Battleangel

Another year completely packed with sequels and very few original ideas. Not that sequels are necessarily bad but once you’ve done something at least once, even the crew and cast tend to lose interest. To be fair there are a number of prequels, spinoffs and remakes as well. Common genres on IMDB also point to this fact:

Top 5 genres: 891 Drama 627 Comedy 294 Action 291 Thriller 211 Romance

Top 5 keywords: 127 based-on-novel 78 independent-film 46 sequel 36 remake 34 sex

So, anyway, here is the list of movies to look out for during 2004. Some might not live up to their reputation but hope is usually something we are reluctant to give up on. All release dates are for Sweden btw. I need not point out how annoyed I am with some features appearing 2-3 months after the world premiere. My solution for this? Jump up and down, scream at everyone, then download the movie from the net thus stumping the studio and the Swedish cinema system of revenue. They have should have seen it coming.

# The Passion of the Christ | April 8? | Graphically brutal depiction of Christ’s passion and death. Is that any fun? No, but it’s Mel Gibson at the helm (and not in the movie). Previews indicate that this could be well worth seeing. And also that the controversy surrounding this movie is highly exaggerated.
# Kill Bill: Vol. 2 | April 16? | More sleazy action. Looking forward to this even though the first one was far from perfect.
# The Butterfly Effect | April - July? | Drama-sci-fi with time travel. Sounds like Star Trek without the velour and more depravity to me.

# Van Helsing | May 7? | Here comes the classic movie monsters, all in one package. Sounds stupid?
# Troy | May 21 | Massive history re-telling. If nothing else it will work because of its massive proportions.
# The Day After Tomorrow | May 28 | Uh oh, it’s global warming. Dennis Quaid plays a paleoclimatologist. Sounds like Ice Age from Pixar only with fewer fuzzy animals
# The Punisher | April - May | I don’t know why but I don’t find Frank Castle particularly exciting.
# Dawn of the Dead | May - June | Nice to see Sarah Polley in a major project again. Remake of the Romero classic. Zombies. Panic. Lots of running.

# Spider-Man 2 | July 7 | Hopefully better than the first film which was by all means still a good popcorn flick.
# King Arthur | July 23 | Ioan Gruffudd, Keira Knightley and Stellan Skarsgård amongst others in this demystified retelling of the legend of King Arthur. The trailer looked very dark and gritty.
# Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow | July? | Mad scientist bent on world domination. Retro-sci-fi set in the 1930s.

# Hellboy | May - September | Ron Perlman as Hellboy. Pretty whacky comic book action. Might work. Looks entertaining at least. Character designs are over the hill of course. Trailer seemed very … action packed and full of Blade-type coolness.
# Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban | August 5 | The impertinent children’s favorite just keeps on going like a battery bunny. Haven’t seen the previous movies and I’m not planning on seeing this. The fact that Gary Oldman is in the movie makes it a little tempting though.
# Catwoman | August - September | Halle Berry is the Catwoman. Batman is nowhere to be seen. Having seen the catwoman costume I can only say that the design and being able to make Halle Berry look unsexy is quite a remarkable feat.

# I, Robot | September? | It’s a Asimov story after all, directed by Alex Proyas. So expect it dark, profound and gloomy.
# The Bourne Supremacy | September? | Worth watching I am sure. Unless you, like me, never saw the first movie.
# Exorcist: The Beginning | September - October | Renny Harlin doing the Exorcist. And extensive re-shooting in Morocco that pushed the movie back a whole year. Stellan Skarsgård is still Father Lankester Merrin.
# The Chronicles of Riddick | September? | Confusing at best. But the first movie succeeded in creating a sci-fi thriller with very little sci-fi and thus very accessible.

# Blade: Trinity | October? | After two Blade movies this has got nothing to prove except to come up with cool special effects. Entertaining and easy going.
# The Terminal | October? | It’s Spielberg. But a drama / romance .. ? I don’t think so. Move along people, Jurassic Park 4 is coming in 2005.
# Constantine | October - November | Keanu Reeves will probably deter many potential moviegoers.
# Alien vs Predator | November 5? | I’ve already commented on this movie many times. It’s a gamble.
# Alexander | November 18? | Colin Farrell as Alexander. And I thought I would die of shame when DiCaprio got cast in Luhrman’s Alexander project.
# Resident Evil: Apocalypse | October - November | A must see even though I have yet to meet anyone who actually liked the first movie as much as I did. Another genre-blend that sort of works.

# Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason | November 25? | Not planning on seeing this but it is one of those movies that could relocate other more interesting movies. It is therefore interesting to see when it premieres.
# The Manchurian Candidate | November? | The classic movie remade in the context of the Gulf War. Zzzzzz.
# The Ring 2 | November - December | See the Japanese original versions instead.
# Ocean’s Twelve | December 16? | Never saw the first movie nor the original. Another “relocator”.
# Phantom of the Opera | December 25 | Musicals remade for movie format are as likely to succeed as a snowflake in hell.

And possibly …

# Collateral | 2005? | Tom Cruise + Michael Mann. Another hitman twist.

# Red Dwarf: The Movie | 2004? | Ok. I’ll put it on the list just as I did last year. Seems at least they have a plot idea this time. One that aims to blend comedy, action and sci-fi in ways previously unseen. A gamble.

I’m sure I missed out on some projects. Oh well.