Summer 2012 in Review

Labor Day marks the end of summer for the movie industry, and this summer has been full of absolutely great movies. With this, I'm going to share with the some of the highlights.

The summer got started off with a bang on the first weekend of May with Marvel's The Avengers. The comic book giant was faced with a claimed impossible mission: bring together the world's most popular superheroes, put them in one movie, and make that one movie epic. Mission: accomplished. Director Joss Whedon made this movie work in the grand scheme of things, but credit has to be given to the cast, led by Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johannson, and Samuel L. Jackson. They all bought into the idea, and it shows by becoming the third highest grossing film in history.

To say the least, the standard that The Avengers set was so high that it would be near impossible to reach it. In the following two weeks of May, we're given two good, not great, movies,: Dark Shadows and Battleship. Both were successful in different aspects. Dark Shadows worked because of star Johnny Depp. No other reason. Without Depp, it probably would have been unbearable to watch, but as always, Depp comes to the rescue and in the process makes a pretty good movie. Battleship didn't have the luxury of great acting (outside of Liam Neeson), but instead, it relied heavily on special effects. The special effects were great and single-handely made this movie enjoyable.

The last week in May gave us Men in Black III. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return to their iconic roles, but the true star of this movie is Josh Brolin, who plays a younger Jones and absolutely nails it. Like the first two, the premise gets out of hand at times, but unlike the others, you feel something at the end thanks to one of the best endings I seen in recent memory. We can only hope we haven't seen the last of the MIB.

June came and was shockingly pretty successful. Week one brought us Snow White and the Huntsman, starring Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, and Charlize Theron. At first glance, I was skeptical. But to my pleasant surprise, it delievered. Hemsworth shines with Stewart and Theron holding their own in one of the best of the summer.

The second week brought us two totally different films: Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and Prometheus. Madagascar 3 was by far the best installment of the popular franchise. Like MIB 3, this one connected emotionally, and any time an animated movie can do that, they deserve some praise. Prometheus was director Ridley Scott's much welcomed return to the science fiction world, and he tackles a prequel to the film that gave him his start, Alien. While it didn't answer all the questions we had (in fact, it probably raised more questions), the sheer scope of it all was fantastic and the story was compelling and exciting, turning this sci-fi film into one the best of the year, not just the summer.

The next weekend brought us Rock of Ages, starring Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, and Russell Brand. It was pretty nice to take a stroll down memory lane to the land of the 80's. With countless catchy songs and a surprisingly good story, Rock of Ages was a very good movie.

Pixar's Brave was next. Pixar had to respond with authority after last year's critical disappointment, Cars 2, and they rose to the occasion, giving us a movie that deserves to mentioned in the same breath as Wall-E, The Incredibles, and A Bug's Life. I'm not ready to put it in the same breath as a Finding Nemo or a Toy Story, but it is worthy of being called a Pixar classic.

The final week of June brings us two films: Madea's Witness Protection and People Like Us. Tyler Perry's return to his cross-dressing Madea was just as hilarious as his previous installments and only left me wanting more Madea. People Like Us, starring Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks, was a widely over-looked film, but why? The story is top-notch and the cast was at the top of their game. The ending was absolutely great and if you haven't seen it, check it out.

July had some pretty loftly standards to live up to after a pretty impressive May and June. Fourth of July week brought us The Amazing Spider-Man. The pressure was on to justify rebooting this series with a new cast, new director, and retelling of a story we already know, but Marvel once again rised to the occasion with a fantastic film. Andrew Garfield more than fills the shoes of Tobey Maguire as the Peter Parker, and his supporting cast, led by Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field, showed up as well. One can only hope that there's more coming from the webslinger.

Then came Ice Age: Continental Drift. The fourth installment of the widely popular franchise brings the typical comedy and silliness that we're used to. Nothing new in this one, but still solid entertaiment.

Then, one of the most anticipated weekends in movie history came with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. Christopher Nolan had the weight of the world on his shoulders to follow-up his insanely incredible The Dark Knight, and he more than delievers. The cast, led by Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, and Anne Hathaway, give us not only a great superhero movie, but just a great movie overall. It currently sits atop my best of all-time list. Enough said.

Which movie would be brave enough to follow that colossal hit? Step Up: Revolution. With a cast that I've never heard of and a franchise I've never taken interest in, I really don't know what compelled me to see this, but leaving it, I was moderately happy that I did. It reminded me a lot of the classic, Dirty Dancing. That's a pretty solid comparison.

When I looked at August, I approached the movie schedule with great excitement but also with hesitation. All the films had potential, but they also all had question marks. Week one gave us Total Recall. I'm still not sure why they chose to remake the Arnold Schwarzeneggar classic, but they did, and gave us a solid movie. I'm still not sure Colin Farrell can become a dynamite leading actor (he's much better in a supporting role), but he comes to play in this movie, and it shows.

The next week brought us three totally different movies. The first of which was The Campaign starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis. This absolutely hilarious take on the political campaign trail was a fantastic idea, and they couldn't have got a better duo to star.

Hope Springs was next, starring veterans Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. While having a very adult themed premise, the reason I saw it was for Jones, as he once again shines in everything he does. Streep, as always, delievers, and brings us a fairly good movie.

The highlight of the weekend was The Bourne Legacy. A Jason Bourne themed movie without Matt Damon? I know it's weird, but Jeremy Renner is more than capable of taking over the franchise. I was skeptical going, but I left there feeling that the franchise still has some in the tank.

It's tough to follow that strong of a weekend, but lo and beyond, the next weekend did with another trio of greats. The first was The Expendables 2. I was a huge fan of the first actioneer, and my hopes were high going in, and then, you give Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Bruce Willis more screen time, and add on Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van-Damme, and Liam Hemsworth to a cast that already included Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, and Terry Crews. Let's face it. You couldn't go wrong.

The next was the stop-motion hit, ParaNorman. I told myself that I would only see this movie if the reviews were beyond good. They were, so I checked it out, and it was surprisingly pretty good. With an ending that is heart-warming, ParaNorman was a surprise hit.

The final film was The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Disney can't go wrong in my book, and given this source material, I knew that this was a homerun waiting to happen, and it was. Sweet and filled with endearing performances, Timothy Green gave us our second surprise hit of the weekend.

The next week brought us Premium Rush, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Shannon. With non-stop action and a strong story, this one gave us a worthy late summer addition to the list.

The final weekend of the year brought us Lawless. If you want to know how I feel about this one, check out my first blog- "Tom Hardy is For Real."

Summer was, as you can see, incredible. The remainder of the movies left this year have an awful lot to live up to. So we bid summer 2012 goodbye, and say hello to the wonder of Oscar season!