Flixist’s Most Anticipated Films of 2017

Now that we’re finally through the cinematic winter wasteland of January, we can finally look forward to seeing some great, or interesting, films. But which ones are possibly worth our time and money? The Flixist staff was so excited for the potential this year, we’ve decided to pull together a list of the flicks we were most looking forward to in the coming year. 

Read on for Flixist’s Most Anticipated Films of 2017. 

John Wick: Chapter 2
Director: Chad Stahelski
Release Date: February 10, 2017

John Wick was the most surprising release of the last few years. I mean, out of nowhere Keanu Reeves literally declares that he’s “thinking [he’s] back” and it’s the most awesome thing ever? Who would’ve guessed that? I don’t really have any expectations for the sequel, other than hoping it’s more awesomeness, but I’m looking forward to it all the same. We need more purely fun action films, and I’m sure Chapter 2 is going to deliver. Just seeing footage of Reeves practicing for the film’s gunfights was enough to hook me. — Nick Valdez

The LEGO Batman Movie
Director: Chris McKay
Release Date: February 10, 2017

No one either expected The LEGO Movie to be as good as it was nor did they expect its standout star, Batman, to get his own spin-off. With as seriously Warner Bros. has been taking Batman lately, every bit of footage from LEGO has been a welcome breath of fresh air. Instead of the gruff and grumbly loner, we have a goofy Batman realizing he actually wants friends? That’s honestly the greatest thing since the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. I hope this succeeds for WB and we eventually get a LEGO Justice League to counteract what’s going to happen in live-action. — Nick Valdez

Get Out
Director: Jordan Peele
Release Date: February 24, 2017

Jordan Peele is probably the last person I’d expect to make a horror film, but Get Out looks like a phenomenally creepy and paranoid movie. The trailer looks sort of like The Wicker Man but with racist suburban white people, using those horror conventions to explore deep-seated racial anxieties. (Even the elevator pitch is pretty awesome, right?) Get Out had a secret screening at Sundance this year and received some excellent reviews. — Hubert Vigilla

Logan
Director: James Mangold
Release Date: March 3, 2017

In what his purported last bow as the titular character that reinvented and reinvigorated superhero movies for the better part of two decades now, Hugh Jackman stars as a gritty, older, meaner Wolverine. So the last Wolverine flick squandered ninjas (and almost Yakuza); if the trailers are any indication, we’re going to get the bloody mess (the good kind) we’ve been waiting for with this X-Men solo film. Look for murder, blood, guts, and swearing, for this film (taking a page from Deadpool), is rated R. Jackman has owned this role better than perhaps any other actor has a superhero, and I’m eager to see him go berserker style one more time (any duds in his time in the yellow spandex were no fault of his). — Rick Lash

Kong: Skull Island
Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts
Release Date: March 10, 2017

Recipe for a blockbuster: Take some of today’s hottest actors (Brie Larson and Tom Hiddleston) and pair them with veterans (John Goodman, Samuel L. Jackson, and the ever-flawless John C. Reilly). Mix in one giant ape and mix well. Garnish with an island full of monsters. Serves 50-100 million. — Sean Walsh

Raw (Grave)
Director: Julia Ducournau
Release Date: March 10, 2017

When Raw screened at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, there were reports of audience members fainting, vomiting, and rushing out in distress. Some of this may be pure hype, and some of it may be weak constitutions from the TIFF crowd. Julia Ducournau’s cannibal coming-of-age/sexual awakening movie is sure to cause a lot of sensation and shrieking revulsion when it finally hits theaters. –Hubert Vigilla

Beauty and the Beast
Director: Bill Condon
Release Date: March 17, 2017

Remaking all of their animated films seemed like a dumb idea at first, but after their string of successes, I no longer have any qualms with Disney’s process. I’ve been pretty much turned into a sucker, so I’m hoping Beauty and the Beast can only continue the great trend set by its predecessors. It’s hard to ruin a story like Beast‘s and the central cast looks great. Not sure about Dan Stevens’ Beast since it looks friggin’ weird, but Emma Watson is a darling and I can’t wait to hear her sing and then everyone else sing and then oh my god the singing. — Nick Valdez

