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2012 is shaping up to be one hell of a year for film. Directors return to the genres that made their names, some concluding an epic series, others beginning new ones. A musical maestro adapts an American literary classic, whilst a comic book writer fulfils every nerd’s dream with an ensemble of the greatest heroes the world has ever seen. Our favourite characters return, ring-bearing and with a license to kill. A boy wizard turns into a haunted adult, and a webslinger in red and blue is brought to life on the big screen – yes, again. With so much rich and exciting material out there, picking a selection of films to discuss in this article has been ridiculously difficult. I have to confess, in my desperation to narrow it down I’ve picked out the eight films that not only most excite my personal interest, but also those which I feel will have a particular impact on the future of film. They may not all be Oscar-winners, but these are the eight films of 2012 that I think may just be game-changers.

The Familiar Face in a New Role

Moviegoers worldwide already know Daniel Radcliffe as the boy actor who has brought our favourite young wizard to life on screen for the past ten years, but now it’s time to see him post-Potter, in a new and somewhat surprising role. In The Woman in Black, an adaptation of a hugely successful play that itself was adapted from a Susan Hill novel, Radcliffe plays lawyer Arthur Kipps. Kipps must travel to the estate of a recently deceased client, where he meets with an unexpected challenge; the ghost of a woman, intent on enacting vengeance, the titular woman in black. Radcliffe and co. are going to have a hard time shaking off their characters in this life-after-Potter, and this first performance from the actor will be observed with much scrutiny. The first of our eight, The Woman in Black is due for release on February 10^th.

Daniel Radcliffe will have to prove that he’s not a one trick pony if he is to succeed post-Potter.

The Assembly

When the first teaser and trailer were released, the cast assembled and director on board, it suddenly dawned on us every move that Marvel have made over the past few years has been leading up to this. Iron Man and its sequel; Thor; Captain America and its rather inconspicuous subtitle: nothing but mere stepping stones on the path to The Avengers. In a bold move, Marvel are assembling all their finest heroes on screen at the same time, and with the charismatic personality of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans’ powerful presence as the Captain, and Chris Hemsworth with his shirt off (I can’t help it) as Thor, this is going to be the best superhero movie ever. Probably. These aren’t the only stars; there’s a new Hulk to deal with, Samuel L. Jackson as one-eyed Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johanssen representing kick-ass ladies as the only female member of the group. And the icing on the cake, filled with all that potential goodness, is the presence of Buffy and Serenity creator Joss Whedon at the helm. Having written comics for Marvel, Whedon is uniquely qualified for the role. Hopefully come April 27^th this fantastic formula will prove a huge success and satisfy comic book and superhero fans worldwide.

The Return of the Architect

The world of the Alien franchise has been developed and expanded since Ridley Scott’s original film was released in 1979. With an extended universe incorporating three sequels, all with different directors, as well as crossovers with Predator, novels, comic books and video games, the universe that Scott first laid the seeds for has grown into a huge realm of amazing (and some not so amazing) content. Now, the director returns to the world he left behind, not with a sequel but a prequel of sorts. Prometheus is said to be a film with definite, identifiable “strands of Alien DNA”, but it will also be a solid film in its own right. Speculated to tell at least some of the story behind the mysterious Space Jockey figure, glimpsed in the first film and the subject of intense curiosity, Prometheus is estimated for a release date of June 1^st, 2012.

Ridley Scott will now finally address this mysterious alien figure.

The Reboot of a Franchise

Hollywood simply can’t resist the urge to reboot, especially now they have Nolan’s Batman to cite as successful inspiration, so 2012 will also be the year that another recognisable superhero returns to cinema screens. The lanky Andrew Garfield will don the suit of spidey in The Amazing Spider-Man, whilst rising star Emma Stone will play Peter Parker’s love-interest: not the red haired Mary Jane, but original sweetheart of the comic books, Gwen Stacey. Although this young pair have demonstrated their acting chops and proven to be capable talent, bring Spiderman to the screen again when most moviegoers will still remember Tobey Maguire in the role could spell trouble. Nolan succeeded with his reboot because he completely reimagined the character and the tone of the films, and he’s also one talented director. No offence to Marc Webb, but the trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man just looks way too familiar. We’ll have to wait and see if the film itself does the same on July 4^th.

