Author: Isabelle Shaw

I’m a huge fan of going to watch movies in theatres, it helps me keep all my focus on one area rather than get distracted by my phone or something else while watching at home. Sure, it drives me crazy if I hear people talking, and sometimes I feel uncomfortable due to people I don’t know sitting next to me, but I highly prefer that to watching movies at home! I love watching movies with my family, and sometimes it’s easier to just wait until a movie is out on a streaming service rather than all go to the theatres, but I hate when they end up talking during the movie, so with the common theatre rule of ‘no talking when the movies playing,’ I just prefer going to the theatre!

I should preface this by saying I won’t give away any spoilers for movies, even if they were released at the beginning of the year, or are out on streaming platforms now. They’re new enough that I would hate to get spoiled just because I don’t have the time to see a movie the second it comes out!

So grab your popcorn and choice of drink, and join me as I rank my top 10 films I’ve seen this year! These are only movies I’ve seen in theatres, not including anything released just on streaming platforms.

Number 10…
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania! (Released February 17, 2023)
Now, while normally I’ve loved Marvel movies in the past, I think I’ve been so overwhelmed with Disney+ Marvel original TV shows, that I’ve fallen into a general dislike of Marvel movies, a fatigue that grows more every time I see a upcoming Marvel movie. While it was visually stunning, had good laughs, and Michelle Pfeiffer did amazing in it, I felt myself just waiting for this movie to end. I see Marvel movies with a friend, then a second time with family! At least… I used to. I couldn’t bring myself to see this film a second time to give it another chance! That’s why, despite my love for the Ant-Man character, I had to rank this movie last.

Number 9…
Scream VI (March 10, 2023)
If I’m being honest, I fully forgot I had seen this movie in 2023. For whatever reason, it felt like I had watched it in 2022! The Scream franchise is one of my absolute favorite horror franchises of all! Actually, it’s probably my favorite period! Though I think forgetting I watched it in 2023 really says how much I enjoyed it. It wasn’t my favorite of the franchise, that goes to the original, but it wasn’t my least favorite! I loved the callbacks to the previous killers, but at the end of the day it really isn’t a stand out movie for me.

Number 8…
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June 9, 2023)
I had watched all the previous Michael Bay directed Transformers movies along with the 2018 Bumblebee movie (Which is my absolute favorite Transformers movie), so I definitely knew the characters and what was happening for this movie. I love the new, more friendly appearing designs for the Autobots, and I love that they continued off what the Bumblebee movie did, with making them look easily identifiable, whether they were a villain or hero. That’s something I didn’t care for in the Michael Bay movies, it was hard to tell who was where, and if I should be sad a character died, because it was just a bunch of black, grey and loud noises. But I’m not ranking a Michael Bay movie! Rise of the Beasts was amazing, they had an actual purpose for the human characters, and I was genuinely excited throughout all of the movie, I just wished my favorite character had more screentime!!

Number 7…
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (April 7, 2023)
I actually loved this movie! I thought it was animated wonderfully, the soundtrack was amazing, and the story was fun! I had a hard time ranking everything else past this point, I loved seeing all the easter eggs and throwbacks to the games!! It was a fun story, while clearly aimed for younger audiences, I really, really enjoyed it!! The only downside was Chris Pratt as Mario, though that’s just because he would’ve been my last pick to play our favorite mustached Italian-American plumber! But my worries of him quickly got drowned out by my excitement for Jack Black as Bowser, who did absolutely incredible!! I really hope Nintendo and Illumination make another Mario movie!

Number 6…
Haunted Mansion (July 28, 2023)
The most recent movie I’ve seen! I highly, highly prefer this movie to the 2003 Haunted Mansion movie with Eddie Murphy. This one had a story I could actually understand, amazingly designed ghosts, and a wonderful heart to the story that made me tear up multiple times in the theatre! At first I was worried we’d get too much of the human characters, and not enough of the ghosts, but they balanced it perfectly. Not to mention, it was actually scary!! I’m a fan of horror movies, so the small jumps of fear from quick spooks was really fun to have, even if the parents that brought their young children may regret it that night.

Number 5…
Barbie (July 21, 2023)
While my brother waited a few weeks to see Oppenheimer in IMAX, I was seeing Barbie in the first week it opened! Unfortunately I couldn’t wear pink due to the horribly rainy weather and my only article of clothing being a pink crop top, but it was a beautiful movie with incredible lessons on the world and how women are pushed to fit a very small, specific standard. I teared up multiple times, and walked out still thinking of all the movie talked about. It certainly wasn’t a movie I was expecting to hit me so hard in my feelings, but it did! And I couldn’t be happier.

