While 2022 may have been a poor year for the box office and feature an abundance of bad movies, you can see from my top ten it wasn’t totally devoid of quality. The truth is though only the top five was something special and the rest was just above average movies that wouldn’t bother a top ten list prior to around 2016. So does the outlook seem any better for 2023? Let’s have a look, genre by genre.
Horror
There are a LOT of franchise movies coming in 2023 in the horror market and I can’t say I’m excited for any of them. These include Scream, Evil Dead (reboot), The Nun, The Exorcist (reboot), Saw, Salem’s Lot (reboot), The Meg, Insidious and The Strangers (A reboot of a movie not even 20 years old, that I slammed in my first October Horrathon in 2021). None of these have me excited and none of them will get me in the theatre but I will no doubt watch them all once they are on streaming. A more interesting one though, which could also be a total disaster is the possibility of a “Gremlins 3” movie around Christmas time. There is no trailer and few details so hard to say if it’ll even make that date.
There’s a couple of very loose sounding adaptations in the works too. One for Michael Gilio’s “Dark Harvest” and one for Stephen King’s “The Boogeyman“. However, both have synopsis’ that sound radically different from the story in the book. The Boogeyman especially sounds like a totally different film with the title slapped on top, something that always used to happen with King’s books and I guess what was old is now new. Dark Harvest meanwhile has switched the focus from the monster as the hero to two kids (A boy and a girl) that want to share the prize.
It’s worth noting both of these were male focused stories (Only boys can take part in the competition in Dark Harvest in the book and The boogeyman’s story is focused on two men in a room), so it sounds like have been re-written for modern Hollywood to make them more female focused. We’ll see if “Dark Harvest” still has anything to offer (the shift away from the monster as lead is the real issue here), but I don’t hold a lot of hope for “The Boogeyman” given how little it has in common with the original story.
Four of the higher profile original movies “M3gan” and “Knock at the Cabin” , “The Pope’s Exorcist” and “There’s Something Wrong With The Children” seem at least on the surface to feature heavily familiar tropes and not especially original stories. That said though they all have potential and perhaps even enough to get me to see them in the cinema, especially M3gan and Knock at the Cabin.
Speaking of familiar tropes 2023 also features two new Dracula movies each with their own specific take on the tale. One with Nick Cage focusing on (and named after) “Renfield“, Dracula’s insane minion and the other “Last Voyage of the Demeter” based on his voyage to England from Transylvania. While I probably wouldn’t bother with yet another Dracula film, Nick Cage has been on fire lately and both these films have interesting angles on the story. I will at least be keen to see a trailer.
Perhaps the most original looking horror movie in 2023 though appears to be the Brandon Cronenberg directed Alexander Skarsgård movie “Infinity Pool“. The movie sounds like a lot of crazy weirdness and who doesn’t love crazy weirdness? The trailer certainly looks interesting and it seems the apple may not have fallen too far from the Cronenberg tree (Yes, he is David’s son) because if I didn’t know better I’d think this was one of his father’s films. Oh, almost forgot, out very soon is the fun looking horror comedy “Cocaine Bear” likely to get Elizabeth Banks back in peoples good books.
Action
Like most recent years the action scene has been dominated by franchise movies and 2023 looks to be no different. Some are the usual cynical cash ins but there are a few that are worth keeping an eye on. Top of that list would be “Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part One“, this is the big finale to the entire franchise and while it will probably get a reboot (Let’s remember this started as a TV series before Cruise rebooted it to the big screen) that will be the end of Cruises run with the iconic franchise. At some point he will just be too old to do his own stunts and it seems he wants to bow out of the franchise while he still can. No idea if the story will be good, but expect something spectacular in the stunt department.
Another sequel that will have a lot of people excited is John Wick: Chapter 4. While the writing quality has dropped since the first movie the sequels continued to deliver spectacular fight scenes and solid pulp style entertainment. With things heading towards an end game for the franchise Chapter 4 promises a step forward with the world building and story, while continuing the trend of high octane action. Not wanting to be left out of the sequel game though is Netflix who are planning to release “Extraction 2” at some point in the year. I haven’t watched the first one, so can’t say if that is worth being excited over.
