2012 Movies in Review

There were a lot of movies out in 2012, and I saw a good number of them. I am not going to make a list of all the movies I saw, because that would be pretty long, but I am going to do a quick list of my favourites and least favourite. Just to note, these are in no particular order.

Action

The Best:

- The Avengers - we are slowly doing all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, all of which are great, although not with any rush

- The Dark Knight Rises - for which we did a marathon of all the Christopher Nolan Batman movies

- Skyfall - for which we did a Bond-a-thon, of all twenty-three Bond Eon films

- The Amazing Spider-Man

The Worst:

- The Bourne Legacy

Comedy

The Best:

- 21 Jump Street

- Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

- Seven Psychopaths

- Ted

The Worst:

- What to Expect When You're Expecting

- Fun Size

Drama

The Best:

- The Perks of Being a Wallflower

- Silver Linings Playbook

- Lincoln

- End of Watch

The Worst:

- The Words

Family

The Best:

- Wreck-It Ralph

- Rise of the Guardians

- Brave

- Frankenweenie

The Worst:

- The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Music

The Best:

- Les Misérables

- Pitch Perfect

- Rock of Ages 

The Worst:

- Sparkle

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

The Best:

- Looper

- The Cabin in the Woods

- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

- The Hunger Games

The Worst:

- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The Best:

- La Luna

- Paperman

The Worst:

- Partysaurus Rex

It should be noted that in the case of both Partysaurus Rex and The Pirates, I didn't actually think they were bad, I just didn't like them as much as the other films in that category.

To sum up the year, I would probably make a few generalizations.  This was the year of Joss Whedon, who really became huge after directing The Avengers - because he wasn't already a god before that.  This was also the year of the superhero, although that's been a running theme in action movies for awhile now - but we saw the Avengers unite, Batman fight Bane, Spider-Man get his powers, even Bond who is somewhat of a superhero.  It was a year of fantasy and science fiction, what with the superheros, hobbits, vampires, and zombies.  It was a year of book-to-movie adaptations that were actually by and large really good - from Silver Linings Playbook to The Perks of Being a Wallflower to The Hobbit to The Hunger Games and everything in between.  It was the year of the franchise - with the start of some, the ending of others, and the continuation of others still.  It was the year of remakes and reboots, from 21 Jump Street to Red Dawn to Total Recall to Spider-Man.  It was a year of really serious period pieces - Lincoln, Anna Karenina, Les Misérables.  It was the year of a number of actors - Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Hemsworth, Channing Tatum, Anna Kendrick, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Renner, Rebel Wilson, and Kristen Stewart all appeared in multiple movies this year, some of them great, some of them not so great.  It was the year that Twilight ended.  It was a year of all thinks British - from the Olympics to the Jubilee.  It was a good year.  Here's to it!

Recommendations: December 14

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - The first in Peter Jackson's prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is being cited as the most anticipated prequel since Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  One hopes that it ends up being better than Phantom Menace, but based on the fact that it takes its basis from Tolkien's novel The Hobbit, which people seem to like, I'm predicting good things will come from An Unexpected Journey.

Save the Date -The newest romantic comedy about weddings and the like, Save the Date stars Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie as two sisters - one who has just rejected her boyfriend's hasty proposal and is rebounding, and the other who is planning her upcoming nuptials. According to IMDb, this is more like Girls and less like Bridesmaids, which I assume is supposed to be a good thing - I didn't really like Bridesmaids, so not being like that is definitely a good thing, but I haven't seen Girls so I can't say if being like it is good or not.

Ted - A semi-creepy, kind of pervy, surprisingly hilarious movie about a man and his anthropomorphic teddy bear.  I really enjoyed this, although logic and taste tells me I probably shouldn't have.

The Bourne Legacy - Don't see this movie.  I don't even know why I'm recommending it.  By far the worst of the Bourne movies, it's best forgotten about - like many other fourth additions to a series.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey's classic novel about a group of men in an insane asylum during the 1960s.  This book is absolutely awesome.  The narrator, Chief, has many hallucinations (I believe he's schizophrenic, but I could be making that up), which Kesey skillfully works into the story, aided by the fact that Kesey was under the influence of LSD at the time of writing.  This book is just great.

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, Albert Finney
Director: Tony Gilroy
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rating: C-

I think my biggest problem with The Bourne Legacy was that it didn’t need to be made.  The Bourne Trilogy ended well – both book-wise and movie-wise.  Robert Ludlum wrote three Bourne novels, concluded the series, wrote a number of other books, then died.  Then in what has the appearance of being a case of greed and laziness the Ludlum estate gave permission to Eric Van Lustbader in order to write more Bourne novels.  The ending that had wrapped the trilogy up was shattered and Van Lustbader to this day is popping out a Bourne a year.  As someone who enjoys writing and creating characters this rather bothers me – I don’t particularly like the idea of continuing someone’s work posthumously.  It’s one thing in the case of Robert Jordan, where he made arrangements for it to happen prior to his death and wrote down how the story was supposed to end so that someone could continue The Wheel of Time series.  It’s another thing if the author ended the series, died some time later, and then someone decided to resurrect his books.

