The spring movie season this year is a bit wonky. Usually, that season is a sort of lead-up to the higher profile summer movie season. But this year it almost seems as if it’s a mini-summer season with several blockbuster films all vying for contention months before summer starts.
First up is Monuments Men, out February 7 which was originally set to premiere last winter. This movie follows the real-life little known Army unit during WWII that was staffed with art historians and museum curators who were tasked with rescuing priceless relics and works of arts from the Nazis during the war. Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Matt Damon, Monuments Men seems to be equal parts The Dirty Dozen, Ocean’s Eleven and Indiana Jones.
The movie I’m looking forward to most this spring, and by the comments online I think I may be the only one looking forward to it, is the RoboCop remake out February 12. This update of the ’87, dare I say, classic of the same name stars Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton and Joel Kinnaman and is directed by José Padilha who also directed the two great Elite Squad movies. I’ll buy that for a dollar!
February 21 Pompeii blows it’s top in this film that looks to be a mix of 300 + Gladiator ÷ the modern disaster epic. Here, a gladiator played by Kit Harington of Game of Thrones must race to rescue the love of his life and escape the destruction of the volcano Pompeii in ancient Roman times.
Wes Anderson movie nerds unite! His next film, Grand Budapest Hotel, is due in theaters March 7 and will, no doubt, look and feel and sound like every other Wes Anderson movie that’s ever been made.
What the world needs now is yet another cheesy street racing movie franchise which Need for Speed, based on a video game series of the same name, hopes to fill on March 14.
Divergent, or “please think of The Hunger Games when you think of our movie” movie, is out March 21. Divergent joins a long list of movies based on dystopian teen novels — the already mentioned The Hunger Games, The Host, Ender’s Game, How I Live Now, Tomorrow When the War Began… — none of which have found success at the box office other than The Hunger Games.
I think the problem with these types of films is that many of the stories these books rely on all seem to be variations on a theme — a teen who is special and different than everyone else is that world’s only hope of bringing down some evil new world order. Which is a tough sell when movies like the Star Wars and Harry Potter films already explored that territory so well.
Noah comes to save mankind and all the creatures of the Earth on March 28. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson, Noah follows the biblical story of Noah and his arc. But Aronofsky, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan and The Fountain will surly place the weird up against the spiritual.
The big movie out this spring is Captain America: The Winter Soldier April 4. A sequel to the first Captain American movie, and The Avengers, oh and Thor: The Dark World too, this film features a modern day Cap fighting not only super-villains but a new world order trying to bring down the freedoms Captain America stands for.
While I might question Marvel’s strategy of releasing a new multi-million dollar superhero movie every few months; last year there was 189 days between the release of Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World and this year just 116 between Thor and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that strategy seems to be paying off since the Marvel movies are some of the most profitable franchises in the history of film.
And 119 days after Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes Guardians of the Galaxy.
