The end of August signals the end of the summer movie season. And, what a season it’s been. We’ve seen mega hits (The Avengers), big misses and movies that didn’t quite live up to the hype. What films stood tall among the rest?

Best Animated Film

This one came down to a showdown between two sequels: Madagascar 3, Ice Age: Continental Drift and one original, Brave. And, though the gap was narrowed a lot more than in previous years, Brave is my pick. To not have another sequel was refreshing, the animation top notch and enough heart to remind us why we love Pixar, even if it wasn’t the classic we were all hoping for. The other two films weren’t bad, but just seemed a little tiring at this point.

Best Comic Book Film

Obviously the three big ones: The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and the Dark Knight Rises dominated the box office for the genre. My favorite was also the first blockbuster of the summer. The Avengers was witty, fun, didn’t take itself too seriously and took the summer blockbuster to a whole new level. The Dark Knight Rises was a good, not great, film and then Amazing Spider-Man never quite lived up to its potential.

Best Comedy

I have a feeling a lot of people would say Ted for this category. Mine is Moonrise Kingdom. The Wes Anderson flick was laugh out loud funny and featured strong performances from Edward Norton and the two children playing the leads. It’s hard to find, but do yourself a favor and see this film.

Best Action Film

Note: Comic book films are out for this one. I’m going to say “The Bourne Legacy” only because out of the pure action films (which is basically this and “The Expendables 2”) I liked this one marginally more. But, I didn’t think either was a classic.

Best Sci-Fi Film

Even though I thought it failed to come close to living up to the hype, I’m going with Prometheus. Total Recall was just too uneven for me to give the top spot, even though I enjoyed that film as a summer blockbuster. Prometheus had enough good ideas to make up for most of its shortcomings.

So Long Sweet Summer

The summer began with one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. And, with a mix of intriguing new originals, big sequels and a few surprises, this summer may have lacked a true classic like 2010’s Toy Story 3, but had one of the best mixes of films in recent years.

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