Let’s let the big hitters out of the way first. February 16th sees the arrival of the latest addition to the already vast Marvel cinematic cannon with the release of Black Panther from Creed writer/ director Ryan Coogler. Coogler will be the first African-American to direct a big-budget Marvel superhero movie, which will hopefully combine the usual action scenes with some of the powerful dialogue the director brought to Creed.
This will be followed in on May 4th by Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2 on May 18th and the potentially awful Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th. So, if you’re not yet tired of the superhero trend, then 2018 is looking good for you.
If Sci-fi is more your thing then you will already be checking ticket sales for the upcoming young Han Solo movie from Lucasfilm/Disney, imaginatively titled Solo: A Star Wars Story. Fans fears about the film will be confirmed or alleviated come the film’s release on May 25th.
Some other big budget films to look out for include; Stephen Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of Ernest Cline’s 2011 best seller Ready Player One, in which Tye Sheridan, Simon Pegg and others attempt to discover a special ‘Easter egg’ within a VR game. That film is scheduled for release on March 29th.
The long-awaited and anticipated sequel to the brilliant 2004 animated movie The Incredibles will finally arrive on June 15th. Other animated offering for the young at heart include Isle of Dogs on March 23rd and Wreck It Ralph 2 in November.
These big budget blockbusters and others such as Alex Garland’s highly ambitious Annihilation and Gary Ross’ re-imagining of Oceans 8 will fill the TV screens with ads, it is important not to forget the little guys that might pass us by.
First up is the new stop-motion flick Isle of Dogs directed by ‘King of the Hipsters’ himself, Wes Anderson and out on March 23rd. Strangers: Pray At Night and the similarly titled The Little Stanger will battle it out for the title of best horror movie of 2018, while The Miseducation of Cameron Post by the finest director working today; Desiree Akhavan, which was a major hit at Sundance back in January, will surely have a limited outing in the UK at some point in the coming months.
So, if you see only one blockbuster and one indie film this year I would recommend Solo: A Star Wars Story and Isle of Dogs be the films to choose. Everything Wes Anderson does is done with care and looks stunning, while Solo has Donald Glover as a young, smooth-talking Lando Calrissian. What more could you want from a movie than that?
