FEB 16: Black Panther
The first of three Marvel Studio films of the year, Black Panther looks to not only the most important one, but the one that looks the become the biggest comic book movie yet. It's hard to say what actual impact this movie will have until it releases, but it's clear that it will be big no matter what. Black Panther just seems like the coolest of all the marvel movie characters, and the movie looks to fit perfectly with that by having a very unique style that other Marvel movies haven't touched on yet. Also, what an amazing cast.
FEB 23: Annihilation
I'm a sucker for an original sci-fi story and this movie looks to provide just that. It's being Directed by Alex Garland, who made one of my favorite sci-fi movies "Ex Machina", which gives me hope that this movie will be another great story. Natalie Portman plays a biologist who has to enter a restricted area to try to help her husband. In the a restricted area she finds new species of creatures that look to be cross-breeds of different animal species. The movie looks like it's going to have lots of really cool visuals and a unique suspenseful story.
FEB 23: MUTE
With the release of Bright and the new Cloverfield movie, Netflix looks to be taking more higher budget movies into their catalog. This one looks to be a sci-fi thriller taking place in a Blade Runner-esque city with robots and flying cars where a mute bartender has to look for his lost love and has to deal with criminals to find the answers he's looking for. With a really good cast behind him and some not unique, but still really cool visuals this one should be a treat. The good thing is that it's on Netflix, so it will be easy to get some time to watch this.
MAR 9: A Wrinkle in Time
Based on the beloved book from 1962, Disney is finally creating an movie adaptation that looks to be worthy of the book. With a diverse and interesting cast and the best visuals money can buy, this looks to be a must watch at the theaters. It's got a big name to live up to, but if they can try new things while staying faithful to the main themes of the book at the same time, this can be a really great family movie.
MAR 9: Thoroughbreds
Two teenage girls, lily and Amanda, who live completely different lives reconnect after years apart. Lily lives a life of luxury and class and has to put up with a controlling step-father. The girls come up with the idea of getting rid of the step-father at any cost. This movie looks to be a very clever and funny movie, with a great cast of young actors. The movie has already made it's way through festivals and is getting lots of praise, so i'm excited to finally see it.
MAR 16: Tomb Raider
It's hard to get excited about a video game movie these days, after so many misses you just expect failure out of these. Then comes a trailer that brings in hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the one to change that. With a lesser known director that hopefully wants to prove himself, and a great casting choice for Lara Croft (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) this movie might just be something fun to watch. The trailer even seems to show parts that come straight from the video games, which shows that they might actually care about the source material. Hopefully this isn't another Assassin's Creed situation where all the potential is squandered for a mediocre movie. It doesn't need to be an award winning movie here, just a really fun and action packed movie with some good characters at the very least.
MAR 16: Flower
Another movie that's been getting lots of film festival praise, Flower stars Zoey Dutch as a young teenager who goes around town making trouble with her friends. Things change when her mother's boyfriend and troubled son movie in with them. Looks like a lot of fun hijinks and laughs in this movie. I always enjoy a good coming-of-age story, and the last two years we've gotten two amazing female lead ones in 2016's "Edge of Seventeen" and 2017's "Lady Bird" and this one could continue the trend this year.
MAR 16: Love, Simon
Busy week this March 16, ending with the movie "Love, Simon". This one is a light-hearted tale of a seemingly normal boy, who is afraid to reveal to the world that he is gay. Things seem to change when a student at his school reveals he's also afraid to come out in an anonymous post. As he grows closer to this anonymous person, he has to deal with his feelings of falling in love for the first time and how to handle it. It looks like the kind of movie that can get a lot of emotions out of the audience, lots of laughs and maybe even some tears. A possible great leading performance by Nick Robinson.
MAR 23: Isle of Dogs
Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors out there, he certainly has a very unique style of film making that he's become known for. "Isle of Dogs" looks to continue the style from his first animated movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox", which is a film I really love. The film follows a group of dogs as they help a boy look for his lost pet in what appears to be an island of trash somewhere in Japan. With an all-star voice cast and amazing visuals, I think this will be another great movie in the Wes Anderson catalog.
MAR 29: Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg making a movie that's based on a book that's a love letter to the 80's? Sign me up. Ready Player One is a book about a boy who lives in a world where a virtual reality game known as the Oasis has taken over the world. The entire world runs around the use of this technology as every user creates an avatar and is entered into a world where you can live a way better life than you could ever have in the real world, which is torn apart and barely holding together. It's a really fun and nerdy story and I can't wait to see how the crazy 80's influenced and futuristic sci-fi visuals are going to look on the big screen. Very curious to see how many 80's references and imagery they can fit into this.
APR 6: You Were Never Really Alone
Joaquin Phoenix plays a man who tracks down missing girls for a living, and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty in the process. As he rescues one of the missing girls he's been sent for, he stumbles upon something bigger than he was expecting. This movie looks to be a crazy, dark, twisted and suspenseful movie with an amazing performance by Joaquin Phoenix. April seems to be a quieter month for movie releases so far, but this one definitely looks like something to be checked out.
APR 20: Super Troopers 2
Wait. What?
MAY 4: Infinity Wars
And so begins, the month of Disney making millions and billions and trillions of dollars begins with Infinity Wars. What can be said about Infinity Wars to make anyone more excited? It's everything that Marvel has been promising and building to since Avengers. Although for a character that is supposed to be the biggest and baddest villain so far, we don't really know much about Thanos as a character yet. I'm interested to see just how they will fit all the crazy-ness of Infinity Wars into one movie. Also, they made the Marvel movie come out on Star Wars day instead of the Han Solo movie, seems like a strange move on Disney's part.
