Summer Movie Preview

With the release of Thor this weekend, summer movie blockbusters have officially begun.  My wife and I have made our yearly bet as to what movie will make the most money, which with Harry Potter being a candidate and Joanna getting the first pick I am likely the loser this year.
A lot of sequels and comic book films are available to viewers this season, but there is an original idea or two out there that don’t involve robots pummeling one another or mutant/Norse God/magical ring heroes saving the planet.  I have counted 13 films my wife, 3-year-old daughter, and I will be attempting to see in the next three months, not necessarily all together as The Hangover Part II is a Daddy movie only.  First is the list of films available worth seeing.  I include Fast Five as, oddly, my wife loves that film series and swoons when she sees Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, so we will be going to the theater this Saturday for a fast cars, hot bodies watching date night.

For me:
Thor – opened May 6
The Hangover Part II – opening May 26
Super 8 – opening June 10
Green Lantern – opening June 17
Captain America: The First Avenger – opening July 22
Cowboys and Aliens – opening July 29

For my wife and me:
Fast Five – opened April 29
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – opening May 20
X-men: First Class – opening June 3
Transformers: Dark of the Moon – opening July 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II – opening July 15

For both parents and child:
Cars 2 – opening June 24
Winnie the Pooh – opening July 15

You might have noticed I have omitted Kung Fu Panda 2.  I never saw the first one and will likely wait to see this one as well.  But it is opening on May 26 if you are interested.
The film I’m probably most excited about is Harry Potter, not because I expect it to be the best of all these other blockbusters, but because it will bring to a close a story I have vested countless hours of interest in through previous movie viewings.  My most anticipated release, thinking I'll be the most entertained from them, is either Super 8 or Cowboys and Aliens.  I have a lot of trust in what J.J. Abrams does and Super 8 looks similar in style and substance to what Steven Spielberg was doing in his heyday of moviemaking.  Cowboys and Aliens is a guilty pleasure.  While the premise is stupid, I will checkout mentally and simply enjoy James Bond and Indiana Jones in the Old West kicking some alien butt.
I am afraid The Hangover Part II is going to simply rehash old jokes from the original and try to squeeze every last funny dime out of the hype that the first film created, but the previews do look entertaining enough.
Thor, X-men, Green Lantern, and Captain America are all going to be the same thing.  Christopher Nolan so far is the only one to make a comic book movie dramatic and suspenseful enough to transcend the genre it falls under.
Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers 3 have to rebound from crappy sequels, and in the case of Pirates it is two crappy sequels, but I am willing to give them a chance at redemption.
Cars 2 is questionable as it is a sequel to the weakest of all Pixar movies. While Cars is still good, it does not come close to the greatness of the Toy Story franchise or anything else the computer-animated company released in the new millennium.
While I was not a Winnie-the-Pooh fan growing up, I am excited to introduce my daughter to the characters who live in Hundred Acre Wood.