Dylan O'Brien Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Dylan O'Brien-whose latest projects "Saturday Night" and "Caddo Lake" are now playing in theaters and streaming on Max respectively.  

Dylan O'Brien's Filmography Ranked:

12.American Assassin (D+)

11.Caddo Lake (D+)

10.Infinite (C)

9.Maze Runner: The Death Cure (C+)

8.Deepwater Horizon (C+)

7.The Internship (B-)

6.Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (B)

5.The Maze Runner (B)

4.The Outfit (B)

3.Not Okay (B)

2.Love and Monsters (B+)

1.Bumblebee (B+)

Top Dog: Bumblebee (2018)

Bumblebee has a secret sauce that the other Transformers movies just don't have: A legitimately good human story! The entire film hinges on the relationship between the titular mute yellow-and-black robot and high school senior Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) and how their bond helps them cope with the pain of their pasts. A buddy movie narrative is a really unexpected angle to approach a Transformers movie from and the whole thing works so beautifully because the writing from Christina Hodson along with Steinfeld's performance is so heartfelt. The action, comedic and 80's nostalgia bits are good too, but the earnest emotion underneath all of the VFX is what makes Bumblebee a special movie.  

Bottom Feeder: American Assassin (2017)

While I never made a worst action movies of the 2010's list, American Assassin would've absolutely landed on it if I had. This lumbering dud of a spy revenge thriller features a level of clunky pacing, incoherent quick cut editing and flat action direction that is downright shocking for a mid-budget mainstream genre vehicle backed by a legit studio in Lionsgate.   

Most Underrated: Love and Monsters (2020)

One of the many films robbed of the chance of achieving cultural relevancy on account of the pandemic, Love and Monsters is a really charming, creative adventure romance that makes great use of O'Brien's inherent magnetism and contains some of the most unique, best looking VFX monsters in recent cinema history.   

Most Overrated: Deepwater Horizon (2016)

As technically impressive as it is as a disaster movie, Deepwater Horizon is too emotionally stagnant to properly depict the horrors of this tragedy that was brought on by the greed of BP.