Top Movies to Avoid in 2018
Earlier this month, we went through some of the biggest and potentially best movies that are going to be coming out this year. With those dates firmly marked off on my calendar, it’s time to look at the roster of movies that you should make sure you have plans for on their release date. Each of these have their own reasons to be on this list but trust me, you should probably avoid all of these.
Editors Note: Movie release schedules are subject to change.
10) The Predator (August 3)
This list starts with a bit of a weird one. On the one hand, I love Shane Black. He’s a great writer and director and say what you will, his work post 2000 has been amazing and he’s pretty much responsible for reintroducing the world to Robert Downey Jr. I’m also a HUGE fan of the original Predator and even didn’t mind Predators (2010). On the other hand, there’s also a litany of pure, unadulterated garbage Predator projects that have come between those two. There’s also something off-putting about these sequel/reboots. They say it’s a sequel but there’s never really much connection and thus I’m always left with a bad taste in my mouth. There’s also that August release date…
Anyway, I’ll gladly eat my words if Shane Black knocks this one out of the park. Mainly because I want him to have a hit so he can keep developing that The Destroyer film he keeps talking about.
No trailer yet, here’s the IMDB page instead.
9) Mortal Engines (December 14)
This comes as more of an open letter to Peter Jackson. What the hell are you doing? Lord of the Rings has given him carte blanche and this is how he’s choosing to spend his time and our money? Honestly, when I first read the pitch for this, I was baffled and immediately wrote it off. Thing is like I just said, Jackson has carte blanche, so of course I’m going to go see this damn thing and there’s a chance it’s going to be amazing cause Jackson is a terrific director and storyteller. I just… I just can’t see it. I’m waiting on reviews for this one.
8) Alita: Battle Angel (July 20)
This list kicks off with one I’m actually pretty on the fence about, personally. There’s something about the manga that will forever fascinate me and if they’re going to try to make a summer tentpole franchise out of bad ass robots, this is probably going to be the best choice we get this year (more on that later). It does feel strange to throw so much weight behind though as the film seems to have less to do with robot battles and more about finding ones own humanity, which seems like a great movie but a hard summer market sell. The mitigating factors are what’s keeping me on the fence and should be fair warning to you as a viewer.
James Cameron is a great visionary. What he did with Aliens and with the Terminator saga is stuff of legend and what he’s done to push forward film technology is nothing short of incredible. The last thing he dug his paws into though was Avatar and that… that wasn’t awesome. It LOOKED really cool but once you got past that thin veneer of pizzazz, the movie itself is actually pretty terrible even if you ignore that it’s basically plagiarism. Cameron can’t direct this himself since he continues to build the Avatar universe for some reason and that’s where Robert Rodriguez comes in. I love Rodriguez but I’ve seen how inconsistent he has been these past few years. All of this gives me pause and should perhaps give a yellow flag to you as well.
Click thru to page 2 for to continue our list…