah Connor makes many want to be a better mother – or at least get to the gym and work on our triceps. The once-timid waitress crafts herself into a force of nature, a fearsome and visceral manifestation of pure maternal instinct. Played most memorably by Linda Hamilton in the first two Terminator movies, Sarah may seem unhinged, but she’s got laser-like focus when it comes to protecting her son, John, from the many threats coming his way.
(Photo by Miramax Films)
#22The return of blaxploitation queen, Pam Grier! What’s not to love? Especially in Quentin Tarantino’s killer love letter to South Bay Los Angeles. As Jackie Brown, Grier exudes classic cool with a tough exterior.
(Photo by Richard Olley/Columbia Pictures)
#23Jessica Chastain has made a career of playing quick-witted characters with nerves of steel. Nowhere is this truer than in her starring role in Kathryn Bigelow’s thrilling depiction of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Maya is obsessively focused in her pursuit of the al Qaeda leader. She’s a confident woman who has to be extra prepared to survive in a man’s world. But when the mission is over and she finally allows some emotion to shine through, it’s cathartic for us all.
(Photo by Warner Brothers/ Everett Collection)
#24She’s the smartest kid in the class, regardless of the subject. The hardest worker, too. And she’s proud of those qualities, making her an excellent role model for girls out there with an interest in math and science. But Hermione isn’t all about the books. Over the eight Harry Potter films, in Emma Watson’s increasingly confident hands, Hermione reveals her resourcefulness, loyalty, and grace. She’s a great student but an even better friend.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/ Everett Collection)
#25Howard Hawks’ celebrated screwball comedy benefited from a not-so-small change to the stage play it was based on: In the original The Front Page, Hildy Johnson was a male. But thanks to Rosalind Russell’s lively performance, as well as a few script changes she personally insisted upon, the character blossomed into an early icon of the independent working woman who’s not only just as effective at her job as her male counterparts, but also equally adept with a witty comeback.
(Photo by Walt Disney/ Everett Collection)
#26Elastigirl takes on all the trials of motherhood: She’s got hyper kids, a bored husband, and has to witness certain parts of her body unperkify. Elastigirl also just happens to be a superhero, with the fate of the world resting on her shoulders.
(Photo by Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)
#27Fans of the short-lived but beloved Fox sci-fi series Firefly were already familiar with Gina Torres‘ badassery as Zoe Washburne in Serenity. A veteran of the Unification War and second in command of the ship, Zoe is a strong and loyal ally who rarely pulls punches, whether she’s stating a controversial opinion or engaged in a literal fistfight. With her free spirit and deadly skills, it’s no wonder she became a fan favorite.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#28Dolly Parton is a national treasure, and 9 to 5 allows her to light up the screen with her sparkling, charismatic personality. But while Doralee may seem like a sweet Southern gal, she’s got a stiff backbone and a sharp tongue, and she isn’t afraid to use them when she’s crossed. When she finally stands up to her sexist bully of a boss alongside co-workers Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, it’s nothing short of a revolution – one that remains sadly relevant today.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
#29The story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is one that deserves to be told, and it’s Geena Davis‘ Dottie Hinson who grounds this fictional account. She’s a talented local player who becomes the star of the Rockford Peaches, and it’s her quick thinking that brings publicity to the sport. When her decision to play in the World Series leads to a spectacular finish, she also demonstrates a very human vulnerability, making her a strong but relatable heroine.
(Photo by Focus Features/courtesy Everett Collection)
#30Jane Austen’s classic heroine Elizabeth Bennet jumps off the page in the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley, who gives audiences an intelligent, down-to-Earth, sometimes literally dirty, but uncompromisingly steadfast leading lady.
(Photo by Everett Collection)
#31Never underestimate a sorority girl. They are organized and they know how to get what the want. In the case of Elle Woods, she goes after her law school goals with a smile on her face, a spring in her step, and an impeccably coordinated wardrobe. Reese Witherspoon is impossibly adorable in the role, with a potent combination of smarts and heart to shut down the naysayers who are foolish enough to judge her simply by her looks.
(Photo by Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection)
#32Talk brashly and carry a big sword. As Tom Cruise’s character unravels a complex time travel sci-fi story, a constant in his fluctuating world is Rita Vrataski aka the killer Angel of Verdun. But Emily Blunt gives life to Rita beyond burgeoning love interest. She takes the lead and makes the movie just as much her’s.
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
#33When Nick Fury sent that mysterious intergalactic text message right before disappearing into dust at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, eager fans knew what was in store. As played by Brie Larson, Captain Marvel is one of the most powerful superheroes in the MCU — if not THE most powerful — and she’s in such high demand that she spends most of her time battling evil on other planets. She shows up when it counts, though, and she can rock a mowhawk like nobody’s business.
(Photo by Paramount /Courtesy Everett Collection)
#34Though hit hard by tragedy and seemingly insurmountable odds of surviving an alien invasion, mother and daughter duo Evelin and Regan Abbott prove their mettle in A Quiet Place.
(Photo by Paramount Pictures / Courtesy: Everett Collection)
#35Played first in film by the groundbreaking star of the Star Trek TV series, Nichelle Nichols, the role was passed on to Zoe Saldana in the 2009 reboot film. Uhura, the USS Enterprise chief communications officer, was a critical crew member throughout the franchise in both TV and film.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#36Who can stand up to Hugh Jackman’s fierce Wolverine without flinching? His cloned daughter X-23. Dafne Keen imbued the preteen mutant, a.k.a. “Laura,” with a volatile mix of anger, despondency, obstinance, and hope – that we would very much like to see more of.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp./courtesy Everett Collection)
#37She’s Buffy. She slays vampires while juggling cheerleading and the SATs. But while Kristy Swanson gives the character a satricial bent, it’s the legendary TV adaptation that gives this character a lasting legacy. But the movie ain’t a bad place to start.
(Photo by Wilson Webb / © The Weinstein Company / courtesy Everett Collection)
It’s been a few years since Cate Blanchett’s had an Oscar nomination — don’t you think it’s time again? Ever since Blanchett’s international breakthrough — 1998’s Elizabeth, which got her nominated for her first Best Actress nod — she’s been a regular fixture at the Dolby Theater for the Oscar ceremonies, where she’s frequently recognized for the good-humored elegance she brings to her most iconic roles. She was double-nominated in 2008 for I’m Not There and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, while 2005 and 2014 got her Oscar wins for The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, respectively.
Blanchett got her start in native Australia, where steady stage and television roles eventually landed her in films Paradise Road and Oscar and Lucinda, both 1997 releases. It was only a year later that Elizabeth put her on the road to household name status, which was followed up with a mix of comedies (Pushing Tin), literary thrillers (Talented Mr. Ripley), and dramas (Charlotte Gray). Blanchett’s brief but highly memorable appearances as Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy meant fanboy cineaste goodwill for decades to come. Roles in the likes of Indiana Jones, Thor: Ragnarok, and The Aviator are just more on top.
Blanchett teams up with director Richard Linklater for Where’d You Go, Bernadette, based on the best-seller about an agoraphobic woman who goes missing. Is another awards contender imminent? Or is this something to show up on an “underrated gems” list on the internet somewhere in the future? Before we find out, we’re ranking Cate Blanchett’s best movies (and her worst) by Tomatometer!
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In 2019, Rotten Tomatoes turns 21, and to mark the occasion we’re celebrating with a series of features that look back at the brightest moments on screen of the past two decades – and one year – and the things that have us excited for the future.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has redefined the way viewers approach big budget, tentpole releases. Smartly adapting a philosophy which worked well in the comics, it created a living, breathing world for its inhabitants to populate, meet up, and fight common enemies in. It also created an unprecedented sense of momentum by constantly teasing the Next Big Thing – a tactic also borrowed from Marvel Comics’ event storylines crossing into various titles like X-Men and Thor. While the MCU may have only existed for roughly half of Rotten Tomatoes lifespan, it has created its fare share of memorable moments across 21 films – soon to be 22 with this week’s release of Avengers: Endgame. With that in mind, we present the 21 MCU moments we can never forget.
Of course, narrowing down the list to just 21 was a challenge – there have been, after all, 21 films in the MCU so far, most of which are filled with dozens of memorable moments. We tried to choose those that were not just memorable, but which also showed how the MCU was working differently than other franchises – surprise twists and scenes that pushed the universe in different directions – and we tried to share the love among the different titles. Sacrifices had to be made: How could we not include Thor’s extraordinary arrival in Wakanda? Or Okoye’s wig-snatching excellence? Or Gamora’s heartbreaking moment in Infinity War? That’s what the comments section is for: so have at us down there, and let us know what moments you think should have made the list.
Spoiler Warning: Key plot details about nearly every MCU movie follow. So, if you don’t wanna know what happened, don’t read on.
In a film brimming with great moments for both Spider-Man and Peter Parker (both Tom Holland), the moment Peter arrives for his date with Liz (Laura Harrier) only to discover The Vulture (Michael Keaton) is her father is probably our favorite. It is the most unexpected revelation in the film and gives it a whole new energy as Peter and Spidey’s storylines collide, leaving the viewers with a sense anything could happen from that point forward.
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
The impact of this moment may be dulled now that Coulson (Clark Gregg) has been leading S.H.I.E.L.D. on television for the last five years, but it was the most heart-wrenching reversal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s first team-up movie. Without his sacrifice, the Avengers never would’ve got their act together. So though he ultimately survived, the films still honor his encounter with Loki by keeping his second life secret from the team.
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
In a film that reverses the traditional superhero origin arc, Carol (Brie Larson) discovers the power was within her all along. Casting off the limiter tech the Kree told her was the source of her abilities, she literately ignites with power. For anyone who grew up told their innate skills were personality flaws, the moment resonates and sets Carol apart as one of the mightiest – if not the mightiest – Avenger.
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Marvel knew they had a winner in this scene, and it featured heavily in the trailers. While the fight is one of the most accomplished in any of the Marvel movies, it continues to resonate because Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) gave the Hydra agents a choice. For all the impressive battle choreography we’ve seen, the scene is still about Steve’s inherent sense of goodness and fair play. Well, and that he can survive a multi-story fall.
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Yondu (Michael Rooker) was always a charismatic character, but he wasn’t really a Guardian until this ultimate quip toward the end of Vol. 2. Utilizing some of that powerful Disney corporate synergy, it also marks the moment the character chose a side and fully committed to defending Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). Combined with his presence in the big Guardian group shot a few moments later and some thoughtful words with Peter, it makes his death all the more bittersweet.
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Few people get to make an entrance like Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). Long separated from her Asgardian sisters following their climatic battle with Hela (Cate Blanchett), she finds herself part of Sakaar’s strange society. And she survives with an unusual swagger which set plenty of fans’ hearts aflutter. When she steps off of her ship, tipsy and fierce at once, she’s approachable, flawed, strong, and freakin’ awesome. No wonder she’s joining the Endgame.
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While the first Guardians was filled with unexpectedly endearing moments, none were more unexpected than Baby Groot jamming to The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” In fact, it was so unexpected, Disney failed to produce a line of Baby Groot merchandise timed with the film’s premiere, leaving resourceful fans and Etsy shops to initially fill the gap. It is a testament to the sort of magic Marvel and its creative partners can pull off and the best emblem of the way Guardians resonated with viewers.
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If there is one long-standing criticism of Marvel movies, it is their habit of pitting the heroes against dark mirror versions of themselves – particularly in their origin movies. Doctor Strange confronted this critique by having Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) lock his ultimate adversary – the trans-dimensional death cloud Dormammu – in a time loop and bargaining with the entity to spare the Earth. That clever and innovative resolution is one we never stop citing as an MCU highlight.
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Black Panther is something of a romp in its first half. Like other Marvel films, it is filled with quips, good-natured ribbing, and a really fun car chase. But then comes this moment when everything turns. Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) trounces T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and asks the crowd watching on, “Is this your king?” It is both an indictment of our enjoyment of the king’s superhero antics and of his rule, taking the film in a new direction.
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Luis (Michael Peña) is a neo-cubist kind of guy. It is that sort of detail which makes Luis’s tendency to tell long-winded stories a delight. Between Peña’s ability to deliver the dialogue and actors like Anthony Mackie and Stan Lee learning to copy his cadence in expertly shot quick-cut flashbacks accompanying his stories, it is no wonder fans would like to see him recap the entire MCU from Iron Man to Infinity War.
