Rhiannon Elizabeth Irons
A new year is fast approaching, and with that comes the anticipation for what it has in store. Happiness? Peace? Blockbusters? Here’s hoping.
2022 was a big year for cinema. Top Gun: Maverick gave us back the summer blockbuster. DC Comics and Marvel went head-to-head with superheroes, while the horror genre blitzed box office with independent features.
Fandango did a survey to see what moviegoers are looking forward to in 2023 and it seems they can’t get enough of superheroes. Check out the official list below.
2023′s Top 10 Most-Anticipated Movies Across Categories
1. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Disney)
2. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony)
3. “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (Disney)
4. “John Wick: Chapter 4” (Lionsgate)
5. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (Disney)
6. “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (Warner Bros.)
7. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” (Paramount)
8. “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes” (Lionsgate)
9. “Creed III” (MGM)
10. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal)
But this really wouldn’t be an opinion piece if I didn’t throw in my two cents worth. So, here’s my Top 13 list of films that I’m highly anticipating for 2023.
13: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
It’s no secret that I’m a DC Comics fan. I enjoyed the first installment of Aquaman and immediately began to look forward to what a sequel could build on. But while I’m intrigued by the story and I want to see Jason Momoa in ANYTHING, I’m more interested in how Warner Bros will handle the off-screen controversary surrounding one of the stars and the potential backlash that will come with releasing the film should they be involved.
Will they? Won’t they? We’ll find out in 2023.
12: M3gan
James Wan returns with a story about a robotics engineer who builds a life-like doll that begins to take on a life of its own.
There’s a reason why his social media handles are Creepy Puppet – Wan has dolls on the brain. M3gan is set to kick off the year in spooky style, proving that horror doesn’t need to be reserved for the month of October.
11: The Super Mario Bros Movie
As a child of the 1990s, I grew up with Mario and his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. I will die on the hill when I say the third installment of the game, Super Mario Bros 3, was the best of the franchise to date. It also meant that I had the disastrous 1993 movie adaptation of the popular gaming franchise.
30 years later, a new attempt to tell the story of Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach is set for the big screen with a star-studded voice cast. I think I’m mostly excited to see a Goomba on screen that looks more like what I encountered in the game and less like Beetlejuice after he has his head shrunk at the end of, well, Beetlejuice.
10: Magic Mike’s Last Dance
Okay, truth time. It took me a few years after the release of Magic Mike XXL to watch the series. Even then, it was a double feature that I was dragged to on a girl’s night out. But the enjoyment I saw on the faces of my friends (not to mention the deafening screams when Matthew McConaughey stripped off) is what has me citing these as guilty pleasure films.
It’s been 8 years since we last visited Channing Tatum’s Mike Lane. This time he finds himself jetting off to London. With a promised 30-minute final dance to end the franchise, you better believe I’ll be there opening day.
9: Creed III
Michael B. Jordan has really created a name for himself by taking on the Rocky series and building on the legacy that was Apollo Creed. As a self-confessed fan of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, I was blown away by the spin-off films focusing on Adonis Creed.
Jordan will step into the ring once more, as well as the director’s chair, for the third installment. Taking on Jonathan Majors’ Damian Anderson is sure to satisfying for any fan of the franchise.
8: Scream VI
Ghostface made a triumphant return to cinema in 2022 with the fifth installment of the franchise slaying box office early in the year. And despite killing off a legacy character (yes, I’m still upset about that), it dominated box office installing faith that the horror genre was going to have a good year.
With news that Neve Campbell won’t be returning to the franchise, Scream VI needed a gimmick that was going to get fans to return. Afterall what is Scream without Sidney Prescott? Come March 2023, we’ll find out as Ghostface follows the survivors of the last movie to New York City.
7: The Little Mermaid
Let’s be real, Disney haven’t had a great track record when it comes to live action adaptations. Some of them have been passable but overall, the delivery has been mediocre to say the least.
The Little Mermaid has been swimming in controversy since it was announced that Halle Bailey was to play Ariel. From what I've seen, I think she is the perfect choice as she has nailed the wide-eyed wonder that Ariel has. With Lin-Manuel Miranda co-writing some new tunes, and a teaser trailer that sparks hope, Disney have a lot riding on this release.
6: The Flash
Again, off-screen controversary is the reason why I’m intrigued by this entry. Well, that and the promise that Michael Keaton will be returning to the role of Bruce Wayne, something that he hasn’t done since 1992’s Batman Returns.
Seeing as Warner Bros has moved up the release date for this feature, we can expect some crossover shenanigans, especially as Ben Affleck is returning as Batman. Two Bruce Wayne’s in one movie?! And with Michael Shannon returning as General Zod, this may be the DC film to really stick it to the Marvel Universe.
5: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Harrison Ford is back, whip in hand, for the fifth installment in the franchise. After Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fell flat, most wrote off Indiana Jones as being a washed-up has been.
Steven Spielberg relinquishes directing duties to James Mangold (Walk The Line). De-aging aside, if the trailer is anything to go by, audiences will be in for an adventure like no other.
4: Wonka
It’s time to return to a land of pure imagination in this origin story of the classic candymaker, Willy Wonka.
Timothy Chalamet steps into the off-beat shoes of Wonka as he is introduced to the Oompa-Loompas, while the star-studded cast including Keegan Michael-Kay and Rowan Atkinson, help bring the wonderous tale of how the candyman came to be. Directed by Paul King (Paddington), this is sure to a whimsical, magical tale.
3: Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s highly buzzed-about biopic on physicist and “father of the atomic bomb” J. Robert Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy in the titular role, while Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Rami Malek, Josh Hartnett, and Benny Safdie round out the cast.
Like most of Nolan’s films, the IMAX-shot-pic should be taken in on the biggest screen possible.
2: Barbie
After her stellar adaptation of Little Women, director Greta Gerwig is back with this high-concept original (co-written with Noah Baumbach), which chronicles the most famous doll ever. Barbie, played by Margot Robbie, is banished from Barbieland and is introduced to our world.
It’s no secret that I’m a Barbie girl. And while I initially laughed at the idea of a live movie about Barbie, I was taken in by the teaser trailer and still shots that found their way online. Although, if Aqua aren’t involved in the movie’s soundtrack (It’s been 25 years since Barbie Girl was released) I’ll be disappointed.
1: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
2022 was dominated by Tom Cruise returning to the skies as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick. And with recent footage of his death-defying stunt making its way online, it’s safe to say the summers of Cruise are here to stay with the 7th installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise.
Tom has played super spy, Ethan Hunt, for a whopping 27 years (and he hasn’t aged a day) and this latest film sees some familiar faces return to the franchise including Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny, and Vanessa Kirby, with Esai Morales playing the primary villain.
That's my list. What movies are you looking forward to seeing in 2023? Sound off in the comments below.
Comments