For a brief time in the early 1990s, it looked as if Kathryn Bigelow had a great future ahead of her as one of the few women directors truly adept at action cinema. And her return, set in the deadliest streets of Baghdad, looks like a real return to form.

Can Tarantino do a war movie? He's been asking himself the same question for a decade, losing sleep over the ins and outs of what would become Inglourious Basterds - perhaps the most talked about movie of 2009.

While his brother Ridley gets the plaudits, the Oscar nominations and the knighthood, Tony Scott seems content to chase mere commercial success with a series of polished, high-concept entertainments.

From Manhunter and Heat to Collateral and Miami Vice, US director Michael Mann has always been fascinated by the confluence between law and order, right and wrong and the grey area between good and bad.

The ‘bots are back. And you don’t need to look far past the poster to know that they’re looking special. Following their breakout in Michael Bay’s first blockbuster, the Transformers can no longer win us over just by bringing our favourite childhood toys to life. It has to be better, as well as bigger.

From toys to superheroes, from ants to monsters, from the bottom of the ocean to the twinkling reaches of outer space, the people at Pixar have blown our minds. But what direction is left for them? Up answers that question inside its first 15 minutes.

Any new Terminator movie is ahead before it’s started. The simple but powerful premise of the first two – a network of machines gaining consciousness and endeavouring to wipe out humankind – provides such a strong science-fiction universe. With all the tools available to a modern-day filmmaker, a catalogue of iconic images to draw on and a script effectively already written, Terminator 4 surely can’t fail.

Ben Stiller is back in the sequel to his 2006 success, and he’s bringing his friends: the many exhibits of New York’s Museum of Natural History who come to life when the lights go down.

Blasting into a deep-space war burning with photon torpedoes and wrecked Starships, JJ Abrams’ Star Trek starts with its own big bang: James Tiberius Kirk born into battle as Romulans obliterate his father’s ship – but not before the freshly squeezed infant rockets away in an escape pod. A legend is born... Make that reborn.

If you want a complex examination of the superhero’s role in the modern world, go and see Watchmen. If you want to watch stuff blow up real good, go see X Men Origins: Wolverine. As long as you don’t care about such trivialities as character and plot, you’ll get your money’s worth.

State Of Play’s journey to the multiplex has not been an easy one. Loosely adapted from well regarded BBC miniseries, the movie has been four years in development and nearly fell to pieces altogether when Brad Pitt pulled out of the leading role just before shooting was due to start.

Fans of The Thick Of It, Armando Ianucci’s scabrously witty political comedy for the BBC, will know exactly what to expect from In The Loop: sweaty policy wonks, ineffectual MPs and reams of eye-watering, perfectly pitched profanity.

It is a poor film indeed that fails to live up to its own title. Lesbian Vampire Killers sounds great. It sounds like Ronseal cinema, a spiritual cousin to Cannibal Holocaust and Snakes On A Plane. Unfortunately, the film itself is a catastrophe: an abject failure as both a comedy and a gore-fest.

Milk pairs indie film maverick Gus Van Sant and acting heavyweight Sean Penn to tell the true story of Harvey Milk - gay rights activist and America’s first homosexual elected official. It’s essentially a biopic but the film’s two leading talents combine to make it stand out from the workable, worthy examples that inevitably appear around awards season.

Slumdog Millionaire  begins with a multiple choice mystery: how did Jamal Malik, an 18 year old orphan from the Mumbai slums, with a criminal history and practically no education, make it all the way to the final round of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?  Is he cheating? Is he a genius? Is it destiny? Or is he just incredibly lucky?