2015 is almost upon us and as many of you know by now, it’s
looking to be quite a year for movies. So much so that by the end of last year,
it was hyped up so much that pretty much everyone overlooked 2014, which I do
feel was a little unfair given some of the great films that have come out this
year like ‘Gone Girl’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, and ‘X-Men: Days of Future
Past’. Still, I can’t deny it… it really does look like 2015 is going to be one
of the biggest years in movie history as there are quite a lot of exciting
upcoming releases next year; too many to count, really. So today, I give you my
list of my personal Top 10 most anticipated films of 2015. Now of course, most of the films on this list are
still many months away from being released so at the moment we don’t know that
much about them. So that means that there is going to be quite a lot of speculating
in this post which may or may not end up being true when these films are
officially released. But before we get into the official Top 10, I’ll just go
through my 7 honorable mentions.
PIXELS
Now on the surface, this film could go either way. That’s mostly
because it’s an Adam Sandler comedy and as we all know, they can be hit or miss
and unfortunately, there have been quite a lot of misses recently like ‘Jack
and Jill’ and ‘Grown Ups 2’. But ultimately the main reason why I’m looking
forward to this is quite simple… it’s about video games. And really, when it
comes to films about video games, the best films are the ones that aren’t
primarily based on a certain game like ‘Tron’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’
which are instead inspired by video games. So because of that, I’m curious to
see what (if any) famous video games/characters will be featured in the film.
Plus, Sandler does have a pretty nice supporting cast backing him up, including
Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan, and Peter Dinklage with a badass mullet. How could
you go wrong? The film is directed by Chris Columbus, a director that I do like
having done the first two ‘Home Alone’ films, the first two ‘Harry Potter’
films (See a pattern here?), and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’. Again, because this is an
Adam Sandler film, it may ultimately end up not being that good. However in
this case, I’m going stay very optimistic about it if only for the fact that I
love video games. Sure, video games and movies haven’t fared well when combined
together (in either direction) but who knows? Given that there are adaptations
of ‘Assassin’s Creed’, ‘Warcraft’, and ‘Ratchet and Clank’ (just to name a few)
currently in production, maybe the trend could change.
GOOSEBUMPS
Like many 90’s kids, I grew up reading the ‘Goosebumps’
books by R.L. Stine and I did watch many episodes of the TV show (albeit when I
was a little older but that’s beside the point) so I’m interested in seeing how
this film plays out, especially considering that apparently it is going to have
a fairly meta story. The film centers a kid who moves to a town in Maryland
where he meets a girl who lives next door to him. It turns out that her father
just so happens to be none other than R.L. Stine himself (who will be played by
Jack Black) and the boy ends up releasing the various monsters and creatures
that have been featured in Stine’s book series. While I will admit that I
haven’t read all of the Goosebumps books, I am actually rather interesting in
seeing what famous characters from the series will be making an appearance in
this movie. It’s been nearly more than two decades since the original series of
books were released so hopefully this film will do a good job at paying tribute
to this iconic kid-friendly horror franchise.
THE MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS
If I hadn’t seen ‘The Maze Runner’, I wouldn’t have listed
this film in this post but I did see ‘The Maze Runner’ and as you know from my
review, I really liked it. It had an incredibly compelling story, a really nice
production design and pretty top-notch special effects, and a terrific cast. Overall,
it was one of the better films of the Young Adult Book-to-Film genre up there
with ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Hunger Games’. So in short, I’m really looking
forward to learning where this story is heading next. The first film did end on
one of the more obvious ‘sequel-baiting’ lines in recent history (and to my
knowledge, the big reveal at the end of this film didn’t actually happen until
the second book) but I’m still interested in this franchise. While the Young
Adult Genre dominates Hollywood right now (and most of the time to rather
mediocre results), I’m glad to see that one of the better franchises from this
genre is doing pretty well both critically and commercially.
