Excellent Stand-Alone Movies You Should Watch

Movie series are great. It's fun to work your way through the whole thing and look at the overarching story lines. But it's also nice to a have a great movie that doesn't have any sequels or spin-offs and works great. Which is why I've compiled a list of my top ten stand-alones for your enjoyment today.

1. Megamind

What's It About: An evil mastermind villain named Megamind who finally manages to rid the world of his arch nemesis, only to discover that maybe that wasn't what he wanted.

Why You Should Watch It: This animated Dreamworks film is sadly forgotten, even though I feel it was good enough to at least be nominated for an Oscar. It has humor. It has actual depth. It has very few fart jokes. And it has a great storyline and characters. It takes the traditional hero versus villain plot and turns it on it's head.

2. Push

What's It About: A group of superpowered individuals who are trying to stop the government from using them.

Why You Should Watch It: I wrote a whole post on writing lessons from this movie, but you should watch it because it's an excellent, non-large-studio superhero movie that stands out from the crowd. If it had been a few years later, I think it would have been more popular. I was surprised by how much I loved this when I watched it.

3. Rise of the Guardians

What's It About: The Guardians of Childhood must team up with Jack Frost in order to stop Pitch Black, who wants to make the whole world afraid of him.

Why You Should Watch It: This is one of those movies that is so good, I could watch it again any time, even if I just watched it. It's another beautiful Dreamworks film that has great cast, storyline, and animation. It has this wonderful magic quality to it that almost can't be put into words.

4. Master and Commander: Far Side of the World

What's It About: Captain Jack Aubrey and his crew are sent to hunt down a powerful French ship that proves to be illusive. However, nothing will stop Jack in his mission.

Why You Should Watch It: It may just be me, but I can't resist a good historical ship tale. I find them so horribly exciting. This one has everything you need for a good story. Strong characters, relationships, humor, excitement, danger, death. It's a beautifully done movie, backed with a classical music score I love.

5. Nightmare Before Christmas

What's It About: The search of Jack Skellington, king of Halloween, for more meaning in his spooky life.

Why You Should Watch It: For starters, it's a complete stop motion, musical film. For another, it comes from the mind of Tim Burton. For a third, it's wonderful, so you should go watch it. And don't forget a dash of romance. I love this movie any time of year, and think it's a great classic movie.

6. I, Robot

What's It About: A man and his mission to stop evil robots from taking over his city, although it may not be the robots he thinks.

Why You Should Watch It: I've seen this movie twice now and it's just as fascinating. There are so many twists in turns. It's basically a sci-fi whodunit mystery, with Will Smith as the detective. Sure, it has a few problems, but I like how they subvert many sci-fi tropes and add some humor to what could be a dark movie.

7. Into the Spider-Verse

What's It About: Brooklyn kid Miles Morales accidentally gets bitten by a radioactive spider, becomes Spider-man, and has to save the multiverse from Kingpin.

Why You Should Watch It: Sure, this movie will probably have a sequel, but at the moment, it doesn't, so it counts. This movie has heart, humor, amazing graphics like you've never seen, and multiple Spider-men. I love it so much and really hope it gets a sequel, because I will watch it. (Bonus: it has an awesome soundtrack.)

8. Lemonade Mouth

What's It About: Five kids get detention and decide to form a band using their musical talents. Through their band, they learn to stand up for themselves and be who they truly are.

Why You Should Watch It: Yes, this is a DCOM. It's still a great movie. The power of the story, combined with the talent of the young actors really brings the movie to life. It's soundtrack is amazing and the whole thing flows really well, avoiding many teen movie pitfalls.

9. Next Gen

What's It About: An angry young girl meets a powerful robot and learns how to open herself up.

Why You Should Watch It: This is one of the few Netflix original movies that actually isn't crap. In fact, it's great. The movie has such a great heart to it, and I think that's what makes it so good. It has a message that can resonate with anyone, combined with super cute animation, that makes for a winner. I also like how it picks a very abnormal character for the protagonist.

10. Any Studio Ghibli movie

Why You Should Watch It: I am cheating a bit with this one, but pick any Studio Ghibli movie and you'll be taken to an entrancing world with well-built characters and a magical plot that will keep you riveted to the screen the whole time. And very few of them have sequels, so they work perfectly for this list.

Do you like stand-alone stories? What is your favorite? Have you watched any of these? Tell me in the comments.

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