I’ve always loved writing about movies. There’s a creative freedom in losing yourself for two hours in a story onscreen, then sitting down and gathering your thoughts on a page.

Whether it’s a drama, comedy, fantasy adventure or historical biopic, movie reviewing is the liberty to write about everything and anything.

As a timid freshman stepping into The Daily Orange house for the first time, I imagined writing the Splice page one day. Now four years later, typing my last one, it seems only fitting to end with a summer movie preview — sifting through all the wildly different stories lighting the big screen from May to August.

To anyone who thinks May isn’t summer yet, Hollywood disagrees.

May 3: Terrorist mastermind The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) blows up Tony Stark’s cool mansion in “Iron Man 3.” Revenge ensues.

May 10: Leo DiCaprio stars in Baz Luhrmann’s (“Moulin Rouge!”) glitzy 3-D adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” with a bizarre pop soundtrack featuring Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Jack White and Gotye.

May 17: The hip, young USS Enterprise crew returns to stop a mass terrorist (with actor Benedict Cumberbatch rumored to play Khan) as they “Star Trek Into Darkness.”

May 24: We promise, “The Hangover Part III” is totally different this time, and “Fast & Furious 6” is definitely not another extravagant 90-minute car chase.

May 31: Vegas magicians Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson pull clever bank heists in “Now You See Me.” Space rangers Will and Jaden Smith are stranded on a perilous planet in “After Earth,” another thinly veiled climate change sermon from M. Night Shyamalan.

June is all about the apocalypse, little Monsters and Superman.

June 7: “Buffy” and ”Firefly” creator Joss Whedon follows up “The Avengers” with a black-and-white adaptation of “Much Ado About Nothing” filmed at his house. In “The Internship,” Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson pretend it’s 2005, and people still think they’re funny.

June 14: Director Zack Snyder (“300”) and producer Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight” trilogy) reinvent Superman as a brooding, edgy dude in “Man of Steel.” Emma Watson robs A-list mansions for director Sofia Coppola in “The Bling Ring.”

June 21: We can’t wait for Mike and Sully as awkward college scarers in “Monsters University.” Brad Pitt’s foray into the zombie-craze features undead hordes swarming like bees in “World War Z.”

June 28: Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy are mismatched buddy cops in “The Heat.” Those pesky terrorists are wreaking havoc again in “White House Down,” in which this time Channing Tatum saves President Jamie Foxx. Dead policemen Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds kick some ghoul and demon ass in “R.I.P.D” (Rest in Peace Department).

Johnny Depp and giant sea monsters invade July.

July 3: Johnny Depp is the offbeat Tonto to Armie Hammer’s “The Lone Ranger.”

July 12: Michael Cera goes on a psychedelic drug trip in “Crystal Fairy.” Giant MechWarriors fighting giant sea monsters in director Guillermo del Toro’s “Pacific Rim.”

July 19: “Only God Forgives” gangster Ryan Gosling in this Bangkok-set thriller from the director of “Drive.”

July 26: Sundance favorite “Fruitvale” chronicles a tragic accidental shooting. Alec Baldwin and Cate Blanchett are Woody Allen’s latest muses in “Blue Jasmine.” Hugh Jackman takes his claws and sideburns to Japan in “The Wolverine.”

August is going to kick ass, for more reasons than one.

Aug. 2: A quirky romance steals everyone’s hearts again in Sundance hit “The Spectacular Now.” Buckets of blood, rippling abs and slow-motion sword fights galore in “300: Rise of An Empire.”

Aug. 9: Matt Damon leads “District 9” director Neil Blomkamp’s high-concept dystopian sci-fi thriller “Elysium.”

Aug. 16: New DIY heroes like Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) join Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl in “Kick-Ass 2.”

Aug. 23: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright cap off their Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy (“Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”) with apocalypse comedy “The World’s End.”

Writing the Splice column has been an absolute pleasure, so for those who’ve stuck with me to the end, thank you for reading.

Published on April 25, 2013 at 1:10 am

Contact Rob: rjmarvin@syr.edu