We've all heard someone make the hasty generalisation that modern movies are going down a spiral of descending quality and can't even begin to compare to the classics such as Citizen Kane, Casablanca and The Godfather. Don't get me wrong: those movies are some of the best that film has to offer, but there are a real plethora of modern movies that are just as good (but for entirely different reasons). Casual film fans and cinephiles alike can find something to enjoy in each of the movies I've listed here and the majority of these entries are astounding achievements in their own right. Stories have been reinvented decade after decade and the modern times we currently live in have done a great deal to advance movies, especially with digital filmmaking evolving to take precedence in ways that it never has before. Without further ado, I now present to you 11 movies that prove modern films are just as good as their classic counterparts...
11. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
I wanted to start this list with a movie from 2013 and the latest installment in the classic Science Fiction series is a great way to start. Star Trek Into Darkness is a film so epic, so intense and so exciting that it opens with a dissection on the nature of intelligent life vs. primitive life all inside of a volcano, while an adjacent chase scene intersects the scene of Spock in the volcano. Everything about Into Darkness is what a big budget, Hollywood blockbuster should be. Abrams' film is exhilarating, intelligent and deeply character driven. Star Trek has always been known for it's fascinating portrayal of the human and alien relationships with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock representing the show's most ambitious themes. In Into Darkness Kirk and Spock's friendship serves to really deepen the nature of the two iconic characters but also elevate them into more fully formed characters. It takes a lot to develop a 50 year old series into something even better than it was when it started and the latest Star Trek film does this fantastically.