Best & Worst Film & TV: 2012

[Drtooth]

But enough of that.

I wanna give my big Nelson Muntz "HA HA" of the year to Park Avenue 666. That show was set up to fail. And an additional "HA HA" to Partners. Seriously, Will and Grace was the only hit those untalented hacks ever had. I still don't see why that was such a hit. The writing was dreadfully unfunny. Still is. But every other sitcom those guys have tried crashed and burned. All because they were dreadfully unfunny and loud.

Yet I'm deeply disappointed in ABC tossing Happy Endings and Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 on the Sunday Night death slot.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Sadly the biggest disappointment for me was The Hobbit. Almost no character development and what little there was wasn't even from the book half the time. CGI battle scenes that were also barely from the book. I loved Jackson's Lord of the Rings but I guess he gave into the pressure to produce a CGI battle fest rather than actual story. It's a shame.

 

[Drtooth]

Sadly the biggest disappointment for me was The Hobbit. Almost no character development and what little there was wasn't even from the book half the time. CGI battle scenes that were also barely from the book. I loved Jackson's Lord of the Rings but I guess he gave into the pressure to produce a CGI battle fest rather than actual story. It's a shame.

The problem is that it's part of three movies. And that's the rock and a hard place book movies get caught between. Either they get flack for not including key things and being a condensed version of the story, or they get flack from including everything and moving at a snail's pace.

I've never read the book and I didn't see the movie, but something tells me when all is said and done, all three connected movies will have one good movie among them, and 2 movies worth of time consuming stuff. Maybe they should have condensed it into one or two films, like the animated version. But a trilogy off of one book is going to be lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong and full of filler. And that seems to be the consistent complaint.

 

[CensoredAlso]

The problem is that it's part of three movies.

I agree, he's having to create filler to make three movies which is insane.

Either they get flack for not including key things and being a condensed version of the story, or they get flack from including everything and moving at a snail's pace.

Directors used to know how to create a middle ground. An art which seems to have been lost in recent years, lol.

I'll go see the other two films if a friend wants to but I wasn't at all compelled to continue with the story. Sometimes you can't go home again.

 

[Drtooth]

Directors used to know how to create a middle ground. An art which seems to have been lost in recent years, lol.

Actually, the rare sight is a movie that's book accurate. Wizard of Oz, while a wonderful movie in its own right, but changed quite a bit. Then of course there's the case of Watchmen where every comic book fanboy decried the changes to the movie, even though the changes were quite minor and necessary to make the story fit in a movie time frame, yet is quite accurate for the most part. And need I mention the dreaded Walt Disney influence on Alice in Wonderland that caused a lot of confusion and various versions and parodies to be based off that version?

It sounds to me that The Hobbit wants to be every bit the sweeping epic Lord of the Rings was, but each of those movies was based on a single book (more or less). Only it's a single book being stretched out to 3 movies. A lot of what was cut in the LOTR movies that was present in the books made the movie better without it. And I've seen The Hobbit condensed into a 13 minute form:

I have yet to see it, but I can tell that if they made a single movie based on a single book, the flow would have been better.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Actually, the rare sight is a movie that's book accurate. Wizard of Oz, while a wonderful movie in its own right, but changed quite a bit.

Let me clarify. I don't mind if a movie changes a few things as long as it's a good story. But this version of The Hobbit had no story to speak of, lol.

It's a pure product of greed. Make three movies instead of two and the studio and director get more money! Well again, unless a friend insists on it, they're not getting any of my money, lol.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Best
Live-action film - Argo. I'm sure once I see more of 2012's big contenders for Best Picture I'll change my mind but Argo is one of those rare movies that has it all and so much more. And I want to see a spin-off movie just about John Goodman and Alan Arkin.

Animated film - Frankenweenie. After Tim Burton has been putting out clunkers like Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows (which I didn't even bother seeing), he returned to form with this one. While it's not as heavy on plot as it could be, it had enough humor, character and likable moments to be the strongest animated film of the year.

TV show - I dunno, I don't watch much TV. I became a Brony this year so My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I guess.

Surprise - The Hunger Games. I foolishly thought it was just another Twilight clone when I first saw the trailers and that the movie would be a total train wreck. But I was completely wrong and got an impressive, gripping drama instead. I'll definitely go see the other films in this series.

Movie theme - Haven't listened to too many film scores this year, but Danny Elfman's work for Frankenweenie was terrific. Walter Murphy's score for Ted was also very good and more my style.

Guilty pleasure - The Watch, yeah... I kinda like it for at least having an original premise. Shut up.

Worst
Live-action film - Beasts of the Southern Wild. A pretentious art house mess that's more interested in being artsy and different than developing characters. I don't care about a little girl in the bayou who does stupid stuff that gets her dad angry for an hour and a half.

Animated film - The Lorax. Just five words describe this film entirely: "How bad-ad-ad-ad can I be?" Despite some good animation and a good performance by Danny DeVito, it tried way too hard to be like Despicable Me and was rather mean-spirited. You could argue Horton Hears a Who had the same problem going for it, but that film was nowhere near as cold as The Lorax. And the hypocritical marketing campaign, well, everyone has already been over that...

TV show - Eh? Yeah, let's just go with Honey Boo Boo.

Surprise - The Campaign. A political satire starring two of the most popular comedians right now, how can that go wrong? Oh yeah, having a ton of immature jokes rather than smart political humor...
Honorable mention: John Carter. I was excited to see Andrew Stanton do a live-action film. Too bad he ended up making a mess instead.

Movie theme - Any song in The Lorax.

Guilty pleasure - The Watch, again. Shut up.

 

[Drtooth]

TV show - I dunno, I don't watch much TV. I became a Brony this year so My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic I guess.

Yeah... that's the only show I consider watching I call a guilty pleasure. I absolutely hate the fact I like it. Plus I have to admit I'm kinda disappointed by the Spike merchandise. And the lack of Snips and Snails stuff. Talk about Ensemble Dark Horses, right? But I am just so incredibly conflicted by the show. Yet, I have no problem saying I'm a grown man who likes Sesame Street.

But seriously. Pinkie is freaking tripping on Ex and I love it.

 

[Slackbot]

I like MLP too. I'm not a brony--don't own a single piece of merch and I don't think about the show much--but I do find the cartoon enjoyable, and I have turned a friend on to it. And, well, I just made a Fraggle puppet based on Derpy Hooves.

So, yeah, guilty pleasure here too.

 

[Ozymandias]

Really didn't watch much of anything new this year, but I have to say that by far the BEST animated show I have seen this year has to be The Legend of Korra. If it weren't for Mako (sorry Mako fans) and the fairly weak ending (although that one death of those two important characters I can't mention because of spoilers took the Animation Age Ghetto and curb-stomped it into the ground), this would have been among my top five animated works. Seriously, it was SO. GOOD. Having a complex storyline and a female lead who grew in maturity throughout the series (let's ignore the ending please), plus one of the downright BEST and most chilling villains (HELLO AMON) and antivillains (HELLO TARRLOCK) ever? Amazing. Having a terrifying and well-planned terrorist attack with similar tones to the one in The Dark Knight Rises play out on a show that airs on Nickelodean? Awesome and quite risky move. Heroic sacrifices, segregation very similar to certain WWII practices, grey morality and a mature handling of a hard love situation by a secondary female character? YES PLEASE. Multiple adult characters who have a very large impact on the story (so that the show isn't solely based around teens)? I will toast them for that.

So yeah, can you tell I think this is the best thing 2012 put out yet?