Film opinion: Five movies to look out for this summer - 28 Years Later, The Fantastic Four & more

It is an incredibly exciting time to be a movie geek (when isn’t it)! 

With the Oscars rolling around once more, the world of film promises to keep us on our toes for the foreseeable future.

With some big titles like Mickey 17, and Robert de Niro’s The Alto Knights, due for release in the coming months, Film News Blitz’s Joe Matthews looks ahead to the summer, for the five movies to watch out for.

5. How to Train Your Dragon (June 13, 2025)

We kick off the list with a live-action remake of a familiar favourite.

How to Train Your Dragon first graced our screens back in 2010, and has since become one of DreamWorks Animations’ most beloved artifacts. 

It follows the story of young Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, who faces a rite of passage in order to become accepted into his father’s viking family on the island of Berk.

The live-action remake brings the story to life once more, and there are some big names making up the cast list. 

Gerard Butler reprises his role from the animated original as Hiccup’s father, Stoick the Vast, which might be one of the best ways of identifying a character’s size out there. 

Nick Frost also plays Gobber the Belch, and Peter Serafinowicz is involved in an unconfirmed role, with Mason Thames playing Hiccup.

With the original being a staple of my childhood personally, the score still brings a tear to my eye, and we can only hope that this live-action remake manages to do the same.

4. 28 Years Later (June 20, 2025)

Director Danny Boyle and Writer Alex Garland delivered a 2002 zombie-thriller classic, 28 Days Later, in which Cillian Murphy plays Jim, a bike courier who wakes up a month after a group of misguided animal rights activists release a virus-infected chimp free.

While the duo were absent for the 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, they have reunited nearly two-and-a-half deacdes on for the hotly anticpated 28 Years Later.

28 Years Later stars Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, whose characters have learned to live amongst the virus alongside other survivors on a small secluded island.

When they set off on a mission to the mainland, what they discover is set to shock audiences to the core.

With its release being timed perfectly with the sweatiest and smelliest time of year, it is sure to make our skin crawl.

3. F1 (June 25, 2025)

Racing films are next to impossible to get right. 

2019’s Ford vs Ferrari did a fantastic job, and Ron Howards’ Rush arguably set the standard when it comes to Formula 1 specifically.

But the sports’ namesake, F1, starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris and Javier Bardem has taken a completely new approach.

It follows a season of the sport, with Pitt’s Sonny Hayes returning from retirement to guide both Idris’ Joshua Pearce and his struggling team through, potentially with the chance at winning it all.

The filming process itself has been visible to all with the actors and crew filming at several GPs in 2023 and ‘24.

That process has included the fictional APX GP team taking its place in the pits and paddock and Pitt and Idris driving on track in modified Formula 2 cars.

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They’ve been seen at many tracks including Sliverstone, the Hungaroring and Las Vegas, which has led to much speculation about the plot, purely due to how fans have seen where the cars have started on the grid and so on.

Regardless, filming scenes amongst the real race and practice sessions is a truly innovative and brave way of shooting the film and it means we certainly have high expectations. 

Interestingly, the American lead was paid an astounding reported $30 million for his time, which is his career high for one film.

2. Jurassic World Rebirth (July 2, 2025)

Jurassic World Rebirth will be the seventh installment in one of the most famous film series around. 

It started back in 1993 with Steven Spielberg’s iconic Jurassic Park, before he made The Lost World in 1997, which was followed up by a relative failure in 2001 with Jurassic Park III.

The series was then completely re-hashed in 2015, when Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard took the reigns for three more additions.

Seemingly this was not enough, and the latest version has brought Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali onboard. 

1. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25, 2025)

The Fantastic Four franchise has consistently been right on the edge of stardom when it comes to superhero movies. 

Be it a questionable ‘the Thing’ design, or something as simple as a weak script, the ‘family’ of mutated heroes have struggled to see the same success as many of its predecessors.

But this all may be about to change.

With Disney and Marvel acquiring the franchise back in March 2019, they could be about to set off on a brilliant upward trajectory, previously reserved for the MCU films.

With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach making up the team, this retro-futuristic flick is sure to set screens alight this summer.

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