2012 - A Year In Review : Movie Edition!
2012 has been a strong year for cinema and it isn't even over yet. As I write this in early December there are still some movies yet to hit screens and one big epic called "The Hobbit" on its way. Earlier this year, I think around June, we signed up for Cineworld's "Unlimited" program, which entitles us to see as many flicks as we like while paying about fifteen quid a month. Amazing deal considering the amount of going to see just one movie on regular tickets, we've saved hundreds of pounds already as customers to this program and cannot hype it enough. Early 2012, before getting these tickets, we saw "The Hunger Games" and it cost over twenty pounds, we pay thirty pounds a month for two tickets and we can see whatever we want, whenever we want and as many times as we like. Excellent. Okay...I'll stop fanboying over Cineworld now, I promise.
2012 has been a great year for fans of film, lots of great pictures have hit the screens and entertained us. There's been some terrible shit too, but I suppose it's to be expected in a World where Keith Lemon is a popular television character who is given the green light to extend his miserable tripe onto cinema screens. Still, in-between the occasional dud there have been some tremendous flicks that have only gone to morph me into an even bigger nerd than I was 12 months ago. (and so it continues).
I've read reviews in magazines like Total Film and Empire throughout the year of movies we've seen in theatres and at times I disagree on so many levels with what the reviews say, one flick that comes to mind regarding this is actually one of the first movies we saw in theatres this year. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
The reviews for this film were unusual. I read a variety of reviewers label it as "taking itself too seriously" and "lacking in the depth of the novel". Okay, I admit, I haven't read the book in which the film is based. I love to read, I just don't happen to have read this films source material. I don't know if that helped in my enjoyment of the film, but if it did then I am surely blessed in that aspect. I thought there was plenty of dark humour in this movie, and lots of scenes were so well shot and acted that I could hardly find anything to feel angry about as a viewer, yet to my surprise after seeing it and feeling I got my moneys worth out of a thoroughly enjoyable action-gore-fest, I heard so many people say how it bastardised the novel and was acted badly. I disagree. I doubt it bastardised a novel that at its heart is almost a bastardisation of history itself. It might not have gone into the civil rights aspect as deeply as the book but then maybe it wouldn't have been as fun if it had. As a person simply viewing the film as a fun action movie for a rainy day I thought it ticked the boxes. Not every film has to be perfect, or deep, or word for word copies on the book on which it's based. I might be in the minority, but I'm fine with that. I even liked the train scene. There, I said it.
2012 also welcomed the first time I've seen a documentary film on the big screen. In the past, and in all honesty, it's been too expensive to see every single film that sounds interesting, so some slip through the cracks and have to wait until they hit DVD and Blu-Ray. Now this isn't the case we saw "The Impostor" for which there is a full review further back on this blog, and "Samsara" which was a mind blasting visual orgasm of a film that I truly loved and cannot wait to see again when it hits BR in early 2013. "Samsara" has no dialogue and plays alongside a vibrant score that makes the whole thing seem like a dreamscape at times. It's beautiful shots of people and places around the world are stunning and the depth of each shot makes the film extremely re-watchable. I felt myself wanting to rewind the film and see things for longer on so many occasions. I cannot say enough good things about it. It blew my mind.
Going back to something mentioned earlier, the bad films of the year, in which there have been plenty but I have gladly avoided most. I have liked most of the flicks I've seen on the big screen in 2012. There have, however, been a couple I didn't enjoy. The over-rated "Magic Mike" in which nothing really happens and no character has any likeability, and the frustrating to watch "The Offender" in which the main antagonist in so annoying that I felt like leaving the cinema on more than one occassion, plus real young offenders were used in some scenes and so the performances are very hit and miss. Shame really, the concept was a good one with lots of potential, shame the actors involved were very unlikeable individuals, which makes it tough to root for the people the filmmakers are obviously hoping you will root for. Still, these were utterly terrible films so it's been a good year for good flicks.
Superheroes are all the rage. They have been for years now with so many big budget blockbusters hitting the screens each summer featuring different cape wearing, batarang throwing, spiderweb shooting, hulk smashing, hammer pounding, lantern....erm....using......mega powers. This year we saw a knight of darkness end his Nolan-career, a group of avengers smashing up bad guys in the middle of the big city and a red and blue arachnid saving the day once again. These three movies were what the summer of cinema in 2012 was all about. The Avengers broke records and pleased fans around the World with it's mega action and delicious performances. The Amazing Spiderman improved on the previous movies and featured a great cast. The Dark Knight Rises became one of the most popular movies of all time and united fans and critics in a thing called "awe". All tremendous movies in my view, I can't wait to see what 2013 brings from the world of the comic book.
2012 also seems to have been the year that horror films were pretty much all about ghosts. I'm a big horror fan and have always loved the variety that comes with the genre. Zombies, ghosts, monsters, serial killers, cults, vampires, werewolves, fantastical beasts, possessed kids, animals with rabies, haunted houses...the sky has always been the limit and horror always surprises fans in the most unusual ways. 2012 however seems to have been a record with a big old scratch on it in the sense that most of the horror flicks have been ghost based. There's been a few that went elsewhere like the psychological thriller "House at the End of the Street" and monster flick "The Chernobyl Diaries" but most others have surrounded hauntings or possession. I don't mind so much but I miss the variety that used to come with horror. Lovely Molly, The Possession, Sinister, When The Lights Went Out and A Night in the Woods all hit screens around summer 2012. I miss the monster flicks and would love the zombie movie to get over the hurdle of being overdone a couple of years ago, there's still plenty of life left in the living dead.
My favourite flicks of 2012 is a hard list to create, there have been so many I've enjoyed. Dredd immediately comes to mind when thinking about films that I absolutely loved. It was violent, energetic, funny, dark, exciting and as a fan of 2000AD it did alot more for the world in which it came than the previous Stallone monstrosity in which ole' Sly just HAD to remove the mask and show his handsome dimples even though it was against the whole idea of the Judge himself. Dredd was one of my favourite movie experiences of 2012, and in 3D it was just bloody cool having head splattering gore flying at me every few minutes.
"Liberal Arts", "Ruby Sparks" and "Perks Of Being A Wallflower" were all excellent indie dramady's that also come to mind when thinking of enjoyable experiences at the movies this year. Funny, moving and acted brilliantly, all three of these flicks may have gone under the radar for some people, which is a shame considering how good they were. Comparable in the sense that they are all based around people with problems and inperfections.
There have been a number of reasons to be a paying customer of the cinema this year. There are things that annoy me, like the constant rustling of candy wrappers (eat before you go see a movie, please!), the shining annoyance of peoples cell phones every five seconds, the whispering of people who apparently enjoy wasting money and time by paying to whisper through a film other people are trying to enjoy. But there are also so many nice things, including the fact that showing support to these movies means we can keep seeing them because they'll keep getting made.
2013 has lots to be excited about as a film junkie, here's to another year of geeking our on release day!
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