When I first looked at the wikipage for "2012 List of Films", I noticed that this year had some of the most anticipated franchise names of all-time. I truly can't think of any other year where I could have been geeking out more for multiple films (The Avengers, Dark Knight Rises, Amazing Spider-man, Prometheus, etc.). But with that anticipation can come some disappointments. Some films excelled over others and some just flat-out missed the mark. But boy what a ride it has been!
Below are my TOP 5 FILMS OF 2012 SO FAR, with some brief reviews to wet your whistles. My main focus here will be the Dark Knight Rises, and I'll try to keep all the films as SPOILER-FREE as possible but if you would like to avoid any inclination of a spoiler, I suggest you avoid the following.
5. The Dark Knight Rises: While this may be some fans favorite entry into the Dark Knight franchise, this was easily my least favorite. Having seen it on opening night just a few days ago, it is still fresh in my brain and needs time to settle. But walking out of the theater did not leave me on the EPIC high of The Dark Knight nor the satisfactory fan-boy hustle I did walking out of Batman Begins. This is the darkest, largest-scaled cinematic example of what Christopher Nolan has done in all his films. He has made a film that has a vast scope, expansive range of trifled characters, and an overlying message that this time I honestly couldn't tell you what it is. Seriously, there are many political parallels running around this film, mirroring todays Occupy Wall Street movement, governmental downfalls, and very realistic terrorism ploys, but I wonder what message Nolan wants to convey, if any. Maybe he is just telling the story just to have us wonder farther than the eyes of a "Batman" film.
But anyway, we are introduced to a new villain this turn to bring in the mayhem: Bane. Tom Hardy takes on the task of not only making this character physically demanding, but having to convey all his emotions through his eyes with that crazy mask on his face. I can say he does so with flying colors. This is a manipulative, powerful villain that may not come close to the charisma and watchability of Ledger's Joker, but can still bring the goods. Around him we have new characters such as Joseph Gordon-Levitts' idealistic cop John Blake, Anne Hathaways' Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Marion Cotillards' Wayne-Enterprise worker Miranda Tate. All are welcome additions to the cast but because of the pacing of the story, these characters get jumbled around so quickly, no one gets the full attention they deserve.
This leads to my main gripe with this movie. The pacing and the length (2 hours and 45 minutes). Why in the world did Christopher Nolan need to make a film this long if it was going to be told this way? In the first 10 minutes we are shown an impressive scene of Bane on a plane, then the Gotham police, Catwoman, the reintroduction of Bruce Wayne. All of these scenes have a very thin through line and are more or less jumbled for us to just check-in on the characters. But it takes a very good amount of time until our beaten down hero finally gets the chance to "rise" (the first time) and become Batman. In essence, I feel as though we hardly even see Batman be Batman in this movie. The film is more or less a story of a city crumbling and needing to pick itself up again, with more focus on the police versus the criminals and Batman as a "symbol" rather than an enforcer. And there are just too many characters that could have been avoided (Matthew Modine's Deputy Commisioner subplot could have EASILY been lost).
Bane comes in and out of the film and mostly speaks in monologue to large crowds of people or is enacting one of his schemes so we never really get to see him interact with the characters we love for more than 2 minutes at a time. His best scenes are when he acts opposite Bale's Batman and breaks the character down as we all knew Bane would after the "Knightfall" graphic novel. But it would have been nice to get more of an arch from this guy and have him be more of a demanding presence (which is diminished due to their being so many characters needing time here). And also his exit from the film is done in such a degrading way, which I won't mention, but it makes you almost lose all tension from his place in the movie and just disregard him entirely. This is gut-wrenching to me.
With the romances of the film never getting more than quick glances put upon them, lengthened subplots towards the middle, and an overall feeling of downtrodden mayhem throughout, the movie suffers because it is more hollow than the rest for too long. The Dark Knight was able to have three strong leading characters (Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Batman) and show them all trying to save Gotham in their own ways and succeeding and failing through their journeys. When the boat scene climax is happening, you are on the edge of your seat because you watched the Joker lead higher and higher until a point of panic. With this, Bane's schemes peak early and we are just on a flat-lined ride of pain that stretches far. And two of our favorite characters (Jim Gordon/Bruce Wayne) spend too much time side-lined in pain rather than fighting in the action.
Now at this point you are probably saying, "Why the hell is this your Number 5 film of the year so far Dan?". It is because this is not a bad film at all. It is actually a pretty good film. Christian Bale gives his best performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne to date. His heartbroken Bruce reacting to scenes with Alfred and his love-interests really shine, as well as his "rise" towards the climax of the film in a prison in the middle of "hell on Earth". Anne Hathaway does, much to my surprise, a fantastic job with Selina Kyle/Catwoman as a cat burglar/crime fighter (seriously how did she learn to kick so much ass? Where are they teaching these skills on the streets of Gotham?), with a hidden heart and a forceful claw. She can surely make a Catwoman in the Nolan-universe purr here. It is also nice to see the Batcave return, the ambitious fight-scenes with the vast array of extras fighting on the streets of Gotham are beauty for the eyes to behold, and when the Dark Knight FINALLY rises to the occasion we are all rooting for him to succeed.