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Pick your moment: The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) punching Thor after they defeat the Chitauri ship. The Hulk turning Loki into a rag doll as he smacks him into the Stark Tower floor. The Hulk fighting Fenris on, over, and below the remains of the Bifrost. Even Loki’s panic when he realizes Sakaar’s champion is the Hulk. Sure, they are all punchlines – literally in some cases – but they all honor the character’s immense strength in ways no movie devoted to the Hulk by himself ever quite accomplished.
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While all of the late Stan Lee’s cameos are memorable, we chose to single out this goofball Vol. 2 moment because it gives all of his scenes a context. Lee’s appearances – like the Hugh Hefner analogue in Iron Man, the postal worker looking for “Tony Stank” in Captain America: Civil War, and the school bus driver in Avengers: Infinity War – are all manifestations of a Watcher – cosmic entities who literally watch events unfold across the universe without interfering. It gives each jokey walk-on an added meaning and heartwarming meaning.
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In terms of iconic and surprising team-ups, we often think of key male combos like Thor and Rocket, but Infinity War features a killer battle between Proxima Midnight (Carrie Coon) and the combined might of Okoye (Danai Gurira), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). All fight fiercely, but it’s Nat’s declaration “she’s not alone” when Proxima first threatens Wanda that keeps this epic Wakanda battle in our minds.
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A good Marvel team-up generally sees the heroes fight among themselves before joining forces against a common foe. And in the larger MCU Infinity Saga, this is that moment. Filled with amazing action, great jokes, and Peter Parker’s debut as the MCU Spider-Man, it is the most memorable Marvel fight yet committed to screen. Sure, it brings the movie to a halt, but it is worth it just to see Peter inadvertently age-shame the rest of the Avengers.
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Few mid-credit stingers have a lasting impact like Thanos’s (Josh Brolin) first MCU appearance. Initially there to “court Death,” his smile was the first indication that Marvel Studios would seriously attempt a long-term event storyline. It was such an unusual idea, many expected him to be the villain in the second Avengers movie. But his smile also created a sense of momentum which ultimately made Infinity War the most anticipated of Avengers stories. (Until Endgame, of course.) Note: The above image shows Thanos in Guardians, not The Avengers.
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The MCU heroes are not big on catchphrases, but if Steve has one, it is “I could do this all day.” As seen in The First Avenger, it is his response to a bully who would like nothing more than to see the 98-pound Steve yield in a New York alley. It is also his response to the Red Skull’s (Hugo Weaving) taunting some time later, proving Steve will never bend to a bully. Sadly, the line took on a new meaning in Civil War, when he used it against friend Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), who was now, in his eyes, the bully.
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Black Panther eventually turns Killmonger into a dark mirror version of T’Challa – which, as we’ve mentioned, is a well-worn MCU trope – but it does it in the service of something so powerful, raw, and genuinely startling for any film that it deserves special recognition. A defeated Killmonger refuses aid, but makes one request: “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.” That statement, and the history bursting from it, leaves all who hear it shaken to their core.
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Every loss in Infinity War hits people differently, but none captured the collective feels of fans quite like Peter’s final moment with Tony. It all begins with that line just above, and some fans have theorized that his spider-sense gave him early warning about his own demise, making the scene all the more wrenching upon second viewing. Additionally, it is the ultimate expression of Tony’s failure. He spent whole movies trying to save the world in general and Peter in particular. Even when Peter inevitably returns, we expect this scene will always make people cry.
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Earlier, we mentioned Marvel Studios’ facility with generating interest in the Next Big Thing. And this is how it began: with Samuel L. Jackson making a 30-second cameo for those who thought to sit through Iron Man’s end credits. His few lines of dialogue proved to be a mission statement no one would expect – or believe – would lead to a sprawling portfolio of film franchises.
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But before that larger world could exist, Iron Man had to score the goal by doing something no other marquee cinematic superhero had ever done before: reveal himself to the world. While the films of their Distinguished Competition made duality and secret identities key plot points, Marvel tossed it all aside after one film. It was a bold choice at the time, but now it seems so natural that we sometimes forget to refer to Tony, Steve, or Nat by their superhero code names. Engendering that sort of familiarity makes this a key moment in MCU history.
And yet, if there is one most memorable and most defining moment, it is the pan across a destroyed New York street revealing the Avengers assembled for the first time in common purpose. The entire film – and the five films preceding it – lead up to this moment in which six superheroes (three of whom already starred in their own films) shared the screen and proved this crazy idea of an interconnected lattice work of film franchises could work. It also helps that it is a kick-ass shot uniting the film’s key theme with all of the expectations outside of the narrative. The Avengers can work together, and so can all these stars and different interests. We wouldn’t be at Endgame without this memorable moment.
94%
Hollywood doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to creating female characters, routinely giving them smaller parts and less screen time according to research collected by resource center Women and Hollywood. But what they do with that screen time? That is increasingly becoming more interesting. From Danai Gurira’s fierce Okoye tossing her wig so that she can better fight the enemy in Black Panther to Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince not thinking twice about entering No Man’s Land in Wonder Woman (or just some sassy lip service from old Hollywood greats like Mae West and Katharine Hepburn), there are quite a few moments of women in film that make us say “f–k yeah.” So we rounded up a few of our favorites for this list.
With her sultry purrs, swaying hips, and mastery of the double entendre, Mae West could easily take up 90-percent of the spots on this list. But the sheer moxie of her role in 1933’s I’m No Angel is an inspiration to us all. “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better,” she flaunts to Cary Grant’s wealthy Jack Clayton in director Wesley Ruggles’ salty romp. Here’s hoping HBO is still working on that biopic about West because the world needs her right now.
Never underestimate the cunning of a determined heiress. In this famous hitchhiking scene from director Frank Capra’s screwball comedy, Claudette Colbert’s headstrong Ellie Andrews shows Clark Gable’s washed-up reporter Peter Warne a much more effective way to stop traffic than the old waving thumb routine. The film – the first of three movies to win all of the five major Academy Awards – is adored by cinephiles and continues to be celebrated in current popular culture (perhaps you might remember it referenced in the modern-day cinematic classic, Sex and the City 2?).
Many old Hollywood films suffer from the virgin vs. temptress depiction of women, but Katharine Hepburn was not typically one for such simplicities. This film was her first big hit and the one that cemented the public’s knowledge of her unmistakable mid-Atlantic accent. “Dexter, would you mind doing something for me? Get the heck out of here,” she demands as shuts down her ex-husband, played by Cary Grant, who is intruding upon the celebration for her upcoming second marriage. (Because this is a 1940 romantic comedy, he will also become her new husband by the time the credits roll.)
This film adaptation of the Cole Porter play (itself an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew) was a celebration of female independence disguised as a cheery musical comedy. Take, for example, the bluntly titled solo “I Hate Men,” which is meant to represent one character’s complete and total side-eye to the concept of courtship. Lines like, “of all the types I’ve ever met within our democracy / I hate the most the athlete with his manner bold and brassy!” make it seem like not much has changed since the show hit Broadway in 1948 and then, eventually, theaters in 1953.
Never judge a movie by its title and never underestimate the craftiness of a buxom bombshell. There are so many great moments in director Howard Hawks’ musical comedy, but we love the way that Marilyn Monroe’s showgirl, Lorelei Lee, doesn’t raise her voice an octave above her trademark whisper when she tells off her intended’s disrespectful father, who dismisses her as another gold-digger. “Don’t you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty?,” she says. “You wouldn’t marry a girl just because she’s pretty, but my goodness, doesn’t it help?” Well, we do all lose our charms in the end …
It takes a lot of gumption to stand up to the King of Siam. After all, all you risk losing is a little self respect (and balance) if you agree to squat lower than his height whilst wearing a hoop skirt. But Anna (Deborah Kerr) did it, and she got through to the hard-headed monarch played by Yul Brynner. It eventually led to some pretty remarkable dancing and romance (with a clear understanding that this kind of thing can happen, of course).
A #MeToo moment long before the hashtag went mainstream, Audrey Hepburn’s bookshop owner and budding philosopher Jo Stockton is quite clear that teaching Fred Astaire’s older fashion photographer, Dick Avery, about empathy doesn’t mean that she wants to be kissed – “by you or anyone else.” They do lock lips at the end of the Stanley Donen-directed film, but by then it’s a mutually agreed-upon action.
With a flash of fuchsia ruffles and some fancy footwork, Rita Moreno’s Anita and her gal pals offer a piece of hope during the dance number for Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s song “America” in directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ 1957 film adaptation of the popular musical. This moment isn’t just for immigrants to this country with dreams of success (or just having your own washing machine); it symbolizes the ability to stand up to the bothersome men who might be holding you back.
So much of the legacy of outlaw Bonnie Parker is tied up in Faye Dunaway’s Oscar-nominated depiction of her in director Arthur Penn’s 1967 film: A bored young girl from a nowhere town who jumps at a chance to break from the rulebook that fate set out for her — even if it means going whole hog into a life of crime. The way she taunts this power and revels in the danger of it by telling Michael J. Pollard’s C.W. Moss that “we rob banks” is so brazenly anti-heroine that it makes even the most stringent pearl-clutchers pause and consider adding some excitement to their lives.
Maybe the world needs more vigilantes like Pam Grier’s eponymous crime fighter in writer-director Jack Hill’s 1973 blaxploitation film. A nurse who is sick of seeing her neighborhood (and, specifically, her own sister) destroyed by drug use, Coffy goes rogue to take down any and all responsible parties – especially the ones who double-cross her. Car-jacking, faking a drug-induced stupor, and the killing of corrupt cops ensue.
Carrie Fisher’s Leia Organa may be a princess, but she for sure isn’t a damsel waiting to be rescued. In the first few minutes alone of the 1977 Star Wars movie, A New Hope, she acts quickly to hide the blue prints for the Death Star space station, is so over the threat of an uber-villain like Darth Vader, and mouths off to Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), even though she seems headed for certain death. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo could never.
Sometimes all it takes is one woman who is willing to risk it all. Sally Field’s Oscar-winning turn in the role inspired by union activist Crystal Lee Sutton brought increased public attention to the need for safe and healthy working conditions. In the film’s stressful climax, we see her strongly and silently stand on her work table and hold up a sign with a single, solitary message: UNION. It works, even if she is hauled off to jail.
With all the workplace revenge fantasies about lecherous bosses that have been made, we really could just name director Colin Higgins’ seminal film and be done with it. But let’s concentrate on Dolly Parton’s fed-up Doralee Rhodes. Sick of being sexually harassed and gossiped about by her boss, Franklin Hart, Jr. (Dabney Coleman), she takes advantage of his current moment of immobility (he’s been kidnapped and tied up) to make him think she’s willing to change him from a “rooster to a hen in one shot” of her gun.
Apparently messing with fate is just asking to get your head squashed. By the end of director James Cameron’s first Terminator movie, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has embraced her inner badass and is ready to finish the job that resistance fighter Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) was sent from the future to do: Take down the killer robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and save humankind. How does she do this when pipe bombs aren’t enough? Flattening its head in a hydraulic press and uttering one obvious-but-mighty catchphrase (“you’re terminated, f—er!”).
There is so much pain and suffering in director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 period drama (and Alice Walker’s novel, which serves as its basis), but the idea of a woman encouraging a man to abuse another woman? That is squashed in one wrenching scene. “All my life I had to fight … but I ain’t never thought I’d have to fight in my own house!,” the hardened Sofia (Oprah Winfrey) challenges her step mother-in-law Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), who had herself become weak and submissive after a lifetime of abuse.
There comes a time when a woman can no longer handle the put-downs and harassments; a moment when she (hopefully) dares to prove her naysayers wrong and that she can (and will) amount to something without them. For Angela Viracco (Faith Prince), that moment came when she accepted that her lousy, kidnapping crook of a boyfriend Eddie (Chris Murney) was more interested in his own ego than her feelings. She calls him a “misguided … asshole” before walking out for “elocution class.”
“Get away from her, you bitch!” The phrase that will be forever associated with Alien franchise star Sigourney Weaver also works for so many of us who have never had the pleasure of battling an alien queen while wearing an exo-suit (try it the next time you’re at a club, a grocery store, or a dog park when someone gets inappropriately close to your friend). To her credit, Weaver has said that she thinks she got the line in one take. You better just start dealing with it, Hudson.
