I’ve posted a couple of times about upcoming movies, and obviously the recent entry about The Hobbit, but I really am looking forward to a few movies.

In some respects, The Dark Knight is one I’m happy to see but looking forward to least. Maybe I’m apprehensive it won’t be as good as I hope or maybe it’s been hugely over-hyped (no really). I really liked the first Batman movie, it had the dark gothic feel I really wanted, and I was increasingly disappointed with the subsequent films, until Batman Begins which I enjoyed a great deal (despite it’s flaws).

So I’m nervous that Dark Knight will fall into the same trap and result in an underwhelming experience. I’m actually on-call this coming week so I won’t be able to get to the cinema anyway to see it, so if we do go (and we may not, Grete didn’t enjoy Batman Begins) it’ll be in a few weeks maybe and by then the reviews will be out, and the truth (if there is such a thing) will be known.

Hellboy 2 I’m really looking forward to, but it’s not out in the UK until mid/end August. I’ve seen the trailer and I like the irreverent style to the first one and this one looks like it has the same. It’s out in the US already and I’ve read some mixed reviews (without reading spoilers). Some people say it’s all style over content, and others say it presents a good story and has amazing visuals.

I’m ok with style over content in my movies, if that style is something I enjoy and entertains me (they are, after all, entertaintment). So fingers crossed Hellboy 2 will deliver and I’ll get to laugh while watching him crush the enemy beneath is infeasibly large fist.

On an unrelated note, IMDB is superb, and following links on there is as time consuming as Wikipedia. I checked out Ron Perlman, and he’s in a huge amount of upcomming movies! Including the Mutant Chronicles.

Then there’s the Mummy 3 (sorry The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), which despite all the regular concerns and warnings actually looks half decent based on the trailer. If they can keep the same insane frantic pace the first two had, and the short witty dialog, then I think they’ll have another winner on their hands.

However, if they try to get too complex or the pace suffers they may end up giving us a stinker. The Mummy was excellent, the second one was ok but a bit overly sentimental. Let’s hope this instalment returns to what made the first one so good – frantic out-of-breath non-stop crazy action madness. Brendan Fraser is just superb at this character, just the right amount of charisma and air of stupidity and luck.

And then towards the end of the year we have Babylon AD (cross between Barbed Wire and Children of Men) and Death Race (hey it’s Jason Statham driving cars) – both could be terrible, both could be ‘ok’ and in another place, another time, maybe they could even be excellent, although I’m not holding out too much hope 🙂