The triumphs and the turkeys | Best and Worst of 2012

The Best

4. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

From the people who brought you Wallace and Gromit comes this bonkers and star-studded claymation adventure, packed with inspired incidents, endearing visuals and a whiz-bang sense of humour. The polished-to-the-hilt Pixar Studios can certainly brag about hitting the right notes among both kid and adult audiences, but Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt's tale of a hapless pirate captain out to win an accolade among his outlaw colleagues boasts a devil-may-care approach that makes it a punk-rock counterpart to Pixar's evenings at the ballet.

 3. Dredd

Never has something to outwardly unremarkable felt like such a triumph. Forget about the mid-90s Sylvester Stallone flop, this is the Judge Dredd film we've all been waiting for. Working in close collaboration with Dredd's creator John Wagner - who introduced the character in the pages of British comic book anthology 2000AD back in the 1970s - director Pete Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland strip the concept to its bare essentials, pitting the titular hard-man Dredd (Lord of the Rings star Karl Urban) against a deranged drug baroness Ma-Ma (Game of Thrones's Lena Headey).

As if it weren't enough of a show of loyalty that, just like his comic book counterpart, Urban's Dredd never once takes off his helmet, Travis and Garland present a lean, mean thriller that doesn't skimp on the violence and, remaining confined in a grotty tower block, never once overreaches beyond the limitations of its tight budget.

2. Life of Pi

This late entry is an instant winner. Director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Brokeback Mountain) takes on the gargantuan task of adapting Yann Martel's thematically ambitious, narratively unfriendly novel about Pi Patel, an Indian boy who finds himself stranded on a boat with a very hungry Bengal tiger.

Not only is it visually dazzling - along with Martin Scorcese's Hugo, it's one of the few films that makes a case for 3D as a legitimate art form - but the script, penned by Finding Neverland scribe David Magee, doesn't shy away from the novel's complex underbelly, dealing with universal themes of religion, faith and man's relationship with the natural world. Of course, you'll remember the astonishing tableaux, but you'll also appreciate that it doesn't insult your intelligence either.

1. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

A team of police investigators stalk the Turkish steppes for an elusive murder site, aided by a none-too-helpful suspect. The group of men are a taciturn bunch, but all of them seem to be carrying a heavy burden... which the long, plodding journey through the bleak hills reveals in layer over pained layer, without any of them even noticing that their innermost secrets are being exposed...

Appearing on the Maltese radar only thanks to its two nominations at this year's European Film Awards (which took place in Valletta on December 1), this is a bewitching beast from Turkey that sticks in the mind. Virtually plotless and arguably overlong, it is nonetheless a film of beautiful, haunting atmosphere that seeps into your consciousness like a persistent dream.

The Worst

4. Prometheus

Do your homework and you'll catch me in a contradiction: I gave Ridley Scott's confusing sort-of prequel to Alien four stars upon release. Maybe I was in denial, and viewed the film as a good enough blueprint for future greatness in the hope that a sequel would resolve the disgraceful myriad of loose ends this space-exploration-gone-wrong thriller leaves in its wake. But a superlative performance by Michael Fassbender as the crew's resident amoral android cannot rescue this bloated turkey from disappearing up Scott's backside and, like the alien creations he helped bring to life decades ago, eating him alive from the inside.  

3. The Iron Lady

Yes, Meryl Streep's performance as the firebrand former prime minister of Britain is a worthwhile, (if showy) effort. But everything else? Diminishing the politics to tell a 'personal' story about Margaret Thatcher is not only cowardly, it's also baffling: why would we want to watch Thatcher struggling with senility and recalling her 'greatest hits', when there's so much in her career that's ripe for dramatic exploitation?

2. The Dictator 

How the mighty have fallen. Once considered to be the natural heir of comedy luminaries such as Peter Sellers and Jerry Lewis, Borat, Bruno and Ali G creator Sascha Baron Cohen eschewed his trademark documentary approach for this crass cheap shot that all-too-easily mocks the recently deceased Muammar Gaddafi. The title hints at a comparison to an other master of comedy: the perennial Charlie Chaplin. If only inspiration ran in parallel to ambition...

1. Snow White and the Huntsman

For better or for worse (contrary to my every instinct I will tick under 'for better'), star Kirsten Stewart's home-wrecking fling with director Rupert Sanders snatched most of the limelight away from this lazy retelling of the Snow White story (it wasn't the only one this year, as its tonal polar opposite Mirror, Mirror also made its way to the cinemas). It is a masterclass is how precisely NOT to match form to content. Jumping on the 'edgy' bandwagon, Sanders forgets to harmonise the story to the visual mood, making it impossible to get caught up in the fantasy.