I’m not one to crap on someone else’s art. To each their own, variety is the spice of life, infinite diversity in infinite combinations, and so on. But if it doesn’t appeal to me or I didn’t enjoy it, I’m not too likely to recommend it, and I’m unlikely to actively warn people away from it unless it really annoyed me or I feel like I’ve traded a small piece of my life and a few bucks for a kick in the junk. Preamble ends now.
In the field of genre movies, 2009 brought a whole bunch of great genre movies in with the mediocre. 2010, not so much and I’m not holding out much more hope for 2011, but there are a few movies I might actually look forward to. I can pick six so far. Otherwise, from the copy I’ve read or the handful of previews, most of 2011 looks like it will be a good year for watching classic genre movies.
Still, here are the six Genre Movies of 2011 I’m most looking forward to.
Gnomeo and Juliet. This appeals to several parts of my personality: the dad, the cartoon fan, the Shakespeare fan (not that I’ve read any Shakespeare in the last few years, but I will again someday). The secret lives of garden gnomes. I love it. Or I will if it’s creative and shows some originality.
Battle: Los Angeles. It’s been a while since we’ve had any kind of serious alien invasion, wreck the city/planet kind of movie. The trailers look good on this one. If the writing is decent, this may have the potential to out-Independence Day a classic.
Cowboys and Aliens. Not an awful lot of Weird West makes it to the screen, big or small. Harrison Ford back in an action role with Daniel Craig for backup? I’m in. Doesn’t hurt that the comic book was a good story, but don’t hold out for that same story. Doesn’t usually work that way.
Green Lantern. Speaking of comic books, any GL fans out there? I was raised more on the Marvel universe than the DC, but I’ve always liked the Green Lantern. (Well, maybe not always. Things may have gotten a bit complicated with the whole rainbow of lantern colours available now, but I digress.) I’m going to go on record early as saying this is likely to be the best superhero movie since the first Iron Man and I’ve already seen things in the trailer that impress me. Holding out great hope here.
Paul. Two British comic geeks pick up an alien just outside Area 51. Really working the comic book theme, here, aren’t I. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogan? I anticipate humour.
There will probably be other potentially good movies in 2011 – for example, I just saw a trailer for Sucker Punch that looked interesting, but I’m reserving judgement in spite of the giant robot samurai. Eagle has some potential, too, maybe. There are also probably a lot of things conspicuously absent from my list. I’m okay with that. I don’t plan to see most of those, anyway, because most of them look to rate a solid meh. Maybe on DVD or Bluray, but not in the theatre.
On that note, just having good FX isn’t enough to get me into a theatre anymore and hasn’t been for a while; I have to believe there’s going to be a good story, too. I’m tired of walking out of movies thinking, “Boy, did that suck.” And really, I’m sick of reboots and I’m sick of sequels and prequels made decades after the mediocre (or even decent) originals, and I’m really sick of movies I have to go to the theatre a year later to see the end of. Hollywood and its affiliates are increasingly not giving me what I need for my movie dollars anymore.
Books on the other hand… there are probably more books coming out in first month of 2011 that excite me than I’ll have time to read in the entire year. And that is a beautiful thing.