THE JUNGLE BOOK
There have been quite a lot of ‘copycat films’ that have
come out in the last few years. In 2012, there were two ‘Snow White’ films. In
2013, there were two ‘Invasion of the White House’ movies. And this year, there
were two ‘Hercules’ movies. As for the next major pair of ‘copycat films’, one
is hitting theaters next year while the other one comes out exactly one year
later in 2016. Both of which are adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle
Book’. First out of the gate is Disney’s take on the book (their second after
their 1967 animated version, which was notably the last Disney film produced by
Walt Disney before his death) directed by Jon Favreau. The film features a
prime ensemble cast, even though most of them are only doing voice work while
Neel Sethi is the only major human character as the man-cub Mowgli. He is
joined by Bill Murray as Baloo, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johansson as
Kaa, Christopher Walken as King Louie, and Ben Kingsley as Bagheera. This film
will be followed in 2016 by the Warner Bros. film ‘The Jungle Book: Origins’,
directed by Andy Serkis, who will also be playing Baloo. This film too has a
great ensemble cast; Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, and
Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan. Since it won’t be released until October 2016
(again literally just a year after Favreau’s film in October 2015) I won’t go
too much in trying to predict which film will be better. It’s looking like
Serkis’ version will be better, but even with that said, I’m still interested
in seeing Favreau’s version.
PEANUTS
When the first teaser for this film was released, I heard a
lot of negative reactions towards it. That surprised me because my reaction was
the polar opposite towards this teaser for the latest adaptation of the
‘Peanuts’ comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz. The animation looks really
nice as it looks like they’re going for a combination of the 2D animation that
has defined the ‘Peanuts’ TV specials and 3-D animation; in other words a 2.5-D
animation style. This film will be hitting theaters in the year where the comic
strip celebrates its 65th anniversary. I’ve watched a lot of the
specials multiple times since I was young so I am interested in seeing this new
film and I am pretty confident the filmmakers are going to do the franchise
justice with their take on these iconic characters.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 5
The ‘Mission Impossible’ film franchise has been on a really
good run recently. The first film may not have been perfect but it was still a
pretty solid spy thriller. As for the second film, well… not so much.
Thankfully, the franchise got back on the right foot when then first-time film
director J.J. Abrams helmed the third film, which finally started to move away
from having the films primarily focus on Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt. Then things
got even better when Brad Bird made his live-action film debut with ‘Mission
Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, which featured phenomenal action sequences and a
great group of lead characters that were each given solid amounts of character
development… again, it wasn’t all about Tom Cruise. So now we come to Mission
Impossible 5. This time Bird isn’t directing due to his work on another film
(which, (Spoilers!), you will see in the Top 10) and instead Christopher
McQuarrie steps in to direct. This is only his third film as a director but he
has worked with Tom Cruise multiple times before on films like ‘Edge of
Tomorrow’ and ‘Jack Reacher’ so it’s clear that they do work well together.
This film will also feature the primary cast of the last film returning (except
for Paula Patton… for some as of yet undisclosed reason) so while this may not
be directed by Brad Bird, things still look good for the franchise that has
gotten better with every film (save for number 2).
THE GOOD DINOSAUR
2014 was the first year since 2005 where we did not get a
new Pixar film. Originally, this film, ‘The Good Dinosaur’, was supposed to
come out in 2014 but it ended up getting pushed back. The reason for this? Well
that was because the film’s director, Bob Peterson, was taken off of the
project due to story problems and he has since been replaced by members of the
‘Pixar Brain Trust’. That is ultimately why this film didn’t make the Top 10
because compared to the other Pixar film coming out this year, this one seems
like somewhat of a risk. Apparently the film has been ‘dismantled and
completely reimagined’, according to John Lithgow, who is part of the film’s
voice cast along with Frances McDormand, Neil Patrick Harris, Judy Greer, and
Bill Hader. Now for the record, this isn’t the first time this has happened to
Pixar; it also happened on some of their other films like ‘Toy Story 2’ and
‘Ratatouille’. Then there’s also the fact that Pixar has not exactly been on
the best run in recent years. Still, this is a Pixar film (1 of 2 coming out
this year, a first for the company) so I’m hopeful that this will be the year
that Pixar officially returns to its position as the ‘kings of computer
animation’.
And speaking of Pixar, starting things off at Number 10 is
the other Pixar film hitting theaters this year, which comes out five months before
‘The Good Dinosaur’.
10. INSIDE OUT (JUNE 19TH)
As I just noted, Pixar has not been on the best run recently.
