Fandango, the American movie ticket company, recently polled its users to determine the 30 most anticipated films of 2017.
As usual, Hollywood does not disappoint.
There are few surprises here; the vast majority are instalments in comic book franchises or other sequels.
When I say Hollywood doesn’t disappoint what I mean is that they show the usual trepidation to try something, anything, new.
Without further ado, here are the titles, sorted by release date:
January 20: XXX: The Return of Xander Cage
February 10: The Lego Batman Movie
February 10: John Wick: Chapter Two
February 10: Fifty Shades Darker
February 17: The Great Wall (Matt Damon, the Great Wall of China and monsers)
March 3: Logan (Wolverine)
March 10: T2: Trainspotting
March 10: Kong: Skull Island (from the producers of Godzilla)
March 17: Beauty and the Beast
April 14: The Fate of the Furious
May 5: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
May 12: Snatched (Amy Schumer goes on vacation)
May 19: Alien: Covenant
May 26: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
May 26: Baywatch (from TV)
June 2: Wonder Woman
June 9: The Mummy (reboot)
June 16: Cars 3
June 23: Transformers: The Last Knight
June 30: Despicable Me 3
July 2: Spider-Man: Homecoming
July 21: Dunkirk (directed by Christopher Nolan)
July 28: The Dark Tower (by Stephen King)
July 14: War for the Planet of the Apes
October 6: Blade Runner 2049
November 3: Thor: Ragnarok
November 17: Justice League
December 15: Star Wars: Episode VIII
December 22: Pitch Perfect 3
December 22: Jumanji (sequel)
I believe only four of those 30 films are original vehicles. In other words, roughly seven out of eight movies are remakes, reboots, sequels or franchise instalments.
My take: The only films on this list I might see are Blade Runner 2049 (this sequel is directed by Denis Villeneuve and stars Ryan Gosling, both Canadians), T2: Trainspotting (just because) and maybe Kong (if it’s campy enough). By the way, tomorrow is National Screenwriters Day!