2012 movies that exceeded expectations

[Bang Bang Bart]

For me, it begins and ends with The Avengers. Seriously, the most fun I've ever had at the theatre. It had a daunting task of bringing together four year's worth of movies tied into a shared universe into one big movie, and it achieved it beyond all recognition.

Yours?

[Deleted]

21st Jump Street is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen.

[AFN: Judge Shred]

Amazing Spider-man. Went in with trepidation, walk out all smiles.

[Cela]

Twenty. One. Jump. Street.

Amazing.

[MGH]

Amazing Spider-Man for sure. I went in expecting to like it, but mostly to just have some fun. Came out and it remains my favorite movie this year and by far my favorite of the Spider-Man movies released to this day.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

ParaNorman. Walked in thinking it was going to be nothing but goofy slapstick, and there was plenty of that, but it was surprisingly clever, poignant and exciting.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

In theater, "Cabin in the Woods". I knew it was going to be off-kilter, I got that in spades.

On DVD, toss-up between "Bernie" and "The FP". "Bernie" had a fantastic performance by Jack Black, and "The FP" was the funniest indie movie I've seen in a long long long time.

[BK From WV]

The Avengers. I normally do not enjoy films based on comic books but I thought it was great. Also,add me to the 21 Jump Street camp.

[BoilerRoomBrawler]

The Avengers. Iron Man was great, Iron Man 2 was mediocre, and everything else was decent but not necessarily mind blowing to me. The Avengers greatly exceeded the sum of its parts in that respect.

[Deleted]

Probably Spider-Man. I could say 21 Jump Street, but my expectations were alright going in. At first glance, it seemed like a bad time, but the trailers and commercials grew on me.

Spider-Man, I went to go see, because my brother and fiancee were going to the midnight showing, and I had nothing else better to do that night. Why the hell not? Turned out I had a lot of fun watching it.

[G✇JI☈A]

The Avengers.... Skeptical about the idea at first, but had some optimism when Joss Wheadon was announced as director. So was excited for the movie in the lead up. Saw it, and it was so much better then I ever thought it would be.

Skyfall: After the disappointment that was 'Quantum of Solace' I was hoping this film would be a step back in the right direction that 'Casino Royale' set. In the lead up when hearing about all the talent attached to the project, I was fearing it would be a too many cooks in the kitchen thing. But man was Skyfall so so f***ing awesome. I absolutely loved it. Second favuorite film of the year after 'ARGO'.

And ARGO.... Well I was expecting that to be good. Well done Affleck

[4real]

Quite a few this year really. Amazing Spiderman was better than it had any right to be really. Although it was released last year I think I only got round to seeing Mission Impossible 4 this year and it was fantastic.

Cabin In The Woods, Skyfall, 21 Jump Street were all better than I thought they would be. Was completely put off by 21 Jump Street because Chaning Tatum was in it but once the reviews came in I gave it a shot and wow frickin hilarious film.

Oh and End Of Watch was surprisingly good too.

[Hurbster]

The Avengers and Dredd for me. Was glad they got back to the spirit of Dredd. The 1995 movie, while enjoyable was all about Stallone - not Dredd.

[bob]

The Avengers, The Raven, Prometheus and Skyfall.

[nocomments87]

The Avengers - after a series of good, but not great movies in Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man 2, I expected more of the same from The Avengers. It ended up being, by far, the best superhero movie ever made.

21 Jump Street - Yawn...another reboot. This was my original thought when I saw the announcement, and later, the trailer. Then I saw the movie...and it was so damn hilarious. It felt less of a reboot and more of a continuation and a parody of reboots in general. Just very well done, and easily my favorite comedy of the last 5 years.

Dredd - Like most people, my introduction to Judge Dredd was the crappy 1995 movie with Sylvester Stallone. I read a few of the comics later on, and knew from there that the 1995 movie =/= how Judge Dredd should be. But this is the movies...they wouldn't allow a true-to-source take on Judge Dredd, right? Wrong! Dredd was everything that it should've been, and then some. It far exceeded my expectations, and I loved the movie. I look forward to adding it to my Blu-ray collection when it comes out in January.

[Deleted]

The Avengers.
I had high expectations but equally, I was worried that they wouldn't be able to handle all the characters properly.

21 Jump Street.
I was burned out from R rated comedies but this one delivered.

Magic Mike.
Yes, I was one of the few heterosexual males that saw it in theaters. It was a really good film, had some funny moments and showed me that Channing Tatum can really act.

[Jiren]

- Dredd - People look at me like I have 6 heads when I say THIS IMO was the best comic movie of 2012
- Skyfall - All I wanted was a good movie, what I got was an amazing movie
- 21 jump street - I just went into this with a "whatever" attitude, This move made me laugh harder than most comedy movies in the past decade.
- Battleship - I don't care what anyone says I had fun with this flick

[Baldobomb-22-OH-MAN!!!]

-21 Jump Street for sure. was way funnier than it had any right to be. I bet it would've been looked on more favorably had it been its own thing and not had the title of an old TV show.

-Cabin in the Woods. I usually HATE when horror movies try to get cute and meta because it's normally used as a crutch to hide the writer's inability to tell an actually scary movie. this one, though, got it right. it was meta without feeling contrived or insulting me for watching the movie. and when it was scary it was legitimately scary. and when it was trying to be funny it was legitimately funny. this is what Wes Craven tried doing with the Scream franchise but Drew Goddard succeeded where Craven failed.

-Expendables 2. the first one was serviceable but beyond having all those guys on screen together it didn't really have anything to it. the second one was a lot more fun because it focused less on "oh look whose in this movie" and more on "let's be stupid fun".

[ohiofan1]

I'm suprised nobody has said Chronicle yet. We've seen sooo many found footage films, but this was easily one of the best.

Chronicle was just fantastic, especially Dane DaHaan as Andrew (kid that loses control at the end). I can't wait to see him as Harry Osborn in Amazing Spider-Man 2!

[kidglov3s]

One that comes to mind for me is Sinister. I wasn't expecting much and I found it to be an interesting and memorable movie.