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July 17th, 2013 
Peter Nolan 
Charlie Hunnam as Raleigh Becket and Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori in Pacific Rim. (AP Photo/Warner Bros. Pictures, Kerry Hayes))
Source: AP
WARNING: Be on your guard at the movies this year. Danger looms for Earth.
Jaws made it an iffy proposition to swim in the ocean in 1975, but you could always hang out on the beach and worry about sunburn instead. These days, the world is a much scarier place. Sure, aliens threatened life as we know it on Independence Day (1996), and humanity took a turn for the worse in films such as A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001) and even Wall-E (2008), but at the moment, it seems there’s the threat of annihilation on screen on an almost weekly basis.
Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro’s supersized monster movie. The film’s signature line in the human race’s last-ditch effort to survive says it all: “Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!”
Here are some examples of how Earth stares down its nemeses during 2013 (future release dates subject to change):
OBLIVION (alien invasion)
This end-of-the-world salvo got things rolling early. Tom Cruise plays a futuristic Mr Fix-It on a decimated Earth, where the major threat to humanity is not what it seems. (April 11)
AFTER EARTH (environmental catastrophe)
Will Smith, who knows his way around an apocalypse – Independence Day, I Am Legend – and real-life son Jaden play a father and son who crash land on a futuristic Earth that has evolved into a dangerous place. (June 13)
THIS IS THE END (The Rapture)
Best buddies Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel gather friends from projects such as Superbad and Freaks &Geeks for a raunch-fest of debauchery, destruction and demons. As things get hellish, the guys learn whether heaven awaits. (July 18)
WORLD WAR Z (zombies)
Based loosely on the Max Brooks novel, swarming zombies are on the march to wipe out humanity. Can Brad Pitt save the day? (June 20)
PACIFIC RIM (undersea monsters from another dimension)
Rock ’em-sock ’em robots relatively the size of Godzilla are piloted by humans in a showdown with gigantic invaders hell-bent on our destruction. (July 12)
ELYSIUM (pollution, overpopulation)
Wealthy haves led by Jodie Foster hover aboveground in an idyllic existence, while have-nots (Matt Damon, et al.) struggle to survive on a burned-out Earth. How long do you figure that can last? (August 15)
THE WORLD’S END (robot body snatchers)
Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman are among pals who reunite to top an epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier, only to become humankind’s hope for survival. (August 1)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Of course, this is all just silly make-believe. We all know that the real end of the world is likely to come in the form of a tornado full of sharks
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