Ask a film buff what they thought of this summer and they might call it “disappointing,” “underwhelming,” “horse manure” and the like.

The consensus on summer 2016’s movies has been fairly dim, with a host of commercial and critical underperformers (mostly sequels or remakes). However, I take a slightly different view. While this summer was indeed a disappointment, that does not mean it was a bad time to go to the movies.

Yes, there were some dismal failures – Independence Day: Resurgence was far and away my worst moviegoing experience of the year. But before jumping to conclusions about the allegedly apocalyptic state of film today, it’s wise to remember the hits of the summer.

I loved Captain America: Civil War, The Nice Guys, Finding Dory, Star Trek Beyond, Kubo and the Two Strings and especially the absolute gem Hell or High Water. These were all very different films with highly divergent tones, genres and casts, but they left me thoroughly satisfied.

There were also plenty of solid movies alongside the great ones. I even liked highly divisive ones like X-Men: Apocalypse, Jason Bourne, Warcraft and Suicide Squad. Even I admit I was let down by all of them to varying degrees, but I still find it interesting how negative some of the responses were. All of these films have their defenders, but the fact remains that they all received mixed or negative reviews, some of which were downright scathing. Of course, someone’s opinion on a movie ultimately boils down to simple personal tastes, but is there more to it?

Apocalypse and Jason Bourne were probably victims of high expectations. The former was the sequel to the highly acclaimed Days of Future Past and the latter was the return of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass to the Bourne franchise, attracting of lot of positive attention before they were released. If they were following up worse movies I think the response to them would be much more positive.

Meanwhile, Warcraft and Suicide Squad were hobbled by their inherently limited appeal. I may have enjoyed Warcraft, but if I weren’t a fantasy fan I probably would not have liked it at all. I’m also one of the most ardent defenders of the new DC films, but I admit they appeal to very specific tastes that many people do not possess. Suicide Squad continues that trend.

I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses for these films. Given art’s inherent subjectivity, liking or disliking a movie does not require justification. There were also some 2016 summer movies most people liked that I didn’t – Sausage Party left me more disappointed than any of the ones mentioned above.

However, it’s important to remember that no film exists in a vacuum. An okay sequel to a great movie will probably be met with howls of disgust, and leaving expectations at the door is a very difficult task. It’s also easy to forget, in the midst of such disappointments, the many good films hiding in plain sight.