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| Author | DCM |
| Categories | cinema |
Summer is almost here and along with cricket, beer gardens and under-cooked BBQ food, it means that many of the biggest films of the year are just weeks away from filling cinemas. As always, there’s something for just about everyone with huge sequels, new superheroes and original high-concept sci-fi. It’s without doubt the most exciting time of year for fans of big budget spectacle.
April may currently feel like a long way from summer but it’s now when the first big summer blockbusters are released, and they don’t come much bigger than The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The first Amazing Spider-Man successfully rebooted the franchise with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and swung its way to £26m at the box office. The sequel is looking bigger and better, with Jamie Foxx as Electro making a suitably formidable villain.
May is jam-packed with huge titles and two of the year’s most exciting blockbusters are unleashed, in Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Godzilla will be looking to trample all before him and if the trailers are anything to go by, British director Gareth Edwards looks like he’s absolutely nailed it.
The latest X-Men film is the most ambitious yet, uniting all major X-Men characters and, with Bryan Singer (X-Men and X2) back in the hot-seat, it could well be the biggest too.
There’s also major comedy with the hilarious Bad Neighbours, featuring Zac Efron and Seth Rogen as warring neighbours. Seth Macfarlane returns after the gargantuan success of Ted with A Million Ways to Die in the West and one of the funniest films of recent years gets a welcome sequel with 22 Jump Street. Later in the summer, the hottest comic actor in the world, Melissa McCarthy returns in Tammy and the four hapless Rudge Park Comprehensive graduates return in the sequel to one of the biggest comedy films of all time, The Inbetweeners 2.
There’s also intriguing sci-fi, with Tom Cruise caught up in an alien war, forced to re-live the same day over and over in Edge of Tomorrow. The hugely talented Wachowski siblings (The Matrix Trilogy) return with a wildly ambitious original sci-fi, Jupiter Ascending, starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum. Marvel finally brings it next hero ensemble piece, Guardians of the Galaxy, to the big screen, which looks like one of the summer’s funniest action films.
As always, families are well catered for with something for kids of all ages. British civil service stalwart Postman Pat finally makes his big screen debut as he enters a TV talent show (yes, really). Angelina Jolie looks in fantastic scenery chewing form as the evil Maleficent in the film of the same name. It’s a twist on the Sleeping Beauty tale and ideal for fans of Snow White and the Huntsman.
After their airborne success last summer, the cast of Planes are back one year on in Planes 2 and potentially the summer’s biggest film, and one of the year’s biggest, is How To Train Your Dragon 2. The first is an animated classic and is a fixture in the IMDB top 250. The sequel is set five years on and follows Hiccup and Toothless’ quest to save the land of Berk after it’s threatened once again.
Along with those films already mentioned there’s a fourth Transformers film, a rare franchise that gets bigger with each film. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is set to dominate mid-July and The Expendables have recruited Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes for their third outing.
The biggest stars and the biggest films will be filling cinemas this summer so make sure you don’t miss out.