Summer 2010: A summer of disappointment?

I went back and forth in my mind as to whether or not to do a big summer blockbuster preview this year, I decided against it as to be honest, I just couldn’t get excited about anything on the release schedules this year. Summer 2010 looks to be the most bland and boring season of movies for quite some time and no doubt the weather will also suck. The last time I remember being this underwhelmed was 2001 where we had the meh likes of Pearl Harbor, Swordfish, Jurassic Park 3 and Burtons Planet of the Apes. I suppose if all you are expecting is blocks to be busted then there are some distractions, but nothing as mouthwatering a prospect as a third Batman movie or something directed by a Spielberg or a Cameron.

May has kicked off with Iron Man 2 which really didn’t live up to the promise of the first movie. Whereas most superhero sequels tend to kick it up a notch, Iron Man 2 actually settled back down after the high flying original. Its not that there were any faults with the action scenes or special effects or even the performances. Iron Man 2 just had a saggy script which took far too long to get to the good bits and most of the mid section felt like padding. A couple of weeks later we get Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood with Russell Crowe in the title role of he who robs from the rich to give to the poor. Early word on this has not been promising with a script re-jigged from a potentially interesting concept of telling the story from the Sheriff of Nottingham’s perspective, with Robin as the bad guy. The problem is with this movie is I feel the same way that I felt about Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, it just feels like an obvious choice. So Ridley Scott is doing Robin Hood, Okay, so what? I’ll wait for the DVD. At the end of the month and after the potential disaster that is Robin Hood, we get a couple of things that also seem kind of predictable and uninspired. There is a Sex and the City sequel coming at you like a pair of red sparkly Jimmy Choo’s flung from a speeding New York taxi cab. This will no doubt have hordes of women flocking to cinemas whilst the menfolk sit in pubs and watch world cup matches all day. I’ve not seen the first movie and I have no real desire to, to me its like wearing ladies underwear. Yeah its new and different for a while but you have no real need to do it every summer. On the same day we get the latest Jerry Bruckheimer Pirates of the Caribbean wannabe, Prince of Persia – the sands of time. Jake Gyllenhaal certainly looks the part as the title character and Gemma Arterton is the new hotness. For gods sake though its based on a video game and were it not for the people behind the camera then we would probably be looking at an out and out turkey of epic proportions. It probably wont do Pirates size business but may be a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon with the kids.

Things get a bit more interesting in June, surprising really considering this is when the world cup will be in full flow. First week of June we get Splice which to me is probably the most interesting film of the summer after Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Splice is a tale of genetic engineering gone wrong in the most deadly way and comes from director Vicenzo Natali who made Cube and Cypher. It stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley and apparently goes to some really weird places with its plot. Whether or not it will make much of a splash is another matter but genre fans should be very pleased. The same weekend we get Get him to the Greek, the latest comedy from Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller and starring Russell Brand as that films comedy British rock star Aldous Snow and Jonah Hill as the hapless intern trying to get Snow to a venue in LA. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a bit underwhelming compared to a lot of comedies of the last few years and Russell Brand is a bit one note at times. Still this could hit big or could be a complete misfire. June rumbles on with Joe Carnahan’s completely over the top no doubt A-Team reimagining. A film that is based on a cheesy old TV show and looks like it could go either way into camp farce or all action thrill ride, the jury is undecided. Oh there is a bloody Karate Kid remake the same weekend with Will Smith’s kid Jaden in the Ralph Macchio role and Jackie Chan in the Mister Miyagi role of old master. This is a story firmly rooted in the 1980’s to me, belonging in the martial arts boom of that decade. If they let Chan loose with some of his old magic as he takes on a bunch of emo kids who are the new Cobra Kai then count me in otherwise I’ll wait until its on channel 5. Toy Story 3 comes out the middle of the month and its probably the one to beat this summer. Its Pixar for a start, its also in 3D and its the third in a massive franchise. As long as they keep the heart of the first two then this should be a great time at the flicks. We also get Jonah Hex the same weekend starring Josh Brolin as DC Comics scarred gunslinger. Problem is the movie has been slated to bits in preview screenings and was also the subject of re-shoots. Probably one to put in the interesting failure category with 1999’s Wild Wild West. Knight and Day stars Tom Cruise as a spy who gets involved with Cameron Diaz’s ditzy blond. The first trailer for this made me groan but the most recent one seems to suggest that Cruise’s character may actually be crazy delusional lunatic, which would be a novelty and would make it more interesting than just another Mission Impossible retread. Plus director James Mangold is always reliable even if he hasn’t really made a big budget action movie before.

July is where it gets interesting, if you can look past the next installment in the bloody Twilight franchise, Eclipse which will no doubt make millions from the screaming masses who demand nothing more than a Buffy/Angel rip off and a good looking bloke who sparkles in the sunshine. First off we get the latest effort from M.Night Shyamalan,The Last Airbender. Based on the popular animated series and looking suitably epic and glossy. Of course his last two films were Lady in the Water and The Happening so his touch has possibly deserted him. Warner’s also made the decision to convert the film into 3D prior to release which these days you can take as a sign that they have a possible dud on their hands. July also brings us the two biggest geek projects on internet radars in 2010. Christopher Nolan is a director that seems to be able to do no wrong after his triumphant Batman sequel and he has been given a 200 million dollar budget to bring to us Inception, a film that possibly involves stealing secrets from peoples dreams but we aren’t sure as the plot is shrouded in secrecy. The film stars Leonardo Di Caprio as well as Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page and Michael Caine. Will it go over mainstream audiences heads or could we be talking about the next Matrix? we’ll see. We also get a long time coming third Predator movie produced by Robert Rodriguez and directed by Nimrod Antal. This one is set on the Predators home world and has decided to go with actual actors instead of beefcakes so we get Adrien Brody in his second genre lead of the summer. If they can recapture some of the thrills and cool make up effects of the first two movies then this could be a winner, but do modern audiences care anymore?

August wraps up the summer in style starting with the latest effort from Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, The Other Guys. This follows the non action hero buddy cops, the guys who work at desks and manage to get a big case. The trailer was very funny for this one and it looks as though it could be a big winner if they get the action spoof thing just right without going into Naked Gun style parody. Edgar Wrights latest movie also debuts in August, Scott Pilgrim vs.The World is based on the comic which follows Scott Pilgrim as he tries to defeat his new girlfriends seven evil exes. Visually the trailer is unlike nothing we have ever seen before, merging 80’s Capcom beat em up’s with your modern comic book based movie. Will it work for the modern audience though? Sure to be a ton of fun in a similar throw back fashion is The Expendables. Sylvester Stallone’s new directorial effort is a men on a mission movie that stars Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis and some bloke called Arnold Schwarzenegger. If nothing else this should get a decent showing for nostalgia purposes and the over thirty set. Silly season comes to a close with Piranha 3D, a remake helmed by Alexandre Aja who also made the great Hills Have Eyes remake. Expect gore and humor in equal measure but in 3D!

So to sum up then, the ones to look for:

1. Inception

2. Splice

3. Predators

4. The Other Guys

5. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Problem is to get to these you have to wade through two months of mediocre looking dreck. Roll on the Autumn!