14. Thor – The first of four superhero movies on my list, Thor is a Marvel character based off the hammer-wielding Norse God of thunder. In the film, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is exiled from the realm of Asgard and forced to live with humans on Earth, where he becomes a hero. The film includes A-list actors Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman (mmmmm). I’m just not entirely sure yet how excited I really am about this film. Marvel has proved to bring success to their secondary characters (see Iron Man). Plus this is one of several characters getting their own films in preparation for The Avengers in 2012, which I am more excited about.
13. Sherlock Holmes 2 – The third of four sequels on my list, Sherlock Holmes 2 returns the exciting pairing of Robert Downy Jr.’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson. Rachel McAdams is replaced as the female lead by Noomi Rapace from the Millenium trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, etc.). What I enjoyed the most about the first film, besides Downy Jr.’s Holmes persona, was the gritty environment that Guy Ritchie put together. Ritchie does well with combining gritty with action and comedy (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch), and it is all on display in Sherlock Holmes.
12. Captain America: The First Avenger – To me, Captain America is one of the superheroes most deserving of a good movie. He is a human who doesn’t really have mythical super powers. He’s just the perfect human, a super soldier. I feel like he’s more relatable than other heroes. I never thought about it before, but that explanation works for two of the most successful superhero franchises, Batman and Iron Man. I like the idea of a Captain America movie and I like Chris Evans, who has been cast as Captain America. Oh, and how awesome will Hugo Weaving be as Red Skull? My guess…pretty awesome. In fact, it can be argued that a superhero movie isn’t good unless it has a compelling villain.
11. X-Men: First Class – Three Marvel superhero movies in one year? Yes, that’s exactly what’s happening. This X-Men film is a prequel. It will bring viewers to the days when Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto are best friends. The film is about the start of the X-Men as well as what leads Xavier and Magneto to disagree and break apart. Young versions of previous movie characters will be there, including Beast and Mystique, as well as several from the comics. The antagonists will be the Hellfire Club, led by Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost/White Queen (January Jones). This should breathe new life into the X-Men and will hopefully lead to more films.