Best of 2012: Honorable Mentions

2012 has come and gone, leaving several hits and more than a few meh’s. Superheroes have thrived, animation has stabilized though not necessarily improved, Oscar season ranges from genuine quality to pretentious parody, and summer fills up mostly on wannabe style with no substance. In other words, a typical year for film; few surprises, few off beat trends, and not much remarkable or worth discussing in length despite being better than the abysmal 2010.

Like every year however, works of sheer brilliance will always shine through the haze. Unlike other years however, I’d like to take a moment to highlight a few items of interest that did not make my top 10 but nonetheless bear mentioning if not outright viewing.

Dredd:

An incredible action film with an amazing level of deceptive simplicity. Dredd’s production values, solid pacing, and fantastic action choreography alone are plenty entertaining but what caught me off guard about Dredd was just how much the film had to say despite the simple set up that essentially amounts to a rookie cop’s training day with a veteran superior.

It’s messages on the negatives of thinking and operating in extremes, the necessities of thinking outside of the box, and exploring what happens when the justice system is given too much power, are what really won me over. “Dredd” is viscerally satisfying, well paced and performed, and surprisingly cerebral, missing out on making my top 10 sheerly due to being pushed out by better films.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:

The only surprise greater than watching this nightmare of a production actually making it to the big screen is it’s succeeding in not sucking. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of MGM’s financial stability, “The Hobbit” takes us back to Middle Earth in glorious fashion.

Although I’m still not sold on the concept of splitting the simplicity of the story of “The Hobbit” into a trilogy of epic length films, even with the padding offered by material from Tolkien’s “Unfinished Tales,” and the unevenness of the first third of the film had me wary for quite some time, once the film takes off, it kicks into gear spectacularly.

Zero Dark Thirty:

Still proving she can handle sensitive subject matters with a high level of class, Katherine Bigelow’s interpretation of the decade long search for Osama Bin Laden was as tense, tightly paced, and thrilling as anticipated. CIA agent Maya’s increasing obsession and personal stake in bringing down Al-Qaeda by all means necessary is fascinating and leads to one of the most tense climax that I’ve seen all year.

Were it not for its somewhat emotional coldness and stunted development of side characters, it would have easily made my list. As it is, it’s easily an incredible piece of filmmaking that doesn’t warrant its overblown political controversy.

Prometheus:

 Despite earning a notably polarizing reaction from its audiences, I personally found Ridley Scott’s epic prequel to his own landmark on science fiction to be a tense and beautifully shot emotional thrill ride from start to finish, despite a clearly rushed climax.

As it exists, the film was simply pushed out of the list by better candidates, but had it actually kept even half of its fully produced deleted scenes, it would have had an easy shot at the upper half.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower:

For years I have waited for a film about the modern day teenager that isn’t some vapid commercial regurgitation of pop culture references and obnoxious humor lacking in any actual wit. If John Hughes could see what people were doing with his legacy today, he would be turning in his grave.

On that note, I almost put “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” on this list for finally scratching that itch alone. It’s funny, charming, endearing, and almost had me convinced that John Huges produced it from beyond the grave.