Summer 2011 Poster

This summer has the largest amount of blockbusters in a very long time. You can argue the quality if you want, but Hollywood threw everything and the kitchen sink at this summer and I’ve encountered quite a few surprises thus far. There’s many reasons why this summer is important to me personally and having this many movies to watch, makes it that much better. I wanted to make a poster to kind of pay homage to this summer and this is the result. And I know not every movie is on here “Hangover 2” but I’m not a big comedy guy.

I’d also like to give a rank “1-10” for each movie “seen thus far” along with a few sentences for a quick review. I’m not one of those fanboys who freaks out over minor differences from comic to screen, nor do I go into every movie thinking it’s going to be at the scale of Star Wars “Empire Strikes Back specifically.” I usually can tell from the trailer what type of movie I’m walking into and I set my standards based on that. So here they are in order of their release; spoiler free...

Fast Five - 7.0 – If you’ve seen any of the movies in this series you know what you’re walking into. The movies have mostly gotten better “minus the 2nd one.” This one ditches the race scene for a bank heist movie and it is fairly good, once you get by the bad dialogue. It’s just a movie where you don’t have to think that much.

Thor - 9.0 – This one does a good job of keeping pace throughout the entire movie. Both Hemsworth and Hiddelston are good as Thor and Loki. Loki is a great villain who you can clearly see his point of view. Good job switching between Midgard and Asgard. Portman as Jane Foster is a bit weak, but all in all a great movie.

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger Tides – 7.0 – I really wanted to like this one, but this was all over the place. Johnny Depp as Sparrow is great as always, but he just shouldn’t be used as the main character. There’s lots of good stuff, just not enough to tie the whole thing together. They throw in a lot of new characters; most of who are good, but just aren’t given enough screen time. Just not enough...

Kung Fu Panda 2 -

X-men First Class – 8.5 – This one really surprised me. Everything about this looked like it was going to suck, from the initial casting choices, the character choices, the horrible posters, and the fact that Wolverine and X3 weren’t that great. Anytime Magneto and Xavier are on screen the movie just works. The story and setting are good. As far as the movie itself goes, there really isn’t anything horrible I can say.

Super 8 – 9.5 – Not only is this the only non sequel, non adaption to come out this summer it is also the best. This movie had everything you could ever want from a movie. If you like classic Spielberg movies, then you’ll like it. It’s essentially Goonies/E.T/Cloverfield.

Green Lantern- 5.5 – I think people are being a little too rough on this movie. It’s not that bad, it’s just not that good either. GL fails because “in my opinion” they were to busy trying to build a franchise instead of trying to make a good movie. This movie is just a set up for the real movie and I think people are just plain tired of superhero origin stories. There are a few really good scenes in the movie, but mostly it just kind of sits there, unable to escape its mediocrity.

Cars 2- *Update- Finally able to watch this a few days ago on B-Ray. I'll give it a 7.5. Not as good as the first, but it was cool to see all the characters again. And I really liked the interesting way that cars fight each other in a an action movie.

Transformers Dark of the Moon – 7.0 – This movie is defiantly better than the last one, but no where near as good as the first. The action is of course done very well and there is just enough of a story to give it some sort of meaning. One major plus for me was that they completely ditched the juvenile humor for this one. This is just a straight up summer action movie and while I would have liked more, I didn’t expect it.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 – 8.0 - I'm someone who hasn't read any of the books and truely had no idea what was going to happen in this movie, just to make it clear. It's hard to judge this on it's own because it really is the Part 2 of two parts and neither stand alone. There's some things I would have changed, but overall well executed. I think the only thing it lacked was more heart. It seemed too willing to embrace the rushed on action flick and it just didn't leave room for much else. Good, but not great, yet a satisfying enough ending.

Captain America: The First Avenger – 9.0 - This was the best superhero movie of the summer, just barely edging out Thor in my opinion. It was just a solid script that stuck well to the material. It had that old school vibe of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with some Band of Brothers thrown in, and some Marvel goodness to round it all out.

Cowboys & Aliens – 7.5 - There was a lot of debate before they actually made the movie on whether or not to go with comedy route. In the end they decided not to go that way with it, which I think was best, but I think they went a little too dark with it. With Favreau directing I thought it be at least a little light hearted, but it was just straight up dark with neary a joke in sight. I think if it was more in tone with Ironman it would have been great. As it stands though, it's just good.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - 8.5 - This was really good. And I know alot of people who complained before it was even out that it was going to suck. "And that my friends is why you don't judge it before you see it." I always liked the planet of the apes movies, some more than others. "Even Burton's take had a few good things in it." This was the right way to go with this series. Some of you may think it is slow to begin with, but I think it just makes the action at the end even better. And everyone who questions as to how a handful of smart apes can take over the planet; watch the movie before talking about how stupid it is. I usually hate the word reboot, but both X-men and Apes seem to have pulled it off this summer.

I've started doing a few others as well, here they are
2010 - [link]
2009 - [link]

All logos and Characters belong to their respective studios and I claim no right to them.