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Welcome back for the Spring 2018 semester, Colonels! I hope everyone had a wonderful break where they got to sit around and watch tons and tons of movies.

No? Just me?

Well if you didn’t get a chance to get to a theater over break, there are plenty of good movies that will hit cinemas over the coming months of the semester.

1.Winchester

The premise of the movie has got to be one of the most original story ideas I have ever heard. If the title doesn’t bring a certain image to mind, let me elaborate before I explain.

The Winchester repeating rifle was one of tools that “won the west.” Before this rifle was invented, it would take up to (or more than) a minute to reload your rifle to take a second or even third shot.

The introduction of the automatic reload completely changed the firearms game, and everyone at the time had to have one. You can only imagine the number of gunshot victims there were after the invention of this weapon, and that’s where the movie seemingly draws inspiration.

Helen Mirren (“RED,” “The Queen”) will portray the heiress to the firearm’s loving family, who believes that she is being haunted by the souls of people killed by the rifle with her name on it.

There has been a resurgence of the horror genre’s popularity, but most stories seem more of the same lately. This film, however, is truly an original idea, and with such a talented actress at the helm of this project I really think this flick will be something special.

Winchester releases Feb. 2, 2018.

2. Black Panther

Easily one of the most anticipated movies to come from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), “Black Panther” will arrive in theaters on Feb. 16, 2018.

Following the events of “Captain America; Civil War,” T’Challa, the new King of Wakanda, must return home to claim his right as the King from a would-be usurper.

Chadwick Boseman (“42,” “Get on Up”) has already done a beautiful job of bringing the King of the isolated, technologically advanced city of Wakanda to life in “Civil War,” and I am really pumped to see where this character goes from there.

Many people have been calling this movie “the first ‘black’ superhero movie,” apparently forgetting that Wesley Snipes brought “Blade” to the silver screen successfully three times, and that is rather fitting considering the character Black Panther was one of the first, if not the very first, African-American superheroes in comic book publications.

The cast is one of the strongest the MCU has ever assembled and includes Michael B. Jordan (“Creed,” “Fruitvale Station”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave,” “Non-Stop”), Danai Gurira (“All Eyez on Me,” “The Visitor”) and Andy Serkis (“13 Going On 30,” “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”), who reprises his role from “Avengers; Age of Ultron,” Ulysses Klaue.

Though I have a feeling this film will follow suit with others in its universe like “Iron Man” or “Dr. Strange” in presenting a formulaic origin story, I still will be one of the first in line to see the movie.

3. A Wrinkle in Time

Based off the science fantasy novel written by Madeline L’Engle, “A Wrinkle in Time” will explore the story of three young children hurled into space by magical beings in order to find one of the children’s fathers.

Personally I have not read the book so I do not have as much excitement as others, but let me tell you, the hype is real. The general audience seems to be clambering for this movie, and with its amazing cast and visual effects I can see why.

Oprah Winfrey (Lee Daniels’ The Butler, The Color Purple), Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde, Walk the Line) and Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, No Strings Attached) will play the three magical beings that set the story into action sending Storm Reid, Levi Miller and Rowan Blanchard on an adventure to find the main character Megs (Reid) father, Dr. Alex Murray, played by Chris Pine (Star Trek, This Means War)

A big Disney movie, with big names and lots of special effects, it would seem like the perfect equation to make lots of money right? Let us not forget this is the same studio that brought us “John Carter” and “The Lone Ranger” back to back (both HUGE financial flops for Disney). This is not me “hating”, but I am going to be overly cautious before going to spend money on this movie.

See “A Wrinkle in Time” in theaters on March 9th 2018.

4. Ready Player One

If “A Wrinkle in Time” is not the book/movie you were looking for, maybe “Ready Player One” is.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) summarizes the plot considerably simpler than I could:

“When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune. Wade Watts find the first clue and starts a race for the Egg.”

Now anyone out there wondering what the Easter Bunny has to do with the story, or why the movie wouldn’t come out in April, let me explain.

An “Easter egg” does not refer to the brightly dyed eggs kids search for on Easter Sunday, but get their name in this form from the “seeking” aspect of said tradition.

Directors, game creators or animators hide these “Easter eggs” in their projects to see who’s really paying attention, or to give a nod to another project they or their studio have done.

“Pixar” is notorious for doing this. Secretly slipping the cowgirl doll from Toy Story, Jessie, inside the little girl’s room during “Monsters Inc.” is one of my favorite examples.

Steven Spielberg (do I really need to explain who he is?) will be directing, and I really couldn’t think of a better fit. Granted the man could direct anything but this movie seems to be right up his alley.

Ready Player One will be in theaters March 30, 2018.

Rampage- I honestly cannot say why I want to see this movie so badly. This is a pure “popcorn movie” with absolutely no real value to it, but I am still hyped to no extent.

Simply put, this movie is about three monsters, an ape, wolf and lizard (all 20 stories tall) going on a rampage throughout the city.

The “story” comes from the original 1980s arcade game of the same name, with the same premise.

I have no idea what Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” “San Andreas”) Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Watchmen,” “The Walking Dead”) or Joe Manganiello (“True Blood,” “Magic Mike XXL”) will have to do in this movie, but they are three of my favorite actors, so I’m just going to have to go see it.

Super Troopers 2- The tagline of this movie says it all: “The long anticipated sequel to the cult comedy hit.”

Erik Stolhanske, Paul Soter, Steve Lemme, Kevin Heffernan and Jay Chandrasekhar make up “Broken Lizard,“ a comedy/film team responsible for writing and acting in the film, with Chandrasekhar in the director’s chair as well.

The original “Super Troopers” came out in 2001, and took audiences by storm. Since then the boys have stayed busy making other movies like “The Slammin Salmon,” “Club Dredd” and probably their most well known work, “Beerfest.”

The sequel will center on our favorite Highway Troopers (which, if you have seen the first movie, *SPOILERS* ends with them losing said jobs, so I’m wondering how that’s going to pan out) battling Canadian Mounty’s for a stretch of highway each unit has laid claim to.

The Broken Lizard team has not disappointed audiences yet, and with the first film being so beloved, I doubt they will start now.

Super Troopers 2 comes out on April 20, 2018.