After running down some action-adventure fare to get the blood pumping and offering some artsy counterprogramming options for the adrenaline-averse filmgoers, the time has finally come to jump headlong into the summer blockbuster fray.
After a couple of years of largely light summer box office returns—the result of strikes, setbacks, and delayed productions across the industry—the 2025 summer season is set to be a big one.
This summer will see some of the most major movie franchises continuing, launching, re-launching, and maybe ending (though we’ll have to wait and see if that’s for real).
So let’s run down some of the very biggest and most potentially lucrative franchise pictures poised to possess the megaplexes over the next few months, shall we?
‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ – Opens May 23rd
The eighth installment in one of the most unexpectedly long-lived action franchises of American cinema is also alleged to be the last.
If you’re new here, then you’ve got a lot of catching up to do before you’re up to speed on all the explosive, wire-hanging, stunt-diving, speed-running spy-thriller antics of the previous films. But suffice to say that Tom Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, America’s own Bond-level superspy, and that all of his past “missions impossible” are set to culminate in one big convoluted and action-packed conspiracy.
Over the past three decades, the “Mission: Impossible” series has been the one reliable constant in Cruise’s career, weathering his many ups, downs, and controversies and allowing him a consistent path back into the A-list each and every time.
But when the first installment hit theaters all the way back in 1996, that was far from the expectation.
It’s easy to forget that the very first film in the franchise was simply meant as a post-modern deconstruction of the spy film genre from contrarian auteur Brian De Palma, who was attempting to comment on the post-Cold War period of geopolitical confusion by appropriating a forgotten 60s TV show.
Time will tell if this final installment will revisit that kind of heady thematic subtext or reframe it among the modern world’s own confused politics.
And, of course, time will also tell if this really is the “final” installment, or if they’ll continue pumping out more in a couple years.
‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ – July 2nd
Speaking of franchises that won’t die, no matter how much the studios swear they’re ending, there’s a new entry into the stubbornly continuing “Jurrassic Park/World” series this summer.
As ever, the plot involves some scientists, some groundbreaking new biotech scheme, and a bunch of hungry cloned dinosaurs.
But we all know that no one actually sees these movies for the plot or the human characters (aside from Jeff Goldblum’s beloved Dr. Ian Malcolm, at least.)
No, audiences keep turning out for these new “Jurassic” entries entirely to see some CGI dinosaurs break out, destroy some stuff, and chomp on people.
What’s frustrating this time around is that just three years ago, 2022’s “Jurassic World: Dominion” was heavily billed as a final part for the franchise.
But even as its reviews were lackluster and its pop-cultural relevance has been non-existent, it still made boatloads of money. So it’s no surprise that they’re going to keep resurrecting this franchise, no matter how extinct it seems.
‘Superman’ – July 11th
Warner Bros. has finally realized that for their DC Comics properties to compete with Marvel, they need to commit to the same structure, with a single overseeing creative director at the helm and an adherence to the actual spirit and history of these beloved, nearly century-old characters.
By handing the reins of their entire interconnected cinematic universe to writer/director James Gunn, it actually looks like they might be doing it right this time.
The first film to kick off the newly anointed DC Studios, Gunn’s “Superman” looks to be swinging for the fences with direct thematic confrontations of the hoarded wealth and political power of tech billionaires, contentions over immigration, and what constitutes heroism in a world of divisive national borders.
It’s been said that one of the hardest things to do in pop culture storytelling is making the virtuous and (mostly) invincible Superman relevant or compelling, but by embracing more complex questions of what place compassion and kindness have in the modern, hyper-polarized world, Gunn might just pull it off.
‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ – July 25th
And while we’re on the subject of finally getting something right after so many failed attempts, Marvel Studios is – at long last – rolling out the Fantastic Four within their own Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Anyone who knows comics knows that the Fantastic Four are the quintessential Marvel characters, more integral to the overall universal development and inter-character politics than Spider-Man, The Avengers, or the X-Men.
The Marvel Universe as we know it largely spawned from Stan Lee’s creation of the Fantastic Four in the early-60s, and the fact that Marvel Studios and their Disney owners haven’t had the rights to the characters until now has always felt like a giant, gaping hole in the mythology.
Some moviegoers uninitiated into deeper comic fandom or behind-the-scenes studio knowledge might be skeptical of a new Fantastic Four movie, thanks to the previous attempts to bring the “First Family of Marvel” to the big screen that ranged from goofy and weak to downright terrible.
But this time around, Marvel is in charge of it themselves for the first time ever, giving fans reason to believe that they’ll finally get it right.
The setup should be simple enough. It’s just four astronauts that take an exploratory trip to space, get bombarded by cosmic rays, and return to earth with stretchy, rocky, fiery, and invisible superpowers that make them heroes and celebrities and bond them as a family.
That part is easy. The hard part will be finding a context for the Four within the already established and sprawling MCU, where they’ve been missed until now, but where there might not be any room left in audiences’ hearts, minds, or attention spans.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
