Another year, another slew of movies! Though I'll admit, it was a weak year. Probably just because next year promises a lot of BIG movies like The Hobbit and Dark Knight Rises. What were your favorite flicks of 2011?
Me?
The Muppets
This one really surprised me. I expected it to be so-so, maybe on par with Muppets Treasure Island, but instead it was as good as the originals and on par with the first. Very catchy songs (Pictures In My Head and Man or Muppet), tons of nostalgia and great use of the classic characters. A definite "A" film.
X-Men First Class
After one so-so and one shit movie, the X-Men franchise was dead to me. Thankfully, First Class brought things back to X2 levels. Loved that this was not a reboot, but rather a prequel. Great story, effects, action and I really liked the period setting. Another "A" quality movie.
HP 7.2
Feels odd calling this a 2011 film, probably because the movie really began in 2010 and in my opinion should have ended that same year (still in two parts, but less of a wait between movies). Great finale to a great series of movies that only got better as the series went on.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn 
I'm one of those elitest American Tintin fans who can claim to not only know who he is, but had read a majority of the books back in the early '90's. I loved the series as comics, and liked the movie adaptation a LOT. Sure, it lacks the visual style of the comics, but to be honest I prefer the fresh take. We've already had TWO cartoon series adapt the books, so why not a realistic take? A live action version would look hokey (see Robin William's Popeye) and a overly stylized live action take a la Sin City or Dick Tracy wouldn't work. The original score was classic John Williams, the action scenes were clever as hell (the six minute single shot chase through the city was genius!) and the casting was spot on. Haddock was hilarious. Oh yeah, and the settings and locations were amazing! Another "A" effort.
I did like
Thor and
Captain America, but both felt like setups for a much better film (The Avengers). Both were good, but I felt they held back a bit too much. Thor felt too small, and Captain America felt too rushed. Still, they make the list.
Oddly enough, no realistic movies caught my eye this year. I saw a lot of non-fiction and grounded in reality movies, but none stuck with me. No King's Speech or No Country For Old Men in 2011. They're all comic book adaptations, a fantasy book adaptation and a bunch of puppets.