A couple of unexpected action film returns that may also prove to be solid entertainment are “The Expendables 4” and “The Equalizer 3“. But with Denzel now 68 and Sly 76 these certainly represent a challenge in believability. I am fairly confident in the Equalizer after the first two movies, but the Expendables 3 was a bit of a clanger so the fourth movie could go either way and for an action star 76 is a lot harder to sell. Obviously Sly will bring in some new blood, but that was part of where the third movie fell apart so fingers crossed he can find the right balance this time.
At the “Why did they bother” end of the returning franchise scale is the tenth main Fast and Furious movie. I’ve still never watched a single one, but I don’t really feel I’ve been missing out. At some point I’ll remedy that but for now I just have no interest in “Fast X“. While I may be indifferent to that franchise, one that I am very actively dreading is “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” where an 80 year old Harrison Ford is forced to don the hat and whip one more time just so Disney can milk a few extra dollars out of the franchise and probably try and pass the torch on, like anyone one else can possibly fill that role. Something they already tried and failed to do years ago with the poorly received fourth film.
So that’s the franchise films, but what about the rest? There are a few interesting ones here, so let’s start off with Guy Ritchie’s two entries into 2023. First up is “Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre“, which teams Ritchie back up with his regular star Jason Statham and from the looks of it may be the start of a new Statham action franchise. Does he really need another one? Probably not, but lets face it they are always, especially when Ritchie is involved so let’s just roll with it.
The second Ritchie movie, “The Covenant” is a bit more out there with the setting switched to Afghanistan and featuring the bravery of an Afghan interpreter attempting to carry an injured army sergeant (Played by Jake Gyllenhaal) across hostile terrain. Ritchie doesn’t always do well outside his comfort zone so that one could go either way.
Of the rest of the action slate three in particular stand out for me. The first is the Apple Original “Argylle” featuring Henry Cavill as a superspy. There is however very little to go on with this one, the teaser just shows him dancing with his co-star and while it is based on a book, the film was greenlit before the book was released, the author doesn’t appear to actually exist (Suggesting it’s a pen name for someone more famous) and I can find no reviews or useful information about the plot of it.
The best information I have suggests a sort of “Last Kiss Goodnight” kind of story where Cavill stars off unaware that he is actually a superspy and has to be woken up to it by another field agent (possibly Catherine O’Hara or Bryce Dallas Howard’s characters in the film). The movie is planned as a trilogy so if Cavill doesn’t get the Bond gig, he may have a spy franchise anyway.
The next movie of note for me is Neil Blomkamp’s return, with the movie “Gran Turismo“. Named after the video game and about a champion player that became a real life race driver. This is on the lighter end of the action genre and a long way from what you expect from Blomkamp, so it’s a definite wildcard but it’s certainly going to be interesting. Last on my list to watch is the Nick Cage western The Old Way. The plot seems about as classic a Western tale of revenge and redemption. Not particularly original but Cage has been on form in recent years and I can’t wait to see how this turns out.
Along with these the movie will also see a new action moviess from some of the usual names in the genre including Dwayne Johnson with “Red One“, Gerard Butler with “Plane” and Tom Hardy with “Havoc“. The later two have interesting enough plot synopsis but couldn’t guess on quality from them and The Rock’s entry has no plot information released yet.
Superhero
Well…it can’t possibly be worse than 2022’s Superhero slate turned out right? Not that I would have predicted a Batman movie that fell apart in the final act or a Thor movie that draws comparisons with “Batman and Robin”. “Black Adam” turned out the most enjoyable of Superhero film of last year, but was still a flawed beast so can we do better this year? I’m going to break down this one in the order of what I think most likely to be the better movies.
Top of the pile is almost certainly going to be Guardians of the Galaxy vol.3. While some weren’t keen on the second movie, most enjoyed it and everyone seems to universally like the first. This is the teams final outing and will no doubt be an emotional journey as well as a fun one. It’s almost certain at least one of the team will be dying here, so bring your hankies. This is also the only Superhero movie of the year likely to break the billion dollar mark.
That’s it for the sure things. The next few on my list are more in the “Could go either way” territory. Starting with the most obscure character out this year “Blue Beetle“. The protagonist for this movie is Xolo Maridueña, a name that doesn’t likely ring a bell but if you are a fan of Cobra Kai (And really, you should be) you’ll recognise him as Miguel from that show. He did such a good job in Cobra Kai I am certainly rooting for him bring this relatively unknown DC character into the limelight. Sadly though however it turns out chances area this is a one off as it is technically a part of the old DCEU universe and not James Gunn’s new DCU.
