Hollywood is a fickle place — particularly its insistence on making sequels to movies that don’t call for a follow up film. I mean, “Grown Ups 2?” Really? The quality of the movies that come out in any given year is random and often unfortunate.
2012 was a pretty solid year for movies, in my opinion. Disney and Marvel wrecked pretty much every box office record with “The Avengers.” Christopher Nolan finally finished his Batman trilogy and the year ended with a bang, with the first installment of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit” trilogy, Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained” and Tom Hooper’s adaptation of “Les Misérables,” each coming out within only weeks of each other.
With the new year upon us, it’s time to look ahead to Hollywood’s 2013.
Disclaimer: This is one man’s list of movies that he would like to see, for any reason — plus one movie that he has absolutely no interest in seeing but can’t let go without comment. Your list almost certainly bears no resemblance to mine.
1. Iron Man 3 (May 3)
Robert Downey Jr. absolutely killed his first two performances as Tony Stark, and now he’s back again? Sign me up. Marvel and Disney have done quality work so far and there’s no reason to expect that to stop now.
Besides, I’d watch Robert Downey Jr. do pretty much anything for two hours.
2. Ender’s Game (Nov. 1)
I cannot believe I didn’t know about this before I started writing this column, but my excitement knows no bounds. Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books and I’m honestly surprised it has never been made into a movie before. I’m fully prepared to hate the film — just because I love the book so much — but I’m seeing it without a second thought.
Oh, and Harrison Ford is in it. So there’s that.
3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Nov. 22)
I’m an unabashed fan of “The Hunger Games” books, and was actually surprised that the first movie came out as well as it did. It wasn’t a great movie, but it was solid, and didn’t stray too far from the source material. Catching Fire focuses less on Katniss and more on the rest of their world, so I’m not really sure how that will come out. But I’m looking forward to seeing Jennifer Lawrence doing her thing regardless.
4. The Great Gatsby (May 10)
I never got into F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel as much as a lot of other people I know, but this movie promises to be high quality. Leonardo DiCaprio can do just about anything he wants, so putting him in such an iconic role makes all the sense in the world.
Also, did you know Tobey Maguire was still a thing? I didn’t, and yet there he is. His presence concerns me.
5. Oblivion (April 19)
Based on the trailer, this appears to be “WALL-E” meets The Matrix, starring Tom Cruise. Which is to say that this movie will almost certainly be terrible. And yet, I can’t help but be excited for it. I will watch pretty much anything that is both science fiction and action-based, and the premise sounds terrible but interests me for some reason.
And if all else fails, I get to spend two hours making fun of Tom Cruise.
For movies 6-20 on the list, visit the entertainment blog at statenews.com/blog.
Caleb is a State News reporter. He can be reached at nordgren@msu.edu.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
Discussion
Share and discuss “Most anticipated films for 2013” on social media.
