Let's be honest 2020-2021 has become a disaster for cinemas. Major studios have been removing film after film from their release schedules as the Covid-19 lockdown has resulted in unprecedented cinema closures around the world, with several films that have yet to hit screens - Argument andWonder Woman 1984 – faced difficulties with box office profits.
Not only will we see four Marvel Cinematic Universe releases at the end of the year: Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Eternals and Spider-Man: No Way Home. We'll also get some big sci-fi titles like Dune and The Matrix 4 Resurrection.So what can you see during the lockdown in 2021?
Halloween kills
Release Date: October 15, 2021
Whatever you say about Michael Myers, he really likes the sequels. And as Jamie-Lee Curtis makes an impressively successful return to her breakout film role in the 2018 Halloween reboot, William Shatner's masked psycho-assassin is back for another round of murders.
The creative team from the 2018 film also made a return trip to Haddonfield for this sequel (Part Three, The Ends of Halloween, will release in October 2022), and reports say they will dive into Jon's backstory of supporting Jon's players. A classic 1978 Carpenter original.
Dune
Release Date: October 22, 2021
Director Denis Villeneuve is definitely not afraid of challenges. After negotiating the difficult timeline of Arrival and meeting fan expectations with the brilliant Blade Runner 2049, he takes on the role of Frank Herbert's epic space opera - a book that many consider to be off-the-shelf. David Lynch certainly tried his hand in 1984, but with 21st-century effects, Villeneuve's storytelling skills and a stellar cast, King's Timothée Chalamet is the story's protagonist Paul Atreides and Rebecca Ferguson from Mission: Impossible can be hoped for. playing his mother, Lady Jessica, the new Dune might just achieve the impossible. The fact that the book is divided into two films at least suggests that they will give the story a break.
French Herald. Supplement to the newspaper "Liberty. Kansas Evening Sun"
Release Date: October 22, 2021
Moving on to the trailer, Wes Anderson's latest new film is arguably the most Wes Anderson-like you can imagine. His first film since the underrated Isle of Dogs is an anthology of short stories that makes up the latest issue of the titular magazine, an American edition published in France. Everything from the color palette to the ensemble cast (including Anderson regulars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson and Tilda Swinton) is in line with what we'd expect from a director whose name should appear next to "quirky" in the dictionary. Also starring Timothée Chalamet and Geoffrey Wright.
Last night in Soho
Release Date: October 29, 2021
Edgar Wright's new film is always a hit, and his seventh film, Last Night in Soho, should mark another shift in direction since the stylish action-packed Baby Driver. Indeed, it doesn't look like the new film will feature much of the comedy of the Spaced/Cornetto trilogy that made Wright's name. Instead, it's a horrifying story that transports a fashion student back to seedy 1960s London. Expect the movie-literate Wright to make something special out of it.
Eternal
Release date: November 5, 2021
Featuring a bunch of barely-known blob through a hole running through outer space, Guardians of the Galaxy looked like a big risk for Marvel back in 2014. The MCU has subsequently been so good at turning anything that touches the box office gold, however, that no one is particularly bothered by The Eternals, though it is also an unfamiliar property.
The film marks a new level of enormity, even for Marvel, as it tells the story of godlike beings (stars include Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington and Salma Hayek) over the millennia. While Disney Plus is showing WandaVision as well as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier we got our first glimpse of where Marvel's future is heading after Avengers: Endgame, expect The Eternals to provide a spectacle on the big screen, especially when an Oscar-winning director is at the helm Nomadland Chloe Zhao.
Ghostbusters: Descendants
Release date:November 19, 2021
'Ghostbusters' meets 'Stranger Things' - and not just because Finn Wolfhard, one of the young stars of the nostalgic Netflix hit, is in the cast. The second update of beloved '80s spooky comedies - following an underrated 2016 female-led reboot - shifts the action from New York to Noversville, USA, as a couple of kids stumble upon proton packs, ecto-1 and other ghost-hunting paraphernalia.
