The decade in movies: Focus fades from stars to spectacle, by Anthony Breznican

The decade in movies: Focus fades from stars to spectacle

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY

At the start of the decade, movie stars were hit by a giant tidal wave.

By the end, they had been stomped on by giant robots and kicked into a flaming abyss.

Over the past 10 years, digital spectacles have become a bigger draw than famous actors.

The Perfect Storm in 2000 had George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg as two doomed fishermen, but its selling point was the massive ocean wave, ubiquitous in TV spots and the movie poster, that turned their tiny ship into a vertical speck on a unfathomable wall of water.

It was the sixth-highest-grossing film of the year, behind (in descending order) How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Cast Away, Mission: Impossible II, Gladiator and What Women Want. Those films starred Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Russel Crowe and Mel Gibson - all reliable box-office draws at the start of the decade, most far less so now.

Among the stars of 2009 were Optimus Prime from Transformers and its sequel and the city-swallowing volcanic gorges of 2012. Each film had its human stars (Shia LaBeouf, John Cusack), but people turned out mainly to see shape-shifting metal aliens and an imploding Earth.

Most of the top 10 movies of the 2000s relied less on the human factor than on story and bombast — not in that order.

The boy wizard attracted his own fans to Harry Potter. The Joker made The Dark Night a must-see, though Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is unlikely to be the same draw. Darth Vader's origin was the star of the Star Wars prequels.

The name “Pixar” is enough to sell films like Up (currently No. 3 for 2009), WALL?E, Finding Nemo and Cars, just as the name "Marvel" could open practically any superhero movie. Granted, Robert Downey Jr. was an integral part of Iron Man's success, and Tobey Maguire was key to Spider-Man. But when Maguire said a back injury might keep him out of 2004's Spider-Man 2, producers quickly floated Jake Gyllenhaal as a replacement.

That wouldn't have happened if Harrison Ford had refused another Indiana Jones.

Actors simply are no longer as ingrained in the public consciousness as their characters are. Personality goes a long way, just not as far as it once did.

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood did their jobs well, but it was Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle-earth that made those movies a phenomenon.

The same is true of James Cameron’s Avatar and the lure of the action-epic's intricate alien ecosystem and 10-foot azure amazons.

The winning concept

Of course, there are some exceptions: Bad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s real-life romance made audiences scramble to Mr. & Mrs. Smith. But sex appeal is never out of fashion.

Twilight and New Moon definitely earned their cult following thanks to Robert Pattinson’s face and Taylor Lautner’s chest, but it could arguably have been somebody else's pretty face and another guy's six-pack abs.

Sometimes it was the concept, not just digital special effects, that compelled moviegoers in the 2000s.

The name Judd Apatow could open a movie regardless of the actors. In fact, the ordinary-guy qualities of Steve Carell in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Seth Rogen in Knocked Up, and Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in Superbad were part of the appeal, an Apatow hallmark.

Films such as Juno, Sideways, Little Miss Sunshine, Memento, Napoleon Dinamite and last year's Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire became sensations thanks to extremely compelling storytelling, without major special effects, but also without headlining stars.

Prince of the box office

It became a common discussion among Hollywood executives: Who can open a movie, regardless of subject? Most agreed on Will Smith. Everyone else could be debated.

Julia Roberts? Maybe in the '90s.But few stampeded to see her this decade in The Mexican, Mona Lisa Smile or Duplicity.

Johnny Depp became a worldwide star thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. But he also seemed to be a worldwide star only in the Pirates movies. Or maybe if Tim Burton was directing him.

Though this all may seem as if it's a knock on actors, it's not. Even huge spectacles need good performances, and the decade's memorable smaller films show the power of a great actor in the right role.

It's the concept of a "movie star" that has faded.

Jack Nicholson is still one. So is Meryl Streep. But in the past decade, Hollywood didn't make them like that anymore.

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