By Whilst the box-office is still not back to pre-pandemic levels, this year saw a great deal of improvement in terms of releases as compared to the past few.
Movies, television and gaming all saw some major success stories such as the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon, successful game-to-screen adaptations, and a rich variety of mid-range, indie and big-budget fare.
At the same time, audiences definitely are waning on superhero films and legacy sequels as a number of high-profile and costly flops were felt by previously unassailable brands with everyone is still trying to figure out the new paradigm.
Meanwhile, streaming services saw contractions and gamers finally seem to be properly pushing back against live services.
Today, Metacritic.com has unveiled a list of what films, games and TV shows were the best of the year based on the aggregate scores of the top critics.
As per usual, I’ve divided the lists into three sections – films, TV shows and major video games. Each section lists the titles nabbing the best critical scores and those that just missed out.
Films have to have over sixteen reviews to be considered, which is why some high-scoring works are not included. Here’s the full breakdown:
Best Films
1. “Past Lives” – 94/100
2. “The Boy and the Heron” – 92/100
3. “The Zone of Interest” – 91/100
4. “All of Us Strangers” – 90/100
5. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer” – 89/100
6. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Poor Things,” “Fallen Leaves,” “The Delinquents,” “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” – 86/100
7. “May December,” “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” – 85/100
8. “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Earth Mama,” “Reality,” “The Eternal Memory,” “20 Days in Mariupol” – 84/100
9. “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” “Rye Lane” – 83/100
10. “The Holdovers,” “Hit Man,” “Anselm,” “Afire” – 82/100
Other titles that just missed out include “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” “Monster,” “American Fiction,” “Barbie,” “Godzilla Minus One,” “The Beast,” “You Hurt My Feelings,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” “BlackBerry,” “John Wick: Chapter 4” and “Priscilla”.
Best TV Series
The reviews for shows on the site are often for the first few episodes of a season, and so aren’t as reliable overall as the film scores:
1. “Rain Dogs” S1 – 88/100
2. “Beef” – 86/100
3. “I’m a Virgo,” “Dreaming Whilst Black,” “Last Call” – 85/100
4. “The Last of Us,” “Poker Face” – 84/100
5. “Small Light” – 83/100
6. “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off,” “Cunk on Earth” – 82/100
7. “Justified: City Primeval,” “Dead Ringers” – 79/100
8. “Lockwood & Co.,” Mrs. Davis” – 78/100
9. “Castlevania: Nocturne,” “Stonehouse” – 77/100
10. “Fellow Travelers,” “The Curse” – 76/100
Other titles that just missed out include “Silo,” “The Diplomat,” “Platonic,” “UnPrisoned,” “A Spy Among Friends,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “A Murder at the End of the World,” “Gen V,” “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “The Lazarus Project,” “Tiny Beautiful Things,” “American Born Chinese,” “Waco: American Apocalypse” and “The Gold”.
Best Video Games
Scoring for games on the site is messy as episodic releases, DLC add-on packs and iOS games are often given their own scores. To keep the list reasonable, I’m sticking to full-game releases or major DLC only:
1. “Baldur’s Gate 3,” “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” – 96/100
2. “Metroid Prime: Remastered” – 94/100
3. “Resident Evil 4,” “Asgard’s Wrath 2,” “Against the Storm” – 93/100
4. “Super Mario Bros. Wonder,” “Street Fighter 6” – 92/100
5. “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” “Dave the Diver,” “Turbo Overkill,” “Slay the Princess,” “VideoVerse” – 90/100
6. “Dead Space,” “Pizza Tower,” “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty” – 89/100
7. “Alan Wake II,” “Cocoon,” “Talos Principle 2,” “Astral Ascent,” “Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways” – 88/100
8. “Sea of Stars,” “Hi-Fi Rush,” “Final Fantasy XVI,” “Pikmin 4,” “Theatrhythm Final Bar Line,” “TMNT Shredder’s Revenge – Dimension Shellshock” – 87/100
9. “Diablo IV,” “Humanity,” “Anonymous;Code,” “Star Ocean: The Second Story R,” “God of War: Ragnarok – Valhalla” – 86/100
10. “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor,” “Jusant,” “Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew,” “A Space For The Unbound,” “Chants of Sennaar,” “Wargroove 2,” “The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood” – 85/100
Other titles that just missed out include “Forza Motorsport II,” “Octopath Traveler,” “Hogwarts Legacy,” “Super Mario RPG,” “Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless,” “Little Goody Two Shoes,” “Blasphemous 2,” “Remnant II: The Awakened King” and the re-releases.
The post Metacritic’s Top Films, Shows, Games Of 2023 appeared first on Dark Horizons.
