The 2022 Super Bowl has officially wrapped up, and as per tradition, it's unleashed a blitzkrieg of trailers for your viewing pleasure. Scroll down to discover some of the theatrical highlights headed your way over the next few months.
1. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Picking up where Spider-Man: No Way Home Left off, the Doctor Strange sequel uncorks a host of visually arresting, and nightmarish, imagery. Could we be faced with the first-ever horror movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)? Director Sam Raimi certainly has pedigree: as the man behind the Evil Dead trilogy, he also helmed The Gift and Drag Me To Hell, and he orchestrated that terrifying hospital sequence in Spider-Man 2.
In The Multiverse of Madness, the titular Sorcerer Supreme (Benedict Cumberbatch) must reckon with his multiverse tampering as various dimensions smash into one another. Seeking the fugitive Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), Strange must confront his demonic other self (an apparent callback to Marvel's What If? series), all the while as his close ally Wong (Benedict Wong) warns him of the consequences.
The sequel also picks up the dormant thread of the tension between Strange and his former ally Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), as Mordo puts Strange on trial for his dangerous experiments. With some enjoyably ghoulish imagery (watch out for Strange's face turning into the equivalent of a Rubik's Cube) and plenty of fan-pleasing nods (Gargantos the sea monster wreaks havoc in New York), this could be a spectacular extension of Marvel Phase Four. Plus, we eagerly await the arrival of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez), who is poised to play a significant role in terms of our understanding of the multiverse.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness arrives on 6th May.
2. Nope
The film may be called Nope, but when it comes to director Jordan Peele and horror, our reaction is most certainly 'yep.' The Oscar-winning director of Get Out and Us returns with his cryptic and intriguing-looking new chiller, the trailer for which gives away both everything and nothing. Now, that's how it should be done. Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya teams with Hustlers' KeKe Palmer and Minari's Steven Yeun for a story about... something. The brilliantly designed teaser points towards an apparent extraterrestrial threat, and we're getting strong overtones of Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and Shyamalan (Signs) in the trailer.
However, such is the strength of Peele's personality that Nope is bound to have his darkly ironic, deeply scary touch all over it. The trailer touches on the history of Hollywood whitewashing before appearing to critique small-town cowboy culture, potentially meaty undercurrents that anticipate the arrival of a dark cloud with bunting hanging from the end of it. Some have speculated that the movie is based on the legend of the Skinwalker Ranch, a former Navajo reservation that's a reputed hotbed of UFO activity. If that's true, then it's Peele in a nutshell, encapsulating both America's contentious racial history and supernatural menace in one fell swoop.
Nope is released on 22nd July.
3. The Lost City
Speed meets Magic Mike meets Romancing the Stone in this raucous-looking buddy comedy. Sandra Bullock teams with Channing Tatum for a story of an author and her air-headed cover model who get into trouble in the jungle. When Bullock's character Loretta is kidnapped by the nefarious billionaire Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), mayhem ensues. There's also a cameo from Brad Pitt in this action-comedy, which comes from the pen of Horrible Bosses creator Seth Gordon.
"That's what's so much fun about it, you can take old setups and easily make them new," Bullock tells Entertainment Weekly. "And the fun thing about the male-female narrative is that now we can turn it on its ear because it's no longer, 'This is the woman's role. This is the man's role.' You can mess with all of that and create a whole new dynamic. And that's sort of what we did," she says, crediting the pair's "true comedic partnership" with making it work.
The Lost City is released on 15th April.
4. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Back in 2020, the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie did justice to the Sega gaming icon. Voiced by Ben Schwartz, Sonic's cheekiness and lightning-fast, ring-collecting abilities arrived on the big screen intact. That said, the show was stolen by Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik, although only at the end of the movie did we see Carrey in the classic garb and whiskers.
Good news: Carrey maintains the look in sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which again puts Sonic and his nemesis Robotnik on a collision course. James Marsden also returns and Idris Elba is on hand to voice the iconic echidna known as Knuckles. The first Sonic movie was a big box office hit and was praised as the rare videogame-to-movie adaptation that works. Can Sonic 2 pull off the same trick?
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is released on 1st April.
5. Ambulance
Master of mayhem Michael Bay turns on the blue light and charges through the underbelly of Los Angeles in this typically overcooked thriller. The ever-versatile Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a career criminal who hijacks an ambulance in the wake of a heist gone wrong. Aquaman's Yahya Abdul Mateen II plays Gyllenhaal's on-screen brother, a war veteran who reluctantly becomes embroiled in the chaos that ensues. Hobbs & Shaw's Eiza Gonzalez also stars in a film that promises all the familiar Bay-isms: shaky camera, sweaty intensity and lots of gunfire.
Ambulance is released on 25th March.
6. DC: The World Needs Heroes teaser
From Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam to Ezra Miller in The Flash and Jason Momoa in Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom – the DC Extended Universe is really ramping up. Check out this action-packed preview of these awesome comic book blockbusters headed your way very soon.
Which of these movies are you most excited about seeing? Let us know @Cineworld.
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