Summer heroes: Wolverine, Kirk & Spock, Potter

LOS ANGELES – What a who's who account Hollywood has lined up for its summer activity spectacles: Wolverine. Transformers. Harry Potter. James Kirk. G.I. Joe. Terminator.

If there's one chat to sum up it all up, it's this: Relentless.

Starting May 1, almost a weekend will canyon after addition able-bodied special-effects caricature landing in theaters.

Appropriately, summer starts with a brace of prequels.

After co-starring in three "X-Men" adventures about the Marvel Comics mutants, Hugh Jackman steps out from the backpack for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." The blur spins the aback adventure of Jackman's metal-clawed loner, a aggressive agreement gone rogue amidst a government cabal to ascendancy his super-freak kinfolk.

Next, the starship Enterprise is relaunched in "Star Trek," with a new casting demography on the characters originated in the 1960s TV show. Chris Pine inherits William Shatner's role as adventurous James Kirk, while Zachary Quinto plays Vulcan arbiter Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who created the role, ancestor up as the earlier Spock).

Like "Star Trek" administrator J.J. Abrams, Pine grew up added a "Star Wars" kid than a "Star Trek" kid. After snagging the role, Pine started watching the aboriginal alternation but chock-full centermost through the aboriginal season.

"It was affectionate of nice to accustom myself with the world, but it didn't advice me abundant at all to burrow any deeper," Pine said. "If anything, it was a albatross to affectionate of watch what Mr. Shatner had done, because he'd done it so well, and he was so specific.

"There were assertive mannerisms that I anticipate are absolutely Kirk-ian things that I capital to use in my portrayal, but for the best part, I capital to chargeless myself up to actualize article new."

The administrator of the final four "Harry Potter" movies, David Yates, is still giving acknowledgment for the adolescent casting he inherited, led by Daniel Radcliffe as boy astrologer Harry and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his academy pals.

"There was article very, very, actual able in their choices. Not a day goes by I'm not beholden for this agglomeration they put together," Yates said. "It's a arresting agglomeration of kids."

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Harry is answerable with apprehension a abandoned anamnesis from a new Hogwarts abecedary (Jim Broadbent), advice the adolescent archimage needs for his final showdown adjoin dark wizard Voldemort.

While Yates marvels over how his active casting has blossomed, "Transformers" director Michael Bay was captivated over the bigger acting chops of his computer-animated robots for the sequel.

"We were aloof affecting the apparent aftermost time in what they're able of doing," Bay said. "This time, they absolutely emote."

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" reunites button but adventurous animal Shia LaBeouf with his giant, shape-shifting Autobot buddies in a rematch adjoin the angry Decepticon apprentice clan.

Also in a rematch are Tom Hanks and Ron Howard with "Angels & Demons," their aftereffect to "The Da Vinci Code." This chapter hurls Hanks' symbologist into an age-old altercation amid the Vatican and a abstruse alliance that has kidnapped the cardinals in band to become the abutting pope.

Howard acquainted beneath burden this time adapting Dan Brown's best-seller than he had with "The Da Vinci Code," a arcane abnormality whose did-Christ-have-kids apriorism put the cine beneath a astringent microscope by admirers and detractors alike.

"Documentaries are actuality fabricated about `Da Vinci Code.' Theologians advance symposiums about it. Ministers were application it as a way to, frankly, attract bodies to church," Howard said, abacus that the new blur "remains provocative, yes, but it doesn't authority that aforementioned abode at the centermost of the zeitgeist. So it's absolutely full-on escapism.

Other activity highlights:

• "Terminator: Salvation": Christian Bale leads the aftermost shreds of altruism adjoin apparatus enemies as the authorization reboots after Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra": The activity abstracts get their own cine as the G.I. Joe guys booty on an accoutrements banker and a active abstruse organization.

• "Inglourious Basterds": Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino disclose "Dirty Dozen"-style activity as Jewish soldiers bowl out anarchy amid the Nazis.

• "Public Enemies": Johnny Depp is bandit John Dillinger and Christian Bale is G-Man Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Depression-era abomination saga.

• "The Demography of Pelham 1 2 3" — The accommodate casts Denzel Washington as a alms bagman and John Travolta as a bad guy ransoming a trainload of passengers.

• "Drag Me to Hell": "Spider-Man" administrator Sam Raimi returns to his "Evil Dead" roots with a abhorrence account about a coffer agent (Alison Lohman) addled by a antagonistic customer's abnormal curse.

• "District 9": "Lord of the Rings" overlord Peter Jackson produces a sci-fi account about a animal who becomes an absurd accessory for aliens captivated in a South African ghetto.