The Conclusion of a Trilogy

Speaking of Christopher Nolan, 2012 also brings the third and final instalment in one of the most successful reboot series… well, ever. Nolan’s reimagining of Batman began with Batman Begins in 2005, followed by The Dark Knight in 2008 and culminating in this year’s The Dark Knight Rises. Not much development work on the title, perhaps, but it certainly looks like a lot has been happening in the world of the film. Taking place eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, Nolan’s final Batman flick features Tom Hardy as terrorist leader Bane, famous in the comic book canon for breaking Batman’s back, and that film favourite Selena Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, portrayed this time around by Anne Hathaway. They will be joining Christian Bale as the dark knight himself, with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman in two of the best supporting roles in cinema. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is also joining the cast, with Gary Oldman reprising his role as Jim Gordon. The dark knight will rise for the last time on July 20^th.

Bane spells trouble for Batman in the upcoming series finale.

The Literary Adaptation

Baz Lurhman is well known for having made two extremely successful films; Moulin Rouge (2001) was a musical masterpiece, whilst his artistic adaptation of Romeo + Juliet (1996) is a unique take on Shakespeare that combines the elegance of his language and storytelling with a modern setting. He is also well known for making one disappointing follow up, 2008’s Australia, which failed to turn heads. Now Lurhman has set his sights on one of America’s great literary classics, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Literary adaptations are already walking slightly dodgy ground, and with Luhrman’s last effort so mediocre, one may worry for the fate of the novel. However, with Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan in two of the lead roles, the film certainly has star quality, both established and rising. We’ll see whether that’s enough come autumn.

The Return of Bond

After a lengthy period of production issues and problematic processing, Bond 23 is finally definitely going ahead. Daniel Craig reprises his role as Agent 007 in this year’s Skyfall, although information about the film itself is still somewhat lacking. Director Sam Mendes has taken over duties from Quantum of Solace’s Marc Forster, and with a resume that includes American Beauty it seems that the franchise is in safe hands. Judi Dench is back again as M, whilst various other names join the Bond world for the first time including Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes. The 23^rd on screen adventure for the world’s most famous British spy should arrive in cinemas around November 9^th.

Daniel Craig is back in the role he first adopted for 2006’s Casino Royale.

And finally, to finish off an already rather long list…

The One We’ve All Been Waiting For

It is, of course, Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth in the first instalment of the two Hobbit films. The secondary title of this first half is An Unexpected Journey, due to be followed a year later by There and Back Again. Whilst Guillermo del Toro was in the director’s seat for a time and no doubt would have done a good job, it’s profoundly reassuring to know that our favourite hobbits, elves, and of course that one particular wizard are in the hands of Peter Jackson, who brought them to life so perfectly for The Lord of the Rings. Ian McKellan returns as Gandalf, whilst Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom and even Christopher Lee appear in brief cameos as their LOTR characters. More substantial are the returns of Hugo Weaving as Elrond and Andy Serkis taking on motion capture duties once again for Gollum, his iconic creation. The amount of British talent that has been brought in to flesh out the film is absolutely staggering: Richard Armitage (Robin Hood, Spooks) is dwarven leader Thorin Oakenshield, whilst Aidan Turner (Being Human) and James Nesbit (Cold Feet) are just two of his numerous companions. Whilst Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch will be the man behind the dragon, Smaug, his co-star Martin Freeman is taking on the role of lead hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Peter Jackson himself has expressed his immense faith in Freeman, saying that he is everything they wanted from their main (little) man. Brian Blessed is even rumoured to be making an appearance, although this has yet to be verified! An Unexpected Journey will be released in December, 2012.