I didn’t think ‘Cars 2’ was as bad as most critics were saying it was but even
then I still felt that it was Pixar’s weakest film to date as it was primarily
geared towards kids and not to adults, whereas the other Pixar films were able
to appeal to both kids and adults with not just their terrific animation but
well-written stories and characters. As for their next film, ‘Brave’, it
started out great but then sort of became your average family film, resulting
in a rather disappointing entry in Pixar’s prestigious filmography. Thankfully,
I feel that Pixar did manage to get back on track with last year’s ‘Monsters
University’. Sure, it may not have been the absolute best Pixar film, but it
was much more in line with the previous Pixar films with its solid writing,
memorable characters, and great amount of heart. That is why I’m hopeful that
‘Inside Out’ will continue this solid trend. The premise for the film is pretty
interesting; it revolves around the ‘emotions’ within the mind of a little girl
as they try to keep everything under control when she moves to a new city with
her parents. The film is directed by Pete Docter, who directed two of Pixar’s
best films in ‘Monsters Inc.’ and ‘Up’ so it looks like we’re in good hands
with this one. Ultimately though, the main reason why I picked this over ‘Good
Dinosaur’ is because overall I think this film has a slightly more interesting
premise.
My number 9 pick is the next entry in a hugely popular film
franchise though in the case of this film, it has had quite a few hurdles to
overcome.
9. FAST AND FURIOUS 7 (APRIL 3RD)
Looking back at my 2014 most anticipated list, I realize
that I might have posted it just a little bit too early. I posted it in
September 2013 and just a few months afterwards, two films that were I my Top
10 list for most anticipated for this year ended up getting pushed back to
2015; this is one of those films though in this case, it was for tragic
reasons. On November 30th, 2013, series star Paul Walker died in a
car accident while filming was on break for the holidays. Since then, the
filmmakers have spent a lot of time reworking the film so that the character of
Brian O’Connor could be retired instead of killed. So like Heath Ledger in ‘The
Dark Knight’, this film will forever be haunted by the loss of Walker. But
aside from that, there’s another big question mark regarding this new film and
that is in regards to director James Wan taking over directing duties from
Justin Lin. Wan has mainly been known for his work in the horror genre with
films like ‘The Conjuring’, ‘Saw’, and ‘Insidious’. This is his first foray
into the action genre so it’ll be interesting to see how Wan fares in this
genre. Regardless though, the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise has been on a really
good run recently following the commercial and critical (the latter of which
was actually rather surprising given the general critical reception to the
previous four films) success of ‘Fast Five’ and ‘Fast and Furious 6’. I think
it’s safe to say the seventh film will at least be a commercial hit and also
due to the death of Walker, this film is going to be one to focus on.
While I might be in the minority when it comes to liking
‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, I feel that 2014 has been the best year for comic
movies to date and while ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ may not have fared well
with everybody, the other comic book films of this year, ‘X-Men: Days of Future
Past’, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’
were all very well-received by both critics and audiences. One thing they all
had in common? They were all based on Marvel properties and this year will see
three more Marvel films. My Number 8 film is the first of these that you’ll be
seeing on this list.
8. THE FANTASTIC FOUR (AUGUST 7TH)
While superhero film franchises like Spider-Man, X-Men, and
The Avengers have been able to be successfully both critically and commercially,
other franchises haven’t had the same luck. One of those franchises is the
‘Fantastic Four’. While many people are familiar with the 2005 film adaptation
and its 2007 sequel, there was actually another Fantastic Four film in 1994.
Never heard of it? Well, that’s for good reason as it was actually never
released. This is due to the fact that while Marvel did let it get made, they
never actually intended to release it. So that went nowhere and instead we got
2005’s ‘Fantastic Four’ and 2007’s ‘Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer’.
These two films are not as well-regarded amongst comic book fans. Now I will
admit that I don’t think they’re absolutely terrible (in fact, you could say
that I sort of actually… like them) but at the same time they’re not perfect.
There were some genuinely solid bits of casting, including Chris Evans (who
later took on another famous superhero role, Captain America, in, let’s be
honest, far better movies) as the Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as the Thing
but it also cast Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman and in the sequel made the
character of Galactus a cloud… to put it bluntly, epic fail.
