While we’ve yet to see the release of George Clooney and Jason Reitman’s lauded drama/comedy Up In The Air or the full impact of James Cameron’s Avatar, listed below are the ten best films of the year in the opinion of your humble sometime reviewer.

These films are not simply my own favourites, tainted by the stain of human flaw and subjectivity, rather, these films have been objectively analysed by IBM’s latest batch of supercomputers (with some assistance from NASA and Optimus Prime) alongside every other 2009 release in a government laboratory hidden in the depths of Loch Ness, guarded by Nessie herself. And you thought we were just an entertainment blog. Shame on you.

And now for that list, in reverse order:

10. Let The Right One In: Twilight this was not (which was a sweet relief). Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In was an engrossing mix of fairytale and horror in a tale of a lonely young boy who befriends his new neighbour (who also happens to be a vampire child responsible for a spate of local killings). Eerily atmospheric and visually stunning with great performances all around, the film was as much about the supernatural as it was about childhood, and equally successful in both respects.

9. Where The Wild Things Are: Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book isn’t perfect, but despite its flaws, there were few films this year as bold and risk-taking as this one. Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers have expanded Sendak’s succinct nine-sentence long story into a more freeform meditation on childhood, albeit one which may not play terribly well to children. Wild Things is a provocative, thrilling, frustrating, and ultimately beautiful cinematic ode to those years when we hadn’t quite let go of our imaginations, but were starting to feel that unwelcome push to grow up.

8. The Hangover: All a comedy really needs in order to work is a good concept and a great cast with rhythm and timing. To go along with a not-just-good-but-great concept and script, The Hangover featured a fantastic non-star cast stuffed with chemistry and possessing a killer instinct for timing. Apparently ‘what works’ is Mike Tyson singing Phil Collins and an infant miming masturbation. Who knew?! The film has raked in just under $460 million in worldwide box office, the praise of critics and a stream of major award nominations. Oh, and there’s a sequel on the way. Not bad for a raunchy Summertime comedy.

7. District 9: Living up to the best of classic sci-fi storytelling, District 9 also held a mirror up to our own flawed species through the story of refugee aliens marooned on Earth. Consigned to a shanty town outside Johannesburg, the generally passive ‘prawns’ finally snap under the pressure as authorities attempt to move them to a glorified concentration camp. And for those who need their sci-fi Apartheid-allegories spiced up with a dose of top-notch mainstream mayhem, director and Peter Jackson protégé, Neill Blomkamp, delivered.

6. Drag Me To Hell: It’s a pleasure to take stock of what’s been such a fine cinematic crop this time of year and see this gem crossing the finish line ahead of so many pedigreed, awards-hungry Autumn and Winter films. Powered by lean, muscular storytelling and a brilliantly arranged mix of gallows humour and demonic scares, Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell was high camp that never bothered to ask for the approval of the masses, opting instead to march swiftly in the direction of cult classic stardom. Make sure to chase it down.

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox: After a career of intriguing, offbeat films, director Wes Anderson still managed to take many by surprise with his decision to not only adapt the classic Roald Dahl book of the same name, and to film it using the antiquated, painstaking technique of stop-motion animation. The result was an enchanting, retro cinematic experience, unlike anything seen in cinemas this year. The tale of Mr. Fox, his family and animal friends battling local farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean didn’t quite overwhelm the box office in its theatrical release, but almost certainly faces a brighter future on DVD.

4. Inglourious Basterds: Though perhaps more recognised for the generous amount of blood that gets splattered across his cinematic visions, it’s the witty and wonderful tension-packed writing that separates Quentin Tarantino’s latest from recent misstep, Death Proof, and most of 2009’s other releases. No matter the language in which its spoken – German, French, Italian or English – the dialogue in this vivid World War II re-imagining exhilarates more than any gun shot, scalping, baseball bat beat down or elaborate forehead carving and makes this more than just a grandly self-indulgent exercise in wish fulfillment.

3. In the Loop: It’s been 45 years since Stanley Kubrick’s slightly wonky masterpiece Dr. Strangelove, but comedy master Armando Iannucci, along with a stellar British and American ensemble, have finally given us a reason to place a second title on that lonesome, dusty shelf of Political Satire classics. In the Loop tells the semi-fictionalised story of the U.S. and U.K. government’s chaotic march toward war in the Middle East. Alternately hilarious and frightening, this film cut to the core of a universal political ineptitude.

2. Up: Loneliness, regret and arthritis don’t usually result in $506 million worth of worldwide ticket sales, but luckily creators Pete Docter and Bob Peterson had a few other tricks up their sleeve as they confidently, thrillingly carried the Pixar torch in yet another brave new direction. Going well beyond the label of ‘animated kid’s film’, Up delivers a magnificent adventure that’s simply brilliant on any level, at any age.

1. The Hurt Locker: Gone was the high-minded sermonising that had bogged down recent Iraq War films like Lions For Lambs and In The Valley of Elah in director Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. Following an elite bomb squad as they try to make it from one day and one job to the next, the film’s skillfully orchestrated, white-knuckle action sequences were not just matched but enhanced by the genuine performances of its cast, including the pitch-perfect Jeremy Renner as the unit’s cocksure lead. Knock-out filmmaking.

Bring on 2010.