A Blockbuster Summer

There's a debate amongst geeks online about whether 2011 or 2012 is going to offer the best blockbuster summer ever. In this geek's opinion, 2012 edges out 2011. But that's next year. Let's talk about some of the major tentpole events lined up for this summer:

Sucker Punch - Zack Synder gives us another visual feast in the style of 300. This one is right up a geek's alley: guns, gals, and explosions.

Scream 4 - Wes Craven is bringing this series back from the dead. Ha ha.

Fast Five - I could point to the impossibility of reconciling the idea that god is all-powerful and good with the idea that evil exists in this world to posit that the Judeo-Christian god as he is understood cannot exist. That argument has fallen on many deaf ears over the years, so I'll offer this instead: they've now made FIVE Fast and Furious movies.

Thor - An adaption of the comic book that pulls our mythological hero out of Valhalla and sucks him into the real world. Sounds kind of cheesy until you look at who's directing: Kenneth Branagh. I like that the studios are starting to make some creative decisions with their hiring of directors for blockbusters. (Along similar lines, Shane Black has been hired to direct Iron Man 3.)

Pirates 4 - Johnny Depp plays Johnny Depp in a pirate costume.

The Hangover 2 - Probably a bad idea, but the first flick is so hysterical I'll see it regardless. Mel Gibson was slated to have a cameo until one of the cast members raised his objections. Which is kind of strange, because if Iron Mike Tyson should get a second chance, why not Mad Max?

Kung Fu Panda 2 - Jack Black is back as Po....alright, I'll own up: the first one was pretty good.

The Tree of Life - Just kidding. The word blockbuster and Terence Malick should never appear in the same sentence. Except, er, that sentence.

X-Men: First Class - James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto, respectively? Sign me the hell up.

The Green Lantern - Just when you thought there were no more superheroes left to pilfer from comic books. Martin Campbell is directing, the same man who gave us Casino Royale and Goldeneye, so this could be good.

Cars 2 - Yeah, this'll make a crap ton of money.

Transformers 3 - Okay, still not convinced that an all-powerful, benevolent God is incompatible with the fact that evil exists in this world? Michael Bay brings us Transformers 3.

Harry Potter - How long until Warner Brothers decides to reboot this series and make billions more dollars? I give it three years, tops.

Captain America - Along with Thor and Iron Man, another origin story that's also setting us up for 2012's The Avengers.

Cowboys & Aliens - A ridiculous premise that is intriguing beyond all reason. Daniel Craig as a mysterious gunslinger, Harrison Ford as a crotchety sheriff, and menacing aliens.

The Smurfs - One word: Gargamel.

Conan the Barbarian - Jason Momoa has some pretty big shoes to fill here. It's slated for an August release, which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

Spy Kids 4 - Like Cars 2, this'll make some serious coin.

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And the one I'm most looking forward to? Super 8. For a lesson in how to make an awesome trailer and perfectly capture a mood, watch this. Directed by JJ Abrams, this one's supposed to be a throwback to early Spielberg, who is involved himself. If this is anywhere near as good as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, it'll be awesome.

Movies I Want To See This Summer

It's now the middle of April, which means the season of the blockbuster is upon us. In no particular order, here are some of the movies I want to see this summer...

1. Star Trek. I've already posted here and here about this movie, so I won't say any more now.

2. Terminator Salvation, because I have to see if Bale's performance is good enough to justify the ridiculous on-set rant. Okay, nothing could ever justify something like that, but still, Bale's capable of being a great actor (The Machinist, anyone?) and it's a Terminator movie.

3. Funny People, which stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Eric Bana. Sandler has been very good in his more serious roles, like in Punch Drunk Love and Reign Over Me. Based on the preview, it looks like this one will have decent drama and lots of laughs, but without descending into some of the more silly humor.

4. Whatever Works. If you haven't heard of this movie, here's all you need to know: Woody Allen directs Larry David.

5. X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

6. The Taking of Pelham 123. Call this one morbid curiosity. I absolutely love the original with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, and I want to see if Tony "I have to stylize every single shot in a movie" Scott pulls off a decent remake. I was skeptical, and still am, of this being a good film, but the trailer has got me wondering.

7. Public Enemies. A film about John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and J. Edgar Hoover, directed by Michael Mann. Need I say more?

