Two Cool-Looking (Original!) Movies Coming This Summer

A late-night trip through Rotten Tomatoes clued me into the existence of a couple new upcoming films that look pretty cool--and aren't adaptations, remakes, sequels, etc.

The first one I found was Aurora. The movie comes off to me as Terminator with an ecological theme, with a bit of young-adult dystopia (I'm thinking more Maze Runner than Hunger Games) thrown in. Basically an AI decides humans are a threat to the planet and launches a genocidal war. Sometime later, two humans (presumably survivors or their descendants under the AI's control) seek out a fabled city where the machines don't rule...

Based on the trailer, this looks really cool. I first thought it was slated for (limited) release July 7, but IMDB claims its U.S. release date is Sept. 7. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes page where the reviews, showtimes, etc. can be found once it comes out, which won't be long...

The second one's Dark Was The Night starring Kevin Durand, who plays exterminator Vasily Fet in The Strain. Props for a really spooky trailer that isn't something you want to watch alone late at night. Based on descriptions I've heard of the creature it's not a common movie monster--some of the promotional material references hoofprints, but some of the posters depict hands with talons.

The trailer is very well-done. It's so spooky I got nightmares the night after I watched it. This one is slated for (limited) release July 24. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes page.

And here's an honorable mention to a film that's already available on home media but I just found out about it--Spring. I'll probably get it on Amazon Instead Video. The gist of it is a young man flees the U.S. to Italy to avoid getting jailed for his part in a bar fight (one of those "one punch kills" situations?) and falls for an Italian woman...who isn't what she seems. Like, not-human not what she seems.

I wasn't even aware of this until I read about it the other day. I suspect this one got a limited release or it went straight to DVD/online video. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes page, which shows it's gotten some very good reviews.

Why does all the original stuff have limited release these days? People complain all the time about an excess of unoriginal material. Of course, you have films like Jupiter Ascending that were original, but failed to make money...