A lookback at 2009 in cinema

As the end of year draws ever closer its time to look back on what the world of cinema has given us (well, more namely me since I’m only really going to look at the films I actually bothered to go and see) in 2009. Its had its ups and downs, but was 2009 overall a hot year for movie goers or a complete dud? Well there’s only one way to find out…

January gave us a good start to the year with Taken starring Liam Neeson. The story of a former Central Intelligence Agency paramilitary operative who sets about tracking down his teenage daughter after she is kidnapped by slave traders in Europe had a pretty sucessful box office run and showed us that Liam Neeson can be pretty badass when he wants to. Then in February we had the stop motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel “Coraline”, which was an enjoyable film but nothing groundbreaking in terms of stop motion or 3D film effects. However the clear winner of the year’s first quarter is the film adaptation of epic apocalyptic comic book Watchmen. Although not as well received, this film is on par, if not better than 2007′s The Dark Knight, doing justice to a book that was long considered “unfilmable”.

In the April-June period we got the critically panned (and yet I somewhat enjoyed it anyhow) Dragonball Evolution, based on the Dragonball manga franchise, along with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. My feelings are kind of mixed on this, because on one hand its a fairly decent popcorn flick for those who have very little knowledge of or interest in the comics, but since I am not one of those people I couldn’t get past its flaws (some of which should only be defined in the legendary fanboy nerd rage words of “raping my childhood”). We also got JJ Abram’s reinvention of the Star Trek franchise, which breathed new life into a series most non-geeks would previously have never touched with a ten foot pole. Perhaps one of the biggest releases of 2009 came in June in the form of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, sequel to the 2007 film which branded the toyline for a whole new generation of children worldwide. Despite being one of the highest grossing movies of the year, the film suffered average to extremely low critical reviews and was criticised by both movie goers and hardcore Transformers fans alike. I personally really enjoyed the film, but my longtime stance as a hardcore Transformers fan MIGHT make me just a little bit biased.

In June-September Sacha Baron Cohen returned to shock audiences and insult Americans once again with Bruno, and Harry Potter returned once again to take us into the wizarding world with The Half Blood Prince. In my opinion the weakest of the book series, the film did a pretty good job of covering the main story (unlike Order of the Phoenix which skipped half of it). Pity that story was over almost 2 hours of filler and then an extremely rushed ending. Hasbro (the toy company responsible for Transformers) gave us another slice of a reimagined toylines with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which again proved to be excellent for mindless action and alot of explosions. Yes, I’m easily pleased. August gave us District 9, the story of an alien concentration camp which became an unexpected and the action packed if what somewhat historically innaccurate Inglourious Basterds, Quinton Tarrantio’s latest outing.

October-December so far has given us the zombie comedy Zombieland, the first real contender to the genre since Shaun of the Dead, more horror/torture porn with the what is most likely unnecessery SAW VI, Michael Jackson tribute This Is It and (terrible ) teen-girl vampire romance with The Twilight Saga: New Moon. We even got a Pixar double bill in the form of Up and a 3D re-release of the original Toy Story, which looked more beautiful than ever. But the big question is will the crowning moment of 2009 in film come next week with the hotly anticipated Avatar, the brainchild of acclaimed director James Cameron which has been over 10 years in the making.

Cinemas’ are preparing themselves for the 3D IMAX epic which will apparently change the way we visualise films forever. Cardiff Bay’s own Odeon cinema in the Red Dragon Centre is even getting its own IMAX screen in preparation for the film’s release. The film isn’t even out yet and it already has its critics, at which I point you towards an interesting article concerning whether CGI is ruining cinema. In the opinion of this writer, I don’t think Avatar is going to win any awards for story telling (Cameron himself has admitted the plot is basically “Dances with Wolves” in space, an issue that was humously addressed in South Park a few weeks ago), but from watching trailers alone it should prove to be a visual experience like no other. Hopefully that will entertain me, because as long as I’m entertained…the film makers’ are doing their job. And I think 2009  has done a pretty adequate job of that so far.

Nothing like a good book

In some ways following on from my post last week concerning CDs being irrelevant in this modern ages, we have another marvel of society being threatened…the book. Or, more specifically, the local library.

Cultural Minister Margaret Hodge has said that “radical modernisation is required if they are to remain relevant”, and that they are “sleepwalking into the era of the iPhone, the eBook and the Xbox, without a strategy.”

Now this may just be me but I think this is a bit too much? “Sleeping walking into the era of the iPhone and Xbox”?  Are these things really a threat to libraries? If people have research to do, I feel I can guarantee that they aren’t going to turn to their xboxes for help (well they may well turn to them, but it won’t help them, just make that last minute rush of work all the more frantic). And the ebook? Really? How many people actually own those things? Hardly invention of the year if you ask me.

I don’t even feel that libraries are a place that should ONLY be used for study. Of course they’re quiet and offer some great reference material, but there’s so much more to them than that. I was over the moon when the new Cardiff library opened, offering a great new variety of books for my consumption. Libraries are above all a great way to read books without having to buy them. There’s nothing more disappointing than buying a book you’ve really looked forward to only to find out that it’s not that good. Trust me I’ve been there. With libraries you have the luxury of reading the book and then if you enjoy it and feel like you may read it again you can buy it and add it to your collection. And nowadays this doesn’t even just apply to books, most libraries stock CDs and DVDs these days…I’ve even been to ones that have video games. That’s right, VIDEO GAMES, you know, for ENTERTAINMENT. Of course they usually charge a fee for these, but its only about 50p/£1 for a week so you’re getting a far better deal that you would in Blockbuster or any other rental shop. They keep up with the times pretty well too, my local library (in Aberdare, which basically equates to the middle of nowhere) had the latest Iron Maiden album (which is great by the way!), so if a dingy little town can get stuff in that quickly, imagine what you’d get in a big city library.

However Ms Hodge isn’t full of bad ideas, she’s also spoken about he possibility of using a system where the public can order books online and have them delivered to their homes, as well as a loyalty card scheme. While I’m not so big on the order online thing (sounds a bit like a “Love Film” for literature, and lazy people) I’d be quite interested to see how exactly a library would tackle a loyalty card scheme.

I personally think libraries are doing a pretty good job of bringing themselves up to date, and if you don’t think so then you probably don’t visit your local library all that often. And I pity you, because you have no idea what you’re missing…

As usual, the original article can be found here.