Coming in off a rather poor looking trailer is “Shazam! Fury of the Gods“. This is a tricky one because the trailer for the first film didn’t totally sell it either and yet it turned out to be surprisingly good. It helps that Zachery Levi is very good as the character, but can he surprise people twice in a row? Again though, he is part of the old DCEU so expect this to be his final appearance.
Following on from that is the long delayed “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom“. This is likely an editing mess due to all the scrapped plans and Amber Heard controversy. Michael Keaton shot scenes for the film, but isn’t in it. Ben Affleck may or may not be in it. Basically it’s a mess, but the previous movie did well so who knows. What is certain is Momoa is done in the role after this, but will be back in the new DCU likely in the role he was born to play – Lobo and that is a movie I am really looking forward to!
Next in the “Either way” category is “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania“. This movie looks like a mess that exists to drive forward the larger story of MCU phase 5. As fun as Paul Rudd was in the role, his part has was diluted in the last movie and looks to be diluted even further here. On top of that the entire movie seems to be CGI, which means it will be expensive and largely look like a video game. Odds are this won’t be that good, but there is a strong cast so perhaps if the movie is character driven there willb e something to enjoy in it.
Speaking of movies that look like a mess, the potential disaster that now looks to be the final entry in the old DCEU is “The Flash“. Much like the rest of the DCEU, it brings an idea to the table long after Marvel has already exhausted it, in this instance it is the multiverse. An idea that has potential for sure but after Spider-Man did it and Doctor Strange sort of did it and after the CW did it in their DC TV shows it has far less value as a gimmick. People will be excited to see the Michael Keaton cameo and perhaps that will make the whole exercise worthwhile but it’s hard to get over the sad fact that Ezra Miller is both an abysmal Flash and not a very nice person.
Over to Sony next to see if they can bring out something even more meme-able than 2022’s Morbius. Honestly this is entirely possible for their “Kraven the Hunter” movie seeing as it appears they have gone the route of making Kraven the Hunter an environmental activist motivated by protecting endangered species. All very noble but doesn’t really fit a character known as “The Hunter” famous for hunting dangerous animals (and people) for sport. Indeed it’s sort of bizarre. Kraven may actually be the best Spider-Man villain never seen in a movie, so I’m not going to totally rule it out as potentially good, but the odds are against it. Especially with how they botched Morbius.
Now for the almost certain dumpster fires. I’m not even going to dwell on these but fighting it out for worst superhero movies of the year are likely going to be franchise killer Seth Rogen’s attempt with “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and the movie no one asked for “The Marvels”.
Science Fiction
Not the biggest year for Science fiction in 2023, but there what it lacks in quantity it may make up for in quality. We have potentially four franchise movies and a couple of original movies of note. The biggest movie of the year though, maybe in general and not just in science fiction is the second part of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series. Simply called “Dune: Part Two”. This is the conclusion of the story of the first book (and the story depicted in David Lynch’s version in the 80’s). This has a whole lot more going on than the first half of the story and could be a truly awe inspiring movie. Probably something you want to see in IMAX.
2023 also sees a new Transformers film in “Rise of the Beasts“, which seems to be vaguely a sequel to Bumblebee and a prequel to the Michael Bay movies but not really committed to either. Like Bumblebee it looks like they have made an effort to make the characters look more like the toys but I haven’t seen much evidence of quality outside of that.
Joining Transformers in making a return is Ghostbusters, But with a December release date tentatively scheduled for the Afterlife sequel, few details and no teaser it remains to be seen if it will make it out before 2024. Hopefully we’ll get some details in the new year. The final franchise movie returning in the genre is The Hunger Games with it’s prequel movie no one asked for “Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes“. The movie follows the rise of the main series antagonist. Maybe it will be a surprise, but I doubt it’ll be a hit.