Burned out by life and distrustful of everyone and everything? Shirley MacLaine’s Ouiser understands. At this point in director Herbert Ross’ 1989 film adaptation of Robert Harling’s play, Ouiser has zero qualms about telling Julia Roberts’ Shelby that, in no uncertain terms, she does not want to be fixed up with some seemingly kind-hearted widower. Don’t take it personally, though. As Ouiser says, “I’m not crazy. I’ve just been in a very bad mood for 40 years.”
Even though Murray (Donald Faison) would eventually school Dionne (Stacey Dash) about the cultural significance of street slang in Clueless, Regina King has zero time for the vernacular in her breakout role as Shalika in director John Singleton’s 1991 coming-of-age dramedy Boyz n the Hood. As she blatantly puts it during a party, she “ain’t no ho.” All the respect for my future Oscar winner.
Meow. The battle of wits between Batman (Michael Keaton) and the Penguin (Danny DeVito) was getting kind of droll before Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman Simone Bileses her way into it in all her red-lipsticked glory. They would also soon learn that she’d turned the department store behind them into a powder keg (after lassoing guns out of the hands of two underpaid night security guards). Because that’s how you make an entrance.
Domestic abuse is so often a hidden crime, and it’s not something we should celebrate. But Tina Turner’s brave admittance of her own suffering (and Angela Bassett’s Oscar-nominated depiction of it in director Brian Gibson’s 1993 biopic) did wonders for mainstreaming a previously taboo topic. The scene where she fights in a limo, after so many people ignored her pain because of Ike Turner’s power, resonated with an unfortunate number of audience members.
The ’90s ultimate Final Girl, played by Neve Campbell, finally puts an end to Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu’s (Matthew Lillard) murder spree when she shoots the former square between the eyes. Warned that the killer always comes back, our heroine – who would go on to survive three more movies and a total of seven killers overall – pulls the trigger and declares, “Not in my movie.” Sidney Prescott: Breaking horror-movie rules since 1996.
Female empowerment sing-alongs are a trope in and of themselves. But a group of middle-aged women played by Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn who have been wronged by love and life rocking out in three-part harmony to a Lesley Gore staple in matching white suits? Yes, we would very much like to be invited to that party. We promise not to tell them what to do, what to say, and we will certainly not put them on display.
In the future, combat is still clearly required to survive. Milla Jovovich’s Leeloo, a humanoid reconstructed by scientists in 2263 from remaining cells in a sarcophagus, isn’t always sure if she likes people and the harm that they’ve done to the planet, but she is quite good at protecting us – especially when the bad guys come at her. She also made a collection of ‘90s mall rats (well, me) want red hair and white midriff tops.
Disney heroine Mulan (who is voiced by Ming-Na Wen) accomplishes quite a feat in directors Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft’s 1998 animated hit. Not only is she brave enough to masquerade as a man and enlist in the Chinese army in the name of sparing her father, a great warrior who is now in weakened health, but she and her trusty sidekicks are able to save the emperor from a bloody attack by the Huns – and get the entire city to put sexism aside and bow down to her.
Before Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman entered No Man’s Land or Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen braced for the Hunger Games arenas, Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity was bending the rules of time and space without breaking a sweat in her Latex for the Wachowskis’ cyber-punk dystopian thriller. She came with quite an introduction, after all. In the beginning few moments of the first Matrix, we see her sail onto rooftops, take down a fleet of police officers and stare death in the face as she gets out just in time. A role model to us all.
It’s easy to hate Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) in writer-director Alexander Payne’s 1999 adaptation of novelist Tom Perrotta’s political farce. She is a Type-A grating perfectionist and, chances are, she reminds you of some obnoxious overachiever who went to your high school. But she deserves her success and, in a spectacular art of verbal emasculation during one scene, you can see why: Matthew Broderick’s otherwise beloved high school teacher, Jim McAllister, thinks he’s cornered her into admitting she destroyed a rival candidate’s election campaign posters while implying that his true frustration with her is that she had an affair with his married, adult friend. Tracy goes on the attack and you instantly end up rooting for her.
Much of the beginning of director Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 biopic sets up why polite society should hate Julia Roberts’ Oscar-winning portrayal of the eponymous heroine. She’s got kids from different dads, has street smarts instead of framed diplomas, and used to be a beauty queen (“Oh, the horror!” to all of the above). But Erin’s able to get answers that others can’t by playing up her other, ahem, assets. “They’re called boobs, Ed,” she smirks when her boss (Albert Finney) asks how she acquired such necessary and privileged information.
Even if martial arts isn’t your thing, it’s hard not to ignore the beauty in director Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film. The 2000 movie is also a feminist mantra, as it concentrates on fighting techniques traditionally employed by women. No matter if you’re rooting for Michelle Yeoh’s skilled warrior or Zhang Ziyi’s governor’s daughter who secretly trained in the art of Wudang fighting, it is empowering to see them duel each other in one of the most thrilling sequences of the film, as it demonstrates exactly how deadly each of these ladies is.
Does Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty really look like someone who isn’t prepared to burn rubber in a drag race? Nope. And the opposing driver should have heeded her advice to “hit Hollywood Boulevard” if he was looking for a hook-up. All she was willing to offer him was an “adrenaline rush” and a chance to lose a chunk of change. She made good on both of those.
Reese Witherspoon’s pink-partial Elle Woods showed that one could care about the law and time-consuming hair and beauty regimens in director Robert Luketic’s brightly-colored comedy. All she had to do to get her client (Ali Larter) off the hook for murdering her husband is prove that the prosecution’s star witness’s alibi that she wasn’t around to see the gun go off was a bit frizzy at the ends (perms take a couple days without shampooing to set, don’t ya know?).
It’s complicated to watch the Kill Bill movies now, in the wake of star Uma Thurman’s allegations that Quentin Tarantino mistreated her on set. But, the writer-director’s 2003 ode to martial arts films still has a message about a woman’s revenge plot to take down her former colleagues and mentor/boss. The climax in the first movie happens after she murders a nemesis’ young protégé (after begging the girl to leave her be) and involves the epic, bloody slaying of a menagerie of swordfighters and knife throwers in suits. Hell hath no fury …
While condoning violence should not be encouraged, it’s easy to understand why Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) felt the need to punch the “foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach” Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) in the nose. The sniveling little rich brat had it coming; he’d just got an innocent hippogriff sentenced to death because he’d lied to his powerful father about why the animal attacked him.
It’s not difficult to be badass when you possess the ability to control blue fire, and Selma Blair’s Liz Sherman from the Hellboy films proved more than once that she was a force to be reckoned with. Sure, she came close to burning down a hospital (not her fault, really), but who comes to Hellboy’s aid when he’s being overwhelmed by demon pups? Liz flames on and incinerates the beasties — and fries a few demon eggs in the process — proving that behind every good man (or Hellboy), there’s an equally good woman.
The only true way to survive The Hunger Games’ eponymous cruel, futuristic gladiator arenas isn’t to kill a bunch of other teenagers – it’s to outsmart the people who forced you into them and then changed the rules at will so that the odds were never going to be in your favor. When killing her ally (and budding crush) Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) seems to be the only option for survival, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) bets big and pivots to suggest a double suicide pact on national television. It works, and they’re safe – for a while.
Who says a princess has to have a suitor? Tearing her constricting dress, Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) shows she’s a better shot than all of the “eligible” bachelors fighting for her hand in an archery contest. Much like her bouncy red curls that flow in all their glory, this medieval Scottish princess from directors Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman’s 2012 animated Disney film cannot be contained.
Sometimes the pressure is too much and you have to roar with all your might. This is especially true if you’re a little girl in the Louisiana bayou and you desperately want to please your father. Quvenzhané Wallis received an Oscar nomination for playing Hushpuppy, the six-year-old who is mighty enough to find her own means of survival as her world crumbles around her in director Benh Zeitlin’s 2012 drama.
It’s one thing to kill your deranged, megalomaniac captor. It’s quite another to do it during a dusty, gritty car chase in a post-apocalyptic action film, like director George Miller’s 2015 OScar-winner. Here, Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa finally destroys Hugh Keays-Byrne’s Immortan Joe after his years of abuse and horrendous crimes on her community, particularly the five women he’s kept for “breeding.”
Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) was one of the smartest mathematicians at NASA. She knew she had to choose her words carefully when her boss, Kevin Costner’s Al Harrison, asked her why she kept disappearing during her shift in front of co-workers who didn’t really trust her that much already. The answer to her problem was a simple enough one; she just needed someone else to solve it – in the still-segregated building, she needed a lavatory she was allowed to use to be near her office. And she got it.
Timid-seeming Elisa (Sally Hawkins) gets “moments” aplenty in Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning The Shape Of Water: a gorgeous dance sequence, a wonderfully matter-of-fact masturbation scene, a dreamy underwater awakening. But the one that had audiences cheering – and still does – is the scene in which she tells Michael Shannon’s cartoonishly awful Colonel Strickland “F–k you” in sign language.
As Charlize Theron’s MI6 field agent Lorraine Broughton deadpans to her interrogators in a debriefing, if she knew she’d be walking into a police ambush when she searched their dead colleague’s apartment, she would have “worn a different outfit.” Instead, she takes on a group of thugs like a real-life game of Whac-A-Mole – if, of course, that arcade game was traditionally played in over-the-knee black boots, a miniskirt, and a white trench coat.
It isn’t so much that Daisy Ridley’s Rey is able to hold her own in a fight with armed guards after Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren chooses her over his master, Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). Everyone knew that was coming. It’s when she realizes that Kylo still hasn’t come back to the light side of the Force and they battle for Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber so hard that it splits in two that things really get interesting.
Sometimes you want to emphasize with the villain – especially when she’s played with such vindictiveness as Cate Blanchett plays Thor’s big sister, Hela. And like so many other older siblings, she took away her brother’s favorite toy (his hammer!) when he refused to obey her. Sorry, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). You can’t win them all. But at least you still have chiseled arms and pretty blonde hair.
Well, they did call it No Man’s Land. Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince doesn’t care that soldiers haven’t been able to get the Germans to retreat from this bloody war zone. She only cares that people are suffering and they need her help. The scene, which some called the best superhero moment of the year when director Patty Jenkins’ film came out in 2017, showed a fearless, determined heroine courageously throw herself into battle in the name of protecting the innocent.
Danai Gurira’s Okoye can fight in an evening gown, but in a major act of toppling the patriarchy she feels more comfortable going into battle without her wig. This no-nonsense moment is both practical (why hold onto anything that’s a liability when things are about to get real?) and also an educational tool to teach mass audiences a lesson about Black womens’ hair.
Because one female superhero is great but three is even better, there’s this moment of comradery in Anthony and Joe Russo’s 2018 comic-book film: Danai Gurira’s Okoye had just gotten used to fighting with Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow when Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch descended from the skies to help them finish the fight. Okoye does ask an important question, though: “Why was she up there all this time?”
Want to prove your loyalty? Then don’t allude to the things better left unsaid. Emma Stone’s Abigail learned this lesson well when she attempted to bond with her cousin, Sarah (Rachel Weisz) over some casual bird shooting in the lawn belonging to their mistress, Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne. Given Sarah’s not-so-veiled threats, perhaps Abigail should have waited to have this conversation at a place where firearms weren’t involved.
The clacking of the mahjong tiles. The two random ladies who don’t appear to speak English. The unflinching courage of Constance Wu’s economics professor Rachel Chu in the face of her most fearsome adversary: Michelle Yeoh’s Eleanor Young, the stoic mother of her love, Nick (Henry Golding). This battle of wits at the end of director John M. Chu’s smash 2018 rom-com, Crazy Rich Asians, displays so much deep-seated aggression. But if you think this is about which side Henry will choose, you’re only seeing half the picture.
Lock and load. By the end of director John Krasinski’s 2018 horror film, Emily Blunt’s Evelyn Abbott has lost her husband, given birth in a tub as monsters stalked her, and just watched her deaf daughter’s hearing aid make another monster explode while also sending out the signal for more of them to come. No wonder she’s ready to take charge and survive.
In this futuristic dystopia, there’s no room for love or mercy when you’re a Hunter-Warrior (or bounty hunter). So why should cyborg Alita (Rosa Salazar) show mercy to Jackie Earle Haley’s nefarious Grewishka when she finally gets the upper hand after he sliced up her body? As she tells him in director Robert Rodriguez’s 2019 action thriller, “F–k your mercy.”
