Well, ladies and gentlemen: 2021 has come and gone, and it is now 2022. 2021 was a bit of a…mixed bag, you might say. It even might have been a dumpster fire for a lot of people. But it wasn’t as awful as 2020, I can tell you THAT much. As awful as things have gotten in the last couple of years, the one constant that helped people through some tough times was movies. Unfortunately, 2020 decided to give everybody the finger with the COVID-19 pandemic which brought everything to a standstill. Things started easing up towards the end of 2020 and into 2021. For movies, 2020 was a catastrophe of epic proportions. Theaters shut down, movies were either delayed indefinitely until theaters opened up again, or went straight to the streaming services. The pandemic changed a lot of things, especially in how we consume entertainment. Gone are the days of the 90-day theatrical release window. Some streaming services like HBO Max opted for day-and-date releases, meaning that a movie would be released both on HBO and in theaters. THAT didn’t really work out. But, 2021 was a much better year for movies than you would think. We got movies like West Side Story, Dune, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi, Belfast, King Richard, and a whole lot more. In fact, it was Shang-Chi that got me back into the theaters again. But instead of reminiscing on the past, lets take a look at what’s ahead of us. Before I begin, I should warn you that the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is making its way around the globe at a frightening rate, forcing some territories to lockdown again for a month. It’s possible that it could happen here in the United States, but I’m not sure that it will. So, be safe out there.
Alrighty, there’s a lot of movies coming out this year that I can’t wait to see. What I’m going to do here is take a look at movies month by month and list the highlights from that particular month if there is one or two. Now, some of these movies are limited releases, but they are ones that I’m looking forward to, and a good chunk will be big releases. So, let’s get right into it with the merry month of:
JANUARY
In most years, January has been a notorious dumping ground for movies studios that don’t have faith in the films that they’re releasing. Most people generally never go to movies in January, and while there have been exceptions, January movies haven’t really been that great. That’s changed a bit over the last two years. From what I’ve been looking at, there’s only one movie this month that I’m interested in:
Morbius:
I have to admit, Morbius was not something that I was anticipating. Yet, the trailers have got me excited for this one. It stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, who goes missing for two months only to be found on a container ship barely alive. It seems he’s developed superhuman strength, speed, sight, flight, and a strong thirst for blood. It’s a vampire movie. Honestly, I really dig the look of Leto as a vampire. This is a terrifying looking being. Screw that sparkly-vampire bullshit, they wouldn’t stand a chance against Morbius. The movie also stars Michael Keaton, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Adria Arjona.
FEBRUARY
Moonfall:
Okay, it’s a Roland Emmerich disaster movie. What else needs to be said? Oh, I think it has something to do with the moon potentially colliding with the earth. If there’s a director that knows his way around apocalyptic disaster movies, it’s Roland Emmerich. These aren’t exactly the deepest of movies, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t fun. It just looks like a ton of fun and it stars Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson, and Donald Sutherland. It’s got quite a cast, and I’m totally there for seeing the earth getting wrecked…again. Is there something wrong with me for enjoying movies that pummel the hell out of our planet? Maybe, but I make no apologies.
Catch The Fair One:
Catch The Fair One looks like another typical movie about human trafficking, but with one obvious exception: It doesn’t focus on a pretty white girl that needs rescuing. It’s about a Native American boxer who is looking for her missing sister and she puts herself in harm’s way with human traffickers. If I can be serious for a moment, the trafficking and exploitation of women and children is nothing new, but it is incredibly horrendous. It’s even worse for indigenous people, because they’re not reported as much, if at all. Most missing women usually focus on the pretty young white girls, while everyone else is forgotten, and that appears to be what this film wants to change. It’s co-written by Kali Reis, who also stars in the film. Kali is a real-life professional boxer. Catch The Fair One is her first film, but early reactions are saying that it’s an intense film, so I’m definitely going to be checking this one out.
Uncharted:
If there’s been one constant in movies over the last twenty years, it’s that movies based on video-games suck. I fully admit, that I’m a sucker for these movies, as bad as some of them are, but there are a number that really aren’t that bad. Actor Tom Holland has been having quite a career since his feature film debut with The Impossible back in 2012. It was his turn as Spider-Man that really put him on the map and for good reason: He’s great at it. He just put in his best performance as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home. His next project is the movie Uncharted which is based on the popular video-game franchise. Holland plays Nathan Drake, an Indiana Jones-style adventurer travelling across the world looking for hidden treasure. Accompanying him is Sully, a mercenary that recruits Drake to find the world’s most expensive treasure. I always thought we had the perfect cinematic Uncharted film with the fourth video-game, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. It was the best of the franchis, as far as I’m concerned. I love Indiana Jones-style adventure films and this one looks pretty decent. If nothing else, it could be a decent way to kill 2 hours.
