Films I saw in 2010, and Films I should probably see in 2011

There are a lot of films I was planning on seeing this year. There were a few I was looking forward to, but for some reason never got around to (Iron Man 2, Tron: Legacy).  Others I may have enjoyed (Shutter Island, Kick-Ass, Splice, Despicable Me, Predators, Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Tamara Drewe, Black Swan).  In some cases, I probably dodged a bullet (Daybreakers, The Book of Eli, The Wolfman, Alice in Wonderland, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Jonah Hex). Despite the plaudits and recommendations, I still do not wish to, nor do I ever see myself wishing to, see The Social Network.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to see The Way Back, being as I'm a massive Peter Weir fanboy (who still thinks he's been robbed countless times at the Academy Awards)

Still, I'll give my thoughts on the few 2010 films I saw this year in order from least enjoyed to most enjoyed, and list the films I'm making a point of seeing in 2011.

2010

Clash of the Titans
I refuse to waste any more time talking about this disaster.

The Ghost Writer
Well acted, but I was largely unmoved.  I hadn't read the book, but Ewan McGregor's character was incredibly stupid in one scene.  Brosnan was great, but he's always great.  (I actually watched it on DVD, but since it's a 2010 film I might as well count it).

Robin Hood 
This was a fairly decent film - it just wasn't a Robin Hood film.  Why on earth would you do an origin story for a character when the actor playing him is in his forties?  Why would you have Maid Marian married to Loxley - is the meaning of the word maid somehow lost on Scott?  Why turn Lionheart into a brooding, repulsive drunkard and yet keep John a conniving villain?

The worst of all is the historical inaccuracy.  Now, despite being a total history nerd, I've come to terms with the fact that Hollywood and the general public simply aren't bothered with things like this, as long as it's a good story.  That's fair enough.  What I can't come to terms with is when directors claim to tell the "real story behind the legend," projecting an air of authenticity and verisimilitude, only to make up their own historical inaccuracies.  This was particularly bad in 2004's King Arthur, which practically sold itself on being the "true story" of the Once and Future King, and of course being nothing of the sort.

Here, it wasn't as confounding, though there were still some real head-scratchers: the WW2-style French landing craft, a draft of the Magna Carta now mysteriously lost to history, having Philip Augustus's France invade John's England instead of the reverse, and - bafflingly - transforming Richard Lionheart's death from a noble, powerful, enthralling drama into a dismal, worthless plot point.  Most unforgivable, to me, was the political correctness regarding the Crusades, which again oversimplified the conflict into goodies and baddies: only this time, the Crusaders are the baddies. At least the Blood & Thunder was enjoyable enough.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
I... am undecided.  An awful lot of angst in the wilderness, while many of the really cool elements of the book were omitted, as well as a shameful lack of screentime for Brendan Gleeson, Peter Mullan or David O'Hara.  There was also a delightfully Weird vignette involving a mysterious old woman that I won't spoil, suffice to say that in the hands of another writer, it could be a fantastic little horror story in itself.

The Expendables
Can't really add much more than my original review.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Once again, I can't elucidate further than my review. Anna Popplewell's still my lasting impression of the film.

Toy Story 3
I'm not as enamoured with the series as some are, perhaps because I'd already seen The Brave Little Toaster (with which this film has several striking similarities, though obviously not to the point of plagiarism), but it was a very expertly-made film, highly emotional, and beautiful.   A fitting end to the saga, and hopefully it'll stick.

Megamind
As I said back in my Solomon Kane review, I'm a sucker for a good redemption story.  Megamind is, of course, the tale of a supervillain who suffers an existential crisis, and decides to go straight.  Dreamworks are really coming along since the heartless, soulless, bitter days of Shrek, which seemed to exist purely to spite Disney for its tropes - all the more infuriating that those films then end up adhering to them anyway.  Megamind is touching, heartwarming and even a bit chilling in places, with great character interplay and a fairly complex-yet-straightforward narrative. Most admirably of all, it actually tackles, albeit on a simplistic level, morality debates like nature vs nurture, moral relativism, and identity being defined by actions. This and How to Train Your Dragon show Dreamworks are starting to get to a more self-determined plateau, though they still suffer from facile pop culture references. This is worst in the choice of songs.

