2010. What a year.

Just 11 or so months ago, the movie landscape was a very different place. Guillermo del Toro was about to direct The Hobbit. Avatar hadn’t quite become the big blue movie that could. And nobody had any clue what Inception was.

Now, the closing credits are about to roll on this year (and this decade). But what a year it’s been. Journey with us as we trace all the seismic shifts and movie tremors that have shaped 2010 into the year that it was…

 

January

Where else could we start other than with Avatar?

James Cameron's decade-in-the-making opus got cinema off to one heck of a cracking start by taking $1bn in just 17 days, making it only the fifth film in the history of cinema to do so. It went on to become the highest grossing film ever. And that’s saying something. Meanwhile, James Cameron admitted that he’d already laid down a “rough story” for Avatar 2. And the 3D invasion continued as Warners confirmed that Clash Of The Titans would be in 3D. Uh, yeah...

Robert Downey Jr raised the hackles of Sherlock Holmes rights owners by hinting that a Holmes 2 film might upgrade the bromance to full on romance, musing that Holmes really could be a “very butch homosexual”. Luckily, Holmes 2 got greenlit, unluckily forcing Downey Jr to leave Cowboys & Aliens. Daniel Craig jumped in to fill his place.

Kevin Feige said that Thor was “unlike anything we’ve ever put on film before”, while MGM officially put James Bond on ice as they struggled to wade free of their monetary problems.

Other problems arose with Spider-Man 4, as reports flooded in that Sam Raimi was still having trouble establishing who should be the villain(s). Days later, he’d been dumped, and the reset button had been jabbed. Rumours stirred that Marc Webb would be directing.

Sequel stuff continued as Harrison Ford hinted at an Indy 5. Ivan Reitman’s apparent signing on to Ghostbusters 3 prompted us to discuss the threequels that we didn’t need. Later, more threequel talk came in the form of Gremlins 3D.

Guillermo del Toro’s Hobbit looked set to begin shooting in June (how wrong we all were), while casting officially began. Then stopped again for almost 8 months.

As Neill Blomkamp discussed the idea of making a prequel to his runaway smash District 9, we dreamed up some plot ideas. Keeping things spacey, we celebrated Star Wars fan films, while offered more plot ideas, this time for Batman 3.

On the awards front, both Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges nabbed leading actor Golden Globes - could it be a sign of things to come at the Oscars? As we contemplated the possibility of those two getting up to thank their grandparents, we plucked out the best and worst Oscar speeches as a guide for what not to do.

In the lead up to the Oscar nominees announcement, we scribbled our 12 Oscar Nominations We Want To See. Some of those films may have made it onto our epic 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time.

The release of Burlesque Undressed gave us an excuse to investigate some saucy burlesque scenes (it’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it), while the excellent Precious made us feel sorry for some really messed-up movie families.

Meanwhile, we reviewed A Single Man, Crazy Heart and Ponyo.

As the month came to a close, poor old Zelda Rubenstein succumbed to ongoing health issues and passed away aged 76. We all watched Poltergeist in her memory.

Next: February