2010: A movie year, the best and worse — in verse

Dear readers, note: We've come so far

A year has passed since "Avatar"!

Twelve months of movies, zipping by;

Some brought us laughs; some just a sigh.

So let's look back, with 3D glasses,

On Harry Potter's postgrad classes

And Shrek's return, still green and cranky,

And Ed-and-Bella's hanky-panky.

Let's throw a popcorn-tossed reception

For Nolan's dreamy flick "Inception"

And praise the cinematic fretwork

Of Fincher's webby "Social Network."

We'll to a backroom gently shove

The dreary tale of "Eat, Pray, Love"

And yes, though Cate Blanchett was good

We'll say no more of "Robin Hood."

Denzel helped stop a speeding train

"Black Swan" found Portman's feet in pain

Caine waved a gun in "Harry Brown"

Jon Hamm (Hi, Don!) frowned through "The Town"

Cruise grinned nonstop in "Knight and Day"

E. Stone quipped wise in "Easy A"

"Burlesque" brought back a cheekboned Cher

And "Tangled" showed off Disney hair.

"Salt" was shaken; "Oceans" poured

In "Due Date" Downey seemed quite bored

Mirren in "Red" showed talents deep —

But where, oh where, was Meryl Streep?

In "Wall Street" Douglas found more greed

"Jackass 3D" we didn't need

Swank learned law in stark "Conviction"

"All Good Things" mixed fact and fiction

Depp/Jolie looked sharp in "Tourist"

(Hitchcockian? No — I'm a purist)

Bridges starred in "Grit" and "TRON"

Rom-coms? Most were just a yawn.

In "King's Speech" Firth spoke from a palace

Heads were big in Burton's "Alice"

"Hereafter" sagged, but — hold the phone —

There's Oscar buzz for "Winter's Bone"!

So, what might next year bring that's pretty?

(Please, please, no more "Sex & the City"!)

Look, up ahead: Craig in "Tattoo,"

A "Potter" end; a "Pirates" new.

And in the New Year's twists and bends

Lie films now strangers, but soon friends.

So, popcorn fill'd, I've one last call:

"Happy New Year, one and all!"

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com. Apologies, as always, to Roger Angell, whose wonderful "Greetings, Friends!" New Year's poems in The New Yorker magazine inspired my own annual tradition, now in its sixth year.