Summer Blockbusters

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I may well see more movies this summer than I have in a long, long time. Given that there's nothing my son likes more than superheroes at the moment, it goes without saying that we will be going to see Iron Man 3 on opening day. Iron Man may well have surpassed Spiderman by now as his favorite superhero. And of course it will be viewed in 3D. However, with the reviews up to this point being mostly very good, it may well be entertaining as well. This also means that a must-see film (although my son doesn't anticipate this one as highly) is Man of Steel later on in the summer.

Second on the list of my son's likes are cartoons. And there are two sequels coming out this summer that he absolutely loved when he saw them on Netflix: There's the prequel to Monsters Inc - called Monsters University, and Despicable Me 2.

And if there's anything that comes close to superheroes and cartoons with my kid, it's cowboys. And a cowboy that wears a mask is completely irresistible, so I think The Lone Ranger can be safely added to the list as well.

Of course, I also have a wife, which means I will be obligated to go see The Great Gatsby. (Why are they releasing The Great Gatsby in 3D? There are tons of movies out there that would greatly benefit from 3D, but this isn't one of them.) She also loves Vin Deisel, so I may get hooked to go to see Fast and Furious 6 as well, but I view that as a possibility rather than the near certainty of Gatsby.

Movies I have little to no interest in this summer: World War Z and the new Star Trek movie.

Movies that I think have a strong possibility of being disappointments: Hangover III, and sadly, as I'll definitely be seeing it, The Lone Ranger.

So what's on your must-see list?

 

With you on Iron Man 3. Looks dope. Reviews are sky high. Don't forget about Thor 2.

I'm personally very excited for Star Trek: Into Darkness. Bracing for disappointment, though.

I thought the first Despicable Me was painfully uninteresting. Couldn't even get through an hour. No thanks.

Ditto for Monster University...I'm not a fan of dipping back into the Pixar well, especially for prequel stuff. The only Pixar movie that was tailor-made for sequels - The Incredibles - sadly isn't on anyone's docket, it looks like. Ditto: Finding Dory. Love Ellen Degeneres, and it'll probably be OK, but...meh.

Lone Ranger looks particularly bad. I like Armie Hammer though, so, I hope I'm wrong. If it's a dud, he's toast as a leading man.

Great Gatsby looks amazeballs, if they do it right. I'm a fan of Fitzgerald, and I've refused to watch any previous adaptations, so - hope it's done well. The cast looks pretty strong. Minus Toby Maguire, who I've never been a fan of.

I'm giving The War Z the benefit of the doubt. Gonna see it. It could be really good.

Isn't there another Hunger Games happening this summer too?

And though I've come to be a casual fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, I may wait for video for this one. Though I really like the twist of bringing back Michelle Rodruiguez, I can't remember how her character died before, so I don't know how plausible the premise is.

And yeah - the Hangover III...what the hell are they thinking. Just shut up already. The first one was charming, the second one was just a crude rehash of the exact same plot and all of the same dick jokes. Couldn't even finish it. Blarf.

 

Man of Steel looks really good. If you haven't seen the latest trailer, it seems to be putting it all together again in a compelling way. Special effects, from the perspective of Superman himself at times, look impressive.

I wasn't interested in Pacific Rim until I saw the trailer. Now I think it's going to be a hit. I'm a little leery but my son is terribly excited for it.

RIPD, Elysium, Kick Ass 2, The World's End, and Red 2 will probably be interesting to me. (I'm not sure who else will see them, however!) I might see The Wolverine but I will be surprised if I actually see it in the theater rather than via Blu-Ray later on in the year (unless the boy totally convinces me to go see it).

I think Iron Man 3, Monster's U, Despicable Me 2, and Epic will do well (and all are movies my kids are already trying to convince me to see). I expect Hangover III to be okay, almost certainly better than Hangover II (an admittedly low bar)--but I see it more as a Friday night rental sometime in the fall or winter. This is the End probably has potential, but the assembled cast has been in so many duds lately, and their semi-raunchy, frat-boy, pot-smoking comedy gets really gratting after awhile, so I'd be surprised if I ever watched it...

I'm personally totally uninterested in the 300 prequel but the first movie made so much money that there must be a lot of people out there who would be interested in seeing this one too.

Riddick, Machete Kills, Cloudy w/ Meatballs 2, Sin City 2 are all coming out in September or so, I think...Sep't probably doesn't count as the summer...

Thor 2 is coming something like this November, I think. So is Ender's Game, Hobbit 2, the latest Hunger Games installment, and Anchorman 2--all fall/winter movies.

 

I'm not terribly excited for anything this year ... probably Iron Man 3, Hangover 3, Anchorman 2, and Thor 2 (wow,sequels all) for me on DVD. Aren't they doing Captain America 2 as well?

For some reason, the new edgy-looking Superman doesn't appeal, but I didn't like the old Superman either. Enough Superman already. Ditto Batman, I'm glad he's done for now.

