Avengers, Star Wars, Knives Out and more: Our selection of the best - and worst - films released in 2019

It was a latecomer that really set a benchmark of weirdness at the movies – Cats, a visually unusual musical that’s low on plot but heavy on big name superstars acting without a modicum of shame, was the big budget box office baffler that we needed.

Falling amongst the likes of Star Wars and Marvel’s latest Avengers epic in the battle for viewers’ pounds, it has frustrated, baffled and delighted audiences in equal measure – even if the critics have responded to it like a furball in the throat.

It wasn’t the only film of the year that critics found to be something of a dog’s dinner.

Danny Boyle’s latest offering, Yesterday, about a world which has forgotten the existence of The Beatles, did not prove the delight that many expect from the darling of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.

And Sylvester Stallone’s attempts to reprise the character of Rambo fell on its face, failing to come close to replicating the success of his recent Rocky reboots.

So having dealt with the seasonal turkeys, what were the year’s best films?

Oscar-botherer The Favourite, which helped Olivia Colman to a Best Actress award, was a pleasingly offbeat period drama -turned-black comedy in which Rachel Qeisz and Emma Stone jostle for favour with Colman’s Queen Anne.

It missed out inthe Best Picture category at the Academy Awards to Green Book, however.

Midsommar, pictured, was an exceptionally unusual horror film, starring Florence Pugh – whose latest film Little Women is reviewed on the next page – as a bereaved woman who joins a group of friends on a visit to a camp full of pagan rituals in rural Sweden. Set in the summertime, the darkness of the film cut through the relentless sunlight.

Knives Out, the recent horror-comedy from Star Wars director Rian Johnson paid tribute to Agatha Christie and was warmly received.

And Apollo 11, a narration-free documentary featuring previously-unseen footage from the moon landings of 50 years ago, won huge acclaim.

So what of the blockbusters that hit the screens this year?

Avengers: Endgame, united the massed ranks of Marvel’s superheroes for one final, crashing punch-up, and won glittering reviews for its efforts.

While there’s no expense spared in the making of these films, in part because they boast casts full of globally-recognised stars. they are lucrative, and Endgame became the first film to ever haul $1 billion across the counter at the box office following its release in cinemas in April.

Star Wars was the other big franchise to draw down the curtains on an era, with the Skywalkers finally reaching the end of the road with the December release of Rise of the Skywalkers, the ninth instalment in the original Star Was saga.

It remains to be seen exactly how well the film has done financially, but it was a fitting send-off for a series that has beguiled and fascinated generations of fans. But don’t believe for a second that Disney won’t be adding additional entries to the franchise in the future...