Another awards season is over, and being inundated with summer blockbusters is still a bit away. Historically, the spring has not been spectacular when it comes to movie releases and in past years the lull between the two biggest movie seasons has been much more pronounced. Recently that hasn’t been the case: The first Hunger Games film premiered in March of 2012 and made a killing and it seems that ever since then studios are trying to make the most of these few months. This year, we have only a short time until a few huge blockbusters start coming out. A “short time” as in, starting this Friday. While this certainly isn’t everything coming out, here are the highlights of the spring movie lineup.
March
A Wrinkle in Time– Friday
I haven’t read this book myself, but I know that it’s beloved by many. I also know that even if this isn’t a movie you would normally gravitate towards it’s well worth your time to go see it. Not only is the protagonist of the film both black and female, director Ava DuVernay is the first woman of color to helm a film with a budget over $100 million. If we want more movies like this to be made, we need to go out and support them. The visuals look stunning, and also Oprah is in it. A win no matter which way you look at it.
Tomb Raider– March 16th
I’ve written about this since it was announced, which doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago, but life is truly flying passed us all at lightning speed because here it is already. A reboot of the films based on a new version of the video game franchise, the story is basically this: Lara Croft’s dad died and left her with a huge mess to clean up. A “if you don’t emerge victorious the entire world will end” level mess. No pressure, Lara. The trailers so far make it look like it’s going to be a relatively standard action movie, but it has a female protagonist, and like A Wrinkle in Time, that’s a movie we should be rooting for. It helps that Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander, who I would watch in literally anything.
Love, Simon– March 16th
Based on the book Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, this story follows a teenage boy who must deal with high-school, his feelings about his homosexuality, and a blackmailer who threatens to out him.
Midnight Sun– March 23rd
Somehow this movie is not about the never-completed version of Twilight from Edward’s point of view, which is egregious. Instead, a teenage girl is allergic to sunlight, but ventures out one night and falls in love with the boy she’s been watching from her window for years. I’m sure there’ll be lots of drama and they’ll conquer all together. Or something. I have to be honest, I only included this one because of the Twilight connection, this is not a movie that I’ll see.
Pacific Rim: Uprising– March 23rd
If that soon to be instant classic doesn’t get you running to the theater on the 23rd, there’s also this movie that somehow isn’t Transformers, despite being almost exactly like Transformers. At least as far as I can tell from the trailers from both of these franchises, which is all that I’ve seen of them. But John Boyega is a major cutie, so there’s that.
Unsane– March 23rd
Directed by Stephen Soderbergh, this film (starring Claire Foy, in her first role since her run on The Crown ended) looks to have all the elements of a psychological thriller, but the core story of harassment by a man not being taken seriously is unsettlingly timely. A woman joins a support group when an ex-boyfriend begins stalking her. She soon finds out that she’s actually unknowingly put herself in an institution, and when she begins seeing her ex everywhere she isn’t believed, even though it looks like maybe she should be…
Ready Player One– March 29th
Emily A. covered this movie when the first footage premiered at Comic Con last July. She does a very thorough job of breaking down what you need to know and why fans of the book can’t wait to see this adaptation.
April
A Quiet Place– April 6th
Emily L. wrote about this movie recently, and while I braved Annihilation, I don’t think I’m going to be able to press my luck a second time. From the look of this trailer, it seems like most of their problems could have been avoided if they’d taken the batteries out of a child’s toy. That seems like an oversight.
On April 27th, Avengers: Infinity War is released (it was recently bumped up from May 4th) and then it’s all over- it will make many hundreds of millions of dollars and the summer movie season will arrive with quite the bang. It’ll be blockbusters galore almost every week after that…until the fall, when awards season will begin again. A movie buff’s work never ends.
