A brief retrospective of 2010 in film
Funnily enough, I didn’t enjoy 2010 nearly as much as you might think. While my typical sort of people were scarfing down Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim and geeking out to new Mass Effect, Fallout, and Assassin’s Creed games, I was mired nostril deep in work and class, only managing to pull myself out of it on rare occasions to indulge in the mediocrity everyone else saw as brilliance. Trust me, I’m not trying to be deliberately counter-counter culture here when I say that I wasn’t particularly enthralled by anything this year.
Sure, there were a tonne of things I liked. But did I love any of it? Honestly, the answer is a resounding “no.”Maybe I’ve simply just been disappointed one too many times. Either that, or I’ve finally become eternally jaded (a prospect in which I find no satisfaction, believe me). Frankly, I think it’s because I’m resolutely grounded more in observer/spectator mode than in a general willingness to indulge and experiment. Very rarely are the things I say and do spontaneous, and thus I’m kept at a distance from pretty much everything. I’m not the sort that goes out in to the world searching for unique experiences and trying new things; I’ve got movies and video games through which to do that vicariously.
So I’m disappointed. What else is new? Well it’s the holiday season, for one thing. In my two weeks off, I’ve been splurging on Steam sales, sleeping in, and generally doing my best to relax. Now more than ever before, largely due to my crack at being an achieving undergraduate student this past semester for once in my life, I appreciate this brief respite of down time before I head into the hell of term work and exam headaches for another 12-16 weeks. It’s a time of rest and reflection, and, ever the imaginary legitimate writer/journalist that I am, the time has come that I take a few moments to jot down my thoughts on another year so remarkably bland.
You may recall that I wrote up a sprawling epic of the state of film in 2009 around this time last year. That… won’t be happening again. Partly out of habitual vegetation, mostly because I wasn’t quite as prolific a cinema patron from July to December as I was from January to June, and thus my impression of half the year is significantly compromised. That’s not going to stop me from doing a generic “Best/Worst __ films of 2010,” however. I have my own personal web space and openly identify myself as somewhere between a critic and a consumer sponge, so I’m pretty much honour bound by the laws of site ownership to do this anyway. So with that in mind, I present to you the best, the worst, and the “meh…”
You’re welcome.
The Worst
Legion: Does anybody remember this film? It was the one where an angel descends from heaven to protect a motley crew of unlikable human beings from becoming victims of the apocalypse in a rustic gas station in the middle of nowhere. If you really don’t remember it, then consider yourself lucky. At the very best, it’s a prime candidate for drinking games centred around laughably awful action/horror movies, and at the very worst, it’ll make you feel physically ill. I distinctly remember watching this movie as the picture of perfect health when it first came out in January, and I left the theatre in a state of partial decay.
Alice in Wonderland: When you take a step back and really, seriously consider the career of Tim Burton, you begin to realize that he’s never actually made a terribly good movie, and that he is mostly lauded for his bizarrely asinine aesthetic and frequent collaborations with Danny Elfman. I suppose you just have to be the sort who gets a kick out of that sort of crap in first place to really enjoy his films. Unfortunately, I’m not that sort, and Alice in Wonderland did not do a damn thing to change my mind. It was dreary, ugly, and miserable, featuring horrendous post-production 3D work and awful plot and acting. If nothing else, Alice in Wonderland should rightly expose Burton for the talentless hack that he is.
Clash of the Titans: Boring, stupid, and ugly. I can’t really say much else, despite the fact my classical education would normally demand I must. Really, this film just isn’t worth the words.
The Losers: Here’s another movie, much like Legion, that I truly doubt anyone really remembers. It’s one cast in the A-Team mould of philanthropic mercenaries having been framed, left for dead, and are now seeking a mixture of justice and redemption with bullets and explosions. Sounds exciting, right? So why is it that The Losers had all the energy and vigour of a dead battery? Every action scene was lifeless lacking a visceral punch, and the movie connecting those moments was every bit as plain and disinterested as the performances of its cast. I can’t think of such a rollicking premise so bland and mishandled as this. Well, except for maybe the A-Team, which suffered from even worse problems.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: A rather late addition to the 80s horror icon reboot train, Freddy Krueger’s reinvention couldn’t have further missed the mark set by the 1984 Wes Craven original. It traded humourous hyberbole for gritty gore in a routine and truly mundane pacing and presentation. Absolutely nothing here worth the time of anyone.
