We'll plenty of critics have done this already and with my review for Django Unchained finished, it's about time that I make my own top 10 favorite list. Now naturally before I do this, I want to point out two things: 1) This isn't about who goes the highest rating from me, this is about what films I enjoyed the most personally and 2) I have not seen every single good movie that came out this year.
And...just to point it out just now...Skyfall and Looper are among the films I haven't seen...
*sobbing* I'm sorry. I just didn't have the time or money for them when they came out *sobbing harder*
*normal voice* well in any case, We have a good amount of movies that were either great or just plain good this year and I'm going to top off the ones that I personally enjoyed the most. So this is My Top 10 Favorite Films of 2012.
#10: Wreck-it Ralph
Now considering this was basically a video game version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and that Disney seemed to be on a roll with giving us nice/good films again ever since Meet the Robinsons in my opinion, I wanted this movie to be pretty enjoyable. And that's pretty much what I got. While the structure wasn't new, Wreck-It Ralph had great animation, a fun soundtrack (that "When Can I See You Again" song really gets stuck in your head), cute comedy, and it had really fun characters which I particularly didn't expect to get when it came to Vanellope. Altogether it was a fun film and I really hope that it wins best animated feature because...it's way past time that Disney finally gets an oscar for that on their own without Pixar.
#9 Argo
You know it's a good movie if the only word you can you to begin to describe it is 'Wow'. Argo was a brilliantly done movie with some cute comedy but otherwise really powerful drama that really gets you on the edge of your seat with a story that anybody who lived around that time like my mom would love to watch to finally learn more about what happened in Terhan, and is just a plain great historical story to hear even if you didn't.
#8 Les Miserables
Okay I still meant it when I talked about all the things that I didn't like about this movie, like how it seemed to be more about star power and just making a good movie when they should've gone for great. But ultimately, despite whatever faults this movie had, they still brought my favorite Broadway musical to life with it's classical songs, powerful scenes that left me trying to fight tears, and then there's of coarse Anne Hathaway's performance as Fantine in "I Dreamed a Dream" where I wouldn't mind her somehow winning best supporting actress for that somehow even though she probably wont. Was it everything I wanted and more? Absolutely not. Was it enough? Sure. Would I buy it on Blue-Ray? Time will tell.
#7 Life of Pi
I expected this film to be a little bit like Avatar in terms of it mostly being visuals in front of your face just based on what little I saw from one trailer and one poster that I kept seeing, but thankfully that wasn't the case. While Life of Pi did have moments where a scene or two seemed to be a little more about the huge visuals, the rest of the film is telling a great story about Pi and the tiger Richard Parker who had a very unexpected but really clever and well thought of relationship. It has a good story, excellent acting, and leaves a me a little curious about the book since the book has a lot more stuff about God which according my parents, is where it could be a really good book for me to read. We'll see how that goes.
#6 The Amazing Spider-Man
I'm counting on a lot of people being confused and pissed off for placing this over Argo and Life of Pi, but ultimately I liked The Amazing Spider-Man a little better. Maybe it's the comic book fan getting the better of me since ol' Spidey's my favorite super hero. All the same though, despite whatever wrongs this movie has, it's a big improvement from that wretched, and evil Spider-Man 3. This gave us a darker and more realistic take of Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield giving more of the wise-cracks and also the web-shooters that make him a little more loyal to the comics then Maguire. Then of coarse you have Emma Stone as Gwen who was wonderful. Holy crap I wanted to see her more as Gwen with her romance with Peter and unlike MJ in the original trilogy, she was more helpful to Spidey and was more willing to defend herself. There's plenty of things that we expect to be improved in the next movie like more of Aunt May and with the mystery of Peter's parents, and then there's better design then what they chose for The Lizard...
*double facepalms and makes a big sigh* Somebody please get a moron to strangle...
But ultimately it was a good start to give ol' Spidey another try that I as a Spidey fan find it enough to be among my top 10.
#5 The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey
While it was hardly as spectacular as the Lord of the Rings trilogy was, The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey was still an enjoyable movie. While giving us a big portion of the actual story, it also expanded on the brilliant world of Middle-Earth with new locations, new kinds of orcs, wargs and trolls, and telling us more about the history and events from around that time. Not all of it seems to fit into the rest of the movie, but hey, that's were we're hoping the next two films are partly for.
#4 Django Unchained
While the first half wasn't groundbreaking at first, it made up for that with the second half which was awesome. Even with the first half, Django Unchained gave us enjoyable characters that were brilliantly acted, awesome action, a well told story, a fun soundtrack, all that and one big cast that entertains you in the way were all you can say as you are having fun watching this movie is "Only Tarantino."
#3 The Dark Knight Rises
Yeah, the comic book fan in me is getting the better of me here too, but who can blame me? The story is very deep and complex just the way it was suppose to be, Christian Bale was actually better in terms of tone and expression whenever he was Bruce Wayne, it's debatable that Anne Hathaway became the best Catwoman to date (seriously, 2012 seems to have become her crowning year), and despite whatever issues you might have with him, Bane was an enjoyable villain. And I also loved how they gave us wider shots during the action which helped make it so much more enjoyable in terms of cinematography compared to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. It was a great film, great way to finish the trilogy, and now we wait and see what may be in store with Blake in the picture.
#2 Lincoln
Yeah. You know it's a good movie just from hearing that voice at the beginning and then find out that's actually Daniel Day-Lewis as President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln gave out remarkable performances with Daniel Day-Lewis as President Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Republican Congress leader Stevens. And all around gave us a story about the passing of the 13th Amendment and Lincoln's attempts to end the civil war that was really interesting and well told to the point where I'd like to find a documentary from the history channel or something about this event and all the people in it to know how much is true and how much is just Hollywood being Hollywood. In either case it was a great movie to the point where it's definitely my personal favorite film that's also Oscar bait.
And my #1 favorite film of 2012 is, The Avengers.
Yes, in this list it's The Avengers that triumphs this year. This film would use some of the most over done cliches and then pull a really original joke to make some of the most over done moments in this film become totally hilarious and memorable. Even without that said, it did have good drama, a good twist halfway through, excellent acting, the last 45 ish minutes or so go without saying, and all around was a great way to bring The Avengers and start to also bring the whole world of Marvel on a grand scale to life. True some films had things better then Avengers did. Les Mis had the more powerful moments, The Dark Knight Rises had a more complex story, and Lincoln is more the oscar bait that will win best picture hopefully. But when all is said and done, it was The Avengers that entertained me the most with more reason to laugh, be sad, excited, have less issues with the film, and altogether be entertained in a way that made me happy when I came out of the theater after seeing it for the very first time. And to me, that's a true reason to make something my #1 film for any year.
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