#15. Need For Speed
Arguably one of the greatest racing franchises out there is coming to the big screen, and it couldn't be coming at a more perfect time. With the Fast and Furious franchise losing one of its main stars and development being delayed, Need for speed is set to fill the void in our hearts that will be left from the Fast and Furious movies. With Aaron Paul just coming off of his amazing performance in Breaking Bad, expect him to be in his prime. Also, expect this movie to be the launching point for even more video game franchises turned movies, with an Assassin's Creed movie slated for 2015 and a Splinter Cell movie in the works as well, the success of Need For Speed is sure to impact those movies as well.
#14. Muppet's Most Wanted
In 2011 The Muppets surprised everyone with a comeback. All of our favorite characters were there with the same humor, charm, and musical numbers that make The Muppets a great franchise, and in 2014 they are looking to do it again. We find all of our favorite Muppets returning, including the newest muppet Walter, and becoming involved with an international jewel heist caper headed up by an evil Kermit the Frog lookalike. The movie is set to star Ty Burrell, Ricky Gervais, Tina Fey, and just as was the case with the last one, plenty of celebrity cameos are sure to be expected.
#13. Transformers: Age Of Extinction
I'll probably get a lot of hate for including this one on the list, but hear me out. Transformers are awesome, giant robots that can transform into cars is just an incredibly cool concept. Yeah, the special effects in the last 3 Transformers movies may have been a little gratuitous, but that is what a Transformers movie should be about. Giant robots fighting and lots of explosions. My biggest grievance with the first 3 movies was Shia LaBeouf, and now that he and his god-awful scream are gone, and one of my favorite actors, Mark Whalberg is taking over as the human lead, I think we could be in for the best Transformers movie yet! Plus Dinobots!
#12. The Lego Movie
It is impossible to doubt that Lego is one of the greatest toy companies on the planet. The Lego empire has come to hold much more than just bricks to build with, but also a line of successful video games, endless franchise recognition, and now a movie! The animation style reminds me a lot of the same sort of stop motion used in the Robot Chicken series, and I think it gives the movie a bit of extra charm. The cast alone is enough to keep the movie witty and entertaining throughout, but if the writing is anything like any of the Lego games, you can expect a fun and entertaining adventure that follows Chris Pratt's "Emmett" through the world of Lego.
#11. 22 Jump Street
21 Jump Street was a big suprise. Rebooting an 80s tv show as a movie carried some big risks with it, but the comedy team of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum knocked it out of the park. 21 Jump street was one of my favorite comedies of 2012, and the predictable premise shown in the trailer looks as if they are self aware, showing us that they'll still be able to make fun of themselves for walking the predictable path, but still be able to pull off an entertaining comedy.
#10. The Hobbit: There and Back Again
I was a little disappointed with An Unexpected Journey in 2012. The movie was long, and had a lot of things that could have been cut out, thats why when I went to see The Desolation of Smaug I went with low expectations. However, the second movie blew me out of the water. There were a few VFX hiccups here and there (like seriously? Who films a big budget movie like this with a GoPro?), but overall the movie was solid, and restored my faith in Peter Jackson after a disappointing first go round. The way that Smaug ended set up perfectly for There and Back Again to be a fun, action packed, and entertaining movie from the get go, and to be the perfect wrap to Peter Jackson's time with Tolkien.
#9. Noah
Mark this one down as my pick for most controversial of 2014. With a fairly familiar biblical story being taken on, many evangelical christians are sure to flock to the theater in droves, just as they are when anything biblical makes its way into the mainstream. But don't expect them to be happy at all when they find that the movie is such a far cry from its biblical counterpart. The right amount of controversy is just what this movie needs to be successful, and I think it will get there. However, I'm very interested to see Darren Aronfonsky's take on this story, and I'm sure it will be exciting, challenging, and very entertaining to say the least.
