Sequels, Sequels, Sequels Galore: Cinema in 2016

To shorten this list to just 5 movies has proven a very difficult task. The film industry was flooded with blockbusters in 2015 and 2016 is going to be no different with sequel after sequel being released. Here are my pick for the ones that are a must see. For fairness and diversity I’ll only be picking one Marvel universe and one DC universe movie in the list.Deadpool: I debated with myself a lot when picking this one. After promising myself only one Marvel I found myself trying to pick between Deadpool, Captain America Civil War and X-Men Apocalypse. I went with Deadpool, because it looks different. I can't be the only one getting a little tired of X-men. As for Civil War, the trailer looks great, the plot could be brilliant the stage really is set for this one, so we'll probably all be bitterly disappointed. But anyway I digress, Deadpool is the one I picked to feature and I stand by that. Everything this movie is bringing to the table looks like the kind of thing you could watch over and over. You're not going to get an intellectually gauging storyline or many memorable dramatic scenes, but what you are getting is fun. Ryan Reynolds has proven himself to be well up to the task of being the egomaniac Wade Wilson through his own Twitter and videos he's released during the build up to this movie and this only further builds my expectation. So what can we expect from this movie? A lot of swearing, brilliant one liners, some truly awesome fight scenes and if the past is anything to go on the absolute shattering of the fourth wall.Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice: The hype for this film alone is almost a reason to go see it. It all began back in August 2013 when Ben Affleck (much to the dismay of fans) was announced to be playing the next batman in the sequel to Man of Steel (Superman movie). Since then we have been bombarded with leaked teaser trailers and photos of the set each one revealing more of the story and bringing us tantalisingly closer to the release date. From the trailers, this one promises to be a big hit and isn't short of talent with Henry Cavill, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons and Ben Affleck (yes Ben Affleck who I think is a good choice for batman and I don't care how rubbish the Daredevil movie was) all featuring. To say this film has a lot to live up to would be an understatement but I think given the cast and the time put into this movie it could definitely go down as a great.Assassins Creed:  One of the things that remained great during the Assassins Creed series was how engaging the characters and storyline has been (except Assassins Creed 3, that was just truly terrible and "Conor" was just an awful assassin) and to see this being brought to the silver screen is great. As of now little is really known of this movie, without a trailer and only small releases (photographs and nuggets of info) there's no saying how this movie will go. Michael Fassbender playing the lead is a really good sign however and also the fact that this is a big budget movie shows us that at least there is real investment in its success. As for now the only other things I can say for certain is the male protagonist will be Callum Lynch, someone previously not seen in the games and the ancestor memories will be based in Spain. For those of you not familiar with the games don't despair, I would assume this film will be explaining the background to the series and either way it's not terribly difficult to catch on to. However I would suggest playing the games as they're just brilliant (except 3, I can't stress that enough).Zoolander 2: A bit different to the other entries on this list but whoever said diversity was a bad thing. Zoolander 2 might be slightly overshadowed by some of the massive names coming out this year but I feel this might hold its own given the popularity of the first one. However, we've seen the original, will this really be any different, is 15 years enough to come up with an original direction to take this satirical view on the fashion world? If the trailer is anything to go by, the answer to these questions is a resounding no. This does look set to be another sequel that can't find its own way but I still have faith for it. After all the first one was quite funny and it has been long enough that a sequel was wanted so why change anything? Surely they're giving the fans what they want, silly satirical comedy that's easy to watch. So if you want a break from all the massive budget, explosion filled super powered movies to come this year, Zoolander 2 is well worth a look.Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them:  Is the newest instalment to the J.K Rowling's collection and is based in the wizardly world which Harry Potter is based. What’s important however is that this isn't a sequel. This is its own story, based in America, 70 years before Harry Potter starts in Hogwarts. I feel this is important because although the world of Harry Potter is amazing, the story has been told and now to see a new one rise from the same world opens up much more potential than a sequal could. Another reason to go see this movie is the inclusion of Eddie Redmayne. He's been brilliant in near every movies he's been in from Les Miserable in 2012 to The Theory of Everything in 2014 and so I can't wait to see what he does with his character Newt Scamander a New York writer and wizard.So they're the 5 movies I've chosen as ones to watch in the upcoming year but realistically there's many more. Suicide Squad, Captain America Civil War, X-men Apocalypse and Dr Strange all part of the DC and Marvel cinematic universes and all carry a lot of expectation with them. Warcraft looks set to be a promising movie, based on the world that is World of Warcraft. The Jungle Book is one I definitely could have picked for the top 5 and really only narrowly missed out. The completely new take on the Disney classic is very intriguing and could be a big one this year. Similarly Alice Through the looking glass is another revamped version of a classic children’s tale which to be fair could be argued to be more true to the original stories than the original movies are. As if there weren't enough sequels already, Now You See Me is returning for a second act to wow us with amazing tricks only to make us feel utterly useless when the tricks are explained, but really if the second is anything like the first it's well worth a look.