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Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies 2012
This year is a big one for Super hero fans, especially if you’re a Marvel faithful, with The Avengers finally coming to us from the mind of Joss Whedon. Let’s not also forget The Amazing Spiderman reboot and the finale to the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. I’m not going to put all of these in my list though, mainly because I want to give other movies a chance. So keep in mind that, while I’m looking forward to all of these movies due to my geekiness, I didn’t want this to be a list full of Superheroes.
You will also find a lot of animated movies in this list because they’re the ones that genuinely look the most entertaining and they aren’t sequels to established franchises, so they get extra points for that.
With that said, let’s begin!
10. Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance
Yes, I know what I just said about superhero movies, but Ghost Rider isn’t exactly the most heroic of supers. The first Ghost Rider was fucking terrible, but this one is being made by the dudes who made the two Crank movies, so it looks suitably crazy and dumb, just the way Ghost Rider is supposed to be. Early word from screenings has been a little bad, but I could care less. If this movie delivers utter stupidity without remorse, I’ll be happy.
9. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
IMDB summarises the plot of this film as follows – “President Lincoln’s mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers”. How could you not be interested in this movie just from that synopsis alone?! How about the fact that it’s being directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the dude who bought us Wanted? It also stars the always awesome Alan Tudyk as Lincoln’s nemesis, Stephen A. Douglas, and the always smoking hot Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Mrs. Lincoln. Also, LINCOLN FIGHTS VAMPIRES!!
8. Frankenweenie
Tim Burton returns to his roots after years of making movies that weren’t very good — with the exception of Sweeney Todd — with a remake of a short film that he made at the beginning of his career. The original short was a live-action tale about a child’s loss of his pet dog, where he revived the dog Frankenstein style. This full length feature is a stop-motion animated film that will probably have the same story stretched out to an hour and a half and I’m looking forward to seeing how Burton translates the story to the big screen. Also, it’s a black and white animated film that’s not in 3D, with an animation style that immediately looks like Tim Burton’s sketches, you can’t get more perfect than that.
7. James Bond 007: Skyfall
Before Casino Royale (The first Daniel Craig Bond film, not the shitty 1967 spoof movie starring David Niven) I wasn’t a huge Bond fan. I didn’t like the campy nature of the earlier films, and Pierce Brosnan’s movies were all fairly terrible after Goldeneye, but Daniel Craig’s Bond was exactly how Bond should have been from the beginning. He’s dark and brooding, but he still has a sense of humour and kicks ass like no other Bond before him. Skyfall has been in the works for a while, but it’s coming to us from director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road To Perdition) and brings Javier Bardem on board to fight Bond and the hottest Bond Girl since Eva Green –Berenice Marlohe — to (most likely) bed him. Shaken or stirred, I’ll take it either way.
6. Brave
Cars 2 was fucking terrible, it was an unnecessary sequel that put an end to Pixar’s award-winning run of top quality animated films. The teaser trailer for Brave was fantastic, it showed an art style unlike any other Pixar film and the overall feel was darker than the rest of their titles, I was excited to see it. Then came the first full trailer and my expectations were tempered. Where did the darkness go? Why does this look like a crappy Dreamworks movie with fart jokes and prat falls? UGH! I feel the threat of modern Disney looming over Pixar’s quality. I really hope that the trailer is just terrible and the film ends up blowing us all away, but right now I’m anticipating this movie for its possibilities rather than it’s marketing.
5. Django Unchained
I love me some Tarantino, unless we’re talking about Death Proof, cause that was bad, but everything else he’s made up until now is quality entertainment. I’m a little bit put off by Django Unchained however, mainly because it stars Jamie Foxx as a slave turned Bounty Hunter. He does a great Ray Charles impression, but apart from that I really don’t like the guy’s acting. Tarantino believes in him though, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now. The rest of the cast is top-notch, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Christoph Waltz and Kurt Russell all starring, as well as the ‘Bad Motherfucker’ himself, Samuel L. Jackson. Now that I think about it, I could care less that Jamie Foxx is in this movie, I’ll be there for everyone else!
4. Paranorman
From the studio that bought us the underrated and delightfully-dark-for-a-kids-movie, Coraline, comes the story of a kid named Norman who can speak to dead people. Oh yes, it looks just as creepy as Coraline and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Stop-Motion animation is a dying breed due to CGI and the immense amount of hours needed to make these types of films, but there’s something about the hand crafted nature that really gives stop-motion a unique feel that CGI will never match. I love stop-motion animation and it’s great that teams like Laika exist to carry on the art form, and the fact that they don’t speak down to their audience makes them even greater. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they have in store with this film. If it’s anywhere near as good as Coraline I will be extremely pleased.
3. Prometheus
I imagine this film will be on many ‘most anticipated’ lists this year. It’s a semi-prequel to Alien that takes place in the same universe as that series but may or may not reference it. Only Ridley Scott and the rest of the people making the film know just how related it is to that other series, but the creepy trailer has definitely piqued my interest and you should go watch it right now if you haven’t already. I don’t know what it’s about, but I know it looks damn good. Colour me thrilled.
2. Cabin In The Woods
The one and only God, the almighty Joss Whedon, wrote the screenplay for this film many eons ago with his friend Drew Goddard. While Mr. Goddard is not quite as all-powerful as Whedon, he did work on those Buffy and Angel shows for a while and also wrote that movie about the giant monster that attacks New York… not Godzilla, the other one… Clover-something. All joking aside, I am a bit of a Whedon fan and when I heard that he was behind a semi-horror movie with a sci-fi twist I may have pee’d my pants a little. The film was shot and shelved a few years ago during MGM’s “we have no money” period, but the script has been floating around the net since then and apparently shit gets crazy. I’ve resisted the urge to read it, and hopefully my resistance will have payed off.
1. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Speaking of giving things immediately, my precious has returned. For too many years this film — which is now two films — was hinted at and teased by Jackson and co, and for too long I’ve been holding my semen inside my testicles just waiting for the day to release it all over this movie. For a while Guillermo Del Toro was attached to direct, but once that deal fell though (imagine how awesome it would have been!) Peter Jackson hopped back into the directors chair to deliver the goods. The trailer was epic and I can’t wait to fuck the shit out of this movie come December. Hell, I’ll let it fuck me if it wants to, just GIMME NAOW!
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