March 7 

300: Rise of an Empire

While Zach Snyder has been dedicating most of his creative efforts to the Man of Steel movies, he still helped write and produce this follow-up to his hit “300.” New director Noam Murro seems to do a good job replicating Snyder’s style for the film, but since it features mostly new protagonists, who knows if the audience will follow.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

You can spot Wes Anderson’s unique visual style seconds into the trailer for his latest movie. I haven’t enjoyed his quirky films as much in the past few years, but this one looks very funny and features his usual cast of stars in silly costumes.

March 14

Need for Speed

It’s a video game movie, so get ready for the inevitable talk of “video game movies can never be good” from the critics if this film fails to deliver. Unlike most video game movies though, they didn’t really have to worry about adapting popular characters since all that really matters are the cars and trying to copy the success of other car based action movies like the Fast and Furious franchise.

Veronica Mars

If you gave enough to the Kickstarter, then you’ve already purchased a copy of this film. Because of those digital pre-sales, it’s not getting a huge theatrical release. It will still be interesting to see how it does in its limited theatrical run and how many of the backers would be willing to double dip and pay for a ticket to see it in a movie theater as well.

March 21

Divergent

Hoping to grab some of the Twilight and Hunger Games audience is another adaptation of a popular young adult sci-fi book series. They certainly grabbed a few high quality actors which could help it succeed where other recent ventures have failed.

Muppets Most Wanted

I loved the reboot of the Muppet movie franchise when it hit a couple years ago, but this sequel seems like it falls back on a lot of the tired habits that had the Muppet movies in limbo for so many years. I really hope I’m wrong, but Jason Segel leaving the franchise looked like a bad sign to me.

March 28

Noah

It’s strange to see Darren Aronofsky, famous for tackling dark subject matter in smaller gritty films, make his first mega-budget picture a biblical epic. I think he has the talent to pull it off, but I wonder if fans of his past movies are going to follow him here and if those wanting a traditional story of Noah may be pushed away by his style.

Also in March- “Journey to the West” the new zany action movie from the creator of the brilliant “Kung Fu Hustle” that shares its cartoony style, “Jodorowsky’s Dune” a documentary about a Dune adaptation that never was, “Mr Peabody and Sherman” tries to cash in on the kiddie crowd with a remake of the classic cartoon, and “Sabotage” where Arnold is back… again, blowing more stuff up.

April 4

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This latest phase of the Marvel movies has really delivered some solid films. Nothing groundbreaking, but a step up in budgets and entertainment factor while creating a movie universe that really gels. It does seems like Cap is forced to take a smaller role in his own movie than his “Avengers” cohorts did in theirs, since S.H.I.E.L.D. shares a lot of the spotlight here, but maybe this will be a jumping off point for more of a solo effort in Captain America 3. 

Under the Skin

In limited release, but notable since it features the Black Widow competing with herself this weekend, Scarlett Johansson plays a sexy undercover alien in this low budget thriller. At festival screenings audiences either loved it or hated it and it seems to have cult hit written all over it. Only time will tell.

April 18

Transcendence

Wally Pfister, long time cinematographer for Christopher Nolan, gets a shot at directing his own movie. It certainly looks Nolan-esque and it doesn’t hurt having Johnny Depp, pretty much one of the biggest movie stars in the world, headlining your directorial debut.

April 25

Brick Mansions 

Notable mostly because it is one of the final film roles by the late Paul Walker but also has a decent pedigree since it is written by Luc Besson of “Leon: The Professional” fame along with writing countless other hit action movies. 

Also in April- Errol Morris (the greatest documentary filmmaker ever) returns to theaters with “The Unknown Known” and it looks amazing, “Oculus” is a horror movie about an evil mirror and probably not something up Bobby Blackwolf’s alley, “Rio 2” is back to get my kids singing that annoying theme song again, “A Haunted House 2” features more jokes based on a dying horror subgenre, and “The Quiet Ones” which looks like a retro horror movie, except that it’s rated PG-13.

That does it for spring. Up next, summer season will be in full swing when the Amazing Spider-Man sequel hits theaters the first weekend of May. Expect plenty of more bad puns like “full swing” when part one of my summer movie preview arrives at that time! Until then, rank the spring movies and leave lots of comments about anything I missed or didn’t talk about enough.