MARCH
The Batman:
The Batman is really the only movie being released in March that I’m incredibly excited to see. In fact, this is my most anticipated movie of the year. The movie stars Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne/Batman in his second year as The Dark Knight, going up against the notorious Riddler, played by Paul Dano. Zoe Kravitz plays Selena Kyle a.k.a Catwoman and Batman’s love interest. This movie looks like it’s going to do something that no other Batman movie has done before and actually have Batman doing detective work instead of just beating the snot out of criminals. There’s a lot that’s going on this trailer, and I don’t think I could hype myself up more. This is definitely going to be one that will be seen in theaters.
APRIL
Sonic: The Hedgehog 2
The first Sonic movie was a pleasant surprise. It wasn’t the greatest film, but it was charming, it was funny, and it was exciting. It was certainly one of the better movies based on a video-game. Ben Schwartz knocked it out of the park as the voice Sonic, but it was Jim Carrey that stole the show as Doctor Robotnik. This new movie features new characters like Tails and Knuckles, and it looks like fun. It’s not going to revolutionize anything, but it’s going to be harmless fun at the very least.
The Northman:
Vikings. You really can’t get more epic and brutal than Vikings. From what I understand, The Northman is based on a legend that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It’s the same kind of storyline, just without the weird dialogue and is far more violent. Alexander Skarsgaard plays a Viking prince out to avenge his father’s murder and rescue his mother. I think this is going to be great. Robert Eggers is one of the most unique up-and-coming directors. His first two movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse are outstanding, even though The Lighthouse was weird as fuck. Sign me up for brutal Viking vengeance.
MAY
Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness
Of all the comic book movie characters to show up in the last decade, Doctor Steven Strange was the one that I was most intrigued by, because the use of magic was really not something that was a part of the MCU. At least not until Doctor Strange. From a visual standpoint, the movie was absolutely incredible with some very Inception-esque style. This new movie obviously picks up after Spider-Man: No Way Home, but the consequences of the Multiverse breaking through have yet to be realized. This movie looks like it’s going to deal with those consequences. Doctor Strange recruits Wanda Maximoff, a.k.a Scarlet Witch, to help him deal with that, but he also has to deal with a former ally, Baron Mordo. It also appears that Doctor Strange could be dealing with his greatest enemy: Himself. This was just a teaser trailer, but it’s just so incredibly psychedelic that I just can’t wait for it.
Top Gun: Maverick
I’m of two minds about Top Gun: Maverick. One one hand, the original movie was such an iconic part of the eighties, that there really was no topping it. It was one of the quintessential Tom Cruise movies. It had a great soundtrack, great characters, and an interesting premise. Where else could you go with this? When I heard that they were talking about a sequel, I was not enthusiastic, especially since Tony Scott, the director of the original, died years ago. So, I’m tempering my curiosity with the fact that this movie might not be that great. This movie could either soar, or explode on the runway.
JUNE
Jurassic World: Dominion
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who love dinosaurs, and those we shun. In all seriousness, though, Jurassic Park was one of the most revolutionary movies to come out of 1993. 1993. Think about that for a second. It’s been nearly thirty years since Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur epic first graced the big screen. It’s a classic. It was based on Michael Crichton’s novel of the same name. Nobody had seen dinosaurs the way that Jurassic Park made them. Through a combination of puppetry and state-of-the-art CGI, dinosaurs were brought back to life in the grandest way possible. The two sequels that followed weren’t that great, but Jurassic World ignored the previous sequels and built directly from the original film. While Fallen Kingdom wasn’t that great, it was still a huge adventure. Dominion is bringing back most of the original crew, including Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern. We still don’t know what this movie is about, but if this prologue is anything to go by, it’s going to be huge. This could very well be the summer blockbuster of the year. EASY. Bring it on.
JULY
Thor: Love and Thunder:
While there isn’t a trailer for the new Thor movie yet, it’s being directed by Taika Waititi, the guy who directed Thor: Ragnorok. That means we are in for a very wild and entertaining ride. Ragnarok was one of the best solo MCU movies to come out in the last 5 years. It was visually interesting and showed Chris Hemsworth’s more comedic side as the God of Thunder. It was incredibly well-written and directed. The new movie sees the return of Natalia Portman as Jane Foster, Thor’s original love interest and as the new Lady Thor. The movie is also going to be bringing Christian Bale on board as Gorr The God Butcher, one of Thor’s most infamous villains. I can’t wait to see the first trailer for this one.
