Hey everyone! We’ve looked at the movies of the past year and now it’s time to look ahead! This is pretty self-explanatory so let’s just jump right in. Here are my anticipated movies from January to June of 2017.
John Wick 2
Okay, this trailer looks awesome and like a huge amount of fun. I’ll maybe talk about it a little more later because I’m having a hard time talking about a sequel to a movie I haven’t seen yet. We have the first one in our possession right now, but we haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. So I’ll get back to this one as soon as I can remedy that.
Lego Batman
How can you not be excited for this one? After The Lego Movie turned out to be far funnier, deeper, and all-around better than many of us expected it to be, a spinoff starring the Lego version of the Dark Knight sounds pretty appealing. It looks fun and extremely self-aware, and at this point looks more enjoyable than the live-action offerings of the character at the moment. If the voice acting and Lego animation is as well-done as they were in The Lego Movie, which they seem to be, then I think we will have a for-sure winner here.
Logan
The buildup to this movie has been great. The trailer(s) we’ve gotten for this one have been the best kind: just enough to tell us that something is going down, but keeping most of it in suspense. This is Hugh Jackman’s last outing in the claws and for me, like many of us that have followed Wolverine’s progression since the first X-Men film, this is not one to miss. It looks like this will be a dark ride, and hopefully equal parts emotional and visceral. Wolverine is finally getting an R-rated film, let’s see what they do with it.
Kong: Skull Island
This is a film that’s been swirling about, popping up every now and again since its announcement at San Diego Comic-Con back in 2014. Finally, in March of this year, we’re going to see just how they are reimagining King Kong to bring him into this new universe and (eventually) face-to-face with Godzilla again. This one looks really interesting. I like that they’ve chosen a bit of a different setting for it, it’s not modern day and it’s not the early 20th century, it’s a nice middle ground that can bring it into the rest of the mythos and the continuity with Monarch and their work. The cast is solid and I think this will be, at the very least, a nice fun ride of a movie.
Beauty and the Beast
Okay, so I haven’t really been all that interested in the live-action remakes that Disney has been making so far. But Beauty and the Beast is pretty near and dear to me, it’s one of the first films I saw in theatres and Belle was always one of my favorite of the Disney princesses. And so, for the first time, I’m actually looking forward to seeing one of these. It has a look and feel about it that makes me nostalgic for my childhood (good job, marketing team!), and I want to see how they approach it now compared to the first one. I’m quite liking the aesthetic of it as well, very elaborate and yet worn, almost channeling a less-spooky- Guillermo del Toro-type of style, at least with the castle. Disney’s got me for this one, and for Mulan (2018) as well, at least.
Power Rangers
Well, I don’t know what to make of this one. I want to be optimistic, but I’m having a hard time, sadly. I’m trying to look at this as a film, not as they grumpy old lady complaining about how they ruined ‘my’ Power Rangers. But… the drama looks CW-angsty and the action looked Michael Bay Transformers. I’m crossing all the fingers and toes and hoping that it’s what we haven’t yet seen that’s going to make this one, like Zordon and the big Zord-on-monster fights, but we’ll have to see. I’m willing to give this one a chance, and I hope maybe I’m worrying too much about it all.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
I’ve talked about this one before. It looks like it’s going to be a ton of fun and will build well off of the first movie. I can’t wait to see how the characters progress and where we go from here. What else can I say?
Alien: Covenant
There’s not really much to go on for this one yet, just lots of speculation, both on the film itself and how it fits in with the rest of them, especially Prometheus. I’m hoping for something good here. Prometheus wasn’t awful per se, but it didn’t really live up to its own premise, and it certainly didn’t live up to its predecessors. It is nice to see actual Xenomorphs this time around, at least. I don’t have any strong feelings on this one, one way or another, yet. I’ll see it, but at this time I'm not really hyped. The movie still has some time to win me over before release, but as long as it's good when I'm seeing it, then that's really what matters.
Wonder Woman
This is another one I’ve talked about before. I hate to write off an entire franchise, but this is kinda the last chance for the DCEU from me. It just getting too painful to watch them try and cram all of their characters into a dark, brooding, Batman-shaped box and think it will work out. Wonder Woman looks amazing and I’m excited for it. I’m going into this one with some decent expectations, though slightly tempered by the track record. But this one is important, alright? This is the first female-fronted superhero movie since Catwoman. If this one goes down, I’m done. I desperately want to be wrong, and what we’ve seen so far is promising. I hope like hell they pull it off.
Cars 3
Really, Cars? That hated Pixar property we scoff at as being a blight on an otherwise stellar record? Yup. I really don’t think Cars was that bad, and we even had fun with the second one as well. But this looks to be something quite different. This is the franchise taking a rather dark and serious tone. If nothing else, I want to see the direction that this one goes in and how they do it. Being past your prime and facing retirement isn’t quite the same as growing up and leaving your childhood behind, but I can see it maybe hitting the same notes as Toy Story or something similar.
Bonus- Guardians
Okay, I don’t even know what to make of this one. It’s kind of like the Russian equivalent of The Avengers from what I understand. And that’s totally fine with me. I have no idea where or when or how or even if I’m going to get a chance to see this one, but I totally want to. It has a bear-man with a Gatling gun, what’s not to like? Or at least give a chance to? By the trailers, it has no pretentions of being overly serious and bleak, rather more like a good, fun ride.
So there’s Part 1. Watch out for Part 2 coming soon that covers the rest of 2017!
