The Movies of 2002 - Best Year Ever?

[John Crichton]

Okay. I'm thinking that this year is potentially shaping up to be one of the best geek-genre interest movie years ever. I'm talking quality and quantity.

We have so far (some were better than others but none were bad, IMO):

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
Spiderman
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Signs
Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Minority Report
xXx

And still to come (YMMV):

Star Trek: Nemesis
Die Another Day (James Bond)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Treasure Planet

I'm sure I left out a few but I can't think of another single year where so many good movies that are either of the comic book, sci-fi, spy, action genre movies were released. I know that next year is shaping up to be quite good as well, but can any other previous year match or come close to 2002? The closest I can think of was 1999...

Any takers?

 

[jdavis]

I haven't seen allot of the movies this year that are supposed to be so great but the ones I have seen were very good. Lets see how Two Towers turns out.

 

[Mark]

You might be able to add to that list for 2002 by including-

28 Days Later
30:13
Absolon
Adventures of Pluto Nash, The
AntiBody
Avatar
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
Clockstoppers
Dealer's Day
Dragonfly
E.T. the Extra- Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary Edition
Eight Legged Freaks
Eireville
Enraged New World, An
Equilibrium
Extreme Ops
Ghost Ship
Groom Lake
Hellsing (Anime 2002 USA DVD release)
Hypercube: Cube 2
I-Spy
Impostor
Inside Story, The
Intact
It's All About Love
Lilo & Stitch
Lockdown
Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The
Megalodon
Men in Black II
No Law 4000
Noctivagant
Picture Perfect
Pokémon the 4th Movie
Powerpuff Girls
Project V.I.P.E.R.
Pulse Pounders
Reign of Fire
Resident Evil
Rewind
Ring, The
Road to Perdition
Rollerball
S1m0ne
Salvation
Santa Clause 2: The Mrs. Clause, The
Scooby-Doo
Second Chance
So Close
Solaris
Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - The Director's Edition DVD
Storm Watch
Stranded: Náufragos
Subterano
Teknolust
Time Changer
Time Machine, The
Tuck Everlasting
Tuxedo, The
Una
Warrior Sisters


Some are short films, some are lousy (some I'm not sure were even definitely made), but you'd have to include the bad with the good.

Additionally, they're still trying to get the ElfQuest movie and Jumanji 2 done, but they won't make it this year. Sammo Hung Kam-Bo was also supposed to direct Soul Calibur this year, but it looks like that is stuck in production. Interestingly, the collapse of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (with Jean Rochefort as Quixote and Johnny Depp as Sancho Panza) gave rise to an independant film, Lost in La Mancha, about the "Un"making of a movie which is supposed to be phenominal (see more here)

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Okay. I'm thinking that this year is potentially shaping up to be one of the best geek-genre interest movie years ever. I'm talking quality and quantity.

We have so far (some were better than others but none were bad, IMO):

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
Spiderman
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Signs
Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Minority Report
xXx

And still to come (YMMV):

Star Trek: Nemesis
Die Another Day (James Bond)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Treasure Planet

I'm sure I left out a few but I can't think of another single year where so many good movies that are either of the comic book, sci-fi, spy, action genre movies were released. I know that next year is shaping up to be quite good as well, but can any other previous year match or come close to 2002? The closest I can think of was 1999...

Any takers?

My own personal opinion differes with you on several of these

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones - So bad it made Ep I look good
Spiderman: Haven't seen it
Brotherhood of the Wolf: Good for French but average and predictable for Hollywood.
Signs: The only move so far this year to have a lasting impression but one great movie does not a year make.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Haven't Seen but intend to.
Goldmember: A few scenes had me falling out of my seat laughing but far inferior to the first two.
Minority Report: Rather watch Bladerunner again for good Sci-Fi
XXX: 007 for the MTV crowd, not my cup o tea

Still to come:
Star Trek Nemisis: Will definitely see, but no Star Trek movie has been stellar since Wrath of Kahn.
Die Another Day: Will see but I have reservations about Hallie as the bond girl, prehaps I will be wrong.
LotR:Two Towers: Can't wait, but it and Signs don't make this a great year.
Treasure Planet: Haven't decided whether to see or not.

