Top 10 Films of '13

Here in no particular order are the movies i'm most excited to see this year...

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hook: More peter Jackson middle-earth goodness AND a dragon!!! Sign me up.
The Fear: Less Lord of the Rings, more King Kong.
 
Jack Ryan
The Hook: Chris Pine takes over for Ben Afflec in a new Tom Clancey film. I could think of many worse ideas to come out of Hollywood.
The Fear: Sum of all Fears was exactly that.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Hook: If this is anywhere as good as the first one i'll pay to see it.
The Fear: That money will set the studios expectations lower.

Thor: The Dark World
The Hook: Interested to see how the events of The Avengers affect Asgaurds golden boy. Plus the first film got better with age.
The Fear: That changing directors will derail a fantastic start to a good franchise.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
The Hook: MOST of the original cast is back for a film that's sequel is a few years late for some, but hopefully Frank Miller's Sin City Series extension will provide enough new material to be just as good as the original.
The Fear: Almost none. They have to write this thing POORLY to ruin what they have here.

Riddick
The Hook: I can't take Vin Diesel seriously as an actor. Unless he is playing Riddick.
The Fear: That Vin will manage to tank what could be an amazing third chapter in the Riddick series.

Elysium
The Hook: Neil Blomkamp had me with District 9. If he can do as well Matt Damon as he did with Sharlto Copley this Sci Fi slice should push all the right buttons as well.
The Fear: That the film will try to reach too far.

The World's End
The Hook: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost could do infomercials as long as they're written by Edgar Wright.
The Fear: That it will be less funny than Hot Fuzz.

Pacific Rim
The Hook: GIANT F*CKING ROBOTS. Also Guillermo Del Toro's Sci Fi directing debut.
The Fear: Two words, Michael Bay.

World War Z
The Hook: MOAR ZOMBIES. Brad Pitt and Mathew Fox should make Max Brooks "World War Z" amazing.
The Fear: That the sheer length of production and budget of this film may have lost some of the good that is the core of this project.

Man of Steel
The Hook: Zach Snyder AND Christopher Nolan should make this the reboot that Superman has been looking for.
The Fear: Even Bryan Singer didn't make this work last time.

Iron Man 3
The Hook: I have a bit of a crush on RDJ. I have loved his films since Iron Man. And this looks to be a darker more dramatic version of the franchise I love dearly.
The Fear: That Jon Farveau leaving the directorial slot may not bode well for Stark Industries.

Star Trek Into Darkness
The Hook: Probably the most stunning trailer I've seen in years.
The Fear: J.J. Abrams is gonna REALLY have to screw this up to make this suck.

Now You See Me
The Hook: Great ensemble cast and Director of The Transporter Louis Leterrier this could be highly entertaining.
The Fear: This could turn out to be a big cast low content predictable feature.

Epic
The Hook: A gorgeous looking fantasy film that could be a star for Dreamworks.
The Fear: Yet another forgettable CGI romp.

Fast and Furious 6
The Hook: Tanks? Nope so far there have been no tanks in this franchise. So that would be new. Dwayne Johnson coming back can't be a bad omen.
The Fear: It's worse than 2Fast 2Furious, definetly the weakest of the films.

Oblivion
The Hook: An interesting plot and Tom Cruise. Has to be worth a matinee at it's worst.
The Fear: Too many sci-fi desolation flicks this year. This is the first and hopefully not because it's the weakest.

Oz The Great and Powerful
The Hook: Great cast, phenomenal director.
The Fear: None, movie was great.

And yes for those of you counting there were 18 films on this list. You start out with plans for 10 and then well. You know. Happy Viewing and go and view trailers. Feel free to comment!

Oz The Great and Powerful

Any time you attempt to reboot a cinematic icon, there are inherent risks. When setting out to do just this Sam Raimi tried to stay as close to the source material as he could while adding his tasteful eye for the fantastic. His over the top style compliments the film perfectly as well as his cast. James Franco leads what can only be considered an all star cast on this visually enthralling ride of a film. The blend of emotion and humor found in most of Raimi's film resonates well with the feel of the 1939 original The Wizard of Oz. I found it hard to find fault with the film and thoroughly pleased with the film.

Danny Elfman lands another solid score that fit the wonderment of Raimi's visuals throughout the film. Not once did I remember during the film that it was PG and would have been just as enjoyable for younger audiences. I didn't even care, and that is a rare thing these days. All in all Oz was a fantastic film and I highly recommend seeing the film in the 3-D IMAX format, for this films sense of scope it's easily worth the extra coin.

Oz the Great and Powerful

Overall Rating: 85