15 of the hottest blockbusters you can’t miss this summer and beyond

Add to that the retro joys of Indiana Jones and the hectic bluster of Mission: Impossible 7 and there was a lot to savour in the cinemas last summer. This year looks, well, a little tamer by comparison, with sequels dominating the release schedule, and not a lot happening in the way of new ideas.

However, some will savour a new Mad Max adventure, and the reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise. Then there’s MaXXXine, the final instalment of Ti West’s gloriously icky X trilogy, a Quiet Place prequel, and Twisters, a playful remake of the 1990s disaster movie.​

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Seven years after the last Planet of the Apes film, this new adventure reboots the franchise by leaping 300 years into the future. While we humans have regressed into a feral state, the apes have created an impressive civilisation but are now led by a cruel emperor, Proximus, who has perverted Caesar’s code of ethics. However, a new alliance between an ape and a human girl may change everything. Out on May 9.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

In the labyrinthine world of action sequels, George Miller’s adventure is set 15 years before the excellent Mad Max: Fury Road, and stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a young Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron’s character in Fury Road), who is abducted from the Green Place by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), a vicious warlord, and must get used to life in his dangerous camp as she plots his overthrow, and her escape. Looks handsome. Out on May 24.

Ransom ‘79

Right up to his death in March of this year, Charlie Bird was working away on a final story — a bizarre blackmail attempt kept secret by the Irish state for over 40 years. In 1979, an anonymous letter to the Department of Agriculture issued a threat to infect the national herd with foot and mouth disease if a £5m ransom was not paid. The threat was taken seriously, and a tense game of cat-and-mouse ensued as the late, great Charlie Bird discovers in this moving documentary. Out on May 24.

Hit Man

Any film from Richard Linklater is worth watching, and here he enters the unfamiliar territory of the romantic comedy in the company of Glen Powell. He plays an affable college professor who poses as a hit man in order to save a woman he has fallen in love with. Puerto Rican actress Adria Arjona co-stars, and early reviews have been very good, hinting at darker themes. Netflix, June 7.

The Watchers

Filmed in Ireland last year, and the directorial debut of M Night Shyamalan’s daughter Ishana, The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, an artist who gets lost in a vast forest in western Ireland. Seeking shelter for the night, she meets three strangers who tell her that creatures in the woods are watching them. Unpleasantness seems bound to ensue. Georgina Campbell and Olwen Fouéré co-star. Out on June 14.

Inside Out 2

Pixar is not the infallible hit machine it once was, but will have high hopes for this sequel to their 2015 animation set inside the rapidly changing brain of an 11-year-old girl called Riley. In Inside Out 2, Riley hits adolescence, which means it’s battle stations for harried emotions Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust and the latest members of the team, Anxiety and Embarrassment. Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Phyllis Smith and Paul Walter Hauser are among the voice cast. Out on June 14.

Despicable Me 4

Anyone who’s had a kid in the last 15 years or so will be all too familiar with the exploits of would-be Bond villain Gru and his herd of cute but irritating little yellow helpers. The junior critic in our house reckoned that Minions: The Rise of Gru was the weakest outing yet for a franchise that has tended to keep things fresh, but Gru is at his best when trying to hide the fact that he’s an old sweetheart, and in this adventure adds a new baby to his ever-expanding family. Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig reprise their roles, and Will Ferrell will play a grandiose criminal, Maxine Le Mal. Out on July 12.

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Fly Me to the Moon

Originally titled Project Artemis, this comic drama about the space race has had quite a few teething problems, from the abrupt departure of original director Jason Bateman to the replacing of original star Chris Evans due to schedule conflicts. Into his shoes steps Channing Tatum, who plays Nasa director Cole Davis, one of the men in charge of getting Americans to the moon before the Russians. But it’s going badly — so badly, in fact, that Davis’s boss hires a marketing guru called Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) to sell the moon mission to the masses. The trailer looks funny. Out on July 12.

A Quiet Place: Day One

Another prequel! At least this one is the third part of a sci-fi franchise with consistently high standards. In the original 2018 film, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt played a harried couple who must adapt to life in a world infested by flesh-eating aliens that hunt by sound. But this adventure returns to the first day of the invasion, as terrified city dwellers seek shelter from a sudden invasion from the sky. With Lupito Nyong’o. Out on June 28.

Twisters

The disaster movie Twister was one of the surprise summer hits of 1996, despite its rather basic plot about a group of storm chasers who unwisely follow a raging tornado across Oklahoma. We were an innocent, simple people back then. This sequel promises similarly straightforward fare, with state-of-the-art special effects and a cast that includes Daisy Edgar Jones, Glenn Powell and our own Daryl McCormack. Out on July 19.

Deadpool & Wolverine

Wait a second, I hear superhero scholars interject — didn’t Wolverine die at the end of Logan? He did, but through the manipulation of timelines is here paired with Deadpool for an adventure that unites the Marvel and X-Men worlds for the first time. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is grumpy, Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool a tiresome smart ass, so relations are bound to be strained as they encounter a deadly new enemy. Emma Corrin and Matthew Macfadyen co-star. Out on July 25.

MaXXXine

I’m a huge fan of Ti West’s X series, horror films with a brain and a wicked sense of humour that feature superb performances from Mia Goth in the dual roles of Pearl, a farmgirl psychopath, and Maxine, a porno actress who dreams of bigger things. In MaXXXine she has come to Hollywood to find “the life I deserve”, but must avoid the attentions of a notorious serial killer. Elizabeth Debicki, Bobby Cannavale and Kevin Bacon co-star. Out on August 9.

Alien: Romulus

Not everyone was impressed by Ridley Scott’s rather dry and technical Alien reboots Prometheus and Covenant, but here he yields the directing reins to horror specialist Fede Álvarez. Romulus is set between Scott’s 1979 Alien and James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens, and stars Cailee Spaney as one of a group of young colonists who are intrigued to find an empty space station, which has of course been deserted for a reason. Out on August 16.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The perennially marvellous Michael Keaton reprises the role that made him famous, teaming up with Tim Burton for this rather tardy sequel. In the 1988 original, Beetlejuice the ‘bio-exorcist’ ghost was summoned by a recently deceased couple to scare off the couple who’d moved into their house. Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprise their roles here, alongside newcomers Jenny Ortega and Willem Dafoe. If it’s half as funny as the original, it should be worth seeing. Out on September 6.

Joker: Folie à Deux

Lauded by the critics and accused by some of enabling toxic masculinity, Todd Phillips’ ultra-violent 2019 hit Joker gave Batman’s most implacable enemy a back story. Poor old Arthur Fleck wanted to be a comedian, and took it to heart when no one found him funny. In this baroque sequel he returns, escaping from Arkham Asylum to form a romantic attachment to Harley Quinn (Lady Gaga), an unhinged psychologist. Should be quite the spectacle. Out on October 4.