There were obviously many trailers I could have chosen to include at the end of this article, but it almost goes without saying that this is of course the one I settled upon.

So that’s the eight, as promised: but it seems only fair to also give a brief mention to a few other films that could turn out to be 2012 highlights. World War Z sees Brad Pitt fight zombies in a dystopian future; Breaking Dawn Part II will be out in November to conclude the entire Twilight saga, whilst The Hunger Games attempts to match its success and start a series of its own. Not one but two adaptations of Snow White are due for release this year, the colourful playfulness of Mirror Mirror and the darker, grittier tone of Snow White and the Huntsman, whilst one of 2012’s bigger why-did-they-bothers is Wrath of the Titans, the follow up to the utterly unspectacular Clash. Perhaps Sam Worthington will have more than one facial expression this time around, and we’ll get to see some actual Titans. If we’re lucky.

It’s going to be a fun year.

- Kat Humphries

Sources and further information:

Future Films – empireonline.com

UK Cinema Release Dates – filmdates.co.uk

Movie Times – Upcoming Hollywood Movies 2012 Release Dates List – moreinews.com

Upcoming Movies 2012 – movieinsider.com

The 32 films to look out for in 2012 and beyond… – timeout.com

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a darkened cinema, waiting for a film to start. I keep telling myself and anyone who asks that I was only there because my friend begged me, but the simple truth of the matter is that this is just one of those films that most people see anyway, love it or hate it. The moody music starts, a montage begins, and within literally ten seconds Taylor Lautner is dashing across the screen, sans shirt. That’s right. I’m at a midnight screening of Breaking Dawn Part I.

First things first: this fourth film in The Twilight Saga is not the worst. Nor is it the best. The cast and crew have come a long way since the bland boredom of the original Twilight, but don’t seem to have maintained the spark of life that 30 Days of Night director David Slade managed to inject into Eclipse. Don’t even get me started on New Moon. In Breaking Dawn, lead characters Edward and Bella are finally coming to the climax of their saga of sexual tension, beginning with a marriage that somehow leads to a freakish vampire pregnancy, a hybrid baby, and for a few brief seconds at the end of the film, a newly-turned vampire Bella. There are plenty of areas in which this film falls down, and when it falls it really falls, but overall the truth is that Breaking Dawn isn’t that bad.

It doesn’t take long for Taylor Lautner’s trademark abs to make an appearance, as they have in every other Twilight film.

The focus of the film, of course, is Bella and Edward’s relationship. With the original book having been split into two, Part I is able to focus on the marriage and the pregnancy whilst presumably 2012’s Part II will shift attention to Renesmee (the child) and Bella’s new life as a vampire. One of the most highly anticipated elements of Part I was the necessary depiction of Bella and Edward consummating their marriage; although a humorous montage of Bella attempting to seduce her new husband is a high point for the otherwise bland honeymoon sequence, Edward’s dramatic reaction to Bella’s teeny tiny bruise post-coitus (this is a huge departure from the book, in which Bella is described as basically black and blue) is way too over the top. The pregnancy is discovered and progresses with uncomfortable rapidity, giving the audience little time to come to terms with the immense suspension of disbelief required for this ridiculous plot device.

Breaking Dawn Part I finally follows through on the sexual tension of the previous three instalments.

However, there are areas where Breaking Dawn totally succeeds, in ways the previous films have barely managed to touch on. Billy Burke has been a delightful distraction throughout the series as Bella’s overprotective cop father, Charlie. He excels here, delivering some of the best dialogue of the film, particularly during his speech at the young lovers’ wedding. This is where director Bill Condon and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg get it right; more than any of its predecessors, Breaking Dawn Part I is an acutely self-aware film that openly acknowledges how ridiculous some elements of the story are. Bella’s suggestions for baby names, for example, meet with incredulous looks from Edward and Jacob; “EJ” for a boy (Edward/Jacob) and “Renesmee” for a girl (Renée/Esmé, Bella and Edward’s mothers’ names). Some of the most hilarious moments of the film remain unintentionally so, though, such as Jacob’s imprinting on the baby girl. Taylor Lautner manages to look so dumbfounded you’d think he was just told someone didn’t want to see him shirtless.

