The Big Picture: Worst Movies of 2012
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With the exception of Les Mis(Planning to see it later this week) it's exactly what I expected you to say, and fairly close to what my list would be but I skipped a lot of those movies my only changes would be change Spider Man for Batman(all the thing you say about Spider Man are several times worse in The Dark Knight).
I haven't seen any of these movies and now I probably won't watch them if I get some time, especially Les Miserables as musicals are not my thing.
Pretty good list. There were a couple things on there that I actually liked (I really expected to hate Amazing Spiderman but I thought the douchey wuss was way closer to Peter Parker than any other incarnation I've yet seen, and I'm an easy sell for R-rated comedies with boobs so American Reunion got a pass from me), but a couple of the ones you hated made me happy.
Firstly: I'm glad that somebody with some testes has the guts to say to an internet full of ladies that Les Miserables is terrible. I realize that there's a large population that's going to squee because it's a musical that they can drag luckless bastards to, but somebody needs to look at it objectively to see if the movie pulls it off at all well.
Secondly: It's telling that I went out of my way to see Branded before any reviews had come out and yet I forgot it ever happened maybe 6 months later. An awful, mean, dumb and stuck-up movie that absolutely deserves to be forgotten and/or hated. For 2012, there is no more appropriate atrocity to don the 'laurels' of worst movie.
Firstly: I'm glad that somebody with some testes has the guts to say to an internet full of ladies that Les Miserables is terrible. I realize that there's a large population that's going to squee because it's a musical that they can drag luckless bastards to, but somebody needs to look at it objectively to see if the movie pulls it off at all well.
Secondly: It's telling that I went out of my way to see Branded before any reviews had come out and yet I forgot it ever happened maybe 6 months later. An awful, mean, dumb and stuck-up movie that absolutely deserves to be forgotten and/or hated. For 2012, there is no more appropriate atrocity to don the 'laurels' of worst movie.
bigger question that answers your question: How the ever loving fuck did last airbender gross 300 million bucks?Sylveria said:
wait wait wait
the bad guy for ASM 2 is going to be electro? just electro?
WHAT IN THE HELL?! are they trying to make these movies suck? why the heck do they insist of using those b list villians? its not like spidy doesnt have good villians he does!
doc ock, green goblin,the sinister freaking six! how hard would it be to use them instead of freaking electro and the lizard?! (and yes i am fully aware that electro is a reacuring member of the sinister 6) this is just frustrating...
the bad guy for ASM 2 is going to be electro? just electro?
WHAT IN THE HELL?! are they trying to make these movies suck? why the heck do they insist of using those b list villians? its not like spidy doesnt have good villians he does!
doc ock, green goblin,the sinister freaking six! how hard would it be to use them instead of freaking electro and the lizard?! (and yes i am fully aware that electro is a reacuring member of the sinister 6) this is just frustrating...
I expected Amazing Spiderman to be no. 1 but you surprised me there. It's still true that I loved the film more than Spiderman 1,3 and so did most of the people I saw it with but I guess these things happen. Also I didn't hate American Pie and I don't know if calling the crudloads of people who liked it deluded is interpreting said like in a smart way.
I enjoyed the jokes in this one though =D And got through a lot incredibly efficiently considering you needed a small Les Mis review in the middle. I liked the play for the songs but felt the plot was as much of a mess as you describe. I always feel sorry for the failed love interest because even the play seems to accidentally paint her as the true faithful person who would have made him happy, sadly ignored for his two week crush
I enjoyed the jokes in this one though =D And got through a lot incredibly efficiently considering you needed a small Les Mis review in the middle. I liked the play for the songs but felt the plot was as much of a mess as you describe. I always feel sorry for the failed love interest because even the play seems to accidentally paint her as the true faithful person who would have made him happy, sadly ignored for his two week crush
Don't hold me to this, but most of M Night StupidIdiot's worst was stuff he wrote himself. As simply a director with someone else in the writers chair, it may not be that bad. We'll see.DVS BSTrD said:Directed by Shabamalama? Shame I was almost looking forward to see Jaden Smith back on the big screen
Amazing SpiderMan 2: Hair Jell hiding-my-face-turns-me-into-a-Labeef-sounding McDouche-erson vs an anemic Steel.