MAY 18: That One Deadpool Sequel
Just two weeks after Infinity Wars and we get the fourth(?) comic book movie of the year (out of like 10) in the Deadpool sequel no one asked for, just kidding, everyone asked for. This sequel has a lot to live up to, especially with how much love the first one got, making it the highest grossing R rated movie (besides a certain Mel Gibson movie). Judging by the trailer though, it seems that the Deadpool style comedy we loved the first time around is back and better than ever. Can it somehow top the first? We will see.
May 25: Han Solo Star Wars Story
Only about six months after the last Jedi comes the next movie in the never-ending Star Wars Disney movies. To be honest, i'm not really that excited about this movie at all. There really doesn't feel like a need to go back and watch Han Solo and how he became the smuggler that we all know and love. Sometimes a little mystery goes a long way into making a character great, and I think we know everything we need to know about Han Solo in order to love him as a character, adding more backstory isn't going to make him any cooler, but it does have a chance of making him a weaker character. Thankfully it looks like Disney is going to step away from these beloved characters and start giving us some original stories set in the Star Wars Universe, and that's something to be excited for. AND who knows, maybe this Solo movie won't be bad at all. Of course with all the problems this film had during it's production, it's not a sure thing. Fingers crossed that this movie is great. On a side note, not sure why Disney decided to release it's two biggest franchises in the same month, but whatever.
JUNE 15: The Incredibles 2
Disney forced lots of pointless sequels from Pixar like; "Cars 2", "Cars 3", "Cars 4" (probably), "Monster's University" and "Finding Dory". Incredibles 2 is truly the one Pixar movie that needed a sequel more than any of the rest... well... maybe "A Bug's Life" (not really). It's going to be exciting to see how they tackle the family dynamics this time around, and what kind of interesting villains will be involved. Also very excited to see how much the visuals have improved since the last Incredibles movie and how Pixar will push their technology this time.
JULY 6: Ant-Man and the Wasp
The Disney train continues with Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp closing out Disney's big summer season. This looks to be another fun marvel movie, probably to cleanse the pallet after all the chaos of Infinity Wars. The first Ant-Man was an enjoyable movie with some good laughs and this looks to be more of the same, which isn't a bad thing at all. It will be interesting to see where the Marvel movies are going to start going after this next phase ends and some of the bigger names start to hang up their boots. With big names leaving, we can still rely on new favorites like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Spidey to keep things going while they introduce new characters into the mix.
JULY 20: Alita Battle Angel
The story of a cyborg rescued by a scientist, who goes on to battle other cyborgs in a hybrid live-action and animated movie. Two interesting parts of this movie are the team up of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez, and the strange visuals that looks very anime inspired, like a Ghost in the Shell or Akira. Judging by the trailer, this movie has the potential to be a really unique and cool movie or a really bad and cheesy movie. It's always nice to see studios trying new things like this, so I hope it's as good as the premise seems to make it look, but I guess we won't know for sure until it comes out.
JULY 27: Mission Impossible Fallout
How do these movies keep and getting better is what I keep asking myself. They have a way of upping the stakes every time with new stunts and crazy action sequences, and this one looks to be no different. Watching the trailer alone got me super pumped for this movie, seeing all the potential action sequences and stunts was so much fun. Henry Cavill looks like he made a good decision by not shaving that mustache for Justice League.
OCT 5: Venom
The first spin-off of what could be many in the Sony Spider-Man side of comic book movies. Sony has been known for doing a bad job at handling the Spider-Man franchise, to the point where they had to work together with Disney/Marvel to get it back on track. This movie really needs to be good in order for Sony to have the confidence and profit to keep going with these projects, and attaching an actor like Tom Hardy to the project is the right idea. Not much is known about the movie yet, but i'll be looking forward to how they handle a villain story like this one.
NOV 2: X-Men Dark Phoenix
The third and final X-Men movie of the year (after New Mutants and Deadpool 2). Not much is known about this yet, except that it follows the Dark Phoenix stories from the early 80's. Sophie Turner continues her role as Jean Grey from Apocalypse as she gets her own spin-off story from the X-men. I can't say i'm too excited for it just yet, especially after the boring X-Men Apocalypse movie, but once I see more and a trailer drops i'll know for sure.
NOV 16: Fantastic Beasts and The Crimes of Grindelwald
I'm not too familiar with the Harry Potter films myself, but I quite enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts movie from a few years back. The main character was different than most movies and the supporting cast around him was full of quirky and fun characters. Hopefully the movie will dive deeper into the beasts aspects of the first film, because I always find unique magical creatures interesting in their designs. Also, Johnny Depp will have a bigger role in this one and I hope he doesn't phone it in.
NOV 21: Wreck It Ralph Breaks the Internet
Still my favorite modern Disney Animated feature, Wreck-it Ralph was a really fun story that pays homage to all the great video games of the past (and present) and told a really nice story about a villain wanting to be a hero. The next one looks to take Ralph into the entire internet and i'm excited to see what they will do with that concept and all the jokes that can come from it.
DEC 25: Mary Poppins Returns
This seems like the perfect movie to be released on Christmas day. This movie takes place after the original one, where the kids are all grown up. Mary Poppins shows to help the grieving Michael Banks (from the original) from his sadness after a tragedy in his life. Emily Blunt plays Poppins, which sounds like a great casting decision and the rest of the cast sounds great too. It will be interesting to see if they can really capture the magic of the original again, or even better bring something new to the character of Poppins.
Well that's the list so far, i'm sure there will be many more to come in the indie scene and maybe some surprises. As you can see the year is pretty much dominated by Disney and comic book movies, and that probably won't be changing anytime soon. While these heavy-hitters dominate the box-office, i'll be on the lookout for smaller and original projects to watch as well. Should be an entertaining year. Enjoy your billions Disney.
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