These are the best movies of 2022 for me. All of the pice my personal favorite movies this year. Most of them I watched in iMax in cinema.
Top Gun Maverick is one big rollercoaster
Top Gun: Maverick is a sequel to the original movie released in 1986 with Tom Cruise reprising his role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The sequel has themes such as dealing with loss and the consequences of being unable to and dealing with heartbreak. But also pushing oneself to their limits and seeing if there is room for more.
The movie starts with Maverick being pulled from active duty after he crashes a test jet while trying to push for Mach 10. He’s been tasked to become an instructor of the country’s top pilots.
The navy asked Maverick for his experience and to help prepare them for a mission that is nearly impossible. The training sequences were a lot of fun to watch. We saw the top pilots of the country getting their asses handed to them by an old man who should have retired ages ago.
But why wasn’t he retired or at least forced to retire by the Navy? He was kept in the same place as he wanted because of his former wingman Iceman, another one from the original and played by Val Kilmer. And another to put Top Gun: Maverick on the best movies of 2022.
As always, Val Kilmer is amazing, no matter what role you put him in. My favorite Val Kilmer movie is The Saint but I also enjoyed him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in which he starred next to Robert Downey Jr. before Downey became the new Iron Man.
The mission in Maverick is easy to explain: The Navy wants to blow up a laboratory that is using uranium. Before they can become deadly, Team Top Gun needs to take them down. They practice and practice but none of the top pilots can do it until Maverick showed them how and Maverick’s flight privileges are reinstated.
With Maverick taking the lead, the team is successful but during their flight home, Maverick’s plane gets shot. So the team goes behind enemy lines in order to rescue him.
The movie is really amazing. The special effects are wow. All of the dogfights blew me away. The supporting cast are amazing too, we have Jennifer Connolly, Monica Barbaro, and Glen Powell amongst other. Miles Teller steals the show as the son of Goose, who died in the first Top Gun movie. And all that makes this movie one of the best movies of 2022.
The sound is amazing, especially if you have Dolby Atmos or a 7.1 installation. Overall, I would recommend this movie for the holidays.
Wakanda Forever is on the list of best movies of 2022
Wakanda Forever is the sequel to Black Panther and the movie is pretty amazing. The movie introduces new heroes, villains, and an anti-hero.
When the sequel was announced and Kevin Feige insisted there would be no replacement for Chadwick Boseman who passed away 2 years ago. I was skeptical but in hindsight, I was happily misdirected. There was no replacement for Chadwick but there is one for Black Panther. Or should I say Black Pantheress?
That was ofcourse the biggest surprise of the movie. Shuri is the new Black Panther and I can only agree with that. The Marvel Cinematic Universe needs a Black Panther. Wakanda needs a Black Panther. The fans need a Black Panther and Shuri is the most logical choice. She has already played a large role in the MCU as she has featured in Black Panther, Wakanda Forever, and both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.
There are so many plusses to having Shuri as the next Black Panther. She is the brightest mind in the MCU, she has access to Vibranium and knows how to craft using it, she is diplomatic and also a great fighter. There are hardly any negatives to the character, except for maybe her aggression. She could still go dark after meeting Killmonger.
The best thing about the movie was the introduction of Namor. Namor in the comics if the king of Atlantis but they rewrote that for the movie to prevent confusion with Aquaman. And they did a wonderful with that as well.
Namor is a bit of an anti-hero and that’s ok. We have only had The Punisher in the MCU. So more like anti-heroes is something I can get behind. If there was any doubt as to why Wakanda: Forever belongs on the list of best movies of 2022, then Namor took it away.
The other cool thing about having Namor in the movie is that the MCU finally used the word mutant for the very first time. And that is important because the X-men are mutants, Franklin Richards (son of Fantastic Four leaders Reed Richards and Sue Richards) and in the comics, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are mutants as well. Maybe they will retcon that sometime in the future.
I would argue Spider-man is one but he wasn’t born that way. If Spider-man ever has children and Peter Parker’s genes are carried over giving them the X-gene that gives a mutant his powers then his kid would be considered a mutant. So in order to be considered a mutant, you have to possess that X-gene rather than gaining your powers while you are alive already.
Wakanda Forever also introduced us to Iron Heart, who can be considered the new Iron Man. Iron Heart is a secondary character but it is quite clear that we will see more of her in the future. The fact that Shuri took over the role of Black Panther is the reason why it ended up on the list of best movies of 2022.
While I enjoy the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, I do think that replacing ALL the male characters with their female counterparts isn’t the best way to go. I long for some balance in both gender and diversity. But that last one is picking up really well.
Thor: Love and Thunder, the weirdly funny one
Thor: Love and Thunder was one of the movies I was really looking forward to. Not because of Chris Hemsworth’s comedy acting but also because Natalie Portman made her comeback to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ofcourse, you can’t mention these two without saying that Christian Bale also plays a role in the movie as the villain.
