‘Godzilla Minus One’ to ‘They Cloned Tyrone’: Heat Vision’s Top 10 Movies of 2023

The year began, as they usually do, with so much promise. This was, after all, supposed to be the year that DC came roaring back, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the long-awaited The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Marvel had its own big slate. We were to be in a Shangri-La of screen superheroes. Yet in the end, it appeared the comic book movies failed audiences.

Or did they? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, based on comics from the 1980s, is one of the top animated movies of the year. David Fincher’s stylish The Killer is based on a French graphic novel. And of course, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, is a towering achievement even beyond the medium of animation.

In other corners, movies based on toys, for the most part, are looked down upon and are considered jokes. But here, too, 2023 surprised us. Barbie, based on the Mattel doll, is a top Oscar contender and a movie that had real depth amid all the pink cotton candy. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves should not have been as good as it was, given the history of fantasy movies or role-playing games.

Animation had a banner year with some of the aforementioned titles, not to mention a return to pretty good form for Pixar with Elemental. Netflix’s Nimona had a verve as unique as its titular heroine while Leo…well, you can see why it’s so popular on the platform (and “Don’t Cry” should be nominated in the Oscar best song category).

So we now present the last Top 10 movies list of 2023 — Heat Vision style, of course, which means the cool genre stuff we all love to talk about here — and, because it’s so late, the first top 10 movies list of 2024 (sorry!).

10. Blue Beetle (Warner Bros.)

Yes, we’re just as surprised as you are: Of the DC movies that came out this year, this was the last one we thought would have made this list. But this underdog, in the hands of director Angel Manuel Soto and screenwriter Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, had charm and brightness as it gave us an Iron Man (the movie, not the character)-style origin movie from a Latino perspective. Xolo Maridueña made for an appealing version of Jaime Reyes, aka Blue Beetle, and it’s no surprise James Gunn will be keeping him around for his DC Studios movies.  

9. The Killer (Netflix)

David Fincher’s adaptation of the French graphic novel by Alexis Nolent and Luc Jacamon sees the filmmaker finding his own on-screen avatar in Michael Fassbender, the titular character, who is fastidious and operates on the principles of preparation and attention to detail. Like most of Fincher’s works, Killer is emotionally detached yet absorbing, thanks to the visuals and Fassbender’s screen presence. A low-key but meticulous entry in the assassin genre.

8. M3GAN (Blumhouse/Universal)

Yes, the dancing doll had her own memes and spawned vial moments on social media, but this concoction proved it had the killer goods to back it up. Directed by Gerard Johnstone, the movie centered on a robot doll designed to keep a young orphaned girl (Violet McGraw) company but instead developed a knack for death. There’s plenty of ways this movie, which had VHS era B-movie vibes, could have gone wrong and ended up as something bland and throwaway, but instead it rose up to being clever and witty with something to say about parenthood and artificial intelligence.

They Cloned Tyrone (Netflix)

A mish-mash of supreme proportions, the directorial debut screenwriter Juel Taylor is sci-fi, mystery, comedy, conspiracy theory, Blaxpoitation and more. John Boyega is a drug dealer, Jamie Foxx a pimp and Teyonah Parris a prostitute who uncover an elaborate scheme of a shadowy elite conducting experiments on the inhabitants of a black neighborhood, using thought control via everything from fried chicken to hair salons. The setting is an opaque time of the present and the 1970s past. Pop culture references abound in the witty script, and the social satire hammers its points in the style of John Carpenter’s They Live. Boyega exudes strong emotions as the lead, Parris channels Pam Grier energy, and Foxx chews and spits out every line and scene with finger-licking relish.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount)

Fantasy had become incredibly glum and heavy thanks to Game of Thrones and its ilk, so directors and co-writers John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein zagged when others zigged, making a delightful romp with humor and heart. And instead of trying to escape the tropes, the filmmakers lean into them, giving a fresh spin on wizards, dragons, elves and druids. The amiable cast of Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis and Hugh Grant are up for everything and the movie weaves its own spell in capturing the absurd randomness of a D&D quest while still telling a fun adventure story.

5. Talk to Me (A24)

A nerve-wracking, head-bashing tour de force from Danny and Michael Philippou, who spent a decade prior to this debut making YouTube shorts, this horror movie took the classic séance supernatural story and not only updated it for the Gen Z generation but spun it in a fresh way. Sophia Wilde shines as a young woman mourning the loss of her mother. She establishes herself as a talent to watch, while the Philippous show that nothing beats low-budget inventiveness as inspiration to make the scariest movie of the year, one that will have you either on the edge of your seat, unable to take your eyes off the screen, or hiding your eyes behind your hands.

4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount)

Ninja Turtles had a lot going against it. It’s comic book roots long forgotten, it had become the tired brand behind a once-cool toy. But backed by a story co-written by Seth Rogen and directed by Jeff Rowe, Ninja Turtles became one of the delightful surprises of the year. By smartly focusing on the teenage aspect of the title, the story had a freshness to it. It embraced the sketchy aesthetic of its comic roots (and the drawings of high school notebooks). Its look had a street level grittiness that matched the sewer stylings of New York. And by the top down reinvention of many of the characters – especially the spunky April O’Niel – audiences could easily find someone to connect to. Teenagers, mutants, ninjas, and turtles were cool once again.

3. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Marvel/Disney)

James Gunn achieved the impossible this year, becoming the only filmmaker to have been able to complete an actual trilogy (with a beginning, middle and end) at Marvel. Not only that, but he managed to close it on a high note. Propelled by the powerful origin of Rocket Racoon, Guardians was funny, sardonic, thrilling, emotional, and most of all, satisfying. The virtuoso villain, played by Chukwudi Iwuji, was actually menacing, Chris Pratt was in fine form as Star-Lord, and Rocket never more real. The comic book movie of the year.

2. Godzilla Minus One (Toho)

An out of nowhere sensation, this Japanese monster movie re-established the power and might of everyone’s favorite giant lizard. But it did so by making the proceedings very human and humane. Threaded into the monster movie set in post-World War II Japan is the impactful story of a disgraced kamikaze pilot who takes in a woman and child even as he deals with survivor’s guilt. The Godzilla in this movie is no anti-hero or some benevolent planet protector but rather one big meanie tearing apart town, fleets and people. And under the direction of Takashi Yamazaki, the foot-stomping destruction feels more devastating than what you’d see in most American monster movies, many of whose directors and studios haven’t learned that more is rarely really more.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures Animation)

The bar was already set high after 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse but somehow, improbably, Across the Spider-Verse managed to not only match it but exceed it. And it did so by going, like many sequels do, bigger. Yet it also avoided the many traps that befall sequels. There are more worlds, more New Yorks, more Spider-Men and Spider-Women, yet the movie, directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller writing and producing, never loses sight of Miles Morales. Stunning visuals and storytelling propel a story of heroism and impending tragedy and binds the Spider-Man character to his myths and heart-breaking fates. The best movie of 2023, no matter the genre.