My Top 5 Anticipated Movies of 2012

Here are the top 5 movies we’re looking forward to in 2012.

3. The Avengers

Release Date: May 4, 2012

Director: Joss Whedon

The Avengers is the ultimate superhero ensemble movie featuring Marvel’s Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Black Widow, Hulk and Iron Man. Despite all the star power and hollywood hype, undertaking such a movie could easily result in a mindless spectacle of special effects and ultra-tight costumes. When announced that Joss Whedon (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly) was set to write the screenplay and direct The Avengers, it was met with both skepticism and joyful squeals. With only one feature film director’s credit in his resume at the time, it’s a surprising choice to have Whedon take on a movie that is rumored to have one of the biggest budgets in motion picture history. However, Whedon has a track record of crafting stories with meaningful character development in his TV series and has already developed a solid working relationship with Marvel as writer of the critically acclaimed Astonishing X-Men comics.

One of the biggest challenges of The Avengers is to give each character a real purpose in being a part of the story and to find a villain that could credibly threaten the superheroes. In a recent interview, director Joss Whedon discussed that the story will be told mainly from the viewpoint of Captain America, the first avenger, “since he’s the guy that just woke up and sees this weird-ass world” rather than trying to dilute multiple perspectives into one movie.  New to Marvel’s franchise, is actor Mark Ruffalo who is taking on the role of the “you won’t like me when I’m angry” Hulk. Ruffalo’s characterisation will reportedly follow the TV show’s version of helping people in need rather than the other two feature film versions that had Bruce Banner obsessed with finding a cure for himself. Reprising his role as Iron Man/Tony Stark is Robert Downey Jr. and judging by the trailers it will be a lot of fun seeing him deliver Whedon’s classic one-liners and snarky witticisms. Early reports had Loki, Thor’s brother, as the “big bad” however there will be a secondary villain not yet featured in the trailers.