The two original movies that have caught my attention for 2023 are the Spacemen Vs Dinosaur movie “65” with Adam Driver. The idea is obviously a bit of a novelty but the trailer looked good and Adam Driver is a decent actor so definitely worth checking out. Another film due out early in 2023 is Universal Pictures “Distant“, which seems to be a space disaster movie (along the lines of “Oxygen” or “The Martian”). I’ve not seen a trailer and there doesn’t seem to be one which is odd for a movie due out in January, which does not bode terribly well.
Fantasy
Very little to talk about in the fantasy area and only one that involves traditional sword and sorcery fantasy. That would be the second attempt at a “Dungeons and Dragons” move. The first attempt back in 2000 was a total disaster, but the trailer for this at least looks entertaining. The table-top game is probably more popular now than it was in 2000 (Largely thanks to Stranger Things) so I imagine it’ll do reasonably well in the cinema. Hopefully it’ll be worth the price of admission!
A movie that may turn out to be a surprise family hit is “Wonka“. On the surface a Chocolate Factory prequel may not sound like much but with Paul King, director of both Paddington movies behind it, it could turn into a surprise hit.
In the are of not remotely interesting to me is Disney’s live action version of The Little Mermaid. I’ve never seen the original animation and so was never going to be interested in this, but let’s face it most of these remakes have been bad and I don’t expect this to be any different.
Animated
Animation had a few successes in 2022 but also the two biggest box office bombs. This year looks a bit more promising with at least two guaranteed hits and a few interesting originals. The two obvious hits are the sequel to Sony’s well received Spider-Verse movie “Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse” and the heavily anticipated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie“. These are likely to be the Sonic 2 and Minions 2 of this year, but that doesn’t mean either will be good. I have mixed feelings on both, but I’d say I was overall cautiously optimistic. I’m not a Nintendo fan especially, the only console of theirs I ever owned was the N64, but I know there are a LOT of fans out there looking forward to this.
A surprise franchise return for 2023 is “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget“. While the original was a good fun film, it came out in 2000 and so it’s hard to say how well a sequel nearly a quarter of a century later will do, especially with an entirely new set of voice actors (Which is quite baffling). Another surprise this year is “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim“, this anime style story is from Warner Brothers and is being directed by anime legend Kenji Kamiyama. It is heavily influenced by the movie series. This will likely be pretty good so keep an eye out for it in April.
While a lot of Disney’s output this year is on the cringe side, they may surprise people with an animated feature this year as they have chose with “Wish” to return to hand drawn animation, something they’ve not done since Princess and the Frog in 2009. The movie may well still be bad, but it will at least look good. Disney’s Pixar meanwhile are sticking to their familiar style with their new movie “Elemental” which sounds like a fairly generic kids story about getting on with people different to you. “Trolls 3” is due out next year too, I’ve never watched any of the others so am totally indifferent to that.
Comedy
I’m not particularly looking forward to any comedy movie in 2023, however that’s fairly normal for the genre. It’s not so much the situation as it is the execution that makes a great comedy and the best ones are often the least expected. So who knows which of these may turn out to be a classic. However, by far the highest profile comedy due out in 2023 has to be the “Barbie” movie. Not a movie that would normally appeal to me, but the teaser trailer was actually pretty damn funny and Margot Robbie is actually pretty good at comedy. It’s worth noting the teaser showed almost none of the actual movie, so it could go either way still.
That’s not Margot Robbie’s only comedy this year either as she’s joining an all star cast including Tom Hanks, Ed Norton and Scarlet Johansen for Wes Anderson’s new movie “Asteroid City“. Like most of Anderson’s movie it will no doubt be highly divisive, massively praised by some and be greeted with confusion by others. Personally I find him quite hit and miss, but I will no doubt check it out. More likely to just be trash however is Disney’s new theme park adaptation “Haunted Mansion“, however it’s worth remembering that was where Pirates of the Caribbean started too and it does have an all star cast. We’ll see I guess.
I’ve not watched any of the Magic Mike movies, so I have no feelings on his “Last Dance” at all. But if you are in to those films, there is a new one (And presumably last one by that title). There’s also a remake of the 1990’s comedy “House Party” because of course there’s a random remake here too. This year also brings a trio of romantic comedies “Maybe I do“, “Your Place or Mine” and “You People” all of which I’ll skip (Not into RomComs, sorry) and a trio of sports related comedies “Champions”, “80’s For Brady” and Taiko Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins“, all of which actually look quite funny. Last but not least Tom Hanks returns to comedy for “A Man Called Otto” which will probably be out by the time you read this.
