The beginning of the end is near. The end of laughter, tears, back pains due to sitting in concrete for hours on end, not to mention the waiting and more waiting. The end of everything we have been waiting on for days, months, even years, has finally arrived. The summer-mega-blockbusters that we have been waiting for have finally arrived.

 

 

April may not start with major movies, but it starts yet-another sequel to one of my personal Cult Favorites: Scream 4. After a not-so-successful third movie of this franchise (and supposed trilogy), I never thought it would be possible to release a fourth movie. But after 11 years of waiting, they did. With fresh new faces added to the cast, like Hayden Panettiere and Emma Roberts, the casting still follows the formula of famous-TV-actors-go-horror-stars. The old cast is there, of course; from Neve Campbell to Courtney Cox to David Arquette. The premise remains the same, Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) gets haunted by her old friend: The Ghostface. So, lets hope that besides the new cast, we have a good plot.

 

 

April also brings an old friend in a new comic book based movie. Brandon Routh is Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. This movie opens April 29th. Dylan Dog is a horror/thriller based on an Italian comic book about a supernatural private detective that looks for monsters in the Louisiana Bayou with his memorable red shirt, black jacket and blue jeans. From the previews, it seems that this resembles Superman as a supernatural life coach. Lets hope for the best and welcome Brandon back to the big screen after an amazing career in the small screen as Daniel Shaw in the action comedy series Chuck.

 

Also opening April 29th is Fast Five, the newest chapter of The Fast and The Furious. Starting nearly the entire original cast (nearly because Michelle Rodriguez was killed in the last sequel). Once again Dominic (Vin Diesel) and his crew are on the wrong side of the law. This movie is going to carry the same formula that we have all loved since the first one: fast cars, hot women, and hot men. As for plot, we can just hope for the best.

 

 

May brings the start of blockbuster season; also known as sitting for hours in the concrete awaiting a midnight showing. And it all starts with the first of the avengers: Thor. This is the one of the most awaited installments of the summer. The hammer-swinging, god of thunder comic book hero makes his first appearance on the big screen. With an Oscar-winning cast of Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s father and Natalie Portman as the hero’s love interest, Thor is the next installment in what is becoming the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and continues to set the stage for Joss Whedon’s epic superhero team up, The Avengers. Thor is played by Chris Hemsworth in the title role. The movie is about Thor getting cast away from Asgard and sent to earth, and his life post-‘downfall’. Fingers crossed that the first step of this great hero is towards a great season of movie-going and not to the end of
a much-beloved comic book hero.

 

 

And, of course, blockbuster season cannot be without vampires. Paul Bettany (Legion, The DaVinci Code) stars as a priest who goes against the church’s wishes to find the vampires who kidnapped his niece in the post-apocalyptic horror Priest, eloquently named after the character. Think of this movie as a mixture of Blade and Hitman but in 3D. The cast also includes Maggie Q (Nikita, Live Free or Die Hard) and Cam Gigandet (Twilight, Burlesque). The movie comes out May 13th.

 

May also brings a new unlikely hero that we all loved from the moment he said ‘allo. I am talking, of course, about Captain Jack Sparrow, played by the magnificent Johnny Depp. In the fourth installment of the mega movie series, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Jack takes us, along with Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush), on a search across the sea, seeking the mythological fountain of youth. However the big changes are in the cast: There is no more Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) or Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightley), but we do have some fresher faces in the way of Penélope Cruz as Angelica, Blackbeard’s daughter and Ian McShane as Blackbeard himself. So cruise down to the theaters on May 20th for another epic adventure around the Caribbean with our favorite drunken pirate!

 

 

And, speaking of drunks, how about another dose of what happens when you don’t remember what you did last night? The boys are back, with a whole new Hangover. The Hangover Part II takes us all theway down to Bangkok where Stu (Ed Helms) is having his wedding, resulting in another major-blackout-night chock-full of laughs as the reconstruction of what really happened is revealed. Did I mention there is a monkey? Well, there is. The Hangover Part II comes out May 26th.

 

 

This concludes the first installment of the Summer Blockbusters. Stay tuned to ComicsOnline.com for more movie previews and everything geek pop culture.