Black Panther (2018)
Ryan Coogler builds Marvel a country worth visiting, hands it the most coherent villain the studio has managed, and wraps both in a world too rich to forget. 8/10.
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The Commuter (2018)
Liam Neeson and Jaume Collet-Serra reunite for a fourth time, this time trapping their everyman hero on a commuter train with a stranger's poisoned offer. Familiar machinery, briskly assembled, and better fun than the scores allow. 7.5/10.
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Star Wars - The Last Jedi (2017)
Rian Johnson takes the controls of the middle chapter and uses it to argue with the whole franchise. Bold, uneven, and noticeably better the second time round. 7.5/10.
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Thor - Ragnarok (2017)
Taika Waititi takes Marvel's most po-faced franchise, paints it in Jack Kirby colours and lets everyone be funny. The result is the most purely enjoyable Thor film by a distance. 8.5/10.
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Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Thirty-five years on, someone has finally made a sequel to the unmakeable film, and Denis Villeneuve has not just matched the original but deepened it. Slow, vast, and the most beautiful science fiction in years. 9.5/10.
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Atomic Blonde (2017)
A stunt man turned director sends Charlize Theron through 1989 Berlin with neon, needle-drops and a stairwell brawl you will not forget. The plot ties itself in knots; the craft is immaculate. 8/10.
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Luc Besson finally films the comic that gave us The Fifth Element, and pours every euro on the screen. The design is dazzling, the leads are not, and on sheer imagination it is worth more than its scores say. 7.5/10.
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War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Matt Reeves closes his ape trilogy with a sombre revenge-and-exodus film built around the best digital performance the blockbuster has produced. Heavy going in places, but it earns the weight. 8/10.
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Spider-Man - Homecoming (2017)
Marvel and Sony hand Spider-Man back to the kids, and the gamble pays off. A small, funny, high-school story that finally lets Peter Parker be sixteen. 8.5/10.
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Baby Driver (2017)
Edgar Wright finally makes his car film, and he cuts the whole thing to the beat. A heist movie that runs on its soundtrack, fast, funny and built to rewatch. 8.5/10.
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