My Top Films of 2011

1. The King's Speech (Tom Hooper, England): Though probably not worthy of the Oscar it won, this is still an effective story about King George VI's speech impediment and how Australian therapist X cured it. The main players - Colin Firth as the king, Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, and Helena Bonham-Carter as Queen Elizabeth, all shine. Released very late in 2010 - December 22 - hence it's on this list. 8/10

2. Thor (Kenneth Branagh, UK/USA): Another big-screen treatment of a Marvel comic book character, Thor is the story of the thunder god's banishment to Earth and loss of his magic hammer, where he is forced (for a while) to live as a mortal. Chris Hemsworth is fine in the lead role as the somewhat overbearing Thor cast out into a world of mortals he doesn't fully understand, though Tom Hiddleston out-acts him in his role as the devious Loki, with Natalie Portman along for the ride as the requisite love interest and Kat Dennings looking cute in the background as her assistant. Branagh's Aasgard is a bit too shiny and politically correct in its phony attempt at diversity: it was the Viking vision of heaven, after all. With lots of special effects, the film is more a scifi/Shakespearian history than a superhero movie. The 3D element was rather ineffective, what with it being such a dark film, and the frost giants were a bit of a bore. Still, far better than X3 and Wolverine, and a good try at filming what was perhaps unfilmable, a superhero who is also a mythic deity. As with all the lead-ups to the Avengers flick, stay tuned for the after-credits sequence. 7.5/10

3. Sucker Punch (Zack Snyder, USA): A green-screen extravaganza about a group of teenage girls who are imprisoned in a mental asylum circa the 1950s, yet escape by retrieving five items. The fantasize they're actually in a brothel with a cruel madam and a vicious gangster, doppelgangers for their psychiatrist and warder, later that they're a in mash up of violent video games. With names like Baby Doll, Sweat Pea and Blondie, there's a variety of fantasies going on here. With fantastic CGI featuring mecha-anime and World War II elements, this film is a visual delight, though the story is a bit confusing without any real pay off. 7/10