So hopefully this new ‘Fantastic Four’ film will manage to
be the first great film in the series. It does have a really nice cast and crew
attached to it. The film is directed by Josh Trank, who had previously directed
the excellent found footage film, ‘Chronicle’, a film that may not have been
based off of anything but was, technically speaking, about kids with
superpowers so he’s definitely a good choice for the job. The film is produced
by Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn, both of whom had helped resurrect the
X-Men franchise with ‘First Class’ and ‘Days of Future Past’ so I have the
feeling that they will be able to do the same thing with the ‘Fantastic Four’.
Finally, the film has a great group of leads to play the Four; Miles Teller as
Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as the Human
Torch (haters, you can shut up about the fact that he’s black… get over it!),
and Jamie Bell as The Thing. As the backlash against Jordan’s casting shows,
this film hasn’t had the best publicity as not everyone is too positive about
the cast (you know, like pretty much every other frigging superhero film ever
made?!). I for one am not one of those people and I’m eager to see Trank’s take
on these iconic characters.
A lot of famous film franchises are making a major comeback
next year. My Number 7 pick is one of those films.
7. JURASSIC WORLD (JUNE 12TH)
Here we have ‘Jurassic World’, the fourth film in the
‘Jurassic Park’ film franchise, originally based off of the 1990 novel of the
same name by Michael Crichton. This time, newcomer Colin Trevorrow takes over
as director for this film which is set to take place a little more than two
decades after the events of the original film. It will be returning to the
island of Isla Nublar, where InGen CEO John Hammond had previously attempted to
build a theme park called ‘Jurassic Park’ which featured real dinosaurs cloned
from fossil DNA, which ultimately ended up going wrong. In this new film, a new
theme park has been built under new ownership but when the park’s attendance
starts to decline, a new attraction is created in order to drum up interest for
the park, which is where things start going wrong… again. I haven’t seen
Trevorrow’s previous film, ‘Safety not Guaranteed’, so I’m curious to see if
he’s the right choice to follow in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg. Still,
Spielberg is an Executive Producer so it does look like we’ll be in good hands
with this one. Plus, Trevorrow has stated that the film will be utilizing
practical effects, which is somewhat of a rarity in today’s Hollywood, so fans
of old-fashioned special effects (which were used in the original ‘Jurassic
Park’ even though the Dinosaurs were created via CGI) should be satisfied with
certain aspects of the film. So while this film has been in development hell
for quite some time and is coming off of two sequels that weren’t as
well-regarded as the first, it’s time for the dinosaurs to make a major
comeback.
Closing out the first half of this Top 10 list is the finale
to what is currently the most successful book-to-film franchise at the moment.
6. THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 2 (NOVEMBER 20TH)
We’re still a few weeks away from the release of ‘The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay Part 1’ so the big question about these last two ‘Hunger
Games’ at the moment is whether or not the decision to split the final book of
the series these films are based off of into two separate films was a good
idea. Pretty much every major studio with a popular film franchise based off of
a best-selling book series has been doing this to fairly mixed results. ‘Harry
Potter’ of course started the trend with ‘Deathly Hallows’ but that was a case
where it did work because there was enough material for two films. ‘Twilight’
then split ‘Breaking Dawn’ into two films and while I haven’t seen those films,
I can already tell that it was unnecessary. And just a month after ‘Divergent’
was released, the final book in that series was announced to be split into two
films. Thankfully, this will not be the case with ‘The Maze Runner’ when that
series gets to its finale. But anyway, back to ‘Mockingjay’. Given that
‘Mockingjay’ wasn’t as big of a book as something like ‘Deathly Hallows’, I’m
very much fairly hesitant about the decision to split it into two films. However,
recent reports have given some insight onto why this might actually be a good
move.
