Best and Worst of Summer 2019
Hey,
everybody. Sorry I don’t have a new review for you guys this week because there
just wasn’t anything out this week that I felt was worth talking about (which seemed
to be a mistake on my part because The Angry Birds Movie 2 and Dora
and The Lost City of Gold have been getting good reviews while The
Kitchen has not…how the hell did that happen?) Anyway, I thought I would
take this time to go over what I thought were the best and worst cinematic entries
of Summer 2019 - note: Avengers: Endgame will not be on this list
because that came out in April, which is technically a month before the cinematic
summer season actually starts. With that said, let’s get started with the bottom
of the barrel, the 3 worst movies of Summer 2019. Starting with…
3. Men in
Black: International
How do you
take a franchise that has pretty much been treading water for 22 years and try
to steer it in a new direction? Not like this. Despite the fact that MIB: International
is still not necessarily a train wreck, it does represent one of the biggest
missed opportunities for a franchise. Instead of doing something interesting
with the material – i.e. maybe making a movie about the MIB from the aliens’
point of view, or something like that – it’s yet another buddy cop movie with a
MacGuffin hunt, blah, blah, blah, we’ve all seen the first three movies.
You know,
maybe it’s time to let this franchise die. Please? The only one of these films that
was actually good was the first one, and the rest have only been OK or bad. So,
Sony, please stop. Please.
*Sigh*…I
really hope I’m not doing this same song-and-dance next year with Jason Reitman’s
Ghostbusters film.
2. Dark
Phoenix
I feel kind
of bad about raking this movie over the coals again, mostly because director
Simon Kinberg has just been a class act in dealing with the negative reception.
But yeah, there’s no denying how disastrous Dark Phoenix turned out to
be. From unfinished effects to a recycled score and unintentional hilarity
during the dramatic moments, it doesn’t even manage to clear the low bar of X-Men:
The Last Stand.
It’s just too
bad that this is the last hurrah for the X-Men before Kevin Feige incorporates
them into the MCU. But, we’ll see how that turns out whenever they get around
to it.
1. The
Lion King
Ok, technically
speaking, Dark Phoenix was a worse movie than the remake of The Lion
King, but at least it wasn’t as nakedly cynical. Much like Beauty and
the Beast from 2017, this new remake is just content to coast on nostalgia
from the original rather than creating a lasting experience for this new
generation. Yes, the graphics look amazing and this movie’s success will
probably be a steppingstone for more frequent use of VR technology in filmmaking.
But did it have to be used on such a big waste of time? Why not use it on
something like, say, Animal Farm or even an adaptation of a big video
game?
But, this
movie was a success, so what incentive does Disney have to take risk with these
remakes, right? We’re just gonna keep getting more and more beat-for-beat
retreads of classic Disney films until they run out of stuff, and I’m just
gonna be doing this same ranting song-and-dance year in and year out.
All right,
let’s move on to the good stuff. The Top 3 Movies of Summer 2019
3. Once Upon
a Time in…Hollywood!
Like I said
in my audio review, I may just have to see this film again to get the full
greatness of it, but yeah, this was a really good movie. The first act and a
half drags a little bit for me, but once it gets going, it’s suspenseful, funny,
and heartwarming. DiCaprio, Pitt, and Robbie all give great performances, the
references to real-life Hollywood in the late 60s are well-researched, and that
ending…wow, what a way to go!
Again, I may
have to watch this again, but take comfort in knowing that I thoroughly enjoyed
this one.
2. Spider-Man:
Far From Home
I have very
mixed feelings when it comes to the MCU’s version of Spider-Man. Tom Holland
has been great in the part ever since he showed up in Captain America: Civil
War, but Homecoming lacked a certain amount of pathos that I have
come to expect from Spider-Man ever since the Sam Raimi films.
And even
though Far From Home didn’t have a lot of that pathos either, it managed
to be a fun outing anyway. The comedic bits stick the landing 99% of the time,
Tom Holland and Zendaya have great romantic chemistry, and Jake Gyllenhaal
gives one of his most entertaining performances ever. And I gotta say, I’m
interested in where they’re going after that post-credits scene which I will
not spoil. I just hope that they don’t treat it like a joke like they did with
the whole Aunt May thing, but we’ll see.
And the
number one pick is…
Godzilla:
King of the Monsters
I know this
may seem like an odd choice, but yeah, I can’t really think of another movie
where I had a more fun time. What I liked most about this film is how confident
it was in itself, as if to say, “Yeah, we’re a giant kaiju movie and we’re not
gonna pretend we’re anything else”. And that confidence comes through in
spades. All the human actors serve their purpose and do what they need to do,
the kaiju fights are fun even if they do go on a bit long, and Bear McCreary’s
score is awesome.
Why did this
movie underperform at the box office? I dunno, but thankfully, this won’t
derail the plains for Godzilla vs. Kong, which I am a-OK with.
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