2012 in Movies: Batman and Lincoln and Pi, oh my!

For a year that began with the silent film ode "The Artist" winning every award in sight, movies ended up making plenty of noise in 2012.

It was a big year for technology. Brenden Theatres at the Palms was one of the first dozen cinemas in the country to debut Dolby Atmos, the teeth-rattling sound system that puts speakers in the ceiling and can isolate sound anywhere in the theater. Peter Jackson sought to change the very look of movies by shooting "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" in High Frame Rate 3-D. And Christopher Nolan filmed more than an hour of "The Dark Knight Rises" using IMAX cameras - and then some orange-haired jackhole tried to ruin it for everybody.

It also was the year that saw the emergence of video on demand as a legitimate way to release smaller movies. "Margin Call" earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay, and "Arbitrage" earned a Golden Globe nomination and Oscar buzz for its star, Richard Gere.

As for the movies themselves, Joss Whedon was responsible for 2012's biggest movie with "The Avengers." But his "Cabin in the Woods" was even more fun.

Speaking of surprises, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" turned out to be more of a biopic while "Lincoln" proved vastly more entertaining.

Along those lines, the best times I had at the movies this year: "Django Unchained," "Ted," "The Dark Knight Rises" and "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

The best performances I saw: Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln," John Hawkes in "The Sessions," tiny Quvenzhane Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and Alan Arkin in "Argo."

Matthew McConaughey had a huge year as the district attorney in the black comedy "Bernie"; as the grizzled master of ceremonies in "Magic Mike," which surprised many by being a very good Steven Soderbergh movie and not the striploitation skinfest of the commercials; and as the paid assassin in "Killer Joe," which assured that anyone who saw it will never again look at a chicken leg the same way.

Taylor Kitsch rebounded from his disastrous start to the year in "John Carter" and "Battleship" with Oliver Stone's brutal "Savages," which too few moviegoers saw.

Michael Fassbender drew raves for his eerily lifelike android in "Prometheus" and for his penis in "Shame."

The year ushered in "The Hunger Games" and swept out "The Twilight Saga."

The engrossing documentary "The Queen of Versailles" - about the impact of the financial crisis on one family's uberextravagant lifestyle and the battle for the time share tower at Planet Hollywood Resort - felt like the pilot for a Bravo reality show. (Spoiler alert: Next time you're near the Strip, don't look at the sign atop the building.)

Commercial tie-ins are nothing new, but tickets to several releases this year should have come with adult diapers: "Cloud Atlas" (177 minutes), "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" (169 minutes), "Django Unchained" (165 minutes), "The Dark Knight Rises" (165 minutes), "Les Miserables" (158 minutes), "Lincoln" (149 minutes), "The Avengers" (143 minutes), "Skyfall" (143 minutes), "The Master" (138 minutes) and "This Is 40" (134 minutes).

Other highlights from 2012 included:

■ the ageless charms of "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

■ the mixtape nostalgia of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."

■ the retro romance of "Moonrise Kingdom."

■ and the "Dark Knight Rises"-meets-"Home Alone" detour of "Skyfall."

And there were standout moments in movies that didn't work as a whole.

The first half-hour of "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World."

The first hour of "Flight."

"Looper" before they got to the farm.

Everything but the horribly clumsy present-day scenes in "Life of Pi."

The ambition - but most assuredly not the execution - of "Cloud Atlas."

Anytime they were singing in "Rock of Ages."