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal; © Marvel. All rights reserved. / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection)
When it finally arrives in 2019, Disney’s streaming platform will have some very special Marvel content, according to a Variety report that emerged on Tuesday. Marvel Studios will make its first foray into the television realm with an ongoing series of limited-run programs on the as-yet-unnamed Disney streaming service.
The initial two series reportedly will focus on Loki and Scarlet Witch, respectively, with actors Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen reprising their roles from Avengers: Infinity War and earlier Marvel Studios feature film efforts.
Unlike the previous Marvel television shows, produced by the functionally separate Marvel Entertainment, these limited series will have the direct stamp of Marvel Studios and the budgets to match. We’re also assuming they will employ the eight-episode format of many limited series.
But it makes for an exciting opportunity as the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s quipsters and supporting players will finally get stories all their own without the mainline Avengers stealing the spotlight. It may also be the place for a handful of previously unseen Marvel Comics characters to make their debut. Here is a look at what Loki and Scarlet Witch series might cover and 10 more characters worthy of the limited series treatment.
There are two limited series definitely on the horizon, if the report is correct: Loki and Scarlet Witch. While the latter is more of a supporting character, the former is anything but secondary. Loki has been a major element of the Thor films and was the Avengers’ first opponent. Nonetheless, he is a fan favorite and spinning him off into his own series means he can avoid betraying Thor for a little while.
It is easy to imagine a Loki limited series focusing on the God of Mischief’s attempt to play the hero as the remaining Asgardians look for a new home. It may also offer Loki a legitimate path to the throne and adoration should he be able to keep his inclinations in check. Those interior temptations could prove to be a tougher opponent than anything the cosmos can throw at him.
Wanda Maximoff’s story line meanwhile, could redefine the character. Lacking the option to use her mutant roots, the MCU Scarlet Witch is as much a product of the Infinity Stones and Hydra experimentation as anything else. It smoothed over the rough edges of her story, but left her in that off-screen place where she and Vision fell in love.
A limited series focusing on Wanda could offer the opportunity to introduce the mutants by way of her famous father Magneto. But it could also give the character a change to process everything she’s been through over the last few years and, perhaps, confront unresolved issues from those days in the Hydra installation.
Though he played an important role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) became something of a bit player in his subsequent MCU appearances. Granted, there is only so much screentime for Sam with Bucky (Sebastian Stan) hogging the screen and universe-shattering events transpiring around Team Cap.
A Falcon limited series could revolve around Sam finding a new role following the fourth Avengers film. Presuming he is willed back into existence, will he choose to stay a high-flying Avenger, return to his support-group days, or something altogether new? Come to think of it, the superhero community will need its own support group and Sam is uniquely qualified for that job.
Somewhere along the way, the MCU lost Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). To be fair, Marvel Comics lost her as well over the decades. She’s not exactly Thor’s one true pairing – like the god that he is, he certainly gets around – which means she never received a defining comic-book treatment to import into the films. Thor: The Dark World suggests an interesting character in her refusal to treat Asgardian magic as anything other than science, but as the Thor film series ultimately focused on the strained fraternal philia between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki, there was, ultimately, no room for Jane.
Marvel Comics solved the Jane problem by making her The Mighty Thor for a time, but a limited series could revolve around her attempts to understand the physical world of the MCU. In both of her on-screen appearances, she was always close to scientific breakthroughs Thor and the other Asgardians ultimately ruined. A series of science-based intrigue – or, indeed, Jane finally making that breakthrough – could woo Portman back to the role. Though, more likely, the part would have to be recast.
Luis (Michael Peña) is Scott Lang’s (Paul Rudd) scene-stealing prison buddy and business partner. He also has a way with a story. But as the Ant-Man films are more about Scott and the Pym family, Luis’ appearances are limited to his wild tales and tendency to deliver an important punch.
In a limited series, the character could take on some more dimension with a look at this family and his past. One of those cousins he references from time to time could be an interesting foil, as Luis suddenly finds himself a protagonist facing the sort of ethical dilemmas Scott faces in his feature films. At the very least, the show would offer an opportunity to reveal Luis’ last name.
As one of Captain Marvel’s best friends and an Avenger stalwart, Spider-Woman Jessica Drew is always on the periphery of the frame. She’s had a number of comic book series over the years, a short lived cartoon, and played key parts in some of Marvel Comics’ event story lines, but never appeared in live-action despite a winning combination of keen detective skills, a smart mouth, and a penchant for stumbling into trouble.
Her limited series could focus on her path to becoming a hero and unraveling her devilishly convoluted backstory, which includes a brief time as a Hydra operative. As one of the more inherently funny Marvel characters, her show would lend itself to a lighter tone than some of the others, but varying tone is key to Marvel’s film success.
Despite housing one of the Infinity Stones, Vision’s (Paul Bettany) story always plays in the margins of the Avengers feature films. His relationship with Scarlet Witch, for example, occurred almost entirely off-screen. It is an unfortunate truth of his MCU appearances as he is a unique and beloved Marvel hero with a long comic-book history and an easy-to-write screen conflict: his search for his own humanity.
But one of Vision’s more recent comic book tales, the 2015 The Vision series by Tom King and Gabriel Walta, provides a great template for a short-run television series. In it, Vision creates a typical American family for himself in the hopes of better integrating into society. It goes sideways almost immediately when his wife Virginia – whose mind was based on Scarlet Witch’s brain patterns – kills an attacking supervillain and hides the body for fear of risking her family’s freedom. Their children, Viv and Vin, also find their android adolescence to be a difficult journey. It’s a grim story, but perfect for the sort of drama limited series often feature.
Meme-worthy Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) is at once the most competent Avenger and the team’s most baffling member. While his comic-book counterpart is known for his bumbling and womanizing, the MCU Hawkeye is a family man who has his crap together. And because of this, his MCU appearances feel more like extended cameos.
In the limited series treatment, audiences could go back to the days before Clint had all his ducks in a row or his lovely family. It could focus on the journey from arrested manchild to highly effective S.H.I.E.L.D. operative the films never had time to explore. Alternatively, it could be a genre-busting family drama, with Clint and Laura (Linda Cardellini) raising their kids in a post-Avengers 4 world.
Somehow, Marvel Comics’ other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, has yet to make her live-action debut. She is a well-meaning ne’er-do-well who decided to take up detective work to make ends meet while trying to get accepted into the main Avengers team. She also has a cadre of friends and associates ready for television treatment and a primary nemesis in the long-time S.H.I.E.L.D. villain Madame Masque.
And thanks to a Los Angeles–based story line first outlined by Matt Fraction and Annie Wu and later refined by Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero, Kate is the character most ready for the jump to TV. A limited series may have to give her more of an origin, but it could just as easily skip to her detective days and make her adoption of a costumed persona part of the plot.
Now that we know Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) will debut in next March’s Captain Marvel, fans are already curious where her daughter Monica is hiding. In Marvel Comics lore, she took on the Captain Marvel identity in the 1980s after coming into contact with “interdimensional energies” and served as both an Avenger and the company’s primary Captain Marvel for a long time. She later adopted other identities, most recently settling on “Spectrum.” And though she led the Avengers at one point, she has habit of becoming a supporting or guest character in other heroes’ titles.
But as many assume she will be revealed in the present-day MCU with some sort of power, a limited series could focus on that hero training as supervised by the Avengers, much like her early appearances in the Avengers comic. Also that search for the right superhero identity could mirror her own interior struggle to discover herself.
As the no-nonsense librarian unimpressed by Stephen Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) quips, Wong (Benedict Wong) stole all of his scenes in Doctor Strange. He also stole his brief scenes in Avengers: Infinity War before teleporting back to the Sanctum Santorum. His fate in light of that film’s conclusion is unknown at the moment, but we fully expect him to be part of Doctor Strange 2’s supporting cast whenever it materialized from the mystical realms of development.
A limited series could focus on how Wong became the Kamar-Taj librarian. In the comics, Wong is the descendant of monks who have long served the Ancient One in the forbidden mountain monastery, but considering the hip edge of the MCU’s Wong, it is possible his journey to the Himalayas may share certain similarities to Strange’s origin. Alternatively, the series could examine how he aided survivors in New York following the Snap.
Yes, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) had a two-season television series. She also featured in one of those Marvel One-Shot short films and appeared in both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. But for us, that is not nearly enough screen time for a character whose exploits extend from World War II to the early 21st century. Also, we’re still miffed ABC chose to cancel Marvel’s Agent Carter and move fan-favorite Atwell to an uninspired legal drama that the network also cancelled.
But in the limited-series realm, a revived Agent Carter would not have to preserve its status quo or hedge its bets in hopes of renewal. It could tell a more complete and daring story than the ABC series. It could also resolve those dangling Leviathan plot lines – not that such closure is a strict requirement, mind you. The series could instead move Peggy to a new context during the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D. or even to a later decade as a member of the leadership group glimpsed in Ant-Man.
Of course, the notion of MCU limited series is still new and exciting. Even the statuses of the Loki and Scarlet Witch series could change by the time Marvel Studios really puts the project into production. But it all points to new and interesting storytelling avenue. One in which the characters can drive the story without having to justify continuing film or television series. That, in and of itself, is pretty cool.
Is there an MCU hero — or villain! — you’d like to see get his or her own series? Tell us in the comments!
(Photo by © Warner Bros.)
Neil Blomkamp is reassembling RoboCop, Joaquin Phoenix is getting his own Joker movie, and Robin is about to lead the Titans on streaming. That’s the great thing about our favorite characters: they’re never really gone – someone new can always bring them back. But how many of these adaptations really capture what we love about our favorite characters? And which adaptations do it best?
To find out, we took a deep look at 15 characters who have had at least five different versions of them made, and which have current or upcoming adaptations on the way. For some who’ve had dozens (thanks to public domain), we stuck to the 10 most famous versions. If a role was just recast during the same series – as opposed to a wholly new take – we counted them together. For each character, we also found their highest Tomatometer-rated portrayal – the ultimate arbiter of which version is the best (and likely the ultimate argument-starter among those who disagree!).
(Photo by © Orion/courtesy Everett Collection)
Number of RoboCops: 6
All the RoboCops: Original Trilogy (Peter Weller/Robert Burke), 1988 animated series (voice of Dan Hennessey), 1994 RoboCop TV Series (Richard Eden), RoboCop: Prime Directives TV series (Page Fletcher), 2014 RoboCop (Joel Kinnaman), Neil Blomkamp RoboCop (TBD)
The Best RoboCop: RoboCop (1987) 92%
No surprise, the original 1987 RoboCop is still rated highest. But we would never bet against Neil Blomkamp giving that version a run for its money.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite RoboCop
(Photo by ©Warner Home Video)
Number of Jokers: 17 and counting
10 Most Famous Jokers: ‘60s TV Series (Cesar Romero), 1989 Batman (Jack Nicholson), Batman: The Animated Series including Mask of the Phantasm and crossover films and series (voice of Mark Hamill), The Batman (voice of Kevin Michael Richardson), The Dark Knight (Heath Ledger), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (voice of Jeff Bennett), Suicide Squad (Jared Leto), The LEGO Batman Movie (Zach Galifianakis), Joker Origin Movie (Joaquin Phoenix), Martin Scorsese-Produced Joker Movie (Leonardo DiCaprio)
The Best Joker: Batman: The Animated Series () - -
At 97%, Batman: The Animated Series edges out even The Dark Knight’s 94% if we judge versions purely by Tomatometer. Morgan Jeffery of Digital spy praised the show’s voice cast, saying, “On top of its beautiful visuals and vocals, Batman also boasted a tone far more adult than one might expect from a comic book cartoon.” Hamill’s Joker is so acclaimed that he continued voicing him in many animated incarnations. However, as live-action Jokers go, Heath Ledger’s Oscar-winning portrayal is hard to top. Will Phoenix or DiCaprio do it?
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Joker
(Photo by © Warner Bros.)
