This week has two BIG sequels. I was excited for one of these and am looking forward to it greatly. The other is the Alice in Wonderland sequel. There are four other films coming out this week but unfortunately they have to deal with the movie that’s my pick of the week. Here are the movies coming out the week of May 27th.
Billiam’s Pick of the Week
X-Men: Apocalypse: Come on, what else was it going to be? This movie looks sick. It’s the perfect example of the fact that if a movie is good enough, fans will be willing to forgive more. Not everyone, mind you. There are still angry nerds out there who will pick the movie apart because they want to feel fancy or because they feel like their childhood is being messed with. But for the rest of us, there’s a new fun looking comic book film coming out. This one has a lot of the cast returning from X-Men: First Class as well as some of the newer faces from X-Men: Days of Future Past, like the fan favorite Quicksilver. It’s been years and years since I’ve read the original Apocalypse story arc so I wouldn’t be able to tell you everything that’s changed, but what I can say is that I don’t think any sins against nerd kind have been made. This is another Bryan Singer movie and he’s done well with the franchise. We can’t blame him for X-Men: The Last Stand because that was director Brett Ratner and writer Simon Kinberg’s fault. A quick aside: That movie should have been good. The director and writers have done great work before, but for some reason they came together and made crap. What we CAN blame Bryan Singer for is X-Men Origins: Wolverine. That gigantic mistake was all him. But of course, good people can put out a bad product. Just like terrible people can make something good. Michael Bay did make The Rock, after all. My biggest fear is that this is going to be ‘Mystique The Movie’ when, if my memory serves me correctly, she didn’t play a huge role in the comics. Though they could just be pushing Jennifer Lawrence because she’s so big right now. Also, I doubt she’s going to still be Nightcrawler’s mom as they look to be the same age, and I don’t remember Magneto and Storm ever being horsemen. But coming back to one of my earlier points, if the movie is good enough, an audience will be willing to overlook more as long as they don’t change too much… you know, like what they did to Deadpool at the end of Origins. And am I the only one who doesn’t think Olivia Munn is the right choice for Psylocke? She’s a great host from Attack of the Show, and I liked her in The Newsroom, but I don’t like her for this role. Anywho, I believe this is going to be a fantastically fun movie that will be the epitome of a summer blockbuster. Check it out. I’ll be doing a review of it Memorial weekend.
Alice Through the Looking Glass: Some people are excited for this movie. I’m not one of those people, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be good. Tim Burton directed the first one but he didn’t return for the sequel even though his cast did. It could just be that the studio threw enough money at them. This is an almost completely unique script. This movie focuses on Alice who comes back to Wonderland to save the Mad Hatter from Time. The original story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland did mention that the Mad Hatter was being punished by Time but she didn’t go on a quest to save him. The hatter only briefly shows up in the book Through the Looking Glass and Alice doesn’t even recognize him. But that’s not my problem with the movie. My problem is that it just doesn’t look good. It looks flashy and pretty, but it looks like that’s it. Like the movie has nothing else to offer. This is the sequel no one asked for. There are still people who are going to go see it because they either think it looks good, or they were fans of the first one, and don’t let me stop you if you’re one of those people. See what you want to see. If you’re not one of those people, then just be weary. Watch the trailer and make up your own mind. You’ll probably want to skip this one and see X-Men: Apocalypse instead. It’s a shame because Sacha Baron Cohen was added to the cast and he’s fantastic. Who knows what his next project is going to be. Rumor has it that he’s dropped out of the Freddy Mercury biopic because the remaining members of Queen were micromanaging the film to death.
The Ones Below: This one barely made the top list. It was almost pushed down to the “also coming” section but there’s just something intriguing about it. You may recognize Clemence Posey as Fleur Delacour from the Harry Potter movies and David Morrissey as The Governor from The Walking Dead but unlike the movies above, The Ones Below isn’t selling itself on star power. This one revolves around a young couple who just had a baby when they get new neighbors. At first, the neighbors seem fine but as the movie progresses, they get weirder and weirder and almost seem to claim Posey’s character’s baby as their own. We already know Morrissey can play a bad guy, he’s fantastic at it. This may be good but I have the feeling that I’ll try to remember to watch it when it comes out to stream or buy, but instead I’ll forget about it. If you don’t like comic book movies or unnecessary sequels, then this may be the movie for you.
Also Coming Out the Week of May 27th
Chevalier: This is a Greek movie about a group of men who are competing between themselves to figure out who the best of the bunch is. They go out on a yacht and have the entire length of the trip to compete. When they get back, the one with the most points is the winner.
As I AM: The Life and Times of DJ AM: This is a documentary about the deceased DJ Adam Goldstein aka DJ AM.
Holy Hell: Yeah, I know. I mentioned this one last week. But according to IMDB, its coming out this week too! This is why I had a note a week or two ago about double checking the release dates of movies you want to see. I just go by what IMDB tells me and they’re wrong more than I thought they’d be. This is a documentary about a cult in 1980’s Hollywood.