2010 in Preview
By Joe Boden
19th January 2010

And so, 2009 is quickly disappearing into history and 2010 is getting under way, so what better thing to do than look ahead at the films which the new decade has to offer. Obviously, I can’t talk about every single film released in 2010 in this column, so these are simply the ones that I am either most excited about, or that I feel typify the genre that they’re a part of. Anyway, let’s get on with it, shall we?

As with any year in the twenty first century, 2010 comes with a new band of unimaginative sequels set to break box office records. Perhaps the most encouraging of these sequels is “Iron Man 2” (release due 30th April), which re-unites Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr from the first film of the franchise. It’s notable that “Iron Man”, the original, was one of the better superhero films of 2007, and although it was undoubtedly a lot more fun before Downey Jr donned the suit, it still remained an entertaining film that held the attention. It seems, though, that the biggest complement I can lay upon it is that it wasn’t completely stupid, even if it wasn’t exactly intelligent either. The introduction of Mickey Rourke as a villain is interesting, but the trailers hardly look all that impressive. It’s interesting that the thwarted villain of the first film, Jeff Bridges, is getting his own sequel; “Tron Legacy” (release due 17th December in the USA), which will come a full twenty eight years after the original.

The three films that are bound to draw in the most money this year are sequels with their own unique demographic. “Sex and the City 2” (release due 28th May) looks as witless and as offensively bad as the first did, judging by the trailers and, well, the fact that it’s a Sex and the City movie. It retains Michael Patrick King as director and stars all of the usual suspects, which will certainly make fans giddy and non-fans slightly nauseous. “Harry Potter 7: Part I” (release due 19th November) will also hit our shores this year, which will draw in just about anybody who was between the age of 10 and 15 in the year 2000, and doubtlessly a new generation of fans too. David Yates is in the director’s chair for the third straight film, and the usual batch of adult talent and teenage lack thereof are amongst the cast once more. Finally, for swooning teens, “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse” (release due 9th July) is set to dominate the summer, with R-Patz, Lautner, and Stewart back on board beneath a new director, David Slade, who is actually quite good. His résumé includes “30 Days of Night” and “Hard Candy”, so it’s nice to see him trading in his talent for a huge pay check.

The rest of the blockbusters are as unoriginal as the sequels. In fact, the only one that looks even mildly exciting is “Inception” (release due 16th July in the USA), which will merge the big budget brains of Christopher Nolan and the box office pull of Leonardo di Caprio. Everything we’ve seen so far looks excellent, and if “The Dark Knight” is anything to go by this will be an event if nothing else. Paul Greengass’ “Green Zone” (release due 12th March) also looks quite interesting. It matches Greengrass up with his Bourne counterpart Matt Damon, and they haven’t failed us before. The cast of the “The A Team”(release due 30th July) re-imagining fills you with slight confidence; Liam Neeson and Sharlto Copley are both on board, and “The Wolfman” (release due 12th February) has Del Toro, Hopkins, and Weaving to recommend it.

Then there are a string of films which I’ll be avoiding as best I can. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” (release due 28th May) actually sounded quite good in the early stages of production. The director, Mike Newell, isn’t bad, and has at least one good film in “Donnie Brasco” on his résumé, and Jake Gyllenhaal tends to be stellar (case examples; “Zodiac” and “Brokeback Mountain”). It’s also based on a really quite good video game, which has action that recommends itself to a state-of-the-art film, but it seems that Bruckheimer and Disney have turned it into “Pirates of the Caribbean Part IV”, and the trailer looks absolutely horrible, with Gemma Arterton stinking up the screen. “The Green Hornet” (release due 22nd December) has Michael Gondry on its side, but – judging by the cast and very early buzz – it looks like it will be more “Be Kind Rewind” than “Eternal Sunshine” in terms of quality. “Edge of Darkness” (release due 29th January) looks horrendous, and the presence of Mel Gibson is enough to put anyone off. “Clash of the Titans” (release due 26th March) could be decent, it has a good action director in Louis Leterrier in the chair, but the trailer makes it look like a re-make of “300”, and let’s try to forget Sam Worthington’s last stab at action…

The animation slate looks slightly better. Dreamworks are returning to their favourite franchise with “Shrek Forever After” (release due 9th July), and although we all know how “Shrek the Third” turned out there is undoubtedly potential for it to be good. Disney have “The Princess and the Frog” (release due 5th February), which looks like an above average turn-out for modern day non-Pixar Disney, with Adam Goodall giving it four stars over on the latest release page of this website. Ghibli are returning with “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” (release due 12th February), but you should certainly steer clear of the dubbed version because of two words; Jonas. Cyrus. The most anticipated animation of the year is certainly “Toy Story 3” (release due 23rd July), though, which has all of the gang back together for a third outing. A clip has surfaced online, which dispels almost all of my apprehensions, and the usual comments of “Pixar’s Best Yet!” are just waiting to be heaped upon it.

