Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
The Universal Pictures presentation opened with Jurassic World Rebirth out July 2. Stars Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, and director Gareth Edwards were on hand talking about shooting on location rather than in a studio. The screenplay, written by original screenwriter David Koepp, finds the dinosaurs not suited for the theme park are dumped onto an island and they have to retrieve some DNA. The clip features good-looking dinosaurs and creatures.
The DreamWorks portion started with Gabby’s Dollhouse, a property that has a YouTube channel and 11 seasons on Netflix. Their plan is to spread across multimedia and next is Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, a live-action hybrid with Gloria Esteban as Grandma Gigi and Kristen Wiig is a villianous cat lady. Craig Robinson and Akwafina were on hand to present the next trailer for The Bad Guys 2 which sees the bad guys brought back into action by some bad girls. It will be released on August 1. From the live-action How to Train Your Dragon, Gerard Butler, Nico Parker, and director Dean DeBlois were greeted by an enthusiastic round of applause, in part because the film was screened earlier today. News broke that film debuts How to Train Your Dragon 2 is set to debut in theaters on June 11, 2027.
Him stars Tyreek Withers and Marlon Wayans introduced a first-look teaser as a promising quarterback learns the extreme sacrifices that have to be made, Produced by Jordan Peele, the film will be released on Sept 19. On August 15, Hutch is back in Nobody 2 to beat the hell of a lot of folks during his family’s summer outing.
The Focus Features portion opened with trailers. Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme (out 5/30) sees Benicio del Toro leads the ensemble as an international businessman who prepares his daughter to take over father’s affairs, which may be nefarious. Yorgos Lanthimos Bugonia (out November) where business executive Emma Stone is kidnapped by Jesse Plemmons, who thinks she might be an alien. Is he paranoid or a truth-teller? The franchise comes to a close (for now) with Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (out September) brings new challenges to the family and staff in 1930.
There are quite a few sequels on the way from Blumhouse. Friday at Freddie’s 2 is going straight to theaters in December as opposed to day and date on Peacock like the first release. The trailer offers more murdering robots. In October, the gang is back together as death is not always the end in Black Phone 2. Writer/director Scott Derrickson wanted to return to the characters. In Megan 2.0, Megan has to take on an upgraded version of itself, a new robot that wants to destroy all who contributed to her creation. Out on June 27. Soulm8te is a spin-off in the Meganverse. Getting over a loss, a man brings home Sara, a robot that becomes obsessed with him and wrecks all who get in way of being with him, out next January.
The sequel Wicked for Good is set for November to wrap up the story of Elphaba and Glinda. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were on hand to introduce the teaser trailer which is set to the title song “For Good.”
Odds and Ends: In 2026, there will be Super Mario Bros Movie 2 in April, the third Minions movie in July, and for Christmas, Shrek 5. In the summer, Spielberg releases an untitled blockbuster in June and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in late July.
