Here Comes The Summer: Mega Awesome Fantastic Summer 2011 Movie Preview part 5: Vengeance for 2010!!!

Lets be honest, 2010’s crop of summer movies were pretty bad. Sure we had Inception and Scott Pilgrim but most things released between May and July were pretty sub par pieces of entertainment. Thank god then that 2011 looks to be back up to scratch with not just a whole bunch of comic book adaptations for us nerds to scream about but also promising looking sequels and some remakes. Super 8, 30 minutes or less and Larry Crowne are your two original pieces of film which are not based on previous properties. Hey it would be nice to have a whole raft of original product to watch this summer but thats not how the current system works. As it stands the adaptations and sequels this summer do actually look interesting or very good so all is not lost. You are probably wondering where Harry Potter is amongst this list, the answer is its not there! I've never really been in to Harry the way that every one else seems to be so I did not include it. I’m sure those who like it will love it though and it will make a squillion dollars…

Thor

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins. Directed by: Kenneth Branagh

I may be wrong here, but I think this will be a big disappointment. I don’t think there is any real interest in the Thor character outside of hardcore comic fans. This is a bigger gamble than Daredevil or Captain America or any other second tier character you care to mention. Having said that, despite its faults Clash of the Titans did make money so there may well be some interest in the realm of gods and immortals. Nothing about this that I have seen so far has got me excited in any way. The plot being what it is; ‘Norse god cast down to live amongst the humans’ sounds like some kind of bad TV show pilot from the late eighties, and I thought filmed comic adaptations had evolved beyond this. Its all very well bringing in a filmmaker on the level of Kenneth Branagh for your movie, he has made some fine movies in olde worlde language, lest ye forget he also made Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, which these days is borderline unwatchable. Is also post converted 3D too. A future camp classic or underrated blockbuster? We will see.

Released: 27th April

Priest

Starring: Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Maggie Q and Christopher Plummer. Directed by: Scott Smith

Director Scott Smith’s last movie was the woeful Legion which bungled an excellent premise to deliver a long boring sub straight to DVD snoozefest. Here he re-teams with that films star Paul Bettany, who plays the titular Priest who hunts down vampires in a world dominated by them, they kidnap his niece and off he goes to kick ass. This is based on a little known manga and admittedly does look visually impressive. Alas it is also a movie post converted into 3D so will likely give you a headache regardless of how good it looks. One for the DVD rental queue.

Released: 11th May

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane and Geoffrey Rush. Directed by: Rob Marshall.

Its been nearly four years since the overblown third Pirates movie; At Worlds End. This looks like its back to basics with very little in the way of CGI sea monsters, instead it focuses on Jack Sparrow again played winningly by Johnny Depp as well as Penelope Cruz’s female pirate character and Ian McShane’s dastardly Blackbeard. The plot is lifted from a 1988 novel by Tom Powers called ‘On stranger tides’ and concerns the search for the fountain of youth. Disney want this to be the first part in another trilogy of films that will bring them all the way back up to part 6. The back to basics approach could be a good thing but could also disappoint your casual filmgoer wanting another Kraken or Davey Jones. And guess what? Its also in 3D!! The jury is out…

Released: 18th May

The Hangover part two

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. Directed by: Todd Phillips.

Comedy sequel’s rarely excel past the first installment and mostly fall flat on their face. Although I would like to see it, I’m also slightly relieved that they have never made a follow up to Anchorman and the fact that Ghostbusters 3 has never got off the ground also allows me to sleep soundly at night. The Hangover was a massive success back in 2009 and became the highest grossing R rated comedy ever. So of course there was going to be a follow up and it comes out this summer. As of end of March there had yet to be a full length trailer and they are probably rushing to get this finished. This time the gang ends up in Thailand and gets involved in some shenanigans most likely with hallucinogens and drug dealing monkeys. Early word has it that this is even more ‘out there’ and hilarious than the first. Please note: first film on list not in 3D…

Released: 27th May

Kung Fu Panda 2

Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Seth Rogen. Directed by:Jennifer Yuh

Until How to train your dragon came along, Kung Fu Panda was the best animated film DreamWorks had done. In a world where there are four Shrek movies and two Madagascar films, it was inevitable that there would be a follow up to the first. Most of the voice cast from the first return for this which sees Po team up with some new kung fu masters to defeat an old enemy. The first film was popular with kids as well as adults and this could well be the animated film to beat this summer. I’m not including Cars 2 because I thought Cars was not that great…

Released: 10th June

X-Men – First Class

Starring: Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence and Kevin Bacon. Directed by: Matthew Vaughan.

