Still, early signs are that Whedon is up to the job. The trailer that’s been released is strong, even if it makes the film look more of an Iron Man sequel than The Avengers, and we’ve met few people who won’t be in the queue to buy a ticket as a result. They are in the minority, though.

We have absolutely no doubt that Whedon will take the ingredients here and make a fun couple of hours at the movies. The test? Can he make a genuinely strong blockbuster, one that fully hangs together? It’s a good question, and time will tell the answer.

No pressure, but Marvel’s movie strategy now seems to hang on this one film…

8. DJANGO UNCHAINED

Genre-hopping Quentin Tarantino tackles a full-on western next, and as you’d expect, he’s got a stellar cast on board. Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Samuel L Jackson, Kurt Russell, Christoph Waltz and Don Johnson are amongst the ensemble this time. Kevin Costner was also due to feature, but has since had to pull out due to other commitments.

Tarantino has, as always, penned the script, and Django Unchained – which arrives at the very end of 2012 – is the story of a slave-turned-bounty hunter, played by Jamie Foxx, who attempts to free his wife. Things do not go to plan.

Tarantino is giving himself a little more time to lock a final cut than he did with his last movie, Inglourious Basterds (whose schedule was part-dictacted by Tarantino’s desire to screen the film at Cannes), and that space should allow him to fashion one of 2012’s must-see movies. Here’s hoping.

7. WRECK-IT RALPH

The distribution side of Disney is releasing three major animated films next year, each of which looks strong in its own right. The one we’ve left off this list is Pixar’s Brave, which we think will be strong, but it’s so under wraps, it’s hard to get too enthused just yet (the trailer didn’t do it too many favours, either).

It’s Wreck-It Ralph, then, that might emerge as the CG-animated film of choice for next year. The basic outline is lovely: an old, 8-bit computer game character finds himself in the modern world. Visually, straight away, that opens up an abundance of possibilities, and also, it’s Disney trying something just a little different. And it’s a bold move to wrap an entire mainstream animated feature around videogame characters.

If there’s one thing tempering our enthusiasm, it would be that this might end up being a fairly routine adventure in very different clothes. However, we suspect there’s something quite brilliant at work here. Rich Moore is making his feature directorial debut here, but his background – The Simpsons, Futurama, The Critic – certainly suggests that tonally, Wreck-It Ralph might just have the goods to marry up to its inspired concept.

The film isn’t due out until the very end of December. That’s the only downside so far…

6. JOHN CARTER

This lavish adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp sci-fi heroes may be released in a crowded year for genre movies, but we’ve every hope that John Carter can compete with the best of them. Burroughs’ Barsoom books may not have the pre-installed global audience that, say, a high-profile Marvel or DC comic hero might have behind it (though they undoubtedly have a devoted following), but they’re the perfect jumping-off point for an exciting action fantasy that’s perfect for the big screen.

The other reason we’re looking forward to John Carter, though, is because Andrew Stanton’s directing it. He’s already proven his abilities as a storyteller in such Pixar movies as Finding Nemo and Wall-E, and the amount of CG effects work in John Carter should make this movie the perfect entry point into the very different world of live-action filmmaking.

The 20-minute preview we saw in November did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm, and there’s every chance that John Carter will provide a heady mix of drama and remarkable visual effects.

5. THE PIRATES: IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS!

You wait five years for an Aardman movie to arrive, and then two turn up within six months of each other. We really enjoyed CG-feature Arthur Christmas, but it’s Aardman’s first stop-frame animated movie since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit that is already shaping up as the family movie to beat in 2012.

Everything we’ve seen of the film thus far demonstrates a lavish attention to detail, a steadfast sense of character, and a style and wit that few of 2012’s releases look set to be able to hold a torch too. It helps that the expertise of Peter Lord – creator of Morph, director of Chicken Run – is calling the shots on the film, but there’s more to The Pirates than that.

This is a massively ambitious production, about a Pirate Captain who’s trying to win a Pirate Of The Year competition despite the fact that he’s generally a bit rubbish. This lays a platform for Aardman to not only showcase its unparalleled craft, but to put together a funny, warm family adventure (it’s already looking like one of 2012’s funniest).

