2011

As a sequel to 2010, 2011 delivered mostly as expected.

With the same lead playing the young protagonist as he works from his first year into his second year of college, not much action is seen by way of big changes in this young man's life.

He gains some friends, particularly in the second half as the new students arrive. However, he is portrayed as a very gentle, passive character, who gently lets people drift away from him, rather than a more dramatic stand-off leading to a brief make-up before falling out for good. It's like this throughout the whole year, and makes for viewing better suited to a sleeping audience who don't want to be disturbed rather than an audience looking for excitement. Or anything at all.

There are a few major twists and surprises. Not to spoil the plot, but several characters played up as major villains in 2010 are suddenly killed off in this installment, much to the credit of President Obama making several return appearances, still played warmly by a wonderful Morgan Freeman. However, these big political characters are often kept in the background, having little impact on the protagonist. It's a wonder why the writers decided to kill them off so early in the franchise.

Overall, 2011 is a well acted, solid year, although the cracks do begin to show, for what it lacks in plot it fails to make up for in action. But promise for the much anticipated and long since announced remake of Roland Emmerich's 2012 is very high indeed, the rumours that the apocalyptic elements have been removed entirely (and leaving open grounds for a possible 2013?) only adding to the intrigue.

3/5 stars