2012 Is The Year For Movies--Part 1

I realize the year is half way over already, but I have been excited for the movies that were slated to come out in 2012 since like last summer. I'll admit, some I was super excited for and they ended up being a bit disappointing (I'll talk about those too), but for the most part all of them have lived up to the hype.

I hear that 2013 is going to be awesome too, but let's just focus on this year (after all... I hear this is our last anyway, so guess Hollywood knew that and decided to do the best they could to make it a great year before the apocalypse.)

This post ended up turning out to be way longer than I thought (there's been a lot of movies, guys, give me a break), so I broke it up into two parts. This is Part 1 (movies that have already been released):

Let's start off with the fantastic movies that have already been released that, in my opinion, if you still haven't seen them, you really need to rethink your priorities.

First up is The Hunger Games:


I absolutely loved the books, and the movie does an amazing job. Even if you've never read the books, I think you would still enjoy the movie. Everything is very well done, the cast is PERFECT, and like I just absolutely loved it. The only thing that bugged me was a few of the effects/camera angles and techniques, but other than that it was amazing. I wanted to see it again but I was still in school so I wasn't able to, but as soon as it comes out on DVD, I'm buying it.

The second that should really be first, but I'm going by what came out earlier, is The Avengers:



Like, guys. I cannot express to you enough how much I loved this movie. It has everything, action, humor, hot men, mystery, a bit of love, and did I mention hot men? I feel like everyone has seen this, but I still come across people that tell me they still haven't seen it yet, and I'm completely flabbergasted and tell them they're not allowed to speak to me again until they do.

I HAVE SEEN IT FIVE TIMES (3 times in 3D, which is SUPER cool and if you can I recommend you see it, and twice in 2D). DOES THAT NOT TELL YOU ANYTHING???? (I honestly don't think I've seen a movie in the theaters that many times before, and for 4 of the 5 times it was in a period of 24 hours that I saw it, 2 in one day and 2 in another. And all of those times I paid with my own money.) I cannot stress to you enough how much your life has been lacking without seeing this movie. Ok... I'm done now. Go see it so we can be friends.

Those two are the ones that I endorse the most, the following are ones that I thoroughly enjoyed but I won't force you to go see them in order to be my friend.

While we're sticking with things that have already come out, the following are movies that might not have gotten a lot of hype, but that I was excited for and thoroughly enjoyed:

1. This Means War (TRAILER)-It has Chris Pine, Thomas Hardy, and Reese Witherspoon, I think you can probably already guess why I enjoyed it so much (hint: CHRIS PINE). But it was actually quite funny, Chelsea Handler is in it and she was hilarious. And yes, I did buy the BluRay/DVD combo pack already.
2. Moonrise Kingdom (TRAILER)-It is a VERY Wes Anderson film, but it was funny and thoroughly enjoyable. The main character (boy) was very entertaining and everyone did a great job, really. I highly recommend it.
3. Men in Black 3 (TRAILER)- I was a little hesitant about this when I first heard they were making another MIB movie (I never saw the 2nd one cause I heard it was so terrible), but then I saw the trailer and I wanted to go see it. I liked it a lot. I will say though that like everything I've seen after The Avengers has been hard to be enthusiastic about because it's not The Avengers, but I liked MIB 3. And really, you should just see it for Josh Brolin's SPOT ON impression of Tommy Lee Jones. He did an amazing job, y'all. Also, any Flight of the Conchords fans will recognize the villain, cause it's Jermaine!
4. The Five-Year Engagement (TRAILER)-Like this was funny and uber cute, and just Jason Segal and Emily Blunt are just perfect together. It was a very good movie with a very touching storyline.
5. 21 Jump Street (TRAILER)-Now I only just recently saw this one, and I had waited cause it looked a bit dumb to me, but both of my brothers and several friends told me it was hilarious so I saw it when it got to the dollar theater. Yes it was kind of ridiculous, but I was laughing at everything. And of course Johnny Depp has a cameo that I knew was coming but how he came out I totally was not expecting. Also, I think I might like Dave Franco better than his brother James.

The following movies I meant to go see or are meaning to see but I haven't yet, but I will:

1. The Secret World of Arrietty (TRAILER)- My brother says it's awesome, so I'm waiting for him to buy the DVD of it so I can borrow it from him. :)
2. The Lorax (TRAILER)- I've just always loved Dr. Seuss and this story, so I'll end up seeing it eventually some how.
3. The Cabin in the Woods (TRAILER)-Umm it's a Joss Whedon film, may I remind you that he wrote and directed The Avengers? Yeah. Also Chris Hemsworth is in it. I may just wait till my horror fan co-worker buys it and borrow it from him. :)
4. Bernie (TRAILER)-You guys know how much I love me some Jack Black. I first heard about this movie because a couple of the actors that are in it acted in one of my classmate's final project for my acting class. Then a friend of mine went and saw it and told me she loved it and thought it was hilarious. So I'm going to try to go see it while it's still in theaters. Anyone want to join me?
5. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (TRAILER)-It has some of my favorite British people (Dame Judi Dench AND Maggie Smith y'all!) in it and for me that's reason enough to go see it.

And now on to the disappointing stuff. The following movies I was so excited for but they turned out to not be worth all the hype:

1. The Woman in Black (TRAILER)-Now I wouldn't say I didn't like this movie, but I was expecting it to be a lot more scarier than it was. It was great to see Daniel Radcliffe in something that wasn't Harry Potter, but other than that it was more suspenseful than scary (if that makes sense). It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really what I was hoping for.
2. Dark Shadows (TRAILER)-I had high hopes for this one after seeing the trailer. I mean it looked hilarious. Yeah... all those funny parts in the trailer? Only funny parts in the movie and even those gags were overdone and reused which made them no longer funny. I mean I think the actors did a good job, but the plot wasn't very clear and ran long in some parts, and the twist was kind of dumb and a little too late in my opinion. Perhaps Johnny Depp and Tim Burton should take a break from each other for a while?

The following I was pretty excited about, but after hearing reviews and opinions from friends and family, I think I'll pass on them:

1. Mirror Mirror (TRAILER)-I was mildly intrigued by it, but I heard it was kind of odd. I might end up seeing it eventually, but we'll see.
2. The Pirates! Band of Misfits (TRAILER)-I was super excited to see this, but my friend told me she was kind of disappointed with it. I think I am going to see this eventually (I'm a sucker for any movie that has David Tennant, and he's one of the voices), but I'll wait till it gets to RedBox.
3. The Raven (TRAILER)-I like John Cusack. I like Edgar Allen Poe. I like mystery. So of course I was excited about this. But I heard kind of bad reviews on it, so I never did end up seeing it. This one I'll probably wait for it to be on cable and I'll watch it at my parents' house.
4. Snow White and The Huntsman (TRAILER)-I was on the fence on this one. Part of me was really excited because hello Chris Hemsworth! Charlize Theron! but hesitant because umm Kristen Stewart. My family went and saw this and they all told me that the effects were cool and Charlize and Chris do a great job and Kristen was tolerable but that the plot was bad. I might try to see this too if anything just to see Chris Hemsworth and the effects, but let's just say I'm not going to try that hard.
5. Prometheus (TRAILER)-I am actually going to be seeing this on Wednesday, but I have a groupon and it expires soon and this is the only thing playing that I haven't already seen and was kind of intrigued to see. I'll be honest I'm really only going to see Michael Fassbender, but I've heard pretty bad reviews of it and a coworker told me he thought it sucked. (Which is sad cause this was one I was excited about too.) So... I'll let you know how it goes.

Part 2 will have all the movies that I'm excited for that have yet to come out!