Gatsby, Iron Man 3 Or World War Z? Your Summer Movie Guide 2013
Summer's here! But forget about getting your beach towel ready or planning your trip around Europe, because you've got one hell of a movie season to negotiate. Movie fans around the United States lined up for midnight showings of Marvel's Iron Man 3 on Thursday (May 2, 2013) the big-budget movie that the studio hopes will knockout the summer competition as The Avengers did so gloriously last year. Robert Downey Jr returns as Tony Star while a rejuvenated Gwyneth Paltrow (she's the most beautiful woman in the world, don't you know) once again plays Pepper Potts.
Though The Avengers was the tearaway hit of 2012 - despite competition from the likes of Prometheus and The Dark Knight Rises - Iron Man 3 may not have everything its own way. Baz Luhrmann's aepic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby hits US theaters next weekend. Aesthetically it's looking certain to trump anything released in 2013 though plotlines, individual performance and the suitability of a varied looking score could decide whether it ultimately competes for Oscars gold come February 2014. After Gatsby, it's J.J Abrams' Star Trek Into Darkness (May 17, 2013) which has been creating buzz for months largely on the back of a shadowy performance from British star Benedict Cumberbatch. Abrams will turn his attention to Star Wars Episode 7 after the summer though the latest reviews suggest he's left the rival franchise in a healthy state.
For the less discerning cinema crowds, Todd Phillips returns with The Hangover III on May 24, 2013, will threatens to be another light-hearted riot if nothing else, and Justin Lin's final movie in the Fast & Furious action series will certainly pull in the crowds on the same weekend.
Rounding things out on June 21 is Marc Foster's hugely anticipated World War Z with Brad Pitt. In some respects, it's the most interesting of this year's summer releases given nobody really knows what we're gonna get. Pitt has gone on record as saying he made the movie for his kids, while admitting they had to change the shoddy ending and went $200 million over-budget. It's serious risk for the financiers involved, though we think this movie just might have the legs to become one of the success stories of the year.
Oh, and there's Monsters University, The Heat and action extravaganza White House Down. Happy summer!