Lower Decks

While it’s easy to reflect back, for a website that deals almost exclusively with TV shows, what the last decade did with episodic material, more people are going to remember the movies they watched, the franchises they followed, and the 2000s were huge in that regard, from the Lord of the Rings films to the Spider-Man and X-Men trilogies (still expanding, actually), just to name some of the most popular, Harry Potter and the Pirates of the Caribbean, too. There was a lot of innovation going on, too, and a lot of surprises. My list isn’t going to reflect everything you might expect to find, but in that regard it’s another reminder of just how rich the decade really was.

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
2. Watchmen (2009)
3. Star Trek (2009)
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
5. Hancock (2008)
6. Superman Returns (2006)
7. Revenge of the Sith (2005)
8. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
9. Star Trek Nemesis (2002)
10. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
11. The Fall (2008)
12. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
13. Attack of the Clones (2002)
14. Moon (2009)
15. The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
16. Unbreakable (2000)
17. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
18. The Happening (2008)
19. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
20. Frank Miller’s Sin City (2005)
21. The Prestige (2006)
22. Batman Begins (2005)
23. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
24. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
25. Lady in the Water (2006)
26. Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince (2009)
27. Daredevil (2003)
28. Children of Men (2006)
29. The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
30. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
31. Cloverfield (2008)
32. Doomsday (2008)
33. Grindhouse (2007)
34. I Am Legend (2007)
35. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
36. Avatar (2009)
37. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
38. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
39. Shrek (2001)
40. Planet of the Apes (2001)
41. Terminator: Salvation (2009)
42. V for Vendetta (2006)
43. Minority Report (2002)
44. Signs (2002)
45. Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
46. The Mist (2007)
47. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
48. The Island (2005)
49. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
50. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

You may ask how I ended up compiling the list, and why it ends at fifty without including some of the movies referencing in the opening. Believe it or not, I’ve got a list of my 400 favorite films (all considered), versions of which the Observation Lounge regulars are well-familiar with. The rankings on this list reflect where they fall, and what falls, excluding 2009 films, which I improvised into the list as they compare to other selections. It’s not surprising to me that only one of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films makes the list, and none of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man flicks, because while they were massive box office and popular favorites during the decade, I was never quite as enamored as a lot of other people. I was surprised, however, that none of the X-Men movies made it, because I generally like those. (Heck, my favorite Marvel adaptation was ‘Daredevil.’ Thank you, Jennifer Garner. You managed to trump Hugh Jackman.) I just happened to be a bigger fan of the Harry Potter films, for instance. I’m still a big fan of the Matrix trilogy. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and adored the second Star Wars trilogy. I actually liked the final pre-‘Star Trek’ (2009) entry in that series, too. ‘The Dark Knight’ is a great film regardless of genre distinctions. I enjoyed ‘Watchmen’ as a film more than a graphic novel (another cardinal sin). I thought Bryan Singer did an excellent job with ‘Superman Returns.’ I included ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,’ ‘Stranger Than Fiction,’ and ‘Shrek,’ even though they would hardly be considered conventional examples of genre filmmaking. Rolling Stone magazine called ‘Children of Men’ one of the ten best films of the decade, but here it doesn’t even crack the top twenty-five. I love ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ but it’s another film that mysteriously didn’t crack the top 400. M. Night Shyamalan, meanwhile, might be considered my favorite genre director of the decade, scoring four films on the list, one more than Christopher Nolan (who would more conventionally win out, with the additions of ‘Memento’ and ‘Insomnia’). Yes, I’m an odd duck. But I find plenty of things amusing, and I expect the next decade to provide just as entertaining and dynamic a film experience as the 2000s.