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.

  

     

    

    

  

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.  

Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

 

There may only be 1 other movie with as much hype going into this summer as Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2.  (Spiderman Homecoming being the other)  GotGV2 catches back up with the group of a-holes lead by Star Lord.  The timeline is said to be a few months after the first one ended and starts out with some good action and introduces a some new characters, including Star Lord's dad.  

I was pretty hyped for this flick with the previews and I was totally taken for a spin.  FYI – I don’t go in to flicks by checking out a lot of what is going on and see all the clips.  I like to be surprised in the theater, and I was.  I thought Volume 1 was a great movie and is one of the best Marvel ones, so this one had a lot to live up to. 

#SPOILERS AFTER THIS#

The action in the movie, the beginning and the end, is really good.  The first scene with the fight vs the alien is pretty good, a lot of the action is in the background to that of Baby Groot dancing, and the interactions of Ayesha and Star Lord was a continuation from what we saw in 1.  The star battle sequence being video game like and with the sounds, was perfect too, that was almost perfect. 

Ego and the turn of him being in the villain was a shock for me.  I didn’t expect that at all.  They had some Kurt and Pratt and a great interactions but also some that didn’t feel genuine IMO.  Listening to the Comic Book Cast SpoilerReview, I agree with him, how did they not find the seeds that Ego planted?  Really?  In the 80’s when kids were free to wander more, everything was found.  How was that seed not found for 30 years?  So I didn’t like the end plan by Ego.  Trying to use Starlord, Ego then dropped on him a BvS, Civil War twist, of killing his mom.  (Please no more killing mom being the key to the final fight Marvel or DC.)  But the last fight with PacMan was decent. 

The Guardians seem split up a lot too, with Rocket, Groot and Yondu all together, and the Gamora, Drax and Mantis off on their own thing and then interacting with Nebula.  As much as a relationship is between father and son, the relationship with Gamora and Nebula I think was the best part of the movie being sisters.  I’m curious as to where that will go in Infinity War with Thanos in the middle.  I can see Nebula dying and setting Gamora off.  As much of a supporting character that Yondu is I felt that he was more involved than some of the Guardians in the flick. 

I think some of the humor was a little forced, Drax had some great lines and interactions with Mantis, but a few of the lines felt like they could have been done different.  Also at over 2 hours, this movie could have had about 20-25 minutes cut and it would have been just as effective.

Along with Dr Strange, this movie was visually amazing with all the colors.  As little as Drax was I felt involved, Batista did nail that role this time, just like I mentioned a few lines felt forced.  Rooker was good as Yondu, and it felt like this movie was more about him, rather than Peter. 

The post credits were a few too many, really only needed the teenage Groot scene and the Adam Warlock reveal. 

It wasn’t a bad flick, but it’s not great flick.  It will garner a ton of money, and it should, but it was fun to be on the adventures with this group again. 

4/10 Stars

2014 Summer Movies

The BIG popcorn movies seem to stretch a little earlier to avoid each other for weekend box offices, so I’m gonna have to adjust the Summer Movie Awards to reach to spring months.

The list of this year of potential movies I'll see in theater (I won't get to all of them) - Captain America : The Winter Soldier ; Rio 2 ; Draft Day ; Transcendence ; The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ; Neighbors ; Chef ; X-Men Days of Future Past ; Maleficent ; How to Train Your Dragon 2 ; Transformers 4 ; Tammy ; Planes 2 ; Guardians of the Galaxy ; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ; Expendables 3.

I’m a little more excited since my kids are getting older, they are getting more into the non-cartoon movies and I get to share a few of the movies with them. My boy’s most excited for the Ninja Turtles. I will say I’m kinda curious as to how that will come out too. I’m not that big on what Michael Bay does to some of these franchises and well Megan Fox. But if it focuses on the Turtles it’s all good!  Addyson is excited about Maleficent though I wonder if it will scare her any.
X-Men and Captain America 2 are my most anticipated ones.