2023 Summer Movie Awards - Watch List

 It's that season again, break out the popcorn!  Summer movie season is already in session with Super Mario Brothers blowing up box offices like Mario shooting fireballs at a Hammer Brother.  Again Hollywood is following the moneyball script of Superhero, Sequels and a few new blockbusters.  

Below is a handful of the movies on the Summer Movie Awards watch list.

  

     

    

    

  

SpiderMan : No Way Home Teaser Trailer

 

Venom : Let There Be Carnage

 This dropped this morning, and it looks fun!  I'm excited to see Venom vs Carnage but also in the back of my head, will it tie something like Morbius did to the MCU?

Also a new poster was released along with the trailer

Venom 2 comes out Sept 24th.  Interesting also is that everything has said "ONLY IN THEATERS."  Granted Sony doesn't have a streaming service, they do have a deal with Netflix, but this is a sign we are getting back to normalcy I think.  Or planning on it.  

SpiderMan 3 gets another (familiar) Villain

News broke late yesterday that Jamie Foxx is signing on to bring back Electro to the big screen in the Spider Man Home 3 movie.  Rumor is that it will also have Kraven in Spidey 3, and with Vulture showing up in Morbius, the MCU and the Sony Spidey Verse look to be blending.  This for us fans is a good thing.  We get to see our favorites all interacting together.   It looks like this will all come with them all coming together with the Sinister 6. 

It will be curious to see the version of Electro we get.  I can't see the version we saw on screen in The Amazing SpiderMan 2 showing up.  I'm guessing it will be something Stark related, tying back to the arc that has worked throughout the MCU.

Check out the News : Foxx returning

Best and Worst of the MCU - Part 3

And now the current and most recent Phase leading up to the showdown with Thanos.  This could be the best of all the Phases with all the quality movies in the MCU here.  There are still a few films to come out in this phase Ant-Man and the Wasp in fall of 2018 and Captain Marvel in 2019, but the last 10 years have built up to the battle with Thanos.  

Captain America : Civil War

Doctor Strange

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

Spider-Man Homecoming

Thor Ragnorak

Black Panther

Best Movie

This phase also has the best lot of movies to pick from.  Thor is pure fun to watch, Doctor Strange, though a lot like the Iron Man as an origin is full of great views involving the magic, and also setting up #2, Civil War is almost Avengers 2.5 with the ensemble cast and fights among good guys, and Black Panther was great also, BUT my favorite of these is SpiderMan Homecoming.  Spidey comes home to the MCU and is mentored by Iron Man, and has to grow up.  He's not thrown into crime fighting right after Civil War.  Tom Holland is PERFECT as young Peter Parker and growing up.  Michael Keaton is an amazing villain, and just seeing Peter actually in school the whole flick unlike being rushed in the past series, this is what Spidey should be. 

Best Hero

Where I put him down in Phase 1 and Phase 2, Thor in Ragnorak was unlike any other version of Thor we've seen.  With Taika Waititi taking over directing Hemsworth, he was allowed to be fun and add some comedy and more fun to Asgard.  I think adding in the Hulk and having a buddy-buddy comedy helped.  And as good as Loki has been, Thor got to fight and interact with more than just his brother.  

Best Villain 

 This Phase has the best set of villains, Killmonger and Klaw in Black Panther, Hella, and Baron Zemo, but the best is the Vulture.  Michael Keaton is EXCELLENT in SpiderMan Homecoming.  He's driven to the other side of the tracks to support his family and he is fighting none other than Tony Stark.  Spidey gets involved and entangled in more ways then one.  He has a slight turn in an after credits scene, but also still probably has some unfinished business with Spidey

Best Moment

Peter picking up his date, Liz, in Spiderman Homecoming and opening the door is none other than Adrian Toomes, the Vulture.  

Worst Movie

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 had a lot to live up to with the surprise success that was GotG Volume 1.  Now as different as the first movie was from the rest of the MCU, James Gunn made the second one the same way, and that's not a bad thing, but this one just missed with me.  It gave us more of Star Lord with the search for his dad, and Nebula's character was given more and a bigger focuse on Yondu too,  but what other character or moment was great from this?  Rocket and Drax felt pushed back from where they were in the first and Baby Groot was cute, but maybe over done. 

Worst Hero

Every flick in this list has a great hero or heroes so there will be theme in the 'Worsts' so I'm going with Rocket Raccoon and Drax.  Really they weren't given anything to further their story or character.  Both I felt were gems in the first flick and something different, but they weren't given enough here in the second I felt or did anything memorable.  

