This is the first time I've ever tried to put together a list of my fave movies for a particular year. And this depends on my often faulty memory; but I'll do the best I can.
(Keep in mind that my youth was informed -- and formed -- more by comic books than by movies: comic books got to my tiny home town, but we had no movie theater...)
IMHO of course:
(1)
Batman v. Superman.
(2)
The Accountant.
(3)
Rogue One.
(4)
The Finest Hours.
(5)
Eye in the Sky.
(6)
The Revenant.
(7)
Captain America: Civil War.
(8)
X-Men: Apocalypse.
(9)
BFG.
(10)
Jack Reacher #2 (forgot the subtitle...).
(Caveat: I noticed that
@Droflet nominated
Guardians of the Galaxy -- but my memory says that one was one of my favorites in 2014...if I'm wrong on the date, consider it added to my list -- high up!)
Unexpectedly,
BvS turned out to be one of those movies that I kept going back to again and again -- because I found I was seeing something new in it each time. And I think they're figuring out how to make a legend.
The Accountant (note: Ben Affleck in both of my top two picks? interesting...): interesting concept and wonderful acting! (Both good enough that I discovered that, having unpeeled the onion of the story the first time I watched it -- it still held my attention through a second and third viewing...!)
Rogue One: the first adult story in the Star Wars collection, this one makes most of the earlier SW movies look childish. (Side note, which will be a bit vague so as to avoid a potential spoiler: at the end, when the data so many have died for is passed along to a person not hitherto featured in this movie -- the audience clapped, and a few wept...me too!)(It probably had a lot to do with the fact that we all saw the movie three days after a passing...)
The Finest Hours starred Chris Pine in what was said to be a true story of the Coast Guard in the North Atlantic. It was a dynamite movie!
Eye in the Sky starred Helen Mirren and Alan Rickman, among others, in a story revolving around the use of drones to battle terrorism in the Middle East. A tragedy.
The Revenant: Leonardo di Caprio as mountain man Hugh Glass. This movie was considerably expanded from the actual events it was based on, but the underlying Glass story is always strong in my mind...
(7) and (8) weren't top-of-the-list movies, but they did a better job of being the kind of comic book movies that I like, than did
Deadpool or
Suicide Squad.
BFG starred Mark Rylance, and he outweighed the movie in every respect -- the man is just a wonderful actor!
Tom Cruise in the second
Jack Reacher movie: the first was so-so, but this one was much, much better! (Cruise's character in so many of his recent movies continues to get beaten to a pulp, over and over again...but at least this time he shows he is otherwise human.)
(You may have noticed that
Arrival did not make my list...I saw it, but I saw the ending coming from mid-way through the movie...and there was nothing else there to care about. If I really like a movie, I'll go to see it several times; not this one.)
Good movies, but not top ten:
Kubo and the Two Strings.
Free State of Jones. (Very good for a while, but just seemed to fade out unsatisfactorily...)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Special Children.
Suicide Squad. (There's a seed of something here...maybe, if they do a second one...)
Worst movies of the year:
The Hateful Eight.
Deadpool.
Hardcore Henry.
Keanu. (This one I just walked out of after thirty minutes...)
Ratchet and Clank.
Warcraft.
Teen-Age Mutant Ninja Turtles #2.
Hail, Caesar!
And a separate category: Movies that had good FX but a lousy story:
Gods of Egypt.
The Legend of Tarzan.
The Jungle Book.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (Special award for sets and costuming...it was like watching one of those "Regency teas" that one encounters now and then at Boskone...but with zombies.)
Independence Day: Resurgence.
Ghostbusters.
Star Trek: Beyond.
Finding Dory. (I wanted it to work. But it just lacked the magic of the first one...)