Number 4…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (August 4, 2023)
I actually got to see this movie a few days early (4 days early, to be exact) for a fan event, where there was fun trivia and behind-the-scenes info on the movie! I even got the collectable tin popcorn bucket!! I love the comic book feel to the animation, but turns out it was meant to be inspired by an actual kid-tween’s drawing!! That was super creative and I loved all the character designs. I love that the turtles all have different designs, making them look like they’re their own person, instead of the original comic book debut designs that had them all the same, even down to the masks! Seth Rogen finally made the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually feel like teenagers, and I adored every second of it.

Number 3…
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (December 21, 2022)
Now… I know… This is a 2022 release! But I saw it early 2023 so I’m counting it for the list! That, and it’s more satisfying to read lists of 10 instead of 9. This movie… I absolutely love it. The story is amazing, the characters are showstopping, the numerous villains that fall under different types? Mind blown! It’s such a wonderfully detailed movie, that I forgot it was made for little kids! I highly prefer the world building that takes place in the Puss in Boots movies over the Shrek movies, it just feels more thought out and it feels like more care was put into making it just right. I love that animated movies are starting to take inspiration from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with lower frame rates for action scenes and beautifully colored scenes.

Number 2…
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023)
Yes, I have a Marvel fatigue, but the Guardians of the Galaxy are my all-time favorite hero team from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film was a beautiful wrap to the teams story. It delved more into other characters backgrounds while still perfectly giving this team the ending they deserve. I cried throughout the movie, laughing at the funny parts through tears from the heartbreaking scenes taking place seconds before. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I saw this film twice, once at an IMAX Guardians of the Galaxy marathon that played all three movies (I was up till 3 in the morning!!) and a second time just on it’s own, and I cried through both showings. It was so hard to pick my favorite, but while Vol. 3 was amazing…

Number 1…
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (June 2, 2023)
Across the Spider-Verse was showstopping. Now I’m just eagerly waiting for part 2! Ghost Spider (Gwen Stacy’s) universe is beautifully done, watercolor art showing her feelings in real time, it captivated me. The different universes were amazing, and I’m so excited to see more of this story! Honestly there’s nothing to say bad about this movie except I wish it didn’t end!! I even reminded myself and my friend that this was only part one, so we should be expecting a ‘to be continued’ screen. And as the movie was building up to that said screen? I realized and it felt like my world was breaking around me. The new characters were amazing, I was so excited to meet Spider-Punk and Spider-Man 2099. There’s nothing I’d change with Across the Spider-Verse!! Easy 10/10!!

Story writing is something we are taught in school starting at a young age, it’s something we learn about and are encouraged to do. We’re taken through the step-by-step process of how to build a story, how to map one out.

We’re taught to plan out;

• Settings: Important stuff to world build and show how much thought you’ve put into the seemingly less-important stuff of story writing!
• Characters: Possibly the easiest thing to think about, making a bunch of characters, naming them, making backstories, giving them a design, easy!
• Plot: The whole point of writing a story! Though one of the more difficult things is to figure out how your main character gets from point A to point B.
• Conflict: Just that little thing your protagonist has to deal with throughout the plot! Personally, one of the harder things to figure out.
• Resolution: Not the end of the story, but how the protagonist beats the conflict!

I love story writing, so having a easily understandable infographic is something that would really help!

I chose to live-tweet as I watch Forged in Fire on Disney+, Mostly because I don’t have anything more exciting to live-tweet about!!

Personally I found the thread by Paris Zarcilla very funny and while I may not have conjured the same chaotic-panic energy as that live-tweet adventure, it’s what I was mostly inspired by!

And I followed some of the advice from Eric Goldschein with simply ‘Write the way you talk’. It made me feel more relaxed about the whole assignment.

BACKGROUND

The show Forged in Fire is a show in which four contestants (all people who work as bladesmiths) compete in three rounds to win a cash prize! I first watched it with my friend about five days ago, around midnight up until… about 2:30! We had been hanging out all day and just weren’t quite tired enough to actually commit to falling asleep, but man did I wish I had live-tweeted when we were watching, something tells me uber-tired live-tweeting would’ve added to the experience… but I digress.

I highly recommend the show to even just play in the background!

LIVE-TWEETING

It was pretty fun to essentially just tweet all my thoughts! Might not be something I do in the future because I got distracted with tweeting over actually watching the show sometimes, but it was fun to get to do!