I like making lists.

I'll be honest, I don't care what happens after Avengers 3 &4. That seems like the culmination, and things will probably fade out after that.

Props must go to their casting people, I don't think they've made a misstep yet and anybody who's anybody seems to want to get on board the Marvel train. It genuinely is going to be fascinating to see how they'll maintain interest in the MCU.

2019: Top 20 Most Anticipated

One thing I was looking forward to most about coming back to this place was more incessant rambling, so without further adieu...

There’s always some futility in looking this far ahead on the theatrical release calendar as many smaller and/or independent pictures that will be remembered at the end of 2019 don’t have release dates right now and, as such, aren’t on anybody’s radar yet. This time last year I was really looking forward to Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther and all the other popcorn shit that’s come out this year, but hadn’t heard of First Reformed, Eighth Grade, or Beautiful Boy. I suspect this list will suffer from the same problem, much of what’s here will be remembered poorly in a year from now and people will have moved on, but for now I think these 20 movies are worth getting excited about and looking forward to.

20. Shazam! (April 5th)

Billy Batson, a troubled 14-year-old orphan living in Philadelphia, is set up to move into a new foster home - his seventh in a row - with the Vazquez family and their other five foster kids. One day, Billy gets on a subway car and finds himself transported to a different realm, where an ancient wizard gives him the power to transform into a godlike adult superhero by uttering the word "Shazam!" Billy and his new foster brother Freddy Freeman must learn what Billy's new powers are and how to use them in order to stop the villain Dr. Thaddeus Sivana from wielding powers of his own.

This definitely has some potential to be a sneaky hit. I don’t think Zachary Levi was the right choice for the lead role, but he has a certain mainstream likeability that may help DC/WB here in their quest to grow their cinematic universe. I do think the film’s first trailer made it look extremely cheap, but I also think they’re probably playing their cards pretty close to the chest or vest or wherever you’d prefer them. Frankly I’m a little surprised this is the movie DC chose to move forward with right now over Man of Steel 2 or Green Lantern, but I don’t blame the company for feeling they need to move in a different direction after the poorly-received, critically and commercially, Justice League.

19. X-Men: Dark Phoenix (February 15th)

In 1992, nearly a decade after the events of X-Men: Apocalypse, the X-Men are national heroes going on increasingly risky missions. When a solar flare hits them during a rescue mission in space, Jean Grey loses control of her abilities and unleashes the Phoenix.

Was 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse a good movie? Not really. In fact, there really isn’t much of a reason at all to be looking forward to this – it’s been delayed several times and with the recent acquisition of Fox by Disney there’s talk of this being canceled or going direct to VOD and Simon Kinberg is terrible and he’s the director, writer, and producer of note here, but it has a home on this list because I’ve largely enjoyed the Fox “X-Men” films. X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past were both very impressive and managed to transcend the superhero genre into just being “good movies,” a feat I think many superhero films don’t manage to achieve. I also really like this cast –McAvoy, Fassbender, Lawrence, Hoult, and the newcomers Sheridan, Turner, and Shipp – and this is probably the last hurrah before this franchise is absorbed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the reset button is not just, but obliterated.

18. Star Wars: Episode IX (December 20th)

Star Wars: Episode IX is an upcoming American epic science fiction film produced by Lucasfilm and Bad Robot Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the third and final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the ninth and final installment of the Skywalker saga.

I have been gone from these forums for three years and change and, as a result, have not seen any of the response to this recent string of “Star Wars” films – The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo (for the record – enjoyed it for what it was, bad, not great, haven’t seen it yet) – but count me in with the camp that has been unimpressed. Episode IX, which I’m just now realizing still doesn’t have a title, has a chance to right a lot of these wrongs back under the direction of J. J. Abrams after Colin Trevorrow was jettisoned last September. Will it succeed? Probably not, but I’m looking forward to the attempt all the same. I’ve really enjoyed the Rey and Kylo Ren characters in this new trilogy so this certainly hasn’t been all for naught, and I’m hoping to see their storylines brought to worthy conclusions.

Everyone, except IanTheCool, hates Last Jedi.

Yeah, Rogue One was garbage. Characters are totally unmemorable and under-developed and the first 90 minutes or so really drag. It does nothing interesting.

Let's all discuss what we hated about it so Ian can read up.

Again.

Sigh...

Yeah, I have one. letterboxd.com/ianthecool/film/star-wars-the-last-jedi/

Well, I feel the same the other way.

Really? THAT'S the premise?

14. Ford v. Ferrari (June 28th)

Follows an eccentric, determined team of American engineers and designers, led by automotive visionary Carroll Shelby and his British driver, Ken Miles, who are dispatched by Henry Ford II with the mission of building from scratch an entirely new automobile with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans World Championship.

I don’t know much about the project beyond the above, but it’s an interesting premise, it’s directed by James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma, Logan) and stars Christian Bale, Matt Damon, and Jon Bernthal. Those things alone are enough to probably get me to the theater. I’ve also found several recent films centered around racing, 2013’s Rush especially, to be fairly enjoyable and Ford v. Ferrari could continue that trend.

13. John Wick 3: Parabellum (May 17th)

John Wick is still on the run following his killing of a High Table member inside The Continental, and with a $14 million global contract out on his life. Banned from any company services, John must fight and kill his way out of New York.

John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2 are two of the most enjoyable films of this decade without question, so a third naturally would have to find its way onto this list. If I were to compare this list against my inevitable year end “Top Ten of 2019” list I suspect it will fare better there, but the casting of Halle Berry has thrown me a bit here as I would have preferred… well, literally anybody else as a co-starring lead opposite Reeves’ Wick. That said, it’s returning Ian McShane, Lance Reddick, Laurence Fishburne and bringing in the great Jason Mantzoukas, so I’m sure it’ll be of a similar quality to the first two films.

12. Spider-Man: Far from Home (July 5th)

Peter Parker is beset with troubles in his failing personal life as he battles a brilliant business man named Adrian Toomes and a magician named Quentin Beck.

I did not love 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming for a variety of reasons, although I think one of them has a high probability of being fixed by the sequel – too much Tony Stark and attempts at connecting itself to the Marvel world at large. Some of the best solo Marvel films – Thor: Ragnarok, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Doctor Strange – have and don’t hide from their connections to the other films, but they’re not the focal point as they are with Stark and Avengers Tower and all that other junk in Homecoming. I think Far from Home has a chance to distance itself from the rest of the films in ways that make sense, and it’ll be able to tell its own story as it’ll be the first Marvel film set in a post-Thanos world. I also really like the cast here – Holland obviously, Keaton returning, Jake Gyllenhaal probably as Mysterio, Tomei, etc. Should be a lot of fun and in hindsight, 12th on this list could be a taste of underrating.

Nice list! I made one just like it a couple years ago but discontinued the following years because it's hard to peg which smaller movies are going to come out at the end of the year and few were postpone until the following year making my list inaccurate. And I hate being inaccurate.