It’s amazing we’re now halfway through 2012, a year that has offered plenty in the way of both blockbuster films and the smaller, more intimate indie fare. Taking that into account, it seems only fitting to offer up something a long the lines of a best of/worst of post for the first half of 2012.
We have yet another overachiever this weekend, as The Lorax opened to a whopping $70 million, the largest opener for a film in 2012. The film, which received an impressive ‘A’ CinemaScore, has set the record for the highest-grossing non-sequel animated/family film of all-time. (I know, it’s a mouthful.)
First and foremost, Act of Valor fails on a conceptual level. I’m not specifically speaking about the by now well-advertised fact that the film features eight “active duty Navy SEALs,” which is problematic in it’s own right, and I’m not even accusing the film of being inauthentic in its depictions of the heroics and skill of these Navy SEALs, the issue is in its agenda. It’s been well publicized that this project began as an Army recruitment video, and the obvious biases the film has makes it, all acting, technical and storytelling aside, the anti-Hurt Locker.