The Belko Experiment
Director: Greg McLean
Release Date: March 17, 2017

As if a new Guardians wasn’t enough this year, cinema god James Gunn penned this film that combines The Office and Battle Royale (two of my favorite things). Eighty white-collar works are ordered to murder each other or else in a twisted game. Featuring John Gallagher Jr. of 10 Cloverfield Lane and Dr. Cox himself, John C. McGinley, The Belko Experiment is designed to be this year’s cult hit. — Sean Walsh

Power Rangers
Director: Dean Isrealite
Release Date: March 24, 2017

Everyone has the one fandom they’ll fight for. Some have Star Wars, others have Doctor Who, but I have Power Rangers. I’ve meticulously examined every photo, every trailer, and every single bit of info I could get my hands on for this. Let’s just say I’m glad this is coming out in March. If it were any later, I would’ve lost my damn mind over it. At this point, I’m so interested in this release I’m sick of it. I need it in my eyeballs already so I can move on with my life. Ugh, I hope this isn’t my generation’s Transformers.  — Nick Valdez

Ghost in the Shell
Director: Rupert Sanders
Release Date: March 31, 2017

Anime is huge worldwide, but successfully transferring from cartoon to live action (and often condensing massively drawn out story arcs into singular multi-hour vehicles) has proven difficult, if not impossible to do (here’s looking at you, Avatar: The Last Airbender). Based off what we’ve seen so far, this is an honest attempt to do so, and I believe the story of Ghost in the Shell serves the effort well; it’s good source material to condense and create a wholistic story arc that will satisfy hungry viewers. Unfortunately, casting Scarlett Johansson in a role that would presumably go to someone of Asian heritage has already led to controversy and detracted from hype at what could be a kickass movie. — Rick Lash

Colossal
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Release Date: April 7, 2017

So, okay… Let me get this straight. Colossal is an oblique kaiju movie that’s also a comedy about a woman’s personal connection to a giant monster destroying South Korea? You had me at “hello”. I can only assume that the monster is some psychic manifestation of existential despair and the uncertainties of life in the modern world. You know, the usual. –Hubert Vigilla

Your Name (君の名は。, Kimi no Na wa)
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Release Date: April 7, 2017

Your Name has become the highest-grossing movie in Japanese history (worldwide box office) and the fourth-highest grossing film in Japan (domestic box office). It’s been in Japanese theaters for 22 weeks, and it’s finally coming to the United States in April. The coming-of-age film features time travel and body-swapping, and a pretty catchy tune in the trailer. Your Name is apparently an extremely emotional ride, and its animation looks crisp and beautiful as well. –Hubert Vigilla

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Director: James Gunn
Release Date: May 5, 2017

The first Guardians of the Galaxy is one of my favorite MCU films since it does its own thing so well. And by that I mean it was The Goonies in space. Vol 2 looks like another jolly romp in far reaches of space, but this time with a baby Groot. My hope is the movie doesn’t get too bogged down in setting up Avengers: Infinity War and just rollicks along on its own adventure. I also hope the second volume of the Awesome Mix is as good as the first. –Hubert Vigilla

Alien: Covenant
Director: Ridley Scott
Release Date: May 19, 2017

I’m not the hugest fan of the Alien series, which was only made worse by Prometheus, but Covenant really made an impression on me. I know some found its trailer derivative, but I’m definitely looking forward to sci-fi horror. There just isn’t enough of it anymore. I know it’s yet another crew landing on a strange planet somewhere before xenomorphs attack, but whatever. 2016 majorly lacked good horror films, so 2017 already has to make up for it in spades. Pressure’s on. — Nick Valdez

Wonder Woman
Director: Patty Jenkins 
Release Date: June 2, 2017

Wonder Woman both fairly and unfairly has much riding on it to succeed. It’s a blockbuster film directed by a woman (who should not be an outlier), it’s the first superhero blockbuster with a woman in the lead, and it’s the first superheroine getting her first film. I’ve been hyped for it based on existence alone, but it’s been elevated by how great Gal Gadot was in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I’m still wary of her being able to lead a film, but I can’t get over how great Diana looks motion. Wonder Woman is an outlier for many reasons, but I hope it’s mainly for being the one good film DC Comics and Warner Bros can pull together. — Nick Valdez

