Этот фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий.

Because фильм is a masculine singular noun.

In Russian, demonstratives like this must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:

• этот = masculine singular
• эта = feminine singular
• это = neuter singular
• эти = plural

So:

• этот фильм = this film
• not эта фильм, because фильм is not feminine

Оказался is the past tense, masculine singular form of оказаться.

In this sentence, it means something like:

• turned out to be
• proved to be
• ended up being

So:

• Этот фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий
  = This film turned out to be better than my expectations

It often suggests that the result became clear only after experience or discovery.

In the past tense, Russian verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject here is фильм, which is masculine singular, so the verb is:

• оказался = masculine singular past

Compare:

• фильм оказался = the film turned out
• книга оказалась = the book turned out
• письмо оказалось = the letter turned out
• фильмы оказались = the films turned out

Because оказаться itself already includes the idea of to turn out to be.

In English, you say:

• turned out to be better

In Russian, you can simply say:

• оказался лучше

No separate verb for to be is needed here.

This is very common in Russian:

• Он оказался прав. = He turned out to be right.
• Задание оказалось трудным. = The task turned out to be difficult.

Лучше is the normal comparative form of хороший (good), just like English better is the comparative of good.

So:

• хороший = good
• лучше = better

Russian often uses short comparative forms like this:

• большой → больше = bigger/more
• маленький / малый → меньше = smaller/less
• плохой → хуже = worse
• хороший → лучше = better

While более хороший is theoretically understandable, it is usually unnatural here. Лучше is the standard choice.

Because after a comparative like лучше, Russian can use the genitive case to express than.

So:

• лучше моих ожиданий = better than my expectations

Here, моих ожиданий is in the genitive plural.

This is a common pattern:

• старше брата = older than the brother
• выше дома = taller than the house
• лучше меня = better than me

So моих ожиданий is not the subject or object in the basic form; it changes case because it depends on the comparative.

Yes. Russian often has two ways to express than after a comparative:

1. Comparative + genitive
2. Comparative + чем

So you could say:

• Этот фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий.
• Этот фильм оказался лучше, чем я ожидал.
• Этот фильм оказался лучше, чем мои ожидания. (possible, but less natural than the first one)

In this sentence, лучше моих ожиданий is compact and natural.

A useful difference:

• genitive is often shorter and more direct
• чем is often used when the comparison is longer or more clause-like

Because ожидания is very often used in the plural when meaning expectations in a general sense.

Forms of the noun:

• ожидание = expectation / waiting
• ожидания = expectations

Here we need the genitive plural after the comparative, so:

• nominative plural: ожидания
• genitive plural: ожиданий

That gives:

• моих ожиданий = of my expectations / than my expectations

Using the plural sounds natural because people usually have multiple expectations, not just one single expectation.

Because the word мой (my) must agree with ожиданий in case, number, and gender.

Since ожиданий is:

• plural
• genitive

the possessive pronoun must also be genitive plural:

• мои = nominative plural
• моих = genitive plural (also accusative plural for animate nouns)
• моим = dative plural

So:

• моих ожиданий = correct

The dictionary form is ожидание.

Here is the basic pattern:

• ожидание = singular nominative
• ожидания = plural nominative
• ожиданий = plural genitive

So in the sentence, you are seeing not the dictionary form, but an inflected form required by the grammar.

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, though the neutral order here is very natural:

• Этот фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий.

This sounds like a straightforward statement.

Other orders are possible, for example:

• Фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий.
• Лучше моих ожиданий оказался этот фильм.

But changing the order can shift emphasis or sound more literary or contrastive.

For a learner, the original order is the safest and most neutral.

Yes, оказаться is perfective.

Its imperfective partner is usually оказываться.

Why that matters:

• оказаться focuses on the completed result: turned out
• оказываться can describe a repeated or unfolding situation: was turning out / turns out

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a finished conclusion about the film, so the perfective оказался is exactly what you would expect.

Compare:

• Фильм оказался интересным. = The film turned out to be interesting.
• Фильм часто оказывается интереснее, чем я думал. = The film often turns out to be more interesting than I thought.

You can, but it means something slightly different.

• Этот фильм оказался лучше моих ожиданий
  = This film turned out to be better than I expected
  This emphasizes surprise or discovery.

• Этот фильм был лучше моих ожиданий
  = This film was better than my expectations
  This is grammatically possible, but it sounds less natural in many contexts because оказался better captures the idea of an unexpected result.

So if you want the nuance of it turned out better than expected, оказался is the better choice.