I am happy to bring you Part 2 of my Spotlight on film remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels found in this year’s lineup. (Part 1 can be found here.) 2012 is yet another jam packed year filled with some of the most hotly anticipated films in years, despite a fair amount of them not being of original content.

Is it a good thing or a bad thing? You won’t really know until you’ve seen the films. Until then, you can only speculate about each upcoming movie and that is what this piece aims to do. I’ll be providing reasons why two films—my most anticipated of the category and a wild card—could either succeed or fail, and I’ll leave it up to you as the audience whether you’ll see these films or not. Some may not even need my convincing, but for others you, might.

Once again, note that several films fall under multiple categories.

Remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels of past films and franchises are the biggest trend going on in Hollywood right now. Every studio wants to capitalize on the money-making potential of these types of films. Because of that, they’ve caused many an audience member to moan and groan fearing for the worst of the worst with these projects. They’ve got people calling out Hollywood for the lack of original content being put out and so forth.

But hold on a minute! If there was one thing 2011 had taught us, it was that given the right production and casting of any film, there are still really great films to be made from remakes, reboots and prequels/sequels. On the flipside, that doesn’t mean all films under this trend will be great. Life just doesn’t roll that way, but for the most part part this year, the bad hasn’t been all that bad. 

So let’s take a look at the films from 2011 that fell under these categories.

*note that some films fall under multiple categories*