Here's a few movies that I'm excited about but didn't make it onto the main list: Thor: The Dark World, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, Gangster Squad, Gravity, 42, Much Ado About Nothing.
Here's the rest of the list, in a rough order of how much I'm anticipating the movies. Perhaps at the end of the year, I'll look back and see if any of these movies lived up to the expectations I'm giving them.
The first Anchorman is probably the funniest movie of the last decade. It's endlessly quotable and has a huge re-watchable value. I am a little nervous about the sequel though. Comedy sequels are often far inferior to their predecessor (Hangover II, Ghostbusters II, American Pie 2; you get the idea), but I think there's hope that it'll at least be halfway decent. The entire original cast is back, which, considering the star power they've all acquired since the first one, makes the movie a must see in its own right.
I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of the first Hunger Games movie. It was a decent enough adaptation, and a lot more care was given to the source material than the Twilight novels and even some of the Harry Potter books, but it still didn't quite "wow" me as much as I was hoping it would. Still, it was a huge hit and the sequel was announced almost immediately. Catching Fire is, I think, the best book of the three, so here's hoping I enjoy it more than the first movie.
Even though there's no footage of it yet, this could very well end up being my pick for the funniest movie of 2013. It has some of the best young actors today playing themselves at a party, when they find out the apocalypse is happening. How could I not be excited for it? James Franco, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, and so many others, all play themselves.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine sucked. Plain and simple. It's probably one of the worst comic book movies of the past few years. However, The Wolverine sounds like it will be a great redeemer for the character.When Darren Aronofsky was attached to direct, I was a lot more excited about it. However, Aronofsky didn't leave the project on creative terms, which makes me believe this could still be great. It will set a nice bridge to X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014 as well.
It's giant robots versus giant aliens! Plus, it's directed by Guillermo Del Toro, which is by far the coolest name to say. Go ahead, say it. I know, right? Part of me is worried that this is going to turn out to be just another Battle: Los Angeles, but Del Toro has some great movies to his credit and this could be a big franchise starter. The footage shown at Comic Con this year blew the audience away, and really got the hype started for the movie. It's getting released in the middle of the summer, the prime time for a movie like this.
8) The Wolf of Wall Street
I'm not even sure if this will even be released in 2013, but I'm putting it here just in case. According to the IMDb page, it's still filming, but expectations for this movie have been extremely high since it was first announced. Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, and Matthew McConaughey, this one is already an Oscar contender no matter what year it's released.
7) Star Trek: Into DarknessIt's been four years since we last saw Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise crew on the big screen. That much of a gap between movies can either be a great or terrible indication. The worry I have here is that the excitement for another Star Trek movie has worn off in the wake of the comic book movie frenzy of the past few years. Nevertheless, this will (probably) be a hit, and if it's any bit as good as the first one, could be the movie of the summer.
I'm not a fan of director Zack Snyder. Like, at all. To me, his movies are all style and no substance. He's not a bad filmmaker; 300 and Watchmen are fairly good flicks, but he just doesn't really have much to say in his movies. To give him a job as big as the Superman reboot without any sort of a credible movie to his name is quite the risk to take, considering that this is supposedly going to launch the road to the Justice League movie. The footage shown in the trailers so far has me hopeful that Man of Steel is the movie where Zack Snyder finally grows up.
I think Monsters, Inc. is in the top five of Pixar movies. To me, Toy Story started the phenomenon with Pixar, but Monsters, Inc. proved that they were here to stay, and that their movies were great for both kids and adults. Having the second movie being a prequel is a fantastic idea. Taking Mike and Sully back to college sounds like just as original of an idea as the first movie. I haven't been this excited for a Pixar movie since Toy Story 3.
Again, I'm not even sure if this is slated for a 2013 release. I loved Drive, and this second team up between Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn sounds like it could be just as good. Set around a boxing match, it makes me think this could be done in the same style as Raging Bull, which I wouldn't mind in the least.
Even though this is technically the third Iron Man movie, I don't really count it as a threequel. To me, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to be judged in a different manner than other movie franchises because of how unique it is. The way I see it, Iron Man 2 is the threequel, which explains why it's arguably the most disappointing movie in the series. 3 kicks off "Phase 2" for the Marvel Universe. It will be interesting to see which characters from the Universe make it into this movie, or if it's going to be a standalone Iron Man story. I'm interested to see that dynamic with all the Marvel movies from now on, honestly. I said after The Avengers I didn't really know where Marvel could go with their franchises next, but I really can't wait to find out.
2) ElysiumNeill Blomkamp's first feature was the Oscar nominated District 9. The movie was a huge success and I couldn't wait to see what he planned next. Elysium sounds like it's cut from the same cloth as District 9, which is not a bad thing. Matt Damon stars in a role that doesn't really seem like his type, but that adds to the intrigue for me. It's slated for a late summer release, so hopefully it can be a good way to kick off the awards season for 2013. It will be a good test to see if District 9 was a fluke or the real thing.
1) The Great GatsbyI've been waiting far too long to see this movie. I was at first skeptical of the choice of Baz Luhrmann to direct this adaptation, but after seeing the trailer, I realized his style was the perfect fit for this 1920's era classic. There really hasn't been a terrific adaptation of the novel (which is odd, considering its place in American history), so perhaps this can be the one to really give justice to Fitzgerald's novel. The cast seems perfect for the roles they play. It looks like it will have the Luhrmann style we've become all too familiar with. It could be a hell of a ride, or an awful disaster.
No comments:
Post a Comment