World War Z was plagued from the first day of production with hasty reshoots, the lack of an ending and the need to fly in Damon Lindelof for emergency rewrites. When you need to hire Lindelof to tidy up your screenplay, you know something’s gone wrong. Imagine our surprise then, when World War Z proved to be not only coherent but actively enjoyable. It has no where near the scope of the Max Brooks book, and is tonally uneven, but for a CGI-driven action film World War Z is above par. Prepare for your bottom to be firmly clenched.

Probably the best Bond of the new era, Skyfall is an assured and at times jaw-droppingly beautiful action film. Veering slightly more towards the ludicrous excesses of the Bond of old, Skyfall simultaneously maintains the grittier, more modern style, making it an anniversary throwback and a distinctly modern Bond film all at once. Obsessed with the spectre of death and being replaced, Skyfall doesn’t actually have a great deal to say on those topics, but it does have a memorable baddie (finally!) – and if the climax is disappointing, it’s only in comparison to the mastery of the rest of it.

Take a deep breath and prepare yourself for an exhaustive year of EPIC action films. 2012 is the official year of explosive sequels, daring superheroes and hardcore fairy tales. Just make sure you have an oxygen tank nearby.

ZombieLAD

At the invitation of the Swedenborg Society, Best For Film is publishing a special series of reviews to follow its ‘Images of the Afterlife in Cinema’ film season, which will be exploring life, death and everything in between. This week we’re struggling to get to the bottom of Marc Forster’s psychological drama Stay.