Except for a few obvious movies like The Dark Night, last summer seemed a bit ho-hum as far as movies go. This year is going to be different, though, with following movies:
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Release Date: May 1, 2009
Why should I care?
I've always been a fan of the X-Men franchise, but I always was a bit perplexed why they kept Gambit out of the mix. In the cartoon series, he was always there, so it's neat to see him get some screen time, and from the looks of it, in a non-trivial way. The last movie ended with Professor-X dying, but it looks like they wimped out here and decided to do a prequel. Star Wars kinda gave me a bad taste in my mouth as far as prequels go, so let's hope this doesn't disappoint.
Star Trek
Release Date: May 8, 2009
Why should I care?
The many movies in this series, while not always good, have inspired geeks everywhere to boldly go where no has before, and this movie looks to follow that line. They've brought in J.J. Abrams (think
Lost,
The Office,
Alias), the golden child of TV drama to give the series a much needed refresh. I'm really hoping this doesn't turn into
Alpha Centari 90210 with younger cast and all, but I'm willing to go to the theater to see this one.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Release Date: June 26, 2009
Why should I care?
If you're a girl, you probably wouldn't. When I rented this on DVD back in '07, my wife ended the movie by saying 'That was such a
boy movie!' This one isn't likely to be different, but there's no denying this looks to be as much of a thrill ride as the last.
There's the round-up of the movies I'm interested in seeing, but this post couldn't be complete without my box office stinker prediction below:
G.I. Joe
Release Date: August 7, 2009
Why is this going to suck?
Some childhood memories are best left alone on the gilded pages of the past, not messed up with a modern day interpretation and interpolation of what some hippie thinks they ought to be. I guess the biggest problem I have with this movie is its apparent de-emphasizing of GI Joe as an American construct serving to protect American interests. While this sentiment doesn't seem to be very popular within the context of present day situations, the original concept of GI Joe was certainly that. I don't know what the movie has as far as plot goes, but we're already getting a big action flick out of
Transformers. I may watch this on DVD, but as far as the theater goes, pass.