Blockbuster season begins tomorrow! What are you excited about?

Or I guess technically Friday at 12:01 am with The Avengers.

3 and a half months from I'll be complaining about the soulless glitz of summer tent poles and how I long for a good mature drama. But like a dog who never learns, today I'm little kid anticipating all the superheroes, aliens, and explosions about to be offered up.

Here's what I'm gonna be checking out. What are you guys excited about?

Blockbusters:

The Avengers
I haven't really enjoyed any of the set up films. Thor was the most tolerable I suppose. Captain America was a bore. Iron Man was so-so.
But this has been getting good reviews, and Tom Hiddleston is the best thing by far in the Marvel Universe on screen.

Prometheus
CAN NOT WAIT!!!! My most anticipated movie of the year (along with the Hobbit) by far.

Transformers 4 Battleship
God is this gonna suck. But a part of me deep down inside loves watching **** explode. No other Summer movie looks to offer more explosions than this. Plus, aliens! And someone may even say "Hey! You sunk my battleship!"

Snow White and the Huntsman
Charlize Theron as a badass evil queen. 'Nuff said.

Rock of Ages
Didn't care for Hairspray on stage, but absolutely loved the movie version (weird, I know).
Don't care for Rock of Ages on Broadway, but maybe Shankman can pull a repeat and deliver a really fun time.

Ted
What can I say? I love Seth Mcfarlane.

Neighborhood Watch
Most unfortunate title of the summer. But I'm getting a good vibe from the advance promos and it has a secret weapon: Richard Ayoade, a very droll British comic who hasn't had much exposure over here.

Blockbusters that I'll wait for BD

Spider-man
The origin story again? Love Garfield, but the Lizard looks ridiculous. Word slipped out this week that Sony hates the movie and fired everyone (sans Garfield) from the sequel which is already being written.

Dark Knight Rises
Probably alone here, but I haven't enjoyed either of previous two movies. Sure to be the biggest money maker of the year, it's one I'll pass on.

Dark Shadows
Depp and Burton. Bonham Carter. Quirky Gothic outsider tries to fit in. Seen this at least 8 times already.

Men in Black 3
zzzzzzzzzzzz

G.I. Joe Retaliation
One toy based movie a year for me. Battleship fills that slot.

Animation

Ice Age 4 and Madagascar 3 both look anemic.

Best bet is Pixar's Brave. Can't quite get a feel for it, but Pixar rarely disappoints.

Wild Cards!

The most exciting category for me. I have no idea how these will turn out, but I'm giving them all a shot:

Hick
Chloe Grace Moretz and Eddie Redmayne. Road movie.

Where Do We Go Now?
Foreign comedy about Christian and Muslim women who team up and hatch crazy schemes to keep their men from starting holy wars.

Lovely Molly
Genre film from Eduardo Sanchez of the original Blair Witch fame.

Moonrise Kingdom
More twee naval gazing from Wes Anderson. I'm a fan though so this is right up my alley.

Peace Love & Misunderstanding - Bruce Beresford directs Jane Fonda as a crazy hippie who teaches Catherine Keener's kids about life.

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Won best picture at Sundance. Looks like a very surreal portrait of a small Bayou community. And then a flood comes. It's love it or hate it from what I've read, but must be seen either way.

The Surrogate
The only sure Oscar contender so far this summer. John Hawkes (very likely best actor nominee) as a man in an iron lung who hires sex worker Helen Hunt to help him lose his virginity.

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Updated On: 5/2/12 at 01:43 PM

I can't wait for the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

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PROMETHEUS! PROMETHEUS! PROMETHEUS! Did I mention Prometheus? Going to be there opening night...IMAX.

And I know I'm in the minority..at least on this board...but I'm excited for Dark Shadows.

I cannot wait for Prometheus. My professor in film class showed the mock informercial for Fassbender's David, and those of us who knew what it was geeked out. I hope it does well at the box office, though it getting an R rating is a bit problematic.

The Dark Knight Rises appears to be indulging in more dread (as in I think there is going to be a substantial body count of people viewers actually care about) so I doubt critics/moviegoers who hated the tone of the first two are going to like this but I have to say the latest trailer presents a lot of interesting possibilities. I was very skeptical of Hathaway but the more scenes I see from her, I think she can make it work regardless of costume. I think it is just going to be a different character from Pfieffer's Catwoman, much like Ledger's Joker is different from Nicholson's Joker. Bane may be the toughest sell (cannot stop rolling my eyes at the thought of the football field scene) and will probably be more Scarecrow than Joker type of villain.

Since it has been out abroad there are ways to see The Avengers and I think it is quite good (liked Iron Man, felt like Iron Man 2 was confused with what it wanted to be, Thor felt rushed with Loki and Thor sustaining the film, and I am too biased toward Captain America to give an objective opinion but as a fan I loved it). Whedon knows how to write women with Black Widow and even Pepper Potts in a small cameo getting a lot more substance than they did in Iron Man 2. But the most pleasant surprise is The Hulk. I was a bit worried the rapport between Tony Stark and the rest would be too cutesy but a lot of characters get their good quips in as much as Iron Man, even Thor.