It might not prove to be the biggest animated hit of 2012 (it doesn’t help that the film has a different title on each side of the channel), but its competition will have a job on their hands to beat it for sheer quality. We can’t wait.

Incidentally, it’s also the only film on the 2012 roster that uses the voice talent of Brian Blessed that we’re aware of. Shame on every other film.

4. THE HOBBIT

It’s almost surreal that The Hobbit movies are finally happening. First, Peter Jackson and New Line were at loggerheads. Then MGM’s bank balance cost the films another year or so. Then, Guillermo del Toro dropped out. And finally – finally – Peter Jackson got cameras rolling on the two films earlier this year.

The first of them, An Unexpected Journey, makes it into cinemas at the end of 2012, nine years after the release of Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. It’s testament to how many interesting films are heading our way in 2012 that this ranks fourth in the list, but don’t let that fool you: The Hobbit is a flat-out must see from where we’re sitting.

To have Peter Jackson back in Middle Earth is proof that there is some justice in the world. That’s he recruited so many of the talented people who brought Lord Of The Rings to the screen could also provide a vital constistency. The even better news? There’s another Hobbit film the year after. Expect that similarly high up 2013’s list…

3. GRAVITY

Anyone who saw the spectacular Children Of Men will know that any film Alfonso Cuarón directs is worth consideration, and, if anything, his sci-fi thriller Gravity sounds even more ambitious than his previous feature.

Starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as a pair of astronauts fighting for survival in a crippled space station, it’s been said by those involved that Cuarón’s brought all his skills to bear on this apparently simple story, with the opening 20 minutes reportedly shot in one long, unbroken take. Cuarón’s friend Guillermo Del Toro’s already spoken of his enthusiasm for the film, having told MTV Movies that it’ll push “a new boundary in filmmaking.”

Other than these scant facts, there’s not a lot more we can really say about Gravity, other than that it’s in 3D, and that Clooney and Bullock are the only two actors in it. What we can say, though, is that Children Of Men was a meditative and intelligent sci-fi film with moments of incredible intensity, and we’d be extremely surprised if Gravity was any different. We can’t wait.

2. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Well, y’know.

Christopher Nolan is making what’s almost certain to be his last ever Batman movie, while also looking to prove that it’s possible to make a comic book threequel that doesn’t dip in quality. He’s got his regular cast back – Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine – and recruited Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anne Hathaway too, in a film that promises to close this chapter of Bruce Wayne’s story.

The film has been shot very much in the open, with the Internet creaking under the weight of set videos and photos from observers. And inevitably, it’s led to a cauldron of hype that’s almost impossible to live up to.

Yet Nolan might. The Dark Knight built terrifically well on the excellent Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight Rises is set to try a few different things again. The stories to date have been ambitious, the execution excellent, and Nolan’s Batman movies will be resident in top ten comic book movie lists for many years to come. The Dark Knight Rises? It has the potential to top them all. May Nolan not be away from comic book movies for long…

1. PROMETHEUS

There are so many reasons to look forward to Prometheus, but we’ll whittle them down to just a few for brevity’s sake.

First, it marks a return to sci-fi for Ridley Scott, and second, it shares “the same DNA” as 1979’s Alien. Add to that a great cast (including the ubiquitous Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Idris Elba) and the writing talents of Damon Lindelof, and you have at least the possibility of a fantastic sci-fi film.

Some have pointed out that Scott’s creative bulb has dimmed somewhat of late, but we’re hoping that the visual possibilities the sci-fi genre offers (and let’s face it, Scott’s primarily an image maker rather than a director of actors) will result in the return to form we’re all anticipating.

We’re actually heartened, too, that Prometheus’ makers have played down the film’s links to Alien, because it gives Scott the opportunity to make something other than a modern retread of the original’s haunted-house-in-space. What we appear to be looking at is a kind of first-contact sci-fi flick, along the lines of Arthur C Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End or 2001: A Space Odyssey, albeit with an extremely nasty (and presumably acid-spitting) sting in its tail.

Like so many of next year’s highly anticipated films, from American Pie: The Reunion to The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus could disappoint us all. But then again, the talented people involved could exceed our expectations, and bring us a film that shares Alien’s brilliance as well as its DNA.

We might just be in for one hell of a year…