Top 10 Best 2014 Summer Blockbusters

I have to admit, this year's set of summer blockbusters have been great and I feel that a lot of people really overlooked that this year was a great year for summer blockbusters and films in general. But when you compare it to the films coming out in 2015 and 2016, most people would be in favour of them over what we got this year. I know I said Hollywood were getting desperate, but I think a lot of effort was put into the films this year so let's take a look at quite possibly the best set of summer blockbusters so far in recent years (counting those that came out in May too):



10 - The Expendables 3

Yeah its not the best entry in the series, but you got to admit. There is no film that can get this much talent in one film. Its like a dream come true and is definitely what many would call a true homage and tribute to the action genre and the action stars that helped define it and the action stars that continue to define it to this day. If you love action more than anything else, then this is the film for you. Just don't expect it to be as blood or violence thirsty as the last 2 films (well except for its near anti climatic end of course).

9 - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Having heard a lot about how nutty Frank Miller is, I didn't expect him to still be making films and yet, he's still got it in him. This was an interesting film that was able to do exactly what its predecessor was able to do while giving us a unique 3D experience that surprisingly works for a film like this. It may not be as good as the first one, but as the last summer blockbuster I got to look at, it certainly was an interesting one.

8 - The Amazing Spider-Man 2

So we now have the 5th Spider-Man film which serves as a sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man and is the second entry in the Marc Webb/Andrew Garfiled trilogy and I have to say, its good despite having an overcrowd of villains including Electro, Green Goblin and Rhino so that would mean an equal amount of screen time for each. Well for the first two, yes. But for Rhino, you see him and the beginning and end of the film, making his whole character totally pointless. But aside from that, its another great Marvel film that has a lot going for it and is just fun to watch.

7 - Maleficent

Now I wasn't really sure how or if this film would work because its a bold move for Disney to try out new things and while it does have similarities to the original animated film that its based on, its good to finally see things from the perspective of the villain and let that said villain be in the spotlight for a change and as the first of many remakes of Disney classics, I felt it was a good one. Of course, there are a few problems with the film (especially with the 3 fairies), but otherwise, its a good film and well worth watching if you're a fan of one of the greatest villains of all time.

6 - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Those damn dirty apes. Why didn't this film do well at the box office, I won't ever know. But I will say that this deserves more money than what Bay gave us with Transformers 4. I mean it has the best motion capture I have seen so far and the whole battle for survival thing, yes its been done before, but not at this scale. I like this film a lot and can safely say that I am looking forward to the third film (but still hate the title being a mouthful to say) just to see how it all ends. Will humans be the dominate species or the Apes or can there be a peace offering between both animals? Only time will tell.

5 - 22 Jump Street

I knew there would be a second film because the first one (which is also good) left with the possibility of a sequel and guess what we got one. Having seen pretty much all of Lord and Miller's films, I can say without a doubt that they are great film makers who know how to make a good story with a lot of entertainment to be had and it defiantly showed here. Its funny, breaks the 4th wall with a lot of jokes about the budget and the franchise in general (even dedicating the entire credits to just showing possible sequels that could be made) and its just a whole load of fun and action all around. The plot may be similar, but not to the point that its a copy and paste (like with Hangover 2).

4 - Guardians of the Galaxy

Because Marvel now have the rights to a lot of different franchises that they published in the comics, I'm glad that they and Disney are making good use of those properties by making television shows, video games and films out of them. I didn't know much about this superhero team when I first heard about this film, only that they exist and with an all star cast of well respected people like Chris Pratt, Vin Deisel and a whole lot more along with some kick ass music from the 80s, nothing could go wrong here, and I was right. Unlike other people, I won't say that this is the best Marvel film out there for many reasons, but its defiantly up there with the best that we have had in recent years. I think Marvel have had a great year in general with such successful films from the MCU, X-Men and Spider-Man trilogies which can pretty much establish this whole Marvel Renaissance going on and we still have one more Marvel film to go which I think won't be in the UK until next year, but for the rest of you, its coming this year in the form of Disney's next animated film.

3 - How to Train Your Dragon 2

I had high hopes for this film because if DreamWorks were able to make sequels to their other films to be better than their predecessors (except for Shrek 3 and 4 of course), then they won't have a problem here, and I was right. As you all know, the first film came up as one of my all time favourite films and I can say that this film is even better than the first. Like with before, you can really enjoy the scenes that make you feel like your on a dragon and I like the idea of having a whole world to explore now that dragons have made the limits that Berk had to not be there any more as well as the idea of having different sorts of dragons as well as the ones we got already. Its one of the best sequels I have seen for an animated film so far and can't wait for the third and presumably final one.

2 - X-Men: Days of Future Past

After several prequels and other films that were basically bad entries in the series, I think it was a breath of fresh air to find that this one would make what happened in the original 3 films to well not happen which was great for a lot of people and this entry can be best described as a Marvel film that changes everything we know about the characters in this world for the better. In my opinion, if the X-Men trilogy were to end here, this would be what I would expect the last film to be and while it isn't the case with this film, its still a great entry to a series that was at the brink of being bad, but not any more.

1 - Godzilla (2014)

Some of you will know that this is my first full length Godzilla film and even though you could tell me to watch the other films out there to understand this one, I felt that I didn't need to because I already know a great deal about the king of giant monsters anyway. Now it was explained in Pacific Rim (and in other things, but mostly that film) that monsters like Godzilla are known to the world as Kaiju which is Japanese for strange beast and is often used to describe giant creatures like Godzilla. Now as the first Godzilla film that I saw in full, I really enjoyed it. I was quite sceptical of it to begin with because a lot of big films like this tend to suck, but this one I felt there wasn't anything wrong with it and its very good. Yes it does suffer with the Cloverfield effect where you don't see the monsters in their entirety, but that doesn't mean you don't see them at all in the film because for the most part, you do (and when you have a film called Godzilla who by now is a well known giant monster, you pretty much will know what he looks like going into this film). Its got great acting all around which I expect nothing more from actors like Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Bryan Cranston who I've seen both of in action and it perfectly captures the drama and essence to make a great summer blockbuster and a general popcorn film. Can't remember exactly if I saw this in 3D or not, but believe me, it best being seen that way because you'll get a lot out of it.

So all I can say really is that the quality of films are getting better and better every year just as long as we keep getting great films like these and no more "made for TV but put in the cinema anyway" films, films made by bad film makers like Bay and films that are based on various source materials that end up being bad due to lack of research and commitment to the project at hand, then we should all be fine.