By Chris Kavan - 05/23/19 at 07:45 AM CT
With Avengers: Endgame finally having to take a backseat - with John Wick: Chapter 3 finally toppling the heroes - will this week bring about a new winner or fail to match up to the competition? Disney is coming out swinging with their live-action Aladdin remake, with Will Smith, Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott leading the charge. We also get the anti-hero origin story in Brightburn as well as what looks like a gender-swapped version of Superbad with Booksmart. All in all, it looks like an interestings lineup - we'll see what resonates with audiences.
ALADDIN Disney has had their ups and downs with live-action remakes. Their most recent, Dumbo, wasn't a great example but we'll see if Aladdin turns things around. The premise remains the same as the animated film, street urchin Aladdin (Mena Massoud) gets his hands on a magic lamp, releasing a genie (Will Smith) who will grant him three wishes. Turning himself into a prince, he hopes to win the hand, and heart, of Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) not realized that the king's Vizier Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) is plotting to take the lamp for himself. The remake still has songs, including an all new Jasmine-sung Speechless, and Smith even turns blue at times. Still, it can't rehash the animated version and Smith would be crazy to try to emulate Robin William's memorable take on the genie, so it should have enough new material to please young and old. However, it remains to be seen if it can deliver that nostalgic factor that so many of these remakes have delivered. It seems far more likely that the more recent animated films will resonate rather than something like Dumbo that is decades old. But it also runs the risk of alienating audiences with the changes. This could really go either way but it stands the best chance of knocking off John Wick and taking the box office crown.
How has this movie not been made before? It seems so obvious - take your standard superhero origin story (heavy emphasis here on Superman) and instead of becoming a bright, shining beacon of truth and justice - become a horrifying monster capable of near unlimited death and destruction. Let's face it - if you were Superman, would you use your powers for good or evil? I know what you'd say you would do - but I also know what you would actually do. Heroes have made a huge resurgence, so I guess it's just the right time for Brightburn. This story should sound familiar: a rural couple (played by Elizabeth Banks and David Denman) come across a baby in a crash-landed alien craft and raise him as their own. But as their adopted son Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) enters his teen years, he develops disturbing tenancies and, in short order, decides humanity isn't worth his effort and goes on a killing spree. Directed by David Yarovesky with a script from Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn, what I've seen has me intrigued - it looks like an interesting twist on a familiar story and the horror element looks like it really works. Still, this isn't the type of film that generally draws a massive audience so we'll see where it lands.
Another idea I'm surprised hasn't taken off sooner is the raunchy fun of Superbad told from a female perspective. Thus we have Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein playing a pair of straight-arrow students who decide they have wasted their high school days being too studious and decide to pack four years of partying into one wild night. Alcohol, sex, drugs, wacky characters - it's all here and I have to believe the film will earn that R rating with little issue. The cast young and old come together - Jessica Williams, Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Diana Silvers, Billie Lourd, Nico Hiraga, Austin Crute and Mason Gooding are a few of the names that pop up for this wild adventure. And it really does look like a lot of fun - out of the many female-driven films that have come out recently, this one looks like it could deliver a topical and honest story. I don't know how far they are going to push the envelope here, but Dever and Feldstein make a great duo - no matter what mess they get themselves into. This should do well with female audiences - and we'll see if that's enough to make it profitable.
Those are your three new films looking to make an impact at the box office. Come Sunday we'll find out if any succeed.
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