Apparently, author Suzanne Collins was forced to condense a
lot of the story that she was planning into just one book. So it looks like
because of this, these two films will be able to go more in depth into the
story, in which Katniss Everdeen finds herself right at the front of the
revolution of the districts of Panem against the Capitol. I’m aware that the
last book wasn’t as well-received due to its ‘fast-paced’ tone so hopefully
that means that these two films will be able to fix that problem, again due to
the fact that it looks like there will be more time for character and story
development. But if anything, I think that we are in good hands with these last
two films. I do stand by the first film as being a really good film despite
some issues (namely shaky cam work and editing). But like everyone else, I do
agree that ‘Catching Fire’ was a superior sequel (ironically the book wasn’t as
well-received) in pretty much every way. Director Francis Lawrence did a great
job at expanding the world of Panem, which we didn’t really see much in the
first film, and avoided using shaky cam and quick editing once we got to the
actual Hunger Games. He was definitely the perfect choice to take over the
franchise so I’m pretty certain that both ‘Mockingjay Part 1’ and ‘Mockingjay
Part 2’ will be just as good as ‘Catching Fire’. But then again, at the time
I’m currently writing this, Part 1 isn’t even out yet so we still have to see
if the two-film split is going to work.
At Number 5, I have the superhero film that probably has the
biggest hurdle to overcome compared to the other two coming out this year.
5. ANT-MAN (JULY 17TH)
Out of all of the films on this list, ‘Ant-Man’, the first
film of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has the biggest chip on
its shoulder. Originally the film was one of the first major projects that
Marvel Studios had in development with director Edgar Wright attached to do the
film. However, back in May, a bombshell was dropped when it was announced that
Wright was walking away from the film due to creative differences on account of
Marvel rewriting the script against his own will. Thankfully, it didn’t take
too long for Marvel to find a replacement as Peyton Reed was hired to direct
the film, which will star Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, a criminal who acquires
technology that allows him to shrink down in size but also increase in strength
with the help of his mentor Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas. But even
though the film is back on schedule, it’s still a major risk for the studio to
the point where a lot of people are predicting that this is going to be
Marvel’s first major flop. Plus, unfortunately it seems that not everyone has
gotten over the fact that Wright left the project. I previously did a post on
this matter where I stated that I’m not at all worried about this film even
with Wright’s departure.
Yes, it does suck that Wright is no longer attached to
direct the film. I’m certain his take on the character would’ve be amazing,
just like his other movies. But really… it’s time to get over it guys. Marvel
moved on from it, they found someone to replace him, and it looks like
everything’s smooth sailing from here. Yes, Peyton Reed is not exactly the
absolute perfect choice to take over for Wright but as proven earlier this year
by the Russo brothers’ work on ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’, it’s not
like comedy directors can’t do action movies. There has also been some doubt
about this film, not only because of the Wright controversy but also due to the
fact that ‘Ant-Man’ seems like a pretty hard comic book franchise to adapt onto
film. Well, in regards to the latter, I got four words to respond to that…
Guardians… of… the… Galaxy! Remember when we all thought that was going to be a
flop (myself included)? Well, at the time I’m writing this, it is currently the
third highest-grossing film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so yeah… it wasn’t
a flop. The bottom line is that Marvel Studios has yet to make a bad film. Even
their weaker entries like ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and ‘The Incredible Hulk’ are
still very entertaining and as ‘Guardians’ proved, they can do some more
obscure franchises (unlike DC). So in short, I’m not at all worried about ‘Ant-Man’…
I think it’s going to turn out good. Again folks, ultimately it’s just that
it’s time that we got over the Wright situation. Like they say in ‘Frozen’…
I tell you, I cannot wait for my Number 4 pick to come out,
the latest film from one of my all-time favorite directors.
