It's the end of the year again, and with it, my annual roundup of winners and losers of the year.
This year saw the end of a beloved franchise - "Harry Potter" - and the origin stories for superheroes who may together make a major franchise for "Marvel" next year - "The Avengers."
But for now, since this will be my last day at the office before the New Year, I'll give my breakdown of what I noticed in 2011 and what you can look forward to in 2012 in movies.
Winner: Blockbusters with critics
Critics are rather well known for their insatiable hatred for blockbusters that are obviously vying more for seats in a theater than awards at the Kodak Theatre. But this year, we saw many franchises dig themselves out of their respective graves to give us more than just a money-making movie.
When it comes to the last few sequels, "Shrek," "The Fast and the Furious," "Planet of the Apes," "X-Men" and "Mission: Impossible" haven't exactly hit the right marks with critics. Sure, most of the sequels made tons of money at the box office, but the sequels to "Shrek" were pretty awful, "Fast and Furious" pretty brainless (and usually not in a fun way), "Planet of the Apes" reboot unsuccessful, "X-Men" discouragingly terrible considering the first two movies and "Mission: Impossible" just not that thrilling.
All of that changed this year.
"Puss in Boots" gave "Shrek" its magic back (even if it was minus the original cast of characters), "Fast Five" didn't take itself too seriously and focused on action, "The Rise of the Planet of the Apes" brought in drama to what people thought of as a corny franchise, "X-Men: First Class" made us believe in mutants again, and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" brought all the thrills and gadgets back to the spy movie.
Add onto the fact that critics also loved "The Muppets," "Thor," "Captain America" and even "Footloose" of all things, and it was a fairly good year for blockbuster movies with only a few exceptions ("The Green Lantern," "The Hangover 2" and the "Pirates" sequel).
Loser: Blockbusters at the box office
No matter how much love movies got from critics, however, it doesn't mean a whole lot to major blockbusters and studio tentpoles if no one sees it.
The
Top 10 movies of 2011 were all sequels, prequels or comic book movies, and the top "you knew they were going to make money" movies were successful. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" topped the list, followed by "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1." But when it came to a lot of the other blockbusters, many weren't all that successful.
Many of the movies that critics were predicting would see a lot of attention at the box office failed to get much notice. Big action movies like "Cowboys & Aliens," "Battle: Los Angeles," "Immortals," "Conan the Barbarian," "The Three Musketeers" and "Sucker Punch" failed pretty miserably at the box office. Even some family films weren't exempt from the cold shoulder of audiences. "Puss in Boots" had a weak opening, though it did stay near the top of the box office for a decent amount of time, and "Happy Feet Two" fell under everyone's expectations.
And then there's December.
I'm not sure what happened this month, but apparently, movie watching wasn't really on the minds of audiences.
Ticket sales were slow, even though there were a lot of films opening, some of which critics actually liked. Even usual top contenders "Sherlock Holmes" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" couldn't really manage to attract enough people to the theater. Add on a pretty slow wide release of "M:I4," "New Year's Eve" and "The Adventures of Tintin" which were predicted to be huge, and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which could've attracted a crowd (though it is more Oscar bait than a blockbuster), and December turned out to be pretty uninspiring.
Only
"War Horse" may come out of this fairly unscathed, considering it took $7.5 million Sunday and another $7 million on Monday, which far exceeds what people were predicting for the war drama.
Winner: New faces
There are a lot of Top 10 lists for movies on the Internet right now, and I think I can safely bet that each and every one of them will mention Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain.
Fassbender has been in a few movies already ("Inglourious Basterds," "Centurion" and "Eden Lake" to name a few), but he and
Chastain pretty much took over this year by starring in multiple well-received movies. It was actually a bit of a challenge for critics to think about just which of their films they would be nominated for during the awards season.
"Shame" ended up being Fassbender's ticket to awards shows, though he also astounded critics and audiences with his work in "Jane Eyre" as Mr. Rochester, "X-Men: First Class" as Magneto and "A Dangerous Method" as Carl Jung. It looks like "The Help" may be what Chastain is remembered for this year with awards, but she also worked in a number of other critically acclaimed movies, including "Take Shelter," "The Tree of Life," "The Debt" and "Coriolanus" (she was also in "Texas Killing Fields," but it didn't get much of a wide release this year).
You'll see both of them next year as well, with Fassbender in "Haywire" and Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" and Chastain in "Tar," "Mama," "Wettest Country" and the untitled Terrence Malick movie, which co-stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Michael Sheen and Javier Bardem.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention
Tom Hiddleston in this list. The British thesp wasn't really well known outside of theater circles in England, but he landed the role of Loki in "Thor," which put him in the spotlight. He also managed to snag some roles in other sought-after movies this year, including Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris," Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" and Terence Davies' "The Deep Blue Sea." He won't be featured in as many movies as Fassbender or Chastain in 2012, but he will be returning as Loki in "The Avengers" and also take part in a British TV movie of "Henry IV" Part 1 and Part 2 as the future Henry V.
