2011 – The Highlights (lionsroar)

Best Films of 2011

In no particular order:

THE ARTIST
While this is in some ways a novelty: a modern black and white silent film shot in the 1.33 aspect, this is really a very good movie. Set in Hollywood at the time silent films gave way to sound, it tells the story of two stars whose paths cross, as one goes to the top of the heap and the other falls into obscurity.

HUGO
Based on an award winning book, the film tells the story of an orphaned boy left on his own in a major Parisian railway station, who is obsessed with fixing an automaton that his father had found in a museum. His quest for parts puts him into contact with an old man who owns a toy shop in the station, who happens to be the great French silent film director, George Méliés. A departure from most of the films Martin Scorsese has made, this is a film that both entertains and inspires.


MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
Woody Allen continues his tour of European capitals and this may be one his better efforts of late. In typical Allen fashion, the film has many stars, but none of them outshine the script or the direction. This is a fantasy film like few others and shows that the writer/director still has some magic left.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
While I am normally dismissive of summer blockbusters, this is perhaps one of the best comic book based movies ever and certainly the best one since SPIDER-MAN 2. After the mini-disaster of THOR, this film points the way to what should be an exciting series of AVENGER films.

RANGO
An interesting and beautifully rendered take on the animated film, RANGO is a modern western, starring the voice of Johnny Depp. Clever and funny, the film manages to rise above the normal animated films and aims at a more mature audience than expect from Nickelodeon.


Biggest Film Disappointments of 2011

In no particular order:

THOR
It wasn’t so much the film as it was the presentation. This is was the nadir of my 3-D film experiences and was almost a cure. There are a lot of industry insiders that think viewers are idiots for complaining about 3-D, after all we see in 3-D and don’t get headaches. But they never have to sit through too dark to comprehend presentations, either.

SUPER 8 and THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN
I guess we’re supposed to be overly impressed whenever Steven Spielberg works with another director. However, the sum is oftentimes much smaller than the parts. That was true of these two films. SUPER 8 presented yet another can’t kill space alien from J.J. Abrams and TINTIN, Spielberg's teaming with Peter Jackson, makes one wonder why this thin story was made and why it was made as motion capture. What’s the old saying about too many cooks?

CARS 2
This is what you get for blindly supporting Pixar. The little studio that never seems to miss is way off target with this little abomination, designed solely it seems to sell toys. For the first time I’m worried that maybe John Lasseter and his folks have gotten a little too big for their creative britches. They seem to be fully engulfed by Disney consumerism, which of late has been merchandising over storytelling.

FOOTLOOSE
While not a bad film per say, one wonders why it was made at all. This is an example of lazy filmmaking. It is sad when Hollywood can’t be more original than making remakes and sequels. Sometimes there is something wrong with the original film that a remake corrects, see last year’s TRUE GRIT. But that wasn’t the case here. At the end of this year there are reports that film attendance was down. Maybe if Hollywood was more original, then the audience would be more willing to come back to the theaters.

Super 8 - Not So Gr8

Within the last few years, J.J. Abrams has become a more prominent name in Hollywood, involved with projects like Star Trek and Cloverfield. His most recent directorial work, Super 8, is also a collaboration with major Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg. The ad campaign for this movie was similar to that of Cloverfield in that hardly anything was said, but I watched it anyway out of curiosity. For the most part, it wasn't a terrible movie, but it's pretty easy to see the influence of Spielberg throughout.

The plot seems to meld threads from Spielberg's E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield, in that the events largely revolve around a group of children, only this time they are working to create an amateur zombie movie for a contest using a Super 8 camera. While filming, the group is in the middle of an explosion-filled train crash, caused by a truck driving onto the tracks that ends up releasing an unknown entity and dozens of white cubes. Terrified, the children agree with the driver of the truck, their biology teacher Mr. Woodward (Glynn Turman), to never speak of the incident again. What follows is a series of mysterious events within the town of Lillian, Ohio as the kids try to finish the movie.

While the story was able to maintain its suspense until the very end, it had Spielberg written all over it. The fact that a group of children have an adventure of sorts, if not intentional, is not unlike The Goonies, down to romantic tension between the more prominent male lead and the lone female character. In this case, that role is filled by the characters Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) and Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), although the romance has a new wrinkle in that both of their fathers don't want them involved with each other. More of the E.T. influence can be seen from the fact that an alien is involved and the military gets mixed up in it, not to mention that they are still depicted as more heartless and evil compared to the children, who are depicted as more innocent. Abrams' Cloverfield also gets to contribute something by influencing the alien itself. Throughout the movie, it is mostly unseen and is shown to be virtually indestructible no matter what is thrown at it. This seemed a little annoying and just made it appear as if Abrams can't write a monster/alien very well.

Despite this, the movie was actually pretty humorous at times, mostly through the children's dialogue. The child actors were pretty impressive for unknowns and I have a feeling any one of them could have a future here. The relationships were depicted quite realistically, especially the amateur director Charles' (Riley Griffith) obsession with getting the movie done every time he comes up with an idea to make the movie more "mint". Even the group's acting for the zombie flick comes off as authentically bad to the point where I kept laughing at the performance.

The special effects in the movie were also good in motion, like during the train crash at the beginning of the movie or with the constant motion of one of the white cubes that Joe has from that same scene. Besides the explosions, a lot of the effects were used to bring the alien to life.

While it felt good to finally know what the alien looked like, I was a little disappointed with the final design. Still, I just went with it and ended up accepting it in the last leg of the film. As for the music, the action is coupled with a competent, but largely forgettable soundtrack. The other sounds in the movie though were perfect and made me feel as though it were happening right in front of me.

Overall, Super 8 wasn't too great of a film despite the hype. It is generally acceptable, as long as you can overlook the various plot holes in the story and the clichés of Spielberg movies. For those who want to see what the hype is about, I would recommend seeing this movie at least once. Otherwise, you're better off looking elsewhere for a good time.

Also, I apologize for the pun in the title. I felt that the "8" in the movie's name made it unavoidable.