Honorable Mention: Dragonball Z: Resurrection of Frieza
This is being released in Japan on April 18, but I have no idea when it will be available in the U.S. Frieza is the most influential villain in the DBZ universe, and he has been dead for nearly 20 years. 20 freakin' years! Keeping a villain dead for that long is nearly unheard of in America. He was the main antagonist when I started watching first run episodes in Japan, and I'm excited to see him back.
Release Date: July 1
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke
Budget: $170 million +
Synopsis: People vs Robots
I'm not quite sure what's going on here. Schwarzenegger is back as the good Terminator, but he's like grumpy grandpa terminator. It appears that some time travel shenanigans are going to cause a reboot of the series, which I'm not a fan of, but I am excited about Sarah Connor being reintroduced to the series through Emilia Clarke. If you're not familiar with Emilia Clarke, she's the only good thing about Game of Thrones. I thought Terminator Salvation was kind of boring, and I'd really like a conclusion to the machine war instead of another movie trying to prevent the machine war. Regardless of how bad or good this is, I think I will at least enjoy watching Schwarzenegger reprise the role that made him famous.
Release Date: June 12
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard
Budget: $150 million +
Synopsis: People vs Dinosaurs
I honestly have very little recollection of Jurassic Park 2 or 3. There don't seem to be a lot of dinosaur related scripts floating around Hollywood, unless you count Transformers 4, which was bad even by my standards. I'm excited to see some non-robot dinosaurs on the big screen again, and I like the idea of a fully functional dinosaur park. I'm less excited about having to sit through a story about scientists genetically modifying dinosaurs, because ya know, who in the world would go to a park with boring regular dinosaurs. We'll see.
Release Date: November 20
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Budget: $125 million +
Synopsis: People vs Other People
I was rather underwhelmed by Mockingjay Part 1. I thought it dragged and it was only split into two movies as a cash grab by Lionsgate. That being said, if the movie follows the book, Part 2 should be mostly all action as Katniss and company storm the capitol. More than the story, I'm anxious to see the level of violence from the books they carry over to the movie. Spoiler alert: it is a blood bath! Characters are slaughtered left and right, in the city, in the sewers, children are blown up in the capitol, and Katniss assassinates President Coin (Julianne Moore). I don't necessarily want to see all these things, but the director, Francis Lawrence, has a huge PG-13 challenge on his hands. (Bonus: While researching this, I learned that Francis Lawrence's father was a physicist who taught at California State University, Northridge.)
Release Date: July 31?
Starring: Tom Cruise and ?
Budget: $150 million + ?
Synopsis: Spies vs Terrorists?
This wasn't supposed to be released until late 2015, but was apparently bumped up to summer 2015 because it is that awesome. As of this writing, there is no poster, preview, or synopsis available, and I don't need one. Mission Impossible 4 was the best in the series. Tom Cruise is currently on a hot streak with action films (Jack Reacher, Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow).
Release Date: December 18
Starring: a lot of young adult actors I haven't heard of and the old Star Wars cast
Budget: $200 million +
Synopsis: I don't know
I am not really a Star Wars fan. Of the six movies, I only enjoy Revenge of the Sith and Empire Strikes Back. I tried watching the Clone Wars cartoon but I could never get into it. I don't like what J.J. Abrams did with Star Trek, and I have little doubt that he is going to turn this into another franchise geared towards young adults. With that being said, there are actually several reasons I want to see this.
1 - I really like light sabers.
2 - I like the Millenium Falcon and am interested to see it in commission again after 30 years.
3 - I want to see the remnants of the Empire. I don't imagine it just fell apart when Emporer Palpatine was killed.
4 - I like being part of event pictures, and this will be an event. I think all the elements are in place for this to have the largest debut weekend of all time, breaking the $207 million opening weekend set by the Avengers in 2012. There is only one movie that can stop it from doing so, which is...
Release Date: May 1
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, James Spader
Budget: $200 million +
Synopsis: Heroes vs Robots
James Spader is the voice of Ultron, and from what I've seen in the previews, he hits it out of the park. We also get to see Iron Man break out the Hulkbuster armor. I thought maybe they'd wait for a Planet Hulk storyline to reveal it, but this will work. Elizabeth Olsen is joining the cast as the Scarlet Witch. I'm not sure there is anything to not look forward to here. I would be excited about Quicksilver, but we already had a fun demonstration of his powers in X-Men: Days of Future Past last year.
Release Date: April 3
Starring: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Ludacris, Tyrese
Budget:$250 million +
Synopsis:Everyone vs Jason Statham
I bet you're real surprised to find this here. Fast 6 was better than Fast 5, which was better than Fast 4, which was much better than Fast 3. The general trend of this series is that each film released is better than the previous one, which gives me high hopes for Fast 7. The cast is by no means Shakespearean trained, but they all play to their strengths. At this point, the cast and crew know what they are doing, and with the addition of Jason Statham it is hard to see this movie not performing well as a popcorn blockbuster. I always found Paul Walker's performances to be the downside of these movies. With his unfortunate demise, I won't even poke fun at him here.
And here's a picture of The Rock firing a gatling gun to get me more pumped for this movie.
And here's a picture of The Rock firing a gatling gun to get me more pumped for this movie.
