Several months ago, I blogged about a list of movies that I
wanted to see this summer, and as usual, I like to keep track of how many I’ve
actually gone to see. Now that we are in mid-July, I’ve seen a bunch of them. ‘Iron
Man 3’, ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, ‘Fast and Furious 6’, and ‘Man of Steel’ all
have earned some revenue from me (actually, ‘Man of Steel’ earned it twice,
since I saw it on opening weekend, and then took my mom and dad to see it a few
weeks later). I’ve declined to see ‘Oblivion’, upon hearing awful reviews from
pretty much everyone, and I figure I’ll see ‘The Great Gatsby’ right before it
inevitably gets nominated for a bunch of costume Oscars. ‘After Earth’ also
will probably be a home rental, after learning that good ol’ M. Night was its
director. That leaves the following movies that are currently out in theatres:
This Is The End
Monsters University
World War Z
Despicable Me 2
The Lone Ranger
I definitely
want to see the first four, and indeed, already have plans to see ‘Despicable
Me 2’ with my girlfriend in a few weeks. ‘The Lone Ranger’, after its abysmal
reviews, is probably never going to get seen by me, honestly. I just don’t
truly care about it, and they seemed to have changed everything about the
original TV show (which I’ve only seen once, but still).
Apart from
that, I have my tickets to see ‘Pacific Rim’ in glorious IMAX, and it will be
awesome, even if my friends are complaining that they don’t understand the hype
behind it. At least *one* of my friends will man up enough to see it with me,
and frankly, the two of us will thoroughly enjoy ourselves, I’m sure. I also
have my tickets to see ‘The Wolverine’ (advance screening at 10pm the night
before!) with my little brother, who is turning 15 this year. This is (part) of
my birthday present to him, so I hope he enjoys it. We went to go see ‘Thor’ at
midnight when it came out a few years ago, so I know he at least appreciates
this kind of thing.
Iron Man 3
In
terms of a small review, it would probably get an 8.5/10 from me. It was solidly
entertaining, and moved the story forward. Some people didn’t like it, because
there wasn’t enough ‘Iron Man’, and more ‘Tony Stark’, if that makes sense.
What the story drove home, however, was the fact that Tony *is* Iron man, as
his words at the end of the first movie say outright. There is no Iron Man
without Tony Stark, but Tony Stark can exist without Iron Man. Truthfully, the
two co-exist now, and IM is as much a part of Stark’s psyche as anything else,
though that doesn’t mean he needs the armour. As a result, we saw far more of Robert
Downey Jr. outside the suit than in any other movie, but I think it pushed his
character in better ways. Not too much set up for ‘The Avengers 2’, though I
expect ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ to do
that later this year/early next year.
Star Trek
Into Darkness
It was fun too. I really enjoyed the action set pieces and everything
that went along, though the scope of the movie was far less grand. The first
one was all about literally saving Earth, whereas this one was more on the
scope of a manhunt. We meet the Klingons, briefly, and Benedict Cumberbatch is
fun as the chief villain. I dunno, there doesn’t seem to be much to say here.
It was alright, and it was fun, and that was that. 7/10
Fast and
Furious 6
Now this was a *ton* of fun, however. This movie just rocked and rolled all
over the place, with things that blew up, and fast cars, and all that nonsense.
And, truly, I loved it! Those kinds of movies appeal to me, where you can just
turn your brain off and have fun. The Rock was great again, and there were some
fun twists along the way. I don’t know that I’d rate it over ‘Fast 5’, but it
comes close, that’s for sure. The after-credits scene definitely sets the movie
up in a way for the future that I love, mainly because of the actor who
appears. Hilariously awesome. I’d go with a 8.5/10.
Man of Steel
It was everything I had hoped a Superman movie would be, and
finally, they made good ol’ Kal-El seem relatable. With a superhero who is
basically a god, that’s kind of important, I think. We also got an extended
look at Krypton, which was fantastic. Seriously, it could have been a scene
right out of a Star Wars movie, and it would have been fine. Russell Crowe was
great as Jor-El, Superman’s dad, and Kevin Costner/Diane Lane were great as Mr.
and Mrs. Kent. Did you know Diane Lane and I share a birthday? The more you
know. Anyway, Michael Shannon was a fantastic General Zod, appropriately scary,
and even though the movie decision with him at the end happened, I can
understand it, despite some people going ‘whaaat?!’. Oh, and of course, Amy
Adams was a great Lois Lane. Yeah, I know, not much description of their roles
and portrayals, but I’m doing abbreviated reviews. I did like that they showed
the damage that Metropolis (modeled after Toronto, for those who did not know that)
took in the battle, as a good amount of things were destroyed in the battle
with Superman vs. Zod and co. Superhero movies tend to gloss over stuff like
that, so I appreciated it, even if the destruction was absolutely massive.
Regardless, ‘Man of Steel’ was a fun ride, so I’d say 8/10 as well.
I also have
seen both Olympus Has Fallen and A Good Day to Die Hard; the former I saw
in theatres when it was out, the latter I saw at home. ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ was
awesome; it was action packed, Gerard Butler is awesome (and is a bonafide
action movie star. Seriously, he needs more movies like that one again), and it
just had gratuitous violence everywhere. I’d seriously give it a 8.5/10,
putting it on the same level as IM3 and Fast 6. On the other hand, while I
*love* the Diehard movies (first one is the best), this latest iteration
sucked. It was terrible. Please don’t waste money seeing it. Not even the
famous ‘Yippee Ki-yay’ line could save it. It was probably a 3/10, if not
worse.
Anyway, next
up in my movie docket were the ones listed above:
This Is The End (in theatres)
Monsters University
World War Z
Despicable Me 2
Pacific Rim (out this weekend)
Red 2 (July 19th)
The Wolverine (July 26th)
Elysium (August)
The World’s End (August)
Movies! Wooo!
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