“Man of Steel” (June 14)
Forget about the light-hearted Christopher Reeve Superman movies. Forget about the ‘90s romance series, “Lois & Clark.” This summer’s “Man of Steel” reinvents the great American superhero in an exciting way. Henry Cavill stars in a darker, more serious imagining of the Superman story. Zack Snyder, of “Watchmen” and “300” fame, directs the film with “The Dark Knight’s” Christopher Nolan writing and producing. Nolan’s involvement has even led to rumors of an eventual team up of Batman and Superman in a Justice League film.
“World War Z” (June 21) – The entire world is watching “The Walking Dead.” So clearly the next step for zombies is to go global. Brad Pitt produces and stars in the film adaptation of Max Brook’s novel of the same name. This is a loose adaptation though, only using the basic premise of the book and not the exact story. In the film, Pitt’s character travels the world in an attempt to stop the massive undead pandemic that is crushing armies and overwhelming governments. Early screenings are generating a large amount of positive buzz from reviewers.
“Monsters University” (June 21)
Lovable monsters Mike and Sully will be returning to the big screen this summer. This is not a sequel though, but rather a prequel showing the characters in a college setting that KSU students know only too well. The story follows Mike and Sully’s first meeting as well as the competition they give each other in the Monsters University’s scare program.
“Pacific Rim” (July 12)
Guillermo del Toro makes his mark on the giant monster genre that Godzilla and King Kong invented with “Pacific Rim.” In the film, massive robots known as Jaegers have been built to combat giant monsters rising from beneath the Pacific Ocean. It is a basic, seemingly unoriginal idea, but del Toro is well respected and will likely bring something new to the table with this film.
“The Wolverine” (July 26)
Hugh Jackman reprises his role as Wolverine in this sequel to “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” It follows a classic X-Men storyline in which Wolverine rids himself of his immortality and faces vulnerability for the first time in his life. There have been so many X-Men films at this point that it might be confusing just where this movie takes place in the timeline. This Wolverine solo film is actually the furthest along in the chronology of the series.