For me there are only two films that stand out from the others in the first half of 2011 and those have to be Incendies and Tree of Life.

Incendies is a Canadian film where twins in their late twenties are grasping at the sudden death of their mom only to realize her will asks the son, Simon to deliver a letter to the father they have never met and the daughter, Jeanne, to send a letter out a brother they have never known before. Simon relents and Jeanne is burdened with accomplished the dying wish of her mother Nawel. This journey takes her through the homeland of her mother in a nation without a name but with clear intentions to resemble Palestine. We flashback to her Mother, Nawel as she births the twins and her son as she set in the middle of a war of religion and goes through an unprecedented evolution that takes your breath away. The films intercuts the two story of Jeanne and her trying to understand who her mother was, what she did and why she sent her and simon on this journey. This film had me gasping in horror, laughing at social differences and crying at the pure chaos and order that the ending shows. See this movie.

Tree of Life is the fifth film by Terrance Mallick in the span of 30 years. The man has not made many films but made important ones. Films that you should seek out and movies that make you think on the intentions of man, religion, persons and our place in the world, universe and the purpose we hold. Tree of Life holds no bars in reaching high and far in trying to make you think. It shows the beginning of the universe, the creation of the sun, the evolution of life and yes, dinosaurs. This is also a family story on how children see their parents and the adolescent mind and how easy it can bend. Jack fears his father, loves his mother and is torn on who he should be. All of Mallicks protagonists go through similar arch’s of love, hate, disgust and retribution but differently. The final moments in the film had my heart pounding and my mind racing. What does it mean? What is religion to this man, where d we go after death? See this movie.

Honestly, nothing can compare to these two films that I've seen this year.

What about you? What do you think are the best films to come out so far this year?

Limitless and Super 8 for me. Seen them both twice in theaters and I now own Limitless on Blu-Ray.

I've only seen Harry Potter this year and I couldn't really hear any audio over my friends crying/screaming so I can't really say that. Lets just say this.

midnight in paris and tree of life

i also enjoyed horrible bosses, guilty pleasure. x men first class was pretty good but I wish the cold war angle could've been played more realistic (in other words no kevin bacon playing both sides of the war)

Thor for managing to not be incredibly goofy and an extremely well realized Loki

X-Men: First Class for bringing some amazing on-screen chemistry to a comic book movie

Transformers: Dark of the Moon for being total shit yet complete joy at the same time

Captain America: The First Avenger for AMERICA and German Hugo Weaving

@imayellowfellow said:

midnight in paris and tree of life

AH, midnight in paris was delightful, a great movie. it was my first woody allen film and I loved it, owen wilson did a good job being a woody allen surrogate

Super 8 and Source Code I guess.

Transformers 3! Fuck Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and Source Code, although that ending was bleh

The only movie I have seen this year is Fast Five, and that was pretty fucking awesome so I'll go with that.

I really dug The Lincoln Lawyer. I know a lot of people despise McConaughey but I thought he was great as Mickey Haller.

I can pretty much enjoy any movie that I see, and I've seen a lot this year.  The only one that I did not like was Your Highness which is disappointing because I really like Kenny Po-I mean Danny McBride.

Source Code and Scream 4.

Tree of Life by far. This year hasn't been exceptional for movies, so far. A few good ones and a great one, but also a lot of shit.

Films? as in Movies?

I think I've seen more movies that I've enjoyed this year than I have any other year.  
 
Of those though, Captain America, X-Men First Class, and Fast Five are the stand outs for me. 

This has become one of my all time favorite movies.

My top three so far this year...
 
1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. X-Men: First Class
3. Super 8

I've only seen Limitless and Source Code and I enjoyed them both, so those I guess.

=( I've hardly seen any movies this year, but I have had some good fruit, though...

While I know it wasn't exactly a cinematic masterpiece by any means, Super 8 charmed the shit out of me, I absolutely loved it.

source code and fast five

The only movie I have seen this year is Fast Five, and that was pretty fucking awesome so I'll go with that.

Limitless and Harry Potter.

@Dany: Isn't Incendies a film from 2010?

Winnie the Pooh.
 
(and, no, I'm not kidding. i'm not being ironic. go see it. go. NOW!)

I've always really liked Harry Potter, so definitely that.   
Super 8 was pretty good too. 

@tobygw said:

@Dany: Isn't Incendies a film from 2010?

Yeah it was, but it was released in the states this year and I saw it in the limited run in Chicago.

I'm honestly surprised that the actress that played the mother, Nawel was not nominated, her performance is riveting.

My favourite movie this year so far is X-Men: First Class. So well made and most of the cast gave terrific performances. Michael Fassbender is shaping up to be one of my favourite recent actors.

Haven't really seen much but X-men first class and source code were both pretty good.

I didn't see a single new movie in the whole of the first half of 2011. I honestly do not regret it one bit.

I quite want to see Black Swan but that was 2010 I think.

Screened.com? 
Screened.com!

Haven't seen a huge amount of movies in the theater but so far X Men: First Class would be it for me.

Harry Potter, X-Men: First Class, Captain America.

Came hoping to see The Tree of Life; left pleased. 
 
If Malick releases that supposedly crazy long director's cut, I will gladly sit through it.

X-Men: First Class and Hanna. 
Super 8 ain't out over here till next week and I have reasonably high hopes for that.

Have only been to see two movies this year that came out in 2011. Fast Five gets the award ahead of Thor.
 
But, I have seen around 100+ movies this year and the best I've seen was one of these; Mind Game, 8 1/2, Funky Forest, Lars and The Real Girl, Glengarry Glen Ross,  Night on Earth or Survive Style 5+.
 
Worst films I've seen in that deluge would be Wild At Heart (forceful pretention), The Wolfman remake and Brazil (which is surprising because I like Gilliam generally).

@CrossTheAtlantic said:

Came hoping to see The Tree of Life; left pleased. If Malick releases that supposedly crazy long director's cut, I will gladly sit through it.

I hope so but their is a 6 hour cut of Thin Red Line with actors role simply cut. I preferred Tree of Life much more than Thin Red Line. Second has to be Days of Heaven followed by A New World

I haven't seen many films released this year but it's between Thor, Cedar Rapids and Bridesmaids. 
 
If we're talking about films I've seen from other years then Before Sunset, I loved it.