Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2014

As 2013 begins to come to a close, it’s time to look ahead into the future. We’re kind of in an interesting situation right now because instead of focusing on this upcoming year, all eyes are looking ahead to the following year, 2015. There’s a pretty good reason for this, as 2015 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years for the film industry ever; there’s ‘Avengers 2’ AKA ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, a Batman/Superman crossover, the next entries in the James Bond and Jurassic Park franchises, and much, much more. But while I’m certainly looking forward to 2015, that’s two years from now, and there are still a lot of films to look forward to in 2014. So, with that in mind, here are my Top 10 most anticipated films of 2014. Keep in mind that this is mainly based on speculation, as we don’t have much material from any of these movies except for some set photos and leaked footage.

10. Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1, 2014)

While DC is currently at work on their ‘Batman/Superman’ crossover, Marvel will pretty much have 2014 all to themselves with four films being released over the course of the year (technically through different studios but that’s beside the point). I’m starting my list off with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and it’s at this spot for one main reason. Even though it’s been about a year since this film was announced, I really don’t know much about this franchise. It’s not like ‘Iron Man’, ‘Spider-Man’, or the ‘X-Men’. When this was first announced, my first response was, ‘Who?’ and somehow I find myself still kind of asking that question. From what I’ve read, the main team of heroes that this film is based around had their own series in 2008 but it was cancelled two years later, which can explain why I never heard of them (along with the fact that I’m not a comic book reader). This is a rather obscure franchise so hopefully Marvel knows what they’re doing by giving them a feature length movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But on the other hand, this movie does have an interesting cast; Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and Benicio Del Toro just to name a few. So while I still don’t know much about these characters, the cast alone intrigues me and this is Marvel and they have been on a really great run lately in regards to their ‘Cinematic Universe’. Still, I’m going in rather hesitant.

9. Transcendence (April 18, 2014)

Christopher Nolan is currently at work on his next film, ‘Interstellar’, but something will be different this time around… his long-time cinematographer, Wally Pfister, will not be involved with that film. Instead, he will be making his directorial debut with ‘Transcendence’. That’s the main reason why I’m interested in this film; to see how Pfister fares as a director. I have a feeling that there will be a bit of Nolan’s influence in the way he directs. Aside from that, the plot is also rather intriguing. A computer scientist (Rebecca Hall) uploads her husband’s (Johnny Depp) brain into a computer after he’s killed by terrorists. Their goal is to achieve technological singularity; a world where the computers are capable of transcending the abilities of the human brain. We haven’t seen any footage from the film yet but this is looking like it’ll be a really entertaining film.

8. Tomorrowland (December 12, 2014)

If I made a list of my top 10 favorite directors, Brad Bird would easily be near the top of the list. He’s the man responsible for two of my top 10 favorite films of all time, ‘The Iron Giant’ and ‘The Incredibles’. Aside from that, he’s also made another great animated film, ‘Ratatouille’, and successfully transitioned from animation to live-action with ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’. I’m always looking forward to whatever project he does next, and this one is no exception. However, we don’t really know that much about this film aside from the fact that it shares the name of one of the themed lands of Disney parks, ‘Tomorrowland’. Will part of the movie take place there? I don’t know but that won’t stop me from seeing the film when it comes out. So why is a film from one of my favorite directors only at number eight on this list? Well, one of the writers on the film is Damon Lindelof AKA the guy behind the rather disappointing ‘Prometheus’ and the one (from what I’ve heard) who was responsible for having Khan put into ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ when Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were against it. Thankfully, Bird has a writing credit as well so fingers crossed here.