The songs used are just the most unimaginative, dullest, most obvious choices imaginable.  Need to convey that a character is excited?  Use the Pointer Sisters' "I'm So Excited."  Need to convey that a character is lonely?  Use Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Alone Again Naturally."  Megamind simply cannot go beyond its repertoir of the most ubiquitous, unchallenging choices of music: "Bad to the Bone," Highway to Hell," "Crazy Train," "A Little Less Conversation," "Back in Black," "Welcome to the Jungle," "Cobrastyle..." freaking "Bad"! I can see the logic - using something more obscure might alienate some viewers - but then, Quentin Tarantino seems to thrive on picking purposefully obscure songs, and he doesn't suffer for it.  By thunder, it irks.

The other major problem for me was Metro Man - and again, the damn trailer spoiled the film for me. See...

Metro Man appears to die in the first ten minutes of the film.  Had I not seen the trailers with a bearded Metro Man in a dressing gown, thus revealing that he can't have died, I might've been impressed: the protagonist of a kid's film murders a superhero.  That's gutsy, and I would've applauded their attempts to get the audience to accept this.  Unfortunately, as the trailers revealed, Metro Man wasn't dead: he in fact faked his death, because he was tired of life as a superhero.  So much for that little quandary.  However, when Megamind's progeny runs amok through the city... Metro Man refuses to help.  The hero gig just isn't for him anymore.  A being of incredible power is destroying buildings, possibly killing or at least injuring hundreds if not thousands of people, and the only man who could stop him is retired.  

What a heartless excuse.  Imagine if an expert on serial killers refused to assist on a case because he was "retired."  Imagine the world's best air traffic controller refusing to help land a few dozen planes.  It's worse than that, because while someone might be able to step up to the plate on the last two situations, there really wasn't anybody who could stop the mad superhero, except another superhero.  Imagine if Superman just retired - the Superman of the movies, where there is no Justice League to take up the slack.  What a ridiculous copout.

You might get the impression I didn't enjoy the film: far from it!  I actually liked it more than Pixar's The Incredibles, the only time I've preferred a Dreamworks movie over a comparable Pixar one.  I suppose that, as with many good things, the bad elements only seem worse when contrasted with a great product.  Ah well.  (I only caught Megamind a few days ago, but I may as well include it.)

How to Train Your Dragon
Finally, a Dreamworks film that could truly compete with Pixar on an emotional level.  There were the usual weird irritants (how come all the adults in the film have Scottish accents, yet all the kids have American ones?), Hiccup could be an idiot at times, and I wish they went more into the ecology of dragons, but it was a very good wee film.  Gerard Butler was probably the best part of the film, outside the fantastic flying scenes which put Avatar's utterly to shame.

Buried
Ah, now this I enjoyed immensely, and the 2010 film which was most satisfying to me. While there were at least two points in the film that bothered me, I think they can be justified simply by assuming that Conroy wasn't thinking straight (what with being buried alive and likely oxygen-deprived and all).  The director deserves applause for being able to do so much with such a tiny space: the choices, in retrospect, seem very obvious - different lighting colours depending on the source, camera angles, filters, etc.  Not perfect, but a damn sight better than most films I've seen.  Highlight below to reveal spoilers:

1. Paul clearly can't have been buried too deep, and if he made an attempt to dig his way out, I think he could've made it.  If he could get a reception, hear the call to prayer, and have a snake find it's way in (which reminds me: why didn't at least use that air hole?  There wasn't any sand leaking in that way, and there was clearly some sort of solid compartment allowing the snake access.  Then again, putting your head near a hole that a snake just went through probably wouldn't occur to him), he can't have been more than a few feet.  As soon as the roof broke, I thought Paul would make a break for it - sure, he might fail, but I can't stand the idea of just letting the dust cover me.  I'd rather die trying to escape than .  Maybe that's just me, though.

2. It took Paul a ludicrous amount of time to figure out the language settings, which seem to be standard for most phones.  I'm hardly a tech-savvy guy, and I could've figured that out.  If I was in a foreign country - especially a hostile one like Iraq - I would make a point of acquainting myself with available communication technology.  I'd sure as hell memorize the safety number, too.

Oh, and the trailer nearly ruined the film for me.

