Upcoming Films I'm Anticipating

Earlier this year, I made a list of films I was looking forward to seeing. Out of the 7 I listed, 4 have been released, and I have seen only 2 of them (Transformers and 300). It's the way life is when you have a toddler. Having seen some more trailers and heard the buzz on other films coming out this fall that I was unaware of back in January, I thought I'd amend my list.

First, I want to say that given the trailer for Beowulf, I'm not as excited as I once was. It looks like once again, the revisionist mindset has taken to making yet another alternative to the classic Beowulf tale. I have news for all the filmmakers who have done this. It isn't an ALTERNATIVE if there hasn't been a conservative version made. I'm sure the film will be visually spectacular and may even be very engaging, but I'm just a little tired of wanting my heroes to just be heroes. So I'm scratching it from the list. I'll wait for DVD, unless someone convinces me otherwise.

30 Days of Night, which features vampires in the arctic during the season of perpetual night (an idea every aspiring horror writer has kicked about) and Stephen King's The Mist join I Am Legend as the horror films I'm very excited about in 2007. With Frank Darabont, the most successful adapter of King's works to film (Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) finally taking on one of the horror writer's more terrifying pieces (a very creepy short story from "Skeleton Crew"), I'm eager to see how things come out. The trailer gives me the creeps, so that's a good sign.

I'm also interested in Disney's Enchanted, which seems to be a self-parodying work, mocking the classic fairy tale work the studio has done over the past 80 years. Given the nature of my thesis on fairy tale film, I know what the lion's share of criticisms about Disney's adaptations are, and will be curious to see if this film addresses any of them. Looks like fun at any rate.

The child inside me is also in anticipation of a few other pieces that will likely wait for DVD, but are a pleasant surprise to see coming to the screen nonetheless, including the cinematic version of children's book series The Dark is Rising. With the success of Harry Potter, I suppose everyone is scrambling for their piece of the fantasy pie. I can only hope these adaptations are as good as I've felt the Potter series have been, and not of the grade Ella Enchanted was. Add to this the expensive B-movie release Dragon Wars, which is like watching a Toho film brought up to CGI speed - looks dumb as hell, but will be worth its weight in popcorn, I'm sure.

Now if I can ever just get out to actually see anything.