Raptures Lost’s Top 10 Movies Of 2014

It’s hard to believe it but it’s that time of the year again. It’s a time where I give you a top 10 list of my favourite movies of the year! I don’t expect everyone to agree with the films that I’ve picked, I’m not even saying that these films were unanimously the best movies of 2014. Quite simply, out of all of the movies that I saw in the cinema this year, these were the ones I enjoyed the most and the ones that I would most certainly suggest you see if you missed them. In my opinion it was a very strong year for films released, so much so that I struggled to place the top 5 and couldn’t help but keep switching them around. Let’s see what I chose….

10 – X-men: Days Of Future Past –

In the future, robots known as Sentinels are exterminating mutants and their human allies. A band of mutants evades the Sentinels with the help of Kitty Pryde, who has the ability to project a person’s consciousness into the past. Pryde’s group convenes with Storm, Wolverine, Professor Xavier, and Magneto at a monastery in China. Pryde sends Wolverine’s consciousness 50 years back in time to 1973 to prevent Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels. Following the assassination, Mystique was captured, and her DNA was used by Trask’s company to create the Sentinels, whose ability to adapt to any mutant power makes them almost invincible. Xavier and Magneto advise Wolverine to find both of their younger selves for help.

9 – The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

Bilbo and Company are forced to engage in a war against an array of combatants and keep the Lonely Mountain from falling into the hands of a rising darkness.

8 – Guardians Of The Galaxy

In 1988, following his mother’s death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, Quill steals an orb, after which he is intercepted by Korath, a subordinate to the fanatical Kree, Ronan. Although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

7 – Nightcrawler

Caught stealing from a Los Angeles construction site, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) attacks a security guard and steals his watch. After negotiating a price for the stolen material at a scrap yard, Bloom asks for a job, but the yard manager tells him he will not employ a thief.

Inspired by a freelance film crew he sees working the scene of a car crash, Lou trades a racing bicycle he has stolen for a camcorder and a radio scanner. He shoots the aftermath of a carjacking and offers his film to a local TV station. The morning news director, Nina (Rene Russo), buys the footage and encourages Lou to continue his work. She stipulates that the station is most interested in footage of violent incidents in affluent neighbourhoods since these attract the most viewers; to get better footage, Lou alters crime scenes.

6 – Captain America: The Winter Solider

Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world and battles a new threat from old history: the Soviet agent known as the Winter Soldier.

5 – The Grand Budapest Hotel

The adventures of Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), a legendary concierge at a famous hotel from the fictional Republic of Zubrowka between the first and second World Wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.

4 – Gone Girl

On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?

3 – Edge Of Tomorrow

A military officer (Tom Cruise) is brought into an alien war against an extra-terrestrial enemy who can reset the day and know the future. When this officer is enabled with the same power, he teams up with a Special Forces warrior to try and end the war.

2 – Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

Ten years after the worldwide pandemic of the a deadly virus, human civilization is completely destroyed following martial law, civil unrest and the economic collapse of every country in the world.

In San Francisco, Caesar leads and governs a new generation of apes in a community located in the Muir Woods. While walking through the forest, Caesar’s son Blue Eyes and his friend Ash encounter a human named Carver, who panics and shoots Ash, wounding him. Carver calls for the rest of his small party of armed survivors, led by a man named Malcolm, while Blue Eyes calls for the other apes. Caesar orders the humans to leave. The remaining humans in San Francisco, who are genetically immune to the virus, are living in a guarded tower within the ruined city. Prompted by Koba, a scarred ape who holds a grudge against humans for his mistreatment, Caesar brings a large group of the apes to the city where he conveys the message that while the apes do not want war, they will fight to defend their home. He then demands that the humans stay in their territory and states the apes will stay in theirs too…

1 – Interstellar

In the near future, Earth has been devastated by drought and famine, causing a scarcity in food and extreme changes in climate. When humanity is facing extinction, a mysterious rip in the space-time continuum is discovered, giving mankind the opportunity to widen its lifespan. A group of explorers must travel beyond our solar system in search of a planet that can sustain life. The crew of the Endurance are required to think bigger and go further than any human in history as they embark on an interstellar voyage into the unknown. Coop, the pilot of the Endurance, must decide between seeing his children again and the future of the human race.

Honourable Mention –

Dallas Buyers Club

The story of Texas electrician Ron Woodroof and his battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies after being diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986, and his search for alternative treatments that helped established a way in which fellow HIV-positive people could join for access to his supplies.

And there you have it! I highly recommend you at least try and see the top 5 films that I mentioned because they really are that damn good. I could go into heavy detail on what I liked about each movie but that would make a very long read so just take my word for it and go watch em!