Skip to main content

Summer 2013 Predictions

     It's almost summer time.  It's soon going to be time to go to the beach (if you live near one), or just sit by the pool (if you have one), or just have some fun in any way, shape or form.  It's time to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the good weather.  And when the weather gets too good or too unbearably hot, there's places to go to cool off, like the movies.  Summer is always a great time to go to the movies because it's when all the giant blockbusters and the biggest action movies of the year are released.  Often, the highest grossing movies of the year are released during the summer, like last year, when The Avengers grossed over $200 million during it's opening weekend.  I'm predicting some pretty big hits this year, but nothing quite like The Avengers.  So now, here are some of my thoughts on what to expect over the next four months at the movies:

May
     May is going to be far and away, the best month of the summer to go to the movies.  It's all going to start on May 3, with the release of Iron Man 3.  I wasn't too impressed with Iron Man 2 after the great hit that was the first Iron Man film.  In both of those films, Robert Downey Jr. is clearly amazing in his role as Tony Stark, the insanely rich guy behind the Iron Man suit.  In this new film, he's faced with a new enemy, the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).  This new story is much darker than that of the first two films in the trilogy.  I was somewhat disheartened to hear a while back that it would not be directed by Jon Favreau, the director of the first two films.  Shane Black directs this film, and from what I've seen in the trailer, it's going to be a whole new twist on the franchise.  I expect an opening weekend gross of over $100 million, and it to be a far different Iron Man than we are used to.
    May 10, is the release of The Great Gatsby, the newest Baz Lurhmann film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, and Tobey McGuire.  The Great Gatsby was one of my favorite books I read in high school and it's one of the most famous novels written in the 20th century.  It's the kind of story that can only be good on film.  While there is a risk of turning this masterpiece story into a terrible movie, it shouldn't happen.  The set design looks incredible and it should be well acted as well.  I expect this to be a fairly good movie overall.
    If you don't like crowded movie theaters, you may want to avoid going between May 17 and May 19.  That's when J.J. Abrams's new film Star Trek: Into Darkness releases.  Chris Pine is back as Captain Kirk and some crazy stuff is going to happen.  Benedict Cumberbatch is new to the cast, playing the new villain.  There are a few trailers out for this film, and they all tell me two things: 1) I have no idea what this film is about and the only way I will find out is if I go see the film.  2)  It's probably going to be one of the most amazing films of the year.  I suspect it will also be one of the highest grossing films of the year, if not the highest grossing of the year.  So, this looks like a pretty awesome film and I can't wait for it to come out, but it's not my most anticipated of May.
    I'm a huge fan of the Fast and the Furious series.  I've seen all five films, and the sixth one, releasing on May 24, should be just as good as Fast 5 was back in 2011.  That movie is the best of the series so far, but Fast and Furious 6 could prove to be equally good, or even better.  Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and crew are back with their ridiculous street racing cars and trying to bring down another organized crime gang.  I expect that this film will have a similar story line to that of Fast 5, but with a bigger emphasis on street racing (which is what the series was about in the beginning).  The saga has strayed from street racing a few times and has had a pretty disorganized story overall, but it looks like it's all starting to come together in this one.
    Also coming out on May 24:  the boys are back and creating mayhem again in The Hangover Part III.  The end has come, and this time, nobody's getting married.  So, if nothing giant like that is happening this time around, what could go wrong?  But it's The Hangover Part III.  They figured out how to completely ruin things twice before, it'll happen again.
    I was disappointed by the second movie in the trilogy because it was essentially the same exact thing as the first film.  The only differences were, someone else is getting married, and instead of Las Vegas, they're in Bangkok.  But from what I've seen in the trailer, this film looks to be almost as good as the first one, and to have a far different story, but with the same bad decisions.

