More sci-fi, fantasy & horror movies we get to see in 2012 . . .

(Read part one of this article here.)

 


G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation

PLOT: The G.I. Joe team faces off against Zartan, his accomplices, and the world leaders he has under his influence.

Director: Jon M. Chu
Stars: Bruce Willis, Channing Tatum, Ray Stevenson, Dwayne Johnson

Release date: 29 June

WE SAY: Both a sequel to and reboot of (if that makes any sense) the 2009 hit movie. This installment throws action movie mainstays Bruce Willis – making quips about his cholesterol count – and Dwayne (“The Rock”) Johnson into the mix. Expect more of the same though.

Watch the trailer

 


Looper

PLOT: A killer who works for the mob of the future recognizes one of his targets as his future self.

Director: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt

Release date: 28 September

WE SAY:  This time travel action movie just may make up for the Bruce Willis disappointment that was Surrogates – who knows? Little is known about the plot as yet.

 

World War Z

PLOT: The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (played by Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself. Enos plays Gerry’s wife Karen Lane; Kertesz is his comrade in arms, Segen.

Director: Marc Forster
Stars: Brad Pitt, Eric West and Matthew Fox

Release date: 21 December

WE SAY: The plot for the movie version of Max Brooks’ definite zombie apocalypse novel has been changed substantially if the official movie plot synopsis is anything to go by. It has apparently scaled down the whole epic post-apocalypse vibe in favor of being a race-against-time thriller, probably so as not to inflate the budget too much. (In the book a UN representative, writing a report on the great zombie war, interviews survivors in the wake of World War Z.) Will Hollywood mess it up? If they do at least zombie apocalypse fans will still have The Walking Dead . . .

 

Dredd

PLOT: In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

Director: Pete Travis
Stars: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey

Release date: 21 September

WE SAY: Will Hollywood again make a mess of the iconic Judge Dredd character like they did in the 1995 flop starring Sylvester Stallone? Time will tell, but the signs aren’t encouraging: Dredd has been filmed for cheap (a “mere” $45 million) in Cape Town, home of direct-to-DVD cheapies such as Deathrace 2 and Starship Troopers 3. At least it can’t get any worse than the 1995 film, right?

 

Gravity

PLOT: The lone survivor of a space mission to repair the Hubble telescope desperately tries to return to Earth and reunite with her daughter.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Stars: Sandra Bullock, George Clooney

Release date: 21 November

WE SAY: This is a peculiar project teaming Mexican-born director Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) with Sandra Bullock (!) – it will either be great or a complete commercial sellout for Cuarón!

 


Cloud Atlas

PLOT:  A reluctant voyager crossing the Pacific in 1850; a disinherited composer blagging a precarious livelihood in between-the-wars Belgium; a high-minded journalist in Governor Reagan’s California; a vanity publisher fleeing his gangland creditors; a genetically modified “dinery server” on death-row; and Zachry, a young Pacific Islander witnessing the nightfall of science and civilization – the narrators of Cloud Atlas hear each other’s echoes down the corridor of history, and their destinies are changed in ways great and small.

Directors: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Stars: Tom Hanks, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon

Release date: October

WE SAY:  The latest movie by the Wachowski brothers (although it’s probably not fair to call them that now that Larry has undergone a sex change operation is known as Lana instead), best known for the Matrix movies.

The movie is based on a literary work by Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell, which has been described as “at once audacious, dazzling, pretentious and infuriating” by one critic.

The movie may have a star-studded dream cast, but the topic put off the Hollywood studios and the movie’s rumored $100 million has been raised by international investors instead. Expect it to be either a triumphant return for the, er, brothers or a mammoth fiasco.

 


The Dark Knight Rises

PLOT: Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes.

Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Gary Oldman

Release date: 20 July

WE SAY: You may have already heard of this movie . . .

Watch the trailer

 


The Amazing Spider-man

PLOT:  Teenager Peter Parker grapples with both human problems and amazing super-human crises.

Director: Marc Webb
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans

Release date: 3 July

WE SAY: Is it too soon for a reboot? Hollywood doesn’t seem to think so.

Watch the trailer

 


The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 

PLOT: Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, journeys to the Lonely Mountain accompanied by a group of dwarves to reclaim a treasure taken from them by the dragon Smaug.

Director: Peter Jackson
Stars: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage

Release date: 14 December

WE SAY: Apparently a prequel to something called The Lord of the Rings by some bloke called Peter Jackson. Never heard of it . . .

Watch the trailer

 

Iron Sky

PLOT: The Nazis set up a secret base on the moon in 1945 where they hide out and plan to return to power in 2018.

Director: Timo Vuorensola
Stars: Julia Dietze, Christopher Kirby, Götz Otto

Release date: 4 April (Finland)

WE SAY: A Finnish movie being made with the money of Internet contributors this one has the sort of loony premise (Nazis on the moon!) that one can’t help but love!

 

El Cosmonauta

PLOT: What if you got back home… and there was nobody there? In 1975, the first Russian cosmonaut on the Moon is unable to make his way back and is declared missing in Space. However, through ghostly radio messages, he claims to have come back to Earth and found it empty, not a living soul. His unrealistic presence and his voice will little by little destroy the world of his beloved ones.

Director: Nicolás Alcalá
Stars: Leon Ockenden, Katrine De Candole and Max Wrottesley

Release date: TBA

WE SAY: Another indie with an intriguing premise apparently inspired by Solaris.

 

UPDATE:  Star Trek 2 and The Host (based on the Stephanie Meyer novel) have been moved to 2013.