4. TOMORROWLAND (MAY 22ND)
This was the other film that I mentioned earlier that got
pushed back from its original 2014 release date. The good thing is that now
that’s it been about a year, we’ve learned a little bit more about the newest
film from one of my absolute favorite directors, Brad Bird. For the record
though, we still don’t know that much about the film but the first trailer was
just recently released so now we’re starting to get an idea of what this film
is going to be about. So according to the plot synopsis, it’s about a ‘grizzled’
inventor (George Clooney) and a teenaged girl (Britt Robertson) who travel to a
mysterious world known as ‘Tomorrowland’ where they are able to have a direct
impact on changing the world. Now something that I’ve been wondering about in
regards to this film since it was renamed from ‘1952’ to ‘Tomorrowland’ is if
this film was going to be connected in any way to the section of Disney Theme
Parks of the same name. Well, based on the first trailer, I’m guessing it only
shares the name of Tomorrowland and will not actually focus on the park, which
to be honest I think is actually a much more intriguing premise. Then again,
apparently there have been some scenes shot at the parks (according to IMDB) so
who knows? There’s also been speculation regarding a ‘mystery box’ of items
that has been a big part of the film’s marketing campaign. This box contains
various items such as old archive photos of Walt Disney, a copy of an old Sci-Fi
magazine and old plans for park attractions among other things. I’m guessing
that perhaps Bird and co-writer Damon Lindelof are using these items as
elements of the story. For example, at the end of the trailer, someone flies
across the screen in a jetpack and sure enough, one of the items in the box is
a set of plans for what would have been a jet pack ride at the theme parks. Really
though, I don’t know what this film is going to be like. But what I do know is
that it’s a Brad Bird film and he’s made some of the best films of the last few
years. Consider me extremely excited for this film.
My Number 3 pick may not have an official title yet but I
still can’t wait to see it.
3. BOND 24 (OCTOBER 23RD)
In the months before the release of the 23rd Bond
film, ‘Skyfall’, I watched all of the previous 22 Bond films and I became a
major Bond fan. Then ‘Skyfall’ came out… and it was phenomenal; definitely one
of the best films in the entire series. So of course, I cannot wait for the
next Bond adventure, which will once again be directed by Sam Mendes coming off
of his fantastic directing efforts on ‘Skyfall’. But like with ‘Tomorrowland’,
not much is known about the overall plot. Actually to be more precise, we don’t
anything about the plot yet. I’m not going to try and speculate what it might
be but I’m kind of hoping that sometime soon (if not in this film), the
franchise is going resurrect the character of Ernst Stavro Blofeld and his
terrorist organization SPECTRE. After all, the rights to both Blofeld and SPECTRE
were recently acquired by MGM, the studio behind the Bond films, so who knows?
But for now, let’s look at the current cast. Of course, Daniel Craig will
return as Bond along with the newest iterations of M, Q, and Moneypenny, as
portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, and Naomie Harris, respectively. Lea
Seydoux (‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’) has
been cast as one of the Bond girls and while it’s not officially been
confirmed, Dave Bautista (fresh off of his great turn as Drax the Destroyer in
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’) is being considered for the role of the film’s main
henchman in the same veins of classic henchman like Oddjob and Jaws. As for the
main villain, Chiwetel Ejiofor is reportedly the top contender for the role
though like with Bautista, nothing’s been confirmed yet. All in all, this looks
like this is shaping up to be a nice return to the style of the old-school Bond
films (e.g. the Sean Connery/Roger Moore eras). Simply put, I can’t wait to see
what happens next for 007.
For Number 2, I have what is very much shaping up to be the
biggest film of 2015 given how much hype there has been surrounding it.
2. STAR WARS: EPISODE VII (DECEMBER 18TH)
AKA what is sure to be almost everyone else’s most
anticipated film of 2015; seriously, the hype for this film is frigging insane.
I can only imagine what the midnight premiere for the film’s going to be like
having already been to a huge premiere with ‘Deathly Hallows Part 2’. So with
that said, why is this only my second most anticipated film of the year? Well,
there are two main reasons for this; the first is that in recent years I’ve
become more of a ‘Star Trek’ fan, mostly due to the excellent reboot films;
‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Don’t get me wrong, I still like
‘Star Wars’; heck, I even like the much-maligned prequels, which as I’ve said
before seriously aren’t as bad as the internet has put them out to be. But it
has primarily been due to the frequent changes that George Lucas has made to
the original ‘Star Wars’ films and his ignorance of the original unaltered cuts
of the film that have driven me more towards ‘Trek’. But the biggest reason for
this is because I’m actually kind of worried about how this film will fare
amongst audiences. I feel that the hype for this film has gotten a bit out of
hand and I have a feeling we might have another case like ‘The Phantom Menace’
in which the amount of hype surrounding the film will ultimately be its
downfall. Now I’m not saying this won’t be like ‘The Phantom Menace’ in regards
to the film itself but I’m still very much worried that not everyone’s going to
like the film. Seriously, didn’t we learn anything from the prequels about
getting up our hopes up way too high for one of these films?
