REVIEWS COMING SOON...
ONLY one film in the top 20 highest grossing features of 2016 at the UK box office was an original concept: the well-trained computer-animated romp The Secret Life Of Pets.
Audiences simply couldn’t resist fast food film-making, which served up a comforting array of sequels, prequels, remakes, spin-offs and adaptations of existing material.
It should come as no surprise that 2017 promises an onslaught of the deeply familiar across all genres.
Testosterone-fuelled showdowns torn from the pages of Marvel and DC Comics punctuate the year, including Hugh Jackman’s final bow as Wolverine Logan (March 3), a groovy battle beyond the stars with Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (April 28), and a stand-alone origin story for Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman (June 2).
High school student Peter Parker (Tom Holland) spins a new web of intrigue in SpiderMan: Homecoming (July 7), sibling rivalry unfolds on an epic scale, pitting Chris Hemsworth against Tom Hiddleston in Thor: Ragnarok (October 27), and Batman (Ben Affleck) and Superman (Henry Cavill) flaunt their gym-toned physiques in superhero smackdown Justice League (November 17).
Fans of computer animation have plenty to whet their appetites – in 2D or 3D – including the return of arch-villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) and the Minions in Despicable Me 3 (June 30).
Everything is far from awesome for the Caped Crusader in The Lego Batman Movie (August 18), and Jim Carter, Miriam Margolyes and Tim Pigott-Smith provide voices for high-flying characters in The Little Vampire (October 13), based on the children’s book series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg.
There are also two live action renderings of very different animations: Disney’s tale as old as time Beauty And The Beast (March 17), which pairs Emma Watson’s songbird Belle and Dan Stevens’ hideously transformed Prince, and Scarlett Johansson as a counter-terrorist cyborg in the bullet-riddled dystopia of Ghost In The Shell (March 31). THERE WILL BE BLOOD... GORE hounds, who like their horror movies bloodthirsty, will howl with glee at 2017’s monstrous offerings. In terms of remakes, Tom Cruise meets his match in Sofia Boutella’s decaying Egyptian princess in The Mummy (June 9), Pennywise the shape-shifting clown dances through nightmares in Stephen King’s It (September 8), and hockey maskclad maniac Jason Voorhees is resurrected in Friday The 13th (October 13). Additionally, Milla Jovovich completes her six-picture tour of duty as the survivor of zombie apocalypse in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (February 3), and Ridley Scott conducts a symphony of screams in deep space in Alien: Covenant (May 19). There are chills aplenty too in Annabelle 2 (May 26), World War Z 2 (June 9) starring Brad Pitt and a legion of the undead and a belated sequel to Flatliners (September 29). A new hero: Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman TURNING OVER AN OLD LEAF... BOOK shelves provide the inspiration for T2 Trainspotting (January 27), which reunites director Danny Boyle, screenwriter John Hodge and the original cast, the saucy slap and tickle of Fifty Shades Darker (February 10), the harrowing real-life events of the bombing of the 2013 Boston marathon in Patriots Day (February 24), and a boardroom battle royale in the computer-animated comedy, The Boss Baby (April 7). Oscar nominee Jacob Tremblay (Room) plays a boy with a facial deformity who proves that beauty comes from within, in Wonder (April 7), the true story of an animal lover’s bravery during the Second World War casts Mummy returns: Jessica Chastain as The Tom Cruise and Zookeeper’s Wife (May Annabelle Wallis 5), Tris (Shailene Woodley)
and her supporters face the final showdown in The Divergent Series: Ascendant (June 9), while Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey lock spurs in Stephen King’s western horror, The Dark Tower (July 28).
Also, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne blast into space in Valerian And The City Of A Scots missed: T2 Trainspotting is out later this month Thousand Planets (August 4) directed by Luc Besson, Michael Fassbender plays Detective Harry Hole in Jo Nesbo’s frost-bitten thriller The Snowman (October 13), Kate Winslet and Idris Elba are plane crash survivors who fall in love in The Mountain Between Us (October 20), Jennifer Lawrence essays a Russian double agent in Red Sparrow (November 10), and Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) interrogates an all-star cast of suspects including Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and Michelle Pfeiffer in Agatha Christie’s Murder On The Orient Express (November 24). Dark Knight: Will Arnett voices the Caped Crusader in The Lego Batman Movie THE BIGGER THE BETTER... THE small screen can be thanked for Crash, bang, wallop: The Fate Of The Furious will see plenty of action big-budget thrills and spills, including a mighty morphin’ new version of Power Rangers (March 24), a tongue-in-cheek splash with the Los Angeles County Lifeguards of Baywatch (May 12) featuring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron in fetching red shorts, and high-speed shenanigans with Dax Shepard and Michael Pena in the buddy cop caper ChiPs (August 11). Outrageous stunts, eye-popping pyrotechnics and cuteness abound in some of the year’s biggest blockbusters and most eagerly awaited next chapters. Vin Diesel growls and grimaces in xXx 3: The Return Of Zander Cage (January 19), then puts his pedal to the metal in The Watson as Belle Disney magic: Emma Beast, right, and in Beauty and the Gaston, above with Luke Evans as Fate Of The Furious (April 14), Keanu Reeves continues his renaissance as a wily hit man in John Wick: Chapter 2 (February 17), Tom Hiddleston encounters a hulking ape in Kong: Skull Island (March 10), and Johnny Depp is all at sea in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (May 26).
The war between the Autobots and Decepticons reaches a crescendo in Transformers: The Last Knight (June 23), conflict rages between the species in War For The Planet Of The Apes (July 14), Taron Egerton puts his politically incorrect spy training into practice in Kingsman: The Golden Circle (September 29), director Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) goes back to the future for Blade Runner 2049 (October 6), an accident-prone bear searches for his marmalade sandwiches in Paddington 2 (November 10), and Mark Hamill utters his first words as