The fact that it's set in the same sequence as the original films (with most of the surviving stars returning) will give the project extra credit - as will director Jason Reitman, who is the son of the Ghostbusters' first eldest son, Ivan Reitman.
Resident Evil: Raccoon City
Release date: December 2, 2021
Turns out you can't hold off a bunch of zombies for long as the longtime movie franchise based on the longtime video game franchise is rebooting. An original combination of star and director Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson left Raccoon City for this 1998 origin story. Instead, Maze Runner's Kaia Scodelario will play Claire Redfield, with Tomorrow's People's Robbie Amell as her brother Chris and Ant-Man's Hannah John-Kamen as Jill Valentine. 47 Meters Down director Johannes Roberts directs a survival horror carnage.
West Side Story
Release date: December 10, 2021
The year promises to be completed with song and dance as all eyes turn to Steven Spielberg's first ever musical on the big screen. And let's be honest, the legendary director of Indiana Jones, Jaws and Saving Private Ryan couldn't have picked a bigger promotion for himself. Robert Wise's Oscar-winning 1961 film based on the Bernstein and Sondheim classic is undoubtedly one of the greatest screen musicals of all time, so it'll be interesting to see what Spielberg can bring to the party.
Spiderman: No Way Home
Release date: December 17, 2021
The great thing about Spider-Man: No Way Home is that it exists at all. Luckily, rights holders Sony were able to settle the dispute with Marvel Studios that could have left Tom Holland's Spidey going solo, and Wallcrawler will now continue to run in the MCU's ongoing maze.
Far From Home's mid-credits twist makes this news especially sweet, plunging Spidey into new territory when Mysterio reveals Peter Parker's secret identity to the world. It also looks like he'll be exploring the multiverse, with several rumors suggesting two former on-screen Spideys, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, will be joining the action. Old villains like Electro, Doc Ok and Green Goblin have already been confirmed to appear thanks to the teasers in the movie's first trailer.
Matrix resurrection
Release date: December 22, 2021
The Matrix saga should have been finished and cleaned up after the double disappointment of Reloaded and Revolutions, but Warner Bros. invites us to take the red pill again in this surprise sequel. Lana Wachowski, half of the original writer/director team, is back for the reboot, along with stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss.Both of their characters died in the original trilogy, so we're not sure how this movie fits in with its predecessors - the Wachowskis were secretive before JJ Abrams and Christopher Nolan made it trendy, so there's little concrete information on earth. However, in the cyber world of The Matrix, anything should be possible, so expect bullet time to take it to the next level.
Dubbed The Matrix Resurrections, the first teaser trailer for the film was revealed at this year's CinemaCon event, and we've broken down 11 things we noticed.
King's Man: The Beginning
Release Date: December 22, 2021
After the fun action-packed Kingsman: The Secret Service, the franchise quickly went off the rails with the hyped The Golden Circle. So there's a lot going on in this third installment, and perhaps that's why it went in such a radical new direction, going back to World War I to show the early days of the top-secret, impeccably crafted spy organization The Kingsmen. Ralph Fiennes is an M-type figure (shouldn't be too farfetched...) who recruits Conrad from Harris Dickinson to the club to fight the atrocities of the early 20th century. To us, it's like retro James Bond, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Big Movies of 2022
Looking to the future, these are the big films coming in 2022.
Morbius
Release date: January 28, 2022
After hitting a monster success with Venom in 2018, Sony is once again robbing the Spider-Man rogues gallery with a movie dedicated to one Michael Morbius. The so-called "living vampire" is a scientist who uses an experimental serum to treat a debilitating condition and eventually turns into a bloodsucker.
Jared Leto, who plays the Joker in the comics, is taking on the role of Morbius alongside former Doctor Who star Matt Smith as Loxias Crown, a villain with the same bloodsucker as the main star. At the helm is Daniel Espinoza, a great example of synergy, as his 2017 film Life was rumored to be a Venom prequel.