I will see Brave but I am a bit worried again with Disney/Pixar marketing issues on this one. I felt like the US/North American trailers give away nothing whereas seeing some of the foreign language trailers, the story makes way more sense (and actually seems like a throw back to older Disney films in the potential darkness in fantasy). It is like they think selling first female lead in a Pixar film is enough.

Moonrise Kingdom is definitely in the cards. It is like my favorite people conspired to be in one film, despite the fact I have not really enjoyed Anderson's latest batch (I only liked Fantastic Mr. Fox out of the last three films).

Snow White and the Huntsman, I am seeing it for Charlize.

I don't get The Amazing Spiderman and even people I know who are going to TDKR and The Avengers have not had this on their radar. Sony says the reboot was to bring it back to high school setting and make Peter younger yet they get a guy closer to Tobey Maguire's age. I know people love Garfield but I wish he did more films where angst was limited and Spiderman has it in spades. Plus characters are missing (if it is set in high school, why no MJ or Harry?) and Lizard is just not on my list of baddies I wanted to see in a Spiderman film (although Raimi's glacial introduction of him pre-turn was very effective and makes me wish the 4th movie had still happened instead of Sony playing poker). I also don't understand why bring Peter's parents into the canon. It happened in the comics and the response across the board was that people HATED it.

Nobody wants to see Piranha 3DD? I know Aja is not directing the sequel but it stakes its claim to be ridiculous fun much like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Seeing both.

I may also see Magic Mike if it is a little more Ocean's 11 and a lot less The Girlfriend Experience.

I am curious about The Bourne Legacy and Jeremy Renner as a bankable actor but being an August release is a bit worrisome.

BRAVE is the only one that's a real must-see for me. PROMETHEUS might be fun, I guess. It'll certainly be BIG and LOUD and BLOCKBUSTERY.

As for the rest, meh. Nothing that can't wait for cable or Blu-ray, except for THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. After the snoozer INCEPTION Christopher Nolan gets no more of my time or money, I'd only see it for the fun of being able to bitch about it afterwards.

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I was super excited to learn Prometheus has earned an R rating and not a watered down PG-13.

Don't have much to add to the general take here, although I have to say reading people's lists made me realize I really am not too interested in any of the big films this year.

I definitely agree about the general take on Brave. I trust Pixar (although not as blindly as say I trust Studio Ghibli, animation wise--I've been more on the fence with Pixar films than most animation fans seem to be, but they're always at least worth seeing). But initially we seemed to be promised a darker movie, more of an adventure, and now all the trailers seem to be all silly slapstick humour. Of course there have also been behind the scenes director troubles, but Pixar has survived director switches before, so...

People well know my view on Dark Shadows :P

I like much of the cast of Spider-Man and while I've never been a big fan of comics (at least not superhero comics), I've read enough to have always prefered Gwen Stacy to Mary Ann, but the film looks like a dark, dreary mess. As for the other big superhero films--I love some Joss Whedon, but think he does better with serialized tv shows than movie scripts which always seem to have too many cute quips from actors, and I haven't seen all the "connected" films to Avengers, but I have a feeling I'll end up seeing it, and it is getting good press. I'm really not too excited for the new Batman--and I loved Batman Begins, but I admit I found The Dark Knight really overated.

Ridley Scott has disappointed me lately, but I'm very eager to see Prometheus. Where can I see this infomercial thing?

I'm all for male flesh, and certainly find half the cast hot enough (mmm Joe), but the new trailers for Magic Mike look *awful*. Like a really embarassing romantic comedy. Initially I thought this was meant to be one of Sodenberg's grittier/"real" movies (you know how he seems to alternate between big Oceans 1 type, IMHO crappy blockbusters and more interesting, albeit often pretentious, small movies), but it clearly isn't now, unless the marketing is vastly misleading.

I saw an interview with Tatum and Sodenberg where Tatum said there is no way the film would have any straight men going to see it in the theatre unless forced by a spoude, and Sodenberg got very defensive saying that many straight men would want to see "the realities" of this lifestyle they've probably dreamd off and predicted it would be a big hit with them. Well they better start changing the marketing if he believes that.

Although apparently this photo of Joe is somehow connected to the film (a Madonna Sex book homage?) which doesn't match the trailer at all:

The superhero films, 'Men in Black III', and the animated films.

I completley forgot about 'Rock of Ages' and 'Hope Springs'.

PROMETHEUS, BRAVE, ROCK OF AGES, DARK KNIGHT RISES and AVENGERS are the must sees for me!

Pixar have not done a great movie in years, Brave just looks awful.

While I've been slightly disappointed in a few of their films (Toy Story series and Wall-E), I thought Up and Ratatouille were brilliant.

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I did like Wall-E, was disapointed with Up, I will most likely see Brave ( I see nearly everything ). Tangled has been the best thing Disney has done in a few years!

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I will see Spiderman cause IMO Emma Stone could read the phone book and I would still have a great time. Hated The Dark Knight, so most likely see this new one at a cheap 6 buck morning screening in Long Beach.

Prometheus is the film I am waiting the most to see.

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