Top 10 Most Read Film Reviews of 2023
A-bombs and b-movies were what you were interested in this year
By The Screens Staff, 7:00AM, Sat. Dec. 23, 2023
Everyone knows what the year's biggest movies were, and now we're starting to see what the year's most critically acclaimed and award-winning films are. But what were the movies that the Chronicle's readers wanted to know about (and maybe avoid).
1) Meg 2: The Trench
"It's directed with zero panache by Ben Wheatley of all people. The British master of gritty nightmares (Down Terrace, Kill List) and psychedelic mind benders (A Field in England, In the Earth) seemed an unlikely choice to head up a dopey big-budget monster flick. Once the action hits Fun Island, at least he is able to embrace the stupidity, even if he can't overcome either the miserable script or the demands of the Chinese market (Meg 2 having all the narrative hallmarks of a production engineered to comply with the extensive and very real rule book for release in China). But after an hour of a bored Jason Statham trudging across the ocean floor, those laughs could barely raise a bubble in a bathtub.” - Richard Whittaker
Read our review here.
2) The Super Mario Bros. Movie
“Audiences will probably still show up, lured by a well-loved intellectual property (the Nintendo franchise that first saw life in 1983 as an arcade game) and thirsty for a family film (the last major studio theatrical picture was December’s zippy Puss in Boots: The Last Wish). With Hollywood in high panic over declining box office, every film released in theatres becomes a kind of referendum on the moviegoing experience. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, alas, feels like a straight-to-DVD release – dull and derivative.” - Kimberley Jones
Read our review here.
3) The Wandering Earth II
“The opening action sequence – a drone-based assault on the international space elevator – is a pitch-perfect spin on the Independence Day finale. And soon The Wandering Earth II goes full ecological disaster, combining an underwater rescue mission in the ruins of a major city with an all-out invasion of Mars. Much like the first film, this combination of high craft and cheerful nationalism offers a through-the-looking-glass perspective on what it must have been like to live outside of America as films like Armageddon and Deep Impact dominated our box office.” - Matthew Monagle
Read our review here.
4) Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
"Not that there's no epic combat: The defense of Paris is as bombastic as the franchise has ever got, while Asuka's enraged raid into the gates of hell is kinetic, animalistic, and tragic. But there's tenderness, too, in the opening act in which Shinji, Ayanami, and Asuka are given a moment of peace in a village where the simple joys of life – family meals, planting rice, harvesting rice, the satisfaction of predictability – survive under the threat of the apocalypse.” - RW
Read our review here.
5) The Flash
“I can’t remember the last time I turned on a movie so quickly. It goes from something I wish these movies could be more often to everything I hate about the modern state of them within the span of 10 seconds. It’s a pitiful disservice to itself, turning a relatively fun, if rocky, movie into nothing but another product designed as a carousel where you can point at things and people you recognize. The final 10 minutes of The Flash are absolutely defeating.” - Trace Sauveur
Read our review here.
6) The Last Voyage of the Demeter
“As much as Øvredal tries to evade all the modern blockbuster conventions that are bound to keep the Demeter from its best destination, it’s too bumpy a journey to ever feel quite on course. Wobbly accents (most especially Hawkins' dismal Mockney, although Dastmalchian's vaguely Eastern European mumble is often grating) match the wobbly mood switches, as The Last Voyage of the Demeter tacks awkwardly between suitably grisly and dour horror, and a glossier, more predictable summer crowd-pleaser.” - RW
Read our review here.
7) Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village
“Calling To the Swordsmith Village a movie in full earnestness is so woeful a misuse of the word that I can’t justify it; likewise, I can’t imagine what directing this recap compilation could have required. While first film Mugen Train was a box-office smash and a rare instance of using the movie format to more succinctly and dynamically tell the next arc of the Demon Slayer story, To the Swordsmith Village is – and I can’t stress this enough – just a music videoesque recap of the first couple seasons followed by three episodes sloppily jammed together.” - Jasmine Lane
Read our review here.
8) Oppenheimer
“Oppenheimer charts the man as he goes from seeing his theories of electrons and neutrinos become an inferno of reality. It's all power: not just nuclear, but political and interpersonal, as Oppenheimer goes from the cover of Time magazine to internal exile. Rarely have the highs and lows of politics been so astoundingly charted. The slowly revealed duet between Murphy and Downey Jr. as Strauss is even more enthralling because the pair – both utterly masterful in their roles – rarely shares the screen. But in a way, Oppenheimer is like atomic physics: Each tiny spark interlocks to create a massive, breathtaking, terrifying conflagration.” - RW
Read our review here.
9) Missing
“Sometimes you just need a movie like Missing to kick your feet up with and enjoy its simple pleasures. Much like the preceding film in this "screen reality" techno-thriller anthology series, Searching, Missing takes its airport novel aspirations and filters them through the perspective of FaceTime, text messages, Ring doorbell cameras – anything and everything you’ve come to learn about the language of computers and cellphones. It makes, once again, for what I would describe as perfectly entertaining trash.” - TS
Read our review here.
10) The Devil Conspiracy
“Is it good? Oh, God, no. But Frankowski proves that the dream of the Nineties is alive in Hollywood, at least when it comes to European co-productions. For those of a certain age, who cut their teeth on terrible creature features and bloated blockbusters at the turn of the century, The Devil Conspiracy will offer a kind of twisted nostalgia. And if we keep supporting movies about warring angels, who knows? Maybe someday they’ll even get it right.” -MM
Read our review here.
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Feb. 17, 2023
Jan. 5, 2022
Meg 2: The Trench, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Wandering Earth II, Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, The Flash, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – To the Swordsmith Village, Oppenheimer, Missing, The Devil Conspiracy