Most Anticipated movies of 2017
It’s been quite a year for me in my continuing adventures of being a non-professional film critic. If you’ll recall last year when I sat down to write this kind of list I named Suicide Squad as my most anticipated movie of 2016. Safe to say my film tastes have drastically changed. I no longer look at major studio releases with any semblance of the attitude I used too. I’ve just been burned too many times this year. I no longer buy into the hype culture that surrounds super-hero movies or franchise sequels, and I’m trying to see more smaller indie movies to try and get the word out. In a word, I’ve become pretentious.
So, why bother doing this? Bluntly, it’s been an absolutely terrible year for everyone and I could do with some hope for the future. So, I’ll keep this going for at least another year! I am changing this up a little, though. I’m gonna not go with ALL the obvious choices, like the three Marvel movies we’re getting, and am instead gonna try and promote some smaller movies that have me personally really pumped. So, let’s get to it!
Free Fire
It’s an exciting looking year for the straight-up-action movie genre if nothing else. John Wick: Chapter Two, Kingsmen: The Golden Circle, and The Fate of the Furious all look like pretty safe bets so far, by promising to build upon and innovate their respective franchises in creative and interesting ways. John Wick: Chapter 2 especially looks like the best possible thing anyone could’ve done with a John Wick sequel ever, and I’m absolutely excited for that. However, in keeping with my promise to try and promote less obvious films, I have to go with the action-comedy Free Fire currently scheduled to hit the US in March. There’s not much to say that the trailer for this won’t already show you. Suffice it to say, it looks like exactly the kind of foul-mouthed, action-comedy that’ll always be my cup of tea any day, and if you liked this years Deadpool and The Nice Guys, I feel like you’re also gonna be the kind of guy this movie’s aiming to please.
Life/God Particle
Life is the latest movie from Deadpool writers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, and has Jack Gylenhall and Ryan Rynolds stuck on a space station with the first sample of life from Mars. God Particle is confirmed to be the next film to be incorporated into the Cloverfield anthology series; and the plot, as has been released so far, focuses on a team of astronauts stuck on a space station after an experiment accidentally causes the earth to disappear. I think you can see why I stuck these two together, and we’ve honestly seen too little of either to get a good idea if they are gonna be good or not. But considering how nice of a surprise 10 Cloverfield Lane was, I’m becoming hopeful for the future of small-scale sci-fi thrillers and hope the trend continues.
Dunkirk
In my opinion, it’s been about 7 years since Christopher Nolan made a really great movie. The Dark Knight Rises has memorable moments, but honestly, mostly fails as a satisfactory conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy. While I remember enjoying Interstellar greatly back in 2014, I simply haven’t made myself re-watch it and have drastically rethought my opinions on a lot of it already. Dunkirk looks like a return to form for Christopher Nolan, and could easily end up being one of the best war movies of the decade if executed correctly. What else can I say? When Nolan’s good, he’s fantastic, and Dunkirk looks pretty fantastic so far.
Baby Driver
Good news everyone! We’re getting another Edgar Wright movie next year! Yeah! That Edgar Wright! Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, and The Worlds End Edgar Wright! And the plot and cast looks fantastic! I hopefully shouldn’t have to explain much more than that. This guy’s a master of film-craft and we need to support everything he makes. Man, I can’t wait!
Logan
If you couldn’t notice from how much I loved Hell or High Water, I’m kinda a sucker for the modern western. I’ve basically lost all faith in the mainline X-men movie after the cynical dancing-monkey of a movie that was Apocalypse, and even Deadpool couldn’t really restore my faith in how utterly soulless and stupid 20th Century Fox is a studio. But, lo and behold, Logan looks like everything I want it to be. Sure, it’s definitely gonna be a sad, depressing, and “gritty” last ride for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, but for once it looks like they’ve tied that aesthetic to something that’s also probably gonna have a lot of legit heart and emotion. Or, to put it another way, it looks like they’re actually EARNING that R-rating with quality rather than just the mere content. Could they totally mess it up? Probably, but I think it’s safe to say it’ll at least work a little bit for me.
If you didn’t see something you’re excited for on here, don’t worry, I’m probably not gonna miss it anyway. These are just the movies I personally wanted to draw more attention to and talk about, and I’ll be happy to see what your most anticipated movies are in the comments below. I hope everyone’s having some Happy Holidays, and I’ll have some more end of the year pieces up soon!