 

Do see Iron Man 3 but don't bother with the 3D version though. The 3D adds nothing but eye strain for that movie.

I am looking forward to Start Trek.

 

Honest Trailers covers 3D pretty well.

 

I had not realized that they were making a second one. Of the Marvel franchise movies, while none of the are bad, I do think there are tiers to be considered. I really liked Iron Man (1 and 2), and the Avengers last summer was outstanding. I wasn't nearly as impressed (special effects withstanding of course) with Captain America, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk - which by now must be a few years old. So I'll definitely see Thor this fall, but I'm not sky high excited about it.

Oh, I'll see it eventually - same thing with World War Z. It's just that my son isn't into it, and neither one has blown me away with previews. So I'm thinking with so many other movies taking precedence, these are getting relegated to Netflix land.

Those are both because I have a 5-year old. He liked both of them, meaning we'll probably see them. I can't believe you didn't like Despicable Me though... that had elements that I thought appealed to adults as well. Monsters Inc was definitely a kids movie.

None of them are bad... well... some of them were bad - so I take that back. I think it's a franchise where the cast makes a big difference, as the plots are necessarily very similar. With Vin Diesel again present (his absense and the ones that were bad are a near-identical list) and the Rock added to this one, I think it has potential. Again squeezed out due to the flux of movies I know I'll be seeing.

Speaking of the Rock, is it just me who thinks Pain and Gain has the potential to be REALLY FUNNY? Of course, I'm the only one in the house that likes the looks of it, and it's definitely not appropriate for my kid to see, so that has to be Netflix. (As an aside, I have no problem taking my son to see PG-13 movies, like Iron Man and the Avengers, but I draw the line at R.)

 

I've heard great things about Pain and Gain. And Marky Mark does comedy pretty well when he wants to. He was the best thing about I Heart Huckabees. And that show was really, really weird.

On the Fast/Furious series, I will say this: none of them are boring, but they're all a little bad.

 

One other thing about Iron Man. I think the reason why I'm going to like this one is that they finally picked the A-list super-villain in Mandarin. Most other superheroes, whether you're talking about Batman, Spiderman, etc., have an entire supporting cast of super-villains to chose from. Sure, there's a heirarchy, with people like the Joker and Doc Oc occupying a much higher status than someone like The Riddler or Green Goblin, but you can make a movie with them as the lead villain.

Not with Iron Man super-villains. While by no means the only super-villain, it's Mandarin, and then everybody else - and it's not close. Heck, the 1st movie didn't even have a super-villain in the most literal sense of the word. In IM2, you had Whiplash, and while he was one of the villains from comic book yore, he was by no means the top of the heap.

(As a complete aside, both in the comic books and in every cartoon iteration of Iron Man I have ever seen, Mandarin is depicted as Chinese. In fact, even with the name Mandarin, there is no doubt that he is intended to be Chinese. So it does beg the question as to why they elected to not make Mandarin Chinese in this film. It seems like a most glaring deviation from IM cannon to do so.)

There is one other thing that makes IM a great superhero (and no it's not that he's a billionaire/genius/tech junky with no actual super powers - Batman already had that covered). It's his side kick - Rhodie as War Machine. Let's just say that Robin comes off as underwhelming - on the verge of being pretty wussy even - by comparison.

He's also one of very few superheroes that not only doesn't conceal his identity, but is about as in-your-face about it as you can get. Yes, I'm a billionaire playboy, and a super hero - and I like it. His imperfections are part of the character - unlike many super heroes he's not Mr. Straight Edge Goody Two Shoes. He's struggled with alcoholism (as did RDJ IRL), sleeps around with as many beautiful women that he can get in the sack (probably also true of RDJ, although I cannot confirm). He's arrogant to the point of narcissism, and takes pride in it. And lets face it, if you're going to fly around in a armored suit and be a genuine bad ass about it, I think you're entitled to a little ego.

---------- Added 6 hours, 58 minutes and 57 seconds later... ----------

#epicfail

*ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS TO FOLLOW JUST IN CASE YOU STILL WANT TO WASTE $14 ON THIS STEAMING PILE OF POO*

Iron Man 3 was a huge disappointment. Wow. Went in hoping for an A, expected a B, got a C-, feels like an F.

Even my 5-year old was pointing out plot holes in the movie. I'm still scratching my head at the people who gave this a good rating. A totally unbecoming end to what had been a fantastic series.

Look, I'm OK if you don't want to make Mandarin Chinese. But you still have to let Mandarin be Mandarin. You still have to let him have his Mandarin super powers. It would have been much easier if they just named him Osama bin Laden, and been done with it.

Everything that you liked about the first two movies is absent in this one. The funny banter between Tony and Rhodie? Well, maybe that would have happened if they spent more than 10 minutes together on screen. Tony still is his sarcastic self, and you'll get a few chuckles out of it, but the movie was overall blah. Or perhaps you were actually hoping to see.. you know... Iron Man. Well 95% of the movie, Tony is Tony and not Iron Man. Rhodie is War Machine, and is suited up more than Tony is.

