Scots Taffer on 12/5/2011 at 04:05

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(http://www.avclub.com/articles/2011-summer-movie-preview-the-legend-of-curlys-gol,55867/) AV Club Summer Preview Part 1

(http://www.avclub.com/articles/hello-mary-lou-2011-summer-movie-preview-part-2,55944/) AV Club Summer Preview Part 2

God, what a thoroughly uninspiring line-up (admittedly AV Club have included some non-events in there in order to pad it out into a multi-part article, a criticism that can likely be levelled at most of the scripts for these movies).

The Hangover was mildly amusing, but enough to merit not only a sequel but the female-version in Bridesmaids? Sigh.

The diminishing sequeltitis also rears its head with new Pirates and Transformers. And it extends to animation too: Cars and Kung Fu Panda - not sure if I'll catch a single one of those.

The continuing trend of crappy comic books kicked off already with Thor but you've also got the awful-looking Priest and Green Lantern. Maybe the new X-Men won't be terrible, but I won't be finding out. They lost me at X2.

Mallick's Tree of Life looks mysterious enough to be interesting, but hardly a tentpole summer movie.

I'd say the only true summer movie in that list that piques my interest is Super 8 - Abrams can deliver lightweight summer awesome as he proved with Star Trek but he's also capable of building things that collapse under the weight of their own mythos and hype (see: everything else he's ever done). Let's hope this is more former than latter.

Fafhrd on 12/5/2011 at 06:24

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Thor is actually really good. Not quite Iron Man 1 good, but still really really good. And I'm eagerly anticipating Captain America.

I actually went and saw Fast Five in a theatre. And I do not regret it.

I'm a sucker for Green Lantern anyway, but the combination of Martin Campbell directing and (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/green-lantern.html?showVideo=1#belowNav) just how balls out they're going with it right off the bat guarantees my ticket. And c'mon: Mark fuckin' Strong as Sinestro!

I'll probably see Kung Fu Panda 2 because the original was surprisingly great, and apparently Charlie Kaufman did an uncredited draft on the screenplay for 2.

And seriously, they lost you at X2? It's by far the best of the franchise thus far. High hopes for First Class, with Singer producing and Matthew Vaughn directing, (even after getting fucked out of X3 by Fox) + Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, January Jones and James McAvoy = ticket bought.

Pirates: Ian McShane. Blackbeard. Done.

Transformers: Giant Robots and/or Dragons gets me in theatres (so I'll be seeing Real Steel as well). That's just how I roll. I'm also curious about how Bay handled shooting in 3D, since his regular spastic shooting/editing style should give even him motion sickness when 3D is added in.

Cowboys and Aliens: Favreau directing Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford (who doesn't appear to be drunk or heavily medicated in the trailers) and Sam Rockwell in a western with aliens in.

Scots Taffer on 12/5/2011 at 07:22

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Really? I mean, McShane is always awesome but throw in Depp phoning it in and them cramming in zombie and mermaids doesn't make you think "less is more"?

That may have been an unfair early strike against Thor but the previews didn't sell anything particularly noteworthy and CG looked turrible.

I imagine Cowboys & Aliens will feature in their Part 2 (or 3 depending on how far they try to stretch it) and it's a definite must-see for me unless it absolutely stinks out the critics.

And yeah I should say they lost at/after X2 as it was fun but I wasn't in for more and more of the same, then when I heard 3 was bad I never bothered looking it up. So I'm pretty done with that and many other comic franchises - you'd have to work hard to get me to see Captain America, Avengers or any future Iron Man movies. They've burnt me out.

(http://www.avclub.com/articles/hello-mary-lou-2011-summer-movie-preview-part-2,55944/) Part 2 out and added to OP -- thoughts on those flicks later.

SubJeff on 12/5/2011 at 10:52

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A lot of flashy sci-fi/fantasy/tie-in stuff that's likely to be style over substance. I've heard Thor is pretty good but I've not seen it yet.

I did, however, see Fast Five and it was surprisingly good. It knows it's pure cheese and so does everyone else and so the audience was laughing at some of the ridiculous stunts.

I'm more interested in 30 minutes or less and Circumstance.

dj_ivocha on 12/5/2011 at 12:46

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Fafhrd, did you watch Thor in 3D and if yes, how was it (both the picture quality and the 3D itself)? I heard it was shot in 2D and only after Avatar did they decide to 3Dify it.