As we prepare to kick 2009 to the curb, it seems an appropriate time to review the films that marked the year. Building off my list from two years ago, here's a rundown of my theatergoing habits over time:
My visits to the cinema have been fairly consistent this millennium at just over a dozen outings per year. In 2009, films taken in ranged from the independent documentary The Accidental Advocate to the classic American Graffiti to an original take on Plan 9 From Outer Space. Of the few mainstream films I saw, the best were Star Trek (which composed three of my sixteen theatrical outings) The Soloist, and Up; good but not great include Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Surrogates, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Night at the Museum 2; while the stinkers consisted of X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator Salvation. Also of all the mainstream films I saw this year, the only original IP was Up.
There were a lot more films released than these few — 342, by one person's count. This enterprising individual has tried to compile all the year's releases into one montage. I don't know if his sources were limited to theatrical trailers, but he references some films multiple times, which makes getting around to all of 2009's contestants even more challenging. Some of the transitions and juxtapositions are clever, though:
What were your cinematic highlights of the decade's final year?
Seen this year: Star Trek, Up, Monsters vs Aliens, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, X-Men Origins, Harry Potter, Avatar, Christmas Carol, The Proposal, Watchmen, possibly some others I've forgotten.
Best: Avatar, Star Trek, Up, Watchmen.
Also have found interesting the resurgence of 3D flims, after a hiatus of 40? years.
Wow, Ken, I can't believe you haven't seen Avatar yet!
You should remedy that… :-)
Maybe it's just because my expectations were so low due to the horrendous Terminator 3, but I actually really enjoyed Terminator: Salvation. Sure, the plot was fairly stupid, but not any worse than your average popcorn movie and the action scenes and special effects were all enjoyable enough.
Anyway, my favorite movie this year has definitely been Coraline. Looks great, sounds great, and has a really unique and interesting story.
Peter: I too can't believe I haven't seen Avatar. All the reviews are amazing, both from well-known critics and from folks who don't generally rave about films. I like James Cameron, too — so I'm not sure why I haven't made an effort to see this movie yet.
Rob: Salvation was a good action film, but not a good Terminator film, IMHO. The last one of those came out in 1991.
BTW, I replaced this post's boring table with a chart! :-)