The movie itself shows how mature Thor has become since overcoming his depression which was shown in Avengers: Endgame where he was overweight and an alcoholic. But by that time he had lost his father, and his mother, he was unable to put an end to Thanos and he lost his entire planet during Ragnarok. Anyone else would be depressed as well if that happened to them. It goes to show that Marvel still knows how to make characters relatable: losing people you love can put people in depression. If you have mental health issues, then please talk to someone.
What I especially loved about Thor is that he is a great strategist, a cunning warrior, and a linguist. Most of all, Thor is a romantic as displayed in the opening scene where he fights alongside The Guardians of The Galaxy. Or The Asgardians of the Galaxy as Thor puts it. But he is also searching for a purpose.
And a purpose was given to him when Jane Foster came back into his life. Both Thor and Lady Thor go after Gorr who kidnapped Asgardian children and he was after someone called Eternity who can undo all the pain that Gorr has The pain Gorr has was the loss of his child named Love.
The movie themes are mostly about friendship and abandonment issues. But also religion plays a role in the movie. For instance, Gorr prays to his god and he makes fun of Gorr right after Gorr lost his daughter. Gorr’s story also involves altruism and unconditional love. Gorr sacrificed himself so his daughter could live.
It also deals with illness and the denial of being sick. Jane Foster has stage 4 cancer but tries to prolong her life by using Mjolnir and wielding the power of Thor. It extends her life for a little bit but she slowly accepts throughout the movie that she is incurable.
Losing Lady Thor is another big blow to Thor’s personal life but Gorr’s daughter Love gives Thor the purpose in life Thor longed for and needed.
The movie overall was great. I hope we haven’t seen the last of Thor and Love. The death of Jane Foster was needed to continue to develop Thor’s character and I am really curious to see how that plays out in future Marvel movies.
Clerks 3 definitely belongs here too
Clerks 3 was by far the best movie for me, personally. I have been a fan of Kevin Smith’s View Askewverse. Basically, a movie universe where everything is connected through Kevin Smith’s movies through the characters Jay and Silent Bob. The View Askewverse was started by the first Clerks movie in 1994.
Jay and Silent Bob are two weed dealers who somehow always end up having adventures or cameos in Smith’s movies. The movies are sometimes hilarious, sometimes very sad and most of the time just funny.
And that’s what so great about Kevin Smith’s writing: The people in his movies are just regular folks, like you and me. And they go through the same issues we do on a daily basis. Like holding on to your job. Meeting the love of your life. Having someone love you but not able to love them back.
Clerks 3 is no different. When the movie was announced, Kevin Smith was recovering from a heart attack that nearly cost him his life. And during his recovery, he wrote the Clerks 3 movie with Jeff Anderson who plays Randall in all the View Askewverse and worked his heart attack into the story of the movie, which makes this one of Smith’s most personal movies to date.
In the movie, Dante and Randall still run a small supermarket called The Quickstop. After Randall suffers a heart attack Dante rushes him to the hospital. Dante has flashbacks but it is unclear what they are about, except that it involves his wife Becky who was pregnant.
After Randall gets out of the hospital, he wants to shoot a movie because he wants to leave a legacy. And so they do. They get loans and borrow the store after closing hours to shoot the movie. But the more the movie progresses the more pressure falls on Randall’s shoulders which he takes out on Dante using his heart attack any chance he gets.
Dante gets so mad at him asking him if he has ever had to deal with the loss of the love of his life and an unborn child. It turns out that Becky died in a car crash and so did their baby. Dante’s been heartbroken and in a state of permanent loss ever since. The only light in his life is the Quick Stop. During that fight, Dante suffers from a heart attack as well.
By the time the movie is finished and Randall wants to show Dante how it turned out, we see Becky and Dante together talking about the movie with Dante telling her that it is the best movie he ever saw. It turns out that Dante died shortly after watching the movie and is now reunited with Becky in the hereafter.
The movie is basically the story of how the first Clerks movie was filmed and against what budget. Kevin Smith worked at a video store and a mini supermarket that looks like the Quick Stop. The movie was shot in black and white to cut costs. Kevin Smith, who is a huge comic book buff, sold his entire collection, and maxed out his credit cards just to shoot Clerks and realize his lifelong dream.
Clerks 3 is the end of the Clerks trilogy and I loved all of the Clerks movies. It’s not just a movie, it’s a labor of love with the most common themes that ordinary jane’s and joe’s go through but with perfect dialogues and urban background. The movie is a must-see, even if you are not familiar with Kevin Smith or the View Askewverse.
The fact that Kevin Smith managed to put in so much love, and it showed on the screen, in the movie is what made me put it on the list of best movies of 2022.
