2012 was a miraculous year for film. Just earlier this week, it was announced that the combined total box-office gross collected during 2012 has set a record for money spent by Americans at the movies. Not only that, but major tentpole blockbusters were the thing for 2012 what with the debut of the first installment in the now-raging Hunger Games franchise, combined with the rousing success of comic book franchises like The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises, each scoring at least $1 Billion worldwide.
Also, for the first time in years, the films with the most Oscar-buzz have proven to be audience and box-office favorites, with Les Miserables scoring the second highest Christmas debut in history and Lincoln keeping a place on the top ten list for seven straight weeks.
Notable filmmakers ran wild in 2012, as did the world of independant film, in a manner that would suggest that they wanted to get their “masterpiece” out before the world ended. Welp, the world didn’t end, but there is still plenty to look forward to as 2012 comes to a close and 2013 breaches the horizon.
‘Iron Man 3’
As we mentioned above, the success of the Avengers has propelled the future of Marvel/Disney into a new place of honor, one that will be difficult to impeach. Since The Avengers marks Robert Downey Jr.’s third time donning the technological suit, Iron Man 3 will be the first threequel in history to feature a hero in their fourth major motion picture appearance, and given the sudden worldwide popularity of this former B-level Marvel property, it has the potential to bring back those Avengers audiences that are eager to experience more of this uniquely connected cinematic universe.
You might notice (if you’re a cheater McFleeter that browsed down to the bottom of the list before reading each piece one by one) that the upcoming Thor: The Dark World is conspicuously absent from this list. For the most part, we’re just excited to see the continuation of the universe, which in this case, will follow Tony Stark as he wrestles with himself over one crucial question: Does the man make the suit, or does the suit make the man?
If the trailer is any indication, Ben Kingsley has turned fan favorite villain The Mandarin into something very special for Iron Man 3, and the reteaming of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black with Robert Downey Jr. seems to have resulted in the creation of a brand new tone for the franchise, one that distances itself from the recent Avengers-splosion and more toward what Iron Man director Jon Favreau had envisioned for the character.
In Iron Man 3, we’ll see Tony Stark go “back to the cave” as he struggles to protect the people that he cares about the most, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get even more hints about where the full Marvel Cinematic Universe will be headed from here. We can only wonder what Marvel has in store for us as an after-credits sequence, but at this point, it seems that a leadup into the mysterious Thor: The Dark World will be prudent. Frankly, we’re happy to see Tony return to his stark reality, but we also can hardly wait until 2015 to see him assemble into something larger.
Iron Man 3 will explode into theaters on May 3, 2013
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’
It wasn’t necessarily a surprise when director J.J. Abrams turned Star Trek into an explosion of a reboot that even the most stringent anti-Trekker couldn’t help but fall in love with, and now with the sequel, Abrams has taken his universe a step further by introducing a thrilling new villain to shake up the lives of Kirk and his crew. We don’t know much about the mysterious character that Benedict Cumberbatch was hired to play, but since the trailer highlights a few of his most wicked (and most badass) deeds, we can only assume that he will wreak absolute havoc.
The news that Benedict Cumberbatch would play a villain that would go toe-to-toe with Zachary Quinto was revealed via bootlegged set video some time last year. As always, the behind-the-scenes video didn’t quite match up to the pure epic quality that the trailer emanates, but now that we’ve gotten to see the character in action (and hear the character in action), we can only imagine what type of absolute destruction that Cumberbatch will bring into the mix.
The trailer features Cumberbatch with insane strength and intimidating mental prowess, leaving some to believe that he will be playing the infamous Khan, though recent reports have revealed that his character is actually named John Harrison, and images from the trailer lead us to believe that he will operate under the cover of the StarFleet Academy for at least a portion of the movie.
According to the synopsis, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk will lead the charge on a one-man-hunt for Cumberbatch’s character after he “detonates” the fleet and everything that it stands for. After the nonstop action, lens flares, and cross continuity presented in 2009’s Star Trek there’s no doubt that Abrams will have plenty in store for the franchise as it Treks Into Darkness.
