Most-Anticipated
Movies of 2017
Well, 2016 went out with a whimper for
me, because I was stuck at home, sick, but as the flu subsides and 2017 (which has to be better than last year, right?)
slowly gets underway, it’s time for me to look at my most-anticipated movie
releases!
2017 will be the year
my bank account died, because there are so
many movies coming out this year that I want to see—I couldn’t even narrow it
down to ten, so here’s my top 16.
16. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
From the director of The
Fifth Element, which was a crazy sci-fi adventure, this looks like it could
be yet another one of those, but with some extremely impressive cgi effects. It
could be one of those movies worth shelling out a little extra for 3D, but
hopefully the characters and story are as strong as the visuals. It’s based on a
comic series, so we’ll see how it translates to the big screen. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
flies into theaters July 21st.
15. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
The first Kingsman
was one of the biggest surprises of 2015, and I’m glad to see it get a sequel,
but even gladder to see just about everyone return in front of and behind the
camera. I really enjoyed Taron Edgerton in the lead role, and look forward to
seeing what he does this time around. New additions to the cast, such as Elton
John and Julianne Moore have me intrigued, and the supposed return of Colin Firth’s
character, the biggest badass from the first movie, has me a little uncertain,
but if he comes back for another church massacre scene, then I’m good with it. Kingsman: The Golden Circle drops into
theaters October 6th.
14. T2: Trainspotting
Trainspotting was
an intense, unsettling, and yet funny movie all at once, exploring the lives of
heroin users in Scotland, but it wrapped up pretty neatly and didn’t seem to
warrant a sequel. However, it’s been over twenty years since Trainspotting, and T2 returns to all of the characters, all played by the same actors
again, with director Danny Boyle returning, and the screenplay is based on the
novel Porno, which itself was a
sequel to the Trainspotting novel
(upon which that film was based). T2
seems to have the potential to be a unique sequel and possibly be on-par with
the original. T2: Trainspotting
arrives in theaters March 10th.
13. Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan is one of the highest-profile directors
working today, so if he has a new movie on the way, you can bet it’s one of the
most-anticipated of the year. The first full-length trailer gave some glimpses
of the intense war scenes, impressive cast, including Nolan regulars Tom Hardy
and Cillian Murphy, and of course the incredible cinematography. I’m not a huge
war movie fan, but I’m very interested to see Christopher Nolan’s take on World
War II, and it’s nice to see him do something grounded in reality for a change
of pace. Dunkirk storms into theaters
July 21st.
12. Wonder Woman
Going from World War II to World War I with this next
installment in the floundering DC movie universe. Last year’s efforts, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, both fell mostly flat for
me, and the upcoming Justice League
really doesn’t interest me a whole lot, but if Wonder Woman can succeed, I might have hope for DC movies yet. It
seems to have everything going for it: Wonder Woman herself was good in Batman v Superman, the rest of the cast
is good, including the always-charismatic Chris Pine, and the trailers have
looked good so far, so let’s hope this, the first major female-led superhero
movie, is a solid hit. Wonder Woman
charges into theaters June 2nd.
11. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D
Here’s another T2,
but not a new sequel. Back in August, it was announced Terminator 2—one of the best sequels ever, one of the best action
movies ever, and one of my favourite movies ever—would be getting a theatrical
re-release sometime in 2017, and converted to 3D. I’m not particularly excited
about the 3D aspect, but on the bright side, it’s James Cameron we’re talking
about, the guy who made the best-looking 3D movie ever (Avatar). I’m just psyched to see one of my favourite movies on the
big screen in a way I’ve never seen it before. Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D doesn’t have a scheduled release date
yet, but maybe we can expect it August 29th? (That’s a Terminator reference in case you missed
it)
10. Blade Runner 2049
I only saw Blade
Runner for the first time in 2015, right around when I started hearing they
were working on a sequel, and after seeing the original, I thought a sequel
might be difficult, but now that I’ve seen all of director Denis Villeneuve’s
films (Arrival, his latest, is my
favourite of 2016), I’m certain he is the perfect person to bring Blade Runner back. Joining him is the
always-reliable Ryan Gosling, but Harrison Ford is returning as well, and if he
does as well as he did in Force Awakens,
that’ll be a major plus. Throw in original Blade
Runner screenwriter Hampton Fancher doing to script, and it sounds like Blade Runner 2049 could be yet another
contender for a sequel on-par with or better than the original. It comes out
October 6th.
9. Thor: Ragnarok
Marvel Studios is coming out with three movies next year,
which is a first, and yet they’re still all among my most-anticipated. Thor
hasn’t been my favourite character in the MCU, and I’d rank his two stand-alone
movies pretty low compared to other Marvel movies, but I think Thor: Ragnarok could be the best Thor movie yet, for a number of reasons.
We know Thor is teaming with Hulk, and it’ll be like a buddy cop movie on alien
worlds, which sounds great. Director Taika Waititi takes the helm, and his
movies What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople showed me he
can handle action and humour and heart very well. I’m very excited to see what
he does with Thor, and even that little mockumentary-style clip of what Thor
did during Civil War was pure gold. Thor: Ragnarok explodes into theaters
November 3rd.
