Most Anticipated Movies of 2017: 20 – 11

It is time now to finally take a look at the movies coming out in 2017.  I know we are already two months into the year, but they didn’t have a ton to offer, minus John Wick 2 and The LEGO Batman Movie.  March features some very interesting titles, and it only gets stronger from there.  There were hundreds of titles I could have chosen from, but I narrowed that list down to twenty.  Sorry that I left off hyped movies like Spiderman: Homecoming, Baby Driver, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Justice League, among a number of other movies.  That doesn’t mean I am not excited for them, I’m just excited for these movies more, and I wanted to highlight blockbusters, indies, and awards contenders.  Here are my top twenty most anticipated movies of 2017, starting with numbers twenty through eleven.

 

 

 

20 – THOR: RAGNAROCK (Taika Waititi, November 3)

I love the MCU, but the Thor movies are easily the weakest part of the series.  The first one is decent and I can’t even remember what happened in the second one.  But, Thor left us on a cool note in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and this movie will bring in other MCU characters like Doctor Strange and Hulk, which will be exciting.  And I also love Taika Waititi as a director and can’t wait to see what he brings to the table.  This should give the Thor franchise a much needed boost.

 

 

19 – CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Luca Guadagnino, TBA)

Call Me By Your Name made a huge splash at this year’s 2017 Sundance Film Festival.  Many people I talked to at the festival loved it, as did many critics, calling it the best movie they saw at the festival.  This is a love story between a seventeen year-old boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera.  I’ve been told this is a beautiful love story with great performanes, especially for stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer.  Chalk this one up as an early Oscar favorite.

 

 

18 – CARS 3 (Brian Fee, June 16)

Pixar has an original movie, Coco, coming out this year as well, but I’m more excited for this one.  The Cars series gets a bad rap in my opinion.  I loved the first one, and the second one is enjoyable, though weak in comparison in other Pixar classics.  Cars 3 looks to take Lightning McQueen and the gang in a different direction.  The teaser trailer looks a lot darker and the movie deals with living in a new, changing society.  If the movie keeps the dark tone they had in the trailer, this should be another Pixar hit.

 

 

17 – AMERICAN MADE (Doug Liman, September 29)

Doug Liman is one of the more under-appreciated director’s in Hollywood, having made gems like Swingers (1996), The Bourne Identity (2002), Fair Game (2010), and Live. Die. Repeat (2014).  American Made re-teams him with Tom Cruise as he plays a pilot turned CIA agent who becomes a drug runner in 80’s.  Could this be an Oscar vehicle for both Liman and Cruise or just a wildly entertaining thriller?  Either way, we’re in for a treat.

 

 

16 – THE CIRCLE (James Ponsoldt, April 28)

As far as indie directors go, James Ponsoldt ranks as one of the best working today.  Responsible for great character pieces in The Spectacular Now (2013) and The End of the Tour (2015), Ponsoldt writes brilliant dialog and gets spectacular performances from his cast.  The Circle is his most ambitious film yet, with a science fiction plot and an all-star cast of Emma Watson, John Boyega, and Tom Hanks.  This should be the breakout Ponsoldt desperately deserves.

 

 

15 – THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (Yorgos Lanthimos, TBA)

Yorgos Lanthimos last film, The Lobster (2016), is one of the weirdest and most original movies I have ever seen and is really a masterpiece in its own way.  He follows that up with a movie about  teenager’s attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family that takes an unexpected turn.  Nothing Lanthimos does is conventional, so this is going to be bizarre as hell.  And it features a stellar cast of Colin Ferrell, Nicole Kidman, and Alicia Silverstone.  Let’s get weird.

 

 

14 – WONDER WOMAN (Patty Jenkins, June 2)

If there is one movie that has the most riding on it, it is Wonder Woman.  Gal Gadot’s Amazonian Princess was the best part of Batman v. Superman, literally saving the movie from complete chaos.  The trailer reminded me of Gladiator (2000), and it seems like director Patty Jenkins really knows the character and the time period.  And of course, Gadot looks sensational and I cannot wait to see her for a full movie.  Hopefully this will be the movie that gets the DCEU on the right track.

 

 

13 – FELT (Peter Landesman, TBA)

Felt tells the true story of Mark Felt, who under the name “Deep Throat” helped journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1974.  Liam Neeson plays Felt and this is my early prediction for Best Actor at next year’s Oscars.  What story this movie will tell is still unknown, whether it is Felt just during Watergate or his whole life, but Watergate is incredibly fascinating to me and I will see any movie involving it. Could this be the sister movie to All the President’s Men (1976)? Let’s hope so. 

 

 

12 – VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS (Luc Besson, July 21)

This movie looks insane.  I have no idea what the hell is going on, but the trailer floored me.  This is easily one of the most ambitious movies of the year.  This is going to be an incredibly expensive, wildly original movie unlike anything we’ve ever seen.  This is going to be either The Fifth Element (1997), which would be awesome, or Jupiter Ascending (2014), which would suck terribly.  Either way, this one has me as curious as any movie coming out this year.

 

 

11 – ALIENT: COVENANT (Ridley Scott, May 19)

It was tough leaving this one out of the top ten, but at the end of the day, it just missed the cut.  Every trailer for this movie gets better and better.  Unlike Prometheus (2012), which isn’t an awful movie but not a great one either, Alien: Covenant looks to be in the same spirit as the original Alien (1979).  This is a sci-fi horror movie that looks absolutely horrifying.  Here, we will get to see the rise of the xenomorph’s and how they became the monster we all fear.  Scott has been on a tear as of late and he looks to continue his streak here.

 

 

 

Keep a look out for my top ten most anticipated movies of 2017, which should be up shortly.  Until then, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, and on Facebook by searching Kevflix.