The Movies of 2010

This year's batch of movies has been largely below radar. There were some noteworthy releases, such as Iron Man 2, Tron Legacy, A-Team, the inevitable Potter movies (which they just had to stretch out into two parts) and The Expendables, but the best releases were the indie titles or the titles that gained traction through social media.

In fact one of those movies was about the pre-eminent ambassador of social media (The Social Network). The list of best movies includes Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim, and Inception, which actually provided something new to the mainstream: either a full-on introduction to comic influences in Hollywood storytelling, or a strong plot that surprises, inspires thought, and truly turns your head upside down.

Strangely enough few of those "Best" movies appear on my favorite movies list for the year. Date Night surprised me with a non-annoying Steve Carrell. I liked Kick-Ass more than I thought I would. Of the big blockbusters The Expendables was the most formulaic, and yet the safest bet. I thought Iron Man 2 was a matter of cramming too much into one movie, and was inferior to its predecessor, despite the brilliance of Downey jr. I even liked A-Team over IM2, although A-Team was really far over the top. Plus, except for two cameos and loosely tied characterizations, the movie had nothing to do with the original TV series.

So all in all, very little of which we anticipated greatness, actually was. If it was any good, we didn't hear about it until far later on Facebook (in fact, it probably was the movie about Facebook).

Unless you happen to be a teenage girl with a thing for vampires. Then 2010 went on like gangbusters.