I used to write regular movie reviews on this blog. In fact, as recently as 2010, I wrote a review of every movie I saw both in the theater and on DVD.

But I find it difficult and time-consuming to write movie reviews, and given the daily responsibility of my Song of the Day posts, I just couldn’t keep up the pace and managed to write only a couple of them in 2011. This year I’ve yet to write about a movie.

I think part of the reason is that I haven’t seen a film in a couple of years that really moved me to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). 2010 was a very good year, with Toy Story 3, The Social Network, True Grit and Let Me In topping my best-of list, very different movies that all warranted in-depth exploration.

Last year was a bit of a let-down. The film on top of my list is The Descendants, a great movie but not one I was moved to write about. I did find time to write about Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol but that was it.

This year has gotten off to a slow start (that’s an understatement considering it’s mid-August), with only a trio of superhero films and Wes Anderson’s latest making a real impression.

The Avengers is the film to beat so far in 2012. It was a thrill to see my longtime hero Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) score the biggest opening weekend in film history and the third highest-grossing movie overall.

Pulling together characters from four different franchises, Whedon wrote a smart, witty script that somehow gave every character his or her due and still left room for a compelling villain and a handful of memorable set pieces. I doubt I’ll have a better time at the movies this year.

Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises is a very different kind of superhero film, dark and grim and short on laughs. But that’s what you want in a Batman movie, and Nolan’s particular brand of Batman movie is spot on. I feel that The Dark Knight reached higher highs than this film (in large part due to Heath Ledger’s iconic performance as The Joker) but overall The Dark Knight Rises was a better film.

That’s largely due to the supporting cast (particular Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, along with the usual roster of legends — Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman) as well as a more personal and vulnerable take on Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne.

Splitting the difference between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises is Mark Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man. Webb (the indie director of 500 Days of Summer) was an unlikely choice for this material, but often the unlikeliest choices are the best for films like this.

Webb delivers a grittier take on the Spider-Man story than Sam Raimi, and also focuses more attention on the adolescent romance as its center. Andrew Garfield is excellent as the troubled teen who wakes up with superpowers, and Emma Stone is predictably sublime as Gwen Stacy, his first love.

I didn’t expect much from this movie and was very pleasantly surprised. Today’s SOTD, incidentally, comes from the “honing his powers” scene, and was a nice choice by Webb.

The non-superhero movie that sits at the #2 spot on my list is Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom As with all of Anderson’s films, I feel I need to see this one again before I can really discuss it at length. I suspect it will only grow in my estimation.

The film has all of the elements filmgoers have come to love or hate about Anderson’s films — meticulous framing, deadpan humor, an obsessive attention to detail. And like all of Anderson’s films, it’s about people who don’t accept the world as it is but dare to dream it the way they want it to be. In this case, the central characters are two adolescents (the remarkable Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman) who run away together on a storm-swept New England island. Their innocent romance is beautifully sketched.

Supporting turns by Ed Norton and Bruce Willis (both playing against type) are wonderful. I wish Bill Murray and Frances McDormand (as the parents of the girl) had been given a little more to do, but they do share one of the film’s best exchanges. Speaking about their children, she says “We’re all they’ve got,” to which he replies “It’s not enough.”

The final third of 2012 promises to deliver some memorable films. Highest on my must-see list is Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as an L. Ron Hubbard type, Amy Adams as his wife and Joaquin Phoenix as a troubled veteran who falls under their spell. Anderson’s last film, There Will Be Blood, is one of the very best of the last decade — one of the best I’ve ever seen, to be honest — and early glimpses at The Master suggest he’s still at the top of his game.

I’m also eager to see Ben Affleck’s Argo, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, as well as Les Miserables and Cloud Atlas. I’m sure a few more will surface that aren’t on my radar yet.

Maybe I’ll even be moved to write about one or two of them.