Loser: Recognizable faces
Given that almost all of the blockbusters that did well revolved around already established franchises, I think it's safe to say that it's not necessarily the actor that pulls audiences in, but the franchise. And it appears that even A-list actors couldn't quite pull in bit audiences.
If you look at some of the "surprise" hits of the year, you'll notice there's not a lot of "star power." Some of the movies that lasted the longest in theaters included "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," "The Help," "Bridesmaids," "Dolphin Tale" and "Horrible Bosses." They each had surprising No. 1 openings and raked in a lot more money than what was predicted. And yet, each of those movies didn't really have that A-lister that studios count on for movies. They had people you recognized - James Franco, Emma Stone, Kristen Wiig, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Aniston/Kevin Spacey/Colin Farrell - but they often aren't the kind of stars that you see get charged with carrying a big budget blockbuster. You can't say that any one of those people were really the reason why those movies were popular, either, considering Franco's "Your Highness," Farrell's "Fright Night" and Stone's "Crazy Stupid Love" didn't do remarkably well in theaters, either.
It instead appeared as though people actually wanted to see movies for their stories or comedy rather than the stars in it.
So, this year, we ended up seeing stars, who are tasked with carrying a big budget movie, unable to really follow through with that. As mentioned above, Tom Cruise wasn't able to save "M:I4" from a poor wide release, Daniel Craig didn't earn much for "Dream House" or "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Robert Downey Jr. didn't help "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" and pretty much the entire cast of "New Year's Eve" couldn't save that from bombing.
I can't say I'm particularly displeased with this trend, since it may mean more movies with good stories or comedy and less star-vehicle movies like Taylor Lautner's abysmal "Abduction."
2012
There are a lot of big movies coming your way in 2012 - "The Dark Knight Rises," "The Avengers," "The Amazing Spider-Man" and "The Hunger Games" - but I thought I'd concentrate on who you'll be seeing a lot of next year.
After finally getting recognized by the public for his movie work in "Inception," Joseph Gordon-Levitt has become a pretty hot item for directors. Even though "50/50" was his only big movie this year (though it was a good one), you'll see much more of him in 2012. In addition to "Premium Rush" and "Looper," Gordon-Levitt will be working with some pretty famous directors next year. He'll rejoin director Christopher Nolan for a role in "The Dark Knight Rises" and will be seen in a pretty impressive cast for Spielberg's "Lincoln," which includes Daniel Day Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, Jackie Earle Haley, John Hawkes and David Straithairn. He'll also star in a Quentin Tarantino movie, "Django Unchained," alongside "Inception" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as a pretty broad actor list including Christoph Waltz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Kurt Russell, Don Johnson and Anthony LaPaglia.
Next year, you'll also see a lot of Gordon-Levitt's "Looper" co-star Bruce Willis. Willis is in an insane number of movies next year that includes "Lay the Favorite" (with Vince Vaughn, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall and Joshua Jackson), "The Cold Light of Day" (with Henry Cavill and Sigourney Weaver), "Fire with Fire" (with Josh Duhamel, Rosario Dawson and Vinnie Jones), "Moonrise Kingdom" (a Wes Anderson film with Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and, of course, Jason Schwartzman), "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (with Channing Tatum, Dwayne Johnson, Ray Park, Ray Stevenson and Adrianne Palicki) and finally with "The Expendables 2" with the original cast, plus some additions (Liam Hemsworth, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and, yes, Chuck Norris).
While Liam Hemsworth will be in "The Expendables" sequel and "The Hunger Games," his brother Chris Hemsworth will be seen in a few movies as well, including "Snow White and the Huntsman," "The Avengers" and "Rush." He'll actually have two other movies that will finally be coming out next year. For years, both "Cabin in the Woods" and "Red Dawn" were put on hold, but both have release dates for next year (though the death of Kim John Il has people wondering if "Red Dawn" will still come out late next year).
The other big star that's probably going to be in a lot of films to come, given how many roles he's been accepting recently, is Jeremy Renner. He had a cameo in "Thor" (of Hawkeye, who he'll portray in "The Avengers") and starred in "M:I4," a series that he will reportedly take over as the lead, but 2012 will be a busy year for him. Along with "The Avengers," he'll also star in "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" alongside Gemma Arterton and Famke Janssen, an untitled movie from James Gray starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix and another franchise he'll take over - "The Bourne Legacy," which co-stars Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton.
Overall, things were a little up and down for major motion pictures at the box office, and not every Oscar hopeful got its critical acclaim ("J. Edgar"), but 2011 proved to be a good year for some new actors, and I look forward to who 2012 will have to offer.
Another new semi-regular feature where we look at a few of the recent 
