July film preview: Superheroes, Sandler, and Smurfs infiltrate summer movie season

Summer 2025 is marked with reboots of no less than three franchises, a big legacy sequel swing from Adam Sandler, and another trip to Jurassic Park.

July film preview: Superheroes, Sandler, and Smurfs infiltrate summer movie season
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There’s no cure for the summertime blues better than the movies. The air conditioning. The ice-cold drinks. The legally required trip to Jurassic Park. Summer is here, and Hollywood is hoping the third time is the charm for Superman, The Fantastic Four, and The Smurfs, all of which are going for their third refresh attempt. We at The A.V. Club are ready for it all, and have already covered many of the biggest July film releases in our expansive summer preview. But if you’re the type to venture off the beaten path, we have even more movies to share while you get ready for another trip to Metropolis and the Baxter Building. Papa Smurf is missing and the only place you’ll find him is at a theater near you!


Jurassic World Rebirth (July 2)

Returning to another Monster Island, Universal and filmmaker Gareth Edwards welcome audiences to Jurassic World Rebirth. One has to hand it to the studio for extracting even more dinosaur DNA from this 32-year-old franchise, and only three years after the last billion-dollar blockbuster entry. Life finds a way. This time, a team of scientists, thrill-seeking explorers, and one child (naturally) head to Jurassic Park’s R&D department in search of the missing ingredient to a unicorn pharmaceutical. Unfortunately, they only find genetically mutated and enhanced dinosaurs. Whoops! Directed by Godzilla‘s Evans, the movie stars Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali.

40 Acres (July 2)

40 Acres takes a more grounded and satirical view of the doomsday prepper subgenre popularized by A Quiet Place. Set sometime after the apocalypse, 40 Acres pits Danielle Deadwyler and her family of survivalists against the murderous hordes that also survived the end of the world. Thankfully, she’s been getting her bunker ready for this, and channels hundreds of years of generational trauma into a tense siege thriller.

Heads Of State (July 2)

John Cena as the president? Now we’ve seen everything. Cena plays an action hero-turned-politician who becomes the target of an assassination plot while on a diplomatic mission with the Prime Minister of the U.K. (Idris Elba). Directed by Nobody and Hardcore Henry director Ilya Naishuller, Heads Of State leans into its ridiculous premise and CGI-heavy action. Presumably, any movie featuring President Cena would need to be pretty silly, even considering that the U.S. actually will likely elect the 17-time WWE Champion one day.

Superman (July 11)

He may be faster than a speeding bullet, but can Superman outrun superhero fatigue? Warner Bros. sure hopes so. After the studio’s profitable but divisive Snyderverse, James Gunn hopes to restore some goodwill and consistency to the DC Cinematic Universe—maybe even some hope. Appropriately, he’s introducing the new DCU via the very first superhero: Superman (David Corenswet) will fly around a Metropolis populated by dogged reporter Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), evil mastermind Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), and a gaggle of masked vigilantes already doing the cape thing. How this Superman and The Batman: Part II will co-exist as separate cinematic universes is beyond us, but maybe (some of) these movies can be fun again?

Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story (July 11)

In this adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story Dracula sequel, Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) enjoys a simple retirement from vampire hunting, moving his wife Mina, née Harker (Jocelin Donahue), and two sons (Brady Hepner and Judah Mackey) to an isolated American farm. When his wife falls ill from lingering vampirism, Abraham’s boys suspect Dad’s treatment might be doing more harm than good.

Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight (July 11)

The directorial debut from Matilda‘s original Miss Honey (Embeth Davidtz), appropriately, takes the perspective of an eight-year-old girl. Set at the end of the 15-year Rhodesian Bush War and based on Alexandra Fuller’s memoir of the same name, the movie follows the fight for Zimbabwean independence from the vantage of young Bobo (Lexi Venter). Her family of poor farmers watches as the country rages on, and Bobo attempts to understand the shifting ground beneath her.

Smurfs (July 18)

Rihanna fans shall be rewarded for their patience. Yes, Riri is finally releasing new music, though Ri-heads will have to see the new Smurfs movie to hear it. The billionaire singer who hasn’t released music in years returns with “Friend Of Mine” for the latest attempt at wringing a few more millions out of the little blue elves that the genocidal Gargamel is desperate to exterminate. This time, Gargamel has kidnapped Papa Smurf (John Goodman), and the Smurfs must enter the real world to get him back. Okay, it’s kind of the same as always, but here’s something no one could’ve predicted: James Corden is in this movie!

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is taking its first steps with the seminal superhero team that can never get the movie thing right. Can Marvel do for its First Family what it did for its friendly neighborhood Spider-Man? Set in the swinging ’60s, the movie imagines a pre-Iron Man New York City on the verge of a Galactus problem. This soft reboot of the mega-franchise might cause logistical problems for the broader MCU, but if Ghostbusters: Afterlife‘s New York can forget Zuul, the MCU can forget Galactus. It’s just nice to see a superhero movie sans homework again.

Cloud (July 25)

The latest from Cure director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is finally making its way to America. Cloud continues his interest in the alienating side effects that technology and interconnectedness have had on society. Here, the director takes a lowly online reseller, who’s eked out a small fortune flipping products on the black market. However, his internet obsession distances him from the people around him, sending him tumbling down the rabbit hole into the violent, bloody dangers lurking on the Dark Web.

Happy Gilmore 2 (July 25)

At this stage in the legacy sequel game, audiences can sniff out a good one from a bad, and Happy Gilmore 2 has the familiar stench of “could’ve been a Super Bowl commercial.” Happy (Adam Sandler) comes out of retirement to raise money for his daughter’s dance school tuition. Sure. It’s Happy Gilmore 2—what more can one say?

 
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