Number of Batmans: 17 (including a radio show) and counting
10 Most Famous Batmans: ’60s Batman TV series (Adam West), The Batman/Superman Hour/Super Friends (voice of Olan Soule), Burton/Schumacher film series (Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney), Batman: The Animated Series through Justice League Unlimited (voice of Kevin Conroy), Batman Beyond (voice of Will Friedle), The Dark Knight trilogy (Christian Bale), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Diedrich Bader), Gotham (David Mazouz), DCEU (Ben Affleck), LEGO Movies (voice of Will Arnett), The Batman (TBA)
The Best Batman: Batman Beyond () 100%
Batman earned his highest Tomatometer score in the futuristic Batman Beyond with 100%. EW’s Ken Tucker said, “The new, black-winged, red-blooded Batman on display Saturday mornings will have you pouring a steaming mug of coffee and shouldering aside any nearby children to catch all the fresh fun and action.” In the live-action realm, Christian Bale’s Dark Knight trilogy is the most consistently Fresh Batman series with a high of 94% for The Dark Knight.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Batman
(Photo by © Lionsgate)
Number of Robin Hoods: Dozens
The 10 Most Famous Robin Hoods: 1922 Robin Hood (Douglas Fairbanks), The Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), Disney’s Robin Hood (voice of Brian Bedford), Robin and Marian (Sean Connery), Time Bandits (John Cleese), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Costner), Robin Hood (Patrick Bergin), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (Cary Elwes), 2010 Robin Hood (Russell Crowe), 2018 Robin Hood (Taron Egerton)
The Best Robin Hood: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) 100%
With 100%, Errol Flynn is hands-down the most acclaimed Robin Hood. Not bad considering Rotten Tomatoes didn’t exist yet in 1938! But our critics still respect the classic, with Village Voice’s Elliott Stein commenting, “Movie pageantry at its best, done in the grand manner of silent spectacles, brimming over with the sort of primitive energy that drew people to the movies in the first place.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Robin Hood
(Photo by ©Walt Disney Pictures)
Number of Mulans: 15
The 10 Most Famous Mulans: Hua Mulan Joins The Army (Hu Shan), Lady General Hua Mu Lan (Ivy Ling Po), The Saga of Mulan (Bai Shuxian), Disney Mulan franchise (voice of Ming-Na), The Secret of Mulan (uncredited voice), A Tough Side of a Lady (Mariane Chan), Mulan: Rise of a Warrior (Zhao Wei), Once Upon a Time (Jamie Chung), Live-Action Disney Mulan (Liu Yifei), Alex Graves-directed Mulan (TBD)
The Best Mulan: Mulan (1998) 91%
Since most of the Chinese film and television productions of the Mulan story weren’t available to international critics, the Disney Mulan currently wins on the Tomatometer by default. Film Journal International’s Wendy Weinstein wrote, “it is in the subtlety of its characters’ ‘acting’ that Mulan excels” and it does have an 86% Fresh rating. We have every hope for the upcoming live-action renditions, too.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Mulan
(Photo by ©Walt Disney)
Number of Tinker Bells: Dozens
10 Most Famous Tinker Bells: 1924 Peter Pan (Virginia Browne Faire), Disney’s Peter Pan/Return to Neverland (Silent), 1960 Peter Pan (stage light), Hook (Julia Roberts), Peter Pan (Ludivine Sagnier), Neverland (Keira Knightley), Tinker Bell film series (voice of Mae Whitman), Peter Pan Live (CGI), Once Upon a Time (Rose McIver), Live-Action Tinker Bell (Reese Witherspoon)
The Best Tinker Bell: Tinker Bell (2008) 90%
Tinker Bell’s solo movie is even fresher than the original Disney Peter Pan, and subsequent sequels are Fresh too. The L.A. Times’ Michael Ordona wrote, “To its target audience, it will be another self-empowerment fable with loads of imagination and colorful, painterly images (and a keen marketing blast for Disney fairies).” The 1924 film is praised unanimously by a handful of critics, so it’s worth seeking out.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Tinker Bell
(Photo by © The CW)
Number of Portrayals: 16 (including radio)
10 Most Famous Superman: Live-action serials (Kirk Alyn), Superman and the Mole Men + The Adventures of Superman (George Reeves), Superman: The Movie through Superman Returns (Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (Dean Cain), Superman: The Animated Series (voice of Tim Daly), Smallville (Tom Welling), Warner Animation Superman films (voices of Adam Baldwin, Kyle MacLachlan, Tim Daly, Mark Harmon, James Denton, Kevin Conroy, George Newbern, Matt Bomer, Sam Daly, Alan Tudyk, Jerry O’Connell, Benjamin Bratt), DCEU (Henry Cavill), Supergirl (Tyler Hoechlin), Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (voice of Nicolas Cage)
The Best Superman: Superman: The Movie (1978) 88%
You never forget your first Superman, so the franchise that began with Christopher Reeve’s 94% Fresh Superman: The Movie remains the most acclaimed. As recently as this May, The Times UK’s Ed Potton called Reeve “manlier and steelier than recent portrayals by Brandon Routh and Henry Cavill.” John J. Puccio of Movie Metroplis (appropriate name) said of Reeve “the casting department found someone with just the right charisma to pull it off.” Recently, Tyler Hoechlin’s portrayal of Kal El on a few episodes of Supergirl earned new raves. Digital Spy’s Morgan Jeffery says, “Tyler Hoechlin is the best live-action Man of Steel since the sorely underrated Dean Cain hung up his tights.” TV Fanatic’s Stacy Glanzman agrees that Hoechlin “nailed it.” Give him a few more seasons and see if he can catch up to Reeve!
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Superman
Sean Connery as James Bond
Number of Different James Bonds: 006
All the James Bonds: “Casino Royale” episode of Climax (Barry Nelson), EON Film Series (Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig), Casino Royale comedy (Peter Sellers, David Niven, Woody Allen), “The British Hero” episode of Omnibus (Christopher Cazenove in re-enactments), Never Say Never Again (Sean Connery), James Bond Jr. (voice of Corey Burton)
The Best Portrayal: 007: Goldfinger (1964) 99%
It’s the long-running EON films version of the character, obviously. At its height, these films scored a 97%. Roger Ebert remarked of Goldfinger and the franchise, “it is a great entertainment, and contains all the elements of the Bond formula that would work again and again.” Now, whether you pick Daniel Craig or Sean Connery as your favorite from this version…we’ll let that debate continue among Bond fans.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite James Bond
(Photo by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Number of Portrayals: 13 including Marvel animated guest appearances
10 Most Famous Hulks: The Marvel Super-Heroes (voice of Max Ferguson), The Incredible Hulk TV series (Lou Ferrigno), The Incredible Hulk animated series (voice of Bob Holt), The Marvel Action Hour (voice of Ron Perlman), The Incredible Hulk (voice of Neal McDonough), episodes of Iron Man: Armored Adventures (voice of Mark Gibbon), Superhero Squad Show (voice of Travis Willingham), Hulk (Eric Bana), MCU (Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo), The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes through Avengers Assemble and appearances on Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man (voice of Fred Tatasciore)
The Best Portrayal: Marvel's the Avengers (2012) 91%
With a 92%, The Avengers‘ incarnation of Hulk smashes the rest – and the MCU version as a whole, including Ed Norton and Mark Ruffolo’s tale,s has a Fresh average of 81.8% . The animated Earth’s Mightiest Heroes scores higher even than The Avengers, but with only five reviews, we’re still giving the title to the MCU’s Hulk Matt Brunson of Creative Loafing said when reviewing The Avengers, “The scene-stealer is Ruffalo, who provides Bruce Banner with a soulfulness missing in the portrayals by Bana and Norton.” Even CNN’s Tom Charity singled out the Hulk among other Avengers, saying, “Never underestimate the entertainment value of the Hulk Smash.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Hulk
(Photo by © Columbia)
Number of Spider-Man: 16
The 10 Most Famous Spider-Men: The Amazing Spider-Man (Nicholas Hammond), Spider-Man (voice of Christopher Daniel Barnes), Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (voice of Neil Patrick Harris), Ultimate Spider-Man and LEGO Marvel (voice of Drake Bell), Sam Raimi Trilogy (Tobey Maguire), Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 (Andrew Garfield), Turn Off The Dark (Reeve Carney and Justin Matthew Sargeant), LEGO Spider-Man (voice of Jackson Buffington), (MCU/Homecoming (Tom Holland), Into the Spider-verse (Jake Johnson and Shameik Moore)
Best Spider-Man: Spider-Man 2 (2004) 93%
With a peak at Spider-Man 2’s 93%, the Sam Raimi trilogy remains the most critically acclaimed Spider-Man films (Holland’s appearances in Captain America: Civil War and Homecoming comess close though.) AP’s Christy Lemire praised the series when reviewing the second film: “The web-slinging sequences are bigger-better-brighter-faster than the already spectacular ones in 2002’s Spider-Man, and at the same time, the film’s smaller emotional moments are denser, richer and more resonant than those in the first.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Spider-Man
(Photo by © The CW)
Number of Jugheads: 7
All the Jugheads: Radio show (voices of Hal Stone, Cameron Andrews and Arnold Stang), The Archie Show and spinoffs (voice of Howard Morris), The New Archies (voice of Michael Fantini), Archie’s Weird Mysteries (voice of Chris Lundquist), 1976 Archie pilot and ’78 special Archie Situation Comedy Musical Variety Show (Derrel Maury), Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again (Sam Whipple), Riverdale (Cole Sprouse)
Best Jughead: Riverdale () 81%
Riverdale has a series Tomatometer score of 88%, crowning Cole Sprouse as the best Jughead. It’s also the only take who’s been reviewed enough to have a Tomatometer score, but we have a feeling this CW fan favorite would likely win against his animated competition even if the data was there.
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Jughead
Number of He-Men: 5
All the He-Men: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (voice of John Erwin), Masters of the Universe (Dolph Lundgren), The New Adventures of He-Man (voice of Garry Chalke and Doug Parker), 2002 series (Cam Clarke), New Live-Action Film In Development
Best He-Man: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe () 100%
Boy, did all the Tomatometer critics grow up on the weekday afternoon cartoon in the ’80s, or what? Well, this one may still be up for grabs if they make a really cool live-action movie, but for now the original cartoon is the master. Nerdist’s Rosie Knight puts it in perspective saying, “Beloved for many reasons. There’s the notoriously rushed production… giving it a unique and charming look. It’s also revered for its vision of a kid friendly techno-barbarian landscape.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite He-Man
(Photo by © Netflix)
Number of Punishers: 6
All The Punishers: 1989 The Punisher (Dolph Lundgren), Spider-Man: The Animated Series (voice of John Beck), 2004 The Punisher (Thomas Jane), Punisher: War Zone and Super Hero Squad Show (Ray Stevenson), Netflix series (Jon Bernthal), Avengers Assemble episode “Planet Doom” (uncredited)
Best Punisher: Marvel's Daredevil: Season 2 () 81%
Bernthal remains the only certified Fresh Punisher, and his stint on Daredevil season 2 bested even his own series (though Marvel’s The Punisher is still Fresh). New York Observer’s Vinnie Mancuso singles out Bernthal’s haunted portrayal, “Jon Bernthal is the perfect Punisher because there is zero fun in his performance.”In reviewing Daredevil‘s second season, Aggressive Comix’s Steph Cozza adds, “The Punisher is the true MVP here.”
Poll: Vote for Your favorite Punisher
(Photo by © Toho Films)
Number of Godzillas: 9
All the Godzillas: 31 Toho Films, Hanna-Barbera Godzilla, Godzillaland, Godzilla Island, 1998 Godzilla, Godzilla: The Series, Nike commercial with Charles Barkle, Legendary Films’ Godzilla, Netflix Godzilla
The Best Godzilla: Godzilla (1954) 94%
With a 93% for the classic Gojira and seven more Fresh movies in the franchise, nobody’s done Godzilla better than Toho. The Washington Post’s Stephen Hunter put it best in 2004 when he said, “Its images of the destruction of the cities is far more powerful than in American films, where the cities are trashed for the pure pleasure of destruction, without any real sense of human loss.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Godzilla
King Kong, 1933
Number of Kongs: 9
All the Kongs: 1933 King Kong and Son of Kong (stop motion animation), 1966 King Kong animated series, King Kong vs. Godzilla and King Kong Escapes, 1976 King Kong (voice of Peter Cullen) and King Kong Lives (Peter Elliott), Kong: The Animated Series and Return to the Jungle, 2005 King Kong (Andy Serkis), Kong: King of Atlantis, Kong: King of the Apes (voice of Lee Tockar), Legendary King Kong (Toby Kebbell)
The Best Kong: King Kong (1933) 97%
Certified Fresh at 98%, the original 1933 Kong is still King (its sequel, rushed into release later in 1933, not so much). Robert Ebert explained why it still works nearly a century later, writing that “there is something ageless and primeval about King Kong that still somehow works.”