7. Hobbit: There and Back Again (December 17, 2014)

(*insert annual Hobbit post here*)

I’m just kidding, but yes, taking the number seven spot on this list is the third and final film in ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, ‘The Hobbit: There and Back Again’. Now, at the time I am writing this, ‘Desolation of Smaug’ hasn’t come out so we do not know where this film will take place in the story. It’s safe to assume that ‘Desolation of Smaug’ will revolve around the dwarves’ attempting to reclaim their kingdom from the dragon Smaug. So, I’m thinking that ‘There and Back Again’ will most likely focus on ‘The Battle of Five Armies’, though reportedly it will mainly be based on the appendices that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in order to expand the universe of Middle-Earth. If that’s the case, then I hope that they don’t cram in the ‘Five Armies’ battle into the second film. I haven’t read ‘The Hobbit’, but it sounds like that final battle is more than enough to be the focus of one film. Then again, I’m not really a fan of the decision to go from two movies to three because of how smaller of a story ‘The Hobbit’ is compared to ‘Lord of the Rings’. In the end, I’m mainly hoping that these last two films don’t succumb to the same problem that the first film had; an padded out run-time that makes it feel like we’re already watching the ‘Extended Edition’ of the film.

6. The Lego Movie (February 7, 2014)

The reason why I was highly anticipating 2012’s ‘Wreck it Ralph’ was because its video-game premise instantly connected with me, as I am a huge fan of video games. It’s a similar situation for ‘The Lego Movie’, as I loved playing with LEGO’s when I was a kid so I’m intrigued to see what they do with this movie, which also happens to be an original story. It has a really great crew behind it. The directors for the movie are Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the duo behind two of the funniest and most creative films of the last few years, ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’ and ’21 Jump Street’. It also has a really impressive cast; Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, and much, much more. According to Lord and Miller, the film will combine computer animation with stop-motion animation, and the trailer for the film definitely has a ‘stop-motion’ vibe to it. Suffice it to say, there’s quite a lot of potential with this film.

5. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (November 21, 2014)

Like with ‘The Hobbit’, I am writing this having not yet seen this year’s entry in the Hunger Games series, ‘Catching Fire’, but the main thing to talk about here is that the final story, ‘Mockingjay’, will be split into two films, with Part 2 coming out in 2015. I’m not so sure about this choice; will it work like ‘Harry Potter’ or it will be pointlessly drawn out like ‘Twilight: Breaking Dawn’? Only time will tell. Francis Lawrence, director of ‘Catching Fire’, returns to helm these two films so it seems like the producers were happy with his work on ‘Catching Fire’. Hopefully we’ll see what they saw when ‘Catching Fire’ hits theaters this November.

4. Interstellar (November 7, 2014)

No poster/image yet of the film so here's a pic of Nolan on the set of 'Dark Knight Rises' instead.

 

Christopher Nolan is a director that needs no introduction. His latest film, ‘Interstellar’, will serve as the first film he’s done since the conclusion of ‘The Dark Knight’ trilogy. Like with ‘Tomorrowland’, not much is known about the plot, and what we have been given so far is rather vague; it’s apparently involved around wormholes… and corn. But hey, it’s Nolan so there’s no way I’m missing this film, which also has quite a stacked cast; Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, Michael Caine, and Matt Damon… and that’s just to name a few. Nolan has yet to disappoint when it comes to his films, and I’m betting that streak will continue with this one.

3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4, 2014)

Just a quick spoiler; the top 3 films on my list are all superhero films and kicking things off is the sequel to 2011’s ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’. ‘The First Avenger’ ended up being one of my personal favorite films of Marvel’s Phase One because of how Marvel managed to make one of their least interesting characters interesting, thanks in part to Chris Evans’ terrific performance in the role. So, with that in mind, I’m eagerly awaiting this film. For one thing, I’m interested in seeing how the directors on this film will handle it. Marvel has always picked some interesting directors for their movies, and the two working on this film are no exception; Anthony and Joe Russo, a duo mainly known for directing episodes on the cult hit NBC show, ‘Community’. How will these guys handle an action movie? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

2. X-Men Days of Future Past (May 23, 2014)

After a disappointing third film and a rather terrible prequel/solo film, the ‘X-Men’ franchise got back on track in 2011 with ‘X-Men: First Class’, an effective reboot featuring a great new cast to take over for the cast of the original X-Men trilogy. But the original X-Men cast isn’t done yet and next year they will return alongside the ‘First Class’ cast with ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, directed by X-Men/X2 director Bryan Singer. With Singer back in charge of the franchise that he helped start back in 2000, I have a feeling that this film will turn out well, and it’s also based on a very famous storyline from the comics. The only thing that might end up hurting this film in the end is the fact that the cast is as big as it is. The same thing can sort of be said for the other 3 superhero films on this list, but this one is running the biggest risk.