In spite of all the above, Breaking Dawn Part I has to be considered a huge success because it does exactly what it says on the tin: it gives Twilight fans what they want, indulging in the aesthetic pleasures of Lautner’s chest and the transformation (finally!) of our leading lady into an un-dead beauty queen. As a franchise, Twilight is worth over £1.2 billion, and the final instalment has been named one of 2012’s most anticipated movies. Breaking Dawn Part II will be released November 16^th 2012, and will conclude one of the most successful and influential series of all time. Bella will be back in vampire form, and we will meet the fast-growing hybrid child Renesmee as her existence turns the world upside down for Edward and co. There’s no trailer to speak of as yet, but why not take a quick look at Ellen’s humorous “sneak peek”, featured below.

- Kat Humphries

Sources and further information:

Four things you might miss in ‘Breaking Dawn’ – entertainment.msnbc.com

Review: ‘Breaking Dawn’ gives ‘Twilight’ fans exactly what they want – entertainment.msnbc.com

The 2012 Hot List! – fandango.com

‘Breaking Dawn – Part 1’ review: Vampire tale is lifeless – articles.latimes.com

Film review: Breaking Dawn – eat me – tribune.com

It’s that time of the year again – Halloween is here, and what better way to celebrate than to roll out a few of your favourite horror movies and set your hearts racing, your spine chilling and your bones tingling? Deciding what to watch, however, may be a point of consternation for you and your friends with the huge range of different horror movies out there. Do you go for the slightly dated original, or the overly gory remake? The unsettling psychological horror, or the blatantly ridiculous yet highly entertaining slasher? To help you make this important choice, I’m going to give you a basic guide to several of the most popular horror sub-genres, and stellar examples of each. Just make sure you watch them in the dark while your parents are out – what could possibly go wrong?

The Slasher

No list of movies for a Halloween marathon is complete without a good slasher. After all, the original slasher movie that reinvigorated the genre in the late 1970′s was John Carpenter’s film named after the holiday itself. 1978′s Halloween inspired many copycat films, the most famous of which are Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Each of these films introduces an iconic killer whose names remain infamous even today – Mike Myers, Jason Vorhees and Freddy Krueger. Each film also upped the ante on the last in terms of gore, violence, and highly imaginative death scenes that contributed to modern horror by inspiring franchises such as Final Destination and Saw. All three of these early slashes have received the remake treatment, the curse of our generation, but on Halloween you should be sure to remain true to the originals – they’ll still make you jump.

Jamie Lee Curtis became the ultimate scream queen after her iconic role in Halloween, facing off against Michael Myers.

The Creature Feature

Often providing a good laugh as well as a good scare, creature features are sure to have you squirming in your seat. A development of the old monster movies, which saw the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein (both 1931), The Mummy (1932) and The Wolf Man (1941) take to the screen, the creature feature focuses more on horrific monstrosities of nature now that we seem to prefer our vampires and werewolves shirtless and brooding. The iconic creature feature is, of course, Jaws (1975), and although it remains a steadfast classic there are many more out there to be explored. Not one but three killer sharks are present in Deep Blue Sea (1999), or for a different sharp-toothed beastie, a giant crocodile disturbed the waters of Lake Placid in the same year. If you prefer your creature features with maximum levels of ridiculousness, Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus is an intentionally appalling riff on the genre, whilst 2010′s remake of Piranha 3D throws more sex, nudity, blood and gore into one movie than ever before. Of course, Mega Shark has to be commended for its inclusion of what is possibly the greatest movie scene ever…

