5.

So, time for the big ones. I had to do a lot of thinking for these. There was swapping, switching, and name picking from hats. But this is the order I’m happy with, and so let’s start the top 5.

I felt excitement and panic going into this film. I wanted it to be great, I wanted it to match my dreams, and from what I’d heard it would. And it did. I even paid the BFI for the pleasure of watching it on their IMAX screen in London. This was a big screen movie, this was what I had waited for ever since I read the source material, and I know many people who felt the same.

This was Watchmen, it is my number 5 film of the year, and that proves how highly I thought of the next 4.

Poster for Watchmen

4.

I like prawns. Whether they are in cracker form, mixed with rice, or whatever, then they appeared in this film. I probably wouldn’t eat them, but this film was brilliant with them, and that wasn’t all.

The acting from a cast of relative unknowns was testament to the fact that you don’t need to go with big names to get quality, the shooting style was proof that hand-held can work well, and the story was an excellent example of how not everything needs to be set in America.

An alien species of prawns landing in South Africa, it was District 9, and it was brilliant.

Poster for District 9

3.

Hands up who thinks a man effectively talking to himself for almost the whole of a film is a great idea. Yeah, didn’t think so. If that is going to be the plot of your debut feature film you are either a genius, or insane. Duncan Jones tried it. Duncan Jones proved himself to be a genius.

Moon showed us all that the son of David Bowie can make a name for himself in something that isn’t music. He made an independent, British, Sci-fi film. None of those things tend to mix well together, but in this case they did. Moon worked. Moon worked almost perfectly, Let’s hope that Jones’ second film can live up to it.

Poster for Moon

2.

So, the second best film of the year, and I haven’t mentioned that promised second animation. Well, here it is. You can probably guess which film it is. It came from Disney, it was about an old man, a young boy, and a dog, and featured a bird called Kevin.

Up was another gem from Pixar, and very nearly topped my list. It is one of the few films that has nearly brought me to tears in a cinema, and made me laugh, all in the space of a few minutes. Watchmen’s opening montage was great, the one in Up was even better.

I often feel that computer animation lacks something in a lot of cases, but Up has proven that in the right hands this isn’t a problem. Pixar are the right hands. If you didn’t get to see Up in the cinema you may have missed a treat, but when the DVD hits, you owe it to yourself to grab it.

You can say it is a kid’s film, and that is true, but it is a Pixar kid’s film. Pixar know how to add adult elements to a kid’s film and make it still work, they did it here, they gave us a tear for our laugh, and I loved it.

Poster for Up

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