Counterpoint: Becky's Most Anticipated Movies of 2015

In which Becky shares her wrong different opinion on a Filmquisition post.

It was a while back, admittedly, but when I shared my ten most anticipated movies of 2015 (and again when I shared movies 11-15), Becky had some thoughts on the matter.  But with Oscars 101 articles and my day jobs keeping me busy, I didn't really find the time to share those thoughts with the rest of you.  But with 2015 already getting a sizable lead on me, and with the first of her movies coming up in a matter of days, I thought that it was finally time to get into her list.

Ant-Man
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Cinderella
Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Jurassic World
Minions
Pixels
The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Star War: Episode VII - The Force Awakens

As you you could probably already guess, there's a considerable degree of overlap between our two lists.  Of her ten most anticipated, I've already touched on six: Ant-man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection of F, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.  And of the remaining four titles, two just barely did not make the cut.

Cinderella - This is a movie that just barely missed out of my most anticipated movies lists.  Disney has begun to tap into a previously unexplored market of live action remakes of their classic princess tales.  Maleficent, despite its faults, was an interesting and surprisingly engrossing twist on the classic Sleeping Beauty story.  Divided largely along gender lines, the feminist update was variously taken as a story rippling with an undercurrent of date rape or one of a forced mastectomy.  Disney now applies that revisionist lens towards the tale of Cinderella.

Kenneth Branagh was 100% what drew me into the film.  This esteemed writer-director, responsible for both my favorite adaptation of Hamlet and the most interesting take on As You Like It that I've ever seen, has recently lent his Shakespearean vision to decidedly more modern fair.  He was, for instance, the man responsible for bringing Thor to the big screen.  I trust him more than any other director to bring the decidedly dated Cinderella story to life without painfully modernizing it.

Minions - I'll admit it: I have never loved Despicable Me nor its sequel.  I thought that both, while heart-warmingly earnest and reasonably clever, were merely okay.  They're an alright way to pass some time, especially with some little ones in tow, but I never got their massively wide-spread appeal.

Becky, however, has been on the Despicable Me bandwagon since the first film, dragged me to the second one and will invariably insist on seeing this prequel / spinoff when it hits theaters in July.  And like the other two entries into this perplexingly growing franchise, I expect that I will like it just well enough to not regret spending the time to see it, but would have been far happier with any other film that's due to come out around that time (especially since its release is sandwiched between Terminator Genysis and Ant-Man).

Pixels - I hadn't even heard of this movie before Becky put it on her list of most anticipated of the year.  After looking it up - and especially after seeing all of the various posters for it - I have to say that I'm pretty stoked about it too.  It seemingly hits all the right notes of original premise and intelligent execution and just looks like a lot of fun to boot.

Seemingly taken straight out of a Futurama episode - "Anthology of Interest II" for those of you who are keeping track at home - aliens misinterpret footage from classic arcade games as a declaration of war and strike back with extreme prejudice.  They base their weapons and strategies on the footage that they were sent , resulting in the cast of Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders and other 80's-era arcade games unleashing Hell upon cities across the Earth.  Its up to a former arcade prodigy to save the world using the skills he harnessed in his youth.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Like Minions, this is something that Becky is heads over heals for with anticipation that I honestly couldn't care any less about.  Based on the lackluster first film whose principle draw is an aging - if excellent - British A-list cast, this one proves to be more of what we saw in the first film.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ended with all of the loose ends wrapped up.  Bill Nighy left Penelope Wilton for Judi Dench.  Dev Patel stood up to his mother to be with the girl of his dreams.  Maggie Smith got over her racism.  Tom Wilkinson came out of the closet, made amends with his past and died.  So the sequel is... all of the coupled-off characters getting married and all of the out-of-the-picture cast members returning when they really have no business doing so?  Yeah, this is one that I'm going to see purely out of obligation at this point.

So what movies are you most looking forward to this year?

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