So now that I've got my feelings about 2004's highs and lows out of my system, it's time to follow the trend of all the other movie folk out there, and put out my list of most-anticipated films for 2005. And like my 2004 lists, I'm sure my 2005 list will be significantly different from most of the lists out there (but I'm just contrary like that). For starters, I'm going to say right now that unlike most people out there, Star Wars Episode III is NOT at the top of my list (as a matter of fact, it's nowhere near the top of my list). Don't get me wrong, it is a movie I want to see, but as mediocre as the first two prequels were, and with my frustration over how Mr. Lucas keeps messing with the original trilogy, my excitement for the final film has dwindled quite a bit (in the words of one of my co-workers, "I just hope it doesn't suck!"). So, with that out of the way, here's the list of movies I'm most looking forward to in 2005:
1. Serenity. I'm a big, big fan of anything Joss Whedon, and I really loved Firefly (leave it to Fox to take a great series and totally screw it up by not bothering to show the episodes in order, then cancel it mid-season. God, I hate the people running that network!!). I absolutely cannot wait for this movie to come out. The fact that they decided to move its release date from April to September is absolute torture. This was a no-brainer to top my list for the coming year.
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Tim Burton+Johnny Depp+great story = fantastic movie! The equation is just that simple. How can you go wrong? I'm really curious to see Mr. Burton's take on this wonderful, fun, quirky story (plus, how can you not be excited about anything starring Johnny Depp?).
3. Spy-Hunter. Haven't seen a set release date for this yet, but I'm really hoping to see this one this year. I'm sure most people's response to this is, "You're kidding, right? It's The Rock starring in a video-game movie, and you put it ahead of Star Wars?!" And my reply is, no, I'm not kidding. I'm actually really excited about this movie, for a couple of reasons. One, I'm a huge fan of John Woo. Two, I loved this video game as a kid, and spent way too many quarters playing it at the arcade. And The Rock continues to impress me with his acting abilities. So with any luck, this is going to be a damned good movie (and I can't wait to see it).
4. Elektra. I'll be seeing this one tomorrow!! The fact that this is more of a martial arts movie than a super-hero comic book movie has moved this one up my list quite a bit. Not to mention that I totally love Jennifer Garner. And I think Terence Stamp is going to be great in the role of Stick. It's so nice to have one of my most-looking-forward-to movies get released right at the beginning of the year (since most years it's almost May before the good stuff starts showing up).
5. Sin City. I have to admit I haven't actually read the Sin City comics yet, but I do enjoy Frank Miller's writing, and after seeing the trailer for this one, I knew it was a movie I just had to see. I think this one's going to be a lot of fun.
6. The Ring Two. I wasn't quite sure where on the list to put this one, but I knew it had to be in the Top 10. I loved the first movie, and I really loved The Grudge, so I have high hopes for this one, especially since it's being directed by the man who directed the original Japanese Ringu. You just gotta love those creepy Japanese horror flicks!
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I absolutely adore these stories, and have read the whole series countless times. I've seen the original BBC versions of these, which were wonderful (of course, they were also mini-series, so they were long enough to be almost completely faithful to the books). With any luck this new version will be just as good. The visual effects I'm sure will be top notch; I just hope the story is faithful to the book.
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After the disappointment I felt watching the third Harry Potter film, I'm not sure if I'm more excited or nervous about the fourth film, especially considering that the fourth book is a good bit longer than the third book. Hopefully they'll do a better job this time of streamlining the book to the movie script without cutting out major, important parts of the story.
9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. How can you NOT be excited about this one?! Since all they've released so far is the little teaser that doesn't reveal anything of the movie, I'm really curious to see what this is going to look like, and how it's going to be done compared with previous movie/TV versions of the book.
10. Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This just looks like a fun movie. It looks like The War of the Roses meets Prizzi's Honor (both great films) -- and it stars Angelina Jolie!! Yum yum.
Well, there you have my Top 10. Since I'm sure that anyone reading this list is probably stunned at some of the big movies that AREN'T on it, here's the next 10 movies I'm really looking forward to (okay, actually it's 11 more movies). These aren't really in any particular order:
War of the Worlds, Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, King Kong, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The Legend of Zorro, Aeon Flux, xXx: State of the Union, Constantine, Fantastic Four, Assault on Precinct 13
Don't ask me why, but I'm just not as excited about this year's comic book super hero movies as I've been in previous years (and I'm a huge comic book geek). Part of it is that I'm a much bigger X-Men/Spiderman reader than I am a Fantastic Four reader, plus the fact that they haven't even released a teaser yet for Fantastic Four (there's supposed to be one with Elektra, so who knows, maybe my excitement about it will increase once I've actually seen a teaser for it). Batman Begins looks pretty good, and I love the Batman comics, but I just haven't been able to build up much excitement for the movie yet. To be honest, as far as comic book adaptations go, I'm much more excited about Sin City and V for Vendetta than I am the big super hero movies (I was that excited about Constantine being made into a movie, until the studio made the bizarre decision to cast Keanu Reeves in the lead role). But there in a nutshell are the movies I'm really looking forward to this year. It will be interesting to see how many of them exceed my expectations, and how many are complete letdowns. Only time will tell -- but I'm sure I'll post my feelings here as they come out, so check back next week for my views on Elektra (and on the Fantastic Four teaser).
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