Okay, so now that that rant is out of my system, let’s move on to the movie itself. Continuing the theme of The Bourne Legacy didn’t need to be made, or at least didn’t need to be a Bourne film, is the fact that it doesn’t actually involve the titular Jason Bourne – at least not really.  In my opinion plans for the film should have been axed once Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon announced that they would not be involved in the film.  Despite being set in the same universe an being based around another member of the Treadstone Project Legacy has a really different feel to it and in my opinion could have easily been based in a similar but different world.  In fact, I think it would have been better off had they taken that route.

The events in Legacy are initiated by Jason Bourne (Damon, seen only via a photograph) exposing Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, leading to an investigation of CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Allen) and Operation Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (David Strathairn).  Upon learning of this, the CIA calls in Eric Byer (Norton) to deal with the situation and make it go away – which he does by eliminating all members of Operation Outcome, which I think was another aspect of Blackbriar and Treadstone.  This elimination is a problem for Aaron Cross, codename “Number Five,” who would rather not be killed.  He goes on the run, but he’s disabled by his dependency on pills the agency has given him to enhance his physical and mental capabilities – greens and blues.  Conveniently for him, the CIA is also attempting to kill all of its Outcome scientists, leaving Dr. Marta Shearing (Weisz) pretty much dependant on him for her continued survival.

So, just to start, this series does not need the Bourne connection.  The premise can exist really easily without the Bourne connection and would have been better off having severed it.  The few actors who were in both movies aren’t utilized properly – but then few of the actors in this movie are utilized properly at all.  The characters are, for the most part, flat and dull.  They fit stereotypical roles and are never given any real reason to expand.  I was particularly disappointed with Norton, who basically just stood around and barked orders.  Renner and Weisz bring a lot to the show and really stand out simply because they make the most out of their flat characters and try to add some depth.  I don’t know what’s motivating any of the CIA type agents, beyond the fact that bad guys are bad guys.  I only know that the good guys are motivated by the hey, let’s stay alive mentality of things – I’m not really given any reason to root for them beyond the idea that I should be rooting for people to stay alive.  There are a few good moments and I actually really liked Weisz’ role in the chase scene.  Her role was, in my opinion, the only perfect element about both this movie in general and the chase specifically.

With that one perfect moment behind us, let’s discuss the other failures of the movie. The chase scene where Weisz was awesome was, in my opinion, poorly done. There were elements that I loved about it – namely the fact that the police weren’t shooting at the fleeing protagonists, which is something that I always hate in action movies (if you’re fleeing from the police in a crowded area, they’re not going to shoot. The chances of hitting one of the many innocent bystanders is too great). The music was lame and rather redundant, which I guess kind of made it fitting for the sequence itself, which was also rather redundant. There were a few good action sequences overall, but none that was worth the cost of admission.  Really, when it came down to it this was an unremarkable addition to the series.  Oh, and the ending sucked.  I'm not going to explain why, because that would be a massive spoiler, but it was a let down.  I'd say skip this movie and hold out for The Expendables 2.

Recommendations: August 10

The Bourne Legacy - The newest instalment in the Bourne series, this one follows Jeremy Renner as a super spy gone wrong.  I'm planning on seeing this movie, but I'm not really sure what to expect from it.  I'm not big on the "let's do this series past where it naturally ended just because hey! Money!" Which is what Bourne Legacy (and the non-Robert Ludlum Bourne novels) feels like.

Hope Springs - I know it's kind of sad, but this is the movie that I'm really looking forward to this week.  Hope Springs brings together Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carrell, in a movie about seniors reconnecting. And having sex.  I enjoy Meryl Streep romantic comedies, so I'm sure I'm going to enjoy this.

The Lorax - The latest Seussical movie.  This was far from being the worst Seuss, but it wasn't the best.  Good to watch if you want something light.

Grosse Pointe Blank - It's the 15th anniversary of this John Cusack classic, so it's being re-released.  I've always really enjoyed this one.

High Fidelity - Another Cusack classic also now on Blu-ray (although not for anything fancy like an anniversary).

Romy and Michele's High School Reunion - There are no words to explain just how awesome this movie is.  It's not really highly rated, but it's funny and fun, and so who cares if it's actually good?  It's ridiculous and over the top, but it's also Lisa Kudrow at her best.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I recently succeeded in getting a friend to read this book, and it's one that I think everyone should read.  It's a bit slow to start and there's a lot of details that can be difficult to absorb, but once you get into it it's an amazing read - totally worth the journey.  If you haven't read this book yet, you definitely need to check it out.