Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2008

You may notice that this list tends to skew a little more toward blockbusters than my top ten for 2007. What can I say? I never learn.

10 Pineapple Express
2008 promises lots of movies featuring Judd Apatow in the producer’s chair, but this is the only one that was written by Superbad scribes Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. This one is a stoner comedy, which doesn’t exactly speak to me personally, but I have no doubt there will be tons of laughs.

9 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Watching Order of the Phoenix tonight, I was amazed at how much improvement the series has displayed from its humble beginnings. Book 5 was my least favorite book, and so far represents my second favorite of the movies. Book 6 is one of the best books (7 tops that list), so I can’t wait to see what Phoenix director David Yates does with that one.

8 Valkyrie
This is the first film Bryan Singer has made without superheroes since 1998, and while I love the man’s work on the X-Men and Superman films, I love his debut, The Usual Suspects just as much. Valkyrie concerns a German plot to kill Hitler during WWII, which sounds like a good change of pace, so Bryan can come back refreshed and knock our socks off with a second Superman.

7 Synecdoche, New York
Synecdoche, New York marks the directorial debut of my favorite screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman. The man wrote one of my favorite movies ever in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, so I can’t wait to see how he does behind the camera. I have a hunch it will be incredibly bizarre and hilarious.

6 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
This is the first re-teaming of David Fincher and Brad Pitt since Fight Club. For those with short memories, that’s the director of my #7 favorite movie of 2007 and the star of my #1. And it also stars one of my favorite actresses, Cate Blanchett. Yeah, I’d say I’m looking forward to this one.

5 Wall-E
So I’m sure you’re all wondering when I became such a Pixar fanboy. Do a quick search and watch the trailer for Wall-E and you’ll understand. This one has the earmarkings of potentially being this generation’s E.T., which is ludicrously high speculation for me, but there it is. I defy you to tell me that this little robot isn’t the cutest thing you’ve ever seen, and if the wizards at Pixar can do for Sci-Fi what they did for superheroes, this will be one phenomenal experience.

4 Bond 22
No, that’s not the name of the next James Bond movie. They’re pulling a JJ Abrams and not telling us (which I guess would imply that it was the name), but that’s what we’re all calling it right now. Casino Royale was one of the best Bond movies ever, and far and away the best one that didn’t star Sean Connery, so the sequel can’t get here fast enough for me. Hollywood is very franchise-oriented these days, and the Bond franchise is the granddaddy of them all. I’d like to see it leading the pack in terms of quality too, and so far it’s off to a great start.

3 Iron Man
With both the Spider-man and X-Men series showing signs of fading enthusiasm, it’s tremendously exciting to see a new Marvel hero taking the stage. They’ve had mixed results with their characters in the past aside from the 2 mentioned above, but the casting choice of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is absolutely perfect in this fan’s opinion, so I’m with them so far. They’ve also done a great job courting the fans thus far (reminiscent of 300 and Batman Begins), so signs are pointing toward success, but I want to remain cautiously optimistic for the time being. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s freakin Iron Man!!!

2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Now this one I’m not so sure about. Steven Spielberg is my favorite director ever (and in my opinion he’s on a pretty good streak), and the Indiana Jones series is one of my favorites, but I just don’t know if they can recapture the magic of the originals. Come next summer it will be a full 20 years since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (which is 4 years more than the gap between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace). So yeah, this could certainly go either way, but once I get in that theater and hear that music I’ll probably be about ready to jump through the roof.

1 The Dark Knight
With Spidey and the mutants winding down, Batman seems poised to take over as the superhero film series, and since Batman Begins was just about perfect in every way, I’d say it stands a good chance of doing just that. And then there’s the bad guy. Ra’s al Ghul and Scarecrow are pretty sweet villains, but they have nothing on the one Dark Knight boasts. I am speaking of course of the best comic book supervillain ever written. The one, the only Joker. Anyone who’s seen the trailer can sense the insanity Heath Ledger has brought to the character, which may even rival Jack Nicholson’s classic performance that changed the Hollywood blockbuster forever. But then, after watching Spider-man 3, we all know there’s no such thing as a sure thing.