Top Geek Speak TV Movies for 2016: The Sequel!
Jondee here at the theater lobby, “Let’s all go to the lobby!”,
We covered the fantasy films Warcraft and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the comic book films Doctor Strange (which just had a preview from Entertainment Weekly) and Suicide Squad, and finally, the horror period drama, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Now we are at the top five movies for 2016.
5 Zootopia – March 4, the trailer made me laugh, that’s the determiner for me to watch cartoon, it looks like fun, they are really playing with the animals, sloths at the DMV? I want to see more! Judy Hopps turned into my favorite animated character and I only saw her in the trailer. Ginnifer Goodwin from Once Upon a Time is perfect voicing Judy. I think Jason Bateman’s Nick Wilde is the perfect straight man to Judy’s enthusiasm. I have no idea what is the story and I really don’t care, just watching the two characters walk around Zootopia will be fun.
4 Star Wars: Rogue One – December 16, the next Star Wars movie! we’ve seen a cast photo and that’s it, no trailer, Felicity Jones as a lead character is promising, a diverse cast with Donnie Yen, Forest Whitaker, and Diego Luna, there was talk of Mads Mikkelsen playing a villain, but he played a hero knight in King Arthur (2004), also Disney. Interesting but I wonder if any of the Rogues are aliens, the Rebellion is more open to aliens like Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb. Director Gareth Edwards, it will be his third film!, established the gritty war film tone of the movie, but we don’t know much more.
3 The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Experiment – June 10, there were a few photos of filming, but really it is the return of director James Wan that puts this high on the list. I had caught the first Conjuring (2013) panel at Wondercon with Wan and the real life people portrayed in the film. They showed some clips from the film and it was stunning to hear an entire arena gasp in fear. The Conjuring is the only film to get a R rating for scariness, not violence, nudity, or language, but terror. The story of the Warrens intrigued me so I started to read The Demonologist by Gerald Brittle, but I kept getting the feeling of Annabelle walking around the corner and stopped reading it. It’s the return of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the Warrens so I’m ready for another Conjuring.
2 Captain America: Civil War – May 6, Captain America: Winter Soldier veered a bit from the comic story, but it looks like the Russo Brothers are taking the film in a new direction. Iron Man 3 (2013) had less characters from the previous films and this one is a heaping of Avengers. The clip shown at D23 hasn’t been shown in the trailers yet, no Ant Man nervous around Cap. The best part is seeing the Winter Soldier and Captain America teaming up to thrash Iron Man. It is interesting to see Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman, he stayed neutral in the comic. Chris Evans leading the massive cast and seeing him matched against RDJ has been planted since the first Avengers. There is so much that Spider-Man would just be the icing on the cake. I’m on Team Captain America.
1 The Jungle Book – April 15, this was simply stunning to see at D23 and the footage catapulted it to my top film for 2016, the trailer also showed the fun and brilliance of the effects. Neel Sethi seemed to be winning on stage alongside Sir Ben Kingsley so that will translate to film. Rudyard Kipling’s original work has great, untapped potential so I hope a melding of more of his story with the fun of the Disney film would be great. I’m also expecting that the wonderful Sherman Brothers songs are somehow worked into the movie. Cinderella had some nice singing by Lily James and Helena Bonham Carter so it would have been better with them in the film. I also see Jon Favreau putting in a new vision of the genre like he did with Iron Man and superhero movies.
Four Disney movies in the Top Five? Yup, it looks like Disney has animation, super heroes, and Star Wars in bold directions. Who knows what drama or comedy will break out and reach the top?