Black Adam
Warner Bros’ Shazam! film was a surprisingly good superhero flick. It was such a breath of fresh air from the doom and gloom of Zack Snyder’s films(that I love). It had great acting, a decent villain, and hilarious writing. There will be a second Shazam! film coming soon, but before we get that, we’re getting Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson as the title character. This is good casting, because Dwayne Johnson is awesome. He’s charismatic, funny, and huge. That means he doesn’t need a padded suit for the role. Johnson is that shredded. From this teaser, it’s difficult to discern the tone of the film, but it could pretty dark. Black Adam is been known as a villain for Shazam in the past, but there have been stories of him teaming up with the Justice League to fight other supervillains, so I think this incarnation is going to be an anti-hero.
AUGUST
Nothin’. Zip. Zilch. Bupkis. For the moment, at least, there’s nothing of value to see in August, but I’m sure that’ll change in the next few months. I’ll do a separate post for August when I have more information.
SEPTEMBER
Mission Impossible 7(title pending)
This movie has been delayed so many times because of the pandemic, it’s really hard to say WHEN we’re going to see this one. It’s being made, and we have yet to see what it’s about, but right now it’s hard to say if it’s ready to go yet. We don’t even know if filming is completed yet, which would give them about 8 months to do post-production. That should be enough time, but it’s all going to depend on whether the production gets shut down again. I’m a huge fan of the Mission Impossible movies, so I’m definitely seeing this one when it comes out.
OCTOBER
Halloween Ends
Halloween is one of the franchises that I had a hard time getting into, yet I’m not entirely sure why. The original John Carpenter film set the standard for the future slasher films that I absolutely love, yet I felt that the original was formulaic(oh, the irony). It wasn’t until the 2018 release of Halloween that I really started to get into this franchise. It was a sequel that ignored all the other previous sequels including the original Halloween II, which was a fantastic movie in its own right. Halloween Kills upped the brutality to eleven. This was a very violent movie. I enjoyed it, but I really didn’t like the way it ended. I hate sequel baiting. The issue was that the 2018 film could’ve and should’ve been the end of it. But Halloween Kills was designed to be a bridge to the final confrontation between Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode and The Shape(Michael Myers). I’m actually curious to see how this ends, because it really needs to.
NOVEMBER
Creed III
This is third film in the Creed series of films which was an offshoot of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky franchise. I can’t wait to see this one. I really enjoyed the first two Creed films. They starred Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, who was killed by Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. This was as much of a story of one man struggling to live up to his name as well as making his own way. Stallone played Rocky in a more subdued support role, which actually worked. It was a film that gave Stallone his first Golden Globe as best supporting actor. He deserved it. But the real star was Michael B. Jordan. This guy’s career has really taken off. Now, he’s going to be making his directorial debut with the third and possibly final Creed film. This will also be the first Creed film without Sylvester Stallone. It makes sense. I felt that it was always going to go this way. It’ll be interesting to see how Jordan brings this project together.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
When Black Panther came out in 2018, it made waves. While it wasn’t the first film to showcase a black superhero, it was the first to actually to showcase the culture around this particular superhero. It was a combination of different African tribes, traditions, and outfits. It was spectacular. It was a great story, and Black Panther was really the first black superhero to break barriers, because while the focus was on the African/American community, it was still accessible by everyone. King T’Challa was a great character and Chadwick Boseman was the best choice for that role. Unfortunately, Mr. Boseman passed away from cancer a year and a half ago, which left the future of the Black Panther character up in the air. Would they recast? Or would they go with a different character. The best choice would’ve been to recast the role, but they decided to go with a different character. That said, I can’t wait to see this.
DECEMBER
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
This is the third DC movie on this list. When the first Aquaman came out a couple of years ago, it was a ton of fun. Arthur Curry, the Aquaman was originally introduced in Justice League, but he got his own movie, and what a movie it was. Jason Momoa played the half-man, half-Atlantean superhero to perfection. He was also surrounded by an outstanding cast, including Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Willem Defoe, and Dolph Lundgren. This movie was so much better than it had any right to be, considering its fantastical premise. It wasn’t perfect, but it had the right amount of camp, drama, comedy, action, and visual effects to make for an awesome popcorn film experience. While details on the new Aquaman are small, we can expect this movie to be even bigger than the last one. So, yeah, I can’t wait to see where they take this.
That’s kind of the outline for what’s coming this year. Be aware that I didn’t put down exact dates, because they’re subject to change, especially with the pandemic. Some of these movies might get delayed. I hope not, but it’s a possibility. Also, there are some movies that are more movies to come out this year than have been revealed thus far. If there’s more news, I’ll be letting you know. Anyway, I hope everybody’s holidays have been pretty good, and I look forward to seeing what 2022 will bring us for movies.