FILM

Pirates, penguins, pandas and Potter… Robin Askew charts a treacherous course between the inevitable tidal wave of sequels and 3D blockbusters in search of the occasional gem as cinema’s annual blockbuster season arrives.

Like policemen getting younger, the blockbuster season seems to be starting earlier and earlier each year. The 2011 starting gun is fired on May 18, when Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides hits the multiplexes in inevitable 3D. Thereafter, the big 'tentpole' releases have all staked out their territory until August. The distributors are certainly going to need a bumper summer to tide them over, as many commentators predict a washout in 2012 when audiences are expected to be distracted by the Olympics and other big sporting events.

Eyes down, then, as we romp through the major releases before taking a closer look at some of the potentially more interesting smaller films relegated to the margins. As light relief from all those CGI battles and explosions, comedies often do remarkably well in the summer months. Two years ago, surprise hit 'The Hangover' even beat the 'Star Trek' movie. So this year we're getting The Hangover 2 (May 27, pictured), in which all the same stuff happens to all the same guys all over again - except that this time it's set in Bangkok. Interestingly, a proposed cameo by 'troubled' Mel Gibson was nixed following protests from cast and crew. As we shall see, Jodie Foster had no such qualms.

Like the flop 'Wolverine' never happened, X-Men: First Class (June 3) is billed as a prequel to the first three X-Men films, exploring the origin of the rift between Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor Xavier (James McAvoy). If it's a hit, Fox hope it will mark the start of a new trilogy. Nippers get a further dose of animated ursine kung-fu fun in Kung Fu Panda 2 (June 10). The first of the summer's mandatory comicbook adaptations, Green Lantern (June 17), is directed by Martin Campbell and based on the DC Comics yarn about a test pilot who turns into the eponymous verdant superhero.

Time for another comedy. Jim Carrey is funny, right? And penguins are funny too, aren’t they? So put them both together and the result will be doubly hilarious, won't it? That seems to be the calculation behind Mr Popper's Penguins (June 24), in which businessman Carrey inherits six penguins, as you do, and turns his apartment into a winter wonderland. Michael Bay delivers a third dose of loud toy advertisement action with Transformers: Dark of the Moon (July 1) - in 3D obviously. But this has just two weeks to clean up before the big one arrives. Yep, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (July 15) is pretty much guaranteed to wind up as the biggest hit of the year

Worries that Pixar may be running out of steam are underlined by the arrival of a sequel to the animation studio's least interesting film, Cars 2 (July 22). Please god don't let them make 'Up 2: The Journey Home' or 'WALL•E: The Jar Jar Binks Years'. There's more comicbook action in Captain America: The First Avenger (July 29), with Chris Evans (not that one) as the superhero devoted to "defending America's ideals". More intriguingly, JJ Abrams' follow-up to 'Star Trek', Super 8 (Aug 5), is a science fiction thriller about a group of friends making a super 8 film in Ohio back in 1979. When they witness a catastrophic train crash and begin to suspect it was not an accident, Spooky Things start happening. Attempting to repeat the success of Abrams' Kirk'n'Spook 'reboot' is Rise of the Apes (Aug 12). Andy Serkis stars in this 'Planet of the Apes' "origin story" set in present-day San Francisco, where genetic engineering experiments result in apes coming over all clever.

Pausing only to groan at the prospect of The Smurfs (Aug 12) in 3D, let's move on to the film we're all hoping will live up to the promise of its title: Cowboys and Aliens (Aug 19), in which a spaceship lands in 1873 Arizona to take over the Earth. Only cowboys Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and chums can stop 'em. On the same day, a new adaptation of the Robert E. Howard pulp adventure Conan the Barbarian opens. No Arnold Schwarzenegger this time, though. Instead, we get Jason Momoa from, uh, 'Baywatch'.

If none of that lot holds any appeal, you may be interested in some of the smaller releases. Jodie Foster's The Beaver (June 17) probably ranks as the most bizarre film of the summer. Attempting to rehabilitate Mel Gibson, it casts him as a troubled man who communicates using a beaver hand puppet. You do the jokes. As usual, there's no shortage of formulaic romantic comedies but only a couple that seem worthy of closer attention. Bridesmaids (June 24) appears to be a fairly conventional wedding-themed romcom, but benefits from offering serial scene-stealer Kristen Wiig (Ruth Buggs in 'Paul') the lead role she's deserved for so long. More upmarket is One Day (Aug 26). Lone Scherfig directs Bristol University graduate David ('Starter For Ten') Nicholls' adaptation of his novel. This revisits Em (Anne Hathaway) and Dex (Jim Sturgess) each year on the anniversary of the night they spent together when they graduated in 1988 to find out where they are in their lives.

The Conspirator (July 1) is a big, important historical drama in which Robert Redford explores a little-known chapter in the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt, owner of a boarding house where assassin John Wilkes Booth met his co-conspirators, including Surratt's son. Redford draws obvious parallels between her subsequent trial in a military court and the US's treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. More recent history is explored in The Devil's Double (Aug 12). Lee Tamahori directs Dominic Cooper in the true story of Latif Yahia, who was forced to become the double of Saddam Hussein's sadistic son, Uday.

Horrible Bosses (July 22) is a comedy promising much fun for anyone who's ever had a job. Three long-suffering employees (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis) conspire to murder their awful bosses (Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell). And for violence enthusiasts, there's Hobo with a Shotgun (July 15) - another film expanded from a fake trailer featured as part of the Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez 'Grindhouse' double-bill. Rutger Hauer plays a homeless vigilante who blows away crooked cops, paedo Santas and other assorted scumbags with his pump-action shotgun.

The Arthouse Alternative

Blockbuster nay-sayers seeking more upmarket fare have two contrasting films about Armageddon to enjoy. Gay provocateur Gregg Araki returns with comedy science fiction flick Kaboom (June 10), in which a bunch of polysexual college students face up to supernatural events, conspiracies and WWIII while having a much sex as humanly possible. Danish enfant terrible Lars Von Trier's Melancholia (July 1) is billed as "a beautiful movie about the end of the world". Two sisters (Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg) find their relationship challenged as the Earth becomes set on a collision course with another planet.

Your middlebrow costume drama needs are met by Bertrand Tavernier with his lavish The Princess of Montpensier (July 8), in which the eponymous 16th century posho is denied marriage to her true love by her politically ambitious father. Still on the other side of the channel, big guns Gerard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve are wheeled out in Francois Ozon's Potiche (June 17). It's a comedy about a boss who's taken hostage by his striking workers, obliging his trophy wife to run the family business in his absence - a role at which she proves remarkably adept.

Quality documentaries include Asif Kapadia's Senna (June 3) - a film about Formula One motor racing champ Ayrton Senna, who perished in a prang broadcast live on TV at the tender age of 34. James Marsh, director of the Oscar-winning 'Man On Wire', returns with Project Nim (Aug 12), which tells the unsettling story of a chimpanzee removed from its mother at birth and raised like a human child on New York's upper west side in the 1970s.

Watch out too for On Dangerous Ground - a city-wide celebration of film composer Bernard Herrmann running throughout June and July, which culminates with the new digital restoration of Taxi Driver. There's also a night of Herrmann's music at St. Georges on June 17, with his widow Norma as guest of honour. Before you ask - yes, the programme does include the shower music from 'Psycho'!

Copyright Robin Askew 2011