In the trailer, there's a scene where Paul abruptly says "wait, how did you know my name?"  This gives the impression that there's some sort of cover-up, or otherwise more to the situation than meets the eye.  It didn't help that the hostage negotiator chap was English - I was positive he'd turn out to be the bad guy somehow.  Damn Hollywood ruining my impression of Englishmen.... I was expecting, at the very least, that his convoy was actually transporting weapons or other illegal/dodgy materials, and the company wanted to cover their tracks.  We did get a bit of that, but I was expecting something bigger.  Either that, or he's in purgatory/being toyed with by some sadistic killer/in a post-apocalyptic future after being thawed out, where his terror feeds the new alien oppressors.

I'm not disappointed with how the film ended at all, by the way: I just think the trailers were rather misleading.

2011

Films I Simply Have To See

Conan the Barbarian.  Being a card-carrying member of the Robert E. Howard Fandom, castellan of the Conan Movie Blog and one of the film's most outspoken critics, I think I really have to see it.  Not just for the experience, but so I know what to expect from all the prospective new Howard fans/critics whose experience of the man's work begins and ends with the film.  At best, it'll be a fun Sword-and-Sorcery flick: at worst, I at least know what we're up against.

Apollo 18.  I love Capricorn One, even if roughly 65% of that love is for Goldsmith's score and another 25% for the concept alone, so you can imagine how much I love the idea of a secret 18th Apollo mission with sinister, mysterious intentions. There aren't enough mystery-thrillers set in space.

Source Code. Speaking of mystery-thrillers set in space, Moon is one of my favourite science fiction films of all time, and I deeply regret not seeing it in the cinema.  What a beautiful, enthralling film, evocative of the contemplative SF classics of Tarkovsky. As such, I'm not going to make the same mistake with the director's second film, and will see it on the big screen.

Paul.  It's a road trip comedy involving an alien visitor that stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, directed by the dude who did Superbad. There is no way I'm missing this.  I just can't wait for the final chapter of the Blood & Cornetto trilogy.

Thor. Jack Kirby's Valhalla on the big screen, the promise of epic battles with the Destroyer, the warriors three, Kat Dennings. Magnificent.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. There are two major reasons I even care about this: one, no Orlando Bloom or Kiera Knightley to ruin proceedings; two, Ian McShane as Blackbeard.  I repeat for the reading impaired: Ian McShane as Blackbeard. Masterstroke.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn.  I've been waiting nearly all my life to see Tintin at the cinema, ever since falling in love with the comics and animated adaptations: I dearly hope it's as charming and adventurous as it deserves to be.

Films I'm Quite Interested In Seeing

The Eagle.  There's been a glut of Romans-in-Britain films in the 2000s, and I've only seen a handful: however, the mystery inherent in this one intrigues me more than Centurion (where Neil Marshall somehow mixed up the heroes and villains of the story) and definitely more than King Arthur.  I just hope Pete Berg's Bran Mak Morn film can set itself apart from all the other films, and hope that the mainstream media don't lump it in with them.

Ironclad. James Purefoy as The Greatest Knight in the infamous siege of Rochester, you bet I'm interested.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  You'd think I'd avoid this like the plague after Revenge of the Fallen, but I'm going to make a point of seeing this movie at the cinema without actually paying for it (though I don't know how I'll go about it, save that I stress it'll be in a legal fashion.)  After all, I enjoyed the experience of Revenge of the Fallen, even if it entirely consisted of me making up the story as I went along while ignoring the worst parts.  If nothing else, Shockwave's in it, and he's voiced by David Freakin' Warner.  That's enough to get me to risk 2 hours.

Green Lantern.  I'm not exactly enamoured by the trailer, but we all know how misleading they can be: I'm going for the space scenes.  More than any other comic, Green Lantern allows for the scope to escape beyond earth into space, which is something I'm very much looking forward to seeing.  I can't understand why there haven't been more science fiction films that explore the wonder and beauty of space, considering we have the effects for it now.

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. I've seen part one, can't exactly leave the narrative hanging, can I?  Plus I've been waiting years to see Neville get his due.  Who wants to bet that's one of the things they cut for "time..."

Captain America: The First Avenger.  As soon as I saw futuristic atomic Nazi superbikes in leaked photographs, my interest was piqued.

The Darkest Hour. Aliens invade Moscow this time, for a nice change of venue.

Now. I loved The Truman Show, despite it starring Jim Carrey and suffering a few logical lapses, and I greatly enjoyed Gattaca, so I'm very intrigued by this new film from the writer of both.

