The 12 Most Amazing Movies of '12

This was a truly amazing year for movies, with some of our greatest filmmakers -- including Ridley Scott, P.T. Anderson and Quentin Tarantino -- delivering some of their most stirring, challenging and entertaining films yet. We saw James Bond return after a four-year absence, we saw The Avengers break box office records, and we were introduced to an amazing new face to watch: Beasts of the Southern Wild's Quvenzhane Wallis. Read on to find out which movies were truly the most amazing of 2012 – and not always for positive reasons.

Liam Neeson dances with wolves – in a deadly fashion – in this edge-of-your-seat thriller released back in January, but not easily forgotten. In a role much more intense than the one in his over-the-top, disppointing Taken 2, Neeson plays an oil rig sharpshooter who survives a jarring plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness -- only to have to face a hungry pack of wolves picking off the handful of survivors one by one. Watch this one in the dark…

People love it when a good plan comes together. Not solely a stand-alone movie, the brain trust at Marvel Studios worked diligently with a variety of separate superhero movies that weaved together logically to lead up to the Main Event: A story of clashing super-egos who must work together to save the world from evil. The Avengers not only represented deft juggling by director Joss Whedon of a large cast and epic story -- that, in the wrong hands, could easily could have imploded -- but showed Hollywood that audiences are hungry for smart filmmaking, and that big-budget filmmaking doesn't have to pander to the lowest common denominator. The superhero team of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow triumphed with a $203 million opening weekend and took in close to $620 million at the domestic box office when all was said and done.

"Most amazing of the year" doesn't necessary mean that it has to have a positive connotation, does it? Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender starred in one of the most anticipated follow-ups in movie history – Ridley Scott's heralded return to Alien territory after 30 years – and it turned out to be such a spectacular train wreck that the movie got people tweeting, arguing and scratching their heads all summer long. I personally put much of the blame on co-scribe Damon Lindelof of Lost fame for muddying the water with red-herrings, set-ups with lame or abandoned payoffs, far-fetched circumstances and unrealistic human reactions to wondrous situations. While the film's production design was superb, as was Fassbender's character and performance, Prometheus ultimately failed to overcome its flaws and meets excited fans' heightened expectations. It's amazing that this film got made with such an awful screenplay.

Like an early Wes Anderson movie with a toe dipped in sci-fi, this witty, subtle comedy follows a trio of magazine employees (Jake Johnson an editor, and his two interns, played by Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni) who seek to expose the real story behind a man who put a classified ad in the paper seeking a time travel partner. Mark Duplass plays the mysterious man who turns out to be a likeable but eccentric and paranoid supermarket clerk. Is he nuts? Or is he actually onto something that could change the course of history forever? This low-budget indie goes to show that clever writing and belief in one's convictions provide the biggest budget of all.

This mid-summer indie release/Sundance favorite managed to surprise, charm and inspire anyone coming into contact with it. The post-Katrina fable follows a young girl (Quvenzhane Wallis) with an active imagination surviving in a bayou community cut off from the rest of the world by a sprawling levee -- impressing with the power of solid storytelling and one of the great performances of the year from a six-year-old girl.

Ben Affleck proves that The Town and Gone Baby Gone were no fluke with this engrossing, absolutely unbelievable true tale that manages to effectively balance well-earned laughs alongside moments of sheer terror. Taken from declassified government files about the real-life Iran hostage crisis that consumed headlines at the end of the turbulent '70s, Argo is one of the true surprises of the year and Affleck has amazingly reinvented himself as an A-list director.

Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to There Will Be Blood generated more controversy before even a frame was seen by the public due to its parallels to the rise of Scientology, but turned out to be less about the religion and more about some seriously disturbed and troubled characters. Another flawed gem from Anderson's bag of tricks, The Master gave us one of the greatest performances of the year – the twisted grimace of Joaquin Phoenix and his penchant for imbibing paint thinner still haunts -- and clocking in at just under two-and-a-half hours, the film still only manages to scratch the surface, like a scab, of who Philip Seymour Hoffman's Master really is. It leaves us wanting so much more.

November's Skyfall saw the return of James Bond as the most human he's ever been in his 50-year big-screen history. Director Sam Mendes transformed cinema's unflappable super spy into a flawed character – much more aligned with creator Ian Fleming's original layers -- who is still hugely capable of handling any intense situation as needed, even if he needs to die and be reborn to get the job done. And not to take things too seriously, the filmmakers gave the fans what they wanted with a brand-new Q and Moneypenny, one of the most devilish Bond villains yet (Javier Bardem oozes creepy) -- and the return of 007's beloved Aston Martin DB5, complete with ejector seat.

Perfectly timed to take advantage of the Halloween mood, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie delivered the director's signature style with a stop-motion animated tale about a young boy determined to bring his beloved dog back to life, no matter what the cost. A wonderful companion piece to The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, Burton finally found his creative muse once again after a string of visually stunning but creatively flat and arguably soulless remakes (Dark Shadows, Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Planet of the Apes).

The fact that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was even made is an amazing feat, since the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy was in legal limbo for a lengthy amount of time as MGM struggled through bankruptcy issues. And despite a very mixed reception for the film's controversial 48-frames-per-second 3D technology, director Peter Jackson has persevered to create the beginnings of a three-part prequel trilogy to The Lord of the Rings that fits right in with that billion-dollar set of films. With 48 FPS, the experience lasts for the duration of the movie, and the depth is incredible. While well-lit scenes look horribly video-like, darkened set-pieces look great and invite you into the action. And once Gollum makes his highly anticipated appearance -- looking amazingly life-like and precioussss -- the trade-off is well-worth it.

Quentin Tarantino's enthusiastic follow-up to Inglourious Basterds marks his gunslinging take on the "Southern" genre (as opposed to the "Western") -- and it amazes at every turn. Jamie Foxx plays a former slave-turned-bounty hunter who sets out to rescue his wife (Kerry Washington) from a ruthless plantation owner – a deliciously dastardly turn by Leonardo DiCaprio -- with the help of German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). On top of the expectedly delicious Tarantino dialogue, the film boasts colorful and eclectic supporting turns by Don Johnson, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, RZA and Tarantino mainstay Samuel L. Jackson.

The most intense movie of the year impacts us all on an emotional level because we all lived it in some way. Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow follows up The Hurt Locker with the true-life, post 9/11 tale of how we finally caught up with Osama bin Laden, detailing for the first time the against-all-odds, 10-year hunt to find him and the deadly, high-stakes raid that killed him on May 2, 2011. The film's star Jessica Chastain gives a career-defining performance, and Bigelow shows that her Oscar was no fluke. Hands down one of the best of the year.