Summer Movie Rankings

[burningdoom]

Summer is almost over now. The movie blockbusters are winding down.

What were your favorite movies of the year so far, and why?

My picks:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy - Action-filled, amazing special effects, and hilarious dialogue to boot. There was a second during this film that I wasn't entertained by something.

2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - I seem to be the only comic fan out there that enjoyed this movie. But I loved the hell out of it. It was very emotionally charged, and just tugged at your heartstrings.

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past - This one was great COMIC story. This movie has shown just how far we've come with comic movies. From the over-the-top 90s movies like The Mask and Batman & Robin where even the most basic ideas are changed by Hollywood to this: A true comic-based plot of a film that involved multiple comic character, a time-travel storyline, and a retcon even!

4. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - This one was for the true sci-fi fan. It's the sequel to the recent "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" film and does a good job at telling the last days of humanity and the beginnings of the ape society. It's a bit slow-moving, so like I said in my short review of it, those that aren't sci-fi fans may not appreciate it as much.

I didn't like Captain America 2 all that much, actually. I didn't like the politically-driven plot. I actually enjoyed the fallout from it on Agents of SHIELD, more.

And I still have yet to see Sin City 2. I'm sure I'll be seeing that one with the wife, though. We both really liked the first one.

I'm also seeing the 30th Anniversary showing of Ghostbusters next weekend at the theater. So by next week, that will be #1 on my list.

[kamikazekeeg]

This is what I saw this year...

The Lego Movie
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Godzilla
X-Men Days of Future Past
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Edge of Tomorrow
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Expendables 3
Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods

For Top 5...

Godzilla - Yes, it needed abit more time with Godzilla and little less time with the lead actor, but I loved this movie.  They got Godzilla perfect.  I was like a kid again watching the old Godzilla movies, but now there was a sense of scale to it all and that finale was amazing.

Guardians of Galaxy - With no idea of the original comics, I wasn't sure if this one would be as good as it looked or not, but it was.  It was hilarious, the action was great, it was incredibly fun.

The Lego Movie - I haven't laughed this hard in the theater for a long time.  This movie had all the right humor.  It probably had no right to be this funny, but I thought everything about it worked.

Dragonball Z: Battle of Gods - While technically the movie came out last year, this was the English dub and the first time in 17 years a Dragonball Z movie has ever been shown in theater.  The movie I feel is kinda weak in its story, seeming more like just episode filler, it does have big implications for the series in the future, the dub was perfect and funny, and with a theater full of Dragonball Z fans, it was probably the best theater experience I've had in a long time lol

Honorable Mentions - Basically the rest of everything was all pretty great and I'd recommend them all except for one.  The only movie I'd even consider to be bad would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles due to a terrible turtles design, Megan Fox, and poor writing.  It's not the worst thing I've seen this year, I'd probably give that to Amazing Spiderman 2, but I didn't watch that in theater.  I would also mention The Raid 2.  I didn't see it in theater, so I won't count it, but it's pretty fucking awesome.  It's an insane action movie.

Coming Up - I still have the new Hunger Games to watch, the last Hobbit movie, kinda interested in Interstellar, and maybe Big Hero 6 if I hear anything good about it.

[blipcs76]

I only saw a few movies in theaters this summer.  Here's where I rank them:

1.) Guardians of the Galaxy.
I knew zero about this comic going in, but I had faith in Marvel and really like the stuff James Gunn has worked on before.  This movie was amazing; just so enjoyable and entertaining throughout.  You could really tell everyone involved treated this project as a labor of love and it shows.  The one weakness is an uninteresting villain, but fantastic otherwise.

2.) X-Men Days of Future Past
The best X-Men movie so far.  I love how they merged the two different X-Men timelines into a single one in this film and in a sly way "reboot" the franchise.  Worth watching for Quicksilver alone.

3.) Dragonball Z Battle of Gods
Saw this in a packed show filled with rabid DBZ fans.  While there wasn't nearly as much fighting as I'd hoped (should have replaced the Pilaf side-story with lesser minions for the other z-fighters to tackle), but it was still really fun and by far the funniest DBZ movie to date.  The crowd was laughing through the whole movie and applauded at the end.  Events like this are what make the theater experience far superior to watching stuff at home.

4.) Godzilla
While I wanted to see more of Bryan Cranston, it turned out to be pretty decent.  Though it really felt they held back for the big fight at the end, which really satisfied.  But the main character was far too bland and boring to carry the bulk of the movie on his shoulders.

5.) Transformers Age of Extinction
I love Tranformers, but this movie was just way too many closeups of metal clanking on metal to care.  It just felt like more of the same -- I can't get into the movie when I can get the Transformers experience by dumping my silverware drawer on the ground.  I want to spend more time with the Autobots, not the humans.  I want someone else to choreograph the fight scenes so we can see what's going on.  And for a three hour movie, parts of it felt rushed, particularly how they handled the Dinobots.