A Look Ahead: The Movies of Summer 2017

It's time to take another look ahead at the films gracing our screens over the next few months, and this time we're looking at summer; the time most blockbuster-lovers look forward to. Yes this season is chock full of huge movies competing for space at the box office whilst people take time off work and families visit the theatre, so once you've had a good look at all these releases, you can add your most anticipated to your want to see list, and comment which you're most excited to see below.

SUMMER

MAY 5

• So as with every year, we begin the season with Marvel - and this time it's the highly anticipated 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)' from James Gunn. Yes after the success of the original, it's no wonder the studio moved it to their biggest release spot, and it's also no wonder they've got a couple of great new cast members joining the fray. That's right folks; Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel will be joined by none other than Kurt Russell and Pom Klementieff. As if that's not exciting enough, the trailers have also been expectedly awesome; showing off some cool plot points, humour, quirky world-building and some brilliant visuals from the MCU's first film shot with RED cameras. The movie itself follows the team unravelling the mystery of Peter Quill's true parentage, all to the backdrop of the Awesome Mix Vol. 2, and I for one am very excited for the film. Will it live up to the first? That's certainly what James Gunn will be hoping.
• Drama '3 Generations (2017)' from Gaby Dellal. Starring: Naomi Watts, Elle Fanning, Susan Sarandon, Tate Donovan.

MAY 12

• Period/Action 'King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)' from Guy Ritchie. Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Eric Bana.
• Drama 'Lowriders (2017)' from Ricardo de Montreuil. Starring: Demián Bichir, Gabriel Chavarria, Theo Rossi, Melissa Benoist.
• Comedy 'Snatched (2017)' from Jonathan Levine. Starring: Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Christopher Meloni, Ike Barinholtz.
• War film 'The Wall (2017)' from Doug Liman and Amazon Studios. Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Cena.

MAY 19

• Sci-fi 'Alien: Covenant (2017)' from Ridley Scott. Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride.
• Comedy 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017)' from David Bowers. Starring: Jason Drucker, Owen Asztalos, Charlie Wright, Alicia Silverstone, Tom Everett Scott.
• Drama 'Everything, Everything (2017)' from Stella Meghie. Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson.

MAY 26

• Fantasy 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)' from Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. Starring: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites, Kaya Scodelario.
• Comedy 'Baywatch (2017)' from Seth Gordon. Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario, Kelly Rohrbach.

JUNE 2

• Now for the DCEU, whose chequered critical past will hopefully turn around with this summer's 'Wonder Woman (2017)' from Patty Jenkins. Yes a lot is riding on this film, but it could quite easily be a big success as the character was a massive hit with fans in last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. There's an awful lot more than that going for the film though - not least the cast who include Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright, Danny Huston and Connie Nielsen - but also the story, which follows Diana in her earlier days as she earns the mantle of hero - from training in her homeland of Themyscira, to venturing into the battles of World War 2 and bringing about peace and justice to the world. It will be interesting to see how they pull off the time period, and how they deal with the fish-out-of-water aspect that seems so appealing in the trailers, but let's just hope that that's all enough to deliver a great film for fans and for general audiences alike. But most of all, let's hope it can give young audiences a strong female hero to look up to who commands a presence and holds up a movie of her own.
• Animation 'Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)' from David Soren. Starring: Ed Helms, Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Nick Kroll, Jordan Peele.

JUNE 9

• Adventure 'The Mummy (2017)' from Alex Kurtzman. Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe.
• Biopic 'Megan Leavey (2017)' from Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Starring: Kate Mara, Ramón Rodríguez, Tom Felton, Bradley Whitford, Will Patton, Sam Keeley.

JUNE 16

• Animation 'Cars 3 (2017)' from Brian Fee. Starring: Owen Wilson, Cristela Alonzo, Armie Hammer, Larry the Cable Guy, Bonnie Hunt.
• Comedy 'Rough Night (2017)' from Lucia Aniello. Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Zoë Kravitz.
• Adventure 'The Book of Henry (2017)' from Colin Trevorrow. Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Naomi Watts, Jaeden Lieberher, Sarah Silverman, Lee Pace, Maddie Ziegler

JUNE 23

• The very definition of dumb summer blockbusters - this June we'll see a return from the Transformers franchise with 'Transformers: The Last Knight (2017).' In this particular installment, humans delve into the past to help end their ongoing war with the Transformers, where it's up to the unlikely alliance of Cade Yeager, Bumblebee, Winston Churchill and an Oxford professor to save the world. Sound ridiculous? Yes, it's even got Anthony Hopkins as Churchill, but regardless I'm sure that the cast - who include Mark Wahlberg, Isabela Moner, Peter Cullen and Laura Haddock - will enjoy picking up their pay cheques that this huge franchise likely brings. As for audiences; they can look forward to a whole host of worldly action and CGI as director Michael Bay leaves the franchise once and for all. Oh, and one can also expect a lot of teases for the further twelve Transformers films that Paramount have planned after this one. Gulp.

