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There are still a number of movies in 2013 I'd like to see: Thor: The Dark World, Ender's Game, Catching Fire, and of course Anchorman 2. I'll wait to rent the Hobbit. But with the end of 2013 in sight, how about looking at next year's movies?

Of course, I'm basing my analysis on some pretty thin evidence. All I've got is a plot synopsis and cast list. Who knows how much the studios will change before the movie launches? And of course, movies often look amazing and then turn out to be crap. Or vice versa.

Interstellar

The movie that intrigues me the most is Interstellar, largely because it's based on the actual scientific theories of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne.

When a wormhole is newly discovered, a team of explorers and scientists embark on a voyage through it to transcend previous limitations on human space travel. The plot is believed to involve time travel and alternate dimensions, but other details are being kept under wraps.

Obviously, they're headed outside the solar system. Initial exploration of extrasolar space is an area that's been largely untouched by science fiction films, and so I'm seriously intrigued by this film. I'm hoping that they leave aliens out of it entirely.

The film will star Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Topher Grace, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, and John Lithgow. Good cast!

Edge of Tomorrow

Another film that jumped out at me is this new Tom Cruise vehicle. Check out the synopsis.

Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of battle when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, he now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop - forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. But with each battle, he begins to engage the enemy with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) As they take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.

The film's also got Bill Paxton, which works to its advantage. I find that I generally like Tom Cruise movies. And similar to my opinion of Nick Cage, it's not necessarily because I like the actor a lot, it's more because I tend to like the scripts he picks. In Tom Cruise's case, it's largely action and science fiction movies: Oblivion, War of the Worlds, Minority Report. Okay, wait. I'd forgotten Rock of Ages and Vanilla Sky. Eugh. I don't even really like the Mission Impossible movies too much. Forget that. Forget this whole paragraph in fact. Except for the bit about Bill Paxton.

Anyway, Edge of Tomorrow might not be good like Oblivion or Minority Report, but it's an intriguing synopsis. I'll watch the film.

Transcendence

Apparently in this film, Johnny Depp is killed by terrorists at the outset. Then his wife, played by Rebecca Hall, uploads his brain into a computer. Apparently the two of them are both computer scientists, and they then work together toward their goal of a technological singularity. Nothing like a half-dead, half-alive husband and wife team!

Of course, there's a luddite anti-tech organization trying to stop them. Morgan Freeman is in the movie - maybe he's the head of that organization. Don't know. In any event, singularity! Sounds cool.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Another post-Avengers Marvel superhero movie. Of course I'm in. I don't follow comics that much, so as of yet I'm entirely unfamiliar with the Winter Soldier story arc. Here's what I've got:

Two years after the events of The Avengers, Steve Rogers resides peacefully in Washington, D.C., struggling to adapt to contemporary society. However, after a S.H.I.E.L.D. compatriot is assailed, Steve becomes entangled in a mystery that may endanger the globe. Together with Natasha Romanoff, Captain America attempts to uncover the growing machination while fending off hired hit men. When the entire scheme is discovered, Captain America and the Black Widow must recruit the aid of the Falcon and soon encounter an unanticipated and powerful adversary — the Winter Soldier.

So obviously Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson are playing Captain America and Black Widow. They're both with S.H.I.E.L.D., so that means we'll see Samuel L Jackson. I wonder what kind of tie-ins, if any, we'll see to the new TV show. Sebastian Stan will be playing Bucky Barnes, aka "The Winter Soldier". I don't know him. The only other casting choice that really excited me was Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce, a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. leader. Robert Redford is awesome.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I was surprised to find that I really liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes, despite the fact that it didn't get all Planet-of-the-apsey until the end. The bit inside the ape habitat with Cesar's abandonment, mistreatment, and vindication was great, and the scene with his speech was a fantastic set piece.

They're leaving James Franco entirely out of this one, which is an interesting move. My first reaction to that news was disappointment, but upon further rumination, I like it. They're tying the franchise to the story rather than the actors, although I suppose you could point out that Andy Serkis is still an actor. Anyway, this is what I wish they'd done with the Terminator franchise. If you've got to include Arnold, make him a cameo or something. His inclusion in Terminator 3 was completely unnecessary. That movie needed Linda Hamilton, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I'd wondered how the apes would get past the simple fact of humanity's entrenchment, but it turns out that in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, it's a virus that's killing humanity. Probably the same one that showed up in the first movie. Anyway, the film's got Gary Oldman as well. I'm hoping it's good.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel Superhero movie, although I know nearly nothing about it. I'd originally wondered if it was a cartoon and/or a kids' movie, but from what I've read, there's a very real possibility that this may be an R-rated film. And the big bad is Thanos, the villain who appeared in the post-credits scene in The Avengers.

It seems that the heroes and villains in this movie will be ones we haven't seen in other Marvel films. And it will focus on action far away from Earth, Ysgard, or any other realm we've seen. Color me intrigued.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

So we're going back to the Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry cast. But we're also tying in the First Class cast by including James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as the younger versions of Professor X and Magneto. And we'll get to see Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Nicholas Hoult as Beast again.

