Surge of Block Busters: Movie Buffs Waits for Summer

June Premiers: The first film of this summer season, among the series of `coming soon` block busters, is `Pearl Harbor,` which is to be released on June 1. This movie spent 145 million dollars to portray the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor.

Jerry Brookheimer and Michael Bay of `The Rock` and `Armageddon,` produced and directed together to revive the spectacular battle scenes of `Dora Dora Dora` (1970) with the modern high technology of special effect.

`Tomb Raider,` which is to open on June 30, will be the most sex appalling film this summer. Woman archaeologist Lara Crawford is a remarkable character to destroy an ancient secret organization Illuminati which aims at conquering the world. She seems like a female version of Indiana Jones. Sensual feature of Angelina Jolly in the real space is to promulgate attraction, comparing with the sexy star Laura Crawford in the cyber space.

Moulain Rouge (open on June 30), which was a premiere of Cannes Film Festival this year, is to appeal movie lovers with its sensual musical. The actions of Nicole Kidman and Ian McGregor are fantastic. They sing songs of 20th century pop stars including Beatles, Elton John, and Madonna with the background of 19th century’s Montmartre in Paris.

Sci-Fi Competition: Steven Spielberg of `ET` and Tim Burton of `Batman` compete with their sci-fi films.

Spielberg`s new film `A.I.`(Artificial Intelligence, opens in August) is a movie inherited by Spielberg to finish the incomplete project of Stanley Kubrick (1928 – 1999), who directed the immortal masterpiece ``2001: A Space Odyssey.`` The detail content of the movie has been kept confidential. According to the current information, it is an adventure story about an android boy, who has humanlike emotion, who tries to be `a real boy.`

Tim Burton has remade `Planet of the Apes` (1969), which ends with striking conclusion that the planet ruled by apes is the future of the earth. The theme is said to best reflect the gloomy images of Burton’s films. The whole story is known to be restructured but the details of this movie are also not revealed yet. Open Aug. 4.

Tripartite competition of 3-D animation: `Final Fantasy`(open on July 28) by the Columbia Pictures is evaluated as the film that had brought about a revolution of 3-D animation with its visual effect highly close to real images. Hironobu Sakaguchi, who has produced 9 computer game series with the same title as the new film, directed the animation. The plots and characters of the game, in which some scientist and soldiers of 2065 C.E. save the earth from the attack of the extra terrestrial human beings, are transplanted in the movie.

`Shrek` of DreamWorks was presented to the competition area of Cannes Film Festival, which is the first case for animation in past 28 years. It creates an adult humor by parodying many familiar fairy tales of the Disney.

`Atlantis` by Disney illustrates spectacular landscapes without the Disney’s musical code of joyful music and dances, which is exceptional for the Disney`s products. The story is about adventurous expedition to the deep sea to find the lost continent Atlantis.

Returned series: Sequels of `Jurassic Park,` which had stormed the film market with its high tech special effects, and `Mummy` are also coming soon.

`Jurassic Park III` (open on July 14) tell a story which happens 4 years after the attack of dinosaurs in its second episode. The film begins with the return of Dr. Grant (Sam Neal), who was a paleontologist in the first episode, to the Sorna Island where he meets more powerful dinosaurs this time. The director of this film is John Houston of `Zumanji.`

In `The Mummy Returns,` O`Connell (Brandon Fraser) - Evelyn (Rachael Wise), a married couple, fight against Egyptian magician Imotep.

Kwon Chae-Hyun confetti@donga.com