Most Surprising Movie of 2012?

[flickchick85]

21 Jump Street for sure. I was completely convinced that one would be utter garbage.

I was also somewhat surprised by MIB3. It wasn't fantastic or anything, but it was a little bit better than the mediocrity I was expecting. It actually had heart.

Magic Mike being decent wasn't really a surprise to me, though. I had an inkling it wouldn't be as stupid as it sounded with a guy like Soderbergh at the helm.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Chronicle and The Cabin In The Woods for me, wasnt expecting much from either, even with Whedon's involvement in the latter, but both were superb.

 

[MadVillainy]

Magic Mike was also a surprise in a good way

 

[scifiwolf]

Haven't seen many. MIB3 did for sure, but 21 Jump Street takes the cake. That movie was awesome. Still have yet to see Cabin in the Woods, but I didn't have any awareness of that project until I started hearing reviews, so I've always only had good expectations for that.

 

[Fanticon]

I really thought Avengers was just gonna be too much of a mess...too many characters not enough balance, like a great idea that really just didnt come together. the previews weren't getting me pumped other than the fanboy already inside of me...nothing seemed to be elevating my excitement...I wasn't really impressed with the opening scene but then this movie just kept turning it up a notch and blew me away and I couldn't believe how much i started to doubt it as it came closer to the release date. The reaction it got, the money it made...it surprised the entire movie going world.

 

[Homer J. Fong]

I was unsure of how The Avengers - I really liked all of the Marvel movies prior to it (with the exception of Iron Man 2, which I like parts of but doesn't come together nearly as well as the first), and Joss Whedon being onboard was awesome, but I was just on the "cautiously optimistic" spectrum. I was more relieved that it turned out as well as it did than I was surprised. 21 Jump Street wasn't a movie I had any intention of seeing when it came out, but the strong word of mouth made me curious. I finally saw it today, actually, and really liked it, but after all the positive word of mouth, I wasn't too surprised that I did. I guess my biggest surprise so far this year is The Grey, which I expected to be more like schlock - Liam Neeson vs. wolves! - but was actually powerful and introspective (tonally, it reminded me of the best of The Walking Dead), and it was a movie that, to me, came out of nowhere. On second thought, though, maybe it's Chronicle, because that movie came even more out of nowhere, and I liked it much more than The Grey.

The Cabin in the Woods was the movie that surprised me the most by being what it turned out to be, but it didn't surprise me that it was great. I never thought it'd be otherwise.

 

[Victarion]

The Dark Knight Rises

Nolan had said that they shot an actiony prologue so that they could have a slow thirty minutes or so following. The first act was surprisingly brisk, and I didn't expect Bane to be so deeply involved in it.

I haven't seen any other films of 2012; I'll wait for the DVD releases. I do intend to pick up The Avengers, MIB 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man though.

 

[Silvermoth]

Sherlock Holmes 2. I thought the first one was heaps of fun and I was expecting the second one to be a bit schlocky, like Wayne's World where something that should have just been a bit of fun is overused and wrung out.

But I had a great time! It was lots of fun and I love the idea of gentlemen action heroes!

 

[Project862006]

^was'nt that last year??

 

[ravn0s]

cabin in the woods for me so far this year.

 

[nite-owl]

John Carter

 

[The Englishman]

21 Jump Street and TED for me...

 

[rayc1971]

ted doing over 200mill domestic magic mike a male stripper movie doing over a 100mill domestic.their has yet to be a female stripper movie make that much and us men are the horndogs!lol

 

[T"Challa]

21 Jump st was awesome,
Chronicle definitely surprised me

but The Raid blew my mind to pieces. As a martial arts junkie, that movie has pretty much ruined every other hand-to-hand combat scene for me. Nothing i've seen comes close to the brutality and excellence of the choreography in that movie.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Ted. I'm not a guy who watches or really likes FAMILY GUY -- just the premise interested me and I have found the movie was surprisingly hilarious.

 

[Quasimod0]

John Carter

Yeah that was MUCH better than i expected

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

The Cabin in the Woods by far!

 

[Brother Jack]

Of the movies I've seen this year, probably The Avengers. I've enjoyed some of Marvel's output but I didn't find most of it to be very special. Joss Whedon not having directed anything even close in scale gave me doubt that he'd pull off such a big project with so many huge characters, but he totally did. Ironically his TV background it was I think helped him balance the movie between the characters (even though Hawkeye did get kinda shortchanged).

 

[Gianakin_]

21 Jump Street

 

[Mike]

21 jump street and contraband

 

[Kane52630]

So far for me:

The Grey
Chronicle
21 Jump Street
The Three Stooges

I'm also adding these:

Cabin in the Woods
Premium Rush
The Possession
Dredd
End of Watch

 

[bullets]

I'm also adding Cabin in the Woods and The Three Stooges.


I thought The Three Stooges would be terrible but it was a fitting homage to the old shows.

 

[CConn]

Dredd, without question.

Not only did you have the lingering awfulness of the Stallone version, but the few snipits of news I had heard about it pre-release seemed to be rife with the kind if problems that derail a production.

 

[flickchick85]

Dredd and 21 Jump Street so far.

 

[redhawk23]

The Grey
Chronicle
Ted

Cabin in the Woods was utter ****, in my opinion. Me and my siblings walked out of that one an hour in. 'A redefining of the horror genre', my ass.

Seriously.

You left halfway through and then stoop to express any opinion on it?