Your Civic Duty: Get Wolverine To Come To Philly

The studio that produced X-Men Origins: Wolverine is running a cool promotional: it is allowing fans to vote for which city they want the film to premiere in.

Go to this link to vote.

As it turns out, Philly is one of the cities on the list of possibles. (hint, hint)

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If I'm conspicuously absent from the blogosphere over the next few days, I apologize in advance--the Masters Tournament starts today and I'll be glued to the TV over the next four days.

Yes, I Want to See Valkyrie

Valkyrie has a lot going against it. Internet hateboys have lined up (or rather, sat in front of their computers) to bash this movie for many reasons. Here are some of the more popular ones:

1) Tom Cruise can't act.
2) Bryan Singer has seen better days.
3) It's a suspense thriller, but we all know how the plot ends, so what's the point, right?
4) The release date has been changed at least three times, for various reasons.
5) None of the characters speak with German accents, and that's like, so dumb, man.

I haven't seen it yet, but I think people should give this movie a chance.

1) Tom Cruise is a good actor. It's in vogue nowadays to hate on the guy. Understandably so. Whether you're still laughing at his couch-jumping on Oprah, or whether you're still waiting for him to say "I was just kidding about psychiatry. I think it's a wonderful field," his behavior and outspoken views on anything and everything were a bit off-putting. He appears to be in the midst of a public-relations extreme makeover. I totally understand if you don't want to support a movie he's in because you disagree with him on a personal level. That's one thing. But don't ignore the fact that he can act. He was perfect in Born on the Fourth of July, nobody else could have played Jerry Maguire the way he did, and he was spot-on as Vincent in Collateral. If I chose not to watch movies starring actors who had political views I disagreed with, I'd almost never go the movies.


2) Bryan Singer is a good director. Yes, it's been five years since X2. Yes, the last outing, Superman Returns, was an abomination. Yes, he directed Apt Pupil, one of the few movies I've ever rented and turned off twenty minutes in. But anyone capable of directing as good a film as The Usual Suspects has got talent and brains. Also, Christopher McQuarrie, the screenwriter of TUS wrote the screenplay for this movie. McQuarrie is an excellent writer, and he and Singer worked wonders together before. And let's not forget that Singer's treatment of X-Men and X2 was awesome. With both films, I was never once pulled out of the story because I realized I was watching a comic book movie (cough, cough, Spider Man 1-3). Singer brought the focus of the X-Men movies to bear on the themes of alienation and individualism.

3) It doesn't matter that we know the ending. It really doesn't. Trust me on this one. If the film's done well, the plot will work. There was another movie that we all knew the ending to that did pretty well at the box office: Titanic. Sure, there are some differences, but the idea is the same--we all know the ship's going down, but we want to see how it happens and how things turn out for the characters involved. Still not convinced? Then go watch (or read) The Day of the Jackal, one of the best suspense thrillers ever created. The outcome of the story is never in doubt, and yet, you're on the edge of your seat the entire time. Still not convinced? How many of you knew the ending to Romeo and Juliet before you first read or saw a production of it? Huh? Come on, how many of you? Yeah, that's what I thought.

4) The changing of the release date could mean a lot of things. This is the strongest argument against seeing this film, if you ask me. But I would state that this could mean a lot of things. I read somewhere that the producers or the studio pushed it back initially because they wanted Cruise to work on his German accent. I don't know if that's true or not, but that really doesn't matter (see below). I also heard that the studio wasn't sure how to market this film when they saw it, which isn't necessarily a sign that it's bad. Perhaps they were expecting a big-time action box office smash, let's release it during the summer, kind of movie. And they panicked when they didn't get that. But if you believe Singer, all along he wanted to create a solid suspense thriller. He wasn't going for Michael-Bay type action, and he wasn't looking for Oscar nominations.

5) German accents wouldn't make any sense. Seriously, they wouldn't. Think about it. The story takes place in Germany. We know the characters are speaking German. Therefore, there's no need to have them speak English with a German accent. It's unnecessary. If you think about it, the characters in Star Wars probably aren't speaking English. Though, who knows with George Lucas. Aside from that, though, I've heard that Singer uses an interesting technique to remind us throughout the movie that the characters are speaking German.

So, I say that Valkyrie is worth a watch, either at the theater or as a rental at home. Judge the movie all you want after you see it, but at least have a good reason for doing so. People love to hate, don't they?