10 Most Anticipated Summer Blockbusters Of 2017

As the wind and rain disperses, and the sun begins to rear its head, cinemagoers in their millions inexplicably forgo it in favour of sitting in dark rooms and watching the latest, most expensive Hollywood blockbusters. The film industry is now dominated by sequels, reboots and adaptations, all of which vary wildly in quality, and this year’s slew of Summer popcorn-movies appears to be no different.

There are some intriguing prospects on the horizon, however. Some movies here have the potential to kick-start mega franchises, others will catastrophically tank, and some will simply exists, and accomplish little else over a two hour run-time.

Before we look at the best the summer has to offer, some potential duds:

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (May 26th) – Unless Javier Bardem’s wavy CGI hair steals the show in Dead Men Tells No Tales, we’re probably in for another wacky Johnny Depp show reel.

The Mummy (June 9th) – Universal’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a shared Universal Monsters-verse. A novel idea, but if 2014’s Dracula Untold is anything to go by, the project could be dead on arrival.

Cars 3 (June 16th) – Cars was a decent excuse for Pixar to rake in some money from General Motors, but its sequels was boring and uninspired. Nobody asked for this.

Transformers: The Last Knight (June 23rd) – There hasn’t been a good Transformers movie up until this point, so why would they start making them now?

Release date: 21st July

After building a career on one word titles like Taken, Lucy and Leon, it seems like director Luc Besson may have been saving up syllables for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Although its title might not exactly roll of the tongue, expectations are high for the action specialist’s adaptation of Pierre Christin’s French comic book Valerian and Laureline. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne star as Valerian and Laureline, two space-faring agents, while Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke and John Goodman are also attached, and Rihanna is apparently playing Bubble, a ‘shapeshifting entertainer’.

The trailer suggests some pretty eye-popping sci-fi action, a lot of special effects wizardry, and some spectacular alien designs. Still, the same could be said of Jupiter Ascending’s trailer, and we all know how that turned out…

It’ll be interesting to see how Cara Delevigne fares in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Her acting career got off to a solid-ish start with the John Green adaptation Paper Towns, but plummeted when she appeared as the Enchantress, arguably the most universally loathed parts of Suicide Squad. Perhaps Valerian is exactly what Delevigne needs to solidify her presence has a box-office draw.