A-Team: So if The Losers was a lifeless and mishandled A-Team, then the A-Team was an inept and stupid version of The Losers. At least the former movie had a semblance of competence, but for the latter, there was seemingly no budget big enough to buy the necessary directorial and screenwriting chops to make this movie worth even a quarter of a damn. And my god, was that final action set piece ever ugly… A harbour strewn with colourful shipping containers looked more like somebody broke a garish Lego structure near the kitchen sink.
Salt: It’s generically generic. I doubt even Tom Cruise in the lead role would’ve fixed that if he didn’t take the time to do Knight & Day, an infinitely better and more enjoyable movie, instead. I can’t remember the last time I was so bored and disengaged with what was sold to me as a high-octane thriller.
Red: I was actually looking forward to this movie. Quite a bit, in fact. I bought into the hype of Helen Mirren with guns just like everyone else did, and I liked the idea of Bruce Willis in a back to basics ass-kicking romp. I liked crazy old John Malkovich doing what he does best, and I liked Mary Louise-Parker being improbably hot for a middle aged woman (46 years old would not be my first guess, let me tell you that). But Red much like many other movies on my bottom list, suffered from the same general listlessness and inept filmmaking/screenwriting combo that can so easily ruin otherwise sure fire successes. Such a shame, really…
The Best
How to Train Your Dragon: Much like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs last year, I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this non-Pixar project turned out to be. It was fun, creative, clever, gorgeous, and very well made. I don’t normally applaud Dreamworks, but this was a very well done film that managed, in my eyes, to surpass its yearly Pixar rival for the first time ever. Simply delightful.
Knight & Day: This movie is pure fun, plain and simple. I don’t care that Cameron Diaz resembles a charismatic lump of plasticine, and I don’t care that Tom Cruise is bonkers with Scientology. I wouldn’t even care if this film ate one of my legs. This year, there was simply no film as kinetic and entertaining as Knight & Day, and when taken strictly as a reminder of how much fun can be had at the theatres prior to the idiot Hollywood fascination with comic book heroes, it’s so charismatic as to be nearly impossible to hate.
Inception: Chris Nolan is a very good filmmaker, and my week long summer time sojourn exploring just why that is means I have a more thorough appreciation for him than I imagine most folks do (not to sound condescending, but he was a firmly just a cult figure with Memento before someone at Warner Brothers decided to hand him the reigns to the Batman reboot). And while I don’t think Inception is top of the pile in his stellar filmography, it’s still a terrific movie. It’s an inventive and challenging movie full of gun fights and science fiction malarkey. What’s not to love?
The King’s Speech: Even though Colin Firth definitely deserves the best actor Oscar this year, I’m actually looking forward to when he gets snubbed in favour of… oh, I don’t know… somebody who isn’t Colin Firth. The main reason for this is that it means I get to look forward to another immaculate drama by him in 2011, and presumably every year thereafter until he finally wins it.
The King’s Speech isn’t the most unique film, not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s simply a character study of an historic royal figure from a time and place we have some very odd recollections of (England in the 1920s and 1930s, to be precise). But everything about The King’s Speech screams (or should I say stammers?) utter perfection. The performances, the script, the score, the cinematography, every second of it is simply glorious.
The “meh…”
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Kick-Ass: Being a twenty something who spends most of his free time in front of a monitor/TV screen and who knows far more about web/geek/nerd culture than he would readily admit, these two movies would seem to be right up my alley. The former is drunk on hyper-stylized urban adolescent geek daydreams, and the latter is an ultra violent vigilante caped crusading crime saga. I should be embracing and lauding these films like the rest of the internet, and yet I find myself utterly disenchanted with the concept.