The Mummy
Director: Alex Kurtzman
Release Date: June 9, 2017

When Universal announced plans for a culled together universe of all of their classic monster properties (beginning with the awful Dracula Untold), I didn’t think much of it until the first trailer for The Mummy. Now if you would’ve told me that there’s a potential universe of films where Tom Cruise fights classic monsters, I would’ve been sold day one. Cruise is the last of the classic Hollywood guys successfully pulling off action films, so he and old monster types go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Coupled with Sofia Boutella as the titular mummy and we could have a winner here. — Nick Valdez

Transformers: The Last Knight
Director: Michael Bay
Release Date: June 23, 2017

The Transformers films have always been a special kind of terrible. They look fantastic, but are also a visual nightmare. The explosions are cool, but they’re also so frequent you can’t enjoy any of them. There’s tons of fan service in the story, but the story makes no damn sense. I have no idea what’s going with The Last Knight (the trailer didn’t help matters, either), but I, for some reason, have a strong compulsion to see it. I’ve already invested so much of time into this god-forsaken junk heap that I can’t really stop now. I’m in it till the world ends. — Nick Valdez

Spiderman: Homecoming
Director: Jon Watts
Release Date: July 17, 2017

I like the Marvel cinematic universe, but I don’t love it. It’s big. It’s fun. Everything feels basically the same. (Everything is basically the same.) But with Spiderman: Homecoming, I think there’s the potential for something really interesting. It’s crazy to think that this is the third time we’re seeing a new Spiderman saga unfold in just 15 years, but I’m particularly excited by this one. If his unnecessary-but-fantastic sequences in Civil War are any indication, Tom Holland is an excellent Peter Parker/Spiderman, and I’m oh-so glad that they’re not doing an origin story this time. He’s got the powers. That’s what matters. Maybe we’ll get a few flashbacks, but we’re also getting a RDJ team-up, and, like, that’s great. 

The trailer looks fun and has a different type of drama. Lower stakes drama. Part of the problem with Marvel movies for me is just how high stakes they always have to be. While there’s definitely some big stuff going down in Homecoming, it’s also a high school drama. It’s low-key, and I’m looking forward to that in and of itself. — Alec Kubas-Meyer

Dunkirk
Director: Christopher Nolan
Release Date: July 21, 2017

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk looks like the prestige war film of the year, and probably the only movie I’m interested in seeing in IMAX upon release. I wonder how Nolan will chronicle this particular event from World War II, in which demoralized British and French troops evacuated Dunkirk, spared only by a halt order by the Nazis. Nolan’s got a great ensemble cast to work with, including Kenneth Brannagh, Tom Hardy, Mark Rylance, and Cillian Murphy. –Hubert Vigilla

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Director: Luc Besson
Release Date: July 21, 2017

It’s been a long time since a Luc Besson movie has interested me. Leave it to Valerian to get me intrigued in Besson. Visually arresting and full of lush, vertiginous science fiction cityscapes, this looks like The Fifth Element writ large. The film is an adaption of the French comic book series Valerian and Laureline, which I really want to check out. There’ll probably be a reprint omnibus closer to July to coincide with the film. –Hubert Vigilla

The Dark Tower
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Release Date: July 28, 2017

The Dark Tower is widely considered Stephen King’s opus: a sprawling, seven-book, 4,250-word, 22-year and western-fantasy-horror genre-bending odyssey. Featuring the monster acting chops of  Idras Elba as Roland Deschain, aka the Gunslinger, and Matthew McConaughey (yes, post-True Detective, he has earned the accolade) as Walter Padick, aka the Man in Black, this one promises to have the potential to surprise and deliver. Director Nikolaj Arcel has said this is more of a sequel to the books than an adaptation, so even diehard fans will have new material to look forward to. — Rick Lash

Blade Runner 2049
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Release Date: October 6, 2017

Sometimes, things are better left alone. A part of me feels like Blade Runner might be one ofthose cases. Of course, to actually make that argument, you’d have to think that the theatrical cut, marred by studio interference, was well enough to be left alone. Obviously, it wasn’t, and it would be a very long time before there was a proper cut of what is objectively among the best science-fiction films of all time.

But it doesn’t really matter if the film “should” be left as its own thing, because we’ve got a sequel. And ya know what? I’m excited about it. Denis Villeneuve, as I say any chance I get, is among my favorite working directors, and there’s not another director I would trust more to make a worthwhile follow-up to such a classic. 