JUNE 30

• Action 'Baby Driver (2017)' from Edgar Wright. Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jon Bernthal, Eiza González, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx.
• Animation 'Despicable Me 3 (2017)' from Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda and Eric Guillon. Starring: Steve Carell, Kristen Wiig, Trey Parker.
• Horror 'Amityville: The Awakening (2017)' from Franck Khalfoun. Starring: Bella Thorne, Cameron Monaghan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Thomas Mann, Jennifer Morrison.
• Comedy 'The House (2017)' from Andrew J. Cohen. Starring: Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Kroll, Jeremy Renner.

JULY 7

• Marvel again? Yes over the next few years we'll be seeing three MCU films annually, and this year's mid-summer spot is filled by the highly anticipated 'Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)' from Tom Watts. Wait; is this another Spider-Man reboot too? Yes, after the flop that was The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony made a historic deal with Marvel Studios to have the web-slinging character integrate with the existing Avengers franchise. This is the first film made by Sony with help from Marvel (and their producer Kevin Feige) and it consequently stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker from Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Man himself Mr Robert Downey Jr. The film itself will see Peter starting to embrace his newfound identity as Spider-Man as every-day high school life is distracted by his heroic ventures to prove himself to Tony Stark. Spider-Man: Homecoming also stars Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Bokeem Woodbine and Marisa Tomei, and is the second film in the MCU with music from the legendary Michael Giacchino.

JULY 14

• The planet of the Apes reboot series has been very successful, and this summer's third installment - 'War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)' - will likely be another hit. Yes Matt Reeves is returning to direct along-side a cast of Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn, Karin Konoval and Terry Notary, and the film is tipped to be an epic showdown between man and beast. War for the Planet of the Apes will follow Caesar and his kind as they are forced into conflict with an army of humans, and as the battle comes to an epic conclusion, Caesar is brought face-to-face with the ruthless human Colonel. If the trailers are anything to go by, this is going to be great, and many will be waiting on baited breath as Matt Reeves departs this and heads for the DCEU's Batman once this project is finished. All I can say is I expect he's looking forward to all those Batman questions on this film's press tour...
• Romantic-Comedy 'The Big Sick (2017)' from Michael Showalter. Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Ray Romano, Holly Hunter.
• Drana 'Midnight Sun (2017)' from Scott Speer. Starring: Bella Thorne, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Rob Riggle, Quinn Shephard, Ken Tremblett.

JULY 21

• War film 'Dunkirk (2017)' from Christopher Nolan. Starring: Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Aneurin Barnard, Harry Styles.
• Sci-fi 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)' from Luc Besson. Starring: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Kris Wu, John Goodman.
• Romantic-Comedy 'Girls Trip (2017)' from Malcolm D. Lee. Starring: Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tiffany Haddish, Queen Latifah.

JULY 28

• Action 'Atomic Blonde (2017)' from David Leitch. Starring: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella, Til Schweiger.
• Comedy 'The Emoji Movie (2017)' from Tony Leondis. Starring: T. J. Miller, Ilana Glazer, James Corden, Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph.

AUGUST 4

• 'The Dark Tower (2017)' from Nikolaj Arcel. Starring: Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor.
• Animation 'Blazing Samurai (2017)' from Chris Bailey. Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, George Takei, Michelle Yeoh, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks.
• Thriller 'Wind River (2017)' from Taylor Sheridan. Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal, Jeremy Renner, Kelsey Chow.
• Drama 'Ingrid Goes West (2017)' from Matt Spicer. Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell.

AUGUST 11

• Horror 'Annabelle: Creation (2017)' from David F. Sandberg. Starring: Talitha Bateman, Stephanie Sigman, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto.

AUGUST 18

• Heist 'Logan Lucky (2017)' from Steven Soderbergh. Starring: Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, Channing Tatum, Hilary Swank, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Sebastian Stan.
• Action/Comedy 'The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)' from Patrick Hughes. Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, Élodie Yung.
• Animation 'The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature (2017)' from Cal Brunker. Starring: Will Arnett, Gabriel Iglesias, Jeff Dunham, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Jackie Chan.

AUGUST 25

• Action/Comedy '#1bqdmf6hspj-villa-capri' from Ron Shelton. Starring: Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Russo.
• Horror 'Cadaver (2017)' from Diederik Van Rooijen. Starring: Shay Mitchell, Stana Katic, Grey Damon, Nick Thune.
• Horror 'Polaroid (2017)' from Lars Klevberg. Starring: Javier Botet, Madelaine Petsch, Kathryn Prescott, Mitch Pileggi.