Swap in Dark Knight Rises for Les Mis, and I'm fine with the list. All of Bob's criticism of the movie is the criticism of the work itself. If you go in liking the musical, you'll probably love the movie, though you might have a gripe with the fact that Russell Crowe's voice isn't deep enough for Javert, or that he only sang, and didn't really emote, but other wise it's a damn good piece. It's not like you'd go see a movie adaptation of a musical that still has the songs and weigh it on it's cinematic merits anyway, so his inclusion of it here seems like he's criticizing an orange for not being enough like an apple. Yeah, they're both fruits, but we're not exactly here for the same thing, are we?
I agree with Les Miserables. I enjoyed it, but I definitely think it failed as a movie where it could have succeeded as a real Broadway show.
The only reason why it would be considered a controversial opinion is because the theatre nuts go on and on about how perfect the musical is, and anyone willing to criticise will be drowned by the same arguments the progressive and super smart amazing musical theatre people can come up with, including how its the greatest musical of all time based of the greatest french novel of all time, how you don't like it because its through composed, and then they'll even list they're favourite recordings of adaptations that were probably better then the film, which somehow makes their point redundant. Don't worry, I can easily qualify my statement with that I worked with music theatre kids, and I've seen all their arguments.Littaly said:
And I have no problem with it being higher then American Pie on the worst movie list of 2012.
I knew Spider-man would be on here, I'm just kind of glad he restrained himself and didn't make it number 1 like he probably wanted to. I'm sorry but looking at all the complaints he listed, I swear I saw a different movie than him.
Also The Spectacular Spider-man's interpretation of Electro was pretty dang cool, so I hope ASM 2 will follow in their footsteps.
Also The Spectacular Spider-man's interpretation of Electro was pretty dang cool, so I hope ASM 2 will follow in their footsteps.
Because us naive Avatar fans didn't know any better until it was too late...Jegsimmons said:
Regarding Les Miserables:MovieBob said:
There's a fundamental issue here, and it's that most of your criticism is aimed at the story itself. For that, we must blame Victor Hugo. And to do that, you'd have to go way back in time... to a different place in literature. The whole story borders on allegorical, so of course Javert seems like "the only cop in France." He's meant to represent that entire way of thinking. Each character is basically an archetype. Good writing? Bad writing? Hard to say... but also irrelevant.
The other problem that stems from the fundamental issue is that this is not "a movie adaptation of the story of Les Miserables." It's a movie adaptation of the musical Les Miserables. As such, it's not designed to showcase the story, but to showcase the songs (which, on their own, can do a wonderful job of capturing the emotion of the story).
Soooo, yeah, I get it. You're in the unfortunate position of having to criticize this as a film, when that only tells half the story. But realizing that might have been enough for you to save that spot for another, more deserving "worst film."
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Also, complete agreement that Russell Crowe was poorly cast. It's obvious to everyone, except whoever cast him. Biggest mistake of the movie.
Second biggest? Keeping the camera planted squarely up the nose of every singer, rather than using the wonderful medium of cinema to show what can't be shown on stage. But again, this comes back to a misunderstanding of what the film is: It's not showcasing the story, it's showcasing the (very deserving) music.
And Anne Hathaway needs something gold for bringing more life to "I Dreamed a Dream" than any previous singer.
Seen it three times, thus far, loved it. But I loved the musical, too.JimB said:
Two of the ladies I went with were totally blind and they adored it too, so...!
(also, while I fear Cosette is a forever one-note role, Eddie Redmayne lends a ton of heart and soul to Marius; he's easily the best I've ever seen the role portrayed)
I actually didn't mind Russell Crowe in Les Miserables. Sure he wasn't as good as Jackman or Hatheway, but I still enjoyed his scenes. Then again, it feels more like Bob put Les Mis at that position on his list because he's still bitter about The King's Speech (a pretty fine film in and of itself) winning Best Picture two years before. Even if you think it's bad, putting it (and Spiderman, for that matter) ahead of all the other legitimately terrible schlock on the list just feels like sour grapes.