Poll: Vote for Your Favorite King Kong
There are many more characters who’ve been portrayed over and over again. Who are your favorites? Tell us in the comments.
To go by his words and deeds, Avengers: Infinity War’s Thanos (Josh Brolin) may be the most consummate and powerful foe the Marvel Cinematic Universe has yet unleashed. To hear him tell it, his attempt to give the universe balance by obtaining the Infinity Stones is a merciful and humane action. Perhaps more than any other Marvel villain, he is a hero in his own mind with goals he perceives as altruistic.
But will his Infinity War appearance make him one of the great film supervillains of all time? And what makes for greatness when it comes to villainy? Is it a grand plan executed with aplomb? An iconic look or an immediately quotable motto? Or is it a knack for banter with the hero? As more and more people see Infinity War, Thanos’s merits as one of the great villains will be debated, but let’s take a look at 20 of the big screen’s greatest superhero foes he will have to contend with to get that honor.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
The big screen’s first Joker was also television’s original Crown Prince of Crime. Romero memorably gave the character his psychotic laugh and off-kilter sense of humor. In the film, he also succeeds at being a cabin boy to a senile admiral. Armed with his repertoire and a “dehydration” gun, the Joker — along with the Penguin (Burgess Meredith), Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) — creates plenty of trouble for the Dynamic Duo.
Film Appearances: Batman: The Movie (1966), though he previously appeared in the Batman TV series.
Tomatometer: 80%
North American Box Office: $1.7 million
Destruction Factor: Turns the “United World” Security Council to a fine powder.
Memorable Line: “I’m afraid they’ll find our humor very, very dry!”
Powers: Puns and gag weapons.
Cosplay Cred: Few are ever willing to grow a Romero mustache for the perfect Joker ’66 look.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
As a deep-cover spy, Neville Sinclair was the toast of Hollywood with the ability to bed any woman and earn the trust of any man. But his attempt to secure Howard Hughes’s (Terry O’Quinn) experimental rocket pack fills him with a particular mania that serves to be his undoing. Also: his sophisticated movie star image is the perfect counterpoint to the unkempt style of the Rocketeer (Billy Campbell).
Film Appearances: The Rocketeer (1991)
Tomatometer: 62%
US Box Office: $46.7 million
Destruction Factor: Assists in the destruction of a dirigible, the rocket pack itself, and a portion of the “Hollywoodland” sign.
Memorable Line: “It wasn’t lies, Jenny. It vas acting.”
Powers: A strong resemblance to Errol Flynn and Timothy Dalton.
Cosplay Cred: Sadly, none.
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
The Phantasm is one of the most personal villains the animated Batman (Kevin Conroy) ever faced. In costume, the Phantasm speaks with the voice of Stacy Keach and strikes terror into Gotham’s organized crime families. But in reality, she is Andrea Beaumont (Dana Delany), the only woman who could ever pull Bruce Wayne away from his life as a vigilante. Sadly, the dissolution of their relationship leads them both to don masks and face the City’s worst criminals.
Film Appearances: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Tomatometer: 82%
US Box Office: $5.6 million
Destruction Factor: Batman’s heart.
Memorable Line: “Your Angel of Death awaits.”
Powers: Combat training and smoke bombs.
Cosplay Cred: Rare, but it’s memorable when you spot a Phantasm cosplay in the wild.
Though he seems to be a mentor, Elijah Price is really the architect of all of David Dunn’s (Bruce Willis) problems. (Sorry: Spoiler.) Though he is the only person to recognize the presence of superpowers in the world, years of abuse and neglect — to say nothing of his brittle bones — lead him to one conclusion: be the supervillain the world needs to find the hero it requires.
Film Appearances: Unbreakable (2000), thought M. Night Shyamalan is currently working on a follow-up for 2019 called, appropriately, Glass.
Tomatometer: 68%
Worldwide Box Office: $248.1 million
Destruction Factor: Derails a train to prove David is indestructible, among other acts of terrorism.
Memorable Line: “They called me Mr. Glass!”
Powers: A terrifying intellect.
Cosplay Cred: A surprisingly rare occurrence at comic cons.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox)
As both spy and confidant to Magneto (Ian McKellen), Mystique relies on her top martial arts skills and mutant ability to blend into any environment. But she is also the most visible example of Magneto’s crusade. Though she can choose to appear as anyone she wishes, Mystique’s natural blue serpentine appearance inspires fear in the world. The character was so memorable in the initial X-Men film series that the current cycle revolves around her, now played by Jennifer Lawrence.
Film Appearances: The X-Men franchise.
Tomatometer: X-Men: 81% (Certified Fresh), X2: X-Men United: 85% (Certified Fresh), X-Men: The Last Stand: 58%
Worldwide Box Office: X-Men: $296.3 million, X2: X-Men United: $407.7 million, X-Men: The Last Stand: $459.3 million
Destruction Factor: Though she has been known to blow stuff up now and again, that isn’t really her style. Instead she sows confusion and wreaks havoc by manipulating her foes.
Memorable Line: “You know, people like you are the reason I was afraid to go to school as a child.”
Powers: Shape-shifting.
Cosplay Cred: An extremely tough look to pull off at comic cons.
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
When Superman is overcome by the toxic effects of Gus Gorman’s (Richard Pryor) counterfeit Kryptonite, he turns into a self-centered jerk who would rather make time with a pretty lady than save a bunch of bus passengers on a disintegrating bridge. Reeve’s attempt to channel an all-id Superman does feel more “bad” than evil, but it provides a fun opportunity for Reeve to play against himself and presents the first on-screen exploration of an idea — “What if Superman were evil?” — that would become a major theme driving the narrative behind movies like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad.
Film Appearances: Superman III (1983)
Tomatometer: 26%
US Box Office: $60 million
Destruction Factor: Straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa ruined the Italian economy.
Memorable Line: “You always wanted to fly, Kent!”
Powers: All the powers of a Superman, but he’d rather drink Johnny Walker Red.
Cosplay Cred: Not nearly as common as it should be.
The merger of Nicholson’s persona with the Joker is one of Batman’s great strengths, but the performance is more nuanced than many gave it credit for at the time. Once he falls into the Axis Chemicals acid and adopts his clown persona, Nicholson loses some of his iconic cool to dig into the louder, broader aspects of Gotham’s #1 villain (e.g. the Smilex commercial). A consummate foe for the Batman of the late 1980s.
Film Appearances: Batman (1989)
Tomatometer: 72%
Worldwide Box Office: $411.3 million
Destruction Factor: Kills his boss, fries a business rival, and poisons Gotham City.
Memorable Line: “Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
Powers: Knowledge of chemistry and a flair for the theatrical.
Cosplay Cred: A fairly rare sight as other takes on the Joker became more popular.
(Photo by Walt Disney Studios)
The ultimate sycophant, Syndrome (née Buddy Pine) was a precursor of the sort of fan culture that eats itself for some perceived lack of purity. His jealousy of the supers leads to a lot of strife for the Parr Family and an America burnt out on superheroes. Nonetheless, his actions also lead to a possible return of heroes, despite an attempt to even the playing field.
Film Appearances: The Incredibles (2004)
Tomatometer: 97% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $633 million
Destruction Factor: His robots leave a path of destruction through the metro area the Parrs call home.
Memorable Line: “And when everyone’s super, no one will be.”
Powers: Zero point energy manipulation via technology.
Cosplay Cred: Virtually nonexistent, though memorably spotted on occasion.
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
As the personification of Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) id, Ultron’s attempts to secure the planet make clear Tony’s greatest failing: he cannot see the human cost in any of his endeavors. Powered by the Mind Stone, Ultron makes a final, ugly calculation in regards to humanity and sets out to destroy it. Also, since he’s based on Tony’s brain patterns, he quips. A lot.
Film Appearances: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Tomatometer: 75% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $1.41 billion
Destruction Factor: Raises – and razes – the entire nation of Sokovia; the ramifications of which are still being felt throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Memorable Line: “When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal.”
Powers: All the powers of an Iron Man, multiplied by the ability to self-replicate infinitely.
Cosplay Cred: Extremely rare, though a few Ultrons appeared at cons after the film’s release.
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
While DC Comics’ favorite cat burglar skirts the line between villain and ne’er-do-well, Catwoman’s initial involvement in a plot to disgrace Batman (Michael Keaton) earns her a spot on the list. Pfeiffer’s performance defined the character for a long time – even if she was partly inspired by the TV Catwomen of the 1960s – as she fought Batman and her own turmoil. In the end, her Catwoman chose her own way and never appeared in a film again. Not that anyone has ever been able to forget her.
Film Appearances: Batman Returns (1992)
Tomatometer: 81% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $266.8 million
Destruction Factor: She blows up Schreck’s Department Store in an early show of strength.
Memorable Line: “Meow.”
Powers: Nine lives and a filing system that is unstoppable.
Cosplay Cred: Though the film is over 25 years old, this Catwoman costume is still popular.
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Walt Disney Studios)
Yes, yes, he isn’t a villain by choice, as he’s very much a weapon of Hydra in the film, but Bucky Barnes is very effective at playing the part. His Soviet brainwashing is so effective that, when activated, almost no emotional appeal will work on him. Well, at least until his old friend Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America (Chris Evans), finally breaks through. And, really, Bucky’s relationship with Steve is part of what makes him so compelling.
Film Appearances: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), though Sebastian Stan first played Bucky Barnes in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
Tomatometer: Captain America: The Winter Soldier: 89% (Certified Fresh), Captain America: Civil War: 91% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: Captain America: The Winter Soldier: $714.3 million, Captain America: Civil War: $1.15 billion
Destruction Factor: Assists in bringing down S.H.I.E.L.D. and its helicarrier fleet.
Memorable Line: “Who the hell is Bucky?”
Powers: Heightened strength and agility, a cybernetic vibranium arm.
Cosplay Cred: A beloved fixture of con-going cosplayers.
(Photo by Sony Pictures)
Despite a strong work ethic and good management skills, Adrian Toomes turned to crime when Tony Stark and government officials bulldozed over his contract to clean up Manhattan following the Battle of New York. Granted, the swiftness with which he became a black market weapons manufacturer suggests all he ever needed was a gentle shove to embrace villainy. But the opening scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming made him immediately understandable and compelling as a villain; and even sympathetic once his relationship to Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) world is revealed.
Film Appearances: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Tomatometer: 92% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $880.1 million
Destruction Factor: Rips a ferry in half, crashes a Stark Industries jet, and blasts Logan Marshall-Green out of the MCU.
Memorable Line: “The rich, the powerful, like Stark, they don’t care about us! The world’s changed boys. Time we change too!”
Powers: A flying rig based on crashed Chitauri tech.
Cosplay Cred: Surprisingly rare costume in spite of a great adaptation of the comic book Vulture’s look.
Excusing some of the camp value to Hackman’s Luthor – particularly in the sequel – he exudes the key quality of Superman’s archfoe: egotism. Luthor, a real estate swindler in these films, only decides to fight Superman because his ego dictates it. Consequently, Superman cannot really appeal to his emotions; none are present as he plans to remake the West Coast in his image.
Film Appearances: Superman (1978), Superman II (1981)
Tomatometer: Superman: 93%, Superman II: 87%
Worldwide Box Office: Superman: $300 million, Superman II: $156.9 million
Destruction Factor: Nearly sank California into the Pacific.
Memorable Line: “There’s a strong streak of good in you, Superman. But then, nobody’s perfect… almost nobody.”
Powers: He is the greatest criminal mind of his time. He also owns a hefty Kryptonite necklace that he uses to weaken Superman.
Cosplay Cred: Between Hackman’s refusal to go bald and the appalling 1970s fashions, he is a truly rare cosplay sight.
(Photo by Marvel Studios)
Currently, the Avengers’ greatest foe is not a flamboyant god or a maniacal robot, but a sad, quiet man with a detailed plan and working knowledge of governmental procedures. Zemo destabilizes the world for a very personal and, ultimately, small goal: hurt the Avengers the way they hurt him. He also succeeds, leaving Captain America a fugitive and Tony Stark so isolated that he has to pal around with a spider-themed teenager hero.
