Plenty of feature-length releases have come and gone since the year began, but only a lucky few have earned their place among the best movies of 2023. There may be six months still to go, but 2023 has proved - if further proof were needed - that the modern movie industry is not for the faint of heart.
Director Gerard Johnstone, writers Akela Cooper and James Wan, and everyone else involved with M3GAN have already taken a victory lap, as the film dominated social media . As outrageous, hilarious, and deranged as it is masterful in horror cinema, M3GAN is, simply, a triumph.Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was one of the most unexpectedly delightful movies of 2023. It wasn't exactly a box office hit - grossing only $208.
The question that $1.5bn's worth of people wanted The Super Mario Bros Movie to answer was whether it was good, and whether it represented a good investment of time and money for a family. That's why the hand-wringing over the fact that it wasn't The LEGO Movie never made any sense: not everything needs to be a grown-up experience with heavy themes that helps adults feel better about watching animation. Not everything has to be clevered up.
More so than either of the previous two films, this feels like an ensemble movie. Every character arc comes to such a fitting conclusion that it’s obvious writer and director James Gunn had these endings planned out from the start. Despite all the aliens and strange creatures the series is known for, the characters of Guardians of the Galaxy are achingly human.