Preston's Summer Movie Lineup

[Preston DuBose]

This summer there are a number of movies I'm looking forward to seeing. What about you?

I've already seen Thor and Kung Fu Panda 2 (yes, I have young kids).

Thor was a pretty decent popcorn movie, but I doubt it will be remembered as a particularly noteworthy entry in Marvel's catalog of superhero movies. Better than some *cough*Spiderman 3*cough* but not as good as the Iron Man movies.

Kung Fu Panda 2 was also a good movie. I'm sure we'll end up with it on DVD for the kids, and I would hazard that it has a decent repeat factor for adults. It very clearly set the stage for a third movie, and I'll be interested if certain threads play out the way I expect.

I've been purposefully keeping myself in the dark about X-Men: First Class, which opens today, but I've heard (from reviewers) that it's one of the best Marvel movies to date. That's a pretty high bar to set, but it certainly has my interest.

Super-8 looks like a winner of a movie. Between Cloverfield and the Star Trek reboot, I have a lot of faith in JJ Abram's ability to tell a good yarn. Many have compared the look of this movie to the early, wonder-filled work Spielberg, such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I concur, and think that is a Good Thing(tm).

Even though I was a mostly a Marvel reader as a kid, I still have hopes for the Green Lantern movie.

Harry Potter fans have waited a looooong time for this movie. I'm sure we won't be disappointed.

Captain America is one of my favorite heroes, so I'll definitely be there for this movie. I desperately want it to be better than just "good", but less-than-patriotic comments by the director and mediocre trailers lead me to believe that we'll probably get something on par with Thor-- decent, but not particularly noteworthy.

I also have high hopes for Cowboys and Aliens. It has a good looking cast and no shortage of explosion-fu. Now we just have to hope that the script is coherent. Obviously from my earlier picks I have no problem suspending disbelief, but story still comes first. Well okay, at least be a very close second.

Movies I could just as soon skip are Rise of the Planet of the Apes (never been a fan of that franchise), Transformers 3 (the first one was fun, but the sequel killed my interest in seeing more) and Cars 2. That being said, I'm sure the whole family will load up to go see Cars 2. If you're a parent of a kid under the age of 10 it's practically a requirement. CPS might very well show up on your doorstep to investigate such clear signs of cruelty if you don't. Still, I haven't seen a trailer for it yet that makes it look like anything but a train wreck. Or car wreck. Yeah, I know, this is PIXAR we're talking about and they have yet to make a downright bad movie...but the trailers make this movie look like vapid Saturday morning fare instead of a story with a point.

Movies I'm on the fence about--Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night. I'm a Robert E. Howard fan, so there's that. Also, I recently caught Conan the Destroyer (with Ah-nuld!) on tv and got a reminder of just how bad it was, so I wouldn't be going in comparing it against rose-colored memories from my childhood. Still, the new Conan looks like he's wearing mascara. Considering all the other movies I want to see this summer, Conan may end up in my Netflix queue. Fright Night is another classic movie from my youth and I wonder why anyone feels the need to re-do so cheesy perfection. In its favor, the remake has a decent cast and good source material. If done right, it certainly could be a better movie than the original. Or not. I'll wait for another trailer and/or some first-hand reviews.

That's my summer movie picks. What about yours?

 

[Beathard]

I pretty much agree, but Conan and Green Lantern are musts for me.

 

[Benton]

Didn't realize they were going to hurt the Planet of the Apes franchise again. I love the original, but majority of the sequals, plus previous reboot attempt, were terrible.

On the fence about Conan as well. I still consider the first Conan movie with Arnold a classic, even though the Destroyer was definitely a pretty weak sequel.

I know I greatly enjoyed Thor, but I thing that was strongly tied to the Imax experience. I don't think it would hold up nearly as well on my 20" TV.

I hope Green Lantern is good, but I don't really like Ryan Reynolds. So my expectations are low.

 

[tbone1321]

What about pirates 4 and hangover 2?

 

[JTM]

Great writeup. I agree on the hangover 2 being left out, though

 

[Preston DuBose]

Situational comedies just aren't at the top of my list. As a parent with two young children the odds are not in my favor for having the time to see all the movies at the top of my list as it is. Your Milage May Vary.

The 2nd and 3rd Pirates movies didn't have the heart the first movie had. If it was getting great reviews I might try to see it, but it isn't. I'll wait and rent it.

 

[tbone1321]

I went and saw X-Men First Class and it was VERY good almost makes you forget X-men last stand

 

[Blake Bowden]

I went and saw X-Men First Class and it was VERY good almost makes you forget X-men last stand

Just saw it this afternoon...fantastic!