Film Appearances: Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Tomatometer: 91% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $1.15 billion
Destruction Factor: With some smoke, a few explosions, and a very inconvenient truth, he brings down the Avengers. He also murders a few people along the way.
Memorable Line: “An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again, but one which crumbles from within? That’s dead… forever.”
Powers: Determination.
Cosplay Cred: Despite his comic book counterpart’s incredible fashion sense, the Marvel Cinematic Universe version inspires few to dress up.
(Photo by Columbia Pictures courtesy Everett Collection)
One of the most sympathetic villains on the list, Molina’s Doc Ock was as much a victim of his passions as he was a willing accomplice in a plan to destroy Spider-Man. The cruelty that emerges in him came from his cybernetic implants; a crucial detail that becomes clear when he finally reasserts control and realizes he was trying to kill his friend Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). Also, the warmth with which he welcomes Peter — a guy in desperate need of a positive male role model — makes his turn all the more tragic.
Film Appearances: Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Tomatometer: 93% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office: $783.8 million
Destruction Factor: His lab is completely destroyed during an experiment. He also leaves his mark on New York skyscrapers and the subway lines.
Memorable Line: “I will not die a monster.”
Powers: Super-tough robotic appendages.
Cosplay Cred: Popular in the wake of the film’s release, but has since faded.
(Photo by Warner Bros.)
Thanks to Stamp, Zod is as much a staple in Superman’s rogues gallery as Lex Luthor. Seemingly reserved, Zod can lash out without hesitation. Despite the air of refinement Stamp gives the character, he is just another petty dictator — a point underscored when he takes control of the White House (and, by implication, the world) only to suffer from conqueror’s boredom. Superman’s return late in the film comes as a relief to Zod, as debasing the son of Jor-El gives him something to do.
Film Appearances: Superman (1978), Superman II (1981)
Tomatometer: 87%
Worldwide Box Office: Superman: $300 million, Superman II: $156.9 million
Destruction Factor: He and his cohorts reshape Mount Rushmore and pummel the West Wing. They also make insurance premiums rise in Metropolis again.
Memorable Line: “Come to me, son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!”
Powers: All the powers of a Superman plus advanced military training.
Cosplay Cred: Zod’s look is just a little too disco for most cosplayers.
(Photo by © Marvel and © Walt Disney Pictures)
The secret shame of Wakanda, Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan) presents a legitimate concern to King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and his subjects, even if his methods are woefully misguided: Should Wakanda reveal itself to the outside world and help those who live with the legacy of the African slave trade? The character’s heady subtext is backed by Jordan’s gifted abilities as a performer.
Film Appearances: Black Panther (2018)
Tomatometer: 96% (Certified Fresh)
Worldwide Box Office (To Date): $1.34 billion
Destruction Factor: Destroys all but one of the heart-shaped herbs, which is far more devastating than any property damage he caused in the film.
Memorable Line: “Nah, just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from ships. ‘Cause they knew death was better than bondage.”
Powers: Thanks to the heart-shaped herb, all the powers of Black Panther; Navy SEAL training.
Cosplay Cred: Few could wait for a comic convention to dress in Killmonger’s now-iconic London look. Cosplayers dressed in his subsequent battle suit, which looks suspiciously like Vegeta’s from Dragonball Z, shortly after.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corp.)
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr is one of the most compelling antagonists in comics and film for one simple reason: he’s pretty much right. His methods may be unquestionably cruel to conventional humans, but he recognizes two sapient species cannot share the planet. Violence, subjugation, and pain are inevitable. And when his point of view is given McKellen’s voice, it becomes incredibly persuasive. The more optimistic philosophy of the X-Men looks naïve and childish in comparison.
Film Appearances: The X-Men Franchise
Tomatometer: X-Men: 81% (Certified Fresh), X2: X-Men United: 85% (Certified Fresh), X-Men: The Last Stand: 58%, X-Men: Days of Future Past: 90%
Worldwide Box Office: X-Men: $296.3 million, X2: X-Men United: $407.7 million, X-Men: The Last Stand: $459.4 million, X-Men: Days of Future Past: $747.9 million
Destruction Factor: He moves the Golden Gate Bridge to Alcatraz, turns Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) into a water creature, and renders a sick burn unto Rogue (Anna Paquin) about the white stripe in her hair.
Memorable Line: “Let’s just say God works too slowly.”
Powers: The ability to manipulate all metal.
Cosplay Cred: His initial low-key look is rarely imitated these days.
(Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Walt Disney Studios)
The power of persuasion is also a major weapon in the arsenal of the God of Lies. Loki is charismatic, witty, exciting, and a sharp dresser. He’s that bad boy who looks redeemable even as he opens a wormhole to let the Chitauri invade Earth. But then he has a good explanation for his bad choices: he was raised by the god who kidnapped him from his real family. And he means to do good, so shouldn’t that be enough? It’s no wonder Loki returns to the MCU time and again; his brand of villainy looks like it can be reasoned with. Even if he betrays Thor again, again, and again.
Film Appearances: Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), though he’s less a villain than a trickster — and even a bit of a hero — in the latter two.
Tomatometer: Thor: 77%, The Avengers: 92%, Thor: The Dark World: 66%, Thor: Ragnarok: 92%
Worldwide Box Office: Thor: $449.3 million, The Avengers: 1.52 million, Thor: The Dark World: $644.6 million, Thor: Ragnarok: $853.5 million
Destruction Factor: He seizes the throne of Asgard and almost murders Thor, then later precipitates the Battle of New York, which alerts the world to the presence of superpowered beings.
Memorable Line: “You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”
Powers: God-level abilities and a snake-oil salesman’s tongue.
Cosplay Cred: A perennial favorite, though his formal tux from Avengers was more popular in the wake of the film’s release.
(Photo by )
In an age when origins are required, Ledger’s Joker arrived on the scene without a name, place of birth, or a particular ambition. As Alfred (Michael Caine) put it, he just wants to see the world burn, and he even tells Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as much late in the film. His complete lack of backstory and motivation makes him the most unpredictable, dangerous supervillain on this list, and the purity of his cruelty makes him the most fascinating.
Film Appearances: The Dark Knight (2008)
Tomatometer: 94%
Worldwide Box Office: $1 billion
Destruction Factor: Took out most of Gotham’s entrenched mafia, destroyed Harvey Dent, and made the Batman Gotham’s Number One criminal.
Memorable Line: “Why so serious?”
Powers: None
Cosplay Cred: Thanks to the alterations to the classic Joker look, Ledger’s Joker costume remains popular at cons and at Halloween.
Iron Man (94%) | The Incredible Hulk (67%) | Iron Man 2 (73%) | Thor (77%) | Captain America: The First Avenger (79%) | Marvel’s The Avengers (92%)
Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. were not obvious pegs on which to hang a superhero movie — or the fortunes of a studio. Favreau’s biggest hit was a Christmas flick, which still had some time to go before becoming a classic, and Robert Downey Jr. was an acclaimed actor, but at that stage far from the world’s biggest star. But Marvel Studios and studio president Kevin Feige were determined to pick the best talent over marquee names. “It was liberating to make decisions like that, that I don’t know would have been made at other studios at the time,” Feige told Rotten Tomatoes when he sat down to talk about 10 years of the MCU. The decision paid off — Iron Man was beloved by critics (94% on the Tomatometer) and audiences alike (the film has an Audience Score of 91%).
Not all of Phase One’s films fared as well: The Incredible Hulk, Louis Leterrier’s reboot of the character, starring Edward Norton, was a sturdy effort, and is Fresh on the Tomatometer at 67%, but failed to set the world on fire — or launch a trilogy, as all other Phase One movies did. Mostly, however, critics and audiences rapturously embraced the assembling Avengers that Marvel Studios unleashed on multiplexes. Joss Whedon’s Avengers then took things next level with a 92% — a score that wouldn’t be matched again until Spider-Man: Homecoming. The secret sauce, Feige says, was there in the very first MCU effort. “What Jon brought to the process and what Robert brought to the process, as we were making Iron Man, laid the foundations — not only with the narrative and the story for where we’ve gone, now, almost 19 films with Infinity War — but also the tonality of our films and behind the scenes, the way we made the films.”
What follows is a history of the MCU, and reflection upon it, drawn form a sit-down interview between Feige and Rotten Tomatoes.
PHASE ONE | PHASE TWO | PHASE THREE
“I had been involved and Marvel had been involved at certain levels on other films before Iron Man, but always as a partner, never as the lead decision maker. The other studios spent the money to make the films – they had control of the films. When we got the chance to do it ourselves, there was a lot of pressure involved, because it was all on us. But I was very comfortable with that because: If we were to fail, at least we would have failed with the best intentions. And, Iron Man being our first film, we really believed in Tony Stark, we really believed in having a character that was as interesting, if not more interesting, outside of the costume as he was in the costume.”
Robert Downey Jr. and Director Jon Favreau on the set of 2008’s Iron Man (Photo by ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“Deciding that Marvel Studios’ Iron Man will be the marquee name allowed us to say, ‘Let’s just cast the best actor we can find.’ And it’s funny to remember now, [when] Robert Downey Jr. is one of the biggest stars on the planet. What he was then was one of the best actors on the planet – [if not] necessarily one of the biggest marquee stars on the planet. It was liberating to make decisions like that, that I don’t know would have been made at other studios at the time.”
“We do what we call friends-and-family screenings on all of our films, made up of neither friends nor family, but made up of people that we trust to tell us the truth and not tell anyone else about the horrifically rough version of the movie that we’re showing them at that point. On those early Iron Man screenings it was apparent that audiences loved Tony Stark, that audiences loved the redemption arc that Tony was undergoing in that movie. It was after those screenings… some of the executives at the studio at that time started making very big predictions for the opening weekend.”
Edward Norton in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. (Photo by ©Universal/courtesy Everett Collection)
“With The Incredible Hulk, we were trying to bring a Bruce Banner and a Hulk into the beginnings of the MCU, the beginnings of our cinematic universe. The thing about Hulk, and we realized this early on as we started working on The Avengers, is that he is a great character — who I do think can have standalone movies, and who I think would be great in his own standalone movies. There’s a wish fulfilment to Hulk that even the worst of us can be used for good – that, I think, is why that character has endured for as many years as it has. But there was also something fun that had never been explored on screen before, in either of the two movies or in his television series, [something] which had only been explored in the comics: Which was [what he is like] when he is part of an ensemble, when he is this unpredictable part of this ensemble.”
Hayley Atwell as Agent Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). (Photo by Jay Maidment/©Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
“From the beginning of my career, the notion of the damsel in distress was outdated, and when we started to make our own movies, we didn’t want to fall into that trope – we wanted to avoid it as much as possible. With Agent Carter, she is unbelievably capable at a time when it was very difficult to rise up the ranks in the military. We really wanted to create these female characters that were as strong and as capable as the heroes. Now, as we’ve continued to grow, that’s gotten even more apparent, to the point where they are the heroes. Literally right this second, Brie Larson is on the set of Captain Marvel in the first few weeks of photography; Evangeline Lilly has finished her role as The Wasp in Ant-man and the Wasp – and it will only grow from there. What Ryan Coogler did with Okoye, Nakia, and Shuri in Black Panther… they’re already iconic characters, and people are already asking, ‘When are they getting their movies? When are we getting the Shuri movie?’ The answer is: Nobody wants to see that more than me. And that’s a testament to that film and to those actresses. And to the world being ready, and overdue, to see these types of characters on the screen.”
Director Joss Whedon and Scarlett Johansson on set of The Avengers. (Photo by Zade Rosenthal, © Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection)
“Early on, we realized that the role of the filmmaker on our films is to bring a unique tonality and be able to maintain and ride that tone over the course of production and through post-production. We have amazing artists and technicians who can help with the scale, that can help with as big a canvas as it is. What the filmmakers need to do is not get lost in all of that and to focus on the great character work. The big danger of the first Avengers was just getting overwhelmed with action. So many superheroes, so much spectacle, so many special effects. The most interesting thing about the Avengers is: Why in the world are all these people in the same room together – and what would they do when they were in the same room together? Joss Whedon was an amazing writer, and had done amazing things that showed that character would not get lost amongst the spectacle. And, he of course exceeded all of our wildest expectations – twice.”
