Unreality Companion: 5 More Films to Look Forward to in 2015

In which I expand on the content from my weekly Unrealitymag.com article.

With my unpredictable work schedule, sometime I get stories out later than I mean to.  And with this being an especially hectic couple of weeks, I fell more than a little behind on what should have been last week's companion piece to my Unreality article.  Pair that with the fact that the story posted a day late, and we come to the here and now.  And while I have already covered my ten most anticipated films of 2015, the year is looking so pleasantly crowded with great-looking films, I couldn't help but touch on some of the honorable mentions that didn't quite make the previous list.

5) Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F - Akira Toriyama's return to the Dragon Ball Franchise with 2013's Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods marked the single greatest entry into the excessively thoroughly developed series.  It combined Dragon Ball's ingrained humor with Dragon Ball Z's omnipresent fighting (and ignored whatever the Hell was going on with Dragon Ball GT).  It was intelligent, exciting and throroughly entertaining: promising to continue to the series in bold and interesting directions.

That's where Resurrection of F(rieza) comes in: reviving the series' most iconic antagonist and throwing him back into the ring.  The needlessly entertaining Beerus and Whis appear to be returning, as does Krillan's classic haircut.  Frieza's return promises that the film will be a shade less Dragon Ball and a shade more Z, which will be perfectly fine by me (as Battle of Gods' fighting was a little on the scant side).  The only reason why this is  not higher on the list than #5 is because I'm pretty sure it won't make its way stateside until 2016.

4) Insidious: Chapter 3 - I swear, Blumhouse Productions can do no wrong.  Whereas any other series would smack of its third entry being a shameless cash grab (and don't worry, I do realize that that's exactly what's going on here), I have such absolute confidence in Insidious: Chapter 3's producers - born from their skillful management of any number of horror franchises - that I don't doubt this film will be worth seeing.

Like Marvel, even obviously bad-sounding ideas and troubled productions are invariably trivial issues when dealing with Blumhouse.  They bought the lackluster Paranormal Activity franchise from its independent roots and made it something truly excceptional.  They made a second nstallment to this very series that made me appreciate the first film in a new light.  They turned a poorly-conceived spinoff of a surprisingly successful film and turned it into a thoroughly solid frightener.  I have no doubt that they'll return to the Insidious franchise with the same kind of macabre magic.

3) Ted 2 - Nobody was more surprised by how completely hilarious Ted was than me.  Sure, I trusted Seth MacFarlane to make me laugh, but even my trust has limits.  A foul-mouthed, foul-mannered Teddy Bear and his man-child owner didn't sound like the year's must-see comedy, but that's exactly what it became.  MacFarlane's live-action debut was a thoroughly funny, strangely intelligent and surprisingly dark narrative built around all of the absurdity and cut gags that made Family Guy a television staple.

Coming off of Ted's success, I can't help but be excited about its long-awaited sequel.  Sure, A Million Ways to Die in the West spoiled a bit of MacFarlane's hard-earned good will, but he's already figured Ted out: what makes him funny and, most importantly, why.  I'd be hard-pressed to think of any movie that is as likely to make me laugh so hard in 2015.

2) Justice League: Throne of Atlantis - The best movies of the year are not always theatrical releases.  Justice League: War proved that in 2014.  This continuation of DC's animated cinematic universe may well prove that point in 2015.

The animation released thus far looks to be of as good a quality as one could hope for and the released plot-points more intriguing than they really have any right to be.  Promising to deal with the immediate fallout of War's action-packed climax, it promises to explode the cinematic universe in bold and far-reaching ways.

1) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 - Although I've long been a critic of breaking up the last book of a series into two (and sometimes three) movies, I've just as long been accepting of "broken movies" - the idea that films can be so deeply interconnected to one another with a franchise or metafranchise that you basically need to watch them all in order to "get it."  That being said, Mockingjay was a mess of a novel and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 cleared up every issue that I had with its first half.  It didn't retcon Katniss into an emotionally shattered little girl who is incapable of acting independently of the governments that desperately seek to use her in their larger, geopolitical game.  It showed the impact that the propoganda war was having on the rebellion proper.  It made an interesting story told from the least interesting perspective imaginable interesting again.

That's enough to make me more than just cautiously optimistic going into Part 2.  Sure, the worst parts of the book have to be addressed in it, but the most exciting parts are too: the clandestine insurgence into the heart of the Capitol to assassinate President Snow.  Part 1 already established that Francis Laurence knows what he's doing with this franchise, so I have no problem tuning in for its conclusion with bated breath.

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