Disney's latest non-Pixar film, "The Princess and the Frog".

There are also a bunch of well regarded directors producing American-made films this year. Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” (release due 5th March) looks exactly like the film you’d expect Burton to make. The trailers look as conventionally different as any other Burton film, but let’s hope it’s his first excellent film since “Ed Wood”. Ridley Scott returns after the lacklustre “Body of Lies” with yet another Russell Crowe film, this time around “Robin Hood” (release due 14th May). The cast, though, looks nothing short of excellent; Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Max von Sydow, and Crowe all promising to make this more “Gladiator” than “A Good Year”. Fincher returns with “The Social Network” (release due 15th October in the USA), which takes a look at the founder of the social-networking website Facebook. Let’s hope the meh-excellent-meh-excellent cycle continues with Fincher. Shia Labeouf is starring in Oliver Stone’s sequel to “Wall Street”, entitled “Money Never Sleeps” (release due 23rd April), released twenty two years after the original. Labeouf isn’t a bad young actor, so we can but hope that Stone can overcome the flop that was “W.”

Peter Jackson has “The Lovely Bones” (release due 19th February) has received middling reviews (including one from our very own Adam Goodall), but it promises to at least be better than Alice Sebold’s terrible novel. It also has Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz, Michael Imperioli, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, and Mark Wahlberg (who is actually quite good when he has a decent director behind him) on its side, and with such a stellar cast I can’t see it being all bad. Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” (release due 19th February) is the other Di Caprio thriller of the year, and Dennis Lehane adaptations (“Gone Baby Gone”, “Mystic River”) are typically worth a look. Finally, we have the awesomely-titled, awesomely-trailered “Bad Lieutenant – Port of Call: New Orleans” (release date unknown), which boasts Werner Herzog in the director’s chair along with a supposedly great Nic Cage in the lead role.

Darren Aranofsky’s “Black Swan” (release date unknown) is also a good prospect, with the Cult’s Tim Popple quoted as “literally salivating” over the prospect. It has Vincent Cassel on the cast list, which is never a bad sing, and with Natalie Portman alongside him and Aranofsky’s involvement we can’t see it being anything below excellent. David O Russell is also re-teaming up with Mark Wahlberg for “The Fighter” (release date unknown), which is never a bad thing, but it’s the rest of the cast list which is truly exciting. Amy Adams is one of the better young actresses around at the moment, and Melissa Leo was fantastic in “Frozen River”, earning herself a deserved Best Actress Oscar nomination. Christian Bale is leading the pack, though, and after a very disappointing 2009 I personally can’t wait to get himself back on track. It also stars Jack McGee who, for anybody who has seen the US TV drama “Rescue Me”, is a further reason to look forward to this film.

Gaspar Noe’s “Enter the Void” (release date unknown) is also something to look forward to, with Noe’s “Irreversible” sitting amongst the most challenging and well regarded films of the previous ten years. Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must be the Place” (release date unknown) is also just over the horizon, and the man behind “The Consequences of Love” and “Il Divo” has become very well regarded as of late. Sean Penn is also involved, which is never a bad thing. We’re also hoping that 2010 will see the release of the Terrence Malick film “The Tree of Life” (release date unknown), which has been constantly pushed back. Sean Penn is the link between this and “This Must Be The Place”, and with Brad Pitt on the cast list I’m truly excited about Malick’s fifth feature in over forty years.

If there are two films that I’m most excited about, they are Godard’s “Socialisme” and Sokurov’s “Faust”. Neither has secured a release date yet in the UK, and it’s very likely that we’ll have to hear about them via the festival circuit. Sokurov’s “Faust” is another version of the German legend where a man sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge, and – if the director’s output in the noughties, which included “The Sun”, “Alexandra”, and “Russian Ark”, is anything to go by, it promises to be yet another existential, philosophic classic from Tarkovsky’s successor. Godard’s “Socialisme” is something that we know very little about it, despite seeing a lengthy teaser trailer, other than that it’s Jean-Luc Godard, and that tends to be enough for me. It’s also worthy of note that seven other directors have been tagged on to the project in post-production, including – amongst others – Anne-Marie Mieville, famous for being a part of Godard’s Dziga Vertov group.

Doubtlessly, there will be many other films that catch our attention over the course of the year, but these are just a few of those that I’m most excited about. With filmmakers like Godard, Scorsese, Sokurov, and Malick working this year, it promises to be stellar, but nothing is left for us to do now other than wait to be disappointed.