2011 on Screen - Part 1: The Tides of Change

And so, another film year has drawn to a close, all the popcorn popped, the drinks drunk, the previews previewed and the reels changed all for the last time, and it seems to get faster every year.

As you may have noticed by the title, I'm going to break up my end of year piece into 2 parts, the second part will have the top 3, worst 3 and 3 disappointments, this first part will talk about my own views on the year as a whole as well as the 2 good and 2 bad trends.

So, let's get started, first off I want to talk about the year as a whole in regards to movies as I saw it and to be honest, I thought this was a better than average year at the movies, last year I felt was not a good year for movies, a lot of them came and went and the consensus seemed to be from both critics and mainstream audience members that Toy Story 3, Inception and the Social Network were the ones that stood tall for 95% of the moviegoers.

Here that hasn't happened at all, the choices for top film of the year seemed to vary depending on the person you talked to where it be the documentary Senna, Terence Malick's divisive Tree of Life, the neo pop thriller Drive and others which is great to see I feel as it proves that each person like what they like and they aren't afraid to show that in their end of year lists.

But I can't not mention this year in film and avoid the discussion of cinema going, probably the one thing in life I like to do more than anything and this year saw the closure of my local cinema and its work in progress re opening, now to be honest I wasn't surprised that it closed down as it wasn't all that good to begin with but it was indeed mine and I did feel a sense of loss when it was gone, having seen the work in progress re opening on the day I write this, I feel a great sense of improvement and want to see it when the work is fully done but it will also depend on the film whether I go back or whether I decide to continue doing what I had done prior to it which is to take a trip for those films that I want to see and waiting for the DVD and/or Blu-Ray for most.

Now, with that out of the way I am going to talk about my 2 good and 2 bad trends of the year overall, and to start I'm going to give you the good which are:

The Rebellion against 3D: Yes folks, 2011 was the year that audiences finally woke up to the horribleness that is 3D, last year most gave it a chance, this year they began to reject it and see it for what it really was: dark, dim, horrible, murky and a general drain on your bank account that you just don't need, 2D is all you need it looks better, it looks brighter, it's cheaper and it's not murky, it's all you need when going to the movies.

The quality of the blockbusters: Probably the most surprisingly trend of the year was how well the blockbusters were received, normally most blockbusters are frowned upon but this year Thor, X-Men First Class, Super 8, Captain America and Rise of the Planet of the Apes all got good reviews even though I didn't like some of those myself, still it bodes well for next year's crop which could continue this trend and I hope it does.

Now, that was the good, this is the Bad:

The Box Office: What on Earth Happened this year with the overall Box Office, it seemed that nothing could catch on with audiences, they either came in droves or stayed home, to me the only film to do anything regarding big numbers was the last Harry Potter but then that was always going to happen, you knew it was going to be big going in and it was every bit the big bang it promised to go out with.

Apart from that, so little managed to do well, it was liked those that wanted to see it went in the opening weekend and after that were either the stragglers that got the chance to see it or those that went because "hey there was nothing else on and I was there so what the hell", even movies like the Hangover 2, Twilight 4.1, Transformers 3 and Pirates 4 which did do well couldn't escape the near unanimous negative word of mouth and dropped off big time after their big openings.

But I can't say I'm surprised, the year started off badly and it ended that way, despite a promising middle part of the year, hopefully the box office improves next year but I can't say I hope for it to do so as audiences seem to have made up their mind when it comes to their movie going, well at least for now.

Weak Villains: Ah yes, my old bug bear re surfaced big time this year and that is the action film with the weak villain, I mean come on guys it can't be that hard can it, seriously I have really had enough of this, any film goer worth their salt knows that every good hero needs a good villain to define him and his quest I mean look at the Star Wars Trilogy, those movies would be nothing without Darth Vader and the Empire to help define it and if you want proof of that theory in practice, look at the prequel trilogy.

So, that's part 1 of my look back of the year, stay tuned for part 2 where I talk about my best, worst and disappointments of the year.