1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (May 2, 2014)

So why am I anticipating the sequel to ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ more than ‘Days of Future Past’? Aside from the fact that I’m a bigger Spider-Man fan than I am an X-Men fan, there are a few reasons as to why. Like everyone else, I was very cautious about Marvel’s decision to reboot the Spider-Man franchise just five years after director Sam Raimi’s trilogy concluded in 2007. But, to my pleasant surprise, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ ended up being really good; in fact, better than at least two of Raimi’s films and, dare I say, just as good as Raimi’s best, Spider-Man 2. That was mainly because the two leads, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, were much more compelling and the writers did a good job at handling the struggles of Peter Parker, who wanted to know why his parents left him with his aunt and uncle when he was young (though for the record, the whole ‘parents’ storyline did not even go anywhere). Will the ‘parents’ storyline continue to become important as these films go on? At this point, who knows? But even if they don’t go that route again, the movie still looks good based on what I saw from the Comic-Con trailer.

First off, I like the villain they decided to go with, Electro, along with the actor playing him, Jamie Foxx. His character’s design looks pretty good (I mean let’s face it; it’s a better look than Electro’s main design from the comics. Can you imagine if they went with that look?). I also like the new additions to the cast, including Dane Dehaan as Harry Osborn, Chris Cooper as Norman Osborn, and Paul Giamatti as the Rhino. Spider-Man’s suit also looks much better than it did in the last film. I’m not saying that I didn’t like the suit from the last film; it’s just that I was never a fan of how the mask looked. When the first image of Garfield in the suit (without the mask) surfaced, I thought it looked really cool but then when the mask was shown, I was rather mixed on it, namely with how the eyes looked. The new suit looks more in line with Spider-Man’s usual design. I’m interested in seeing how this Spider-Man series will turn out. I don’t want to spoil anything but I’m kind of hoping that they eventually do go through with doing a key death from the comics. Fans of Spider-Man should know what I’m talking about. If not in this movie, maybe in the next one; they do have two more on the way.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Fast and Furious 7- Boy, the Fast and Furious series has been on quite a run recently; its last two films ended up being the best entries in the series and keep in mind, the series currently stands at six films. It was because of ‘Fast Five’ that I was really looking forward to ‘Fast and Furious 6’ and it’s that film that has me excited for the next entry. But why is this film not on my list? Well, series director Justin Lin will not be helming this new film. Instead, horror director James Wan is in charge this time around. I haven’t seen any of his films and as far as I know, he’s never directed an action movie before. Hopefully they picked a good replacement for Lin.

Godzilla- It’s the first major Godzilla movie in a decade (more than a decade for us Americans). The last time they brought Godzilla to the screen here in America… didn’t turn out so well. So, let’s hope this one turns out good.

A Million Ways to die in the West- Seth MacFarlane made an excellent debut as a film director with ‘Ted’, so I’ll be looking forward to his next film, and it’s a western comedy.

Transformers: Age of Extinction- I’ll admit it… I did like the first three Transformers films. I stand by my belief that the first Transformers film was a really good movie. The sequels… yes, they weren’t as good as the first film, but they’re not the worst movies ever (as some people like to refer to them as). Thankfully with this next film, they have a new cast, which includes Mark Wahlberg, Kelsey Grammer, and Stanley Tucci. I’ll see it, but I hope that they do a better job with the script than they did with the last two films.