Top Geek Films of the Holiday Season, 2012, AVATAR, Sherlock Holmes

Just getting back from a trip to Paris and London (more on that to come) has left me a bit breathless and harried. Ya' go away for a week with no access to e-mail and your inbox gets more bloated than a Hutt crime-lord. So the lovely Marissa Meli is pitching in today to help yours truly get caught up by offering her list of the top movies that geeks and nerds must see this holiday season:

Now in Geek-O-Vision: this Holiday Season's Must-See Movies
By Marissa Meli

The geek movie season doesn't end in summer. Although the holiday season is the time for weepy Oscar hopefuls, you've still got plenty to watch, starting today.

John Cusack in '2012' - Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment

2012 (11/13)

Any true geek is a disaster aficionado, and Roland Emmerich is our Ingmar Bergman. Except, you know, less boring. The director of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow brings us his latest apocalyptic vision. This time, the world ends in 2012 in accordance with Mayan doomsday prophecies, and only huge nerd John Cusack can save us.

Read more after the jump!

Planet 51 - TriStar Pictures

Planet 51 (11/20)

Got a Geek 2.0 at home? Take the little ankle-biter to see Planet 51, a cartoon yarn about a human astronaut landing on an alien planet. Except really, he's the alien! Get it? If not, there's probably fart jokes. Three refugees from the video game industry are directing this one, coming to an SUV near you in six months.

Ninja Assassin - Dark Castle Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures

Ninja Assassin (11/25)

An orphan trained by ninjas turns against those who raised him and their evil ways in this super-stylized action flick. Produced by the Wachowski brothers of making-me-throw-up-during-Speed-Racer fame, Ninja Assassin looks like a great comic book flick (albeit one with no comic book ties whatsoever). It stars a guy who goes solely by the name "Rain." Bow down, geeks, you have met your king.

The Road - Dimension Films

The Road (11/25)

Take yet another opportunity to tell your friends that you read it before Oprah chose it or her book club. The undisputed king of the violent novel, Cormac McCarthy, won the Pulitzer Prize with The Road. Now it's a violent movie. Awesome! A father and son spend months walking across post-apocalyptic America in search of civilization. As you can imagine, what they find along their journey isn't the stuff Family Circle magazine is made of.

Avatar - 20th Century Fox

Avatar (12/18)

You've known it was coming since before you put in your Dreamcast 2 pre-order. The latest of James Cameron's epic sci-fi adventures is almost out of the oven and ready for your slack-jawed consumption. On the distant planet Pandora, human soldiers are pitted against big blue aliens in an all-out war. It has giant mechs, jungles filled with Darwinian nightmares, and the original female action hero, the divine Ms. Sigourney Weaver. Get off the internet and get in line.

Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes - Warner Bros. Studios

Sherlock Holmes (12/25)

Are they or aren't they? Only Sherlock and Watson know for sure. Early word is that we're in for some Jude Law/Robert Downey, Jr. man-action. If that doesn't sell you a ticket, let the literary legacy of history's best and most popular detective (or Rachel McAdams in lingerie) light your geek fire.

Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Sony Pictures Classics

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (12/25)

Heath Ledger didn't get a chance to finish his final film, so Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell alternately fill in the rest of his role in this movie about a traveling theater company. Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame directed this fantastical tale about the choice between good and evil. Gilliam has directed some of the greatest geek movies of all time, including Brazil and Time Bandits.