I have literally only seen a decent chunk of one of those movies listed. Still, I didn't really get Pacific Rim. Then again I missed pretty much all of the character development and witnessed all of the technical jargon and monster fighting (which isn't my forte in stories or movies), so it could be a good movie. XP. Ultimately though, giant monster films just aren't my thing, so I don't think I'll really bother to see it in its entirety.

No Frozen or Hobbits or frozen hobbits to be seen. =P. Then again, The Hobbit movie wasn't as could as it probably could've been, though you did mention you didne see it. Frozen, however, is something pretty awesome for what it is in my opinion. Then again, I am a huuuge Fairy Tale fan, so I genuinely like fantastical stuff like that over sci-fi or other types of movies.

Honestly, I agree with most of this list. Rush had a stellar set of performances at its helm (Chris Hemsworth needs more star power and he needs it yesterday), Much Ado was great just because all the Whedon collaborators I love were mostly in one place, I loved Rockwell and Steve Carrell in The Way Way Back, and my love for Edgar Wright is unquenchable and hot like a thousand suns.

Our opinions only diverge on two things -

1. 12 Years a Slave truly did deserve Best Picture nods off the power of performances and McQueen's always-stellar direction, and while I do love Sandra Bullock and her performance in Gravity was stellar considering she was almost the whole movie, 12 Years affected me more throughout and honestly is a movie I can't ever picture myself watching again, just because it was too painful for me to even consider revisiting as a pleasure watch.

2. Iron Man 3 was a disappointment through and through. I get why people liked it, and I do give all props to Robert Downey, Jr. for moving away from the "typical" Tony Stark performance, I felt that the movie in general couldn't really stack up against his performance. I get what Shane Black was going for with the Mandarin twist, but the script didn't make Guy Pearce (oh, poor Guy Pearce...) a powerful enough villain for the subtext to really deliver the way it could have and should have.

Moreover, I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed, in fact, with the ending of IM3. I read your blog post on the subject, and by and large I agree - getting the arc reactor and shrapnel was central to the conclusion of Tony's arc over his feature films, and really the only further character growth he could have gotten after the end of The Avengers. My initial belief, to be honest, is that he could have (and maybe should have) been killed off at the end of the movie and it would have left a final, epic punch to the gut for the MCU at the end of the first wave of movies. Iron Man 3 was supposed to be the film that changed my mind, so I get why it had to be made.

The problem is, I can't say it totally convinced me.

Tony Stark overcomes odds. It's what he's always done. He survived captivity in a cave in the Middle East and built himself his own get out of jail free card. He stopped making weapons and kept turning profits anyway. He revealed himself publicly as Iron Man and made it work - the man became an in-universe and out-of-universe brand unto himself. He shelved his long-standing issues with his father and conquered his own certain death from palladium poisoning in Iron Man 2. In The Avengers, he realized that he can't keep inventing himself get out of jail free cards forever. Consequences roll around for everyone eventually. Bad things happen. And good people die.

Like you said - IM3 was supposed to answer the central question of what Tony Stark was without the Iron Man suit. To the credits of Shane Black and Robert Downey, Jr., the first and second acts of the movie do just that. The central problem is the twist with the Mandarin - as soon as that part of the movie hits, things begin to slowly derail, sparks begin to fly, and it doesn't work the way it should - the way it could - have.

Because Downey's Tony Stark doesn't just create his own odds - directly or indirectly, he creates his own demons. Even passing over his PTSD and alcoholism (something I would like to see truly addressed at some point, even if there's never another Iron Man film), Obadiah Stane turned against him because he was an incurable playboy, and later threatened to totally torpedo Stark Industries. Ivan Vanko saw Tony reaping the benefits of technology that his father had helped pioneer and wanted revenge. Aldrich Killian is a different case - where the previous two Big Bads had been born of relatively accidental, almost harmless circumstances of Tony's making, the Mandarin was a cut and dry example of Tony's hedonism, callous disregard for other people, and bad attitude coming back through the years to bite him in the ######. It's a true example of consequences personified - it's Tony fighting his old demons with no high ground, no upper hand, trying to put them down once and for all...

...And Pepper ends up saving the day.

I love Paltrow, too. I love Pepper Potts, and watching her take names and kick butt throughout the trilogy has never not been a blast and a half. But she also put a spotlight on the central problem of Tony Stark's character, and it was never more obvious than at the end of IM3 - he's the world's most famous man, he fights demons for a living, and he can conquer them all...except his own. In that case, he needs someone else to bail him out, just as he always has, because he's not tough enough to deal with them. Which would be a fantastic ending, to be honest - one of my favorite five series finales of all time was Not Fade Away, the final episode of Angel, which ended on a cliffhanger representing that the good fight is never over, but it's no reason to not keep fighting. If the ending of Tony's (presumably) final solo outing had been dressed up that way, it would have been a fantastic way to top his character off until Avengers 2. But it wasn't portrayed that way, and the messages ended up clashing. Who is Tony Stark? Where does he end, and where does Iron Man begin? Did Iron Man ever really begin at all?

That question should've been answered, and to me it wasn't. That's why I didn't have it in my top 10.

-Tyler

(PS: I didn't intend to leave such a massive iron curtain of an essay in your comments, haha. I'm just extremely passionate about TV, movies and music on a website where a lot of people don't have nearly the same tastes as me, so it's all kind of bottled up until I have a reason to talk about it.)

(PPS: Fruitvale Station is a masterpiece.)

This makes me realize that I never did up a list of my favorite movies of 2013. I didn't see most of the movies you listed, so my list would definitely be far different from yours (I still regret not seeing Gravity...), but I'm sure I'll agree with your placement of The World's End once I've seen it.

Alright Tyler, you're bringing this on yourself.

Actually, nah, because you do make great points and I do think it'd be interesting to see Tony killed off. And that's me talking about my favorite superhero here, haha. All said, Iron Man 3 went where I hoped it would go (a vulnerable Tony dealing with his mortality) and the ending made sense to me (he's made the suit before, he can made it again. Tony became Iron Man when he chose to break out of prison and start saving lives instead of weapon profiteering).

As for 12 Years, yeah, I agree with you. There's no doubt that it's a fantastic movie (I went in to it mildly biter because I wanted to see Desolation but that was sold out and this one class I was in had fawned over it in all the wrong ways) and was pleasantly surprised. It's affecting and the sort of movie that needs to be made, but I guess I just really liked Gravity. I also think that, as great as 12 Years is, it's time for us as a culture to move past then-slavery and look at life and inequality now. But that's a whole 'nother topic.

I guess I wanted Gravity to get the Oscar, but there's no doubt that 12 Years deserved it.

I still need to see The Way Way Back. I love coming of age films, and of course Sam Rockwell being in it makes it a must see.