To be fair, what "popular" movies from '11 should've been nominated instead?

All the "popular" movies, or most of them, were sequels upon sequels.

Fast Five
Pirates of the Caribbean IV
Transformers 3
Cars 2
Harry Potter Part 7 Part 2

and So forth.

Sure I enjoyed solid popcorn entertainment from last year like FAST FIVE or RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES* or CAPTAIN AMERICA, but...would I really put them on my top 10 list? Well no. Only if the year was really that void and naked of truely good shit.

Anyway that article's complaint should be launched not at the Academy (who deserve other criticisms) but at the industry. With exception in recent years for example of THE DARK KNIGHT or INCEPTION or IRON MAN or the best of Pixar's releases and whatever, the most box-office successful movies are intentionally derivative in ambition because there is a reliable cash-making formula, which they'll religiously follow by the Orthodox. (Santorum would be proud.)

So what if they're mostly forgettable at best or worse, terrible? I've not yet met anybody who liked the boring last PIRATES picture, and I liked those other entries. Yet it grossed over a billion dollars. Same with the atriocious TRANSFORMERS 3. How uplifting.

*=RISE OF THE APES. Why did they need that stupid "Planet" shit in the title?