#8. XMen: Days of Future Past
Call me crazy, but I just don't get all of the hype for this movie. Sure I am excited for it because I love all things Marvel. I didn't however like First Class as much as everyone else did. I don't really like Brian Singer all that much. They're replacing one of the best XMen in the storyline because Fox is afraid to have anything but "The Wolverine Show", and the amount of hype that has been built up for this movie almost sets it up to fail from the get go. I really want this movie to be good because I really like the XMen, and I really like Peter Dinklage, but unfortunately i don't think it will meet a lot of people's expectations and leave a lot of people wanting more than what they got. This is definitely one of the most interesting movies lined up for 2014, and I'm very interested to watch it play out.
#7. The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay pt 1.
This is one franchise that I'm happy with the way the story has been carried over to the films from the books. Although some things are missing or different, I think overall a great job has been done seeing these over from their source material to their on screen adaptations. Catching Fire did everything right (yes, even the ending) especially the director, and I'm very excited to see how they are going to split the last book into two different films. Francis Lawrence, May the odds be ever in your favor.
#6. Dawn of The Planet of The Apes
I am a new fan of The Planet of The Apes franchise. After watching Rise, I was hooked and I had to go back and watch the original movies. I loved every second of them, and I loved how many parallels were drawn between the original films and Rise. And now we get Dawn. Set a few months after the events of Rise, we see the civilization of the apes start to form as humanity is brought to shambles. I am a big fan of Andy Serkis' work, and thought he did a phenomenal job with MoCap for Caesar the first time around, and I'm so excited to see him take on a more complicated role, as the apes develop more humanlike qualities.
#5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Amazing Spider-man was exactly the reboot that the franchise needed. With director Mark Webb obviously drawing much more inspiration from the comic books than his predecessor Sam Rami, he knew how to handle the franchise. The characters worked together so well, and the actors were perfect for the parts they were in. The story was slightly flat, but still fun and entertaining, so I'm excited to see how Webb has changed his approach with this new movie. With the cast of characters that has been announced I'm sure there will be no shortage of action, and I completely trust Webb with his ability to bring these characters to life. Hopefully with the crazy amount of villians we'll be seeing, no one will get the "Venom" treatment from Rami's Spider-man 3.
#4. Godzilla
I was so excited to see Pacific Rim in 2013 because of it's premise: Gian Robots fighting Giant Aliens. It just sounded so awesome, and it was! Unfortunately audiences were split on it! With Godzilla, we finally are getting the monster movie we deserve. The athstetic of the movie looks perfect, and the size of the monster is ridiculous! The movie looks like it is going to have some awesome action sequences, and if it can pull off a coherent story, it is likely to be one of the best movies of 2014.
#3. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan has proven time and time again with his films that nothing is what it seems. Fresh off the Dark Knight Rises, Nolan looks to step down from the superhero genre to take on a new story. Not much is known about the project right now, except that it will probably have something to do with space, and knowing the director's history, we probably won't find out too much about it until the actual movie itself, which makes the anticipation level even greater!
#2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Marvel is seeking to bridge the gaps in between The Avengers and The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and it looks like the movie they want to do that with is The Winter Soldier. Expect to see a lot of familiar faces, not only from S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Avengers, but also from the first Captain America movie as well. Marvel's universe building has begun to come to a head, and I expect to see a majority of things that happen in The Winter Soldier to have much bigger consequences way later on down the line in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. On top of everything else, the trailer looks awesome, action packed, and expect a solid story, and awesome characters (Falcon) to come out of Marvel with this one.
#1. Guardians of The Galaxy
It has been a long while since I've been as excited about a movie as I am for this one. Marvel went all out on its gamble with it's newest property. The cast is perfect in every way with stars like Chris Pratt, John C. Reilley, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Bautista, Glenn Close, Benecio Del Toro, Lee Pace, and Karen Gillian, the star power alone in this movie is enough to leave one awestruck. This is Marvel's first foray into it's cosmic universe and I think it will help introduce nicely what they are wanting to do with Thanos and the whole cosmic side of things we have yet to see in the MCU. The characters are wild, and ridiculous, with a lot of heart, and because of that, this movie has the potential to be the best movie we see in 2014.
There you have it folks. A list of the movies that we are most excited about for 2014. Is there something on your list that didn't make the cut? Or one that did that you think shouldn't have? Sound off in the comments below! What is your list?!
"I am Groot!"
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