2018: Onwards And Upwards!
The New Year brings new movies and with the best of 2017 still fresh in our memory we look ahead to the biggest films set to hit the big screen in 2018: a year of superheroes, sequels, and a second Star Wars story.
But first, awards season awaits. As is customary, the beginning of year rolls out the red carpet for a host of new releases that will challenge last year’s most prominent pictures. This season's major awards contenders joining the likes of Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, The Florida Project, and Call Me By Your Name are: Ridley Scott's All The Money In The World, Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, and Steven Spielberg's The Post.
Superhero cinema continues to show no signs of slowing down, and 2018 is a bumper year for Marvel as the studio has slated no fewer than eight films in the calendar year. There’s solo outings for two Avengers in Black Panther and Ant-Man And The Wasp; more X-Men adventures with X-Men: Dark Phoenix, The New Mutants, and Deadpool 2; plus Tom Hardy’s debut as Venom; and a fully-animated Spider-Man spin-off that launches us Into The SpiderVerse. But the superhero movie of the year is reserved for the cinematic event ten years in the making as all of the MCU heroes assemble for a galactic battle in Avengers: Infinity War.
But the action doesn’t end there. There’s the small matter of Han Solo’s origins in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lara Croft’s return to the big screen in Tomb Raider, and more dino-danger as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom leads a long list of sequels ready to reacquaint you with your favourites. 2018 will see a new generation of heroes rise to cancel the apocalypse again in Pacific Rim: Uprising, a return to JK Rowling’s wizarding world in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, and a reunion with Pixar’s super Parr family for Incredibles 2.
The long-awaited Incredibles sequel isn’t the only animated film that promises fun for all the family with Pixar’s Coco bringing the Land of the Dead to life, Aardman’s Early Man providing stone-age shenanigans, and Peter Rabbit making his big screen debut in the adaptation of Beatrix Potter’s beloved children’s tales. There’s also adaptations of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker, and even a fresh take on Dr Seuss’ The Grinch.
2018 is also a year for franchise finales with Maze Runner: The Death Cure and Fifty Shades Freed both reaching a dramatic climax, and throw in a reunion with the dancing queens on the Greek island of Kalokairi with Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and it's a cinematic year where everyone can have the time of their life.
Honourable mentions
Darkest Hour, Molly’s Game, The Shape Of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Predator, Bumblebee, A Wrinkle In Time, Sherlock Gnomes, Red Sparrow, Isle Of Dogs, Ocean’s 8, Sicario 2: Soldado, Mission: Impossible 6, Hotel Transylvania 3, Robin Hood, Jungle Book: Origins, Halloween