This summer brought us a wide variety of film filled with heroes, aliens, vampires, male strippers, and Tom Cruise jamming out to iconic 80s music, just to name a few. Even though I missed out on some, namely, The Amazing Spider-man. These are the top five movies that I enjoyed this summer.

5. Ted: Family Guy creator Seth McFarlene’s directorial debut has just the right of off the wall humor. Mark Wahlberg gives one of his best performances as the man-child John, and every joke, whether vulgar or crude, is done so well by its actors. It is also pretty clever and original, considering the fact that there has never been a comedy about a foul mouthed teddy bear (voiced by McFarlene himself). It may look strange, but trust me you have not seen anything yet.

4. Men In Black 3: One of the most refreshing movies of the summer, Men In Black 3 is the best one in the series. It has many funny moments, and the special effects are merely decent. Josh Brolin gives a terrific performance as 1960s Agent K (the older version played by Tommy Lee Jones) and its overall very enjoyable entertainment. It is all good fun, but it does not turn out to be remarkable until the final five minutes.

3. Brave: Pixar’s latest film Brave is the only movie that I have ever been to see without knowing the plot. I’m sure glad I did not, because it was an enjoyable surprise. This is a wonderful film filled with imagination, humor, and beautiful animation. Is it quite Ratatouille, Up, or Finding Nemo? No, but it is up there somewhere.

2. Prometheus: Ridley Scott came back to the world of Alien this summer with a prequel called Prometheus, a frightening, grotesque, nail-biting, and sort of disturbing film that does not quite reach Alien’s excellency, but it definitely returns Scott back to form. Filled with special effects and relentless horror, Prometheus is the first movie to scare me in a long time.

1. The Dark Knight Rises: I think you all saw this coming. Film-god Christopher Nolan, who just brought us 2010s spectacular brain-bender Inception and the flawless predecessor The Dark Knight before that, has brought us a spectacular final chapter to the already perfect Dark Knight trilogy. Although the film is missing the spirit of The Joker, the trilogy enters someone even more sinister, named Bane (the chilling Tom Hardy), who is the ultimate villain for Batman (the always perfect Christian Bale) to take down. Mainly due to the fact that he doesn’t feel pain. Filled with great performances, spectacular action sequences, beautiful character development, plenty of powerful moments, excellent twists and turns and relentless unpredictability, this film has my vote for next year’s Oscars.

I feel that an honorable mention is well deserved, so let me begin with Tom Cruise. Cruise had quite a summer, with the whole Katie Holmes thing and all. So it is only necessary to mention his brilliant turn as rock god Stacee Jaxx in the musical, Rock of Ages. I liked the movie, despite the fact that some of the moments did not work. But every moment with Cruise worked. Like in 2008s Tropic Thunder and 1999s Magnolia, Cruise gives the best performance involved. He is hilarious, he is outrageous, he can sing, and he gives the most enjoyable performance of the summer.
Then there is The Avengers, and when I say that I do not mean it in a bad way. I would have liked to have included it on my list, but it did not quite make it. Is it great? Not quite, but it is a good ride. But others may disagree, considering it is one of the most successful films of all time.

The summer brought some promising movies my way. And if something like The Dark Knight Rises came to us half way through the year, I can only guess what is to come in the other half. Personally, I can not wait.