Star Trek Into Darkness will crash into theaters on May 17, 2013
‘Man of Steel’
Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way right now. Christopher Nolan is done with the DC Universe. We have heard legions of fans discussing how they hope that Christopher Nolan will do to Superman what he did with Batman, but it’s important to note that he is merely serving as a producer on Man of Steel. This means that he has only a certain amount of actual involvement, and in exchange, Warner Bros. gets to slap his name on the posters and trailers. It’s a power play to be sure, but one would hope that the use of his name will signify a step back from older Superman films, and reintroduce America’s oldest superhero to a brand new audience.
Zack Snyder has taken the reins of the Superman franchise, and if the likes of 300 and Watchmen weren’t enough to convince audiences that his visual style would suit the material, the trailer did enough to convince people that Man of Steel would be something different. Warner Bros. is putting all of their eggs into one basket with this one, re-investing in their dormant comic book properties in the hope of revitalizing not just one franchise, but all of them.
They’ve announced that their Avengers competition, the upcoming Justice League will launch from the premiere of Man of Steel, so the anticipation we’re feeling has less to do with Superman (though a new vision on Superman is already something to write home about) and more to do with the emergence of a brand new Cinematic Universe from Warner Bros. featuring all of our favorites from the DC comic universe.
Will the future hold another Green Lantern or Wonder Woman? Will Christopher Nolan’s notoriously dark and no-nonsense Dark Knight trilogy serve as a model for what is sure to be a foil to Marvel’s comparably happy-go-lucky cinematic universe? We won’t find out until we actually see the film, but this reboot offers Superman the opportunity to be reborn as something much more unique than anything we’ve seen so far.
Man of Steel will fly into theaters on June 14, 2013
‘This Is The End’
There’s something fascinating about the concept of seeing celebrities playing themselves. In some cases, you might be lucky enough to see one or two actors that play themselves during the running time of a film. In some cases, they play ridiculous caricatures of themselves, but watching it happen is always a fun experience. Enter Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s new experiment This Is The End which features a gigantic cast of mostly comedy stars playing themselves as they deal with the end of the world.
Starring the likes of Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, Michael Cera, Jay Baruchel, Mindy Kaling, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Danny McBride, Evan Goldberg, Aziz Ansari, Paul Rudd, and Emma freaking Watson, This Is The End looks like it has serious potential to be a super-meta mega-comedy centered on one of the more cliche events of recent years.
They pushed to release the trailer before December 21st, 2012, you know, in case the world ended, but seeing that it didn’t, they’ll have some explaining to do if their name-drop of a movie turns out as funny as the actual apocalypse turned out to be.
If the trailer is any indication, the stars will at least have a great time ragging on each other, though we may end up witnessing the death of more than one of these celebrities, which will be fun.
We don’t mean that in a weird serial killer way either — yeesh, that doesn’t make us look to good does it? Okay, let’s start over, we definitely just want to see Emma Watson holding an axe. Damn, that still sounds vaguely creepy. Okay, we just want to- ah screw it.
This Is The End will kill some celebrities on June 14, 2013
‘Pacific Rim’
Robots. Fighting. Monsters. It’s what the world wants, so Guillermo Del Toro is making sure that’s exactly what the world will be getting with Pacific Rim. Fans of Del Toro have been waiting for his latest feature for over four years, so watching the acclaimed director step back up to the plate with this sure-to-be-blockbuster is exciting news indeed. Del Toro himself has been talking about Pacific Rim for years, so to actually see the thing come to fruition has given fans more than one reason to be excited. For the rest of the world, it’s monsters fighting robots, which if history is to be believed, means money in the bank.
On the story front, Pacific Rim will deal with monsters that have emerged from the fragile ground deep beneath the ocean. This serves as a welcome change from your standard “they came from space!” monsters, and it has the potential to open up a whole host of creative beasties that Del Toro no doubt had a blast designing.
To stand as the defense for the human race, Americans finally get to see what the billions dollars in federal defense funding has been working toward: Gigantic war robots equipped to protect the human race from certain annihilation. The film was originally slated to slam into theaters six months ago, but likely due to the fierce tent pole competition, the release was delayed by a full year, meaning that it is sure to be polished to a fine shine for the actual release.
Even if the creature design and the inevitably epic action sequences aren’t enough to keep you around, the viral marketing campaign, Industrial Light and Magic’s involvement in the visual effects design, along with Del Toro’s choice to direct (after he was initially set to just produce) should be enough to put you on the edge of your seat.
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