I haven't done one of these in a while...at least partly because last year, in particular, wasn't what I would call a great year for movies. But! 2012 brings with it a lot of really stuff I'm really interested in.

In rough order of release:

Detention--a very culty-sounding SF horror teen movie from the director of Torque, this already seems to be dividing the people who have seen it, but it certainly sounds interesting.

The Cabin in the Woods--Kicking off a very Joss Whedon-centric year (he co-wrote it with director and fellow Buffy alumnus Drew Goddard) the early word on this is insanely good. Apparently not just a quality horror movie but a legitimately innovative one. The twist you see in the trailer is apparently just the beginning.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits--Yes, I know that's not the real title. New Aardman is always a treat, and as I recall Beggar So's Hat has already seen and praised it on Twitter.

The Avengers--The big Marvel movies have mostly reached a level slightly above "amusingly disposable" for me, but between the uniqueness of doing a true crossover movie and, again, Whedon's involvement, this looks like it might be the first superhero movie in a while that's really special.

Dark Shadows--This sounded like a train wreck, but the trailer sold me.

Snow White and the Huntsman--OK, I admit this is a bit questionable for me, but it sure *looks* pretty.

Prometheus--I'm in the minority that has doubts about this one as well, but it certainly has an amazing pedigree. I guess my rule for this year is, "if it looks technically spectacular and has Charlize Theron in it, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt."

Brave--Pixar, going back to doing something a little different after spending two years in a row in sequel-land. I'm still disappointed that they sacked the original director, for whom this was apparently a very personal story, but it still looks pretty awesome and...it's Pixar.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter--Because you just have to admire the lunacy involved in making this movie as straight-faced as it appears to be. I honestly wonder if director Timur Bekmembatov (the Night Watch series), who is of course Russian, even has a firm grasp on who Abraham Lincoln was.

Much ado About Nothing--The third of this year's Whedon trifecta. "Based on a play." You can't accuse the guy of spinning his wheels.

In Your Eyes--Wait! I lied! It's a quadrafecta! Whedon wrote the script for this, whatever it is. Which means I'm interested.

The Dark Knight Rises--While I've been vociferous in my opinion that the Christopher Nolan Batman movies are overrated, they're still damn good, and I'm of course looking forward to the final (?) entry.

Paranorman--Because stop motion is always a good thing.

Argo--Based on a really odd real-life event in which the CIA used a fake movie production to smuggle diplomats out of Iran, this is already a great story, but what pushes it over the edge for me is that we'll get to see someone playing Jack Kirby on screen. Plus, Ben Affleck is directing, and he's proven he's a legitimate talent behind the camera.

Looper--Time travel movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis playing the same character in two different time periods. This is the next movie from Rian Johnson, who made Brick and The Brothers Bloom, two of my favourite movies of the last few years. Sold.

Cloud Atlas--Screw all y'all hatas, I still think the Wachowski siblings are fascinating filmmakers, and here they're tackling an apparently really weird novel--regularly described as "unfilmable"--with director Tom Tykwer (another favourite of mine) and a stellar cast.

Hotel Transylvania--This really could be a banner year for animated movies, especially, apparently, those with a horror element. This sounds like a modern riff on "Monster Mash"-style animated specials, but the director is Samurai Jack's Genndy Tartakovsky, so I'm there. Sadly, this and "Paranorman" will probably be overshadowed by Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, which I'm far less interested in.

Skyfall--The last Bond film seemed like it suffered a bit due to the writer's strike, but it was still decent, and Daniel Craig as Bond will have my ticket sold until they cast someone new. This one seems to be returning to some of the over-the-top comic-bookiness of the old-school Bonds, without (hopefully) going as far into moronic camp as the later Brosnans, which is what I want to see.

Gravity--Alfonso Cuaron does surivival-in-space SF.

Cosmopolis--As I said in the trailer thread, Cronenberg's been delivering diminishing returns for me since he left SF and horror behind, but this looks like a return to form. (Though, oddly, I'm not sure if it's technically SF or horror. But it sure FEELS like it.)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey--I'm honestly not as excited about extentions of existing properties as I used to be, no matter how much I loved the original, but of course there's a lot of potential for greatness here. Still wish they weren't chopping it into two movies, though.

Django Unchained--As far as I can tell, it's Tarantino doing for the pre-Civil War South what he did for WWII in Inglourious Basterds, and I could not be more excited.

And that's just the stuff on my radar, that I'm excited about. What am I missing?

Amazing Spider-Man is coming this summer as well. I'm also looking forward to the new Total Recall (trailer coming this weekend), and I think Lockout is coming out soon, the space prison movie from the Besson factory.

What form of terror will Luc Besson have the Albanians or other infiltrators of France do this time? Whatever, it will still be completely badass

Don't forget, we get not one, but TWO Snow White adaptations this year - Mirror Mirror staring Julia Roberts. Interesting that in one film Snow White looks like Elizabeth Taylor, and in the other she looks like Joan of Arc.

