Let's face it, the real reason so many people are curious about the new horror movie The Woman in Black is because they want to know whether the film's star Daniel Radcliffe is going to become the next Harrison Ford or the next Mark Hamill. In case you've somehow managed to avoid both bookstores and multiplexes since 2001, the 22-year-old British actor has spent the past ten years of his life playing boy wizard Harry Potter in the blockbuster film franchise based on J.K. Rowling's gazillion-selling book series. And while he's had other roles in between Potter installments (he appeared in the 2007 Australian drama December Boys, lampooned himself on Extras and played two well-received runs on Broadway), The Woman in Black is being watched extra closely as it's his first solo starring vehicle since the eighth and final film hit theaters last summer. So what's the verdict on the future of young Master Radcliffe?

Between The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and... um, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, 2012 is shaping up to be the biggest year for comic-book movies in the genre's history. And while those giant-sized blockbusters are sure to provide plenty of F/X-driven spectacle (and, in the case of Chris Nolan's final Batman flick, some potentially provocative political commentary), perhaps the year's most intriguing, creatively ambitious superhero picture is the one that's not based on an established, long-running four-color title. I'm talking about Chronicle, the feature filmmaking debut of director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis (son of John) that Fox is releasing in theaters today with surprisingly little fanfare. Applying the "found footage" conceit that's almost exclusively been used for horror movies ever since The Blair Witch Project to the story of three ordinary teenagers that accidentally acquire special powers, Chronicle has its issues (a complete lack of subtly chief among them) but overall it's a clever, entertaining spin on the typical superhero origin story. Here are five reasons why comic book fans should vote with their wallets this weekend and make Chronicle the year's first big hit.

Two great actresses, but only one good movie

Early on in Joe Carnahan's gritty survival tale The Grey, there's a moment that's so serenely peaceful, I almost didn't want it to end, especially knowing what was to come. The scene in question takes place aboard a chartered plane that's flying a crew of oil company grunts to a drilling station in the far reaches of Alaska. Before the aircraft lifted off into the friendly skies, the guys were laughing, talking and busting each other's chops, as if they were in a locker room instead of a mid-size jet. Now that the plane's at cruising altitude though, they're all nabbing some much-needed shuteye. The cabin lights are dimmed, tray tables are up and in a locked position and the passengers are quietly slumbering, their breath misting in the chilled air. It's a beautifully evocative moment -- perhaps the best single scene Carnahan has ever staged -- one that immediately establishes an aura of calm and safety.

When you're dealing with a filmmaker who has had as lengthy and deliberately varied a career as Steven Soderbergh, singling out one movie to label his absolute best can be a tricky proposition. But a strong case could be made for The Limey, the 1999 thriller he made with screenwriter Lem Dobbs and star Terrence Stamp. Aside from being a terrific film, The Limey is perhaps -- out of all the entries in his filmography -- the most representative of Soderbergh's formal and narrative interests, from the way it fractures its narrative to its dry sense of humor to the morally compromised anti-hero at its center. Made right after the director's big studio breakthrough, Out of Sight, The Limey may be a less jazzy film, but it's far richer in terms of its story. One gives you a great ride, the other lingers in your memory.

Legend has it that for early test screenings of the first Star Wars movie, George Lucas substituted footage of World War II aerial dogfights in place of the not-yet-completed sequences pitting the Rebel Alliance's X-Wings against the Empire's fleet of TIE fighters. Now, three decades later, Lucas has made a full-fledged World War II movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, the celebrated squadron of African-American fighter pilots who defied the prejudice of the times and flew a number of crucial missions in the European theater of the war.

In the new action picture Contraband, Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, a retired smuggler who's forced back into the life when his brother-in-law commits a colossal screw-up by dumping a drug shipment that belongs to small-time hood Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) with a highly combustible temper and an itchy trigger finger. In order to secure the funds he needs to cover his relative's debt, Chris makes one last run to Panama, where a shipment of counterfeit money is awaiting him to transport back stateside. Meanwhile, back in his New Orleans home, his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and their two sons are being menaced by Tim, so Chris calls upon his old friend and partner Sebastian (Ben Foster) to keep an eye on them. But it turns out that Sebastian has a few secrets... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

For the love of God, skip The Devil Inside this weekend and check out some of these independent and foreign releases instead.

Blame it on Marley & Me. When that cutesy-poo tearjerker about a family and their dog topped the holiday box office charts a few years back, Hollywood started looking around for other sentimental animal-centric tales designed to warm the hearts of even the sourest grinches. This year, families can choose between not just one, but two cheesy movies about adorable animals and the humans that love them, Steven Spielberg's War Horse and Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo. The latter is based on a memoir by Benjamin Mee and stars Matt Damon as a widower, who packs up his two kids and moves them to a dilapidated zoo, which they have to get up and running again before it's shut down for good. The former is derived from Michael Morpurgo's children's novel (which also served as the basis for a recent Tony Award-winning play) and follows a spirited horse named Joey, who gallops through the lives of an all-star cast of European character actors (Emily Watson! Benedict Cumberbatch! Niels Arestrup!) against the backdrop of World War I. Although they tell very different stories, both films have the same ultimate goal: to make you weep often and openly. So which one succeeds? We'll answer that by pitting the films against each other in a few key areas.

Ever since the twin failures of United 93 and World Trade Center, Hollywood has been leery of tackling the events of September 11, 2001 head on. Most movies follow the example set by Spike Lee's 25th Hour (generally thought to be the finest 9/11-themed feature made yet) and explore the aftermath of 9/11 rather than depicting exactly what occurred on that tragic day. It's a logical approach; after all, experiencing the collapse of the Twin Towers was horrifying enough the first time. Asking audiences to relive it via a simulated recreation -- even one as gripping as the one depicted in Paul Greengrass' United 93 -- is a challenge many moviegoers would understandably rather decline.