Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Well, 2020 turned into a stinker of a year, but Gadot, Jenkins and Pine reunite to cheer us up with Wonder Woman‘s second solo outing. Gadot is outstanding and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman is magnificent. With Big Themes and women centre stage, it’s a shame the plot is a shambles and it’s far, far too long.

X-Men Dark Phoenix (2019)

The final instalment of the X-Men reboot is an unruly tangle of belonging, family and identity with plenty of CGI mayhem and big action set-pieces. Stuck with the mis-casting of Fassbender and MacAvoy, it relies on Sophie ‘Mahogony’ Turner stepping up as the empathetic core and she’s just not that kind of actress. Blown away by Jessica Chastain’s icy villain and Jennifer Lawrence’s too-short stint as Mystique, Turner is the weak nail in the wall from which the whole thing hangs.

Birds of Prey (2020)

While I’m all in favour of equal opportunities, I’m not convinced that an R-rated, sweary, violent bid to outdo the testosterone-fulled action genre is quite the feminist triumph Birds of Prey was hoping for. For all that Margot Robbie turns in a scene-stealing performance as Harley Quinn, the whole movie plays like a teenage boys’ fantasy of a sweary, bloody and rather pointless graphic novel, built around a very small pair of hot pants.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Unnecessarily long at three hours, Endgame‘s grand space-opera does provide plenty of room for its top acting talent to show their wares in a surprisingly emotional and risk-taking finale to Marvel Studios’ ambitious Phase One.

Peppered with comic one-liners and emotional one-to-ones, Endgame manages to pull off a multi-threaded, timey-wimey, convoluted, three-act series of adventures concluding with the mother of epic battles in which the assembled Avengers (basically everybody from 21 marvel movies) manage to undo the damage of Infinity War. What, you thought Marvel would kill off the other half of it’s cash cows?

Captain Marvel (2019)

Muscling in on Wonder Woman territory, Brie Larson’s space-faring super-heroine Captain Marvel bridges the gap to Avengers: Endgame with a surprising This Girl Can tale, lining her up as the cavalry to save the day. Meanwhile Samuel L. Jackson’s remarkably aged-down Nick Fury dial’s it down from his usual 11 to a restrained supporting 7 on the acting amp.

If you can stick with the massive chunks of sci-fi, then you’ll cope with trainee warrior Veers (Larson – Room) being patronised and mentored by Kree special forces commander Yon-Rog (Jude Law, Arthur‘, Grindelwald) in preparation for operations against the shape-shifting Skrulls.

Aquaman (2018)

Revelation: Warners finally delivers a DC movie with FUN! James Wan’s underwater Excalibur knows exactly what it is; a CGI-tastic, Technicolour spectacular with tongue firmly planted in cheek romping through every mythic quest cliché, as sultry cuddle-muscle Jason Momoa almost winks through every scene.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

As the ever-expanding Marvel Comics Universe threatens to engulf all movies like some sort of cinematic black hole, the Avengers reassemble taking in all the other franchises, including Guardians, to take on uber-uber-uber-baddie Thanos for control of everything.

With a shock death in the first five minutes letting us know that no one is safe, standby for the most epic-est grand superhero punch up to reach the superlatives other movie franchises cannot reach. And don’t worry, this is the MCU; death isn’t what it used to be; they’ll all be back in some wriggley, timey-wimey, restoration sequel next year. Disney’s accountants know you can’t kill all those cash-cows at once.

Black Panther (2018)

Three months in and I’ve finally seen something released in 2018! A superb ensemble cast marshalled by black director Ryan Coogler (Creed) delivers a fresh take on a Marvel superhero movie – well, we’ve not seen armoured rhinoceros’ before.

After an impactful debut in CA – Civil War, Chadwick Boseman gets his own show as T-Challa, the titular Black Panther – or as I see him, Africa’s Iron Man – and, for all his shining everyman integrity, is nearly sidelined by the talent around him.

Suicide Squad (2016)

DC’s comic-book adventure about the press-ganged-from-prison team of super-villains is… The Dirty Dozen. That’s it.

Okay, Will Smith (After Earth) is back on Fresh-Prince form as fast-talking family man and lethal assassin Deadshot, whilst Margo Robbie (Focus) again steals the show this time as crazy, vulnerable Harley Quinn. Jared Leto (Blade Runner) is properly unsettling as The Joker. The rest is by the comic-book, block-buster numbers.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Since the two Guardian‘s movies made a pile of cash, every Marvel movie now has to look and sound like Guardians; hence the third instalment of Thor is a gargantuan smash-bash-and-crash sci-fi comedy that ditches the mythic sweep of Dark World in favour of waspish one-liners a la Big Bang Theory in an early franchise reboot. Droll Kiwi actor-director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, ‘Wilderpeople, Moana) is a fine choice if this flavour of comic-book action floats your spaceship. Hip, flip and glib, The Dark Knight this ain’t.