While martial arts movies aren't as popular now as they once were, the genre has still produced more than a few gems over the last decade. The best of them stand out by nailing the classic ingredients, particularly clarity of choreography and emotional intensity. Some revive the mythic grandeur of classic wuxia epics, others blend martial arts tropes with other genres, and a few simply get more grounded and human with their characters.

Action thrillers live or die by momentum. The genre depends on tension, pacing, charisma, and escalation. The viewer has to feel that events are spiraling constantly forward. To achieve this, the best of these movies hit us with expertly choreographed action sequences as well as characters that we can genuinely invest in.

Most movies end happily, or at least satisfyingly; that's what audiences typically crave, after all. Crowd-pleasers are a fan-favorite for a reason; who wants to see a bleak ending on the big screen, when we seemingly have enough of those in real life? The saying is "and they lived happily ever after" for a reason.

The label 'low fantasy' refers to fantastical stories that take place in our world, as opposed to 'high fantasy', which consists of entirely fictitious realms and universes. In low fantasy, the magical aspects are often more intense due to their contrast with the mundane environment around them, though they can also be ambiguous or metaphorical.

The last twenty-five years of literature have produced an impressive slate of gems across a range of styles and genres. Fantasy, sci-fi, crime, and thriller might've been more predominant, but every genre got represented. Obviously, selecting the very best of them is difficult, since taste is subjective, but this list attempts to pick out some of the most impactful and important.

Spy movies thrive on tension and information, conspiracies and secret identities. Yet they also need to deliver on the action front to truly reel the audience in. The fights and chases have to be genuinely tense, giving us the feeling that the protagonists are in real danger.