Ultimately there is one major reason why I’m excited the
film and it’s not just simply that ‘there’s going to be a new Star Wars film’.
In reality, it’s because it’s being directed by one of my top five favorite
directors currently working today in Hollywood; J.J. Abrams, who has directed
two of my favorite films of all time; ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Super 8’. I’m confident
that Abrams will do justice for ‘Star Wars’ and bring it back to top form just
like he did with ‘Star Trek’. Heck, you can sort of view both of Abrams’ ‘Star
Trek’ films as his audition tapes for ‘Episode VII’ due to the fact that they
have a ‘Star Wars’ vibe to them. And while there have been quite a lot of ‘Star
Trek’ fans who have been against this, I for one am not one of them as I felt
like this gave the series new life and infused some much needed energy into the
series. So overall I feel that this will translate well to ‘Episode VII’.
Ultimately though, there is quite a lot riding on this film and as I just noted
earlier, all of the hype surrounding this film might have a very negative
effect on the film. But I still have faith in J.J., who has stated that he
actually is a bigger ‘Star Wars’ fan than he was a ‘Star Trek’ fan so if
anything, at least we have someone who does understand the franchise quite well
helming this film. Still, while this is my 2nd most anticipated film
of the year, I’m not even going to attempt to hype it up any farther because
that’s already being done quite a lot. I think the film’s going to be good but
in regards to the hype, to quote… well, many of the characters in ‘Star Wars’,
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
And finally we come to Number 1 which, given my praises
towards the franchise this film is a part of, many of you probably already know
what it is. So let’s not waste any more time; my most anticipated film of 2015
is…
1. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (MAY 1ST)
Yeah, I know it’s obvious, but really can you blame me? I’m
a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I cannot wait for the follow-up
to 2012’s epic superhero team-up; ‘The Avengers’. But before I start raving
about how much I’m excited about ‘Age of Ultron’, I just want to get something
out of the way first. The first trailer has just recently been released for the
film; originally it was supposed to debut during tonight’s episode of ‘Agents
of SHIELD’ but unfortunately that plan got screwed up when someone leaked the
footage just a day after the announcement. Now, I do salute Marvel for how they
handled this situation by just deciding to go ahead and release the trailer
immediately but I’m still very much pissed at the jackass who decided to ruin
everyone’s fun and post the trailer before its debut. Now I know that not
everyone’s as big a fan of ‘Agents of SHIELD’ as I am and you could sort of
view that plan as a marketing ploy to get more viewers for the show (which in
all seriousness has really been fantastic recently) but in all seriousness this
is another case of how it’s really hard these days to keep anything about a
film secret because these days the internet can find out pretty much almost
anything about any film due to leaks.
Anyway, back to the film; ‘Age of Ultron’ is really looking
like it’s going to be a big one for the MCU as the Avengers face their toughest
enemy yet in Ultron, played by James Spader. Based on this first trailer, it
really looks like Ultron is going to be a really intimidating villain, which is
good considering that most people feel that most of the MCU villains (AKA
anyone not named Loki) have been rather weak. I’m not really one of these
people but it looks like Ultron is going to end up being one of the best
villains of the MCU. Not only that, but it’s looking like the film is going to
be taking a much darker route than anything we’ve seen from the MCU so far
which is very exciting. It’ll be interesting to see how this film will affect
the MCU as a whole; ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ already dropped a
bombshell with the reveal that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been taken over by HYDRA so
what about this one? Could one of ‘The Avengers’ actually be killed off? Joss
Whedon has been known for killing off major characters in his films/TV Shows and
while Phase Two of the MCU has been dominated by characters who were seemingly
killed off but ultimately brought back to life, it’s looking like someone could
really bite the dust in this one. But in the end, I just can’t wait for this
one. DC and ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’, you are going to have one
hell of a tough act to follow with this one.
So those are my Top 10 most anticipated films of 2015. But
there are still quite a few more films that are coming out next year that I
didn’t list here. So with that said, what are your most anticipated films of
2015? Be sure to sound off in the comments.
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