1st Part of Summer-Fall 2011 Movie Preview

Due to the fact that these days I have more important stuff to do than watching movies, I decided for the summer-fall movie preview entries for this and the next week. I'm doing this every six months but I actually was thinking to drop the habit because it happened that many of the titles mentioned in this entries proved to be unworthy even for reading their tag line after they were released. So, one more time, what's mentioned here is not a recommendation, is just a enumeration of some upcoming movies. Especially considering that the "junk factor" potential for this summer blockbusters seems for me to be higher than usual. But I'll try to filter these at least a bit in what follows, and focus more on less marketed productions. But the thing is that neither the coming indies aren't very promising. Anyway ... to cut it short, I'll start today with the summer moths: June-August (based on the official cinema release date, usually the one from US, which however is not 100% certain all the time).

I thought it would be better to start the June entries with something more indie, than going directly to the titles about everybody knows already, and also due to the fact that it's been a while since I had a horror entry on my blog. So, "YellowBrickRoad" seems to be something between "Blair Witch" and "Paranormal Activity" but without the mockumentary style shooting perspective. Up to this moment, the only movie in this horror niche that I found worthy of the time spent watching was "The Objective". And something tells me that it will remain the only one, but .. we'll see about that, the one below has reasonable reviews although as story the trailer is not really impressive ...

Going to more mainstream titles, we have "Super 8" as a first potential summer blockbuster. And from this category, I think it's pretty much the only one deserving some real interest. I don't know much about the subject, and the trailer doesn't say either. However, the same J.J. Abrams (probably much more known as TV producer = "Lost", "Fringe", etc) directed also the last "Star Trek", and the only thing I hope is that "Super 8" will be at the same level.

Also in June we have the next super hero movie - "Green Lantern". I'm completely fed up with this genre, and I'll stick to the opinion that it's like a template applied in different ways - we have the same story with a good guy who due to some more or less accidental event becomes either green, ironed, spider or wealthy with a garage rivaling the country's armed forces and with a bad guy having pretty much the same background but a bit more psychically traumatized by the changes and also a bit more eager for money, power, etc. Add to this an existential crisis for the positive character and/or a sentimental one, his girlfriend dumping him, or being kidnapped, or something else. And finally somehow he gets back on his feet and just saves the world. Well .. the only thing that makes "Green Lantern" maybe a bit more interesting is the director - Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale", "Zorro", "Edge of Darkness") who I think might have the potential to move a bit more from the classic recipe above .. however the trailer doesn't show anything like this.

For July, I'll start again with a horror - "The Ward" in which I trust a bit more than the first one to worth seeing, mainly because it's the comeback of John Carpenter ("Halloween", "The Thing", "They Live", etc) on screen after 10 years from probably one of the worst movie he ever directed - "Ghosts of Mars". In this case, however it seems that the result is much more ok, at least considering some short reviews stating that it comes close to the classic '70s-'80s horror.

"Ironclad" is, probably contrary to the appearance, a pretty low budget movie as far as I know, having as subject the siege of a castle sometime in the middle ages by the well known Prince John. Unlike Robin Hood, the story here is a bit better historically documented. Now, I don't know about the movie potential it might have ...

I've chosen "Cowboys and Aliens" as last title for July. At least it sounds a bit more interesting considering the context originality (as a difference from "Transformers 3", "Captain America" or even the last "Harry Potter" which I decided to skip). Besides this I don't know what to say .. I'll just leave it for the trailer.

For the beginning of August we have a prequel: "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". The trailer looks good. With one problem ... I really don't know what's more left to see as story in the movie ...

After a prequel we have a remake - "Conan the Barbarian". The original for me at least was one of the worst fantasy movies I've ever seen, so considering this there is room for a remake. But, depends on how much do they change the script, because if it stays pretty much on the same line ...

I'll end the summer months as I started. "Apollo 18" is a horror that looks pretty indie, and keeps the same recipe as many used since "Blair Witch". And this time it's pure mockumentary style. On the Moon !

Next week, the Fall season ;)