2018 was a wild year for movies. It was a year that gave us sequels and remakes that surprisingly lived up to expectations from its predecessors, as well as highly original projects that blew our minds away. 2018 gave us extravagant high octane blockbusters, but it also gave us simple made quiet stories that came out of the indie circuit. There were movies this year that eloquently spoke on the tough political climate that we are currently in right now, as well as big dumb and fun movies that we were able to check our brains at the door with before watching. Regardless of where anyone found their favorite movies this year - whether it be on a streaming service or a visit to the cinemas - one thing that is for sure is that 2018 gave us a lot to like and a lot of movies to talk about.
2018 saw an interesting trend - with Hollywood movies especially - where a lot of movies opted to shoot overseas rather than in a big Los Angeles studio or on location in the States. In fact, a lot of our favorite movies that came out in 2018 just so happened to be filmed overseas. Here are some examples.
25 AQUAMAN, A FILM ABOUT A GUY WHO TALKS TO FISH - Morocco, Australia, and Canada
Considering the movie and the comic books that it is based on has a concept that sounds silly on paper, many people expected to the film to suck. As it turns out, the film was a pleasant surprise with - as of this writing - the movie maintaining a 7.7 on IMDB and a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
While some may assume that since most scenes take place in CGI underwater, this could have just been filmed in a regular Hollywood backlot. Instead, all scenes pertaining to the King of Seas were filmed overseas in Morocco, Australia, and Canada.
24 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY - FILMED IN GERMANY AND THE UK
Bohemian Rhapsody is the Queen biopic that die-hard fans of the band had been begging to see for years. Now, it finally arrives at the big screen with Mr. Robot star Rami Malek in the lead giving a mesmerizing performance as the ever-enigmatic Freddie Mercury.
Of course, with Queen being a primarily British band, most scenes were filmed across the pond in England. However, the United Kingdom was not the only place where the movie was filmed. Additional filming also took place in Germany and Hong Kong.
23 FANTASTIC BEASTS 2 - FILMED IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND
In the latest sequel and entry into the Harry Potter movie franchise, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald serves double duty as both an origin story for Albus Dumbledore and also as a prequel showing how the wizarding world looked before Harry Potter was born.
Much like most films in the Harry Potter franchise, Fantastic Beasts 2 was filmed in jolly ole England, although this was not the film's sole location. The movie was also filmed in Paris, France.
22 MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT - FILMED ALL AROUND THE WORLD
Mission Impossible: Fallout marks the sixth thrilling entry into the always exciting action extravaganza that is this franchise. With a new film marks new locations to film in and boy, Fallout was filmed in a lot of new places for the franchise.
Filming commenced in the City of Love known as Paris in April 2017. From there, other locations included the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Norway. Funnily enough, despite the franchise having a mostly US demographic, Fallout filmed practically everywhere in the world except the US.
21 THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON, BLACK PANTHER - film in Africa, Argentina and South Korea
Black Panther has shaped out to be a pop culture phenomenon, not only as a major blockbuster, but surprisingly enough, a strong Oscar contender.
With Wakanda being strongly influenced by the culture of Africa, not much of the film was filmed on the continent. Aerial shots of Wakanda were filmed in South Africa, Zambia, and Uganda. The Warriors Falls footage was filmed in Argentina. A large bulk of the film - particularly the big car chase scene - was filmed in Busan, South Korea. As for the rest of the film, Black Panther was almost entirely filmed in Atlanta, Georgia.
20 READY PLAYER ONE - FILMED IN ENGLAND
Ready Player One is a film that was made for heavy hardcore video game enthusiasts and, in many ways, it serves as a love letter to pop culture in all of its forms (games, movies, etc).
While Ready Player One dedicates a majority of its runtime to American pop culture and was directed by America's favorite director Steven Spielberg, the movie was filmed entirely overseas in the United Kingdom. Filming took place in Birmingham, England, at places including Spaghetti Junction, Citypoint, and the former Sun Microsystems HQ.
19 MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN - Filmed IN CROATIA
Exactly ten years after the original Mamma Mia! hit theaters, musical enthusiasts everywhere were ecstatic to see Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, and the rest of the cast return this year for a sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
While the first movie was filmed in Greece, the filmmakers decided that they wanted to take the sequel into new waters and territories. The territory for the sequel would be Croatia. The film's fictional island of Kalokairi was represented by Vis, an island that can be found on Croatia's Dalmatian coast.
18 AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - FILMED ALL OVER THE WORLD
In the film franchise's ten year run at the cinemas, no film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been as well hyped as Avengers: Infinity War. The superhero romp was highlighted and promoted as one big mega-gathering of everyone's favorite superheroes teaming up to take on Thanos.
As the epic blockbuster that it was, Infinity War found itself filming scenes all over the world the highlight its epicness, Shooting locations included the United States, United Kingdom, Philippines, Brazil, and Scotland just to name a few spots.
17 OUTLAW KING HAS ITS ROOTS DEEP IN SCOTLAND
Marketed as a Netflix original movie, Outlaw King stars Chris Pine as legendary warrior Robert the Bruce during a time when he is forced into exile during the 14th century. Now, Robert the Bruce must compile together a band of warriors willing to help him reclaim the throne.
Staying true to its true Scottish story setting, the film was filmed in Scotland on location. Spots, where the cameras filmed, included Craigmillar Castle, Doune Castle, Linlithgow Palace, Coral Beach, and Edinburgh.
