Top 20 Films of 2008 - your thoughts and opinions?

[Atreyu]

Since it's the last day of the year (at least down under ) I thought it might be appropriate to have a look at the Top 20, (as of last weekend) courtesy of BOGuru.com:

(Note: bolded films still in release, all amounts in millions)

1. The Dark Knight ... 530.9
2. Iron Man ... 318.3
3. Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ... 317.0
4. Hancock ... 227.9
5. WALL-E ... 223.8
6. Kung Fu Panda ... 215.4
7. Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa ... 174.9
8. Twilight ... 167.3
9. Quantum of Solace ... 164.3
10. Horton Hears A Who ... 154.5
11. Sex & The City ... 152.6
12. Mamma Mia! ... 143.8
13. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ... 141.6
14. The Incredible Hulk ... 134.5
15. Wanted ... 134.3
16. Get Smart ... 130.3
17. Four Christmases ... 111.6
18. Tropic Thunder ... 110.5
19. Bolt ... 102.4
20. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ... 102.3

Unfortunately due to real life events 2008 was not a good year for me in terms of actually seeing films, but here are a few of my thoughts from that list:

The Dark Knight - I knew it would do well, and I even thought it might have an outside chance of taking the Opening Weekend record from Spider-Man 3, but Holy Freaking Boxoffice Batman! - I didn't expect to see it with 500+ million in revenue. The fact that Ledger (RIP) may receive an Oscar nomination is just further icing on the cake.

Iron Man - I never read the comics but did have a passing familiarity with the character. For a 2nd-tier Marvel hero (so I've been told anyway) to wind up with the 2nd biggest boxoffice take of the year and get rave reviews is pretty impressive. I saw this film again yesterday on DVD with my sister and it holds up really well even on the repeat viewing (a rarity for me). I think Ebert was on the money when he said this film (plus The Dark Knight) have moved comic book films to the next level.

Indiana Jones - kind of hard to believe now, with the all the hype and now seeing it's final boxoffice take and all, that some were picking this to be #1 for the year with 400+ million (though #3 is still pretty respectable). The film was ok but like many I was left wondering why we waited nearly 2 decades for it.

The 3 animated films - funny, they've all landed in line right after each other. Pixar of course taking the lead over Dreamworks.

Twilight vs. Quantum of Solace - how the heck did the former beat out the latter? (I haven't seen either so can't comment quality wise)

Prince Caspian - ouch. Made barely half what the original did despite the latter's success both at cinemas and on DVD. Some have blamed it's lesser result on the release date (summer as opposed to winter, being sandwiched right near Indiana Jones etc). The fact that Disney have now announced they won't be producing the next film in the series (the film crew are in talks now with 20th Century Fox) is another blow to what was looking like another big fantasy franchise.

The Incredible Hulk - tried to get another comic book franchise (re)started, ended up making less than the original did (barely). Still the ending with Tony Stark quizzing about the Avengers would give hope to seeing Hulk show up again in future films.


Of course, it would have been interesting to see how the list would have turned out if films such as Harry Potter and Star Trek actually kept to their original release dates. Oh well, looking forward to them in 2009.

That's all from me - what are everyone else's thoughts?

[CMJ]

You know, I've followed the BO since 1993, but the older iI get - the less I live and die on the sites looking at figured. TDK is obviously the story of the year...maybe the last several years.

[Atreyu]

::bump::

I normally loathe bumping my own threads, but not a single comment (aside from CMJ - thanks man)?

No one wants to talk about boxoffice in the boxoffice forum? Maybe we need a forum title change?

[Hera]

I saw 8 of the 20 movies.

The Dark Knight
Ironman
Indiana Jones
Hancock
Madagascar 2 (oh why?)
Quantum of Solace
Narnia 2
Mummy 3

Ones Id see again - The Dark Knight, Ironman and Bond. I really love Daniel Craig as Bond. Cant say I really cared for the character of 007 before - too smooth for my taste, by far. I like the raw, less cheesy style of the last two Bond films.

Madagascar was awful. I know Im not a 6 year old, so what do I care, but the first one was quite entertaining and the second one I could barely endure.

Ironman was the big surprise for me. I did not want to go see this movie really. Was waiting for the DVD. However, go I did, and I enjoyed it alot. Robert Downey Jr as a superhero...who knew? A nice surprise.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Kung Fu Panda was amazing. I loved it and I am happy that it did so well at the box office. Quality work and really good story from a non Disney movie.

Frankly aside from Pixar, Disney movies have wandered into the 'slightly disappointing' side of the scale. And other, non-Pixar CGI animated films have started actually being good, instead of just slapped together to try to cash in on that chunk of the box office take.