Lost River

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, than it’s safe to say that Ryan Gosling thinks the world of Nicolas Winding Refn and Derek Cianfrance.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.

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Director: Bryan Singer

Writer[s]: Simon Kinberg, Jane Goldman, Matthew Vaughn,

Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Ellen Page, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Evan Peters

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2000’s X-Men might be the most important comic book movie ever made, in that it was the launching point for this generation of blockbuster comic book movies, which have been without a doubt the biggest genre of summer films for the past three or four years. After the original X-Men trilogy stumbled in it’s third and final installment [which seems to be the standard for comic book films now, with Spiderman 3 and Iron-Man 3 both scoring worse than their previous installments], the focus was switching towards individual hero films, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine was born to start the new trend. But after some early pirating troubles, rushed production, and other issues, the film was considered a failure, and the X-Men were looking wholly defeated. That was when another first was made: 2011’s X-Men: First Class. A prequel to the original trilogy, First Class found an entirely new cast, save Hugh Jackman, to play the same characters and bring all of the origin stories together into one film. And it worked. First Class is probably the best X-Men film to date. Finally, as people awaited a follow-up to First Class, people wondered how they would move forward in time towards when the original X-Men took place with this new cast. In one last final original, first-of-its-kind film, the creators of First Class combined the First Class cast with the original trilogy to create the biggest ensemble action/adventure film cast ever put together in: X-Men: Days of Future Past.

The Wolverine

When Wolverine is summoned to Japan by an old acquaintance, he is embroiled in a conflict that forces him to confront his own demons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHG5emr77Ds

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Director: James Mangold

Writer[s]: Mark Bomback, Scott Frank

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Brian Tee, Hal Yamanouchi, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Will Yun Lee

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With the total dominance of film the past few summers that is Marvel, it’s hard to imagine one franchise being as big as The Avengers and all of their individual films that has been going on as long. Well, actually, there is one: one character that has been in five films before 2013; one actor that has reprised a comic book role for over ten years, longer than the zombie and vampire fad that swept through television and film, and longer than the entire Harry Potter series. As you clearly know by the review you’re reading, I’m talking about Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. This is his sixth appearance as Wolverine, starting with X-Men in 2000, and ending [?] with 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Jackman has been a staple and an example for all of comic book films in our generation, and he finally has his own standalone film set in the present.

Thor: The Dark World

Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orfMJJEd0wk

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Director: Alan Taylor

Writer[s]: Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Don Payne, Robert Rodat

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Jamie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard

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And so it begins. What has to be the largest, most successful, and broadest franchise in movie history, the Marvel Universe, is entering it’s Avengers 2.0 stage. While technically starting earlier this year with Iron Man 3, the Iron Man franchise was already established before The Avengers was on the scene, and with “Thor 2”, we enter the true second stage, which will also contain Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Man of Steel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAVuKPFKrNo

A young itinerant worker is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of his race.

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Director: Zack Snyder

Writer[s]: David Goyer [screenplay/story], Christopher Nolan [story]

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe

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Finally, after several years of waiting in a Hollywood that has probably made most of it’s money on comic book films as of late, we get to see the most infamous comic hero the world has ever known. Despite doing well in the box office and in reviews, 2006’s Superman Returns is not remembered as a great film, and was made just a few years before technology launched comic book heroes onto the big screen in an incredible way. But now, after the success of many comic book films and DC’s own completion of the Batman trilogy, Zack Snyder and company have attempted to tackle the genre’s biggest task: Superman.