This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I am going to do something few pundits or prognosticators ever do: Own up to my bad predictions.

In this space last year, I commented on the movies that I thought might be worth a look-see in the just-begun year of 2011. I picked seven films, and five of them turned out to be movies I would recommend: "The Adjustment Bureau" (which made my top 10 list), "The Tree of Life," "The Muppets," "The Adventures of Tintin" and "War Horse."

The other two were "Your Highness" and "Sucker Punch." One was a dismal stoner comedy that used up the last ounce of good will director David Gordon Green had amassed with his great indie dramas. The other was a compilation of filmmaker Zack Snyder's juvenile fantasies of ass-kicking girls dressed like Sailor Moon.

So I hereby apologize to any of you who penciled in those movies on your to-see list.

Now, with my conscience soothed, I will repeat the error and pick the movies I'm most looking forward to in 2012.

As in most years, the movie release schedule is chock full of sequels, remakes and adaptations — particularly in the summer blockbusters.

In the sequel category, there are "Men in Black 3" (May 25), "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" (June 8), "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (June 29), "Ice Age: Continental Drift" (July 13), "Step Up 4" (July 27), "The Bourne Legacy" (Aug. 3) and "The Expendables 2" (Aug. 17).

In remakes, we get Tim Burton and Johnny Depp re-doing the Gothic soap "Dark Shadows" (May 11), Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill joking up "21 Jump Street" (March 16), a new take on "The Three Stooges" (April 13) and another version of "The Amazing Spider-Man" (July 4).

And where Hollywood can't be bothered to remake, it re-releases, with 3-D versions of "Beauty and the Beast" (Jan. 13), "Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (Feb. 10), "Titanic" (April 6) and "Finding Nemo (Sept. 14).

Two of May's blockbusters are adaptations: the Marvel Comics mash-up "The Avengers" (May 4) and an action movie based on the game "Battleship" (May 18).

Also in the adaptations: "One for the Money" (Jan. 27), casting Katherine Heigl as Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter Stephanie Plum; "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island" (Feb. 10), another take on Jules Verne; "The Secret World of Arrietty," a version of The Borrowers done by the animation kings at Japan's Studio Ghibli; an animated version of Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" (March 3); the much-anticipated "The Hunger Games" (March 23), based on Suzanne Collins' post-apocalyptic novels; and the latest Nicholas Sparks weepie, "The Lucky One" (April 20).

And, yes, there are two movies about Snow White: "Mirror, Mirror" (March 16), with Julia Roberts as the evil queen; and "Snow White and the Huntsman" (June 1), which casts Kristen Stewart as a combat-ready princess.

November brings us two anticipated sequels: the final chapter of the "Twilight" saga, "Breaking Dawn, Part 2" (Nov. 16), and the latest James Bond thriller, "Skyfall" (Nov. 9). And December brings perhaps the most-desired adaptation of all: Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first half of his two-part version of J.R.R. Tolkien's predecessor to "The Lord of the Rings."

So, as I did last year, I'm picking seven movies that are high on my radar for 2012 — and this time, most of them originate from other sources. While these might promise a lot more than the rest, let's hope they deliver.

"The Woman in Black" • (Feb. 3) An old-fashioned haunted-house story — but notable as Daniel Radcliffe's first post-"Harry Potter" lead role.

"John Carter" • (March 9) The most expensive movie ever filmed in Utah, this adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars-based pulp novels will rise or fall on the ability of Pixar's Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo," "Wall-E") to work with humans.

"The Pirates! Band of Misfits" • (March 30) All you need to know: The Aardman Animation gang, the guys who made "Wallace & Gromit," are working in clay again.

"Prometheus" • (June 8) Ridley Scott returns to science fiction, and — it appears — the world of "Alien," with a cast that includes Noomi Rapace (the Swedish "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo") and Michael Fassbender.

"Brave" • (June 22) Pixar tries to bounce back from the disappointing "Cars 2" by featuring the studio's first female lead, a plucky Scottish warrior. (Notably, it's the only original screenplay in this entire column.)

"The Dark Knight Rises" • (July 20) Director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale bid farewell to Batman, closing out the trilogy with the Caped Crusader facing the nasty Bane (Tom Hardy) and the alluring Catwoman (Anne Hathaway).

"The Great Gatsby" • (December) Baz Luhrmann ("Moulin Rouge") applies his panache to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jazz Age classic and smartly casts Leonardo DiCaprio as the chameleonic Jay Gatsby, Carey Mulligan as the fragile Daisy Buchanan and Tobey Maguire as our narrator, Nick Carraway.

Sean P. Means writes The Cricket in daily blog form at http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/moviecricket. Contact him via email at movies@sltrib.com. Follow him on Twitter at @moviecricket or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/themoviecricket.