Worst Villain

Again, I'm going to stay with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 here, and go with Ego as the worst villain.  I felt his mission was kinda ehh, I mean it wasn't over a infinity stone so that was different, but the mind games I felt he played with Star Lord and Yondu and the team felt choppy after the initial meeting.  The final battle felt more like Pixels than a Marvel final battle too.  I mean if you look at Civil War, Baron Zemo was playing mind games too, but that never felt choppy in the flick.  

2017 Summer Movie Awards

Movies seen - Fast 8, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wonder Woman, Cars 3, Spider-Man:Homecoming, Baby Driver, Logan Lucky

Best Flick : Wonder Woman

Best Dude : Tom Holland - Peter Parker/Spiderman -- This kid is SPIDERMAN.  He delivered on how Spidey and Peter should be growing as a kid and trying to be what he wants to be, a superhero like Iron Man.  Michael Keaton is a close 2nd here with his rendition of the Vulture is perfect too!

Best Dudette : Gal Gadot - Wonder Woman -- Well Hollywood, here is your female action super hero and she kicked some major ass.  

Best Scene : Peter going to pick up Liz for the homecoming dance and the big reveal (SPOILER!!) that Liz's dad is Adrian Toomes.  Peter knows exactly who he is and Adrian uses all his interactions with Spidey to figure out that that he is Spiderman.  Toomes then does the "dad talk" but also threatens Spiderman.  

Best Fight :  Wonder Woman, shedding the cloak in the trenches and taking the shield and entering "No Man's Land" and taking on the Germans, leading the American's and Steve Trevor and crew to break through.  - Wonder Woman

Biggest Dud : Fast 8 – The series for the most part has been going on an upward trend, and this is the first flick, since Tokyo Drift, that Paul Walker’s Brian wasn’t involved, and I think that this flick misses him a lot.  The reliance on Dom and the Rock is prevalent and they need to expand a little more on the sub characters and bring them up.   Baby Driver was more Fast and Furious than this one was.

Anticipated Sequel : Spider-Man 2 / Avengers Infinity War

Movie not seen that I want to see the Most : War for the Planet of the Apes 

The Amazing Spiderman

This afternoon I went and checked out The Amazing Spiderman.  The reboot of the series after the Sami Rami/Tobey Maguire 3.  Now the comics have a couple "history" lines of the way superheroes came about and there is the Amazing Spiderman, Spiderman, the Sensational Spiderman.  All with little twists and turns of the way the web crawler came to be and who he is today.  


This is where this movie goes right.  Its not a Superman Returns type movie that is basically Superman 1 all over again.  It's a new take on Spidey.  


The first thing I liked is that in this movie where they are trying to build the background of Spidey is they didn't pit him vs his main arch nemesis such as the first one with Tobey did with the Green Goblin.  This gives us time to learn about Peter and Spidey, and along with him how he is going to grow with Gwen Stacey and Aunt Bea.  It's kind of reminiscent of the Nolan Batman series where the Joker is teased in Batman Begins at the end and then is the main villain in The Dark Knight. 


So introduce the Lizard as the bad guy.  He wasn't in the previous series as the villain.  He tests Spidey and his new found abilities and also gives us a tragedy.  


With out giving the film away at all that's all I'll go in on the plot.  The actors I though were great.  Andrew Garfield was a great Peter Parker and Emma Stone was almost the opposite of Kirsten Dunst.  Sally Field and Martin Sheen and Dennis Leary were cast great too, and the Lizard was creepy as Doc Connors.


Overall this is one of the best Spidey flicks made, if not the best its up there with Spiderman 2, and I'm excited where the direction is going.  


7/10 Stars

Who's in your 5? Superhero Movies

Some of the best popcorn movies, and most viewed and most anticipated movies are Superhero movies. Spiderman, Batman, Superman and the X-Men all have their spots in the a lot of DVD collections, but which ones are my fav 5? Here we go…


5. Fantastic Four – Again, a great origination movie. Introduces Hollywood to Dr. Doom and the Human Torch. Great performances by both. Like Iron Man, the sequel failed to live up to the 1st. With Chris Evans taking on Captain America, I assume we will see a reboot.


4. X-Men – chhhing! How many of us have always wanted to hear that sound on the big screen? Finally Wolverine! Movie brings our favorite mutants together, and also kicked off the decade of superhero movies.


3. Spider-Man 2 – until The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 was the best superhero sequel. It continued classily the story of Peter Parker, and Doc Ock was perfectly acted by Alfred Molina.


2. Iron Man – one of the best ever origination movies. It brought Iron Man also to the mainstream of movies. Wish the Sequel would have continued it, hopefully #3 will.


1. Dark Knight – the best comic book movie ever. Heath Ledger’s Joker is iconic. If it wasn’t a comic book movie, then it would have won Best Picture