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“G.I. Joe”! “Harry Potter”! “Night at the Museum”! “Star Trek”! “Wolverine”!

If the recession-fueled box-office boom continues, the summer of ’09 will go down as one of Hollywood’s biggest ever.

The studios have positioned their brands and set their tent poles accordingly. And while there’s the usual mix of sequels, remakes, comic-book and best-seller adaptations, horror, rom-coms, and stoopid teen farce, there are a number of comedies and dramas that appear grounded in the real world, too.

Add a few serious indies (new Jarmusch, Soderbergh, Dardenne Brothers) and a family-friendly offering from Japanese animation great Hayao Miyazaki (“Ponyo”), and the weeks of intensive moviegoing between the beginning of May and Labor Day are looking more than promising.

So what if the robots from “Terminator Salvation” and the transformers from “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” look like they fell out of the same (digital imaging) truck, and that guy in “Terminator” and that guy in “Public Enemies” look like, well, the same guy (Christian Bale)?

There’s a good chance that we’ll end up at the movie house this summer if not hugely surprised, then at least well satisfied. Here are some of the season’s big contenders:

May 8

“Star Trek”: “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams reimagines the Captain Kirk/Mister Spock buddy picture, updating the ’60s TV cult sci-fi hit and kicking it into warp drive. The Starship Enterprise franchise is flying again. Beam me up, Scotty.

May 15

“Angels & Demons”: Tom Hanks reteams with director Ron Howard in their “Da Vinci Code” follow-up, with Hanks’ Harvard symbologist action-hero trolling the Vatican trying to expose a secret society (yes, another one) bent on revenge. With Ewan McGregor in priestly vestments, and some of the clunkiest dialogue this side of a Dan Brown bestseller. Oh, right, it is a Dan Brown bestseller.

May 21

“Terminator Salvation”: The year is 2018, humans are outnumbered by machines, and Christian Bale is looking mighty mean as John Connor, humankind’s last best post-apocalyptic hope. Can the “Terminator” franchise be resurrected? “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” director McG thinks so.

May 29

“Up”: Soaring animated adventure from Pixar fabulist Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”) about a septuagenarian (voice of Christopher Plummer) who attaches balloons to his house and takes off for a tour of the South American wilds. Balloonatic or explorer?

June 12

“The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3”: This crackerjack thriller about terrorists who hijack a subway train on New York’s IRT line stars Denzel Washington as Garber, the unflappable detective (a role played by Walter Matthau in the 1974 original), who juggles hijackers and hostage crisis with gallows humor. With John Travolta and John Turturro.

June 24

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”: Paris, the Pyramids, the U.S Navy — everything but Megan Fox’s makeup gets messed up by those giant metamorphosing Decepticons. Blockbuster titan Michael Bay directs.

June 26

“Cheri”: Colette’s naughtily entertaining belle epoque novel about a Parisian courtesan (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her 18-year-old consort (Rupert Friend). Brought to the screen by Stephen Frears, who previously cultivated the terroir of conquest and love in “Dangerous Liaisons.”

July 1

“Public Enemies”: Michael Mann’s ’30s-era G-men-versus-gangster yarn features Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis and Johnny Depp as outlaw John Dillinger. Some are predicting it will be the “Scarface” for the 21st century. Channing Tatum costars as Pretty Boy Floyd and Billy Crudup as FBI honcho J. Edgar Hoover.

July 3

“Whatever Works”: Larry David is the Woody Allen surrogate in the prolific filmmaker’s return to Manhattan (and “Manhattan’s” older guy/much younger girl theme — in this case, Evan Rachel Wood). The buzz is very good, even if the script is something Woody pulled out of his desk drawer — he wrote it back in the ’70s.

July 10

“Bruno”: Sacha Baron Cohen as a flaming Austrian fashionista who conquers America. The film’s subtitle says it all: “Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt.” Can it tweak as many people as “Borat”?

July 15

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”: It’s dark times, mad times for magic boy Potter in the sixth installment of the J.K. Rowling series, this one directed by Brit-TV guy David Yates. The world of Hogwarts and the world of London collide, as Lord Voldemort’s past is dug up and wispy coal-black spirits streak the sky.

July 24

“The Ugly Truth”: Lovely Katherine Heigl as an unaccountably loveless TV producer who spars with hunky Gerard Butler, her no-account on-air talent. As this is a rom-com, we’re assuming the sparring produces romantic sparks.

July 31

“Funny People”: Judd Apatow dramedy about a stand-up legend (Adam Sandler) who gets a cancer diagnosis and an apostle (Seth Rogen), and belatedly reconnects with the girl that got away (Leslie Mann).

Aug. 7

“Julie & Julia”: Of her double portrait of master chef Julia Child and apprentice Julie Powell, who learned her way around the stove by faithfully following Child’s canonical cookbook, director Nora Ephron saucily observes: “The movie poster should say ‘Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and boeuf bourguignon.”‘

Aug. 14

“Taking Woodstock”: Oscar-winner Ang Lee time-travels back to the Summer of Love in this comedic look at the historic counterculture musicfest and a young local (Demetri Martin) trying to save his family’s run-down motel. And then several hundred thousand hippies show up …

Aug. 21

“Inglourious Basterds”: So Quentin Tarantino can’t spell, but maybe he can make a great World War II pic. Brad Pitt is the cigar-chompin’ U.S. Army lieutenant who leads a pack of Jewish soldiers on a let’s-get-the-Nazis hunt through occupied France.