Other impressions
Balistic: Not as bad as the critics made out, but I love Lucy Liu
I-Spy: expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised.
MIB II: Very enjoyable but not great
Time Machine: I thought the bad 60's version was better
The Ring: have been tempted to see.

My opinion of this year has been that Hollywood is only interested in recycling the drech of previous years and doing it badly. Other than Signs and LotR everything else has been very unoriginal.

 

[A2Z]

Re: Re: The Movies of 2002 - Best Year Ever?

Brotherhood of the Wolf: Good for French but average and predictable for Hollywood.

What do you have against french films?

 

[Valanthe the Sleepless]

Another great film...

I'd like to add Spirited Away (by Hayoa Miazaki) to the list of great films this year.

And 2 more to come - HP and LoTR:TTT.

Wheeeee. All in all a pretty good year.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Re: Re: The Movies of 2002 - Best Year Ever?

Balistic: Not as bad as the critics made out, but I love Lucy Liu
I-Spy: expecting the worst, but was pleasantly surprised.
MIB II: Very enjoyable but not great
Time Machine: I thought the bad 60's version was better
The Ring: have been tempted to see.

You ... I... what... ... I know this is all opinion, but I can't believe you're so pessimistic about so many movies, and say things like "one movie does not a year make", when you can stand up for I-Spy, MIBII, and BALLISTIC, which was THE worst piece of crap I have ever seen in a theater, ever... only a FEW rented movies are as bad.

...and Ep II worse than Ep I?!

I thought this was a fantastic year for geek movies. Geeks are becoming THE people who will reliably pay for movie tickets, for the most part, and we really scored at the theaters this year. I think we're going to keep getting what we want. Movies keep getting bigger and better (better meaning more budget and effort, overall... quality, as ever, is debatable), with no sign of slowing down.

The incredible quality of films like Spider-Man, Potter and LotR have made more geeks of regular people. There will be crap movies to come, but hopefully these films have set a new standard that Hollywood will be happy to strive for for years to come.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Re: Re: Re: The Movies of 2002 - Best Year Ever?

What do you have against french films?

I have nothing against french films. It is more of an issue of finances and budgets to make a film up to Hollywood standards of Cinemetography and Production Quality. I will even grant you that most French films are better written than American ones. Brotherhood of the Wolf, along with Ridicule are as close to Hollywood films as I have seen in production quality. Brotherhood however lacks a realy strong script to go with it. Ridicule was a great film all around. In addition I will ad La Femme Nikita to the list. It is a brilliant film from a script and acting perspective but lacked the cinemetography to push it over the top into overall greatness.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Re: Re: Re: The Movies of 2002 - Best Year Ever?

You ... I... what... ... I know this is all opinion, but I can't believe you're so pessimistic about so many movies, and say things like "one movie does not a year make", when you can stand up for I-Spy, MIBII, and BALLISTIC, which was THE worst piece of crap I have ever seen in a theater, ever... only a FEW rented movies are as bad.

...and Ep II worse than Ep I?!

I didn't say any of them were great. I-Spy and MIBII were both humorous enough that I did't feel I had wasted any money seeing them at full price. As I said I love Lucy Liu so I forgive Balistic probably more than I should. As for being one of the worst films ever it does not even come close. If your a masochist you could go rent the Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore and then compare.

As for Ep II. Besides wanting to kill myself everytime Anikin opened his both to either whine or fake a romantic scene with Amidala, The whole thing was based purely on special effects and had even less of a cohearent plot than Ep. I. I can at least say that Jar-Jar anoyed me alot less by only being in a few scenes.

 

[Dr Midnight]

I hate Dork Tower, but Tuesday's was relevant: