So we left off at the end of June with the latest Jurassic World movie….after a jam packed first part of the year, lets see what the second half of 2018 has in store for geeks going to the movies.
July 6th we get Sorry to bother you. A Black Sci-fi comedy about a young African American telemarketer who adopts a “white accent” in order to thrive at his job. Along the way he discovers a magical key to business success, and the Macabre secret of his corporate overlords. This film has such actors as Tessa Thompson, Patton Oswalt, Steve Buscemi, Terry Crews, and Danny Glover in the cast.
July 6th, other movies hitting the big screen, including the FOURTH Marvel entry of the year, Ant Man and Wasp. This film is the sequel to 2015’s Ant Man. Everyone from the first film are back, along with newcomers, Laurence Fishbourne(no stranger to Super hero films as he plays Perry White in the DCEU), Michele Pfeiffer who will play Original Wasp Janet Van Dyne(who was lost in the quantum universe long ago) Evangeline Lilly who plays Hope Van Dyne gets to put on the winged super hero suit, and prove she is just as heroic as Ant Man. Definitely looking forward to this one, any movie that features a giant “hello kitty” Pez dispenser is worth checking out.
Hitting the screen on July 13th is the family orientated Hotel Transylvania 3. The “Drac Pack” goes on a cruise, and Dracula becomes attracted to the ships captain who is secretly a descendant of his nemesis Abraham Van Helsing. The first 2 movies in the film were hits, so look for the 3rd one to continue the streak.
July 13th also gives us adults something to look forward to….namely a good ol’ fashioned disaster movie. Skyscraper. Dwayne “Rock” Johnson stars as a war veteran and FBI Hostage Rescue Team Leader. Framed for setting the worlds “tallest, safest” building on fire, he has to both clear his name, AND rescue his family who are “of course” above the fire line. This sounds like a combination of Die Hard and Towering Inferno rolled into one.
July 27th see the release of the 6th film in the Mission Impossible franchise, Mission Impossible:Fallout. Everyone is back for another “If you fail at this mission, the agency will disavow all knowledge of you or the mission”(except for Jeremy Renner, who was filming Marvels:Avengers Infinity Wars). How many times can Tom Cruise save the world…and does anyone even care anymore?
July 27th also have the release of Teen Titans Go: To The Movies. Seeing all the other stars in the DCEU making movies, the Teen Titans head off to try and get a “famous movie producer” to make a movie about them.
August 3rd, Christopher Robin comes to the screen from Disney Studios. An all grown up Christopher Robin has lost his sense of imagination, so all his friends from The Hundred Acre Wood re-enter his life to help him find it again. This live action/CGI film will bring Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore and the rest of the classic Disney characters back to the screen once again.
August 3rd we also get the YA novel adaptation The Darkest Minds. This movie follows a young girl named Ruby, who is one of the kids to survive a mysterious disease, along with a stay in a brutal rehabilitation camp called Thurmond. The movie is the first adaptation in the series written by Alexandra Bracken.
August 3rd brings us an action/comedy staring two actresses who are no strangers to geeky movies. The Spy Who Dumped Me teams up Mila Kunis(Jupiter ascending) and Kate Mckinnon(Ghostbusters reboot). When an ex boyfriend/Spy shows up at the apartment of best friends Audrey(Kunis) and Morgan(McKinnon), with a team of assassins on his tail, the friends are forced into the “spy game”. With the comedic timing of both female stars, this has laugh riot written all over it.
August 17th we get Captive State. 10 years after an extraterrestrial invasion, the lives in one Chicago Neighborhood are explored, both the collaborators and dissidents.
August 24th gives us Replicas. This movie stars Keanu Reeves as a Synthetic Biologist who will stop at nothing to bring his family back to life after they are killed in a car accident. This puts him at odds with both a government controlled lab and the laws of science.
What do you get when you combine an ex-con, a vengeful crime boss, “otherworldly” soldiers and a weapon of mysterious origins…..On August 31st those questions get answered in the scifi crime thriller Kin.
September starts off with a bang as on the 14th we get the “direct sequel” to the 1987 classic film Predator, with The Predator. This movie brings back the feel of the original, complete with the jungle, skinned bodies hanging in trees, and an unseen enemy.
September 14th we go back in time 20,000 years in the film Alpha. After a Bison hunting expedition 20,000 years ago in Europe during the Paleolithic period goes awry, a young caveman struggles against the elements to find his way home all the while developing a friendship with a Grey wolf,forging the tentative first bond between man and canine.
September 28th, we get the animated film Smallfoot. Channing Tatum stars as a Yeti who is convinced the elusive creatures known as smallfoots(actually humans) really do exist.
October 5th, gives us a “marvel movie” from Sony Pictures. Venom(which marvel does not consider part of the MCEU, but Sony considers it adjunct to the world of Spiderman:Homecoming). Not much is known about this movie, and we have only seen the symbiote in a tube in the trailer.
October 19th we get another adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “Jungle Book”. Mogwi tells the tale of a boy in the jungle raised by the animals, and what happens when he comes face to face with his human origins.
November 2nd we get the latest in the X-Men reboot, X-Men:Dark Phoenix. The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the best received Marvel comics of all time. This movie is said to be the start of a new X-Men trilogy, and will be way more faithful to the comics than X-Men:The last stand was. Since the end of X-Men;Apocalypse showed Jean Grey surrounded by “the phoenix form”, this movie will bring it to the forefront. This is a MUST SEE MOVIE.
Also November 2nd we get the live action movie The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. The Nutcracker Suite is a winter classic play that has been turned into a movie. All Clara wants is a key – a one-of-a-kind key that will unlock a box that holds a priceless gift from her late mother. A golden thread, presented to her at godfather Drosselmeyer’s annual holiday party, leads her to the coveted key-which promptly disappears into a strange and mysterious parallel world. It’s there that Clara encounters a soldier named Phillip, a gang of mice and the regents who preside over three Realms: Land of Snowflakes, Land of Flowers, and Land of Sweets. Clara and Phillip must brave the ominous Fourth Realm, home to the tyrant Mother Ginger, to retrieve Clara’s key and hopefully return harmony to the unstable world.
November 9th we get the computer animated film The Grinch. While the Grinch plots to ruin Christmas for the residents of Whoville, Cindy Lou Who plots to capture Santa Claus to “thank him” for helping her Single Mom every year.
November 16th Potterheads will once again be transported to the world of muggles and magic as Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits the big screen. This is the second film in what is set to be a 5 film opus. All the characters of the original film are back along with some heavy additions. Jude law plays Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp portrays Gellert Grindelwald. The third film in the series is scheduled to be released two years later on November 20,2020
November 21st, we get Wreck it Ralph 2:Ralph breaks the Internet. Taking place six years after the events of the first film, the story will center on Ralph’s adventures in the Internet data space when a Wi-Fi router gets plugged into the arcade as he must find a replacement part to fix Sugar Rush. Along the way, Ralph and his best friend Vanellope von Schweetz encounter new customs, worlds, and characters, such as trendy algorithms and the Disney Princess lineup.
December 14th we get a strange view of the future Mortal Engines. Many years after the “Sixty Minute War,” cities survive a now desolate Earth by moving around on giant wheels attacking and devouring smaller towns to replenish their resources.
December 14th also gives us another look into the realm of Spiderman with Spiderman:Into the Spiderverse. the Movies tagline is “enter the realm where more than one wears a mask. this will be a computer animated film.
December 21st we get the Years entry into the DCEU with Aquaman. Jason Momoa stars as Arthur Curry, who is reluctant to take over the throne of Atlantis. Momoa was one of the stars of Justice League, and this gives us his back story. One has to wonder if Warner Brothers would have been smarter by giving us the solo films to introduce Justice League members, as opposed to simply bringing them together.
December 21st we get the latest attempt to bring a Japanese Manga to the big screen with the Movie Alita: Battle Angel. Alita is a creation from an age of despair. Found by the mysterious Dr. Ido while trolling for cyborg parts, Alita becomes a lethal, dangerous being. She cannot remember who she is, or where she came from. But to Dr. Ido, the truth is all too clear. She is the one being who can break the cycle of death and destruction left behind from Tiphares. But to accomplish her true purpose, she must fight and kill. And that is where Alita’s true significance comes to bear. She is an angel from heaven. She is an angel of death.
Also on December 21st we get a Transformers prequel Bumblebee. Set 20 years before the first Transformers movie, On the run in the year 1987, Bumblebee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small Californian beach town. Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld), on the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken. When Charlie revives him, she quickly learns this is no ordinary, yellow VW bug. This movie is not directed by Michael Bay
In a strong ending to a strong year, December 25th we get the sequel to a timeless classic Mary Poppins Returns. Emily Blunt takes over the classic role, 20 years later to come back and visit the Banks children who are now all grown up. Dick Van Dyke who played both Bert(the chimney sweep) and Mr Dawes Sr, will return and play Mr Dawes Jr. in a cameo role. This film has the longest break for a live action sequel, 54 years.
So there you have it, the second half to a geeky fun filled year of movies. I look at this calendar and at my wallet, and wonder “how the heck am I gonna go see all these movies”? This is one of the biggest movie filled years in recent history. Yep I am looking forward to all these films, I hope to see most if not all of them in the theater, if not, my DVD collection will grow by a fair amount.
