RIP 2008 summer movie season

Good post!

This summer has been great, I hadn't been to the cinema in a long while before going to see Indy 4 which was a superb film, I hadn't seen the other 3 Indy films in absolutely ages, in fact 2 of them I've only seen parts of vaguely! But I was very impressed with the story. Everything about it was just great.

Following Indy we wound up going to see Wall-E last week which was a superb film,I thoroughly enjoyed it! I expected it to be ok, Disney wont often hype up complete tripe, only sometimes, so I expected to be entertained. Instead I was extremely pleased, I left the cinema in a really happy mood.

Seeing Wall-E lead me to seeing The Dark Knight last night which we had decided to wait on because we wanted to go see it in a better cinema, but tickets were sold out, and I really wanted to see another film! Again this was a truly magnificent film, it made me really wish we would see that Joker again, how cruel fate is eh? I guess a sequel featuring the same character would have only taken away from the perfect performance anyway, but it will take a lot to top this villain. I want another Batman film, but I know it wont be better than DK so whats the point?

I erm... downloaded... Kung Fu Panda which I thought was actually quite good considering its only really meant for younger viewers as such. Missed out on Prince Caspian as my partner hated the first film (cant say I enjoyed it much either) and i didn't fancy seeing it alone. Having caught a bit of a film watching buzz we plan to check out Hancock at the weekend, Mummy 3 when its out here, and I am downloading X-Files later today I think. Starting to make plans for a few film fests with some films i have been recommended too over the coming week or so.

I totally believe this summer has been an especially great year for film, and it seems like Winters movies are going to be quite big too. With any luck this suggests good things to come in 2009 but sadly I fear it doesn't quite flow like that! Whatever happens the rest of this year, so far what i have seen has sparked a dormant love for film I thought I would never find!

I watched Kung Fu Panda not knowing the amount of "big names" that were in it! I can honestly say i had no idea Jolie was in it, i just thought it was a Jack Black film. I liked it, it made me chuckle a few times and it was a happy enough film. I am glad i didn't pay to see it, but i am also glad i have seen it, you know?

Part of me feels with Heath not getting the chance to continue as The Joker it has made the performance all the more special, it was a perfect display of the character which wont be beaten ever. If he had been able to try and maintain it, and better it, he might have ruined it, or taken something away. This leaves it frozen as it is, magnificent.

I think the director is capable of amazing things, but that he put so much into this film, and the timing, the actors, everything came together so right. He would need an enormous amount of luck to pull off such a feat twice in a row on the same franchise! Although saying that, i felt Batman Begins was an immensely good film before seeing this, so hopefully i will be surprised!

I can see what you mean about the sequels, the main original stories were aimed at younger audiences it seems. Older audiences are surely more drawn out by old favorites though, my parents are the kind of people who would go to the cinema for a Batman or Indy film but would miss a Hancock or Wanted. They create more excitement i spose? Though i guess if Hancock or Wanted were that good their sequels would be hyped too.

I am confident Harry Potter will be immense, these films get better every single time, as did the books, so i think if they were to cock this one up it would be an astonishing mistake!! They have invested to much time, effort, and money to not do the job properly. Sadly that does not mean it is going to be great by default of course.

I am moving back to my home town soon, so I imagine I will see a lot of films I didn't know a lot about, but will thoroughly enjoy. In the gap between now and the Winter hits though, I definitely have to crack on with covering all the classics I should have already seen!

No-one else seen a film in 2008?

I just can't wrap my head around Edward Norton playing some green-CGI character. I always thought he was better than that.

This summer for movies is got to be one of my favorites in a long time. Ironman was worth watching at least twice,The Incredible Hulk was definitely a good upgrade from The Hulk (and I liked the first Hulk) mostly because the story seemed better paced and not cramped like the first one and it didn't have those annoying panels that split the screen five different ways, Hellboy was fun but not as good as the first one, Kung Fu Panda was fun also (I didn't really expect to like it), WALL-E was more fun (leave it to PIXAR to take computer animation a notch higher), The Chronicals of Narnia: Prince Caspian was cool but not as much as the first one, Hancock was unexpectedly good but it could've used like 20 more minutes of character development, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was about as good as I expected it (I didn't put my hopes too high on this one) and enjoyed it and finally The Dark Knight was not only the best movie of the summer but my favorite this year thus far. The next movie I'll watch will be the third Mummy movie because after getting my mind blown by The Dark Knight my brain needs a rest!

As for the winter movies: The Watchmen has my attention. If it's as interesting as the graphic novel it will be worth watching. The Spirit produced by one of my favorite writers/artists Frank Miller. That's all the reason I need. The next Terminator movie looks good but I wasn't happy with the last one so this one could go either way for me. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince I have mixed feelings about. I enjoyed the first four movies and all the books but the last movie was too short and the plot ran too fast and since the same director is doing this movie I have my reservations (the final battle was pretty cool though). I'm hoping that since the 6th book was shorter than the 5th one that maybe the movie's plot won't be so cramped but if the movie is less than two hours then I fear that it won't make a difference. We'll just have to see I guess.

Hey, we've still got Vicky Cristina Barcelona to look foward to.

Overall, I completely despised most of the movie presented: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Dark Knight...while they were certainly better than Spiderman, they were all quite laughable. I just don't have to stomach for Hollywood anymore.

And Harry Potter? People still want to see these movies?