Part 1 of Summer-Fall 2012 Movie Preview

I'm back (I hope ...). No change though in my chronic lack of time. So let's get fast into the subject = what movies are coming out until December. This post - the Summer season:

The headline for the beginning of June is obviously "Prometheus". Well .. obviously at least for me :) = I mean, I could tell without doubt that this is "The summer movie" for this year in what I'm concerned. In case there still is somebody wondering what I'm talking about - Ridley Scott is back, after the first "Alien" from '79. Here we have the prequel, meaning: what happened before Ripley's vs. the long teeth animal hunting session on Nostromo. If it's still gibberish what I'm saying, go watch "Alien" (it's unbelievable how good can that movie look even today).


Who's taking a look from time to time over what I'm writing probably knows that I'm not a very big Pixar fan, but this year I have something on my "must see" list: "Brave". Even if, again, it will result in something covered by their trademark "more tear jerking than a pot of chopped onion" (although I hope this time they'll see the limit), there are at least two reasons to watch this movie - Kelly Macdonald who does the voice for the redhead in the trailer and Billy Connolly as her father. You can hear them both below:


Since I've started with the "Alien" prequel, I thought it should be fit to end June with something announced for release at that time in UK - "Storage 24", that seems to be a variation of the same theme but with an indie movie budget. Now .. there have been countless variations of the theme .. some good, some bad. We'll see about this one ...


I'm confused about the American appetite for super-heroes, but since I don't have anything better for the start of July, I'll go with "The Amazing Spider-Man". It's indeed something to do a reboot to a trilogy since ten years from the first movie, that seems to be reused (well, it's the story) for at least a third of its length. But maybe the green evil character is more interesting this time although I have my doubts (yes, it's still green .. I assume, well .. on IMDb it's written "The Lizard"). I didn't see yet "Avengers" and I'm not very tempted, so what to say about this one. There is an exception though on this genre ... following ...


"The Dark Knight Rises" is supposed to end the Batman trilogy in the Cristopher Nolan version. But, I've already heard some reboot rumors .. in 2015 .. also with Nolan (but only for the script). That's just in case that the idea for a new "Spider-Man" version above didn't sound crazy enough. But let me get back to the subject. As I was saying it's pretty much the only exception in the area of super hero movies that keeps me interested ... probably because when I was around 10 years old, during a winter, I went to see "Batman Returns" in cinema and maybe I got a nostalgic fixation since then (for me by the way, it's still the best Batman, no matter what anybody's saying). I don't know if I don't start repeating already from what I wrote some other time, so let's better move to the trailer:


There are also some other titles announced but .. for the end of July I'm stopping at "Ruby Sparks". I don't know exactly why. Generally I pretty much avoid both the comedies and the romance stuff, and here is clearly a mix of both. But the context ... I'm just curious in case I'll convince myself to watch this if it will leave me with a normal smile, a bitter one, or the third option which I think I actually want: a big yawn ...


At the beginning of August we have "The Bourne Legacy". The nice thing about "The Bourne Trilogy" is that is based, more or less, on the book series by Robert Ludlum. I say "more or less" because if you want to see something more close to the original, at least for the first book, it's more recommended to watch the TV version from '88 with Richard Chamberlain. For me that's a movie that's more spy thriller than the new ones, but this doesn't mean that the big screen productions are not ok up to very good. But I stay at the opinion that the main reason lies in the fact that they're based on a book. Unfortunately from what I know Ludlum didn't get to finish others. He was continued by a semi-obscure writer of novels of this type, who I have no idea if he managed to come close to the original. Ludlum for me is in top 3 ever on this area, so I doubt it even compares. Well .. I have no idea on what's based the movie here, if it is. The screenwriter (and director) is Tony Gilroy, the same as before, who besides Bourne wrote "Extreme Measures", "Devil's Advocate", "Michael Clayton" .. but also "Proof of Life" and the lame remake for "State of Play". I have hope .. even if in this case we have .. surprise: a Bourne without Bourne ..


After prequels, reboots and sequels, what's left .. a remake (well remake .. reboot pretty much the same): "Total Recall". Since I'm always hungry of P.K.Dick I can't complain. It's unbelievable how many short stories this guy wrote that made up to movies (the one here, "Minority Report", "Paycheck", and .. well .. "Impostor" and the pathetic adaptation after "The Adjustment Bureau"), that's to give an idea of the potential his novels have. I doubt that the current version of "Total Recall" can somehow subclass the Verhoeven classic from '90 with Schwarzenegger, but I also don't think it can end up a disaster + for the female cast I tend to prefer the Kate Beckinsale/Jessica Biel version towards Sharon Stone/I don't remember who was the good girl.


I'm closing August and the summer with a guilty pleasure: "The Expendables 2". Yes, I know. The first was a complete mess as story, script and others. But the first didn't have Schwarzenegger back apparently in a more consistent part since many years ago, didn't have Van Damme, Chuck Norris, had only a couple of seconds of Bruce Willis .. I wonder why I started enumerating the cast .. because probably even them should keep it secret as "the subject", since I don't know if you have something else to get from the movie neither this time :P . But starting with low expectances .. who knows ;)


Next week, the Fall season ;)