Richard Roeper was first to say that the last 5 minutes of this film are the best you are going to find in any this year and I agree. Nolan ties up his trilogy with a big red bow and gives the fans what they want. I just wish there could have been more focus on characters we watched grow over the course of that trilogy and less time running around with Matthew Modine/Juno Temple/"Wall Street"-esque characters/etc. I know many people who think this is the bees knees and would give it a 10 out of 10 in the blink of an eye so if you are that 1 person in the minority who is actually contemplating seeing this film and has not done so yet, I still recommend it to you. But PLEASE watch the other two first. That is not a request, it is a demand.
Sidenote: Not a lot of funny Batman growling lines here. ("I'm not wearing hockeypads", "You'll be in a padded cell forever"). I was hoping to get some comedy with that. But instead we at least get a Bane sounding like an over-amplified Sean Connery/Yoda mesh.
Also, Hans Zimmer's score here is his best Batman score by far. This soundtrack is phenomenal. The song "A Fire Will Rise" from the trailer as well as "The Fire Rises" from the soundtrack are some of the best he's ever done. He brings back Molossus and with the themes of the trilogy creates something original as well. A remarkable feat.
DKR: 3 out of 4 stars.
4. Seeking A Friend for the End of the World: If you had told me at the beginning of the year that Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley would have the best buddy film in years, I would've thought you mad. Their friendship and chemistry is so strong here it is insane. As Dodge and Penny, these two neighbors meet and are on a road-trip to see the people they care about before a meteor hits the Earth and kills everything. With this dark storyline surrounding them, they find the dark comedy tone just perfect enough for us to find time to laugh and cry for the people involved. This is a character story of a man who is completely emotionless about his demise and finding a reason to care through another. You will find the laughs you may be looking for and still have time to see the heart the writer/director Lorene Scafaria is trying for. I highly recommend this one.
Seeking a Friend: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars.
3. Moonrise Kingdom: I am a big fan of Wes Anderson films. He gives you a fantasy world of his making where semi-selfish people flourish around theatrical settings and find depth along their journeys around wondrous sets and colors on the films pallet. With Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums as my two favorites from Anderson, this is my close third. Moonrise Kingdom introduces to new child stars (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) as Sam and Suzy who decide to run away from home together. As the ripple effect hits Sam's boy scout troop and Suzy's family, we have hilarious moments with characters played by Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Francis McDormand, and Tilda Swinton that are some of the funniest of the year. I also loved the feel of the island they live on itself. We see shots of the map of the island as well as watch Sam and Suzy venture around it and it feels like Wes Andersons world is controlled and livable within it. It is as though as an audience we are taking a vacation into this odd story of awkward young love. Anderson does not take too much time for slow-motion pop song moments as he has before, in fact there is basically no scenes like this here. The story simply flows on, which may make this film more accessible to mainstream audiences as the dryer toned comedies of Andersons may have not been in the past. This is fellow reviewer Michael Napoli's FAVORITE FILM OF 2012 so far, and I give it a huge thumbs up.
Moonrise Kingdom: 4 stars out of 4
2. Cabin in the Woods: Writer/Director Drew Goddard hit this one out of the park. If you think this is just a normal horror movie you can skip, you are sorely mistaken. I believe this to be the funniest movie of 2012 so far. It is hard to talk about without spoiling anything because the fun the marketing team had with this film was to just say "Go see it for the surprise" and that's how I want to leave it for you. While the surprise might diminish for you by the time this film hits DVD in September, the film about 5 teens going to a cabin in the woods for a weekend as a horror movie cliche-buster excels as having fun with the horror genre and almost completely turning itself on its head. You get all your favorite cliches torn apart, and lovingly so. With the humor of Joss Whedon sprinkled around thanks to his co-writing work here, Goddard gives the audience the slashings, the suspense, the thrills, and the best stoner character in years: Marty played by Fran Kranz. Go see this movie.
Cabin in the Woods: 4 stars out of 4
1. The Avengers: This movie meets all expectations and is a well balanced example of what a superhero movie can be and what a feat Marvel has achieved with building franchises over the course of 5 years and meshing our favorite superhero characters into one movie here. While I will most likely be reviewing this in more depth in the future, I will say that I have seen this movie 4 times (the most I have ever seen a movie in theaters) and that it holds great re-watch value. Iron Man/Captain America/The Hulk/Thor all get their due along with Black Widow/Hawkeye/Nick Fury and more. The performances are stellar, the action is shot gorgeously, the CGI is top-notch and Alan Silvestri's score when the Avengers finally assemble is still ringing in my ears. Joss Whedon and his team deserve credit for delivering one of the best superhero movies of all time and also balancing comedy, drama, and action in a monumental achievement that I still cannot believe was pulled off. I hope the academies and critics will remember this film towards the end of the year come nomination time because this film while enjoyable, I believe is still something worth noting. It is simply not just a dumb popcorn movie but a sight to be seen.
Sidenote: Can we all agree that this is the greatest interpretation of The Hulk of all-time? I never thought I would have enjoyed Mark Ruffalo's performance as the lovable and dorky scientist Bruce Banner and the comedy and rampage the Hulk produces in his scenes.
The Avengers: 4 out of 4 stars.
Thank you for reading and you can come and check out more reviews here at Bayley and Napoli At the Movie Theater. Here is a list of some of my other favorites and least favorites of 2012 and we hope to see you soon!
Other Movies to See: The Amazing Spider-man, Brave, John Carter (Now on DVD), Ted.
Movies to Skip: Prometheus, Dark Shadows.
-Bayley
