Blockbuster season 08 - The rundown

Well, it's over. Another blockbuster season has come and gone, but unlike last year I am left with some good memories (and some awesome ones). There was allot fewer sequels this time around, which may account for the overall quality this year. The season started with the return to splendor in comic book adaptations - Iron Man. As I have stated before, Iron Man was the comic book movie that recaptured the thrills and juvenile coolness (in lack of a better word) that Spiderman gave us way back when. Since the second Spiderman film there weren't allot of good comic book movies floating around, unless you count Ang Lee's HULK. But the Iron Man franchise will no doubt give us another golden age of superheroes on film.

Speaking of which, the rebooting of the HULK franchise with The Incredible HULK also saw the light of day this year. I would put this film under the sequel banner (no pun intended) even though it's a restart, but why split hairs. I won't talk too much about HULK (or Speed Racer or The Happening since I already blogged about them), but HULK was very enjoyable and, as a big a fan as I was of Ang Lee's HULK, feels this is a better HULK movie all around.

Since I mentioned Speed Racer and The Happening I'll grace them with a quick mention. I liked Speed Racer and saw it as maybe the biggest surprise (for me personally anyway) of the year. I did not expect to get the level of enjoyment out of it that I ended up getting and give it a thumbs up as one of this years better newcomers next to Iron Man. The Happening sucked and will never be talked about again...ever.

Next up was Get Smart and Kung Fu Panda, both of which I enjoyed for what they where worth. I felt Get Smart was able to hit all the right notes it was going for (even though the "twist" at the end was unnecessary and forced), but I found my self laughing from start to finish and you can't ask for more then that. For the younger audience (and me) there was Kung Fu Panda. I liked it, but I didn't love it. Was I surrounded by annoying children when I saw it? Yes. Did that color my opinion of the film? I like to think not. Point is as an adult (HA!) I really did feel that it catered to the kids more then anyone else. But I enjoyed it and it was good for some laughs.

But there is of course only one reason why this is maybe the best blockbuster season since the summer of 1997. The Dark Knight. Everyone expected it to be good, some expected it to be awesome - we where all right. Breaking just about every movie record there is this juggernaut of a movie made you realize that this was a summer people would talk about and maybe, just maybe might be the summer kids twenty years from now wish they could go back to so they could experience just how it was (just like I wish I could go back to the summer of 1977...sigh). I have had some memorable times in the movie theater - Star Wars Special Edition, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, the first of the Harry Potter films (magic),Matrix, The Phantom Menace (as bad as it was it was the first SW movie in twenty years...and I was 15), Indiana Jones 4 (for the same reasons, only now I'm 24) and now The Dark Knight. It is a landmark in movie history and we were all part of it.

Then there is X-Files: I want to believe, Narnia 2 and Wanted, all of which disappointed to no end and if you haven't seen them, don't. The same goes for Hellboy 2, which I was hoping would be a step up from number one but except for better creature effects it has very little to offer. These are by far the lower end of this season, but they do not drag it down by a long shot.

I won't talk about Indiana Jones 4 much simply because I already dedicated an entire blog post to it. I will say that it was a fun trip down nostalgia lane, but it didn't quite measure up. Having lost faith in both George Lucas (who is the man responsible for the whole alien aspect of Indy 4) and M. Night Shyamalan (not much...Happening with that man) what now remains is a morbid curiosity what the two will do next. Because there shouldn't be anywhere for them to go but up.

Lastly we get to Tropic Thunder which in my opinion is the second funniest move this year after Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I know some people like Pineapple Express better, but I was actually disappointed with it somewhat. Tropic Thunder was the cherry on the top of a very good season indeed and all we can do now is wait for the DVDs (or Blu-rays if you will) and hope that next year will be just as good.

Before I sign off I will give a special shout out to WALL-E. It hasn't come to Australia yet, but it did premiere in the U.S. during blockbuster season. I for one am really looking forward to it and I have only heard good things.