The Supernatural Horror

The genre that generally creeps everyone out is the supernatural horror – ghosts, ghouls and other unexplained phenomena may seem to be an irrational fear if you don’t believe in the supernatural, but just wait until you go to bed after watching a good scary movie. You’ll be checking under the covers for the invisible presence of the demon from Paranormal Activity (2007), waiting for Samara from The Ring (2002) to crawl out of your television, and hoping that death doesn’t come calling as in Final Destination (2000). The unseen and unstoppable forces of these movies are frightening because you cannot escape – this genre is closely linked to that of religious horror, featuring possession movies such as The Exorcist (1973) and the influence of the devil in films like The Omen (1976). But surely you’ll be safe – as long as you don’t watch the cursed video tape, or attract the attention of the demon, or escape a fatal accident… Right?

In this iconic scene, Samara climbs out of the well on the television screen before slowly crawling towards the screen itself, breaking the third wall and exiting the TV to claim her next victim.

And finally…

The Self-Referential Horror Movie

There’s only one film series to really mention in this concluding section – the Scream franchise began with the original Scream in 1996, and its successive sequels continued to parody the horror genre as a whole, right up to the recent release of Scream 4 (2011) which references the remake and reboot trend of the industry today. Remember – you have sex, you die. Don’t say be right back, because you won’t be right back. Oh, and always double tap, because the killer you just shot/stabbed/electrocuted WILL get back up.

Ghostface is a famously incompetent killer - he falls over, staggers around and is generally a clumsy character.

Happy Halloween!

- Kat Humphries

This next movie we are about to discuss is not available in theaters yet – it is scheduled for release on the 1st of April, 2011 across the globe – but it is still very interesting to look into. The main concept behind the storyline is not new, but the way director Duncan Jones put the concept into an engaging story really makes this movie very interesting to watch.

The movie starts with Captain Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) waking up in the body of an unknown man. He discovers that he is a part of a mission to uncover the bomber of a commuter train in Chicago. The mission itself is unlike he has ever known before, and is part of a government experiment call-signed “Source Code”.

It turns out that Source Code is a program that allows Colter to cross over into another man’s identity in the last 8 minutes of his life. With that ability, Colter relives the Chicago bombing incident over and over again hoping to find hints and clues that will help him uncover the incident and prevent a second bombing threatening the lives of millions more.

Source Code is filled with twists and turns that will keep you on edge throughout the whole movie. If you have watched Vantage Point, you will notice that the same concept is brought to a different dimension in Source Code. All in all, Source Code is a quality movie worth waiting for and a good movie to satisfy your needs for an intense thriller.

After seeing Matt Damon on Bourne Trilogy and The Shooter, audiences – perhaps including you and me – formed a distinct image of cool and composed character whenever they see Damon appearing. The Adjustment Bureau takes advantage of that particular image and places Matt Damon in an amazing role as David Norris, an ambitious politician running for a seat in the US Senate.

The will-be US Senate meets with Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), a ballet dancer that quickly captures her heart. As David falls deeper in love with Elise, however, a mysterious man stage a plot to keep the two apart. It is not long before David realizes that he is up against the agents of Fate itself, known as the men of The Adjustment Bureau, and the odds against him.

David needs to decide whether to let her go and accept the path determined for him, or fight against The Adjustment Bureau despite risking everything to be together with Elise.

Written and directed by George Nolfi – writer of Ocean’s Twelve – The Adjustment Bureau builds up tension and surround the main characters with mysterious aspects and intriguing twists perfectly. If you love a good romantic movie, you will also find The Adjustment Bureau very pleasant to watch.

Despite the complicated plot and intense storyline, The Adjustment Bureau is not difficult to watch at all. Instead of walking out of the theater with questions, you will be doing so with a big smile and a lovely feeling of delight after watching a fantastic movie.