Top 10 Movies of all Time
(Note: This list is purely subjective. I like what I like and there isn’t a lot of variety on this list. However, these are the movies that I personally like the most and think are the best.)
10. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
My tenth choice has changed back and forth over the past couple of years. However, after a recent rewatch of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I think it would be a mistake to not include at least one in my top 10. Two Towers is my favorite because 1) this is when a lot of the characters come into their own and do a lot more and 2) the Battle of Helm’s Deep remains one of the best movie battles of all time.
9. Star Trek (2009)
As a big Star Trek fan, it’s probably unusual that I hold such a high opinion of this film in particular, which was divisive among fans. However, this is easily my favorite Star Trek movie. The cast is amazing and everyone gives really great performances. It’s incredibly fast-paced and has a storyline that manages to ground big stakes with more personal stakes for the main characters.
8. Troy (2004)
While this wasn’t the most popular movie among most movie audiences, I thought this movie was the perfect take on one of my favorite mythological stories. I’m not always the biggest fan of the medieval/ancient war epics, because they don’t seem to focus on the characters enough to give the story emotional stakes, but this one does the opposite and spends most of its time developing the characters and that made me way more invested in the actual Trojan War because the characters were so fleshed out and felt like real people.
7. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Up until this film, Captain America wasn’t one of my favorite Avengers. This was the film where he actually became a developed character, but beyond just what it did for his character, this movie does a lot of things really well. The supporting cast is top-notch, the action is some of the best I’ve seen in movies and the plotline perfectly balances superhero action with spy-style thriller.
6. Ben-Hur (1959)
I am, admittedly, very biased in my movie tastes in terms of modern films. Ben-Hur is one of only two films on this list that is before 2000. There aren’t a lot of movies this old that I think hold up today, but Ben-Hur definitely does. Like Troy, it captures the full potential of the epic-style storytelling. The entire movie is based around Ben-Hur as a character, and he moves through numerous important historical moments, but it always stays focused on his character, instead of getting distracted with the scope of things happening around him. Seeing this interesting character going on a 3-hour quest to get revenge in this Biblical-ish setting makes for a great, emotional story that takes a lot of turns and has one of the best villains in classic movie history.
5. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
And here’s the other 20th century film on the list. Empire Strikes Back is the first of five movies on this list that I think are a cut above the rest of the over 700 movies I’ve watched in my life. These five are filled with so many layers that I can rewatch them almost endlessly and still enjoy them. Empire Strikes Back is perhaps one of the best examples of how to create a movie sequel (upping the stakes, making the tone darker, developing characters, going in different directions in terms of story without undoing anything that happened before) and how to create a perfect villain. The film adds so much depth to the conflict between Luke and Vader (both internal and physical) that their confrontation at the end of the movie still ranks as one of the best hero/villain confrontations in movie history. It’s built up to so well, and obviously the payoff was well worth the wait.
4. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
I don’t want to go into too much detail about this movie because I intend to write a full-length review of it one day, but this film features what is, in my opinion, one of the best character arcs in any movie ever. When I write the full review, I’ll explain why, but I think Anakin’s descent from hero to villain is one of the most compelling and fascinating character arcs in movie history, and Revenge of the Sith combines that with a lot of great action scenes and visuals, a fantastic score, and a lot of really hard-hitting emotional scenes.
3. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
At the time this film was released, it was probably my single most anticipated movie of all time. Given its placement on this list, it clearly did not disappoint me. It wrapped up eleven years of plotlines and character arcs in one 3-hour story that didn’t feel bloated, kept the story centered on the emotional stakes for the characters and managed to give them satisfying exits.
2. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
I put this right next to Endgame on the list because I feel like they’re really one story that was split into two films, but I feel like it would’ve been cheating to put them in the same spot. Infinity War is one of the movies that I feel handles pacing and stakes the best. They build up to the final confrontation with Thanos so well, and provide so much tension as to who will actually win. Along the way, seeing the Avengers getting outmatched time and time again by his lieutenants only serves to make Thanos feel even more dangerous. Infinity War created one of my favorite movie villains of all time in Thanos, which is a big part of why it ranks this high.
1. The Dark Knight
This has been my favorite film for a long time, and to be honest, no other movie on this list really comes close to it. There are so many layers to this film, so many great performances and so many different motivations and twists that I always get completely sucked into the story whenever I watch it. Single scenes in this movie have more going on in them than some movies. The conflict has so much more to it than just a simple fist fight, and having the moral/ideological struggle between Batman and the Joker come down to the fight for Harvey Dent’s humanity managed to make the stakes both big enough to affect all of Gotham, but also kept them personal by centering them on one of the major characters of the film. And, of course, the Joker will always rank as one of cinema’s best villains.
Comments