8. Prometheus/Looper
I know I'm cheating a little by placing two entries here instead of on, but both Prometheus and Looper served as part of a higher function in 2012 so they had to be together. That higher function I'm referring to is the resurgence of sci-fi that has started this year. These two films served to prove that audiences not only can comprehend movies that actually have something to say, but also can enjoy them. Intelligent sci-fi has never been box-office gold... until 2012. Look at Prometheus. Sure, it's got some pretty glaring plot holes, but what it did for its genre is more important than whether the movie was good or not. Prometheus wasn't afraid to present some extremely heavy ideas (Is God real? Where do we come from? What's the meaning of life?) while still being received by the masses at the theater. That is incredible no matter what year it is. Looper did the same thing. It was highly successful (166 million at the box-office, don't you know?) and also highly acclaimed by critics (93% on Rotten Tomatoes). Looper proved that a movie that features complex themes like time travel and its repercussions could not only be inventive but also exciting. The movie had action sequences that rivaled the best I saw all year while exploring deep and thought provoking ideas that were more thrilling than any action sequence.