Year-End Thoughts: 2011 At The Movies

I know, I know, there's still a month and a half left before the year actually ends, but really, what new movies are going to come out before then?

It's been a couple years since I've seen enough memorable movies to do something like this. Basically, what I'm going to do here is do a quick list of the movies I saw this year and say a few brief words about them. They'll be roughly in the order I saw them and will be providing links to reviews where applicable. Let's begin, shall we?

1. The Green Hornet: As I said in my review back in January, The Green Hornet gave me good reason to think that 2011 would be a good year for movies, and I was not let down. This movie gave us the origin story of the Green Hornet, which was actually a team comprised of a bumbling face man named Britt Reed and his partner Kato, who is a more likely hero. While the ending did imply that there was a possibility of further movies, it didn't directly imply that there would be more.
   
   
2. Sucker Punch: Now, if you were expecting to see a movie with some sort of deep story or social message or some such thing when you picked Sucker Punch, I'm sorry, but you're a moron. If, on the other hand, you were just in the mood to see Action Chicks do things in cool environments full of special effects, then Sucker Punch was exactly the right movie. Sure, there was a story to Sucker Punch, but it served mostly to set up why all these cool scenes and sequences were happening. If you went in expecting exactly that, as I did, it was actually a pretty good movie. If, on the other hand, you were expecting a good, solid story to move this thing along, well, I know I've probably insulted a few readers, but I'm sticking with that moron thing.
   
   
3. Kung Fu Panda 2: This was another strong entry, both in terms of the year's movies as a whole, and in terms of the series it established. The good news is that Kung Fu Panda is shaping up to be a really good franchise. The neutral news is the whole Star Wars thing I talk about in the main review. The bad news here is that I'm almost certain there's going to be a third movie, and I'm a little nervous about where they'll go with it. After all, in the original Star Wars trilogy, the “I AM your father!” bit came at the end of Empire Strikes Back, the second movie, and Po's real family is only just showing up in the third of the KFP series.
   
   
4. Thor: Now, I might have done a review of Thor after I saw it, but the night I did, there was a power outage in my neighborhood that didn't get resolved until the early hours of the next morning, and by then, the movie was no longer fresh enough in my mind to do a proper piece about it. Basically, the premise of the movie was that we were introduced to the Marvel Thor character as he was banished from Valhalla by his father Odin, who decided that making Thor spend time as a mortal human on Earth would be a fitting punishment for his disobedience in going to fight without permission. Thor learns his lesson just in time to save Earth from the machinations of his mischievous brother Loki, who thrives on chaos. Not bad for an origin story, but they were also building up to the Avengers movie that I believe is coming out next summer. Don't quote me on that, though. I'm not up on my trailers at the moment.
   
   
5. Green Lantern: This was another good comic book/super hero movie, but by the time I went to see it, I wasn't in the mood to write about another such movie. I'll give it credit for doing a great job of setting up who the Green Lantern was and what he was all about. Basically, test pilot and adrenaline Hal Jordan gets his Green Lantern powers when the monster Paralax morally wounds the Lantern guarding Earth's sector of the universe, leaving him no place else to go for a replacement. Eventually Hal wins with some help from a team of other Green Lanterns including Sinestro, who almost immediately becomes the next major villain in the series we know is coming when he puts on the yellow ring he had the Observers in charge of the Green Lantern Corps make as a means of fighting Paralax and the fear he represented.

In the end, I had also wanted to see Captain America: The First Avenger, but by the time I saw Green Lantern, I was pretty much burned out on superhero and comic book movies for the year, and nothing else has sounded good. I did do a quick uStream broadcast about Thor and Green Lantern in early September, but it's nowhere near the quality I'd have gotten had I done a written review.

As for what's to come in terms of movies going forward, I can't really say at this point. Once we get into 2012, I'm sure I'll be doing more reviews, but until the first of the year, I make no promises. If I make it to something I think is worth writing about over the holiday season, I'll do it, of course, but don't wait.

In any event, more movie stuff will be coming in 2012, so as a movie reviewer, I'll see you then.