From a big budget war film to the first female led superhero movie in recent years, this summer featured a diverse lineup of movies. With an average Rotten Tomato score of 93 percent and a total gross of 2.5 billion dollars, these are three movies that highlight the very best of the summer of 2017.

“Wonder Woman”, released on June 2, details Wonder Woman’s journey to find and defeat Ares, the god of war. During her journey, Wonder Woman finds out that she left her hometown of Themyscira to the real world during World War I, with the opposing German army developing a chemical weapon with the potential of changing the tide of the war. Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, as Diana Prince and Steve Trevor, set off to destroy the chemical weapon. A diverse cast including Ewen Bremner, Saïd Taghmaoui, and Lucy Davis join Gadot and Pine, and the group’s banter keeps the film light, balancing out some of the more grim moments. Some great plot twists near the end keep the audience on the edge of their seats, and the two villains are great antagonists that the audience can root against. Overall, Director Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman marked the first critical hit of the summer as one of the best female led superhero movies of the last decade.

Next on the list is “Spider-Man: Homecoming”, the first film to feature the web slinger since 2014. Unlike previous Spider-Man movies, Homecoming was made by Marvel Studios and feeds into the existing Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney’s interconnected web of superhero movies. A huge commercial and critical success, Homecoming enticed audiences with a lighthearted joyride full of one liners and wisecracks, as Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, attempts to stop the Vulture, played by Michael Keaton, while trying to please Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., all while attending high school as a normal teenager. This Spider-Man movie provided what previous Spider-Man films couldn’t: relatable, down to earth characters. A great villain and intense action sequences cap it off, leaving audiences excited to see more of Spiderman in “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018.

The final film on this list, “Dunkirk”, marks the return of famed director Christopher Nolan. Dunkirk describes the evacuation of the British army on the beaches of Dunkirk in a way unlike any of its war film precedents. With almost no dialogue or computer-generated visual effects, Dunkirk differs from the traditional aspects of modern Hollywood films. IMAX 70mm cameras add an image and sound quality unmatched by any other film, and this rare aspect ratio spans the viewer’s entire field of vision, immersing them in the event. The film follows three perspectives: air, sea and land, each with their own respective main character. Air follows a British spitfire pilot, sea follows a civilian boat attempting to rescue soldiers and land follows a soldier trying to survive the numerous air runs by the Germans.  Newcomers Fionn Whitehead, Jack Lowden and Harry Styles deliver gripping performances, while experienced actors Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Kenneth Branagh bring rich personalities to their characters. All of these elements put the audience right in the middle of the action, creating a movie that can’t be missed.

Overall, this summer was a great time for movies. A highly talented team of actors, directors and writers have come together to produce a wave of excitingly new and daring films that explore corners of cinema that audiences have not seen before.