It's tent-pole time, the season for big-budget spectaculars that prop up the studio's bottom line much as the pole lifts the big top. This summer, though, it's more than high concepts and high-flying superheroes, more than remakes and reboots: It's a six-ring circus.
Deja vu all over again
The big studios have traditionally relied on sequels because they're a safe bet, and it looks like they're playing it safer than ever this long, hot summer season. The number of titles with numbers on them (and colons in them) is ridiculous. Look out for the return of Johnny Depp's debauched buccaneer in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (opening May 20). Kung Fu Panda 2 and The Hangover Part II (both May 26) offer kiddie fare and absurdist raunch, respectively. . . . Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, and James McAvoy assemble for X-Men: First Class (June 3), the set-in-the-'60s prequel to Marvel's mutant franchise. . . . Pixar's animated anthropomorphic automobiles return, minus the voice of Paul Newman but with Michael Caine added to the parking-lot lunacy, in Cars 2 (June 24).