I really hate it when they start doing year-end reviews right after thanksgiving—there’s another whole month to go, are you counting November to November? I always wait until after my New Year’s guests are all gone (Captain Morgan, Martini & Rossi) then I try to put the past year in perspective. And remember how to tie my shoes.)
There was not a lot going on in publishing in 2010; sure there were books that came out, but it was just more vampires and historical figures fighting vampires (Abe Lincoln—really?) or other supernatural creatures (Jane Austen vs. sea monsters… and zombies… and…). There was one notable event, the debut anthology of a highly-talented group of writers of color, but the name escapes me. (Genesis? Geniuses? Something like that.)
On the big screen the year began with The Book of Eli, Denzel’s third foray into genre material, a well-done but sometimes too literal examination (“meditation” is too strong a term) of the power of belief and the Word. Iron Man 2 was, I felt, better than the critics generally thought. Critical darlings were Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Toy Story 3 made grown men cry. So did Jonah Hex, but for entirely different reasons. But the big genre winner—big winner period—was Inception, Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending dream-within-a-dream caper movie that did something unusual for movies today: It gave you something to think about other than Why did I waste $9.50 on this?
we said goodbye to moviemakers with genre ties: actors Lena Horne (who played the Good Witch in The Wiz), Kevin McCarthy (who starred in the first and probably still the best version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Leslie Nielsen (whose first screen role, as the commander of the spaceship in Forbidden Planet, was the prototype for James T. Kirk) and producer Dino De Laurentiis (who produces a number of genre films including Barbarella, King Kong (1976), Flash Gordon (1980), Conan the Barbarian, and Dune).
2011 (I know, starting a sentence with a number…) may be the best of times and the worst of times, with Hollywood hoping to make a lot of green with The Green Hornet and Green Lantern, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Cowboys and Aliens (Hey, I’m looking forward to that one!) and who knows what else. So enjoy yourselves, finish up those lingering projects, and try to have a good time.
Just in case the Mayans are right after all.
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