While watching the Oscars this past Sunday, we realized that we hadn’t seen a lot of movies in the theater this past year. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (mediocre) and “Dark Knight” (awesome). I’m sure we saw a couple others, too, but not really any of the big titles. I think we’ll be taking in a few more than that this year, starting with “Watchmen” next weekend.

Not being much of a comic book reader, I must admit that I hadn’t heard of the Watchmen until I first saw the movie trailer last year. Intrigued, I read the book (prying it out of Courtney’s hands after she was done with it) and instantly became hooked. The movie trailers so far look pretty good. We were walking around in Barnes & Noble the other day and saw a bunch of books related to the movie, including one that had a bunch of production pictures. I have no doubt the production value is going to be amazing, and of course they have a great story to work from. My only concern is whether they’ll be able to condense the book into 2 hours and 43 minutes.

A few other movies I’m planning to see this year, and not necessarily because I think they’ll be good:

Star Trek (May 8 )

Truth be told, I’m fairly certain this movie is going to suck and piss off a bunch of diehard Star Trek fans. The trailers I’ve seen so far make it look like another explosion-filled, sexed-up action flick instead of something along the veins of what Star Trek has stood for. And the characters all look like models. Still, if it has a Star Trek name attached to it, I’ll feel compelled to go see it. But I wish they would’ve dumped their budget into something more like this instead.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1)

I haven’t really seen or read too much about this movie except for the fact that it’s coming out. But I loved all three X-Men movies and thought Hugh Jackman was terrific, so this is a must. I really hope they’ll be able to make another X-Men movie with the whole cast (especially Patrick Stewart), but for now, this will do.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (June 24)

I absolutely HATED the first Transformers movie. The characters from the 1980s cartoon show had more personality than the giant CG robots in the movie. I don’t even think they wrote a script for the movie. They probably just made a bunch of CG sequences and then came up with something to tie them together.

So why the heck is the sequel on my list of movies to see? Because I’m a nostalgic sucker for the transformers. I don’t know if I’m a big enough sucker to pay to see this in a theater though. It’s looking like a Netflix candidate.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17)

This is here because I know Courtney will insist on seeing it and I’ll tag along to see 20-year-olds playing characters who are 12. That and Alan Rickman.