Welcome to 2013, folks. If you’re reading this it means that you survived the Mayan Apocalypse, the first Dick Clark-less New Year’s Rockin’ Eve celebration in like four decades, likely some sort of mandatory holiday time with your extended family, and incessant political jabber about some sort of “fiscal cliff”, all in a matter of about two weeks. Congratulations on a job well done. In spite of all these accomplishments, though, odds are you still haven’t spent any part of 2013 hanging out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and his tank. So, to this point, our Dave Trumbore still wins 2013.

All tank envy aside, let’s keep our heads up and focus on the first Top 5 installment of the new year. This week’s recap includes Brendan’s editorial plea for giving 48fps the old college try, Justice League rumors, Matt’s Warm Bodies set visit and ensuing zombie transformation, news of Jay-Z being brought on to score Baz Luhrmann‘s The Great Gatsby, and the results of our first ever readers poll that asked for your top movies of 2012. Brief recaps and links to all of the above are dying for your attention after the jump.

If you are at Collider, you probably watch a lot of movies.  Based on our demographics, most of you have seen The Hobbit.  A significant portion of you will see The Hobbit in 48 frames per second.  Virtually all of you who do will think the higher frame rate looks strange, at least at first.  And yet, Hobbit director Peter Jackson proclaims 48fps is the future of filmmaking.  Critics are far from convinced, calling the new look “a gaudy high-definition tourist attraction” and “washed out and flat, yet unforgiving in its hyper-realism.”

Jackson’s push for 48fps (also known as High Frame Rate or HFR) has sparked a surprisingly heated debate over what seems like a relatively simple technological innovation.  Although my first viewing of The Hobbit was a peculiar experience, I am a believer in 48fps.  So after the jump, I examine the arguments for and against 48fps, the neuroscience behind the negative response, and what it will take for HFR to find widespread acceptance.