2012 – My Top Five

2012 was to some, a terrific year in film with numerous epic blockbusters including ‘Marvel’s The Avengers’, ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ and one of the most anticipated films in the last 10 years, ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’. Below is my list ranking the top five films of 2012. Bare in mind this list is composed entirely of all that I saw in 2012 though there are a few I do still need to see. Let’s begin. Oh, it contains spoilers. Big ones.

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5. 21 Jump Street

 

For most, probably a surprise entry into the top five, so why? It just did everything right as far as comedies go. The chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum, surprisingly, was absolutely brilliant along with some terrific supporting characters. In addition, I personally found it different from your typical American teen-action-comedy movie as it didn’t recycle all the jokes that have been exhausted in this genre. Although the humour was daft at times, it all just worked near-perfect. Great film, easily the best comedy of 2012 and a great cameo from a character in the original show. 

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4. The Avengers

‘The Avengers’ was in a word, fantastic. It was more or less everything a comic book flick should be. What Josh Whedon did so well was avoid having one hero dominate the others, I don’t think I have a favourite from the film. It was equally refreshing to have The Hulk portrayed well for a change! Naturally, people will always have their favourite superhero but the on-screen chemistry between them all was fantastic and the humour was actually funny and not just cringeworthy or cheesy. There are some flaws, but it was the best comic book film last year, and miles ahead than a film involving a certain hero from DC Comics. 

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3. Looper

Bruce Willis out for revenge, Joseph Gordon Levitt being slick as per, Emily Blunt providing a terrific emotive side to the film and Pierce Gagnon, who is just seven… seven, delivering one of the best performances from a child in a film you will see. Some described ‘Looper’ as the new ‘Matrix’, although it doesn’t quite reach the highs of that, it’s certainly a fantastic sci-fi thriller. It’s thought provoking and will leave you pondering endless paradoxes and possibilities following the film. I only saw it once but am more excited to see it a second time than I was the first. Films involving time-travel often leave themselves open to massive plot-holes and criticism, ‘Looper’ I can only praise.

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2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

So could Peter Jackson deliver? One of, if not the, most anticipated film of the last ten years following one of the best trilogies to be produced. Did it deliver? In my opinion, yes. What is important is that you don’t think of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ as the same kind of story, they’re not, in-fact they’re quite different though there are some of the same characters and are both set in Middle-Earth. The big difference, ‘The Hobbit’ is a children’s book with there being a lot more humour, the former is not. You can see my review of this in my previous post. Despite it not being perfect and there being some cringeworthy moments, I absolutely loved it and can’t wait for ‘The Desolation of Smaug.’ Critics were harsh and the run-time wasn’t a problem in my opinion. My only criticisms were the overuse of CGI and Azog and The Goblin King being poorly portrayed, however, it’s still fantastic. 

Enjoy the scene called ‘Riddles in the Dark’ with Bilbo and Gollum, one of the greatest adapted scenes I’ve ever seen.

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1. Skyfall

If ‘Skyfall’ is anything to go by, the future of James Bond movies is bright, very bright. ‘Skyfall’ is thrilling, fun, humourous and a terrific example of what a Bond film should be. Daniel Craig has cemented himself as my favourite Bond with Javier Bardem being my favourite Bond villain. Dame Judi Dench adds immense amounts in her supporting role as M with Ben Wishaw as the new Q being a welcome addition. It’s exhilarating from start to finish with an ending that I don’t think anyone saw coming. All of the action, fantastic performances and Adele’s terrific theme result in ‘Skyfall’ being my favourite Bond film, and favourite film of 2012.

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There you have it and if you’ve bothered to read this then you’re probably wondering where a few films are. Well, this was compiled from the following films:

Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Ted, Brave, Prometheus, The Hunger Games, The Woman in Black, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and of course the above.

There are others I’m dying to see which would probably make this list including Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi and Lincoln. I’ll make sure I see these as soon as I can.

In addition, why does The Dark Knight Rises not make the list? I enjoyed it, but it was very slow, the set-pieces were underwhelming, there was plot-hole after plot-hole and too many new characters. It got daft and way too self-indulgent. My two biggest moans, Blake figured out who Batman was because of a look? Really? And Batman/Bruce Wayne is presumed dead but we see him alive and happy at the end. But hang on, surely someone would have noticed that this man who’s known around the world was knocking about in a restaurant in Europe!? There are about sixty other plot-holes that you can amuse yourself with on YouTube.

And to finish.
Worst film of 2012 – Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 2
Most disappointing – Prometheus

Thank you for taking the time to read this rambling if you have. I intend to post a review of ‘Django Unchained’ soon.