You took the A+ villain of the series and made him about as vanilla as you could have. If you are going to have Mandarin, but change the way he looks, get rid of all his powers, and substitute some abilities Mandarin never actually, then, well ... then you cease to have Mandarin. You have to keep some canonical elements of the character, and when you don't it's no longer the character.

If you never saw either of the first two movies, if you don't know anything about Iron Man lore from comics or cartoons, and were just hoping to go see things go "BOOM" you might like it. IMO, far and away the worst of the three, and a terrible way to end the series.

I think I'm more pissed off about this because of my son than I am for me. He was SOOOO looking forward to this, and they managed to fail to meet the expectations of a 5-year old. Great job.

 

Is Iron Man 3 the end of the series? I thought they had all these guys locked in for like six more movie appearances each after the Avengers.

 

The consensus is that it might be the last. There has been no final word though.

SPOILERS
You'd think they'd have bothered to hint in the trailers that the guy might not be the real Mandarin, considering how the real Mandarin is basically Iron Man's Red Skull/Loki.

 

Perhaps he will be on future Avengers movies, and I can't really give up more than that without spoilers. But the way the movie ended certainly gave the impression that, while all of the main characters are alive and well, this was the final chapter of the Iron Man saga. And if we're going to get more tripe like this, then I HOPE it's the last one in the saga.

@dmc - I hadn't seen that review before I went, and it probably wouldn't have made a difference. My kid wanted to see it, and most people who did submit reviews were very positive about it. So I wouldn't have bailed just based on that. I was at least hoping to see a decent superhero movie. Although it is telling that the author references the likeness of Osama bin Laden in Mardarin, despite me not having read that article before hand. So it's not just me that saw that similarity.

I think that Mandarin part is what really bothers me. There is no similarity between the movie's interpretation of Mandarin and the comic book/cartoon version of the character. Well, the names are the same, but that's where the likeness ends. If you are going to have an Iron Man movie with Mandarin in it, there has to be something Mandarin-like about the character Mandarin. It would be like if in Iron Man 2 they made Whiplash, but didn't give him his chains, and instead had him shoot lightning bolts out of his eyes. Mandarin doesn't look like Mandarin, has none of the powers Mandarin is supposed to have, and has powers that Mandarin didn't have. Other than the name he was made from whole cloth.

 

Why would they stop the gravy train though? Those movies pull in huge money.

 

My impression was very similar to yours Aldeth. All superhero movies rely not so much on the hero as on the villain. If the villain works the movie works. The first two Spiderman movies worked so well because of great Green Goblin and Dr Octopus. No villain has really worked as well as those two (except possibly Magneto) which is sad and the creators really need to put some thought and effort into their villains.

They treated the villain as bad as they could in Iron Man 3, I thought Spider Man 3 handled it poorly but IM3 molested two sets of Marvel villains.

 

Well, if we're going to be fair, and look at recent movie villains in superhero movies, we would be remiss in not mentioning the Joker from the Dark Knight trilogy. And, to further prove your point, yes, the one with the Joker was easily the best of the three.

And I will add this piece in because I don't really consider it a spoiler, as you find it out within 15 minutes of the movie starting. Tony has rigged his suits so that they now can be operated by remote control. In other words, you can use the suit with no one inside. In this regard, the superhero, Iron Man, ceases to function. If you don't need a guy in the suit, then literally anyone can be Iron Man.

 

Well, dammit. I was really looking forward to seeing this. Our local paper gave it 3.5/5, so that was a bit disappointing, but I tend not to rely too heavily on those reviews.

I'll probably still see it, but with lowered expectations (which I guess is a good thing).

 

Ah, the Joker that was a great interpretation of the Joker but deviated quite a bit from the source material if "Batman experts" are anything to go by but it just further proves my point. A superhero flick where the villain doesn't completely work is lacking. In my opinion that was the only problem with the Avengers, it was still a good movie but Loki isnt a great villain.

 

It did - there's no doubt about that. But they kept enough of the canonical elements of the character that it worked. The key points that make the Joker the Joker were present. Sure, he lacked the back story that was present in virtually every other interpretation, but if you nail everything else - which they did IMO - the character can still be great.

And don't forget that the Avengers have help because they have multiple heros to carry the film. While Iron Man is no doubt the star, there are several other characters that can and do assist. Furthermore, it is necessary for the villain in something like the Avengers to have god-like abilities. Hell, he's fighting multiple superheroes. He practically has to be a god just to have a puncher's chance.

That reminds me of another odd thing about IM3 - Shield is completely absent from the film - which makes it unique among the 3.

 

Saw Iron Man 3 this past weekend with the son and heir. We totally enjoyed it, but then again we love superhero movies so we may not be the best judges.