Six key headlines to conclude 2010

What is the first thing to come to mind about 2010’s movies? Leonardo DiCarpio’s Shutter Island or Alice’s Wonderland? Scott Pilgrim’s battle the seven evil boyfriends or Hit Girl’s fight with Red Mist in “Kick Ass?” The unstoppable totem in “Inception” or the unstoppable train in “Unstoppable?” In the past year, there were movies that surprise you and some who let you down, let’s have an overview of the past year with six key headlines.

1. Nolan is back with surprises
As the new leader of Hollywood directors, Christopher Nolan once again proved those who are categorized as “A-List directors” are all geniuses who combine business (Box Office) and art. Without doubt, “Inception” is one of the best movies of 2010, not only did it meet fans’ and audiences’ expectations but it blew audiences’ minds with amusing effects and plot twists. Let’s not forget those people in his team including Wally Pfister, the cinematographer Nolan has worked with for over ten years, composer Hans Zimmer and Nolan’s shining cast members.

Right now, Nolan is working on the pre-production of the third Batman installment, “Dark Knight Rises;” the original cast will be joined by Anne Hathaway as the new Cat Woman and “Inception”’s breakout star, Tom Hardy as Bane. Nolan will also co-produce the new Superman reboot and has handed the project over to well-known visual-effects-director, Zack Snyder. These two movies were both scheduled to be on screen in 2012 summer and Christmas, looks like 2012 will have another Nolan film sensation globally.

2. Geeky Movies!
Since Judd Apatow’s comedies and “The Big Bang Theory” became huge hits, productions about freaks and geeks guys have become a main stream for movies and TV shows. 2010 is a successful year for "geek" movies, from “Kick-Ass” to “the Social Network,” and from “She’s Out of My League” to “Scott Pilgrim VS. The World,” each of which were well received by audiences.

Although spring’s “Kick-Ass” was not a huge box office hit, Chloe Moretz’s character of Hit Girl in the film gave audiences a remarkable performance. The creative summer movie “Scott Pilgrim” combined comic and nerd movies together, which led us to the other side of the world of nerds. Fall’s “The Social Network” brought us to a higher level of geek movies, showing us how boring math nerds can change the world and become billionaires with a few enemies and dramas.

3. Faux-documentary!
“Faux-documentary” might be a hot term for Hollywood in the upcoming years as it is trying to be a major film category. 2010’s “Last Exorcism” and “Paranormal Activity 2” both got a stunning box office turnout with a relatively small budget. A faux-documentary needs to have a “wow” plot to grasp audiences’ attention, so that it does not look like some lame low-budget movie.

On the other hand, faux-documentaries became a new way of promotion for major motion pictures; for instance, back in June, Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise did an interesting soccer video for “Knight and Day” (during World Cup) and Robert Downey Jr. did a faux-clip for the Stark’s annual exhibition (imitating the Shanghai World Expo) which was an interesting promotion for “Iron Man 2.”

4. 80s Remakes!
Remakes became a way of saving the poor box-office and lowering risks for production companies in recent years. Coincidentally, most of the remakes of the past year were movies from the late 70s to 80s. From “Clash of Titans,” “The Expendables” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street” to “Predators” and “Tron: Legacy.”

Advances in technology, effects and cinematography bring these movies to another level, giving audiences new excitement and entertainment through remakes. But when it comes to the influence and characteristics of remakes, they were not as good as the original versions.

5. 3-D Movies overflowing!
Can you name all the 3-D movies that were on screen last year? Yes, the success of “Avatar” brought new experiences in sounds and visual effects for audiences, but not every 3-D movie will be a success. More and more films followed this 3-D trend, trying to add the 3-D effects during post-production, which actually made the movie worse, like the “Clash of Titans.”

Certainly some movies were just being 3-D in order to have a better box office number (3-D movies are usually a few bucks more than 2-D ones), like “Jack-Ass” in 3D, really? Production companies should have certain standards to meet before deciding to make a movie 3-D, and should not just convert a 2-D film to 3-D during post-production, because the visual effects are completely different from those brought by movies like “Avatar” and sometimes it is really unnecessary to make a movie 3-D.

6. Teen-Idol movies!
Guess what? The third installment of the “Twilight” series, “Eclipse,” beat “Inception.” “Eclipse” grossed over $300 million in the States, while “Inception” only grossed $292 million. Even more worrying was that teens were camping outside theaters for weeks for the premiere of “Eclipse.” Personally, I am puzzled when fans become that crazy about idols. And since when has Robert Patterson become more important than school?

And its not only “Twilight,” Disney Channel stars are also invading the motion picture market; Miley Cyrus’s “The Last Song” grossed $62 million with only a $20 million budget, and Justin Bieber is going to have his 3-D biopic coming out this Valentine’s Day (I dropped my jaw when I heard this). Unfortunately, these teen idols would keep dominating the highest grossing movies in the upcoming years.

Whether the film industry in 2010 surprises you and disappoints you, some of them did bring laughter and fears and colors to our lives. I can guarantee 2011 will be another exciting year with surprises from Hollywood.