The Raid: Redemption: SWAT team must fight there way through hordes of drug dealers inside a villain filled tenement building.

The Raven: Edgar Allen Poe (John Cusak) must help police track down a serial killer that his using his stories for inspiration.

Battleship: Supposedly based on the Hasbro game but looks more like "Battle Los Angles" at sea.

Piranha 3DD: The killer fishies attack a water park. Sounds like their remaking the last act of the original "Piranha."

G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation: COBRA takes over the White House!

The Bourne Legacy: A sequel type reboot.

Just to be clear, I was listing the movies I personally was excited about/interested in. That doesn't mean Battleship might not be a work of genius, but BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Probably should have included The Raid, though, the advance reviews are insane. Also, I was just reminded that P. T. Anderson's The Master, which may or may not be a thinly-veiled biopic of L. Ron Hubbard, arrives this year. Aside from wanting to see this, I want to see the hubbub that ensues from it.

Oh, and yet another one, which hasn't been officially picked up for release yet but has been hitting festivals and will probably be on the big screen this year: John Dies At the End. It's a really strange-looking comedy-horror movie with meta Lovecraftian elements, based on a novel by a Cracked.com editor and directed by Don Coscarelli, of "Phantasm" and "Bubba Ho-Tep" fame. People keep putting this one next to The Cabin in The Woods as examples of how 2012 is going to go down as a great year for innovative horror movies.

Oh, so in this thread we are only to discus movies that personally excite you. Gotcha.

No, no, not trying to exclude anyone, I'm just saying if something's not on the list that's my own personal quirk. Like, I'm not personally particularly excited about Amazing Spider-Man but I'm obviously aware it exists.

See it if you like Aardman, British comedy, astonishing claymation, or just because it's a movie that thinks science and evolution is just gosh-darn awesome. If there's a better animated comedy this year I'll be very impressed.

I think oddly the thing that intrigues me the most about The Amazing Spider-Man is that James Horner is doing the music score. I'm kind of interested in seeing what he can do with the score to a big superhero movie, especially since I admire his score for The Rocketeer. (The closest thing he's done to a superhero summer movie, unless I'm forgetting something.)

Of course, it's probably going to rip off heavily of his past scores and other existing music, like a lot of his stuff does, but I'm still intrigued. I just hope he can give Spidey a memorable musical theme, since I was never crazy about Elfman's theme.

Movies I get a feeling are going to be better than they have right too: Battleship - sure, its allegedly based on a board game, but every single preview I have seen have made me feel surprised and kind of tingly.

GI Joe: Retaliation - and not just because it features Bruce Willis and The Rock, but that it just somehow seems cool

The Dictator - Sasha Baron Cohen's new one appears to have a deadly edge of satire associated with it.

Wrath of the Titans - It seems a better made movie than John Carter and, hey, it gots Liam Neeson fighting with lightning alongside a Greek hero against something that actually resembles a Titan.

Maybe The Goon - I am completely ignorant of the comic beyong knowing that it exists, so my tentativeness is based less on how well the character translates from comic to screen and more on my narrow level of toleration for Sean William Scott.

Believe it or not, I am actually interested in American Reunion.

And, Chloe Moretz's apparently highly controversial role in Hick and, because I just love the title, in August, The Wettest County which sounds like a 70s era moonshiner picture in the vein of The Moonshine Wars and Moonshine County Express.

Incidentally, there is going to be a 3rd (yes, a 3rd) Snow White movie released in 2012 which may have just become my most anticipated movie of the year: according to IMDB, there will be Snow White: A Deadly Summer - a movie set in the modern day in which a young girl is put into a deadly "discipline camp" by her evil stepmother. It's directed by David DeCoteau and stars Eric Roberts and .... as the evil stepmother ---- MAUREEN McCORMICK. Marcia Brady herself!!

This last one is a must see.

"Goon" doesn't have anything to do with the comic as far as I know. The comic is a bizarre mash-up of EC comics tropes and film noir. The movie is about a hockey enforcer.

I go back and forth on The Dictator. I do like Cohen, and this is a great premise. I'm just leery of committing to pretty much any comedy this wacky until I hear great reviews.

The Seann William Scott Goon is a foul-mouthed hockey comedy about a nice guy who becomes a minor-league team's designated thug; it's got nothing to do with any comic books. I still want to see it.

I want to see this so bad.

On the other hand, I can't decide if I'm interested in The Bourne Legacy or not. I like the first three movies quite a bit, but...I just don't know about this. That said, if someone says as little as, "Well, they hold the camera still this time," I'll probably go see it.

Meanwhile, I continue to have no interest in The Amazing Spider-Man whatsoever. Which, given that Spider-Man always has been and always will be my favorite character, is kind of depressing.