A Taste Of Things To Come...

The Five Movies I Am Anticipating For 2014

Hold on to your seats because here comes another countdown…I apologize in advance, but hey just be grateful that this isn’t over a five day period. I’m going to do this countdown in one shot. These are going to be five movies that I am most excited about. Here is to these films living up to my, and your, expectations.

To start off the list I’m going to one of my favorite genres…

#5

Gone Girl

Gone Girl is a thrilling novel written by a little know author Gillian Flynn. The novel/film is the story of Nick Dunne, a husband that comes home one night to his front door wide open, his living room torn upside down, and his wife missing. With the reluctant help of the local police, Nick must figure out who and why took his wife. Of course who does the finger usually point to first…? The husband.

The film will star Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry. Affleck will portray Nick Dunne, while Rosamund Pike will play his wife Amy. I am going to admit that I am on the Affleck bandwagon. I think his poor choices of films early in his career is being made up for by his current choices (yes I think he will be a very decent Bruce Wayne/Batman). Pike, I’m not too sure about because her American exposure is quite limited, however I think this may be a good thing considering the role.

David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Seven) returns to the genre I believe he was born for. The American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was directed very well and Fincher did such a masterful job of bringing such dark material to life. I know that Fincher will do what he does best and bring out the shadowy secrets of marriage.

#4:

Jupiter Ascending

Hey does anyone ever wonder what happened to the creators of The Matrix franchise? Well here is a brief summary since The Matrix: Revolutions.  Wrote V for Vendetta (Awesome!) wrote and directed the live action version of Speed Racer (Crap), and wrote and co-directed Cloud Atlas (Good if you liked Vanilla Sky). I am hoping that Jupiter Ascending is more The Matrix and not Speed Racer.

Jupiter Ascending is a science fiction/action film about an extraterrestrial bounty hunter sent to earth to assassinate an unknowing Russian immigrant housecleaner. But when the bounty hunter takes pity on her, he explains to her that she is destined for much more greater things.

The film stars Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. I have really have been awe-inspired by the body of work that Mila Kunis is building. Kunis has very good range and hopefully she can bring that to this film. Tatum, I will agree, is becoming a very decent action star. Thought that he held his own in White House Down, but we all know that the actors are only as strong as the material they are given.

The Wachowskis (creators of The Matrix) have been on an up and down ride in Hollywood. I am excited about this film from them because it is another original story. Yes V for Vendetta, which they wrote the screenplay, was awesome but it was based on a graphic novel. The other materials they translated to film haven’t done so well. But here is to wishing upon the stars.

#3

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Wish I could segue into my #1 with the ending of that last paragraph, but I can’t skip over this one.

Well I don’t think I can really set up this plot summary because what is really the plot of every super-hero sequel. Hero needs to balance being his alter-ego and being normal. Throw in a new villain…and maybe a second villain. This time around for Spider-Man it’s Electro and Rhino. OH yeah, and the Green Goblin.

Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone have returned as Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy respectively. Garfield is, I’m sorry, a better Parker than Tobey Maguire. He personifies the lanky science geek Parker has always been in the comics. I liked the casting of Jamie Foxx (Electro) and Paul Giamatti (Rhino).  Harry Osborne will be played by Dane DeHann, which most will know from the kid who loses it in Chronicle, so I can see him portraying Harry’s struggle with pleasing his father and just trying to be happy with himself.

Marc Webb is back in the directors’ chair. As much as I loved Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man’s films(maybe not Spider-Man 3), I think Webb did a great job with his vision of Spider-Man. Now were there a few variations from how Parker REALLY became Spider-Man…yes, but Webb included characters that NEEDED to be a part of his origins, i.e. Gwen.

#2

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Yep, going to follow up my #3 with another comic book film. I had to put this film above Spider-Man for two reasons, 1) because I have always like the X-Men over Spider-Man and 2) the plot of the film is an intriguing venture into the X-Men mythology.

Days of Future Past is a two book story arc in 1980, which finds Kitty Pryde of 2014 “time-travel” back to 1980 to stop the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly. By doing this Kitty will prevent the future being overrun with Sentinels and the U.S. being thrown into a dystopian state. The film, however, replaces Kitty with everyone’s favorite Canadian mutant, Wolverine.

The cast of this film brings back a lot of the actors in the previous X-Men films. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, and even Halle Berry. The film also includes the actors from X-Men: First Class, such as James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique). I have to stop and think if this is what 20^th Century Fox and/or the writers had in mind all along when they decided to go to the younger actors for First Class or if this is just a happy coincidence. Either way, I think it will be a lot of fun to watch all of these great actors playing these amazing characters.

Bryan Singer (X-Men, X-Men 2) is back in the director’s chair after a long hiatus from the franchise. I am very excited about this, because if he can recreate the magic of X-Men 2, this is going to be an awesome film. Not many sequels are better than their predecessors, but X-Men 2 was definitely better than X-Men.

My only reservation is, like X-Men: The Last Stand, there is an overabundance of X-Men characters in this film. Besides the previously mentioned, the film is going to feature Iceman, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Bishop, Warpath, Quicksilver, Beast, Sunspot, Havok, and Blink. This to me was the problem with The Last Stand, the film just became “how many obscure characters can we throw into one movie” and to me it took away from the story.

#1

Interstellar

The plot of this film is being kept very tightly under wraps. So here is what I DO know about this film. A wormhole has been discovered, so a group of astronauts and scientists decide to explore what would happen if they venture into said wormhole.

The cast of this film is quite large so I will go over the highlights of the cast. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), and Matt Damon. Not said who is playing what, but viewing the cast list is pretty promising.

The real reason this film is my #1 is strictly for the writer/director, Christopher Nolan. Nolan is my film God. Nolan has just recently given new standards to the super-hero genre with The Dark Knight films. The Dark Knight alone will be what all other movies in this genre to strive for. Nolan’s other films have been amazing as well, Memento to Inception have been amazing stories and Nolan’s direction as been over looked by a lot of people.