Most-Anticipated
Movies of 2020
Now that I’m done looking back, it’s time to look forward again
to the (hopefully) great movies coming this year. I’m predicting only four of
these are likely to make it to my favourites of the year list, but hopefully
I’m wrong!
10. Monster Hunter
This first one is something of a joke. The Resident Evil film series, which somehow
got six entries before being wrapped up in a hilariously misguided final
installment in 2016, starred Milla Jovovich, who is married to the writer of
all six (and director of four-out-of-six) Paul W.S. Anderson. I like Milla, but
she has been in some really atrocious movies, and Paul W.S. Anderson has made
mostly terrible movies, but often, the two of them teamed up make something so
bad it becomes entertaining, which is what happened with the later entries in Resident Evil. So here they are, teamed
up once again, taking on another video game franchise. This one is exactly like
the title suggests: it’s gonna have Milla fighting giant monsters in a fantasy
world. Sign me the hell up. This thing is going to be so ridiculous; I can’t
wait to ogle at the cheesy dialogue, lame effects, and ridiculous plot. Monster Hunter is set for a September 4th
release.
9. Bad Boys for Life
This threequel is way, way overdue, and quite frankly I’m
surprised it was even made, but here we go, the Bad Boys are back, Will Smith
and Martin Lawrence teaming up once again to fight crime, and the trailer
looks…surprisingly good? I wouldn’t say I’m super excited about this one or
even any amount of hopeful, but Bad Boys
and Bad Boys II are two of Michael
Bay’s better action movies as far as I’m concerned, and with a different
director behind the camera this time, it might make for fresher action
sequences. Just seeing Smith and Lawrence back on screen again with their funny
banter will hopefully make it a fun throwback and not a regretful redo of the
previous movies. Coming out in January (literally a week from now) is a little
worrying, but hopefully it’ll be a worthwhile sequel.
8. The Eternals
After 10+ years of multiple superhero movies every year, I
have to be honest, I'm getting burned out. With Marvel's infinity saga now over
and the stories of most of my favorite characters either concluded or
continuing in further years to come, this is the first year in a long time that
all of Marvel Studios releases are not among my most anticipated. I don’t care
about Black Widow and I can’t even
remember what the third release is supposed to be, but I'll put one of them on
my list because The Eternals has a
very interesting cast and, as far as I know, is largely set in space, and the
cosmic MCU adventures have all been pretty good so far. I’m hoping it gives us
a bit of a different spin on the space action and some new characters to enjoy
until our favourites return. The Eternals
comes out November 6th. 
7. Color Out of Space
Look, I know there’s a huge legion of fans out there who are
obsessed with everything Nicholas Cage does, but I’m not one of them, OK?
Having said that, I am a fan of the works of one H.P. Lovecraft, whose gothic
horror fiction has not been adequately adapted to film, despite having been
around for almost a hundred years. This latest attempt, an adaptation of the
short story of the same name (actually spelt “colour” originally) had a great-looking trailer, and early reviews
for it have been positive. There’s even talk of this possibly being the first
in a H.P Lovecraft Cinematic Universe, which I am all for, so hopefully this
will make for a successful start. Color
Out of Space invades theaters January 24th.
6. Malignant
If you’re a horror fan, then you likely know the name James
Wan. He’s part of the reason the genre came back so strong in the 2010s, with
directing credits including the original Saw,
The Conjuring, and Insidious. As he achieved greater
success, he went on to some bigger movies, namely Furious 7 and Aquaman,
but now he’s returning to his lower budget horror roots with Malignant, which I know nothing about,
but given his horror movie track record, I think it’s a safe bet that this will
be another great one. Whether it will turn out to be a major hit like many of
his previous efforts or not I’m not sure, but we will find out when it creeps
into theaters August 14th.
5. Last Night in Soho
Anything Edgar Wright is doing next has me interested. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs.
the World, Baby Driver, and now
this, a psychological thriller set in Soho that somehow involves time travel. I
don’t know much else about it at this point, and don’t really need to. I’ll be
seeing it no matter what when it comes out September 25th. 
4. Antlers
Hollywood is clearly still on that horror kick, because 2020
has a lot of great-looking scary movies coming (I have four on this list) but
this is the one that has me the most intrigued at this point. The trailer was
chilling and showed just enough of the plot and monster to get me on board. It’s
also from producer Guillermo Del Toro, who knows the genre well. Great-looking
cinematography, some strong cast members, and a (hopefully) original story with
some quality scares. Antlers is
slated for release on April 17th.
3. Dune
Most people don’t realize Dune was intended to be adapted to film back in the 1970’s even
before Star Wars came out, and had
that version of the film been realized, it may have ended up being what Star Wars became: the definitive space
opera for generations to come. Instead, production was shut down, and while a Dune movie eventually did come out in
1984, it isn’t really remembered as a classic. There’s a ton of source material
to draw from (six novels in the original series, plus numerous prequels and
spinoffs written by other authors), and Hollywood is giving Dune another shot this year, but the
reason I’m so excited for it is because of the director. Denis Villeneuve gave
us the incredible alien invasion film Arrival
in 2016, then followed it up with Blade Runner
2049, which is easily one of the best sci-fi sequels in years—in fact,
probably not since Aliens has a
sci-fi sequel which wasn’t created by the creators of the original been so
good. With Villeneuve directing and a cast that’s truly stacked, including such
powerhouse actors as Oscar Isaac, Stellan Skarsgard, Josh Brolin, and Jarvier
Bardem, Dune is shaping up to
possibly be one of the best remakes in recent years, and hopefully the start of
a new, exciting sci-fi film franchise when it opens December 18th.
2. Tenet
Any new movie from Christopher Nolan is automatically on my
radar. In the 2010s, he only released 3 movies, Inception (one of my favorites), The Dark Knight Rises (not the best of his Batman movies but still
pretty great) and Dunkirk (an
expertly crafted war film), but now after a full decade he’s back with an Inception-like thriller that is still
very mysterious even in the wake of the first trailer, but it looks like time
travel mixed with espionage thrills. Hopefully it lives up to the intrigue and
makes for another high point in Nolan's filmography. It comes out July 17th.
1. Godzilla vs. Kong
I quote Dr. Emmet Brown from Back to the Future: “This is the big one, the one I’ve been waiting
for all my life!” When I was a kid, I imagined King Kong and Godzilla fighting
before I even knew a movie already existed in which they do just that. It was
the third Godzilla movie released by
Toho, way back in 1962, and as fun and epic and successful as it was back then,
the two world-famous giant monsters never fought again. Until now. Ever since
they announced the new American iteration of Godzilla would be squaring off
with the rebooted Kong (much larger than Peter Jackson’s 2005 version, so he'd
have a better chance against the King of the Monsters) I have been waiting
eagerly to see it, and now finally, in 2020, the rematch I’ve been wanting to
see for so long will happen. My fingers are crossed; I really hope they don’t
mess this up. Godzilla vs. Kong is
set to conclude the Monster-verse, so hopefully they go out with a bang when it
hits theaters November 20th.
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