For reels though: The 225 Summer Movie Preview

Summer can be a tough season for original material—or anything other than a sequel or comic book franchise. Here are five films bringing something fresh to cinema screens in the near future.

MAY 30
MALEFICENT
The Gist: Disney goes dark with Angelina Jolie as Sleeping Beauty’s witchy nemesis Maleficent, in this tale of the curse-happy queen’s descent into madness.
Directed by: Robert Stromberg (The Hunger Games concept artist)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley
Recommended If You Like: Snow White and the Huntsman, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, your childhood but wished it had been scarier.

JUNE 6
EDGE OF TOMORROW
The Gist: Like Groundhog Day but with so much more fighting, Tom Cruise is a future, robotic-suit-wearing soldier who finds himself repeating his final, fateful day on the battlefield against invading aliens.
Directed by: Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity)
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Jeremy Piven, Bill Paxton
RIYL: Iron Man, Starship Troopers, watching Tom Cruise bite it.

JUNE 27
THEY CAME TOGETHER
The Gist: This rom-com spoof from David Wain and Michael Showalter—the duo who made the cult comedy classic Wet Hot American Summer—reunites two of that film’s stars, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler, and follows the couple as they connect while her small business is threatened by the advances of a major corporation.
Directed by: David Wain (Wanderlust)
Starring: Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Cobie Smulders, Christopher Meloni
RIYL: This Is 40, Parks and Recreation, making fun of You’ve Got Mail.

AUG 1
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
The Gist: The adaptation of E.L. James’ best-selling novel follows Anastasia Steele, who—after agreeing to interview billionaire Christian Grey—becomes cripplingly attracted to the enigmatic businessman. He reciprocates her advances, and soon their relationship develops into something much more than she originally intended.
Directed by: Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy)
Starring: Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Marcia Gay Harden
RIYL: Secretary, sex, lies and videotape, following directions.

AUG 1
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
The Gist: Marvel’s popular graphic novel series finally arrives on the big screen. It follows the adventures of a sarcastic pilot named Peter “Star-Lord” Quill and his gaggle of misfit heroes that includes a walking, talking tree and a warrior raccoon with severe anger management issues.
Directed by: James Gunn (Movie 43)
Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper (voice), Vin Diesel (voice)
RIYL: Hellboy, Thor: The Dark World, teamwork making the dream work.

You know them. You love them. Or else you love to hate them. In either case, here are the blockbuster franchises returning to theaters and their rabid fan bases in the coming months.

The summer blockbuster season kicks off early this year with the return of the web-slinger on May 2, when The Amazing Spider-Man 2 arrives with Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone squaring off against Jamie Foxx’s highly charged villain Electro.

It’s not technically a sequel, just the latest incarnation of the infamous lizard, but Godzilla is back in theaters May 16—this time with Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston and Elizabeth Olsen ducking for cover.

May 23 finds everyone’s favorite mutants—Wolverine, Professor X, Magneto and more—crossing paths and time periods in X-Men: Days of Future Past, director Bryan Singer’s return to the franchise he launched in 2000.

Despite star Paul Walker’s tragic death last year, Fast & Furious 7 arrives full throttle on July 11, containing Walker’s final (albeit incomplete) performance in this revenge thriller that co-stars Jason Statham, Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Fanboys might be worried about James Franco’s absence from this prequel’s sequel, dropping July 18, but the hyper-intelligent ape Caesar was always the original’s star, and this New Orleans-shot follow-up finds him leading an army against the remnant of a plague-stricken human race in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is Robert Rodriguez’s belated sequel to his groundbreaking 2005 graphic novel-turned-film-noir. The director returns to the hard-boiled world of Mickey Rourke’s Marv and Bruce Willis’ Hartigan, but this film introduces new characters, too—like Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the film’s lead anti-hero, Wallace, and Eva Green’s femme fatale, Eva Lord.

These are a few independent pictures to keep your eye on, but depending on distribution, release dates remain TBD.

Richard Linklater’s experimental drama Boyhood follows the life of a boy from age 5 to 18—and stars the same young man in the role. Linklater took more than a decade to shoot this film with co-stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette playing the boy’s parents and shooting a few scenes each year until star Ellar Coltrane came of age.

An anxious and anger-filled author, played by Jason Schwartzman, seeks solace from his fans in Sundance hit Listen Up Philip opposite co-stars Elisabeth Moss and Krysten Ritter.

Another film with stellar reviews coming out of Sundance is Whiplash, a sort of anti-Mr. Holland’s Opus that follows a young jazz drummer who clashes with his tough-as-nails college instructor played by J.K. Simmons.