Death on the Nile
Release date: February 11, 2022
Kenneth Branagh is directing the sequel to his adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, where he returns to his role - with spectacularly sculpted facial hair - as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. As with the first film, he brought along a great cast, this time including Gal Gadot, Sex Education's Emma McKee, and Black Panther's Letitia Wright. Don't expect any major surprises in the plot - the story is over 80 years old - but with detective stories like this, it's always fun to watch Poirot hunt down a storm.
Uncharted: Not listed on the maps
Release date:February 18, 2022
Tom Holland plays PlayStation-created Nathan Drake in this adaptation of the Naughty Dog games, which also stars Mark Wahlberg. This movie has changed schedules for years, and this time director Ruben Fleischer (Venom, Zombieland) has to make it. The games themselves were quite cinematic, so it will be interesting to see if this movie can add something new to Drake's story.
Batman
Release Date: March 4, 2022
Robert Pattinson is following in the footsteps of Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Christian Bale and Ben Affleck as the latest man to wear the most famous hood in cinema. Dawn/War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves has received the keys to the Batmobile in the latest reboot of comic book's most versatile hero, and he's promised his take on Caped Crusader will be "very psychological, very emotional."
However, Gotham City has traditionally been defined by its villains, and Batman has plenty of them, with Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as the Riddler, and Colin Farrell as the Penguin. It could be a worthy successor to Christopher Nolan's excellent The Dark Knight trilogy.
Top Gun: Maverick
Release Date: May 27, 2022
Tom Cruise is once again climbing into the cockpit of the famous fighter jet for the first time since Top Gun made him the biggest star on the planet over three decades ago. Resurrecting most 80s movies in a 21st century market is a gamble, even for Cruise, but the production team is doing everything they can to bring back the old magic - as well as actual combat with real planes, they brought synth legend Harold back to musical duties "Axel F" Faltermeyer. In the story, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is still teaching at Top Gun School, and one of his students (played by Whiplash's Miles Teller) turns out to be the son of Gus, the late Mave co-pilot. We still feel the need for speed...
Jurassic World: Power
Release Date: June 10, 2022
If there is any certainty in Hollywood, it is that, as in life, big franchises find a way out. So even though production was halted due to coronavirus restrictions in March 2020, the sixth Jurassic movie returned to the cameras last July. The big news this time around is that Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard will be joining forces with Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, reprising their roles from the original Jurassic Park. But since dinosaurs now freely inhabit American soil after the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, this film promises to be very different from its prehistoric predecessors.
We were supposed to see it in June 2021, but you can fill in the gap with the short film Battle of Big Rock (above).
Mission Impossible 7
Release Date: September 30, 2022
By the time the seventh Mission: Impossible movie hits theaters, Tom Cruise will be 60 years old. However, don't expect him to give up his mantle of Hollywood's leading action star anytime soon, as Cruise still offers plenty of exciting stunts for which Cruise risks life and limb - part of the show's fun - to figure out what its main character would dare to try next. Christopher McQuarrie, after presenting the best installments of the multi-year franchise with Rogue Nation and Fallout, is back behind the camera for Part 7 and its sequel. Plot details are currently tighter than a government vault, but Mission: Impossible is a brand that strives to get things done.
Avatar 2
Release date: December 16, 2022
James Cameron isn't prolific at all these days - Avatar 2 will be his third film in 25 years - but when he steps away from the camera, you know you're about to see something revolutionary. He tends to take long breaks between releases, waiting for filmmaking technology to catch up with his vision, so his return to Pandora's exciting alien ecosystem will include the world's first underwater filming sequences.
Kate Winslet (who held her breath for an incredible seven minutes during filming), Jemaine Clement and Cliff Curtis join the cast along with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang also return, despite their characters being presumed dead.
While this sequel was delayed by a year due to Disney's massive release date shake-up caused by Covid-19, you won't have to wait another ten years to see another Avatar - Part 3 is set for December 2024, as well as the fourth and fifth films. in works.
