Movies That'll Surprise Us In 2019

2019 is loaded with some of the most highly anticipated sequels, reboots, and adaptations in years. Sequels to huge fan favorites set to be released this year include Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, IT: Chapter 2, and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Audiences will also see new entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Tarantino canon with Captain Marvel and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, respectively. All this and we haven't even mentioned the live action remakes of beloved Disney cartoon classics that are coming soon — Aladdin, The Lion King, and Dumbo. 

With so many high-profile releases on deck for the year, there are some really amazing movies flying under the radar that have the potential to sneak up on us. There are even some highly publicized tentpole movies that may wind up being really pleasant surprises for a number of reasons. Here are the movies poised to surprise audiences in 2019.

In the last decade, Will Smith has acted in just one movie that has a positive Tomatometer score — and that was 2012's lukewarm Men in Black III. The rest of his filmography from the past ten years is an unusual smattering of either critically reviled movies or straight-up box office losers. Gemini Man, directed by Ang Lee, could be the movie to buck this trend and deliver a critical and financial success.

The concept is certainly tantalizing. Smith stars as an assassin who battles his own clone — a younger version of himself in his prime. This property has become somewhat legendary in Hollywood as one of the great unproduced projects of the last 20 years. Originally, the movie was set up at Disney way back in 1997, but stalled due to the shortcomings of technology at the time. Jerry Bruckheimer took over as producer a little more than ten years ago, and is now co-producing with Skydance Media. Visual effects have come a long way since the movie's inception, and we'll finally get a chance to see this long-gestating vision become a reality. Gemini Man has a release date set for October 11. 

With MCU juggernauts Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame due out this spring, it's easy to miss this unconventional superhero genre hitting screens in March. Fast Color has been riding a wave of positive buzz since it was presented at SXSW 2018. Directed by Julia Hart from a script she co-wrote with her producer husband Jordan Horowitz (of La La Land fame), this is a rare super-powered movie not based on a pre-existing property. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Ruth, a woman on the run due to her unusual abilities. Now, after years without contact with her family, she is forced to return home. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Hart commented on her inspiration for the script. "My husband and I came up with the idea for the movie when we became parents," said Hart. "I just felt this superhuman strength that I had never felt before when I became a mother. So, the idea for the movie came from this notion that mothers are superheroes. I realized that I'd never seen a movie where there was actually a superhero who was a mother. That was the origin of it, about these three generations of women — a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter — using their relationship with each other to understand, and accept, and use their powers." Fast Color comes out on March 29th.

This mob drama, set in 1970s New York City, is based on Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle's DC/Vertigo comic series about three housewives who take over the Irish mafia when their mobster husbands are all sent to prison. Anything but your typical comic book adaptation, Andrea Berloff — the screenwriter of Straight Outta Compton — has reportedly delivered a story that is truly unique in her directorial debut. 

The casting also cleverly plays with audience expectations. Melissa McCarthy and TIffany Haddish are two of the most popular comedic actresses working in Hollywood right now. With these comedy super talents front and center, it'd be easy to imagine The Kitchen as a wildly hilarious fish-out-of-water farce. Instead, this crime drama plays it straight, putting Haddish, McCarthy, and Elisabeth Moss in direct conflict with the underbelly of Hell's Kitchen more viciously and violently than one might expect. The Kitchen will be released on September 20th. 

Taron Egerton broke onto the scene with his turn in Matthew Vaughn's surprise box office hit Kingsman: The Secret Service. After the successful follow-up Kingsman: The Golden Circle and with a third entry into the franchise on the way, Egerton is shifting gears for his next big role. In Rocketman, he'll play Elton John in a story that follows the rise of his early career.

