The summer of 2014 has been an interesting time to be a fan of blockbuster cinema. With most of the year’s biggest films either pushed into November (Interstellar, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay) or delayed into 2015 (Fast & Furious 7, Jurassic World) it has been an uncharacteristically tepid season. But in a year without an Avengers-sized super hit, more distinct fare can really stand out.

You might notice that this list really only covers the year’s blockbusters — or at least the more action-oriented fare. I saw some fantastic documentaries (Jodorowsky’s’s Dune) and some brilliant indies (Boyhood) during this season — but they don’t typically fit into the concept of the “summer movie season.” Look for those come Oscar season.

This post does not contain spoilers

The 5 Best Films of Summer 2014

5. The Purge: Anarchy

Last year’s independent horror smash The Purge might have easily ranked as one of my worst movies of 2013. A thrilling concept (a dystopian USA legalizes all crime for one night) wasted on a generic suburban break-in slasher. But with the benefit of a higher budget (and master of all things that go boom, Micheal Bay, as a producer), The Purge: Anarchy was able to finally realize the grand ambitions of this new franchise. Giving the audience a view of the street-level city chaos, Anarchy becomes a twist on the typical action movie. It shoots power fantasy moments from the victim’s perspective, creating a powerful mashup of genres. For any horror fan who felt slighted by the original, The Purge: Anarchy is 90 minutes of cathartic entertainment.

4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I absolutely loathed the first film in the recent reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise. Rise was a clunky mess of poor performances, bland filmmaking and gaps in logic that swallowed any positive merit. While Dawn may still have all the scientific nonsense of the original, it moves past those flaws with a beautiful setting, completely new cast, and ambitious ideas that showcase the incredible mo-cap technology. The entire opening sequence is a breathtaking, dialogue-free hunting sequence without a single live human actor – and might be the best single scene of the season.

3. Edge of Tomorrow

You probably didn’t see Edge of Tomorrow. In fact, so few people saw it that the studio is now actively rebranding the film as “Live. Die. Repeat.” in hopes of distracting moviegoers from the film’s bad box office performance. Which is a shame, because EoT is just the sort of clever, original sci-fi movie that fans cry out for every time a Transformers sequel is released. Tom Cruise excels as an amatuer soldier reliving the same battle on repeat, slowing becoming the key to human victory in an alien invasion. Playing on the tropes of Aliens, Starship Troopers and even Groundhog Day, it’s destined to be hailed a hidden genre masterpiece in three years. So get on the bandwagon early, and check it out now.

2. Godzilla

When going to a summer movie, the last thing you ever expect to see is restraint. The modern summer flick is one of spectacle, one that gives the audience something to gawk at every few seconds — and bookends every scene of dialog with action beats designed to fill out countless trailers. So when a movie as massive as Godzilla tosses those habits out the window, it’s easy to be taken off guard. Gareth Edwards’ reboot is incredibly intelligent with keeping an audience in near constant suspense, slowly panning the action from an intimate human conflict to a citywide battle of titans. Even without the constant barrage of explosions, Godzilla is dense with visual wonder – packing some of the best cinematography in any film this year.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

Going into the summer season, no film seemed to be more of an unknown quantity than Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Like the film’s titular team, it was a weirdo. With the project’s most recognizable actors hidden behind CGI masks, no immediately recognizable characters and a director (James Gunn) most famous for exploitation horror flicks — it was no surprise that Guardians topped many people’s speculative lists for biggest flop of 2014. But defiant to the end, Guardians has proven to be the year’s biggest hit — even outgrossing Marvel’s much more sellable Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The success is well deserved. With countless quotable lines, constant action, and a superstar-making performance from Chris Pratt — it’s easily one of the best movies ever made by the house of Stan Lee.

The 3 Worst Films of Summer 2014

3. Neighbors

Admittedly, having this in my “worst of the summer” list is a bit disingenuous. Neighbors is funny. It’s well shot, has some genius bits and moves at a smooth pace. But somehow in the process of writing this script, Rogen and associates made two of the most unlikable protagonists in any comedy of recent memory. The two parents of Neighbors (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) seem determined to have it all — being both responsible parents and young socialites. In the film’s escalating prank war, they ruin the lives of a couple of college students who often seem like at worst, a manageable nuisance. By the climax, the leader of the frat (Zac Efron) becomes the most sympathetic character on screen — and you can’t help but cringe as you watch the film’s true villains walk away like heroes.

2. Snowpiercer

Depending on your social circle (specifically, how many film snobs inhabit that circle), Snowpiercer was either the most talked about action movie of the year, or this is literally the first time you’re hearing about Snowpiercer. The first English language film from South Korean film icon Bong Joon-Ho was denied a wide theatrical release, but found an immediate cult appreciation on iTunes and Amazon. On the surface, it’s a fairly standard dystopian action movie. Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer and Jamie Bell play members of the lowest-class of society on the Snowpiercer, a train powered on perpetual motion. It is the last arc for humanity that rolls across an ice-encrusted Earth, and the stage for a violent coup against the higher-class passengers at the front of the train. An indulgent two-hour metaphor for economic inequality that makes Elysium look subtle, Snowpiercer gained many fans this past summer. I was not one of them.

1. Amazing Spiderman 2

Comic book cinema has come a long way in the past decade. Superhero films were once immediately assumed to be only the most bland, predictable and soulless of action pictures. Forced love subplots, generic villains and gratuitous product placement were abundant — and any filmgoer who dared to take their brain into the theater would be starved for entertainment. The genre has come a far way, but we still have to fight films like The Amazing Spiderman 2, which seem dead set on sticking to ideas that every other franchise has branched away from. Not a single role is played effectively. The pace is inexplicable, spending what feels like hours on the uninteresting life of Peter Parker. It attempts to juggle more subplots than some film trilogies. But worst of all, it spends a clawing amount of time setting up an expanded universe that the audience already wants to escape from. Hopefully if America is lucky enough, we’ll be treated to another reboot of the iconic webslinger in six years or so. Maybe that time they’ll get it right.