The summer blockbuster season is upon us, and with Eid just around the corner, we can look forward to a bumper schedule of movies. From invading aliens ripping up the Burj Khalifa to the all-female Ghostbusters reboot, Chris Newbould has a guide to some of the biggest films releasing over the next few weeks.
July 7
Independence Day: Resurgence
There’s no Will Smith this time around, with returning stars Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman joined by Liam Hemsworth in this SFX-laden alien invasion thriller. We’ve already seen the Burj Khalifa ripped from its foundations in the trailer, and director Roland Emmerich’s self-confessed love of blowing things up means we can expect to see some of the world’s major cities being reduced to rubble as our heroes struggle, once again, to save the planet from malevolent alien forces — 20 years after the original movie took the box office by storm.
July 7
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
The ever-popular sewer-dwelling, pizza-munching amphibian heroes return for the second instalment of their rebooted adventures — their sixth adventure on the big screen. This time, the turtles’ nemesis Shredder finds himself transported to another dimension following a botched prison escape attempt, and teams up with alien warlord Krang, who is planning to invade Earth. Only the turtles and their human sidekick April (Megan Fox) stand between Shredder and doom, while TMNT creator makes a cameo as a pizza delivery man for good measure, too.
July 14
Ghostbusters
Reboots and sequels rule screens this summer, and one of the most talked about is this return to the Ghostbusters franchise, originally created in 1984. The movie attracted the suspicion of hardcore fans early in production, when it was revealed that director Paul Feig had opted to give the lead roles — played by Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd in the original, with Ernie Hudson joining them in the 1989 sequel — to women. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones take on Ghostbusting duties this time. The trailer already has the unwanted distinction of being the most disliked clip on YouTube in history, though how much of that is due to the film actually being bad, and how much is down to overwhelming male demographic of online sci-fi fans mourning the departure from the original, remains to be seen.
July 21
Star Trek Beyond
It's the moment Dubai has been waiting for as the latest movie in the Star Trek franchise, which shot extensively in the city last year, finally hits screens. Script details remain few and far between, as is typical with J J Abrams's productions (Justin Lin directed on this occasion as Abrams was rather busy with the small matter of Star Wars: The Force Awakens), but the evidence of the trailers and our own eyes during the Dubai shoot tells us that Kirk and co will be left Starship Enterprise-less following an alien attack and crash, and Idris Elba will be appearing as the crew's heavily CGI'd foe. The movie's release will have added poignancy due to the recent death in a freak car accident of young actor Anton Yelchin, who plays Chekov in the movie.
July 21
The Conjuring 2
The second instalment of James Wan's Conjuring franchise has paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren travel to the United Kingdom to investigate a case loosely based on the real life events of The Enfield Poltergeist. The first movie was one of the most successful horror films of recent years, and this second instalment has also received positive reactions from audiences and critics alike following its global release on June 10. Perhaps the film's biggest fan, however, is Wan himself, who turned down the opportunity to reunite with Vin Diesel and company for Furious 8 to return to his project.
July 21
Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass
James Bobin takes over the director’s chair for this sequel to Tim Burton’s 2010 fantasy, based on the well-known books by Lewis Carroll, with Burton producing on this occasion. The main cast from the first film return, including perennial Burton collaborators Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, alongside big names such as Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman, in his final movie role before he died earlier this year. Although the movie boasts the same literary basis and most of the same cast as its predecessor, reactions have so far been less positive than for Burton’s double Oscar-winning 2010 interpretation. Critics have given the movie only a 30 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences have voted with their feet — the movie’s US$238 million (Dh874m) gross to date leaves plenty of ground to make up on its predecessor’s $1 billion-plus take — the fifth highest-grossing film of all time on release. Perhaps UAE audiences will help with that?
July 28
Jason Bourne
Matt Damon is back as rogue agent Jason Bourne in the fifth instalment of the spy thriller, based on characters created by Robert Ludlum, having taken a break from 2012's The Bourne Legacy. Bourne is once again charged with saving the world, while evading his former CIA masters, and this time a whole new programme has been launched specifically to capture him. Riz Ahmed and Tommy Lee Jones appear in supporting roles as the CIA's tech specialist and director.
July 28
The Legend of Tarzan
Alexander Skarsgard takes the lead in this latest adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic novels about a boy raised in the jungle by apes. There’s no shortage of competition when it comes to screen portrayals of Burroughs’s character — IMDB lists over 200 movie adaptations since 1918 — however, with a supporting cast including Margot Robbie, John Hurt, Samuel L Jackson, Jim Broadbent and Christoph Waltz as Tarzan’s main antagonist, the signs are that the performances should put this version among the better attempts.
August 4
Suicide Squad
The third instalment in the DC Extended Cinematic Universe is surely one of the most hotly anticipated movies of the year, especially after exclusive trailer footage was leaked from San Diego Comic Con in March. And critics are already sharpening their knives following the lukewarm response to Batman vs Superman earlier in the year. The movie is based on the DC comic of the same name, following the adventures of an elite antihero team made up of super villains controlled by a top secret government agency. The cast list reads like a who’s who of both Hollywood A-listers and comic book favourites: Will Smith as Deadshot, Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jared Leto as The Joker, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, Cara Delevingne as Enchantress. Let’s hope the script can live up to the movie’s star power.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
