Random Movie Lists: Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

I've been meaning to blog about my most anticipated movies of the year for a couple months now, but I haven't gotten around to it.  I suppose it's a bit odd to unveil such a list when we're more than a third of the way through the year, but luckily, none of the movies on my list have been released yet.  But, that all changes tomorrow.  So, here we have it, my Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012:



10.  The Hobbit


I loved the Lord of the Rings movies as much as anyone, but, honestly, I haven't been one of those people clamoring for The Hobbit the last nine years (yeesh...has it really been nine years since Return of the King...I'm old).  And, when the trailer for this movie came out last fall, I grew even more skeptical.  Still, it's Peter Freaking Jackson adapting a Tolkien novel.  It needs a spot on this list.




9.  Django Unchained


Read this official plot synopsis and look at the pictures below and try not to get excited about this movie:

Set in the South two years before the Civil War, DJANGO UNCHAINED stars Academy Award®-winner Jamie Foxx as Django, a slave whose brutal history with his former owners lands him face-to-face with German-born bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz). 

Schultz is on the trail of the murderous Brittle brothers, and only Django can lead him to his bounty.  The unorthodox Schultz acquires Django with a promise to free him upon the capture of the Brittles - dead or alive.Success leads Schultz to free Django, though the two men choose not to go their separate ways.  Instead, Schultz seeks out the South's most wanted criminals with Django by his side.  Honing vital hunting skills, Django remains focused on one goal: finding and rescuing Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), the wife he lost to the slave trade long ago. 

Django and Schultz's search ultimately leads them to Calvin Candie (Academy Award®-nominee Leonardo DiCaprio), the proprietor of "Candyland," an infamous plantation where slaves are groomed by trainer Ace Woody (Kurt Russell) to battle each other for sport.  Exploring the compound under false pretenses, Django and Schultz arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Academy Award®-nominee Samuel L. Jackson), Candie's trusted house slave.  Their moves are marked, and a treacherous organization closes in on them.  If Django and Schultz are to escape with Broomhilda, they must choose between independence and solidarity, between sacrifice and survival… 

Written and directed by Academy Award®-winner Quentin Tarantino, DJANGO UNCHAINED is produced by Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone.  The executive producers are Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Michael Shamberg, Shannon McIntosh, and James Skotchdopole.  DJANGO UNCHAINED will be released in the U.S. on December 25, 2012, and internationally by Sony Pictures.

8.  Gravity


Again, I'll point to the official synopsis:

Sandra Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone–tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. 

The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. 

But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.

Gravity is directed by one Alfonso Cuaron, whose last film was, in my opinion, one of the best films of the last decade.  I listed it as #3 on my Top 30 of the 2000s list.  Oh, and rumor has it that the movie opens with a 17-minute continuous take -- a single tracking shot.  My mind is pre-blown.

7.  Lincoln


Three words make me excited about this movie:  Daniel Day Lewis.  I don't get too worked up about yet another historical period piece by Steven Spielberg.  But, DDL playing the most iconic of American icons?  May as well just give him the Oscar right now.

6.  Lawless


I already gave the skinny on this movie in my last post.  But, the trailer is so awesome that it's worth looking at again:

5.  The Avengers


What more is there to be said about this movie?  They've marketed the crap out of it -- successfully, I might add.  The reviews are good, the buzz is strong.  No way this movie sucks.  I hope to be able to write a review this weekend.




4.  Untitled Terrence Malick Project


Very little is known about this movie except for these details leaked to the Los Angeles Times:

Basically, it concerns a philanderer (Affleck) who, feeling at loose ends, travels to Paris, where he enters a hot-and-heavy affair with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko). Said Lothario returns home to Oklahoma, where he marries the European woman (in part for visa reasons). When the relationship founders, he rekindles a romance with a hometown girl (Rachel McAdams) with whom he's had a long history. 

According to the person who read the script, there's a bit of a happier ending than some other Malick movies (or at least a less ambiguous one than at the end of “Tree”). And a person who saw the footage said there's also the trademark visual showiness--shots of Affleck and McAdams in Malick's trademark man-in-nature style--as well as intriguing supporting actors: Javier Bardem, for instance, plays a priest whom Affleck’s Lothario visits for advice.

Also, the photo below has been making the rounds.  Needless to say, it's Terrence Malick, so I'm already sold.  The only reason it's not higher on the list is that I have my doubts as to whether it will actually be released this year.

 3.  The Dark Knight Rises


Again, this one needs no explanation.  Though, I have to say that my anticipation is nearly matched by my worry that Christopher Nolan has finally hit a wall.  He's past due for a misfire...no filmmaker can maintain a perfect record forever.




2.  The Master


Remember that list of the last decade's best movies I linked to above?  The top movie on that list was Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood.  Had a made a similar list for the 1990s, his Magnolia would certainly be in the top five.  The man is just a genius, pure and simple.  The Master is his latest opus.

The official synopsis:

Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (the acclaimed director of, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia and Boogie Nights), this story stars Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Academy Award-nominee Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line). Set in America in the years following World War II, a charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Phoenix) as his right-hand man. But as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the onetime vagabond finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor. A truly one-of-a-kind drama, which promises magnetic virtuoso performances, the film marks the fifth collaboration between Anderson and Hoffman, following Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love.

1.  Prometheus 

I'm not under any illusions that this will be the best movie of the year, though it may be close.  But, here's the thing: I have an unreasonably strong affection for Alien.  It is, quite simply, a perfect genre film.  I also love Aliens, that movie's first sequel, but the original is just so effing fantastic I seriously can't stand it sometimes.  The bleakness, the harrowing tone, the low-fi technology of a not-so-shiny imagined future...all of it just works so perfectly.  So, the idea of Ridley Scott, the original director, returning to that universe just gives me goosebumps. This is not an Alien movie, but a separate story that just happens to exist in that same universe.  Oddly enough, that makes it more intriguing to me.  The marketing of this movie has worked...I'm completely sucked in.