Summer vacation has passed and this sadly means that the season of blockbusters has gone with it. But before Oscar season gets here, let’s take a look back at the top five highest grossing movies of the season.

Number 5: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Total domestic box office: $204,052,522

Rating: 9/10

To quote the words of Caesar “Apes together strong!” because we are starting out on a high note. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes does exactly what a great sequel should and builds upon the world set up in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Such as the incredible growth of Caesar’s character helped by Andy Sirkis’ fantastic motion capture performance alongside the breathtaking C.G.I. The story is good at fooling the audience and it does what a good film should do and focuses on the characters and the emotion throughout rather than mindless action. Though the action in the film is still terrific with some awesome imagery. APES ON HORSES.

Number 4: X-Men: Days of Future Past. Total domestic box office: 232,765,600

Rating: 9/10

Wow. Two hits in a row for Fox and both films are great. It actually makes me forgive them for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But why exactly? Simply put this film was primarily made to fix the broken and battered timeline of the X-Men films and set up an exciting future for Fox’s

franchise. While it succeeds at doing this it also brings a powerful, character driven well written stand alone film, with none of that set up ever distracting from the emotional center of the movie, but instead enhances it. (That ending, oh my gosh that ending.) Needless to say this is a worthy member of the top 5! Bring on Apocalypse.

Number 3: Maleficent. Total domestic box office: $237,602,294

Rating: 5/10

Well… not all of them can be great. Maleficent only had to deliver on one thing. Give us a movie starring the villainous Maleficent (It is the title of the movie after all.) and yet somehow, someway they didn’t… at all. And that is only one of the many problems with Maleficent, boring characters, wasted talent, special effects that stick out like a sore thumb, a predictable story and a message ripped straight out of Frozen. But hey, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. I mean it’s not like the same studio produced both films. Oh wait. The few good things in this movie such as Angelina Jolie and the character of Aurora are either wasted or ruined by the end of the film. If you want to see how awesome this movie could’ve been just watch the scene where Maleficent crashes the birthday party (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1sS3fLOJFg) it’s the only moment where things are actually interesting and the only moment where Jolie gets to act like Maleficent. Overall a dull, boring mess that even manages to miss the point of it’s own title.

Number 2: Transformers: Age of Extinction. Total domestic box office: $243,853,989

Rating: 3/10

If you ever wanted a lesson on how to make the same movie four times and yet still make over a billion dollars worldwide then look no further than the Transformers franchise. This is probably the second best of this franchise’s films but considering the pestering annoyance of Revenge of the Fallen and the anger inducing boredom of Dark of the Moon that’s not saying much.  Age of Extinction at least manages to have a few interesting elements within the film such as the mention of the origins of the Transformers as a species, the antagonist Lockdown is probably the best character in any of the movies and the lack of Shia Labeouf is nice. Unfortunately most of these things are barely in the movie and are only there to set up the sequels. Aside from that and the wonderful voice talents of Frank Welker and Peter Cullen it’s just the exact same terribly written, mindless action we’ve come to expect from these films. Aside from a few good qualities and being better than the other 2 sequels Age of Extinction is definitely not good enough to be number 2 on this list. Luckily number one is worthy of it’s spot. (Oh and if you are going for the Dinobots they are only in the movie for the last 20 minutes and do nothing).

Number 1: Guardians of the Galaxy. Total domestic box office: $256,734,812

Rating: 9.5/10

We started on a high note so let’s end on a high note. Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the riskiest films in recent memory and it looks to have payed off in box office success and just being a great movie. Thanks to it’s incredibly well fleshed out characters, hilarious comedy, and especially awesome soundtrack, glorious practical and C.G.I effects and just all around fun nature that embraces it’s comic book silliness. Even when it does deviate from the comics it’s really for the better for example: Star-Lord’s origin and the character of Yondu. The main highlights of the film are the Guardians themselves and how all of their unique personalities work off each other (I guarantee that Groot and Rocket products will be one of the highest selling Christmas items). Some like to complain about the main villain Ronan for not having much depth and being a very basic Marvel movie villain in the same vain as Malekith and Whiplash. This actually works in the film’s favor however because not only does it give us more time to focus on the Guardians it also make him an enjoyable foil for the Guardians to fight. Since they are very comedic and do things very out of the ordinary it perfectly contrasts with Ronan’s stirn and dramatic attitude towards literally everything. Overall Guardians of the Galaxy is simply one of the best films of the entire year and needless to say that the bar has been raised even higher than ever for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.