Of the summer films I am most anxious to see this year, this is probably third most anticipated. The reason for this is that it’s a superhero team film from the geniuses behind Stardust and Kick-Ass. Plus its set in the 1960’s which along with Captain America really tickles my retro comic book fetish issues. Little is know of the actual plot apart from it involves young professor x and Magneto and the early days of the school for gifted youngsters. Some characters we have not seen on film before show up as well as some new ones including villain Kevin Bacon and his Hellfire Club. The teaser trailer was a perfect tease, insinuating that the plot involved mutants involved in the Cuban missile crisis. One of the few this summer I will see opening day.

Released: 2nd June

Super 8

Starring: Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Noah Emmerich and Ron Eldard. Directed by: JJ Abrams.

So what is second on my most anticipated list? This new film from JJ Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg. Primarily because I like the way JJ does not reveal full details for the films that come out of his Bad Robot production company until the last minute. All too often you know everything about a blockbuster before you have seen it and this secrecy keeps things exciting. What we know is this: The film is set in the early 80’s, it involves kids, it involves ‘something’ escaping and causing carnage and the trailer is full of that Spielberg brand of wonder and amazement that has too long been absent from his films. Producers take note, this is the way you create a marketing campaign..

Released: 19th August

Green Lantern

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Mark Strong, Blake Lively and Peter Saarsgard. Directed by: Martin Campbell.

I hope I am wrong about Thor and I also hope I am wrong about Green Lantern. I have no real familiarity with the Green Lantern character outside of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe and that superior New Frontier straight to DVD animated movie from a few years back. Green Lantern has always seemed a bit lame to me, his weakness being the color yellow and the fact that his power is to conjure anything he can think of (usually big green fists) through his power ring. Having said all that, I like what I have seen of the film so far and its sci-fi elements look suitably operatic. The four minutes that appeared online after wondercon last weekend looked suitably epic and wisely focus on the space opera elements. Martin Campbell has knocked it out of the park before with Casino Royale and the first Zorro movie. This could be Ryan Reynolds last chance to fulfill the ‘next big thing’ tag he has had for a while. I don’t know about you but I suspect something of a disappointment in the box office for this one, I hope I am wrong.

Released: 17th June

Transformers – The Dark of the Moon

Starring: Shia LeBouef, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson. Directed by: Michael Bay

The second Transformers was one of the worst big blockbusters in recent memory, rushed into production by the writers strike a few years back. It exhibited everything that was terrible about Michael Bay, bad acting, juvenile humor and a poor script. The first Transformers film was great fun, a touching story about a boy and his first car and giant robot carnage that you could follow. The third movie is apparently back to basics and is shot in 3D, not post converted. Now as long as they can keep the camera still long enough for your eye to actually register whats going on we should be spared a migraine. The recent trailers for this certainly make it look cool and hopefully this time they have a great screenplay to match the carnage.

Released: 1st July

Larry Crowne

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Bryan Cranston. Directed by: Tom Hanks

Its been a long time since Tom Hanks had a movie where he wasn’t chasing some kind of cryptic clue with a bad hairstyle. Larry Crowne is his second movie where he steps behind the camera and follows a middle aged man who loses his job and decides to reinvent himself by returning to college much like the Chevy Chase character in Community. He then strikes up a relationship with an unhappily married professor played by Julia Roberts. The script is co-written by Hanks and My Big Fat Greek Wedding’s Nia Vardolos. If they can avoid the schmaltz and bring on the feel good and funny this could be a big hit. There certainly seems to be nothing else like it this summer, everything else seems to involve explosions and 3D.

