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: August 31

Lawless -A western-crime film set during the Depression, Lawless is from newcomer Megan Ellison and already critically acclaimed director John Hillcoat.  IMDb is predicting great things of it, with one writer saying "if this film bombs, I give up and will only watch Fast & Furious/Step Up movies for an entire month."  With a response like that, I almost want Lawless to bomb.

For a Good Time, Call... - About a pair of girls (presumably fresh out of college) who become roommates and through a series of events decide to start their own phone sex line.  This movie is already being compared to Bridesmaids, which I think means it's supposed to be good, but in my opinion can really mean just about anything.  Presumably, it'll be funny.

Battleship - The latest game-turned movie film, Battleship is somehow inspired by the board game of the same name while being about aliens.  I've yet to actually hear a single good thing about this movie... but it has Alexander Skarsgård in it, so it can't be that bad, right?

The Lucky One  - The latest Nicholas Spark film, this one staring Zac Efron.  Like most Efron movies this definitely isn't the best, but still enjoyable.  Don't forget to check out my review of it.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits - I really wasn't a big fan of this animated children's movie, thinking that it kind of fell short of my expectations.  Not the worst, but definitely not up to the bar that Pixar's set.

The Fault in Our Stars - I haven't actually read this book myself, yet, but a friend from work recommended it to me and the little that I've looked at so far has told me that it's going to be a good and funny read.  It's about a teenage girl with cancer, so I'm sure that it's going to end up being of the dark humour type.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits / In an Adventure with Scientists (2012)

Stars: Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton
Director: Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt

Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family

Rating: C

I’m not exactly sure where to begin in explaining my disappointment in this film.  Trailers for it made it look like a cute animated film about a band of pirates who aren’t exactly good at being pirates and are entering the Pirate of the Year competition.  Silly, yes, but cute.  And in the post-Pixar world, I think it’s safe to say that we’ve come to expect adult friendly children’s films.  Sadly, this really wasn’t what The Pirates! Band of Misfits (In an Adventure with Scientists outside of North America) was all about.  Yes, there were pirates, yes they were incompetent, yes there was a competition, but the actual plot was a lot more than just that – and it was in that extra development that the film really lost me.

The Pirate Captain (Grant) is the captain of a crew of pirate misfits; there’s the Pirate with a Scarf (Freeman), Peg-Leg Hastings, the Pirate with Gout, the Surprisingly Curvaceous Pirate, the Albino Pirate, and the Pirate Who Likes Sunsets and Kittens.  They are, very much rightly, ridiculed by the pirating world, especially by the Pirate Captain’s nemeses, Black Bellamy (Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Hayak), two surprisingly competent pirates who frequently win the Pirate of the Year Award.  Determined to prove himself, the Pirate Captain and his crew set out to prove themselves, and while doing so they board the Beagle and take Charles Darwin (Tennant) captive.  Yes, that Darwin.  It is at this point that the plot of the film becomes somewhat overly complicated; it is revealed that the Pirate Captain’s parrot is in fact the last remaining living dodo.  Darwin is very much your modern day stereotype of a science geek, - complete with an awkwardness around girls and a crush on someone far out of his league, specifically Queen Victoria (Staunton) – wants to take Polly to the Scientist of the Year awards, where he’s sure he will win both the top prize and the love and affection of the Queen.  The Captain, however, sees this as an opportunity for him to gather a huge booty and thus win the Pirate of the Year Award.  Queen Victoria, however, is adamantly against Pirates and also collects very rare and endangered animals, for her own devious means.  It is up to the Pirates and Darwin to save the day.

If that all seems a little ridiculous, it’s because it is.  In fact, it’s completely ridiculous and over the top.  It claims to be smart, but really it’s just over the top.  The humour is, for the most part, rather dull and a bit dimwitted, it’s talking down to its audience.  The premise of the plot is extremely implausible.  I love a good fantasy as much as the next person, but I hate it when something attempts to situate itself in the real world and then makes the plot overly complicated and unrealistic.  If it was just about a band of misfit pirates (as it was promoted) who were trying to win the Pirate of the Year award it would be one thing, or even if it was just about that time that Charles Darwin accidentally found a dodo hidden as a pirate’s parrot.  Combining the two just takes it over the top, as does Queen Victoria as the villain.  The characters are all really just absurd caricatures, presenting stereotypes and over the top ridiculousness.  In the post-Pixar world it is easy to expect more of a children’s movie, but The Pirates fails to deliver.