The Lego Movie (February 7th): The first movie on my list comes out next week! Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who brought us the hilarious remake of 21 Jump Street, are bringing Lego fans everywhere the movie of their dreams. Not only does this film boast a wide variety of characters from, Batman to Abraham Lincoln, to a Lego God voiced by Morgan Freeman, but it also boasts an incredible voice cast that includes Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnet, Will Ferrell, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, and Liam Neeson. From what I've seen in the trailers, the humor looks quite clever and the mix of stop motion animation and CGI is wonderful. Can't wait to see this one!
The Muppets: Most Wanted (March 21st): I was so surprised by the first Muppets film. I had actually never seen any of the old shows or movies (outside of the show at Disney) so I was coming in with no expectations. What I got was a very funny, very happy musical that is sure to brighten up anyones day when they watch it. It also manages to be very humorous and family friendly, not going near crass humor in the least. The sequel promises to be bigger and better than the 2011 film with more actor cameos, musical numbers, and laughs!
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (April 4th): Ok, so this film barely made my list. The first Captain America was the obvious weakest link in the "pre-Avenger" line-up. BUT, the direction that this sequel is taking looks very different and very promising. Marvel has described the Captain America: The Winter Soldier as a political/espionage thriller which is a genre that Marvel has definitely not covered yet. Then again, they made Iron Man 3 a buddy cop film and are gearing up for a galactic space adventure with Guardians of the Galaxy (more on this later) so there is definitely a theme of "treading new ground" for the Phase 2 Marvel films. This sequel will see Captain America headed to the nation's capitol with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansen looking better than ever) to deal with a terrorist threat that may have a connection with the Captain's past. Robert Redford joins the cast as one of the top dogs of S.H.I.E.L.D and Anthony Mackie joins as the flying super-hero, Falcon. Expect this movie to surpass its predecessor.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (May 23rd): My 3rd most anticipated film of 2014. This film is going to be awesome, there is just no way in my head that it can't be. X-Men is the Marvel movie that started it all way back in 2000 and now the franchise is continuing with the most ambitious film Marvel has ever made (yes more ambitious than The Avengers). Almost all of the original cast, including Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, Halle Berry, will be sharing screen time with the cast of X-Men First Class which includes Michael Fassbender, James Mcavoy, Jennifer Lawrence, and Nicholas Hoult, which is made possible by "time travel" of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. Sound a little confusing? Well the title is pretty confusing too. How about this: In the future, the giant, mutant killing robots known as the Sentinels have almost wiped out all mutant life and brought about a kind of apocalypse (not the villain Apocalypse...thats in 2016). In order to save the lives of the remaining mutants, Professor X and Magneto form a plan to send the mind of Wolverine back into the mind of his body living in the 70s so that he can convince the younger versions of Prof-X and Mags to unite to stop the making of the Sentinels from ever happening. Still confused? Just watch the trailer and get ready for what could be the best X-Men film of all!
A Million Ways to Die in the West (May 30th): Say what you will about Family Guy, but Seth McFarland is a comedic genius, and he proved that he could make the jump from TV to film with his directoral debut and a pot smoking teddy bear in 2012. Ted was a huge hit (a sequel is in production for next year) and McFarland's second film looks just as good, if not better, than his first. The film is about a shy/cowardly farmer who gets on the wrong side of a dangerous outlaw's temper (maybe because he has become close friends with his wife??) The first trailer was released for the film yesterday (Warning: Red Band Trailer, contains crude language)
Jupiter Ascending (July 25th): My 2nd most anticipated film of 2014. Sci-fi is definitely my favorite genre. With it, one can stretch the boundaries of reality without being too over-the-top or cheesy (ok, sometimes you can). Star Wars (the 1st three), The Matrix (the first one), I-Robot, Minority Report, these films are just a few examples of what great films can come out of the sic-fi genre. The Wachowski brothers, who were responsible from the Matrix trilogy, are bringing us another sic-fi spectacle this year that features Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, and Sean Bean (whose character will probably die). Now I don't know hardly anything about this movie outside of the very cool trailer but we can probably expect some crazy action, brilliant visual effects, and deep philosophical undertones from the Wachowski's (basically everything that made the 1st Matrix so successful).
Guardians of the Galaxy (August 1st): If X-Men: Days of Future Past is the most ambitious film Marvel has made in terms of team roster and scale, then Guardians of the Galaxy is their most ambitious film in terms of visuals (not to mention a giant risk). Set in, you guessed it, outer space, this new sic-fi adventure film brings a rag-tag group of characters together to keep a mysterious jewel (another jewel that Thanos needs to become all powerful, remember the guy at the end of The Avengers?) from getting into the wrong hands. Know here comes the fun part. This team includes an alien who was genetically engineered to kill (played by wrestler David Bautista), a walking, talking tree (voiced by Vin Diesel), and...wait for it...a violent, rocket-launcher-carrying raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper). I can only hope that Guardians is just the start of another incredible Sci-Fi franchise. Unfortunately we still do not have a trailer for the film but look for it being released very soon.
Interstellar (November 7th): My #1 Most Anticipated Film of the Year. Christopher...Nolan. I should stop there, but I won't. In my eyes, Nolan has yet to make a film that is anything short of incredible. Memento, The Prestige, Inception, and of course the Dark Knight Trilogy have all been exceptional pieces of film-making. Luckily for the world, his next film will be released late this year and like all Nolan films...we know almost nothing about it (even the first trailer is very vague). What we do know is that the film likely revolves around time travel and is led by Matthew McConaughey and also includes Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, and of course, Michael Caine. The teaser trailer for the film is intriguing and mysterious, and I absolutely cannot wait for the next film in the Nolan library.