8. Spider-Man: Homecoming
If I had to pick a favourite superhero, I would probably
pick Spider-Man. With the character
now back in the care of Marvel, I can actually get excited about a new movie focused
on the wall-crawler, and the first trailer looks like it’ll be a solid reboot
to the character (even though he technically already got rebooted in Civil War, but that was only a small
role it didn’t count! This is official!) I’m a bit iffy on Vulture as a
villain, but at least they have Michael Keaton in the role, and he’s a villain
we haven’t seen in a movie before. Throw in RDJ suiting up as Iron Man
alongside Spidey, and this might be the most-fun Spider-Man movie yet. Spider-Man:
Homecoming comes to theaters July 7th.
7. The Dark Tower
It has been far too long since a great Stephen King novel
has been made into a great film, and I hope The
Dark Tower breaks that spell. Idris Elba takes on the role of Roland, a
gunslinger in pursuit of The Man in Black, A.K.A Stephen King’s version of
Satan, played by Matthew McConaughey, which I think is perfect casting, and it
is apparently a sequel to the novels, which I don’t think has ever been done
before in any other film series or adaptation, but will still stand on its own.
I hope the delays this film has been plagued by are all positives, just giving
the filmmakers enough time to work out the bugs and make the best movie
possible. The Dark Tower journeys into
theaters July 28th.
6. War for the Planet of the Apes
The rest of these movies (except #1) are ranked mostly on
how I responded to the trailers—taking trailers out of the equation, they
pretty much are all my number one. But squeaking in at number six is the
much-awaited third film in the Planet of
the Apes reboot series, which started unexpectedly strong with Rise, continued exponentially stronger
with Dawn, and now looks to be
continuing stronger yet, with War
giving fans the ape-on-human battle we’ve been waiting for. Woody Harrelson
will probably be the strongest villain we’ve seen yet, and his clash with Andy
Serkis’ Caesar might close the book on Caesar’s story, but will it conclude
this trilogy or continue to lead up to another remake of the first Planet of the Apes? We will see. War for the Planet of the Apes swings
into theaters July 14th.
5. Logan
This is where things start to get crazy. I didn’t think a
Wolverine movie would be so high on my most-anticipated, but after hearing this
will likely be Hugh Jackman’s last time playing the title character (plus
Patrick Stewart’s last time playing Professor X), and learning it will be
R-rated, and seeing that first trailer, it quickly went from being just that
third solo Wolverine movie to a very important and unique-looking superhero
film that, I think, might show us the death of one of the most-beloved heroes
of the 21st century, and make a lot of fans cry. Logan slashes into theaters March 3rd.
4. Kong: Skull Island
Prior to the second trailer, this was my most-anticipated
movie of 2017. The first trailer showed just enough Kong, an amazing visual
style, and glimpses of the impressive cast. But then, the second trailer came
out, and my excitement lessened. I’m most-concerned about the tone. The second
trailer was campier and showed too much of the over-the-top monster action (and
too much of Kong), and John C. Reilley’s presence distracted me in the worst
way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still super-jacked to see Kong back on the big
screen, and in a new story that we know won’t end with him dying, but I’m keeping
a lot of my excitement in check for now. Kong:
Skull Island arrives in theaters March 10th.
3. Alien: Covenant
Here’s another movie I’m very nervous about, but unlike Kong, the trailer made me more hopeful
instead of more nervous. I had doubts of ever seeing the sequel promised to us
at the end of Prometheus, and while I
wish we were getting something more in-line with that movie, I can’t be upset
to see director Ridley Scott return to a true Alien movie, which is what Prometheus
was supposed to be originally anyway. This is still a sequel to Prometheus and still a prequel to Alien, but hopefully it answers some
more questions about where these creatures originated, or at least gets us
closer to some answers, while delivering the first true-horror movie starring
the xenomorph in far too long. Alien:
Covenant invades theaters May 19th.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
How the hell am I more excited for a movie about a talking
tree and talking racoon than a new Alien
movie and a new King Kong movie? I don’t know, call it Marvel magic. Marvel’s first
of the year, a sequel to one of their biggest surprise hits yet, looks like it
has the best chance of any sequel coming out in 2017 to be better than the
original. The first Guardians was terrific,
but had to do mandatory world building and character intros. With that out of
the way, Vol. 2 can get into new
adventures, new worlds, and even new versions of old characters, like Baby
Groot, who the world is already in love with just from the first two teaser
trailers. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is having some damn fun at
the theaters. I am Groot. Translation: Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2 comes out May 5th.
1. Star Wars – Episode VIII
My most-anticipated movie of 2015 was The Force Awakens, which totally delivered, but my most-anticipated
of 2016, Rogue One, did not, so Star Wars is one-for-two under the
Disney regime thus far for me. However, I don’t think I’m being unreasonable
putting Episode VIII (still untitled)
as my number one. Sure, J.J. Abrams is out as director, but stepping in is Rian
Johnson, who aced his last movie, Looper,
and will hopefully ace this sequel, which is easily the most-anticipated sequel
of the year (perhaps many years). I’m hoping it follows through on the
characters that were so well introduced in Force
Awakens, while introducing new lovable and/or despicable characters and
forging a new story, instead of rehashing old plot points. Star Wars – Episode VIII blasts into theaters December 15th. 