The problem I find is that these films celebrate things that rightly ought not to be celebrated. They’re weapons in this whole “my fandom/sub genre culture trumps your fandom/sub genre culture” war, and this is something I simply want no part of. I already dislike films that presuppose I have a familiarity with their source material, but these two films take that a step further by presupposing that I have some sort of emotional investment or, worse still, an allegiance to the media. A part of me feels sickened. It’s all so cynical, so contrived, so deceptive…a product sold on the anaphoric alliteration of “awesome” and “epic” to an insignificant imaginary microcosm of a market. I’m glad these films tanked. Hopefully it’ll be a slap back to reality.
To be fair, these films aren’t bad, and what I’ve said above does, in retrospect, strike me as being rather harsh. Kick-Ass certainly had its charms, but it was wildly uneven, while Scott Pilgrim was far too fickle, despite the impressive filmmaking. I just don’t like their potential implications. The impact of this pandering to a culturally pop-ironic and regressed generation… that’s my concern.
Toy Story 3: When you get right down to it, this film was pretty unnecessary. After the sublime Wall-E and Up, a sequel felt like a step backwards, and indeed for me that’s exactly what it was. To be certain, Toy Story 3 was as well made and delightful as any other Pixar movie you care to name, but there’s nothing fresh or exciting about it. With it, there’s an air – even a threat, if you will – of stagnation. And the upcoming Cars 2 next year, sequel to a movie many disliked but I personally adored, does little to assuage my fears.
Iron Man 2: The first Iron Man was brilliant, just start to finish excellence. Of course the sequel would fare poorly against it, even if it featured Mickey Rourke with electric whips, Sam Rockwell in a scene stealing sleazy corporate type role, and, lest we forget, Scarlett Johansson in skin tight black leather (and she even has a few lines in Latin, for Christ’s sake!). Frankly, there are three key problems that held it back. The first being the absence of any semblance that this movie could be anywhere near as fresh and invigorating as its predecessor. The second being the change in Lt. Rhodes, both with respect to actor and recharacterization. And finally, the fact that this movie was more interested in setting up whatever the hell The Avengers will be about (which is yet another thing that disgusts me, if I’m honest).
Tron Legacy: The faults of this film are too many to name. In fact, I should probably write up a full review of it in order to best convey them. But for what it’s worth, Tron Legacy is a loud and profoundly stupid movie. The script is simply atrocious and its unbelievable that the narrative as it stands made the final cut. Plot holes, inconsistencies, and idiot logic abound, which are pretty glaring faults for a movie whose predecessor was lauded for its ability to engage and inspire the mind, if nothing else (even back in 1982, however, Tron wasn’t a particularly strong film on its own merits). It’s pretty enough to look at (aside from some botched “young Jeff Bridges” CGI) and Daft Punk do indeed rock the score, which I suppose is barely enough for it to earn a near pass in my book. I can at least recommend it based on its tech if nothing else, but just don’t be surprised if you discover that the film and franchise have been irrevocably lobotomised. In fact, I suppose it’s a good thing that it plays as more of a remake than a sequel, if only because it can be rather effectively distanced from its own legacy.
The verdict
For me, 2010 marked the end of my optimism, which you shouldn’t by any means take to mean that I was a terribly bright-eyed person a scant twelve months ago. At the end of last year, Avatar caused me to believe that it was always possible for films to live up to their expectations, no matter how inflated they may have become. Yet even with modest expectations for the films that piqued my interest in 2010, I nearly consistently left disappointed. It got to a point where I would enter screenings with no enthusiasm, and despite being determined to be open minded, I would leave no happier.
Towards the end of September, a colleague of mine once described me as being “too British,” which I have since taken to mean as being too impartial and too… aloof, if you will. While I’m not immediately British, my mother is, however, Scottish, so I suppose there might be a kernel of truth to his assessment after all. At any rate, he’s right. I am at a distance and generally opposed to the same sort of fervour people, I find, tend to have towards their media consumption. Whether or not that makes be a better critic – a better judge, even – remains to be seen. Perhaps I’ll find out in 2011…
Shortly, god willing, I’ll have a few words to say about video games in 2010. I also intend to elaborate on just why Super Meat Boy is so damn awesome. If you haven’t experienced it already, you should probably go and fix that. Immediately.
