10 High-Profile 2019 Movies You Should Be Worried About
Is it too early to be concerned?
This year's blockbuster season may be reaching the final stretch, but the recent San Diego Comic-Con has shed some light on what the future holds for big-budget filmmaking in 2019.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters arguably stole the show with a stunning trailer that instantly rocketed it to the top of many people's must-see lists, while the debut footage from M. Night Shyamalan's Glass lived up to the hype, promising that the Unbreakable/Split mash-up will be a cerebral superhero movie like no other.
Next year's slate of studio tent-poles looks as stacked as ever, bringing more Marvel Cinematic Universe adventures, Fast and Furious spin-offs, John Wick: Parabellum, the Men in Black sequel/spin-off/reboot, the twenty-fifth James Bond movie and so much more.
Admittedly, it is often fairly easy to predict which projects will turn out to be the biggest hits (hint: they're usually sequels and comic book movies, or comic book movie sequels), yet the 2019 release calendar also has its fair share of question marks.
Every year there are countless productions that are either beset by delays, hampered by behind-the-scenes issues or just have you thinking to yourself; 'why the hell are they making that?' Unfortunately, not every movie gets to be a good one, and there are plenty currently in development that should be cause for concern.
10. Detective Pikachu (May 10)
The Movie:
The first-ever live-action Pokémon movie (although the title character will be fully CGI), director and co-writer Rob Letterman's mystery/comedy will star Ryan Reynolds of all people as the voice of Pikachu.
Why You Should Be Worried:
Just who exactly is this movie aimed at?
Originally announced to capitalize on the completely bonkers success of Pokémon Go in 2016, the mayhem surrounding the augmented reality app has significantly cooled down since then. Fans of the series may have wanted a straight-up live-action Pokémon movie, but instead they're getting an adaptation of a game that didn't score particularly good reviews in the first place.
The franchise doesn't have the cultural pull that it used to, and Universal have already handed over distribution to Warner Bros. with shooting barely even completed. Rob Letterman has a solid background in animation, but the man behind Shark Tale and Gulliver's Travels also has an inconsistent filmography. To complete the sheer what-the-f**kery, the cast also includes talented actors Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy alongside terrible actors Rita Ora and Suki Waterhouse.
The idea of a feature-length movie with a Ryan Reynolds-sounding Pikachu solving mysteries seems either insane or inane, and its hard to decide which. Animation has evolved, and audiences now want a lot more from these types of movies than just recognizable characters and celebrity voices.