There’s a lot to be excited about this year movie-wise, what with Infinity War coming out. But, with Marvel and Disney eclipsing any other movie releases happening, let’s talk about some movies coming out that you may not know about, but should be excited for.
First up, Annihilation. If you saw the Last Jedi, then you probably saw the trailer, but I still want to mention it, because it looks fun. It’s directed and written by Alex Garland, who also wrote 28 Days Later, and Dredd (the most underrated movie ever), and it’s starring Natalie Portman.
-Record Scratch-
Side note: I just looked at Garland’s IMDB page, and I was shocked to see he announced a screenplay for a Halo Movie which sold to Universal Studios for $10 Million. There isn’t a lot of info about production or anything, but I still wanted to share. I’ll update as soon as I know anything.
The trailer for Annihilation was pretty awesome. It gave a good sense of the world and what the movie is about without giving too much away. I’ve been craving a good Sci-Fi monster movie, and this seems like a good fit. I’m excited to watch Portman shoot some crazy cross-breed monsters. Comes out February 23 on a wide release.
Next up, The Endless. After successful festival screenings, and reeling from the mild success of their previous movie, Spring (which is a great little date night movie if you and your significant other like romantic horror), Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead write, direct, and star in a movie which kind of seems like how I wish the Village would have turned out. From what I gathered in the trailer, two brothers visit a cult they used to belong to, and some crazy things happen. Cults creep me out anyway, but when it seems like reality isn’t what we thought it was, finding out the truth can be scary too. Endless gets a limited release on March 23rd, and you bet I’ll be there.
I also stumbled across a movie called God Particle. At first I didn’t notice much about the movie, so I used my Google-Fu and found out it’s actually the third installment of the Cloverfield Series. The only things I know for sure are as follows. It may be set aboard a space station, and when the situation gets a little hairy, the astronauts are going to have to battle their way out of it. According to a article from IGN however, this also may not be the plot. As we’ve seen with the previous Cloverfield movies, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll see a name change and get more details closer to the April 20 limited release. So stay tuned.
Alita: Battle Angel comes from the minds of James Cameron and Yukito Kishiro (the author of the Manga by the same name). Though the design of Alita sits nicely in the deepest part of the uncanny valley, it seems like the film will use the look to its advantage and tell a story, rather than just using it as an aesthetic. The cast is killer too. Rosa Salazar from Maze Runner, Jennifer Connelly, Michelle Rodriguez, Casper Van Dien from Army Dog (ahem I mean Starship Troopers), and Mahershala Ali, who was incredible as Cottonmouth from Marvel’s Luke Cage series. Alita gets a limited release on July 20th.
The last one I’m including in the main text here is called Mortal Engines. Basically, post-apocalyptic Earth, people roaming around hunting each other, et cetera. However, instead of the Mad Max method, Mortal Engines is using giant, motorized cities. So London itself is literally hunting down small townships for resources. I love that idea. Mark it down, I’m seeing it. Also Hugo Weaving is in it. So…yeah.
That concludes my top 5 non-Disney movies to see this year. Seeing as Disney now owns roughly 99.9999% (this is based on no actual numbers) of the movies and t.v. shows we see, I know it can be hard to escape their expert marketing team, so I hope this has helped you figure out what else is out there. In that spirit, I’ve even included a few honorable mentions below. They’re no top 5. Maybe they are, like a middle 5. Happy viewing!
Honorable mentions go to:
Pacific Rim: Uprising doesn’t look like it’s going to be as much honest, unbridled fun as its predecessor.
The Predator. Written and directed by Shane Black, a.k.a. Hawkins from the original. Again, not a lot of info here. IMDB claims it’s a remake of the original movie from 1987. When/if the trailer drops I will have more opinions about this.
Lara Croft looks like another campy Lara Croft movie. Honestly, I’m not excited. I loved the gritty and real feeling of the newer games, but it doesn’t look like they translated that feeling of helplessness and fear to the movie too well.
Curvature looks like a low budget time travel movie which I’m sure will be very ok. But hey, Linda Hamilton is in it so…
Captive State is a movie set after the alien invasion about what life is like (seems like it could be ok).