Released: 1st July

Captain America

Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci. Directed by: Joe Johnston

This is it! The big one for me personally this summer. If this is good, I may retire from online movie blogging. The reason for this is that Captain America is the last of the comic books I read as a kid to be adapted for the screen. As I got into this partly to moan or praise how my beloved comics were being treated by Hollywood, if this ends up being good I will feel that I have come full circle and have nothing left to say until they get The Punisher right. Joe Johnston previously made The Rocketeer, a film with some brilliantly retro Indiana esque thrills. He seems to have been the right choice to bring the big blue boyscout to the screen with a story apparently mainly taking place in world war 2. This also leads directly into The Avengers in summer 2012. As long as they treat the character right and not just as an introduction piece for Joss Whedon’s super hero team up then I can retire happy.

Released: 29th July

Cowboys and Aliens

Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell. Directed by: Jon Favreau

Jon Favreau’s latest trip behind the camera has had a long development history, it was once slated to be Barry Sonnenfeld’s follow up to Men In Black. Its finally coming out with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in front of the camera as two rivals in the old west who face an alien threat bigger than any disagreement about horse ownership could ever be. It will be interesting to see what the tone of this is like, Daniel Craig is not your typical leading man and the early footage shows that they have taken the western elements quite seriously. Could be great, could be this years Jonah Hex.

Released: 12th August

Rise of the Planet of The Apes

Starring: James Franco, Frieda Pinto and Andy Serkis. Directed by: Rupert Wyatt

First its out in July, then it moves back to November, then its back to August and then it changes title and we have yet to see a trailer. The Planet of the Apes prequel should come out at some point this year so I thought it best to include it here should it actually come out in August as planned. The film stars James Franco as a scientist who befriends the first intelligent ape Caesar, who will eventually lead a rebellion to overthrow humanity. Rupert Wyatt is an untested director but The Escapist was brilliant, People could also be getting sick of Franco who is approaching over exposure. Of course all of this date changing and nervousness about the title could mean that its actually a masterpiece and they are confident and don’t want to short change a great movie. A short trailer has recently appeared and although basically a real tease, it looks creepy and action packed with some great ape effects work. The jury is out…

Released: August tbc

30 Minutes or Less

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride and Michael Pena. Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

There hasn’t been a good action comedy since Pineapple Express in 2008. Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer re—teams with Jesse Eisenberg to tell the story of a pizza delivery boy who is kidnapped and forced to carry out an armed robbery in 30 minutes. The premise should allow for lots of slapstick as well as hilarious dialogue and Danny McBride. This could be the late summer comedy hit that we seem to get every year.

Released: August tbc

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark

Starring: Guy Pearce, Katie Holmes, Alan Dale and Bailee Madison. Directed by: Troy Nixey.

The release date for this one has been constantly shuffled around by Miramax and it will now make its debut late summer instead of January as originally planned. Its probably a good fit too, there seems to be a major drought of viable horror product in Summer 11. This could be an after effect of Splice’s failure at the box office last summer or maybe I’m reading too much into it. Guillermo Del Toro co wrote this with Matthew Robbins and its based on the 73 original and tells the tale of a family that moves into a new home and discover a malevolent presence that haunts their daughter. The teaser trailer was wicked scary and early word has been positive. Lets hope those shuffling release dates don’t reflect the quality of the finished film.

Released: August tbc

Conan the Barbarian

Starring: Jason Momoa, Rachel Nichols, Rose Macgowan and Ron Perlman. Directed by: Marcus Nispel

I’ve only recently watched the original Conan The Barbarian from 1980 and I loved it. It was epic and bloody and wholly enjoyable. Obviously Arnold is too old to reprise the role now in his sixties and so they have recast with the unknown Jason Momoa, he certainly looks the part and its directed by Marcus Nispel who has a keen visual eye but also made the similar but terrible Pathfinder a few years back. The jury is out as to whether this will rock or suck, the budget is also 90 million or so, so they are keen to make it a franchise restarter. If nothing else it will have Rachel Nichols and Rose Macgowan in awesome warrior queen outfits.

Released: 19th August

 

 

by Chris Holt

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