What are the biggest movies releasing in June 2023? In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is is another film on this list touting a multiversal war, leading to the collision of two largely distinct worlds in the DC Universe. After learning the art of Speed Force in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) decides to travel back in time to save his mother from death and be reunited with her. Unfortunately, this brings unintentional consequences to the timeline, with General Zod (Michael Shannon) entering the scene with plans to destroy the planet with no Superman present to save the world. Help arrives in the form of Michael Keaton’s Batman, who comes out of retirement to lead one final battle for mankind’s survival. It’s really bizarre to see him in this film, given how overtly goofy but grounded in reality the Tim Burton films were.
Allen accidentally stumbled into a world without metahumans, so resources for battle are scarce — or so we’re led to believe. Instead of Superman, we’ve got his cousin Kara Zor-El/ Supergirl (Sasha Calle), who’d be the prime counter-attack to Zod’s ambush. Of course, there’s the alternate timeline’s Barry Allen as well, who gains his speedster powers through human intervention and puts on a makeshift Batman suit, spray-painted red with The Flash’s lightning logo. I could see this film being polarising for those directly or indirectly affected by lead Miller’s run-ins with the law in the past year. It might be even worse if you consider that you have to see two of them in The Flash.
Thankfully, this movie is meant as a reset point for the upcoming chapter in James Gunn’s DC Universe, so this very well might be the last time you see Miller in this role. Ben Affleck also makes one of his final appearances as Bruce Wayne/ Batman, alongside Kiersey Clemons as Allen’s love interest Iris West.
Watch the Trailer for The Flash, Out June 16
Ezra Miller in and as The Flash
Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
Elemental
When: June 16
Where: Theatres
In the bustling Element City where fire, water, land, and earth residents live in harmony, Pixar’s latest laser focuses on the blossoming relationship between a fiery young woman Ember, and a cool liquid, go-with-the-flow guy, Wade. All elements are represented as uneasy neighbours who cannot mix — a kind of racial allegory that is expressed through anthropomorphic, quirky characters. That inability to make physical contact with each other forms the crux of Elemental, as we’re taken through a wondrous tour of how fire and water could come together — they cancel each other out.
Keeping in tune with pretty much every other Disney animated movie, there’s also the underlying theme of finding one’s purpose. In this case, Ember not wanting to run her family’s restaurant while trying to convince her — no pun intended — hot-headed father, who is willing to boil anyone alive, otherwise. The pair thrive through judgemental comments from onlookers and try living up to familial expectations, challenging the traditional beliefs about the world they live in.
Peter Sohn — best known for The Good Dinosaur — directs Elemental, which stars the voices of Mamoudou Athie as Wade, Leah Lewis as Ember, and Ronnie Del Carmen as her father Bernie.
When: June 16
Where: Netflix
Black ops mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is back from the brink of death, having barely survived the grievous wounds during his mission in Bangladesh. His mission in Extraction 2 is to rescue the battered family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from the prison where they’re being held. Allied with returning characters Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) and Yaz Khan (Adam Bessa), Rake now heads to the snowy tundras of Prague — eliminating militia, holding onto a running train, setting elaborate traps, and pummeling oncoming foes with a riot shield, in what appears as the film’s main one-take sequence.
While the original film presented Rake as a seasoned action hero of sorts, the sequel focuses on the journey towards that form — specifically, the toll it took on him and even more so, on those close to him. It’s essentially a backstory for our lead, bringing characters from his past into greater focus and revealing the family tragedy that started it all. Sam Hargrave returns to direct the follow-up from a script penned by Joe Russo, who is also funding Extraction 2 via his AGBO production banner.
The film also stars Olga Kurylenko (Black Widow), Tinatin Dalakishvili as Rake’s target, and Tornike Gogrichiani as a ruthless Georgian gangster.
Adipurush
When: June 16
Where: Theatres
Adipurush depicts an epic that has existed through the ages, one of the Ayodhyan prince Lord Rama — here, Raghava (Prabhas) — who travels to the island of Lanka to rescue his abducted wife Janaki (Kriti Sanon) from the clutches of the demon king Lankesh (Saif Ali Khan). Boasting a stacked cast, an even bigger budget, and some shoddy CGI work, Om Raut (Tanhaji) brings the mythological drama to the big screen, reflecting one of India’s most aged stories about the triumph of good over evil. Sunny Singh (Pati Patni Aur Woh) stars as Raghava’s brother Lakshmana, Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) as Janak, Devdatta Nage as Hanuman, and Rekha as Kaikeyi.
It is reported that the film has been shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, but I’d suggest you take that with a grain of salt. Since the actors are from different regions, you can expect Adipurush to have some dubbing work done on either version. This was a common issue in most of S.S. Rajamouli’s films as well, where no matter what language you watch his movies in — even the original Telugu — there would at least be one character whose lip movement does not sync with the dialogue audio.
No Hard Feelings
When: June 23
Where: Theatres
An Uber driver without a car, Jennifer Lawrence finds herself stuck in this modern-day raunchy comedy, when a wealthy couple promises her a Buick Regal in exchange for dating their introverted son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). The goal is to bring him out of his shell — a task easier said than done, as Maddie soon finds herself slowly getting pulled into his nerdy world of arcade games, laser tag, and convenient drinking helmets. She’s got one summer to ‘make him a man’ or lose it all, and therefore frantically barges into bedrooms at parties, skates around the school lots and more, looking for any edge that she could gain.
Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys) directs No Hard Feelings from a script he wrote with John Phillips which itself was reportedly inspired by a real-life Craigslist ad. Matthew Broderick (The Lion King) and Laura Benanti play Percy’s parents, while Natalie Morales (The Little Things) joins the cast as Maddie’s close friend. FX’s The Bear-fame Ebon Moss-Bachrach also stars as Gary, a vehicle tower and one of Maddie’s bitter past flings.
Maidaan
When: June 23
Where: Theatres
Set during the golden era of Indian football, Maidaan is a biographical drama inspired by the real-life coach and manager Syed Abdul Rahim, who is regarded as the architect of ‘modern Indian football.’ Ajay Devgn embodies this role, revisiting the 13 years — 1950 to 1963 — when he guided the team to win gold medals at the Asian Games, leading them onto the semi-finals of the Melbourne Summer Olympics, and more. The film was stuck in development for a while — starting production in 2019, only to be delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and some post-production work.
This marks Amit Sharma’s third directorial work on a feature, following Tevar and Badhaai Ho, which lists Priyamani (Salaam Venky), Gajraj Rao (Maja Ma), and Rudranil Ghosh among the lead cast members.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
When: June 30
Where: Theatres
Harrison Ford dons his iconic hat and whip for the final time, as our titular archaeologist is summoned back to prevent an all-too-powerful dial, the Antikythera, from falling into the wrong hands — specifically the former Nazi Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who now works for NASA. This is compounded by Jones’ bitter divorce from wife Marion, his forced exit from his teaching position at the university, and a monotonous routine. Accompanied by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Indy heads out on a crazy adventure — riding horses across train tracks, brandishing his whip inside pubs, and speeding through narrow lanes on a tuk-tuk. Hot on their trails is Klaber (Boyd Holbrook), Voller’s vengeful right-hand man.
Director James Mangold (Ford v Ferrari) revealed that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny opens with a 25-minute flashback sequence set in 1944, that features a de-aged Ford fighting his way out of a Nazi-occupied castle. Lucasfilm’s use of an advanced AI program to create a younger version of Indiana Jones has been at the forefront of the film’s marketing campaign — even at the Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered. Rounding out the cast are Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory), John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings), and Shaunette Renée Wilson (Black Panther).
