Age of the Geek

Coming Soon-ish To A Theater Near You

     It’s the first column of 2015 and that means, mostly because this is the deadest time of year for actual news, let’s take a look at 10 movies I’m keeping an eye out for this year.

     Some of these I expect to be good, and I might be disappointed. Others I expect to be bad, but I might be surprised.

     Either way, I’ll be keeping tabs on them throughout the year.

Strange Magic

     It’s strangely appropriate that the first Lucasfilm movie to be released after being acquired by Disney will be a CGI animated musical. Though far from the most anticipated Lucasfilm movie this year, “Strange Magic” is George Lucas’ adaptation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Jupiter Ascending

     A wolf-human hybrid from space has to protect Mila Kunis from a galactic empire bent on using Earth as leverage in their royal in-fighting.

     I love sci-fi.

     “Jupiter Ascending” is the first original screenplay from the Wachowskis since their Matrix trilogy and it looks like they’ve pulled out all the stops on the way to crazy town. Good or bad, this movie is going to be spectacular to watch.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

     I’m not expecting the second Avengers movie to have quite the same impact that the first one did. The first movie was really the climax of a story set-up by the three movies preceding it. The movies in Marvel’s Phase Two don’t have that kind of connectivity. “Iron Man 3,” “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” “Thor: The Dark World,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” don’t tie into each other like the previous films did.

     So instead of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” being the climax of a bigger story, it’s just going to be an Avengers story.

     That’s a good thing.

     I’m excited to see what Joss Whedon can do with the Avengers in a story that doesn’t have to tie-in so tightly with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Mad Max: Fury Road

     After more than a decade of delays, George Miller is finally bringing Mad Max back to the big screen.

     Really, there are only two things you need to know about this movie. The first is that, instead of a script, this movie was plotted with 3,500 storyboard panels. The narrative is so visually focused that Miller wants foreign audiences to be able to follow it without subtitles.

     The second is that the continuous chase sequence that makes up most of the movie includes a section with a tornado made of fire.

     What more do you want?

Jurassic World

     If at first you don’t succeed, and aren’t eaten by dinosaurs, try and try again.

     Twenty-two years after coming to the conclusion that playing god to build a dinosaur theme park was a bad idea, “Jurassic World” features a dinosaur theme park filled with researchers that are still playing god.

     This time around the big danger is a genetically modified hyper intelligent dinosaur. So we’re combining the plots of “Jaws 3” and “Deep Blue Sea” into one flick.

     It’s pretty ironic that the producers of Jurassic World decided to make a movie about what happens when you don’t learn from past mistakes, but at least it’ll have Chris Pratt and his team of raptor sidekicks.

Terminator Genisys

     It’s a stupid name.

     There’s no reason to expect anything good from a Terminator movie these days. The third one bordered on parody and the fourth was more boring than a movie about the robot apocalypse had any right to be.

     And right off the bat, the first impression made by the fifth installment is that it can’t even spell ‘genesis’ correctly.

     But then the trailer hit, and while Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking pretty worn out for an immortal killing machine, I have to admit I was impressed. It’s like the first two movies were put in a blender, so while we may not be covering new ground, at least we’ll get some of James Cameron’s greatest hits.

Ant-Man

     “Ant-Man” is a new challenge for Marvel Studios. Unlike their other Phase Two movies, which were all created from the ground up to be part of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Ant-Man” is something of a relic.

     Edgar Wright began development on the movie in 2003, long before the idea of a single movie continuity was even considered possible. The project has been in and out of development since then, with Marvel Studios desperately trying to find a place for it.

     Last year, Wright left the project due to creative differences. It’s never a good sign when the director leaves a project, particularly one who has been so closely involved in the movie for so long.

     We’ll never see what Edgar Wright had intended for his “Ant-Man” film. Instead, we’ll be getting the remains of his work, hastily stitched together and supplemented by new director Peyton Reed and acted out by a cast who suddenly found themselves in a different movie than the one they signed up for.

     None of this means that the movie will be bad, but if it is, there will be no shortage of reasons why.

Fantastic Four

     Speaking of movies that have me worried, every time I hear something new about Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot, I lose a little more faith.

     The most recent strike against the film is that its version of Doctor Doom will feature the villain as an anti-social computer programmer who uses “Doom” as his online handle.

     Keep in mind that, thanks to North Korea, the concept of Doctor Doom as the tyrannical leader of a rogue nation that worships him as a god is actually more realistic today than it was in the 60s. Talk about a missed opportunity.

     Since so little has actually been shown of the movie, I’m holding out hope that the infuriating tidbits that occasionally get leaked are actually part of an elaborate prank from Josh Trank.

Spectre

     James Bond isn’t the only one returning in the fourth film of the Daniel Craig era. When we left Bond at the end of “Skyfall” the franchise had come nearly full circle, looking very much like it did when Sean Connery walked into M’s office in “Dr. No.”

     “Spectre” looks to be continuing down that nostalgia train by re-introducing the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion.

     The Daniel Craig bond films have taken an interesting turn. First doing everything they can to distance themselves from the tropes that the franchise became known for, now it seems the films are intent on embracing them.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

     I wanted to be optimistic about Episode VII, but J.J. Abrams couldn’t even put together a 30 second teaser without using shaky cam and lens flare, so I don’t have much hope that the rest of the movie will stay true to the cinematic style of the original trilogy.

     I know that, at the end of the day, Episode VII probably won’t be as bad as the prequel movies, but those movies shouldn’t be the bar it’s judged by.

     If you liked what Abrams did with the Star Trek movies, this will probably be more of that.

     If not, at least there’s still “Star Wars: Rebels.”

     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and will see you at the movies.