With music biopics like Straight Outta Compton and Bohemian Rhapsody performing well critically and at the box office, one can't help but wonder if the genre is at risk of becoming predictable and formulaic as Hollywood attempts to recreate those successes. According to Egerton, however, Rocketman isn't so much a biopic as it is a "fantasy musical." Speaking to Collider, Egerton said, "Everyone thinks it's a biopic. It isn't. It's a fantasy musical so it's actually his songs used to express important beats in his life at emotional moments. He's not the only character that sings. It's going to be fun." It will be interesting to see what Elton John's legendary catalog can do to elevate the genre. Rocketman will be released on May 31st.

Cats, from Broadway icon Andrew Lloyd Webber, is the fourth longest running musical of all time. The show is likely just as famous for being the butt of countless jokes and parodies as it is for being successful. This quote from the Daily News in 2016 sums it up: "The feline-a-palooza by Andrew Lloyd Webber — based on poetry by T.S. Eliot — has been long been regarded as a joke since it began a Tony-winning, 18-year run in 1982. The plot's silly. The cast acts all feline-y. And the catsuits. It is what it is." Why should audiences expect this movie to be anything else other than saccharine nonsense?

Look at the cast. The call sheet includes Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, Idris Elba, Sir Ian McKellan, late night host James Corden, Tony and Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench, Rebel Wilson, and pop star Jason Derulo. You've got some truly talented vocalists involved, not to mention some amazing actors and comedians. Tom Hooper, acclaimed director of The Danish Girl and Les Miserables, will helm the film. This sounds like a recipe for a guilty pleasure of a movie that you will refuse to admit you secretly love. Cats will be released on December 20th.

Tim Burton has probably directed some of your favorite films — after all, this is the guy who gave us Batman, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands. Latter-day Burton has been brilliant just as often as he's been uneven; movies like Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children either failed to connect with audiences or didn't live up to their big budgets. Two Disney live-action re-imaginings, Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, made money, but earned disappointing scores from Rotten Tomatoes.

With two more live-action Disney remakes of beloved '90s animated features due out this year — Aladdin and The Lion King — it was easy to miss the news that Burton had taken the helm on the remake of the 1941 classic Dumbo, but when the trailer came out, it was well received. The movie re-teams Michael Keaton and Danny Devito – a.k.a Burton's Batman and Penguin – along with a beautiful setting for Burton's unmistakable aesthetic. Dumbo hits theaters on March 29th.

Captive State is a science fiction thriller that pairs John Goodman and Moonlight star Ashton Sanders. The trailer plays like a Purge-style nightmare that incorporates the fear and mistrust of power that seems more and more pervasive in modern culture. The concept is pushed even further by including invaders from another world in the mix. Details have been well-guarded, but the film's official synopsis is certainly intriguing: "Set in a Chicago neighborhood nearly a decade after an occupation by an extra-terrestrial force, Captive State explores the lives on both sides of the conflict — the collaborators and dissidents."

This film could definitely surprise by taking a dystopian extrapolation of our current political climate and putting some old school movie monster thrills in the mix. This movie also marks a return to the sci-fi genre for Rupert Wyatt, director of 2011's acclaimed Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Captive State premieres on March 15.

Writer-director-actor Taika Waititi is best known for his understated comedic sensibilities, often hidden within super-powered or supernatural high concept stories. He did a remarkable job of making Thor: Ragnarok — a comic book space opera and linchpin of the decade-long MCU narrative — feel like a relatable buddy comedy. His comedy-horror movie What We Do in the Shadows became a cult sensation by exploring the immortal lives of vampires coping with the complexities of modern life — a wildly original concept for a comedy. How can Waititi possibly surprise audiences further?

His next film, Jojo Rabbit, might be his most ambitious — or utterly insane — project to date. It's a World War II comedy about a 10 year old German boy (played by Roman Griffin Davis) who struggles to find his place in the world. For help, he turns to an imaginary friend for guidance: Adolf Hitler. Not only does Waititi direct the screenplay that he wrote on this one, he also plays the character of imaginary Hitler. The movie's cast also includes Scarlett Johansson, Stephen Merchant, and Sam Rockwell. Reshoots of a few key scenes wrapped in February 2019, and the final product is due to arrive this fall.