Top 10 Movies of 2015… So Far

Review by Austin Clemen

As the year is starting to wind down, and before the holiday movie season comes, I figured it would be a good idea to give you all my top 10 favorite movies of 2015… so far.

1. The Martian – 9.5: This movie stars Matt Damon and is directed by Ridley Scott.  The acting job, supporting cast, cinematography, and directing is all way above and beyond what I expected.  It is also the funniest movie I have seen all year long.  That makes The Martian my number one movie of the year so far.

2. Avengers: Age of Ultron – 9.3: Is it as good as the first Avengers movie? Not quite.  Is as good as Guardians of the Galaxy? No.  What this movie is, however, is it is a good movie. The only major flaw I have with Age of Ultron is that the villain, Ultron, was under-developed.  The rest of this movie, from the action, to the grandness, to the acting, and everything in-between was superb.  There were a few slow parts in it, though.

3. Inside Out – 9.3: This is the movie that should win the Animated Movie of the Year award at the Oscars.  It pulled on my heart strings and took me in every emotional direction.  It is a great children’s movie that is actually extremely enjoyable for adults.  This is my favorite animated movie since Toy Story 3.

4. Bridge of Spies – 8.8: Bridge of Spies is directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Tom Hanks.  Sign me up for that.  The acting in this movie is spot on and it is another example of how great Steven Spielberg is at directing time pieces.  The only thing keeping it from being higher on my list is that it is a dialogue propelled and oriented film, which does not cater to the mass audiences.

5. Mad Max: Fury Road – 8.8: Mad Max‘s action and suspense keep me on edge throughout most of the movie.  The directing and practical effects make it even greater.  However, the dialogue and character development is sorely lacking which is what mainly brings down my rating for the movie.

6. War Room – 8.7: War Room is a movie that demonstrates the power of prayer.  I loved this movie as the acting was way better than I expected and this is probably one of the best produced Christian movie that has ever been made. The story did seem to move a little quickly, but that’s something I can handle because it is such a great story.

7. Ant-Man – 8.5: Ant-Man was the perfect way for Marvel to come off of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  It reminded us that although there are the Avengers, they can’t do everything and some things need to be handled by others.  I loved it just as much as the first Iron Man.  This is also the second funniest movie of the year in my opinion and I can’t remember a time in the movie where I was bored for more than a minute at a time, which was rare in itself.

8. Terminator Genisys – 7.5: Terminator Genisys is the best Terminator sequel since Terminator 2.  The acting in it is a little dry, but it was still a decently exciting movie.

9. Home – 6.7: Home is only somewhat enjoyable.  I can enjoy it when I turn off my brain, but that isn’t good for a movie that’s meant to be aimed at the family. However, if you look at it from a child’s viewpoint, it is a very enjoyable movie.  I just wish they hadn’t used Rihanna as the voice actor for the girl in the movie.

10. Pan – 6.7: Pan is a movie with two actors who were able to do well with what they were given (Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard and Levi Miller as Peter Pan). Outside of those two, the acting isn’t the greatest.  The movie itself has a mixture of really good CGI/sets and really bad CGI.  Almost every concept introduced in the movie never gets fully played out, either, making me place Pan down in my number 10 spot.