2024 has been another good year of cinema-going for me. Once again, I saw enough films to create a 5 best of the year list and a 5 worst of the year list.

Not bad considering the years where I saw so few films that the lists had to consist of 3 choices for best and worst.  

If you’ve read my previous best and worst of the year articles, then you know the drill. We’re going to start with the 5 best films I saw this year before indulging in the 5 worst because writing about them is always so much fun.

Starting with number 5…

5. Joker: Folie à Deux

I know. An unpopular choice for a really unpopular film. Aside from a little too many songs, I honestly had no issues with Folie à Deux. It felt like a logical progression from the first film, emotionally and thematically, but still had its own voice. In my opinion, it topped the original’s tragedy by giving its lead a false but uplifting sense of hope.

‘Double features’ don’t seem to be a thing anymore hence I commend Folie à Deux for concluding the story of Arthur Fleck with not an ounce of sequel bait.

Here’s to many years of Joker double-bills. 

4. Longlegs

Witnessing the birth of a new horror icon in Dale Ferdinand Cobble (Nicolas Cage) was a memorable experience to say the least.

While I can’t call it a great horror film, Longlegs was definitely the best made contribution to the genre I saw in 2024. On paper, the film is pretty generic and far-fetched, however the performances, cinematography and execution of the jump scares makes you feel like you’re watching a film from another dimension.

As genius as the marketing campaign was, it overhyped the film. Longlegs is not this generation’s Silence of the Lambs, not by a country mile but it is a uniquely unsettling watch that was unlike anything I saw.

“Cuckoo.”

3. Dune: Part Two

An ideal cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune would consist of three films, like the 2000 miniseries. However, this follow-up to the 2021 opener proves that the story can be told well as a two-parter.

Dune: Part Two dramatizes and concludes Paul’s messianic rise with full understanding of the source material. It is an epic fable about the dangers of leaders just as the book is.

Like in Part One, characters are only introduced when their presence is critical to Paul’s story, whether it be Feyd-Rautha or Princess Irulan.

It’s a great continuation from Part One, a masterful adaptation and potentially one of the greatest sequels of recent memory. It had to be in my five best.

“Ya hya chouhada!”

2. The Substance

If Folie à Deux is my least popular choice, then this is almost certainly my most popular. I mean, what can I say about The Substance that hasn’t already been said?

I know there’re films out there that tackle the horrors of the beauty industry and its effects on women but how many of them were true horror films I can’t say. Perhaps The Substance is the first because while it has a lot to say about beauty standards, it is undoubtedly a horror film.

The gore is shocking but so is the meaning behind it. As I said in my review, it may be an uncomfortable watch but it might just be a necessary one.

1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

A prequel that compliments its predecessor and works well on its own. That’s not just rare, that’s a unicorn.

The only thing better than seeing all the places Fury Road mentioned is seeing them in a good story. Furiosa is the most accessible entry in the Mad Max series as the film is essentially about a complete outsider entering the world for the first time.

If you’ve seen Fury Road you know how Furiosa’s story ends but that doesn’t kill your interest in seeing how she becomes an imperator. It’s an epic revenge saga about a woman journeying through a vicious wasteland to reclaim her innocence.

It showed me more of the world I loved while telling a good standalone story, which is what a prequel should do. Fury Road was my favourite film of 2015 so how fitting that Furiosa is my favourite of 2024. What a lovely day.

Now for the fun bit. Here’re the 5 worst films I saw in 2024.

5. Madame Web

It’s one of the worst superhero films in recent memory. The characters are dull, the plot is that of a bad Terminator sequel and the visuals range from being serviceable to totally unconvincing.

It’s really bad but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to watch. The dialogue in Madame Web can be horrifically tone deaf and awkward (my jaw dropped with astonishment at that baby shower scene). It’s worth watching once just for the little so-bad-it’s-good value it has, which it certainly has more than Morbius.  

I haven’t seen Kraven The Hunter but if it’s funnier than Madame Web then I need to know!

4. Scoop

It has the production value of a great period piece but the timing of a tabloid. It is simply too early to make a film about Prince Andrew and everything he’s allegedly done and been a part of. It can’t be denied that Scoop dramatizes the available information well, specifically the coordination that went into arranging the interview between Andrew and Maitlis.

However, I guarantee that if new information is revealed, another film or series will be commissioned. No one can say when all the facts regarding Andrew and Epstein will be fully known but after that would be the best time for a film, not now.

Plus, the film stole its title from a kids’ show I loved growing up.

3. Alien: Romulus

It wasn’t all jump scares, it cleared up some plot holes from the series and showed more of the universe but neither of those qualities could save Romulus.

Like the first four films, it’s another scary-maze-in-space scenario. People give Prometheus and Covenant a hard time but not only did they have exteriors, they had the courage to do something genuinely creative with the franchise’s premise.

Romulus reuses iconic lines from previous films and recreates iconic scenes from previous films. Despite its new characters and exploratory worldbuilding, the film ends up as another shallow legacy sequel. Like Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Star Wars: The Force Awakens before it, Romulus compensates its lack of originality with nostalgia.

It’s a frustrating approach that I thought was a thing of the past. Apparently not.

2. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

This film had an opportunity to make one of the show’s least interesting characters interesting and absolutely wasted it.

While I grew up watching Spongebob, I don’t follow the show anymore so I tried to be very objective when reviewing the Sandy Cheeks Movie because I wasn’t its target audience. I concluded that while the tone and humour is consistent with the show’s, Sandy made for a dull protagonist, the animation was subpar to its predecessor’s and the villain’s backstory was comically bizarre. 

The worst Spongebob film yet. No contest.

1. Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver

Part One was my worst film of 2023. Needless to say, the sequel wasn’t exactly an improvement.

Great battle scenes and production design cannot save a film from a shallow script. The characters are no more interesting or any less generic than they were in A Child Of Fire.

The writing makes no effort to present them as even likable never mind empathetic. Yet The Scargiver progresses as if we fell in love with these characters in Part One and are interested in what they’re doing now.

The fact that both films were the worst ones I saw in their year of release is a testament to how poorly constructed this series is. I’ve said it before and I must say it again…

Zack Snyder.

Stick. To. Directing.

A year where I get to see lots of new films is always a fun one and 2024 was no exception. I can only hope that 2025 will be similar. Maybe I’ll catch enough films this year to have 10 picks for my Best and Worst lists. Fingers crossed!