At the end of July in San Diego, California all fanboys and fangirls gathered for Comic-Con. Comic-Con has become the center of the geek universe. Or what used to be considered geek world. The annual festival has blown up in recent years with any film that is any film showing up along with television shows. The hottest of the hot. Films and television shows are made and broken here.
Here is a list of the 10 hottest film from Comic-Con 2011 in no particular order:
1) The Raven: Starring: John Cusack, Luke Evans. Directed by: James McTeigue. Release date: March 9, 2012. The upcoming thriller features the infamous gothic author Edgar Allan Poe is being threatened by a serial killer that is recreating all of his works one by one. In the film we get to see the little known charismatic side of the author played by John Cusack. Poe had a devilish sense of humour and was a raw man. The film is fiction which makes the grandfather of the detective story into a detective himself. A mess of a human being but a genius at the same time.
2) Snow White and the Huntsman: Starring: Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth. Directed by: Rupert Sanders. Release date: June 1, 2012. The first pictures of Stewart’s Snow White showed her to be more Joan of Arc than the belle of the forest as she is wearing a full suit of armour. At Comic-Con Theron played up the conflict between her and her younger co-star. Snow White is the only one fairer in the land than the Evil Queen. The Evil Queen is looking to kill our heroine but what she doesn’t know is that she has been trained with a huntsman (Hemsworth) in the art of hand to hand combat. In a twist that same huntsman has been sent out to kill Snow White.
3) Total Recall: Starring: Colin Farrell, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale. Directed by: Len Wiseman. Release date: August 3, 2012. You are thinking why would anyone dare to remake an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie? This is a big budget ($120 million) redux of the classic Philip K. Dick science fiction story. With the same premise as the 1990 Schwarzenegger film an ordinary guy who is not happy with his life decides to take a virtual vacation. During this time he discovers that he is actually a secret agent. Or is it actually a memory implant? Some parts are the same while some have been changed. It is a lot more serious and a lot less cheesy.
4) Underworld: Awakenings: Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy, Charles Dance. Directed by: Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein. Release date: January 20, 2012. Eight years into the film series we are on film number four. In this one, Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale, wakes up from a long hibernation to discover that vampires and their werewolf enemies, the lycans have been largely killed off by humans. Upon waking up, Selene also uncovers that she has a long-lost teenage daughter. Beckinsale is back after stepping away from the series for film number three. It will be shot in 3D and is sure to be as sexy as it as has always been.
5) The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1: Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. Directed by: Bill Condon. Release date: November 18, 2011. Saying that this film is highly anticipated is an understatement to say the least. It is the second-to-last film in the hugely popular series. It is darker and stranger than the previous films. The wedding of Bella and Edward, them finally having sex, Bella’s ensuing pregnancy, and the birth of a half-vampire child are all important parts of the film that fans will be holding their breath in anticipation dying to see.
6) The Amazing Spider-Man: Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans. Directed by: Marc Webb. Release date: July 3, 2012. Replacing your lead actor in a film series is a risky move. In this case not as big as you would think as the series had greatly decreased by the release of the third film. British actor Andrew Garfield has been recast in the role. Mary Jane Watson (Kristen Dunst) is out while Gwem Stacy (Emma Stone) is in. A new Spider-man and new direction for the series. Grittier and plenty of character development are what you should expect from the film. The more modern take is also being filmed in 3D.
7) Immortals: Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto. Directed by: Tarsem Singh. Release date: November 11, 2011. Sand and sandals epic from the producers behind 300. It is loosely based on Greek mythology and the story of Theseus. In this version, Theseus is a stonemason who, with a little help from Mount Olympus, gets an army to wage war against the crazed King Hyperion. Filmed in 3D with plenty of blood and violence.
8) The Adventures of Tintin: Starring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig. Directed by: Steven Spielberg. Release date: December 23, 2011. Steven Spielberg made his Comic-Con debut with this 3D motion-capture animated take on the classic comic character. Tintin is a young reporter who loves a good mystery and that usually leads to all kinds of adventures for him, his tiny dog Snowy and those around him. It will be interesting to see how faithful Spielberg and his producer Peter Jackson have remained to the original Hergé comic and how much they have changed.
9) In Time: Starring: Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde. Directed by: Andrew Niccol. Release date: October 28, 2011. Plenty of eye candy for each sex in this film. The story is set in the near future where the aging gene has been shut down and people no longer age past 25. Time is now used as money and how people pay for luxury items. The rich can now live forever by buying immortality. A young man comes into a fortune of time but not in time to save his mother from dying. Now he is on the run from the corrupt Time Keepers.
10) Prometheus: Starring: Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce. Directed by: Ridley Scott. Release date: June 8, 2012. A prequel to the beloved Alien film series. Very little is know about the story, but the details we do know involve a group of scientists and explorers set in a very dangerous area of the universe. There they will investigate the deepest of questions like the origin of life while being pushed to their physical and mental limits.
