Summer Movies Suck

Watching movies is something I really enjoy. Being able to kick back for two hours, engross myself in something way more interesting than my mundane life, and either turn my brain on or off (depending upon the movie) does so much for me. Humans have always been story tellers and probably always will be and right now, outside of the devil-machine known as the television, movies are our main source of telling and hearing stories.

Summers are notorious for being the season of the year during which all of the studios put out their flagship titles, hoping to cash in on the more frequent movie attendings of people during the "relaxing" months of the year. Usually there is at least a movie or two to come out during the summer that doesn't suck, but this year I'm having a really hard time enjoying anything I've seen this summer. It seems like all of the blockbusters have been either bad or average.

What happened? Superman Returns was watchable, but pretty boring and riddled with plot holes. X-Men 3 was also watchable, but the whole thing felt cheesy and stupid and didn't have the cohesion of the second movie. Pirates of the Carribean succeeded in getting me to turn my brain off, but even so it didn't capture the spirit of adventure the first one possessed. I couldn't bring myself to watch Mission Impossible 3, The Da Vinci Code, or Poseidon because the previews made them look so "blah". I'm really feeling let down that there wasn't more to see.

I am keeping my hopes up for Clerks 2 that I'm going to try to see tonight and I am really looking forward to eventually seeing A Scanner Darkly, but beyond these two movies, the summer has been a let down. However, as I browsed the Apple trailers site, I am frothing at the mouth in anticipation for a ton of movies that will be coming out this fall. Just look at some of the killer movies coming out soon:

• Children of Men: A high concept film about a post-apocalyptic future where all of the world's women are barren. Clive Owen looks like he fits the part perfectly. The atmosphere looks appropriately dark and dismal.
• The Fountain: Aronofsky is a genius and the previews make it look like he's attempting to take his odd style to a whole new level. Straying away from a real life scenario to a fantasy setting might prove to be both a visual and metal trip.
• Renissance: Mostly the animation style of this movie interests me. The story seems to be well enough to hold the audience's attention, but it'll be interesting to see if this odd black and white animation style will make the movie hard to sit through or really interesting.
• The Prestige: Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale in a period piece about magicians. How can you possibly go wrong? The serious tone in combination with the hinted at otherworldly tones are drawing me in.
• The Illusionist: Ed Norton is drawing me into this one. The vibe of the movie seems to be very close that of The Prestige, but focusing more on love than oneupmanship. Should at least be good for Norton fans.
• The Last Kiss: I don't know if it's the fact that Zack Braff is the star of this movie or what, but it seems to be in the same vein as Garden State, which was one of my favorite movies of the last few years. Braff seems tailor made for roles such as this.
• Fearless: Martial arts fans, drool over this. Jet Li, in the couple of minutes in this trailer, looks to be in peak condition and the choreography seems like it'll be amazing. This is not one that you'll want to miss.

I'm sure there will be a few more good movies coming around this fall and winter beyond these, so it looks like we might have a much more crowded time this fall than this summer. Weird.