39. Pacific Rim (July 12)
Fingers crossed that Guillermo Del Toro manages to fashion a more intelligent take on the sort of fare we're used to Michael Bay firing at our eyeballs over the last five years. Yes, Pacific Rim is unavoidably earning comparisons to the Transformers franchise, but it really owes just as much to the classic monster movies that Del Toro grew up watching, given that the premise is about giant mechas called Jaegers facing off against monsters that have risen from the sea. Extensive footage has been screened to journalists already, and the response seems to be largely positive, though I'm still not sold on Idris Elba's creaky delivery of the line, "We are cancellin' the apocalypse!". Cheesy much? Our inner 10-year-olds will love it regardless, I suspect.
38. The World's End (July 19)
The concluding chapter in Edgar Wright's much-lauded Blood & Ice Cream trilogy is, by all indications, a barmy sci-fi romp about the world coming to an end as a horde of aliens invade Earth. A group of old friends meet up for the weekend to take part in an epic pub crawl they could never finish as youngsters, and in spite of the attack, they remain determined to reach the final pub which, aptly enough, is labelled "The World's End". With Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike in tow, there's plenty of potential for this to be a riotous romp and a fitting end to a (mostly) stellar series of films.
37. The Wolverine (July 25)
Hugh Jackman has much to prove after the failure of the execrable X-Men Origins: Wolverine, though in teaming with acclaimed director James Mangold and tackling a fan favourite comic book arc, it seems like they might get it right this time. Taking the action to Japan as Wolverine (Jackman) has his powers stripped away, this is likely to be a highly original, imaginative superhero movie that's far away from anything else we've seen. Showing us the man at his most vulnerable should make way for some interesting character development, and going from what we've seen in the trailers so far, some kick-ass action too.
36. The Smurfs 2 (July 31)
It's a sure sign of how confident Sony is in this franchise that they began work on a sequel just weeks after the original film opened, and just two weeks after production on The Smurfs 2 began, a third film had also been announced. The original Smurfs film was not a good piece of cinema by any means, though Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria (the latter hamming it up hilariously as the villainous Gargamel) did provide some light relief, and thankfully they have returned for the latest entry. Otherwise, this one, with a new brand of Smurf-like creatures called The Naughties, completely smacks of desperation, and I expect it to tank critically, while no doubt flourishing financially.
35. The Conjuring (August 2)
Director James Wan is a busy, in-demand man at the moment; he's got two films coming out this year, and is preparing to start shooting Fast and Furious 7 this Summer. His first film out this year is The Conjuring, a supernatural horror starring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as paranormal investigators who discover a malevolent entity residing inside the farmhouse of a couple (Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor). Though the premise is beyond generic, test screening reviews have reportedly been positive, and director Wan has proven himself adept at handling material like this (Insidious) well in the past.