Current Release: April 28th, 2009 | Vol. XXX Iss. 10

photo Illustration by andrew foster

New movies to look forward to this summer

By Katie Morris

kemorris@vwc.edu

The summer blockbuster season has been kicked off with the May 1 release of the highly anticipated  X-Men Origins: Wolverine. As the title suggests, the film gives the background of Wolverine (played, of course, by Hugh Jackman), one of the most popular characters of  X-Men.

Other popular  X-Men characters will be making appearances throughout the movie, including Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds), Gambit (Taylor Kitsch), and Emma Frost (Tahyna Tozzi). Special effects will abound and it s up to the audience to decide if  Origins lives up to the hype and anticipation. As the summer wears on, there will be more movies to liven the summer for audiences everywhere and to take them to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Speaking of which, another film which is building in anticipation is the latest  Star Trek movie, which debuts May 8. The film goes into the back story of the crew from the original series, with new actors to bring back the classic characters: Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Mr. Sulu (John Cho), Scotty (Simon Pegg), Uhura (Zoe Saldana) Dr. Leonard  Bones McCoy (Karl Urban) and Pavel  Nuclear Wessels Chekov (Anton Yelchin). There are several other characters making appearances that the true Trekkies will appreciate, like Leonard Nimoy s cameo as an elderly Spock.

On May 21,  Terminator Salvation will invade theaters. Another film in a well established series,  Terminator stars Christian Bale as John Connor, who will try to save humanity from extermination by machines in a post-apocolyptic world.

One of the most anticipated movies to come out is the  Transformers sequel, due in theatres June 26. Peter Cullen, the original and quintessential Optimus Prime, will once again be providing the vocals for the series heavyweight. Fans of Starscream, the scheming Decipticon who takes the form of an F-22 Raptor (once again voiced by Charles Adler), will have a lot to look forward to. Most of the voice actors from the first film will be back and new transformers, such as Soundwave (Frank Welker) will be in the mix. For those in the audience who are going to see the film for reasons other than the awesome robots and shiny effects, the human components will also be returning. Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox will both be back.

There s also the sixth  Harry Potter flick,  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 15).

Much darker than the previous movies (but no where near as dark as the conclusion of the series), the movie will go into Voldemort s (Ralph Fiennes) past and hit some of the heaviest moments in the  Harry Potter story line. Young Voldemort will be played by Fiennes nephew, Hero Fiennes. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Gint and Emma Watson are reprising their roles as Harry, Ron and Hermione.

 G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra will round out the summer films on Aug. 7. Fans of the cartoon (and toys) will recognize the familiar characters (Dennis Quaid General Hawk, Ray  Darth Maul Park as Snake Eyes, Arnold Vosloo of as Zartan.) One of the most interesting (and debated) casting choices was the decision to cast Jospeh Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander. As with the other films, the effects should be a sight to see.