June
    June looks to be not quite as good a time to go to the movies, but still, expect to see a lot of good things coming to theaters this month.
    I know that a lot of people don't like M. Night Shyamalan films anymore after his terrible movie based on the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender.  It's safe to say that it was a pretty big upset for a lot of fans of the TV show and even for a lot of us who haven't seen the show.  But, he's back with a movie that actually looks quite promising.
    Will Smith and Jaden Smith co-star in Shyamalan's upcoming film After Earth.  Crazy things have happened on Earth forcing humanity to leave and find a new home.  1000 years after humans have left, these two main characters find themselves stranded on Earth after their ship has crash landed.  The film looks to be an epic film, one that is going to try to be larger than life.  I expect there will be some great visual effects, and some pretty good acting as well.  The trailer looks pretty cool, so I'm excited for this film.
     The wedding crashers, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, are back but this time, they're looking for jobs in The Internship.  But instead of finding jobs, they get internships at Google.  I don't expect this film will make the status of legendary like Wedding Crashers has, but I do expect there are many laughs to be had in this film.
     Another really great looking comedy this June is This is the End.  What happens when you put James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, and Danny McBride together with a whole lot of other people in Hollywood as the world is ending around them?  That's a good question, and only the movie can answer that.  All I suggest in the mean time is that you watch the trailer for a preview of what to expect in the film.  I don't know how to react to the trailer other than, I really need to see this movie.
     Superman fans, I've got a movie for you.  Henry Cavill is the man of steel in Zack Snyder's new epic superhero film Man of Steel.  The first time I saw a trailer for this film was at the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises.  All I can say is that it looks damn good.  The trailer will leave you wanting to see this film as badly as I do.  I think Henry Cavill will play Clark Kent/Superman very well.  The visual effects should be pretty good as well.  All around, it looks great.
    Monsters Inc. was one of my favorite movies growing up, and it still is one of my favorite Pixar films.  So when I heard that Mike Wazowski and Sully were coming back to the big screen in Monsters University, I was extremely happy.  This movie is going to be fantastic.  Very few things Pixar has produced have been short of excellent, and I expect nothing less of this film.  I'm a huge fan of animation and the animation in this film looks wonderful (as always with Pixar).
    Zombie movie fans, once again, your wish for another zombie movie has been granted.  This time, it's a movie based on the popular novel by Max Brooks, World War Z.  It took me a few times of watching the trailer to get excited about this movie because it seems like a somewhat cliche concept, zombies taking over the world.  And they're taking over the world just like they did in the Resident Evil saga.  The difference here is that these zombies actually move fast.  I still think this movie looks pretty strange, and Brad Pitt doesn't help me think it looks any less strange.  I don't think it's a particularly good role for him, but it should be interesting to see how the film plays out on the big screen.  And as with every other film I've just talked about, I'm still going to see this film when it's released.
    A movie I'm more excited to see than World War Z, is White House Down, the new film starring Channing Tatum, and directed by Roland Emmerich.  I'm a big fan of Roland Emmerich's work.  He's brought us amazing films such as Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow.  He's also brought us some less than amazing films such as 10,000 B.C. and most recently, Anonymous.  However, I'm willing to trust that White House Down will be better because of its trailer.  This is perhaps my second favorite trailer to any movie this year (read on to find out what my favorite is).  My problem is that the film looks almost like a carbon copy of Olympus Has Fallen, just with a different cast, different director, and more government buildings being destroyed, but by someone other than the North Koreans.  But still, I'm going to see it, and I am quite excited for it.
    So, I've been talking about movies that I'm excited for, but you've gotten this far, and you're probably wondering if there's anything I'm not excited about this summer.  Yes, there is folks.  It's a new movie called The Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, directed by Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids.  Both actresses play FBI agents, Sandra Bullock playing Sarah Ashburn, the smart one, and Melissa McCarthy, Shannon Mullins, the one who looks like she's going to ruin everything.  The trailer screams stupidity in this film, but hey, it might a great comedy.  I'm not that excited to see this film, but like everything else I've talked about so far, I'm probably going to see it anyway.

July
     So, I must admit something that most of you will find quite sad.  I still haven't seen the first Despicable Me, but it looks like one of the cutest movies and the sequel looks just as cute and awesome.  As I said above, I'm a fan of animation, so this certainly perks my interests again.  I'll probably end up seeing this film, but I should probably see the first one first.
     Gore Verbinski, the director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films is back with Johnny Depp, but this time it's not a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Armie Hammer co-stars with Depp in The Lone Ranger.  I've been seeing trailers for this movie for the good part of a year, and every time I see it, I get even more excited about it.  This film is likely to be similar to Pirates of the Caribbean in terms of the style in which it's made.  The visual effects should be great, and Depp and Hammer should make a pretty good duo.  I think there are going to be a lot of fans of the old TV show that are going to be interested in this film as well.
     Red showed us that older people could still fight evil.  Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Hellen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman are all back in the sequel, Red 2.  The first film was a lot of fun to watch, and I have no doubt that this one will be just as entertaining.  None of these actors ever fail to impress an audience and they all were great together in the first film.  I suspect they will all be equally good together again.  It's going to be action packed, filled with laughs, and just an all around fun movie.  I'm looking forward to it and you should be too.
     It seems like Wolverine is the most well known characters in the X-Men universe.  Probably because he's got a movie of his own already, and now there's going to be another one.  The Wolverine looks pretty good.  It doesn't look amazing, but it still will probably be worth seeing.  Hugh Jackman has proven himself to be a pretty terrific actor lately and I believe he will play Wolverine excellently again.  This film again, will probably be filled with violence, like so many other movies this summer, but it should be good.

