The Rundown of this Summer’s Blockbuster Movies
The summer is here and so Summer Blockbuster Movie Season! The studios have put some hefty marketing dollars to work trying to deduce what will bring people out in droves and so far, it’s working. Captain America: Civil War just made $353 million at the box office and more than 1 billion globally (see film figures). That said, focus groups, savvy marketing campaigns, and projections mean nothing, nada, zip without a good, entertaining story and characters people actually care about.
Without further ado, here are the season’s contenders:
X-Men Apocalypse – May 27
Bryan Singer’s next X-film looks bad, very bad. Why are they still hiring him to direct these films? In an era where Captain America is wearing his blue spandex suit and grossing literally a billion of dollar what do we collectively have to do to get the X-men wearing their traditionally individualized costumes? Hopefully, Apocalypse will be Singer’s last film with the franchise.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – June 2
Surprisingly, TMNT 2 looks really good. You’ve got Bebop and RockSteady and Krang all doing their thing. Casey Jones is in it. And it only looks like it’s mostly a cacophonous overload of CGI. That’s a cast improvement over the garbled mess that was the original film.
Independence Day: Resurgence – June 24
Weird sci fi sequel to Roland Emmerich’s masterpiece of global description? Sold. Ticket bought. Let’s do it. Let’s all collectively watch Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, and Brent Spiner reunite to save the world (again). Let’s take a testosterone ridden, over the top, somewhat nostalgic trip together to the brink of destruction only to be saved by bravery, honor, and all that good stuff.
Legend of Tarzan – July 1
Do we really need another Tarzan movie? Haven’t we said all we need to say about Tarzan? What is this one going to be Tarzan begins? Show us how he was conceived? This just sounds awful. And the marketing campaign has been extremely turgid. They’ve also fallen into the trap that so many films have these days–they give away the whole movie in the trailer.
Star Trek Beyond July 8
Rumors are flying around about re-shoots and re-edits on the film. However, they’ve already got my ticket. I’ll be there opening weekend, sitting in the front row watching Idris Alba play that weird white-faced alien dude. I’m into it. I’m also just into the fact that Simon Pegg co-wrote the film. I’m all over it.
Ghostbusters – July 22
This film has been getting a lot of really, really harsh criticism and I completely understand it. The all female cast is irrelevant. The fact that all the original actors are coming back, but not as their characters, the fact that the film doesn’t acknowledge the other characters ever existed, and the fact that large portions of the end have been leaked online and they look AWFUL is contributing to this climate of negativity around the film. The dissing of the old mythology here is a perfect example of how to completely alienate what coulda, shoulda been your diehard fanbase. Some of us will have to see it just to see how bad it can get. And yes, it’s sad to see the talents of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig be eclipsed by bad choices on how to handle the backstory.
Jason Bourne – July 29
Finally, we get another Jason Bourne film and Paul Greengrass is directing. For me, it’s a double win. I’m simply overjoyed! I can’t wait to see how they develop Bourne’s character with this one. I love the Bourne movies, and spy stuff in general. I’m there.
Suicide Squad – August 5
And finally we have Suicide Squad. Hopefully, this film is better that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. That film was awful on too many levels to count. Suicide Squad at least isn’t one of DC’s major franchises, so hopefully David Ayer can make some interesting choices and take some chances with the film. We’ll see where it goes.
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