The Summer Movie Season Is Upon Us

Well, we have officially sprung forward and as the days get longer and warmer, we here at ScreenFix are turning our attention to what really is important this time of year – the summer movie season.  Without further preamble, here are the films I am most looking forward to this summer.

5. The Amazing Spider-man

It’s hard to believe that it has been ten years since Spider-Man crawled his way to box office records and started a superhero film resurgence.  In the last ten years, not a single year has gone by without at least a couple superheroes gracing the screen.  I am not excited by the idea of rebooting my favorite superhero after so little time, but without the talent that made the original three movies so popular, the studios were left with little choice.  My only hope is that the new talent involved in this movie glosses over the origin story that at this point everyone has seen many times before.

4.  Prometheus

The only thing that is well-known about this movie is that it is director Ridley Scott’s return to science fiction, and that is all that it really takes to pique my interest.  Scott’s last attempt in the genre was Alien, which some people seem to think was a little successful.  This film is said to be set in the same universe, but shares only a loose connection with the now sci-fi classic.  With nearly every film this summer being a sequel, prequel, or reboot, I am happy to hear Scott’s protests that Prometheus is an original science fiction story.  Hear ishoping that the film does well and convinces more studios to step outside existing intellectual property.

3. The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is probably going to be the best film you’ve never heard of this summer.  The film was shot three years ago but due to budget problems with the studio
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almost never saw the light of day.  Written by geek god Joss Whedon (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Firefly) and Drew Goddard (Cloverfield), Cabin promises to be a fresh take on the horror genre with a shocking twist.  This film has received rave reviews from almost everyone lucky enough to have gotten early access, and nearly every one of those reviews mentions how important it is to not ruin the film’s unique take on the horror genre.  So hyped about is this twist that Joss Whedon personally addressed the internet in a video pleading with (well actually threatening) viewers to not ruin the surprise for anyone who has not yet seen the movie.  I think that this film is going to try to do what Scream did in the 90’s to the current showcase of recent horror films.  Also, it features Bradley Whitford (The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) who I believe to be one of the most under appreciated actors in television.  I can guarantee you when this movie opens in April I will be waiting in line.

2. The Dark Knight Rises

The sequel to possibly the best superhero film of all time has a high standard to meet.  Director Christopher Nolan has the monumental task of not only crafting a sequel that can match the original, but also, of concluding the saga he began with Batman Begins.  I have no doubt that this film will be great and I have a lot of faith in Nolan, but it is hard to imagine how a Batman film could be better than The Dark Knight.  I also am concerned with Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway as the villains Bane and Catwoman respectively.  So much of what made the Dark Knight good was the great cast of villains and the trailers for Rises have not led me to believe that Bane and Catwoman will be as interesting as The Joker and Two-Face were last time around.

1. The Avengers

This summer will also see the magnum opus of Marvel Studios.  In 2008, after the credits of Iron Man, Marvel showed a brief scene, which promised the creation of a film that would tie together all the various superhero films they would be working on.  Over the next four years, Marvel would put out four additional films, each introducing a new character that wouldplay a role in a team made up of the earth’s mightiest heroes.  All this time I was convinced that, should Marvel ever attempt an Avenger movie, that it was doomed to failure.  I was convinced that the project was too big and could only ever appeal to a hardcore fan base that was already familiar with the source material.  However, over the last four years, Marvel has made quite a name for some of their lesser-known properties and drummed up a new fan base that may well accept a team in which a Norse god fights alongside a soldier from World War II.  Some of my fears were put to rest when Joss Whedon was tapped to direct.  I am a big fan of Whedon, but I was among the first to say that he has never done a blockbuster film before and has mostly worked in the realm of TV and the Internet.  The Avengers is a concept that really makes no sense to anyone thatdoesn’t read comic books, but hopefully Whedon can step up and prove that he can make just as much money as the Michael Bays of the world while still telling a great story.

I was a little disappointed when compiling this list to come across so little original properties.  The movies that didn’t make my list were almost all sequels or adaptations of some kind (heck, even the board game Battleship is getting a movie) and it seems like Hollywood is on the verge of giving up on the idea that an original screenplay can be profitable.  I hope there are some surprises in store this summer, because if as big a comic book fan as myself is starting to get sick of superhero movies, I have to assume that the general public is getting there too. 

What movies are you looking forward to in the coming months? Let us know in the comments.