Hi to everyone and welcome back.
Every Summer Hollywood releases its blockbuster movies which are all highly anticipated but sometimes they don't hit the mark either in audience anticipation or, more important to the producers, box office receipts. However, I believe that this Summer the movies were generally positive. Of course the big studios invest a lot of money in marketing to get people into the multiplexes as they demand a huge return on their investment. The internet is flooded with future movie clips to build up the excitement within the film community. These days movie fanatics await these trailers with more gusto than the film itself, even sometimes going to see a movie that they are not really interested in just to catch a trailer and in some cases studios release a trailer of a future trailer! Having said that it's not only the season of big hitters there are also some small independent movies which catch the imagination of the audience unfortunately they have been few and far between this Summer probably overshadowed by the hype which surrounds the big releases.
So, which movies do I think have been seen as a success based on the movie itself and not money generated.
Lets start with "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" Having been a long time fan of the Apes franchise which started way back in 1968 with Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes" and went on to make a total of four sequels plus a short lived seventies TV series, I was very disappointed with Tim Burton's remake of the original in 2001, but the franchise was revived in 2011 with director Rupert Wyatt's re-imagining of the origin story. In that film Andy Serkis took motion capture to a whole new level playing the lead ape Caesar and in doing so raising the bar in the field that he had help to create in films such as the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy "Tintin" "The Hobbit" and "King Kong." But in this new film we have by far the best of the lot and not only do we have more apes but apes on horses. The director, Matt Reeves, and a great cast have made a movie where the audience is rooting for the apes rather than the humans. A lot of the success is once again due to the performance of Serkis who should be recognized with an Oscar for his motion capture performance. The good news is that Reeves will be directing the third in this latest franchise so things are looking bright in the Apes universe.
The Summer wouldn't be the same without a Marvel studio release and boy did we get one with the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy." Based on a comic series, which goes back to the late 60's, this was one of the least known in Marvels vast array of hero stories so it was a huge gamble for the studio but a gamble which paid off big style. This movie not only provided solid characters with a script which included adult comedy, but also special effects that were mind blowing especially when seen in an IMAX 3-D cinema. The lead actor Chris Pratt, who plays Star Lord, was a mixture of both Indiana Jones and Han Solo, and he will be a huge star in the coming years as he is also the lead in the new dinosaur reboot "Jurassic World." Being a Marvel fan I was delighted to see them create a new universe and one that has the potential to run and run.
Last but not least is "Godzilla" a film that had to succeed after the flop of the 1998 Roland Emmerich version and I believe that Brit director Gareth Edwards has pulled it off. In some reviews they are commenting on the below par performances of the actors but having said that this is not the type of film that you would expect to win a best actor award, it's the type of movie that you want to see mass destruction by larger than skyscraper monsters, and that's what we get, in abundance. If you haven't seen it you should check out Edward's first venture into movies "Monsters" well worth a look.
So there you have it my top three movies of this Summer. There are others including "Edge of Tomorrow" starring Tom Cruise "X-Men: Days of Future past" and for the kids "How To Train Your Dragon 2" but you also have failures such as "The Amazing Spider-man 2" horror "Oculus" and "The Expendables 3" which was so awful that Stallone and co. should use their zimmer frames and head off to a home for actors who have passed their sell by date.
Next week I will be exploring the TV world and looking at series' that have been made into films and if they haven't which ones should.
Have a great week and Apes rule.
Miles Dunton.
No comments:
Post a Comment