August
      I'll start this section off with my second most anticipated film of the summer; Elysium.  Director Neill Blomkamp showed us his directing ability just four years ago with his feature film debut, District 9.  I've been waiting for this film since I first heard about it while it was in pre-production almost two years ago.  I have great faith in Neill Blomkamp as a director, and he has a great cast lined up in his latest film.  There is a clear division of class in this film, where the wealthy live on a space station and the rest of the population live on a ruined planet Earth.  Starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, this should be a pretty terrific film.  I'm extremely excited for it, and any District 9 fans should be as well.  This looks to be one of the best films of the summer.
     Kick Ass fans, get happy because the sequel is here.  As with many films with their sequels coming out this year, Kick Ass proved to be better than many expected.  Kick Ass 2 looks to be a great one as well.  Hopefully it will live up to the hype that surrounds it now.  Jim Carrey joins the cast this time.  The story should be somewhat similar, except this band of costumed vigilantes has a fan base that's huge and filled with people who want to be just like them.  It should be interesting to see if the situation gets out of control or not.  I'm excited about this film (of course).
     Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington co-star in an upcoming film called 2 Guns.  Both men play agents from different agencies pretending to be friends and working together on going undercover to commit crimes they're supposed to be investigating.  It's kind of confusing because these characters have masks over their masks, and it makes for a bit of confusion.  But hey, it's Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington in the same movie.  There's going to be a lot of testosterone in this film and it should be pretty exciting.

Most Anticipated
      My single most anticipated film this summer is Pacific Rim coming to theaters on July 12.  Guillermo del Toro directs this Sci-Fi epic about monsters coming to Earth through a portal deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.  With the future of the entire human race at stake, it's time to rise to the occasion to defeat the monsters.  So, the humans develop giant fighting robots to defeat these monsters. This film resembles a Japanese anime show I used to watch as a kid called Gundam.  It was also about giant fighting robots, but they were fighting each other.  The giant robots used in Pacific Rim look quite similar, which excites me even more.  The special effects in this film look really awesome.  The concept for the story is pretty cool and very intriguing.  I predict it's going to be a pretty good film, and one certainly worth watching.
   
     This summer is going to be a great time to go to the movies.  There's so much good stuff coming out, making the theaters great places to get out of the heat and the sun.  I'm excited for pretty much everything I've just talked about and there's so much more that I'm excited about that I haven't written about, but you'll see those reviews later in the summer.  So, these are my predictions.  Go and enjoy the movies this summer!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Unknown

Starring: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, and January Jones Directed by:   Jaume Collet-Serra Screenplay by: Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell     "They had me convinced I was crazy.  But when they came to take me I knew."  Identity theft is a major problem in today's world, but it can't get much worse than the situation present in Unknown .       While on a trip to a biotechnology conference in Berlin, Germany, Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) is involved in a car crash putting him in a coma for four days.  He awakens to find out that not only has his identity been taken, but he has been replaced by someone who also claims to be him.  Even his wife Elizabeth (January Jones) claims to not recognize him.  He begins to believe that his entire life has been thrown away, or never existed at all.  As he finds people who can help him remember what happened to him before the crash, he becomes part of a conspiracy involving...

The Hunger Games

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth Directed by: Gary Ross Screenplay by: Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins Based on the novel by Suzanne Collins      If reality television hasn't gone too far yet, then this show should definitely make it go too far.      In a futuristic nation called Panem, one boy and one girl are selected from each of the nation's twelve districts to represent them in an annual television event called the Hunger Games.  Of the 24 contestants, only one will survive in this televised fight to the death.      I like the concept of the story.  While this futuristic society seems somewhat simple, it does not seem all that well developed.  It is unknown how this society came into being, even though it is known how the Hunger Games began.      If this film were released last year, I would have hoped it would be nominated for best make-up.  Many of the characters ...

Django Unchained

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson Directed by: Quentin Tarantino Screenplay by: Quentin Tarantino      I think it's safe to say that this film is the most badass film of 2012.  My only explanation; Quentin Tarantino!!!!      When someone asks what a Quentin Tarantino film is about, I first respond with "that's a good question".  But there is actually a real story behind all of his films, including Django Unchained.        Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) is a bounty hunter in the pre-Civil War South.  He's looking for a group of bandits known as the Brittle brothers.  He comes across a slave in a slave transport known as Django (the D is silent (Jamie Foxx)), who knows where to find the Brittle brothers.  But Django has a wife he wants to find (Kerry Washington).  She's a slave at a plantation owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). ...