This is a first for me, as rather than review a film, I am going to give my expectations of upcoming films either due for release or already released but I haven't got round to seeing yet. Now I do hope to answer my expectations in further reviews but if I don't, it means I forgot. So here we go.....
Firstly, Battle : Los Angeles.
Okay after the disaster which was Skyline and the beauty of Monsters I am unsure what to think of this movie. On the one hand it does look like it could have some decent action, and maybe even some good acting from Aaron Eckhart, but on the other it looks to be just another alien invasion movie which will fail to deliver anything that hasn't been seen before. Partly due to the fact that independence day, as good an example of poor film making as any, still is the be all and end all of alien invasion flicks, which despite its short-comings does deliver a brilliant and fun experience. I would be surprised is Battle : Los Angeles can do this, so I am keeping my hype about this too a low, especially since seeing the trailer.
Second, Sucker-Punch
Now I am a fan of Zack Snyders previous works, 300 was a tremendous fun, Watchmen was an excellent film, and about as good an adaptation of that book as we were going to get and his Dawn of the Dead remake was surprisingly well done, despite a mediocre cast. With such a good track record it is hard to find potential problems with his upcoming, no doubt slow-mo fest Sucker-Punch. While I doubt it will be truly good film, and that it will present interesting themes, characters and story, I fully expect to see some awesome action scenes, wonderful looking ladies, and if the rumours are true at least one dragon, and dragons immediately make something awesome.
Third, X-men : First Class
This one presents a real problem for me. I enjoyed the X-men trilogy, while not as deep as the original cartoon they were entertaining and handled the theme of prejudice/discrimination well. Along with some great casting in Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian Mckellen, as well as Hugh Jackman playing a convincing Wolverine, they served up three films of wonderful action, and some good writing in parts, except perhaps the third one, but even when the writing and plots fell apart the action made up for it, and they remained enjoyable to watch. X-men: Wolverine is another story however, a story full of holes, u-turns and franchise rape, horrible, horrible franchise rape, in short it was appalling, and while the action was OK, sometimes even entertaining, it didn't make up for the films problems. Which is why the upcoming first class movie, showing the origins of the other X-men worries me, especially as James Mcavoy is playing the young Prof. X, not that he is a bad actor, I simply don't believe he can portray a character like Prof. X, but then on the other hand Michael Fassbender is playing Magneto, and I expect a good job from him, as his recent work in films such as Inglorious Basterds has shown his acting talent. Also on the plus side is Michael Platt, who is simply awesome in everything, despite the probability that his role will be quite small in this film. Overall I am approaching first class cautiously, not getting my hopes up and hoping that even if it stumbles and trips, the ride might still be enjoyable.
Fourth, Thor
Honestly this movie means absolutely nothing to me, I never read the comic, and I hadn't really heard of Thor the superhero until the film was announced, while I doubt it will be terrible, I don't think it will live up to the Iron-Man series, and it will most likely be overshadowed by the upcoming Captain America, as more people know who Capt. America is. I expect Thor to fade in memory pretty fast, even if it is the best super-hero movie they make to date.
Fifth, and Finally, Captain America
Now considering this is the fourth attempt at a live action Captain America movie, it should hopefully have learned from it's predecessors mistakes. Which we can be fairly certain of as Reb Brown is nowhere to be seen. Now I will admit that this is probably the only movie on the list I am truly looking forward to, mainly because Chris Evans is playing the captain, and I bloody love MR Evans, In sunshine he was truly sympathetic and believable character, in Scott Pilgrim he was genuinely fun to watch and in The Losers (a very much underrated film if you ask me) he was one of the rare occurrences of an entertaining comic relief character. And while it is definitely un-wise, stupid or just plain retarded that I pin my expectations of a film on one actor, but hell we all have our flaws, and he is one of my few.
