Movies to Look For

Now on to my most anticipated movies of 2012! I don’t think I’ve ever had more movies that I’m anticipating than I do for this year.

First, the ones that didn’t make my top ten:

• All those fairy tale knock-offs (Jack the Giant Killer, Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman). I’m not too keen on any of them yet, but they always intrigue me. I will probably regret having these on here if they’re anything like Beauty or whatever that teen knockoff of Beauty and the Beast was called, but for the meantime I’m optimistic. I mean Julia Roberts is in Mirror, Mirror, so it can’t be TOO bad.  
• Lincoln (starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt and about Abe Lincoln. What’s not to love?)
• The Bourne Legacy and the latest Bond, Skyfall. I'll see them both, but I'm not getting overly excited about them. I stayed in line for four hours to see Quantum of Solace on opening night and was thoroughly disappointed.
• The Lorax (I love the concept and I support it, but the trailer really doesn’t look too promising. I have every intention of seeing it, but I’m too nervous to be excited.)

Now, on to the real stuff.

10. Brave – Pixar has been promo-ing this one for a really long time (I’m pretty sure I saw an ad for it well over a year ago). If it’s anything like anything else that Pixar has made, I’m 98% sure I will love it.

9. The Amazing Spiderman – Meh, I’m not a die-hard but I’m still a sucker for a good super hero movie, therefore I am the perfect demographic for a revamped Spiderman. Plus—and this is a massive, giant, overwhelming plus—Emma Stone is going to be the new Mary Jane. Eh? AmIright?

8. Les Miserables – I’ll be honest, I’m excited about this one purely because of outside influences; I have not actually read Les Mis. BUT, in my defense, I am a hardcore musical supporter and an advocate of literary classics. Also, this gives me a good excuse to buckle down and finally plow through it. Fingers crossed that I finish before the movie comes out. Negatives: It’s featuring Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway, and Sacha Baron Cohen. I really am not a fan AT ALL of any of them. Positives: It’s also featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Helena Bonham Carter. I am a HUGE fan of all of them. Should be interesting.

7. Perks of Being a Wallflower – Another book to film adaptation. I really enjoyed the book so I’m curious to see how the movie turns out. It could turn out to be really teeny-bopper, but I’m still pumped. That and—and this is a really big ‘and’—Emma Watson is Sam. Eh? AmIright? (I’m the classiest, I know.)

6. The Great Gatsby – Bam, based on a literary classic that I’ve read and loved, 200 points. Bam, it’s directed by Baz Luhrmann, the same guy who did Moulin Rouge and Romeo and Juliet AND Australia, 400 points. Bam, it’s starring Leonard DiCaprio, the same guy who did EVERY GOOD MOVIE EVER, 800 points. I can almost absolutely guarantee this will be up for nominations in 2012.

5. The Hunger Games – Read ‘em. Loved ‘em. Lookin’ forward to the movies. It’s Truman Show meets Gladiator meets Survivor meets Twilight. Don’t worry though, by Twilight I just mean the love triangle and the teen demographic. That being said, it will attract the same crowd as Twilight which will inevitably lead to the rest of the world hating on it. But I believe that Jennifer Lawrence will get us through the screaming tweens. (I mean, she just came off of Winter’s Bone; she obviously has a lot of talent).

4. The Avengers – I’m pretty sure that in the history of movies, no movie has been lead up to this much (not counting movies in a series). The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America have all referenced it, building up to one great superhero love fest. Plus, let me throw down some names. Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Cobie Smulders (from HIMYM), Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans and they’re even bringing back Lou Ferrigno as the voice of the Hulk. This much anticipation could make it really suck (that and they’re using Loki, the bad guy from Thor, as the ultimate bad guy whom personally, I thought was the weakest bad guy of them all), but regardless, I still giggle like a school through the trailer. I’M SO EXCITED!

3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – I really don’t need to talk about this one. You know what it is and you’re excited too. Let’s all just cross our fingers for Peter Jackson and hope he can pull a fourth masterpiece out of that brilliant directorial mind of his. No one in the world wants this movie to do poorly.

2. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - This really isn’t my number 2 choice. It’s my number 100^th. Because I’m not excited about it at all. I’m not excited that it’s based off my favourite novel of all time. I’m not excited that it’s featuring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, two Hollywood powerhouses. I’m not excited that they pulled out a nobody for the main character instead of trying to force it on that August Rush kid or something. I'm not excited its nominated for Best Picture. I’m definitely not excited that it’s directed by Stephen Daldry, a guy who has been nominated for an Oscar for every movie he’s directed. And I’m DEFINITELY not excited that the screenplay was influenced by Jonathan Safran Foer himself, and written by Eric Roth, who also did Benjamin Button, Forrest Gump, and Munich. Nope, I’m not excited because if I get excited, I will expect something from it, and there’s no way it will be able to meet my absurdly high expectations. So, for the sake of saving this movie in my mind, I think it’s going to completely and utterly suck.

1. The Dark Knight Rises – Yeah, you all saw it coming. This is one that I am absolutely letting my imagination get carried away on. The Dark Knight had me grasping for words (I invented “epicocity” immediately after watching it—as in, ‘the level of epicocity in that movie was off the charts’) and Christopher Nolan has proved to me that I can trust him. I don’t care what anyone says, this movie will be epic (and I mean that in the non-overused sense of the term). Nolan will not crack under pressure. Anne Hathaway will not drop the ball. Christian Bale will improve his stupid Batman accent. And the RIDICULOUSly stacked cast (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Marion Cotlillard, Michael Cain) will pull a Love Actually not a Valentine’s Day, if you know what I mean. It will be the Return of the King of the Batman Trilogy.

So there you have it. Let’s hope 2012 is everything I’m expecting it to be :)