Real Steel. Boxing robots, come now, how can one not be moved?  It's a bit close to my idea of a dystopian future where brutal gladiatorial combat's seen a resurgence, where robots stuffed with SFX giblets battle each other to the "death" while being programmed to feel pain for verisimilitude (there's a commentary on professional wrestling in there somewhere), but who knows, perhaps it's actually a touching drama.

Arthur Christmas. It's from Aardman Animation, creators of the sublime Wallace & Gromit, ergo, I'm there.

The Witches of Oz.  Not only is it based on the book as opposed to the film, there are three casting choices that seem to be calling out to me on a personal level: Christopher Lloyd, Jeffrey Combs, Lance Henrikson.  Oh my.  (I apologise for that gag, truly I do)

Sherlock Holmes 2. I caught the 2009 film on the telly the other day, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  Yes, it has its divergences from the source material, and Ritchie had a habit of splurging on gratuitous visual effects that look pretty but don't add much to the narrative.  However, it also gets quite a lot right, especially the relationship between Holmes & Watson, and the general tone of very British fussiness mixed with very Doylian humor and genuine menace.  I don't think I've ever liked Jude Law in a film, but slapping on a moustache alleviated that substantially.  More clockpunk and supernatural-revealed-as-science-and-trickery would be just the ticket.

Films I'd Go To Just To See How They Are

The Green Hornet.  I'm not sure if I'm digging the comic approach, but I enjoyed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless

I Am Number Four. Teen/"Young Adult" science fiction, perhaps looking to find a slice of the Twilight pie.  Pielight?  Nonetheless, I'm a bit of a sucker for stuff like this, so who knows.

The Adjustment Bureau.  I'm always game for a new Philip K. Dick adaptation, even if I think cinema's getting something of a Fantasy Masterworks-level Dick fixation.  This will make the tenth theatrical release based on a Dick novel or story, while some legends like Le Guin, Bester, Haldeman, Sturgeon and Stapledon haven't had a single cinematic adaptation to their names.  What gives, Hollywood?

Battle Los Angeles. A grim, gritty, bleak war movie involving aliens.  Why has it taken this long to finally produce an alien invasion film that actually deals with the idea of an alien invasion in a more science fiction way, rather than the Earth vs The Flying Saucers brand of action adventure?  If I see any reviews that say this isn't "really" science fiction because it's more like a "real war movie..."

Sucker Punch. I enjoyed 300, I felt Watchmen was all right save a few alterations that don't sit well with me (yes, that's right, I wanted the goddamn squid), and I'd definitely like to see if Snyder can handle a story that is ostensibly his own creation.

Your Highness.  As I wonder why in blazes they still haven't made a big-budget live-action Discworld film despite the success of the books and acclaim of the tv series, I have to hope that other comic fantasies will fill the void.  Crom knows Krod Mandoon didn't do any of that.

Rise of the Apes.  Although I love Planet of the Apes dearly, Escape from the Planet of the Apes is the one that stuck with me: it seemed the most science-fiction oriented of the films, which I found fascinating, plus the characters are my favourites.  After Burton's frustrating adaptation, I wouldn't have been surprised to see the Apes franchise die, but if Rise of the Apes is close enough in tone to the old films, I'll be happy.  (I haven't had the pleasure of reading the source material, sadly).

Cowboys & Aliens.  Cowboys.  Aliens.  Harrison Ford.  It just might be enough for me.

Super 8.  I really don't like J.J. Abrams.  His modus operandi seems to be "make something all mysterious, then when the audience thinks your giving them an explanation, just hit them with more mysteries, all without really bothering to have any rhyme or reason save to function as a mystery, woooOOOooo."  It's like David Lynch's little brother desperately trying to emulate him, only without having the slightest concept of what makes Lynch, you know, good.  I have... problems with Star Trek (2009) too, but we'll not get into that.  Nonetheless, this looks like a monster film, and I love me some monster films.  Just as long as it isn't populated with more precocious teens like Cloverfield.

Hanna. I've really grown fond of Saoirse Ronan, ever since I first saw her in City of Embers.  She's quite remarkably talented, and could well be a really big thing in the years to come: this could be her Leon.  I never caught The Lovely Bones (damn Peter Jackson avoidance syndrome: I loved The Frighteners, why can't I just get over myself?), but from all accounts hers was a strong performance.

Any films I've missed, folks?