Jeff Goldblum sits down with Rotten Tomatoes Correspondent Jacqueline Coley to rate himself Fresh or Rotten in some of life’s key areas. Thor: Ragnarok is now available to stream and on DVD and Blu-ray.
This year, March kicks off with the Academy Awards (Sunday, March 4), and accordingly a bunch of the nominees are arriving on home video this month. Read on for the full list.
Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf star in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age comedy about a high school senior living in Sacramento who longs to leave her suburban hometown behind for New York City.
A companion to BBC’s groundbreaking nature documentaries Planet Earth and Planet Earth II, this series — also narrated by the peerless David Attenborough — focuses on the ecosystems and wildlife in our planets oceans and seas.
This animated film centers on a young girl living in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan who dresses up as a boy in order to find work and help support her family after her father is unjustly arrested.
The third chapter in Marvel’s Thor franchise revamps the God of Thunder as he teams up with Hulk, bro-nemy Loki, and a reluctant new ally to prevent the destruction of Asgard at the hands of a powerful threat with secret ties to his past.
Margaret Qualley and Melissa Leo star in this drama about a young nun’s struggles to hold onto her faith during a period of upheaval in the Catholic church.
Dan Stevens and Christopher Plummer star in this fact-based family drama about the intense six-week period when Charles Dickens penned the now classic A Christmas Carol.
Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer star in this romantic drama about an American 17-year-old from a privileged family spending his summer in Italy who falls in love with an older doctorate student interning for his father.
This animated film from Spain centers on a group of teenagers in a post-apocalyptic world who seek to escape the island where they live, while one of them holds a secret that could change everyone’s lives.
Based on the Margaret Atwood tale of the same name, this Hulu original drama takes place in a dystopian near future where fertile women are forced into servitude as surrogate birthing chattels for high-ranking officials in an autocratic government.
Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones star in Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi romance about a mute woman during the Cold War who falls in love with the humanoid aquatic creature being kept in captivity in the top secret lab where she works.
James Franco and Dave Franco star in this comedy drama based on the making of The Room, a film of notoriously ill repute by an unusual Hollywood hopeful of mysterious origin named Tommy Wiseau, who not only starred in the film but also financed it, wrote it, and directed it himself.
Margot Robbie, Allison Janney, and Sebastian Stan star in Craig Gillespie’s dramatization of the life of Tonya Harding, the American figure skater best known for her involvement in the attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan in 1994.
John Cena, Kate McKinnon, and Gina Rodriguez lend their voices to this animated film based on the popular children’s tale about a peace-loving bull who must find his way back home when he is mistaken for a dangerous beast and captured.
Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) finally unite and join forces with new heroes to take down a villain seeking to plunge the world into chaos.
Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan star in this update on the popular adventure film, in which four teens travel into the world of an old video game and must work together to survive.
Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig star in Alexander Payne’s high-concept satire about a married couple who choose to undergo a revolutionary shrinking procedure developed to help fight overpopulation.
Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson star in the third and final chapter of the Barden Bellas’ musical saga, which reunites the whole gang for a USO tour and some shenanigans on the side.
Rian Johnson helms the latest chapter of the Star Wars saga, which finds Rey (Daisy Ridley) seeking Jedi training from Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) as the rest of the resistance attempts to avoid being destroyed by Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and the First Order.
Dan Stevens and Aubrey Plaza star in Marvel’s FX drama that centers on David Haller, a mutant with powerful psychic abilities — and the son of X-Men leader Professor Xavier — dealing with mental instability.
Rami Malek and Portia Doubleday star in this USA Network drama about an antisocial cybersecurity engineer whose extracurricular activities attract the attention of a group of hacktivists and embroil him in dangerous conspiracy plots.
The winners of the 49th Annual NAACP Image Awards were announced this week. The honorees included some expected choices and a few surprises. Ava Duvernay took home the Entertainer of the Year award, while Girls Trip took home top prize for Outstanding Motion Picture.
Anthony Anderson — who himself won for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series, for his work on black-ish — returned to host the of the ceremony in Pasadena on Monday, January 15 (MLK Day).
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Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series
Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture – (Film)
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance – (Television or Film)
Outstanding New Artist
Outstanding Male Artist
Outstanding Female Artist
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration
Outstanding Jazz Album
Outstanding Gospel Album – (Traditional or Contemporary)
Outstanding Music Video
Outstanding Song – Traditional
Outstanding Song – Contemporary
Outstanding Album
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/ Auto-Biography
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry
Outstanding Literary Work – Children
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) announced the winners of the 23rd Annual Critics’ Choice Awards. Read through for the full list of winners below.
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There are dozens of movies released every year with the purpose of reaching the largest audiences in as many theaters as possible, and we’ve compiled the best of the biggest of 2017. As it turns out, a few smaller movies that later expanded into a wider release were the most acclaimed of the bunch, with Jordan Peele’s directorial debut Get Out leading the pack.
The order of the rank below reflects the Adjusted Score as of December 31, 2017. Scores might change over time.
98%
98%
92%
93%
99%
93%
92%
91%
97%
93%
2017 was a banner year for movies based on comic book properties, with highly regarded entries from the MCU, the X-Men universe, and the world of Spider-Man, but it was Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman that set the critics’ hearts afire.
The order of the rank below reflects the Adjusted Score as of December 31, 2017. Scores might change over time.
93%
93%
93%
92%
94%
A wildly popular box office force awakened as the much anticipated Skywalker tentpole Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrived with an explosive launch delivering the second biggest opening weekend of all-time. Disney and Lucasfilm amassed an eye-popping amount of business grossing estimated $220M in North America alone and $450M worldwide in the first weekend of play. With the Christmas holidays coming up in a week, the new space saga will demolish the billion dollar barrier within days.
Averaging a scorching $51,996 per theater from 4,232 locations in the U.S. and Canada, Last Jedi connected with the massive fan base and came in only 11% behind the $248M debut of 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens which still stands as the all-time record holder. That film enjoyed 32 years of anticipation from fans wanting to see the beloved original characters again. Last Jedi, on the other hand, is the third Star Wars movie in as many years and was always expected to open lower. But retaining 89% of the opening weekend audience was incredibly good, especially since the box office has been seeing franchise fatigue hit so many major brands out there.
Compared to last year’s spin-off film Rogue One, Last Jedi debuted a sturdy 42% higher. Disney has followed the James Cameron strategy by slotting Star Wars films in mid-December allowing them to open huge and then have Christmas help the second frame and New Years boost the third round. Titanic and Avatar began their leggy runs this way in 1997 and 2009, respectively. Seven of the eight largest opening weekends in history are now from Disney-owned films.
Critics and audiences alike have been enjoying the new Star Wars. Reviews were extremely positive with some calling the PG-13 pic the best installment of the entire saga. Moviegoers polled by CinemaScore gave a promising A grade. Studio data showed that the crowd was 58% male and 62% over 25. 30% of the weekend gross came from 3D formats and the film accounted for a whopping 82% of all money spent on the top ten films this weekend.
The weekend kicked off with a monster $104.8M opening day gross on Friday which included $45M from Thursday night previews. Both of those figures were the second biggest of all time behind Force Awakens which did $119.1M including $57M from pre-shows. Saturday dropped 39% to $64M and the studio is estimating a 20% dip Sunday to $51.3M. A year ago, Rogue One fell 19% on its Sunday. Add in Coco and Thor: Ragnarok and Disney is now in a position to control the number one spot over eight of the final nine weekends of 2017. The trio will probably join forces to gross over $3.3 billion worldwide and the studio has plenty of moneymakers on the calendar for next year including the next Avengers and Star Wars films.
Where does The Last Jedi go from here with the holidays coming up? If it follows the same trajectory as Rogue One from last year then it ends up with $755M domestic. If it follows Force Awakens however, then the mighty hit will soar to a jaw-dropping $831M beating Avatar for the number two spot on the list of all-time domestic blockbusters.
Outside of North America, Last Jedi premiered to a giant $230M from all markets except China which opens on January 5. Rogue One and Force Awakens also released there in early January. Top debuts were the U.K. at $36.7M, Germany with $23.6M and France at $18.1M. Proportionately, recent Star Wars movies had domestic shares that were higher than what many other Hollywood action franchises had. Force Awakens was at 45.3% while Rogue One was a very high 50.5%. 30-40% is more common for big action and sci-fi tentpoles. Still, the road ahead for The Last Jedi could see a path to the neighborhood of $1.7 billion worldwide, and that’s not counting sales from merchandise, video release, TV rights, etc.
In a box office galaxy far, far away in second place was Fox’s new animated entry Ferdinand which opened to an estimated $13.3M from 3,621 locations for a mild $3,680 average. The PG-rated comedy is meant to make its cash over the long term across the holiday season and the studio positioned it to grab a seat in the marketplace just as schools around the country begin their end-of-year holiday breaks each day throughout this week ahead. Two years ago, the studio countered Force Awakens with the kidpic Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip which bowed to a similar $14.3M before finishing at six times that amount with $85.9M.
After three weeks atop the box office charts, Pixar’s Coco had to give up the crown to one of its Disney siblings. Down 46%, the toon grossed an estimated $10M and boosted its cume to $150.8M. Coco is now the 18th film from the animation giant to break $150M domestic. That’s every one of its movies, with the lone exception of The Good Dinosaur. The global tally is now $448.2M led by China’s amazing $153.9M which is even bigger than the North American take. With the holiday season still ahead, plus openings in six major overseas markets to come, there is much potential still ahead for the Mexico-set pic.
Against all the high-profile blockbusters this season, Julia Roberts has quietly been building a little fortune with her new film Wonder which slipped 36% to an estimated $5.4M in its fifth weekend pushing the cume up to an impressive $109.3M. The Lionsgate hit is the top-grossing film that the Oscar winner has anchored since Erin Brockovich in 2000.
Suffering one of the larger drops in the top ten, Justice League fell 57% to an estimated $4.2M as a new action tentpole seized control of audience attention. Warner Bros. has banked $219.5M to date and should be headed for a domestic final of about $235M putting it just ahead of last November’s super hero offering Doctor Strange which did $232.6M. Considering how Justice League had more firepower from a collection of better known comic book characters, the studio can’t be pleased with the result. The international take is now $414.5M (a quarter of that just from China) and global is now $634M. Finishing up in the neighborhood of $675M worldwide now seems likely which would be almost identical to Strange.
Audiences continued to flock to the comedy sequel Daddy’s Home 2 which has displayed solid legs since debuting over a month ago. The Paramount film did an estimated $3.8M, off 36%, for a $96.6M total. Marvel sequel Thor: Ragnarok took a stronger hit falling 53% to an estimated $3M giving Disney $306.4M domestic and $841.8M global.
After a formidable nationwide expansion, James Franco’s The Disaster Artist stumbled falling 59% to an estimated $2.6M despite boosting its theater count by 20%. A24 sits at $12.9M to date. Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express followed by declining 52% to an estimated $2.5M with a cume to date of $97.3M. Awards contender Lady Bird rounded out the top ten with an estimated $2.1M, down 39%, for a $26M sum.
In the shadow of Luke Skywalker, a number of smaller films generated solid results in limited release as they expanded during their journey through awards season. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water grossed an estimated $1.7M from 158 locations for a $11,000 average and $3.6M total for Fox Searchlight. The Winston Churchill pic Darkest Hour took in an estimated $850,000 from 84 playdates for a $10,119 average for Focus which has made $2.3M so far. Both films expand next weekend into over 700 theaters nationwide a piece.
The Sony Classics drama Call Me by Your Name played in 30 sites and collected an estimated $492,000 for a $16,400 average. Cume is $2M. I, Tonya featuring Margot Robbie grossed an estimated $176,000 from just five houses for an impressive $35,200 average. Neon’s cume is $554,000 with most of the release still ahead.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $267M which was up 31% from last year when Rogue One opened at number one with $155.1M; but down 12% from 2015 when The Force Awakens debuted in the top spot with $248M.
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From November through March, the best movies of 2017/2018 are getting recognized by critics, press, fans, and members of the film industry from all over, in a number of award competitions. To keep track of all that, and help you make educated decisions when you place your Oscar bets, we put together a ranking of movies by the number of awards won, and their respective categories, including all the major professional guild awards and the critics’ groups that qualify for membership on Rotten Tomatoes. Read on to find out where your favorite movies stand, and who is leading the pack. And make sure to come back after each award event for an updated list.