I mean… did you see that teaser? Oh my god I’m so hype. — Alec Kubas-Meyer

Thor: Ragnarok
Director: Taika Waititi
Release Date: November 3, 2017

As if I wasn’t already going to see Thor 3, Marvel went and tossed Hulk into the mix. A buddy movie set in space at least partially adapting Planet Hulk, Ragnarok will assuredly give us more intense universe-building action and fan-service as we race ever closer to Infinity War. And if that wasn’t enough to sell you, Jeff Goldblum, will, uh, um, be playing The Grandmaster! — Sean Walsh

Justice League
Director: Zack Snyder
Release Date: November 17, 2017

I hated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as much as the next guy, and the thought of another non-Wonder Woman film from DC is grating, but as with Transformers, I have to see this through. Like it or not, it’s going to be the first time we ever see all of these superheroes in a film together and I really want it to succeed. Did Zack Snyder take all of the complaints into account? Probably not. He said he paid attention last time, but that only resulted in a vengeful, hateful Batman that Ben Affleck himself hates doing. So who really knows what’s going to happen here? Well, whichever way this swings I’m here for it. — Nick Valdez

Coco
Director: Lee Unkrich 
Release Date: November 22, 2017

Latinx culture always gets the shaft when it comes to representation. Always relegated to some film fetishizing rather than celebrating, I’ve been eagerly awaiting a film to capture what makes the culture so special. While it’s not handled by Latinx creators like the similar The Book of Life, I’m hoping Pixar’s Coco can tell our story. Or, at the very least, make a film as lovable as ones they have done in the past. I’d enjoy seeing kids fall in love with characters of Mexican influence, and given our current political climate, that’s needed now more than ever. — Nick Valdez

Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Director: Rian Johnson
Release Date: December 15, 2017

While I generally enjoyed The Force Awakens, its second half was too slavishly anchored to the first Star Wars. I have high hopes for Rian Johnson’s sequel, mainly because I think Johnson will get away from repeating too many beats from previous Star Wars films and just play Star Wars in a Star Wars movie. The title The Last Jedi is intriguing, though as many people have pointed out, “Jedi” is both singular and plural. On a more somber note, I wonder if the film will feature some sort of tribute to Carrie Fisher. May the force be with us all. –Hubert Vigilla

Okja
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Release Date: TBA 

Bong Joon-Ho is the only Korean filmmaker I genuinely trust to make English-language films. I had my reservations about Snowpiercer (ones not necessarily shared with many of my peers), but it was a fascinating and solid outing, and the language barrier doesn’t seem to have been the cause of any issues. So, if he wants to continue doing it? I’m all for it. Netflix is behind Okja, which is fascinating and exciting in and of itself. Their film hasn’t been up to the level of their TV, but this could very well be the film to change it.

If it’s good and Netflix feels its success, it can only mean good things going forward. In that sense, there’s a fair bit riding on the film. But I think it’s a pretty good chance of pulling it off. I mean, it’s got a hell of a cast and an extremely talented director putting it all together. What’s not to be excited about? — Alec Kubas-Meyer

A Ghost Story
Director: David Lowery
Release Date: TBA

Recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the buzz around David Lowery’s A Ghost Story has caught my attention. A love story starring Casey Affleck (as a ghost) and Rooney Mara (as a non-ghost), the film is chockablock with grief, longing, and metaphysical contemplation. And apparently there’s some scene of Mara eating a pie people just won’t shut up about. –Hubert Vigilla

Wind River
Director: Taylor Sheridan
Release Date: TBA 

The man who wrote Sicario and Hell or High Water has directed a film that has been described as the spiritual successor to both. Since this is Taylor Sheridan’s first time behind the camera, I’m expecting Wind River to be a little shaky, but I also expect it to have an extremely strong script that should support and technical weaknesses we may see. It also stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, who are both excellent when given the opportunity. I don’t know much about the film (intentional), but it’s certainly piqued my interest out of Sundance, where it just premiered. I’m very much looking forward to seeing it for myself. — Alec Kubas-Meyer

Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Fashion Movie
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release Date: TBA

A new film from Paul Thomas Anderson will always hold my attention. All I know about his newest project is that it’s about the fashion industry in the 1950s and it will star Daniel Day-Lewis. I expect big things, and I expect broad things, and I expect some sort of memorable line about milkshakes. I also hope it will screen at this year’s New York Film Festival like Inherent Vice a few years ago. –Hubert Vigilla