Mark your calendar: Top 5 movies to see before apocalypse

issue 14, Joshua De Bets, movies, Entertainment - By Joshua De Bets on Thursday, January 12, 2012 - 02:02

The Dark Knight Rises – July 20
Holy back breaker Batman! Director Christopher Nolan concludes his realistic take on the Batman series with The Dark Knight Rises. The film takes place eight years after The Dark Knight and Gotham appear to be experiencing a rare moment of peace. That is until new baddie Bane (Tom Hardy) wrecks havoc on the city and pushes Batman to his limits. Catwoman, played by Anne Hathaway, is also in the film but her involvement has yet to be revealed. Rumor also has it that Bane is going to break Batman’s back, similar to the comics, literally crippling Gotham and ending Nolan’s trilogy.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – December 14
J.R.R. Tolkien and LOTR fans rejoice! The Hobbit is finally being made into a feature film and will be directed by LOTR director Peter Jackson.

The film is a prequel to the LOTR trilogy and follows Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) as he leads a group of 13 dwarfs on a quest to recapture the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor.
Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Cate Blanchett (Galadriel), Elijah Wood (Frodo), Orlando Bloom (Legolas) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) all return for part one of this two-part fantasy.

Lincoln – December 2012/TBD
Directed by Stephen Spielberg and starring two-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln will focus on the last few months of the sixteenth president’s life—including the abolition of slavery, the end of the civil war and Lincoln’s assassination. The film also stars Sally Field as Mary Todd and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Robert Todd Lincoln. Most thrilling though will be Day-Lewis’s performance as Lincoln. After his phenomenal performances as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood, the outlook of another historical figure will be exciting indeed.

Brave – June 22
Looking to rebound from the poorly reviewed Cars 2, Pixar is banking on their first fairy tale movie to be a success. Similar to the fairy tale tradition of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm and somewhat darker in tone than other Pixar feature films, Brave is set in 10th century Scotland and follows Merida, voiced by Kelly MacDonald, an archer-princess trying to prove herself within the kingdom.
This marks the first Pixar release since co-founder Steve Job’s death and will be the first female protagonist in a Pixar film.

The Avengers – May 4
After countless teasers, endlessly waiting after the credits for 30 second clips and nearly four years of waiting, Marvel’s The Avengers will finally hit the big screen. When the Norse god of mischief, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) threatens the fate of humanity, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., recruits a team of superheroes, including Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Hulk (Mark Ruffalo, not Edward Norton), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). This film should have a plethora of spandex and an orgy of explosions that should satisfy most Marvel fanboys.