I saw it. I liked it.JimB said:
I'll agree with the criticisms leveled at it as a film - that is, Russell Crowe is the weak link and Hooper's directing during the big solo musical numbers is absolutely abysmal - but as a musical film, it's great.
The performances are astounding, and it certainly conveys both the story of Les Miserables and captures the feeling of the musical Les Miserables.
On Amazing Spider-Man, I'm just going to say again: It's still better than Spider-Man 2 or 3. The Lizard's story is ridiculous and the CGI used for his face is stupid, but I really can't agree with the characterization of Peter Parker or the character interactions. Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben in particular stood out when compared to the first Spider-Man, and Garfield plays a sort of Ultimate Spider-Man Peter Parker really well.
I can't help but feel that the real problem with Number Three is that you probably don't like the show. I have yet to talk to anyone who loves the musical that doesn't think the movie is pretty fantastic. And Russell Crowe CAN sing Broadway style which is why he did do a good job as the Javert with that deep voice of his. The one complaint I have heard is that whole song in the carriage after Valjean saves little Cosette was made up for the movie and does not exist in the show. Which is strange because they didn't do that with any other songs, though they did abbreviate a few of them. The love of Marius and Cosette exists to shed more like on Valjean's character. I can see someone's dislike for musical theatre as the cause for this movie to be on the list, but third worst? Haha, it's all good though, we all have our opinions. I went with my girlfriend (who has a degree in theatre) and I expected to not enjoy myself at all, but I was blown away by the production. The only weird thing about the directing for me is all the closeups on the characters faces. I just don't know why it happened so much. It made sense in the context of some scenes (such as Ann Hathaway in her big number), but not in so many other places. I can see no award for directing but pretty much the whole rest of the show was really good.
Edit: As proof of how different opinions can be: a movie Bob really liked that would have made this list in place of that for me would have been Tree of Life, if that was from this year, not entirely sure. He didn't do a full review, but he did one of those abbreviated mentions in another review and said that it's pretty much incredible. I took the time and it was really disappointing. Boring and full of imagery that was at best confusing and at worst completely out of place. It took it's attempt at being "artsy" and threw them in your face, which doesn't work in a movie that is supposed to carry a certain pace. Essentially, while it may not have been a horrible film, if you were not in mood for it, it was. It's not transcendentally good and, IMO, not worth the good words it was given.
Edit2: I can't help but feel that everyone is taking the number placement on this list a little too seriously. I mean, is it worth arguing that movies me or a lot of others may have liked shouldn't place higher on the list (more bad, as it were) than movies that were placed lower on the list. I mean, the fact that a movie you are or people you know like a lot showed up on his top ten list at all should be the shocking. Whether it's number three, number one, or number seven shouldn't even matter. And you definitely should not be upset if it appeared higher on the list than American Reunion. It's really all the same.
Edit: As proof of how different opinions can be: a movie Bob really liked that would have made this list in place of that for me would have been Tree of Life, if that was from this year, not entirely sure. He didn't do a full review, but he did one of those abbreviated mentions in another review and said that it's pretty much incredible. I took the time and it was really disappointing. Boring and full of imagery that was at best confusing and at worst completely out of place. It took it's attempt at being "artsy" and threw them in your face, which doesn't work in a movie that is supposed to carry a certain pace. Essentially, while it may not have been a horrible film, if you were not in mood for it, it was. It's not transcendentally good and, IMO, not worth the good words it was given.
Edit2: I can't help but feel that everyone is taking the number placement on this list a little too seriously. I mean, is it worth arguing that movies me or a lot of others may have liked shouldn't place higher on the list (more bad, as it were) than movies that were placed lower on the list. I mean, the fact that a movie you are or people you know like a lot showed up on his top ten list at all should be the shocking. Whether it's number three, number one, or number seven shouldn't even matter. And you definitely should not be upset if it appeared higher on the list than American Reunion. It's really all the same.