Drama
Last but not least are the more serious movies of the year, some of which may even find themselves up for an Oscar nomination (Not that the Oscars mean anything anymore). Even this category isn’t free from remakes though with Spielberg’s “The Colour Purple” randomly getting the treatment. I think that is the first Spielberg movie to be remade but it was only ever a matter of time. We also have a tired old franchise that refuses to die in the third movie from Rocky spin off Creed. We also see Kenneth Branagh stubbornly return with another Poirot movie, this time “A Haunting in Venice”.
A very old franchise sees a return this year as hard boiled detective Philip Marlowe is actually going to be hitting a new case with the movie “Marlowe“. This isn’t based on a Raymond Chandler book though, but a newer one written by John Banville. I’ve read all the Chandler books and until I heard about this movie I didn’t know anyone else had picked up the mantle, so I’m not sure what to expect. The movie stars Liam Neeson as the titular detective.
The most notable drama coming in 2023 would have to be Christopher Nolan’s new movie, the biopic “Oppenheimer“. The movie features the recreation of an atomic bomb blast done with PRACTICAL EFFECTS. Please let that sink in for a moment before moving on. Nolan didn’t actually set of a nuke but I think he did create the largest explosion ever done explicitly for the purpose of making a movie.
Another one to look for this year is the Willem Dafoe movie “Inside” about an art thief that accidentally gets locked inside a penthouse apartment with nothing for company but priceless works of art. I think that is destined to be a good one and you never know maybe even get Dafoe a long overdue Oscar. Other dramas this year includes the Zach Braff directed “A Good Person” staring Florence Pugh support from Morgan Freeman; Hippy Awakening movie “Jesus Revolution“; The biopic for record producer Neil Bogart “Spinning Gold“; and missing person thriller “Missing“. Also (and I almost missed this, showing it’s poor publicity) Scorsese’s new movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” with DiCaprio staring, which joins Apples slate of original movies for 2023.
Release Dates
Remember these films are only the higher profile ones. Some of my favourites from last year were indie movies that wouldn’t have had any hype this time last year. Often the best things come out of nowhere and I look forward to being pleasantly surprised. This also doesn’t include any foreign language movies and most years my top ten includes at least one non-English movie. In 2022 it was an obscure Finnish body horror. So this is far from the full picture. However, given the size of this article I hope you’ll forgive me not digging in any deeper!
I’m going to finish with a quick month by month of the upcoming movies (Note, some of the films don’t have set release dates yet so aren’t included). I’ve put the movies I’m looking forward to in bold, but tell me what you are looking forward to in the comments.
| January | A Man Called Otto, M3gan, The Old Way, Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, Plane, You People, Maybe I do, House Party, Infinity Pool |
| February | Ant-Man 3, Cocaine Bear, Knock At The Cabin, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Your Place or Mine, Missing, Jesus Revolution, Puss In Boots 2 (UK Release Date), Distant, Marlowe |
| March | Scream 6, Shazam 2, John Wick 4, Creed 3, Dungeons and Dragons, 65, 80 For Brady, Inside, Spinning Gold, A Good Person, Champions |
| April | Super Mario Bros, Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Evil Dead Rise, The Pope’s Exorcist, Renfield, The Covenant, Next Goal Wins |
| May | GOTG3, Little Mermaid, Fast X, |
| June | Spider-Verse 2, Indiana Jones 5, Transformers: Rise of Beasts, Flash, Elemental |
| July | Mission Impossible 7, The Marvels, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Insidious 5, Asteroid City, |
| August | TMNT Mutant Mayhem, The Meg 2, Gran Turismo, Blue Beetle Haunted Mansion, The Last Voyage Of The Demeter |
| September | Expendables 4, Equalizer 3, The Nun 2, A Haunting In Venice |
| October | Kraven the Hunter, The Exorcist (reboot), Saw sequel, Trolls 3 |
| November | Dune part II, Hunger Games Prequel, Wish |
| December | Gremlins 3 (Maybe), Ghostbusters 4 (or Afterlife Part II) (Maybe), Wonka, Aquaman 2, The Colour Purple (Remake). |
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