JULY
SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING
WHEN: July 7
WHO: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey, Jr.
WHAT: After Tobey Maguire’s and Andrew Garfield’s turns, Holland will don the tights and the web-slinging responsibilities in the first Spider-Man movie to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with a little help from Iron Man).
WHY: As fantastic as Spider-Man 2 was and as wonderful as Garfield was in the role, the Avengers movies were noticeably lacking a core member until a radical deal was struck between Sony and Marvel, allowing the webslinger to finally get the honorary MCU treatment, after a guest appearance in Captain America: Civil War.
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES
WHEN: July 14
WHO: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn
WHAT: After rising up against humans in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and trying to live peacefully with them in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar (Serkis) is now embroiled in full-on war with the last of humanity, led by The Colonel (Harrelson).
WHY: What was originally to be the closing chapter of a reboot trilogy is now simply the third part in a four- or five-film series, but with the benefits of CGI, the new movies are capable of telling (ironically enough) more human stories than the originals were capable of.
VALERIAN AND THE CITY
OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
WHEN: July 21
WHO: Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, John Goodman, Ethan Hawke
WHAT: Adapted from the French comic series Valerian and Laureline, Luc Besson’s sci-fi actioner promises dazzling visuals, insane action, and a pair of charming, rascally performances from DeHaan and Delevingne.
WHY: Director Luc Besson is responsible for such visually sumptuous action movies as Léon: The Professional, The Fifth Element, and Lucy. Valerian seems right in his wheelhouse.
DUNKIRK
WHEN: July 21
WHO: Fionn Whitehead, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance
WHAT: Christopher Nolan turns his lens to the Dunkirk evacuation of WWII, looking at the event from three perspectives: soldiers in the air, soldiers on the sea, and soldiers at the beach.
WHY: Memento. Insomnia. The Prestige. The Dark Knight. Inception. The Dark Knight Rises. Interstellar. Nolan’s resume speaks for itself.
ATOMIC BLONDE
WHEN: July 28
WHO: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Sofia Boutella
WHAT: After reinventing herself as the action queen with scene-stealing performances in Mad Max: Fury Road and The Fate of the Furious, Theron stars in this adaptation of the graphic novel The Coldest City as an MI6 agent who has to take down an espionage ring in Berlin in 1989.
WHY: The out-of-nowhere smash John Wick was directed by two people. One, Chad Stahelski, followed it with John Wick, Chapter 2; the other, David Leitch, opted to instead tackle this atmospheric period actioner.
THE EMOJI MOVIE
WHEN: July 28
WHO: T.J. Miller, Anna Faris, James Corden, Patrick Stewart, Steven Wright
WHAT: Those cute little emoticons on your phone are now anthropomorphic characters in a CGI movie in which every character can only express one emotion — think the Mr. Men and Little Miss books — except for Gene (Miller), a “freak” emoji who can show multiple expressions.
WHY: It sounds dumb and irrelevant, but that’s what everyone said about The LEGO Movie before it came out. With probably the biggest cast of comedic actors of any movie this summer, The Emoji Movie could be a sleeper hit with kids and adults alike.
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL:
TRUTH TO POWER
WHEN: July 28
WHO: Al Gore
WHAT: Eleven years after Gore woke the world up to the imminent dangers of climate change with An Inconvenient Truth, he returns with follow-up that’s even more pressing in 2017 than the first was in 2006.
WHY: In the age of Donald Trump and global warming deniers, it’s more important than ever for the truths about climate change to get out there, and Gore has already proven once before that he’s the best man for the job.
