Top 5 Films of 2009

I guess I ought to join in with the films of the year topic!

5 - Star Trek

Zachary Quinto had been cast as the new Spock for months, taking time out from slicing open heads with his powers as Sylar, in Heroes. It could have been a disaster or a huge success and I think it was more of the latter. With excellent graphics and a decent sci-fi script (that deviates from the true Trekky story, but that can be forgiven), this film put Star Trek back into the public eye, hoping to draw in hundreds of new fans from this generation...time will tell if they succeeded or not!

4 - Watchmen

Based on the graphic novel of the same name, this film is set in an alternate world where costumed super-heroes fight crime on the streets of America in the 30s and 40s. We follow the next generation of heroes, the Watchmen, as they are outlawed in Congress and the Cold War edges closer to a nuclear conclusion. Making matter worse, the outlaws find that someone is trying to kill off the Watchmen and must come to terms with both events. Watchmen has a lovely graphic novel style, a great plotline and sci-fi and comic book references and gags...just leave a good few hours spare to watch it!

3 - District 9

Set in modern day Johannesberg, South Africa, alien refugees have been made at home in refugee camps just outside town. We follow the story of Wikus van de Merwe as he takes control of the relocation of the refugee camps, trying to liaise with the aliens, affectionately called 'shrimps', including one named Christopher. Chris is a very special alien, amongst the drones, who has a plan to manage to help the whole alien species to escape back to their home planet. The juxtaposition of the aliens and humans in such a context is very interesting, the aliens are animated beautifully and the story is moving at the least, well worth buying when it arrives on DVD on the 28th.

2 - Avatar

The most expensive film of all time promised much and I expected much from it. I wasn't disappointed! Set one hundred years in the future, humans have ventured to the moon of Pandora in search of a very valuable mineral to use for energy. However, the indigenous population stand in the way and we follow a group of scientists who fuse their minds with a body of the indigenous people to attempt to make peace, agreeing a compromise. We also follow the military humans who grow more and more impatient as they look to savage the planet at any cost. With amazing animation from one of the most powerful computers in history, this is a beautiful film with a powerful story. It looks even better in 3D!

1 - Inglorious Basterds

This film is the stand out film of the year by quite a way, so much that I bought the DVD at the first possibility! The latest film by Tarantino, it is set in Nazi occupied France and follows the three stories, all which intertwine throughout the film, of the 'Jew Hunter', a French, Jewish cinema owner and a group of American Jews whose aim is to kill as many Nazis as possible. It has beautiful cinematography, an excellent script and I could watch it over and over again (with a special mention for Christoph Waltz)! Apart from it's unfortunate title, it's an absolutely fantastic film in every way.

Looking forward to watching these films again in 2010 when I buy the DVDs and to all the films coming up, Tron, The A-Team and Alice in Wonderland being a few choice titles!

Check out some other top films of the year posts: Doc, Mike and Ellie.