This is pretty amazing. In addition to the combination of these two very good casts in a single movie, we also get two excellent additions. Ellen Page is playing Kitty Pryde. She wasn't in a previous X-Men film, was she? Anyway, her power somehow allows the time travel so critical to the plot of the film. Also, we get Peter Dinklage, which is awesome. He plays Bolivar Trask, who created the Sentinels.

Yes, the Sentinels. I don't follow comics, but I remember the Sentinels from what little of the old X-Men cartoon that I watched. They're giant robots with mechanical tentacles that hunt down mutants. This movie is jumping between timelines, which is why you can have two actors playing the same character - except for Hugh Jackman who gets to play a character who doesn't age. They also better come up with a good explanation for why Patrick Stewart is back from the dead and in the same body.

The jump into the future will allow them to introduce Bishop, a character I've heard about, but never seen in an actual story. Also, William Stryker is somehow involved. And we'll get to see Colossus, Warpath, Blink, Sunspot, Quicksilver, and Havok. I could have sworn the character in the picture on the far left was Gambit, but I'm not seeing mention of him anywhere in the cast, so maybe I'm wrong.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Look! A New Mad Max film! They forgot about casting Mel Gibson as Mad Max, which at this point is a good idea. The film takes place before Thunderdome.

Tom Hardy, the new Mad Max, played one of the characters in Inception, and was also playing Bane in the last Batman movie, although you'd never know it with that mask. The movie also has Charlize Theron.

The Amazing Spiderman 2

They seem to be doing something with this movie I'd never expected. They're introducing some of the Spiderman villains I'd considered too cheezy for film. They got Paul Giamatti to play The Rhino. They also got Jamie Foxx to play Electro. Harry Osborn is in the film too, but it seems like he's just setup for the next film.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Spiderman franchise including two or three independent supervillains in every single film. The old Chris Reeve Superman film just had Lex Luthor, and that was enough. Recently, it seems like we need multiple supervillains in every film. Just a single villain would be novel at this point. Venom and Sandman working together was just kind of dumb.

Okay, sorry about the tangential rant. This movie may not be high art, but I'm looking forward to it.

Godzilla

Another remake. Well, why not? I liked Pacific Rim, so I'm hopeful that this kind of film can be done well again.

Frankenstein

Same thing. Might be good - I don't know. I do like Mary Shelley's story. It all depends on how well it's told.

I, Frankenstein

Wait, didn't I just... oh. Apparently there's a second Frankenstein movie this year. This one's a remix on the old story (Hooray for Public Domain!) that places Frankenstein's "monster" in present day, a la Dean Koontz's Frankenstein books. I give this one a 30% chance to be good.

300: Rise of an Empire

The first one wasn't bad. I'm not quite so hopeful for the second. Well, Lena Headey is back. Maybe we'll get to see her topless again.

Divergent

I hadn't realized at first that this was the same story as the YA book series I'm always seeing at Barnes and Noble's. YA isn't entirely a bad thing. I enjoyed I am Number Four, and Jumper wasn't bad, even if the book was far better. The first Hunger Games movie was excellent. The setting sounds difficult to swallow, but I'm willing to give the movie a shot.

In a futuristic Chicago, people are divided into five distinct factions based on their personalities. Beatrice "Tris" Prior discovers that she is Divergent, meaning she does not fit into any one faction, and soon uncovers a sinister plot brewing in her seemingly perfect society.

Jupiter Ascending

This one sounds like a cross between the second Riddick movie and the Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex. Mila Kunis is a Russian chick who cleans toilets until Channing Tatum comes to kill her because she's fated to be the next queen of the universe, and the current queen has sent him (Tatum) to kill her (Kunis). It's got Sean Bean as well, so I'll see it, but my hopes for this one are not high.

Noah

Looks like a weird non-religious retelling of the bible story from Genesis with a sci-fi twist and possibly an environmental message. That's just plain weird. It's got Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Not a bad cast. But is there any chance that the movie will be good? No idea.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

I thought the first Sin City movie was okay. Good cast though. I'll likely rent this one.

Veronica Mars

I know pretty much nothing about the TV series of the same name, but apparently someone liked it enough to turn it into a movie. Maybe this movie will get me into the cancelled TV show the way that Serenity got me into Firefly.

Tomorrowland

At first, I had Tomorrowland confused with Escape from Tomorrow. But whereas Escape from Tomorrow was an independent film shot on Disney Property without Disney's permission, Tomorrowland is a big budget Disney film.

Meh. I wouldn't be writing about it if it weren't for George Clooney and Hugh Laurie.

Maleficent

This one is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty villainess in the style of Wicked. Another one I'll likely rent. Maybe.

You'll notice that I've completely omitted Robocop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Fifty Shades of Grey movie. Also a bunch of sequels: Transformers 4, The Expendables 3, Fast & Furious 7, 22 Jump Street, Resident Evil 6, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, and even The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Why? Because 22 Jump Street is a terrible name. Because they're mostly franchises I haven't watched since the first iteration. Because I thought the final Hunger Games book was boring and I think it's a terrible idea that they split it. Speaking of unnecessary splits: The Hobbit.