Times are tough and getting tougher, and as the summer movie season's first half launched on Friday with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” Hollywood is banking on escapist fare and fantasy flicks to cheer recession-weary audiences. Following “Wolverine” comes the big-budget reboot of “Star Trek,” conspiracy-minded “Angels & Demons” and action-packed “Terminator Salvation.” Older movie fans looking for space adventure have only to wait for the May 8 debut of “Star Trek,” director J.J. Abrams' new look at the early adventures of the USS Enterprise crew, including Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Chekov. On May 22, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” has museum characters coming to life, and one week later, the newest Disney/Pixar animated movie “Up” hits theaters, telling of an old man who ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats into the air on an adventure. Evil robots explode into theaters Jun. 26 with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” about robots who shift their shapes into cars and battle aliens on Earth, starring Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Yet the summer wouldn't be complete without comedies, and Hollywood harkens to prehistoric times to dredge up laughs. On Jul. 1, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” has Simon Pegg joining the animated film franchise's cast as a one-eyed weasel who hunts very big game on the tundra. Ending the season's first half on Jul. 1 will be “Public Enemies,” a biopic about a trio of 1930s bank robbers starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Channing Tatum. Even though it may not offer much of an escape from reality, a story about robbing banks may strike a chord with bailout-weary audiences. And that takes audiences into the summer's second half when widely-anticipated “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” is set to conjure up some magic.
