The spring and summer are Hollywood's season to drop as many major sequels as possible. Here's a brief run down of the big ones.
April 4th: Captain America - The Winter Soldier
Captain America returns for a sequel minus his Avenger friends in an early release that's sure to rake in tons of dough . From the trailers, it looks like this could possibly be a better movie than the first (which is gonna be hard to do). The first is easily one of my favorite comic to screen adaptations. I cannot wait to see they way they pull off this epic story.
May 2nd: The Amazing Spider Man 2
Spidey returns for another go round. This time with a few more baddies to battle with and a cast featuring Paul Giamatti and Jamie Foxx. I'm truly hoping that this doesn't end up like the Raimi Spider Man 3 with too many villains and not enough story. The reboot of the franchise divided audiences with a "too soon" to be started over mindset. Hopefully this one will reign in the naysayers and will prove that the new Spidey franchise can kick some serious box office ass.
May 23rd: X-Men - Days of Future Past
While Days of Future Past is going to be an extremely hard story arc to pull off, its going to bring together the cast from the original trilogy and the First Class movie in to this one huge summer release. If they pull this off, fans will be ecstatic at a proper telling of this legendary X-Men tale. As a huge fan of First Class, this is the summer release I'm most looking forward to.
June 13th: 22 Jump Street
Channing Tatum proved himself worthy as a comedic actor in the first franchise entry. This one is sure to further expand his chops in that department while Jonah Hill continues his current winning streak. As a fan of the original 21 Jump Street, it was almost a given that a satirical spin on the show would suck. It didn't. Bring on the sequel. I waited to see the first until it came out on blu ray. I'll be seeing this one in the theater.
June 27th: Transformers 4 - Age of Extinction
Optimus Prime and his merry band of Autobots return for another go round of massive city destroying battles. This time we get the Dinobots and Mark Wahlberg taking over as the franchise lead. I said Dinobots. If this is nearly as good as Dark of the Moon, the taste buds of action fans will be satiated with nonstop action, robots crushing robots, seemingly flawless females, and a script that won't make any sense. But who cares? Dinobots.
July 11th: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
As one of the longest running franchises in the history of film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was one of the best reboots ever released in cinemas. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes looks like it will continue this trend with an awesome cast and some more back story as to how the primates finally took over the world. The mysterious trailer is extremely dark and brooding, just the way the movie should be. Gary Oldman, Jason Clarke, Keri Russell and Andy Serkis all star in this sure fire box office smash.
July 18th: The Purge - Anarchy
The first Purge movie lit up early summer 2013 with its gratuitous outlook on the near future. The Purge: Anarchy is going to up the ante with a new spin on the yearly Purge. Instead of being locked inside a house, we're going to experience the violence and bloodshed on the streets as a couple's car breaks down during the annual event. This scares me. They've only had one year to get this one in theaters. I'm fearful of another Saw franchise.
August 15th: The Expendables 3
Men across the world will rejoice when testosterone takes center stage once again with The Expendables 3. Not a fan of this franchise in the least bit, this looks to be another sad retread of former action stars doing their best to relive the glory days. I hate to break it to them but the eighties are over. Move on. These movies have been a sad cash grab loaded with mindless cameo after mindless cameo in an effort to convince audiences that these are fun movies. They're not.
August 22nd: Sin City - A Dame To Kill For
After numerous delays, Robert Rodriguez FINALLY gets the Sin City sequel released this August. I'm cautiously optimistic about this one. Rodriguez has been a bit off center lately especially with his last release, Machete Kills. A Dame To Kill For is a cinematic entry that fans have been craving since the original was released in 2005. Hopefully he gets this one right. Many major players are back but we'll be introduced to new characters too.
-CG