2010s Review: Movies

Although I went to the theatre more times in the 2010s than I did in the 2000s, the decade felt a bit light to me. It's not that I regretted seeing any of the films I paid to see in theatres, but most of what I saw was simply "good". This did, at least, make the outstanding movies all the more notable when they arrived.

I went into Mad Max: Fury Road with extremely modest expectations, not being a big fan of the series and uncertain about the recasting. I'm glad I went in with such a mindset because the film knocked me for a loop; I enjoyed Mad Max: Fury Road more than any other film I saw during the 2010s and I may have watched it more than any other released in that period as well. I certainly don't often leave the cinema drawing comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock! This is also the only 2010s film I wrote a review for on this blog.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe began in the previous decade but really kicked into gear during the 2010s. I wasn't prepared to see the Marvel super-heroes completely redefine audience expectations for blockbuster films, yet here we are. It's kind of too bad that I fell out with Marvel just as the films began to peak. Of all the 2010s entries, I certainly enjoyed Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengeres: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

The 2010s are also when I reconsidered Tom Cruise. As a fan of the original Mission: Impossible television series I had been very unhappy with the first film adaptation and how it treated the source material. After that I kept away from the films, but I became curious about Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol because of director Brad Bird. During a long flight to Sierra Leone, Ghost Protocol was on the bottom of my list of films to watch, but I did eventually see it - and enjoyed it tremendously. By the time the theme song kicked in, I was won back to the franchise; I've enjoyed the other films in the series which followed (Rogue Nation and Fallout). I also really got into Edge of Tomorrow, which is a favourite film of mine now.

I didn't get out to see too many documentaries but with Netflix I was able to see quite a few I enjoyed. The best were Life Itself, Virunga, Going Clear, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, Batman and Bill. My favourite documentary maker Errol Morris had two pretty good films in The Unknown Known and Tabloid, although neither rate as highly as my favourites of his.

Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim versus the World was a little disappointing as an adaptation (there's way too much source material for a single film and Wright was clearly interested in the tone of the first 3 volumes, not volumes 4-6), but very good as a Wright picture. I also enjoyed The World's End. For a while it looked like Wright was about to break out in a big way, but Scott Pilgrim flopping and his walking off Ant-Man seems to have stalled his career.

I saw a surprising number of high quality family films in the 2010s; the best were: Toy Story 3, Inside Out, Zootopia, How to Train Your Dragon, and The Muppets.

Other noteworthy pictures were Beasts of No Nation, Creed, John Carter, Her, Skyfall (the first film I watched in Africa!), 12 Years a Slave, The Artist, Selma, Bridge of Spies, Hacksaw Ridge, Get Out, and The Death of Stalin.

Tomorrow: comics of the 2010s!