The Coolest Sounding Movies of 2012

 I don’t want to be too much of a Negative Nancy, so to balance out my last post I’m going to talk about some of the most enticing, less well-known movies of 2012.   In other words, I’m not going to be talking about The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, or the Star Trek sequel.

The Hunger Games (March 23, 2012)

Psh, only one arrow

Starring:

Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique from X-Men: First Class)

Josh Hutcherson

Liam Hemsworth  (Thor's brother)

Woody Harrelson

The Hunger Games is based on the first book in a trilogy written by Suzanne Collins.  In the interest of keeping this post shortish, I’m going to over simplify Hunger’s premise.  In the distant future a series of wars have changed North America. An extremely rich city known only as the “Capitol” came out on top and now rules over twelve large districts whose populations live in varying degrees of squalor. Every year the Capitol likes to remind all the districts what oppressive assholes they are, in an event called “The Hunger Games” (presumably to remind everyone in the districts how hungry they are).  Each district sends a teenage boy and girl to a large arena where the 24 “tributes” murder each other in a televised event equivalent in popularity to a week long Super Bowl.  The winner lives a life of fame and fortune while the other 23 don’t live at all. 

I’ve read all three books and think the series is pretty good, especially the first one.  The cast is pretty huge but the main components seem to fit their roles well.  It’s early, but The Hunger Games should make for a strong movie in an otherwise mundane looking March. 

Prometheus (June 8, 2012)

I hope this happens in Prometheus

Starring:

Noomi Rapace (Starred in the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Charlize Theron

Idris Elba

Michael Fassbender aka Magneto

The upcoming film was originally announced as a prequel to Alien but will now be a stand-alone movie.  Details on Prometheus are pretty scarce, but you can bet it will somehow revolve around monstrous creatures in space.  This will be Scott’s first return to sci-fi since 1982’s Blade Runner, let’s hope he’s still got some magic. 

Brave (June 22, 2012)

Nice try, Disney

Starring:

Kelly Macdonald

Emma Thompson

Billy Connolly

And of course, John Ratzenberger

Brave will tell the story of a Scottish princess by the name of Merida who is unruly and goes on a mystical quest…yawn.  If any other studio announced a movie with that premise I would be extremely skeptical, but Pixar is not like any other studio. Going back to 2003, their last six original movies are: Up, Wall-E, Ratatouille, Cars, The Incredibles, and Finding Nemo.  Not a bad lineup.  The movie’s first trailer will be released in less than a week with Cars 2 so check back here for some analysis.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (June 22, 2012)

Starring:

Benjamin Walker as Lincoln

Rufus Sewell

Mary Elizabeth Winstead

Hahahaha, this idea amuses me to no end.  What’s the only thing that could make the greatest American president more awesome?  If Lincoln emancipated slaves (like a boss) by day and murdered blood-sucking vampires (like a boss) by night, all without taking off his sweet top hat.  Not sure how “good” this movie will be, but as long as the trailers are even slightly cool, I will be there.

Vampire Hunter and Brave are both set for release on June 22^nd of 2012.  This will kick-off an incredible month of movies, that also includes Star Trek, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises.  If those movies can live up to expectations,  June 20th - July 20th could be greatest month in cinema since whatever month in 1986 Top Gun was released.