 

[owls84]

Awesome reviews and I wish I could give one as well thought and written about Hangover 2 but I just don't have it in me.

Hangover 2 - I enjoyed it but it wasn't GREAT!!! Zach Galifianakis is his usual self and brings comedy back to the Farley days and the group as a whole has to be the funniest group of guys since the 90's SNL guys with Spade, Farley, Ferrell, etc. You catch yourself thinking this EXACT thing was done in the first but you are still laughing because it is in another setting. I thought some of the story was a stretch and that took away from it but it has a few well placed cameos that keep you entertained. I give it a B+ but only because it is a sequel and the story is essentially take the first movie and move it to Bangkok.

 

[JTM]

Except for how xavier got hurt (which is total crap), I like the X-Men First Class

They are playing Prof X as a victim. He was originally hurt in a car wreck, not a victim of human vs mutant fighting. I see why they did it, but I don't like it.

 

[Beathard]

Just saw the preview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Looked good to me.

 

[Preston DuBose]

In followup to my original post, I've now seen X-Men: First Class and Super 8. Both were fun movies, albeit with different vibes. Several weeks went by before I was able to see either movie, so unfortunately by then I'd fallen prey to some of the hype. Anyone who likes superhero movies will like X-Men. My expectations were set pretty high by comments from some of my friends so I wasn't quite as impressed as I'd hoped to be, but it was still a solid movie.

I just saw Super 8 last night and really enjoyed it. The child actors were all top-notch. The plot was somewhat predictable, but only because this movie pays homage to those sense-of-wonder family movies popularized in the early 80s by Spielberg. Even the orchestral score is dead-on. The only thing keeping this from being a 5-star movie is that some of the emotional investment in the kids' plight is drained away by spending too much time on scenes from the dad's perspective during the 3rd act.

I still haven't seen Green Lantern. Hopefully this weekend. I've seen trailers for Rise of Planet of the Apes and Fright Night and I'll admit the both look good. I doubt I'll see the former, but if the latter gets good reviews I'll try to catch it.

 

[Preston DuBose]

The childcare stars aligned last Friday and I ended up on a date with my wife watching Captain America. This review will be spoiler free.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I've already read other friends on Facebook who didn't like it and others that thought it was the best yet. I'm firmly somewhere in between. It had a pulp adventure feel that sets it apart from many other superhero movies. The closest Steve Rogers comes to angst is when "skinny Rogers" keeps getting turned down at recruiting stations. Evil is evil and good is good and there's no grey area between the two.

In my opinion, the best moments of the movie were the ones where we got to slow down enough to feel empathy for Steve. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that at a certain point, the movie starts jumping through time in a montage of action sequences. The idea is that we see Cap's start, then we are treated to action highlights (leaving room for future movies to take place during the war or at least flash back to it), then race toward the final confrontation we all know is coming. The pacing here may not have been rushed, but it's not unfair to characterize it as "hurried". At this point we are treated to some action sequences that are technically proficient but too short to leave the viewer with much sense of suspense or genuine danger. Even when a character is genuinely put in danger, the action and resolution all happen within a couple minutes. Go to bathroom and you'll miss it. It would have been nice if they'd given that a little more time in the editing booth. However, I'm more forgiving with that sort of thing in this movie because of its pulp action tone. If this were a superhero movie that took itself more seriously--say the Brian Singer X-Men movies--then I'd call it a serious lapse.

Chris Evans made a pretty good Steve Rogers and an adequate Captain America. It's going to be really interesting to compare his performance against Robert Downy Jr. in the Avengers movie, though. I'm afraid Evans is going to quickly find himself out-acted. Haley Atwell was adequate as agent (Peggy) Carter, but I wonder if she wasn't cast partly because she wouldn't upstage Evans. An interesting bit of trivia about director Joe Johnston is that he directed The Rocketeer (bonus trivia - IMDB says he was born in Fort Worth). Starring in that movie was Jennifer Connelly, who in my opinion would have absolutely chewed up the scenery as Agent Carter.

All in all, this is a good popcorn movie for the whole family. The violence is pulpy and there's no cursing that I can remember. If your little ones are unfamiliar with Captain America then they might find the Red Skull disturbing. I plan on taking my 8-year old and I'm sure he's going to love it. I caught the 3d version just because that was the showing that was available. It was unremarkable. Save your money and see the 2d version. If you didn't already know, be sure to sit through the credits for the clip at the very end.