16 PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING - FILMED IN JAPAN AND CHINA
Pacific Rim: Uprising is a sequel to the cult classic predecessor. Idris Elba might have skipped out this time around, but in his place we get John Boyega playing his son. Plus, we still get even more giant robot action, which is never a bad thing in movies like this.
Most of the movie's filming took place in China. As for the climactic Battle of Tokyo, filming was taken to Seoul and Busan in South Korea. Some of its filming even took place in South Wales in Australia as well.
15 THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME - FILMED IN GERMANY AND HUNGARY
Starring comedy aficionados Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon, the two play best friends who unwittingly get wrapped up in an international conspiracy when they discover that one of their boyfriends was a spy.
Continuing a trend this year that saw several major Hollywood production go overseas to be filmed, The Spy Who Dumped Me was filmed in Budapest, Hungary. Additional scenes were filmed in Prague in the Czech Republic, as well as in Vienna, Austria, in Denmark, and in the Netherlands.
14 THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB - filmed IN GERMANY
The Girl in the Spider's Web marks the big screen return of the Millennium series with its adaptation of its latest novel. It also marks the third major onscreen appearance of Lisbeth Salander, this time played by Claire Foy.
Despite taking place in Stockholm, Sweden and the franchise as a whole being deeply rooted in Swedish origins, the film's adaptation of the fourth Millennium novel was mostly filmed in Germany; Berlin to actually be exact. Although some scenes were filmed in Stockholm.
13 MUTE ON NETFLIX - FILMED IN GREAT BERLIN
Mute is yet another Netflix original movie. This time, from the mind of David Bowie's son and visionary visual director Duncan Jones. This is a noir sci-fi flick about a mute bartender who must find the love of his life after she goes missing. It stars Alexander Skarsgård and Paul Rudd in lead roles.
The film was shot entirely in Germany. Mute was filmed on location in Berlin, as well as in studio at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany.
12 UPGRADE - FILMED IN AUSTRALIA
Released at the top of this summer, Upgrade stars Tom Hardy's doppelganger Logan Marshall-Green as a mechanic who receives a STEM implant that can control his entire body and motor functions at an accelerated level.
Given the fact that everyone in the cast gives an American accent - probably to guarantee some mass appeal when it got a wide release in the States - it would be easy to mistake this film for an American production. On the contrary, Upgrade was filmed in Melbourne, Australia and was edited in Sydney, Australia.
11 ANNIHILATION - FILMED IN ENGLAND
Released in February, Annihilation was an early entry into the 2018 cinema stratosphere and for many people, it remains one of the best films of the year ten months later. It stars Natalie Portman and Tessa Thompson as scientists who enter "The Shimmer," a mysterious zone filled with even more mysterious creatures.
Annihilation was filmed entirely in the United Kingdom's England side of the pond. Said side of the pond brought the crew's cameras to Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, Marsworth Airfield, and Suffolk.
10 SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - FILMED IN ITALY
Featuring an all-star cast of characters led by Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover, Solo focuses on the origin story of one of the Star Wars franchise's most beloved characters. The film maintains a solid 7.0 on IMDB and a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.
With so much of the film being lathered in CGI, it would be easy to assume that Solo was filmed in a Hollywood studio or on California soil, much like its original 1977 predecessor. Instead, most of Solo's filming took place in Italy; either in Trentino or Tre Crime. Additional filming took place in England.
9 A STAR IS BORN - FILMED IN ENGLAND
A Star is Born is a movie that has been remade time and time again over the course of several decades. No matter how many times the movie gets remade, the story always remains the same. It's always about a washed-up musician who takes a young starlet under his wing as his muse. This year, Bradley Cooper - who also directed - was the hard-drinking vet while Lady Gaga was his muse.
Most of this film was filmed in glorious California, but for the festival scenes, Cooper took his cameras overseas to England.
8 THE NUN - FILMED IN TRANSYLVANIA
Transylvania is a region in Romania that always gets associated with all things that go bump in the night. Transylvania has deep roots in the horror genre and gets connected with the likes of vampires, werewolves, and in this case, demons.
Filmed in Sighișoara, Transylvania, The Nun is the fifth entry into The Conjuring franchise. This time, the film is focused on a priest and a nun who both run into unholy nun demons. The movie was also filmed at Corvin Castle in Hunedoara.
7 THE OUTSIDER - FILMED IN JAPAN
Another Netflix original movie on this list, The Outsider stars the Oscar-winning lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto, as a non-Japanese Osaka prison inmate who is obsessed with all things Japanese. So obsessed that he tries to slither his way into the prestigious Japanese Yakuza mob.
Given a plot like that and a setting centered around Japan so intricately, it makes sense that the filmmakers likely decided to film on location in Japan for the sake of authenticity.
6 FORMER CLOVERFIELD SPIN OFF OVERLORD - FILMED IN The uk
Originally, Overlord was supposed to serve as the fourth entry into the Cloverfield thanks to the concept of parallel universes introduced in the third film, The Cloverfield Paradox. However, after that third film received such poor reviews upon release onto Netflix's service, J.J. Abrams and Paramount Pictures decided it would be best for Overlord to distance itself as a separate entity from the Cloverfield franchise.
Overlord was filmed in the United Kingdom despite its story holding a backdrop in WWII era France.