Movies Features

PREVIEW: A cinematic summer of sequels, superheroes and maybe a masterpiece

By Andy Goldberg Apr 8, 2011, 15:39 GMT

$Summer will move into high gear later that month when Johnny Depp\'s Captain Jack Sparrow returns to the screens with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides © MISSB / PR Photos$

Summer will move into high gear later that month when Johnny Depp\'s Captain Jack Sparrow returns to the screens with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides © MISSB / PR Photos

Los Angeles - Hollywood is calling in the superheroes to save it from box office disaster this summer.

2011 revenues for the major studios are thus far down a whopping 19 per compared to last year, when Avatar was bringing in film fans for repeat viewings.

This year's releases have been largely anemic and bereft of any blockbusters. The romantic comedy Just Go With It has been the only film to break the 100-million-dollar mark in the US so far this year, where such hugely forgettable films as The Rite, The Roommate and Hall Pass have at various times topped the lackluster box office.

But the 2011 doldrums are soon set to pass, John Fithian, who heads the National Association of Theatre Owners, promised his members last week at CinemaCon, their annual conference.

As usual, it will be massive franchises featuring fantastic special effects and heroes with supernatural powers that pull in the big audiences, challenged only by well-worn sequels to previous hits.

The superhero parade starts in early May with the release of Thor, but the summer will move into high gear later that month when Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow returns to the screens with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, to search for that elusive Fountain of Youth.

Other sequels set for early summer include The Hangover Part II, in which the gang of male misfits gets into trouble in Bangkok, and King Fu Panda 2, which will feature the voice talents of Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman and Jackie Chan in a new animated fight romp.

X-Men fans will be flocking to the multiplexes in early June to see their heroes in the prequel X-Men: First Class. Two weeks later they will probably be back for Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds as a test pilot with a mystical green superpower ring.

In between these two gems are sandwiched a couple of the most highly anticipated original films of the season: JJ Abrams' Super 8, about a group of kids who capture a train crash on a home movie, and Bad Teacher starring Cameron Diaz as a foul-mouthed educator in a staffroom love triangle.

Slightly more appropriate for impressionable young students might be Pixar's Cars 2, not to mention Transformers: Dark of the Moon, in which hungry young minds can learn all about Autobots, Cybertronians and Decepticons.

But the summer will almost certainly be dominated by the final installment of the long-running boy wizard saga Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II. Slated for a mid-July release, the film features the heroes of Hogwarts in their final showdown with Voldemort. If they fail, don't worry. Just a week later Captain America arrives to save civilization as we know it.

Hollywood also has high hopes for Cowboys and Aliens, which stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford in a 19th century posse tasked with repelling alien invaders. Another throwback to the past is Rise of the Apes, a new film in the venerable Planet of the Apes series starring James Franco and Freida Pinto. Other sequels set for the balmy August days are Conan the Barbarian, a remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger original, and Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World.

A decent summer also needs a strong line up of date movies, hence romantic comedies like Monte Carlo, Friends with Benefits, Something Borrowed, Bridesmaids and Crazy, Stupid, Love.

But true film buffs will be focused on only one event, the release on May 27 of The Tree of Life. Starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, the film is only the fifth feature from the acclaimed American auteur Terrence Malick, whose previous movies Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and The New World have all been acclaimed as masterpieces.