2012 Films We Needs To See!

Otherwise known as the 'I Haven't Been To The Cinema In Ages' blog, this time will be looking at some of the movies coming out next year...most of which I'm unbelievably excited for. Some are also a bit pants looking. But hey-ho, roll with the punches and all that.

First up is a horror film which actually creeped me out in the trailer, The Woman In Black.

Okay, this film has a lot of pressure on it already...Daniel Radcliffe is going to have to do very well for people to take it seriously without shouting out "DERRR...WHY DON'T HE DONE USE A PATRONUS". But this film is based on a pretty scary Victorian-style novel, and adapted for the big screen by Jane Goldman, who was also responsible for Stardust, Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, so yeah, it's got good foundations. And in terms of good horror, Victorian-style is probably the best...it brings us right back to chain rattling, corridor bothering spirits that we'll all wet our pants at without wanting to admit it... How many of us run up the stairs when we turn out the light in case a shadowy thing we can't quite see chases us? Yep, that's basically what we're talking about in this film. Radcliffe plays a lawyer seeking to sort out the legal issues of a recently deceased woman, and stays in a house plagued by supernatural mischief. Check the trailer out...I can't wait.

Second...the culmination of all the fantastic super-heroe movies... The Avengers.

I really don't think there's much I need to say abouOH MY GOD THIS IS GOING TO BE AMAZING! Look at it, we'll have Robert Downey Jnr as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk (no picture yet) just to name a few. Oh, and it's directed by Joss Wheadon, responsible for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Speed, Toy Story and Thor. So yes. It's going to be brilliant, I mean...come on! Definitely fake, but still entertaining trailer here.

Neeext, and it's a sci-fi piece of greatness. Prometheus.

Here it is: a new piece of the Alien franchise actually directed by Ridley Scott. After watching the series get absolutely butchered by Alien Vs Predator, it would seem Mr Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom Of Heaven, American Gangster...) has decided to go back and save his baby. Prometheus is, however, not strictly speaking a prequel. In fact, Scott has distanced it from the franchise slightly, however, the basis of the story is set 30 years prior to the first Alien outing, and explores the first possible encounters with creatures and technology seen in the other films. It stars Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender and Guy Pearce. And it's going to be spiffing. Possibly fake trailer here.

Like you need an introduction for the next one: The Dark Knight Rises.

Unless you're a bit weird, you loved The Dark Knight, so unless you're still a bit weird, you'll definitely be waiting on the edge of your seat for this, the final part in Christopher Nolan's Batman series. This time Christian Bale and Gary Oldman are battling against Anne Hathaway's Catwoman, and Tom Hardy's Bane. Along with pretty much every one else who was in Inception. You know what to expect from this, and if it's anything like the first two, it's going to be simply fantastic. And now that we know gadgets like the batwing (a ridiculously cool plane for Batman, in case you needed to know) have been thrown in, I think I safely predict that we're all in for a bit of a treat. Trailer fun here.

Penultimate one I'm going to mention is a zombie apocalypse giant, World War Z.

It's not out until December 2012, so doesn't have a poster yet, but basically here's the jist: Brad Pitt is a UN employee travelling the world, interviewing the survivors of the zombie apocalypse, known as World War Z. It's based on the novel by Max Brooks (son of living movie god Mel), a book so popular upon it's release, you'd be hard pushed to find one in twenty people who hadn't at least heard of it. I have high hopes.

And finally, the one I really am looking forward to the most... The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Again, this one comes out too far into the future to have a poster just yet, but things really are coming together quite nicely. After a scare of whether or not it would happen, due to changes in director, Peter Jackson, the man who brought us the Lord Of The Rings films decided to step in...like anyone else should do it instead! If you've read the novel, you probably fell a little bit in love with it, and it couldn't be in safer hands than with Mr. Jackson. The cast has pretty much all been announced, the notable members include: Martin Freeman as Bilbo, Sir Ian Holm returns as the older Bilbo, Sir Ian McKellen (!) returns as Gandalf, Richard Armitage as Thorin, Andy Serkis returns as Gollum, Hugo Weaving returns as Elrond, Cate Blanchett returns as Galadriel, Christopher Lee returns as Saruman, and small cameo roles are give to Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom as Frodo and Legolas respectively. Even Stephen Fry has a part, as the Master Of Lake-Town. And probably the most bizarre member of the cast, as the Great Goblin, is Barry Humphries...yes, that's Dame Edna.

Look, I don't need to sell this to you, it's going to be easily in the top three best performing films of the next five years, never mind next year. Millions of us will see it, and millions of us will love returning to Middle Earth again. And no, I honestly do not care just how splendidly nerdish that sounds.

Before I leave you (and you've done well to stick with it this long), it would also seem that 2012 is going to be the year of flogging a dead horse. Next year there will be unexpected (and most likely unwanted) new offerings in the following franchises: Underworld, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth, Clash Of The Titans, American Pie (actually featuring the original cast), Scary Movie, Men In Black (even including Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones....somehow) and G.I. Joe. At least there'll be a new James Bond to look forward to then.

Finally, in terms of reboot or remakes, expect to find Ghost Rider back again...even with Nicholas Cage...Yep, I have no idea how they let him have another crack at it either, a new Judge Dredd film, with Karl Urban trying to get rid of Sly Stallone's version for us... And last and definitely not least, the new version of Spider-Man comes out, which might actually you know...be good.

Thanks for reading if you managed to stick with it.