5 Summer Movies We’re Looking Forward To

Several of 2015’s biggest blockbusters have already arrived in theaters, but there are more to come before December when moviegoers finally return to a galaxy far, far away. Now that you’ve all seen Avengers and Mad Max, here are a few more to look out for in the coming months.

San Andreas

 
Dwayne Johnson has been eagerly promoting his latest film, and amazingly it isn’t a Fast and the Furious sequel. Set in the aftermath of a massive earthquake in California, San Andreas is being advertised as the next great disaster movie, much in the same vein as ones like Twister and Armageddon.

In addition to The Rock as the movie’s protagonist, other cast members include Carla Gugino, Paul Giamatti, Ioan Gruffudd and Arrow‘s Colton Haynes. While director Brad Peyton is relatively unknown, I’ll be interested to see if this one holds up to its marketing.

Jurassic World

 
This one of course needs no introduction. Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, the island now features a fully functioning dinosaur theme park. Yet when a new attraction is added to the park to bring in more tourists, it quickly backfires and becomes another horror propelled adventure.

With fan favorite Chris Pratt in the lead role and Steven Spielberg executive producing, Jurassic World will no doubt ring in big numbers at the box office. Let’s just hope this one doesn’t turn in to another Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, for all our sakes.

Inside Out

 
Pixar’s latest project has already acquired positive early reviews and the trailers make it look intriguing. Inside Out presents the idea that emotions are characters in and of themselves, and looks at the internal feelings of a young girl.

It’s an unusual and original concept which only Pixar is capable of exploring. With a unique premise and a cast that includes Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black, I’m hoping this will be the next Monsters Inc. or Up.

Ant-Man

 
Age of Ultron may have reunited the Avengers, but Marvel has another big blockbuster coming this summer. Ant-Man stars Paul Rudd as the thief turned superhero Scott Lang. Under the leadership of his mentor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and with the help of a highly advanced suit, Lang will transform into the miniaturizing Ant-Man.

With all the controversy surrounding filmmaker Edgar Wright’s unexpected departure from the project last year, I’m most curious to see what Marvel will do with this one and how it will fit into the larger cinematic universe. Comic fans know that Pym’s Ant-Man is one of the founding members of the Avengers and plays a huge role in the Civil War storyline. While the character’s mythology has obviously been reimagined for the movies, this is one blockbuster Marvel fans won’t want to miss.

Fantastic Four

 
Josh Trank’s reboot of the iconic Marvel property has already been met with criticism within the fanboy community, both for its existing outside the MCU and for deviating significantly from the comics. Not only will the new movie feature a much younger Fantastic Four, but the trailers seem to indicate an entirely new origin story with little ties to its source material.

Starring Miles Teller as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm/The Thing, it should be interesting to see if the Chronicle filmmaker and 20th Century Fox can deliver an effective reboot. And with X-Men: Days of Future Past screenwriter Simon Kinberg collaborating with Trank, the question of whether or not this will exist in the same universe as X-Men remains a definite possibility.

In addition to these movies, there’s also Ian McKellen as an older Sherlock Holmes in Mr. Holmes, Alan Taylor’s rebirth of the Terminator franchise in Terminator: Genisys and an Adam Sandler sci-fi comedy called Pixels all coming our way.

What summer movies are you most looking forward to? Sound off in the comments below.