MTV has released its top 10 films of 2012 and unsurprisingly the entertainment site picked one of the most popular films of the year as their best film: The Dark Knight Rises.
The grand finale to Christopher Nolan's Batman saga has long been out of Oscar contention and while this win will not help build its case, it marks the first time that the film has been selected as the top film of the year by a major publication. MTV's Josh Horowitz writes that "From Tom Hardy's hypnotic take on Bane (a character generally dismissed as second-tier in the Batman canon) to Anne Hathaway somehow living up to and perhaps exceeding Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal in "Batman Returns," Nolan made brilliant choice after brilliant choice. And then there are the final 20 minutes, a skillfully edited sequence of escalating action and emotion that gave us all goose bumps. Bruce Wayne's story is over. But the Batman will live forever, and so will this film."
The publication has been known to pick mainstream blockbusters over the years. In 2011 they picked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and in 2010, they picked Inception as their top film. The publication's remaining nine films on the 2012 list mixes some smaller independents with major blockbusters.
The complete list is as follows:
10. The Hunger Games
9. The Hobbit
8. Silver Linings Playbook
7. The Cabin in the Woods
6. Skyfall
5. The Avengers
4. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Looper
2. Perks of Being a Wallflower
1. The Dark Knight Rises
Of the films selected, Cabin in the Woods, The Hunger Games, and The Avengers have been virtually ignored by precursor awards. Meanwhile, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty are among major frontrunners to win Best Picture at the Oscars in February.
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