2012, a poor year for mainstream films?

Was it just me, or was 2012 a poor year for film? Here are just some of the films that disappointed me over the last 12 months and some of the promising films of 2013:

The Hunger Games. Awful disappointment. Perhaps if I had been 12, I might of enjoyed this more. poor acting, dubious morality and just mostly dull.

The Avengers Assemble. I went purely out of loyalty to Joss Whedon, and will continue to admire him despite this over hyped study in 'event' cinema.

Prometheus. Even great actors and fantastic special effects could not stop the words 'plot holes' and 'turkey' flashing up in my mind throughout the screening.

Brave. It didn't make me laugh or cry, I thought it was just going through the motions. And does everything have to end with violence solving all the world's problems? In fairness, my wife and kids loved it. Maybe it had more of an appeal to the kinder sex.

Looper. Horrible, horrible, horrible. One or two good ideas do not make a whole movie. If it was so damn hard to kill people in the future, why did they shoot his future wife. One of far too many 'looper' holes.

Skyfall. I know what you are thinking - surely everybody liked this movie? I enjoyed it, and thought it was probably the best James Bond movie in a 'feel good about being British in 2012' sort of way. But I just wanted things to add up a bit more, and (spoiler alert) they shouldn't have killed her off! Sam Mendes? Just don't give the next 'Bond' to Ang Lee. Which brings us on to:

Life of Pi. Beautiful and pretentious waffle. Again, some impressive/stunning scenes and some worthy/good intentions does not make it 'the cinematic experience of the age'.


In fairness to 2012, I failed to see Argo, Dredd, The Dark Knight Rises or The Hobbit, so it might be that these films may have evened things out a bit. But having listened to my friends comments, I'm not so sure that spending money on these movies would have changed my mind about 2012 (with the exception perhaps of Argo). I much preferred to spend money in Fopp or HMV stores (they actually pay taxes unlike Amazon...) on the documentary films coming out of 'Dogwoof Ltd'.

Lets hope 2013 is an improvement: 'Cloud Atlas' and 'The Impossible' do look promising, though perhaps too ambitious. The films I'm most expectant about are 'Sons of the Clouds', a film about the forgotten war in Sahara, 'Oblivion' with a sci-fi tale that looks stunning; and of course Star Trek, Into Darkness, starring our very own Sherlock Holmes. Though perhaps instead, more of us should simply stop watching so many films and get more involved with the revolutionary struggle for a fairer and greener world? No? What a shame.