jeffbase34

I can't remember a year where I had almost total lack of excitement for any of the big releases this year. A year ago, I had Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones, and Iron Man to look forward to. Also Hancock and The Incredible Hulk were great popcorn movies.

This year, I was really bummed that Wolverine was the only Marvel Comics movie for the entire year. And then the movie started to receive awful reviews. I can't imagine why anyone would be excited for Angels and Demons. T4 might be good, but with the entire movie taking place in the future, I can't see where it will stand up against the previous films.

And what do we have next? Land of the Lost and Night at the Museum 2. I have no excitement for a rehash of a cheesy 70's kid show and an a sequel to an average comedy.

I found the plot so ridiculous in the original Transformers so I'm not chopping at the bit to see the sequel.

So that leaves Star Trek and the Johnny Deep Gangster flick as the only two films to really look forward to. Where are the big special effects and action movies? Anyone else feel let down?

Giles

I was thinking about this just yesterday as well. Nothing jumps out at me as being films I'm really all excited about

I can't wait though for
- Up
- Harry Potter and the Half Baked Prince
- Final Destination 4 (3D)

still on the fence:
- Transformers 2 (only if it's half as long as the first film)

PopcornTreeCt

There's still Transformers 2 that's the big movie, at least for me.

You conveniently forgot the biggest summer movie of all-time The Dark Knight... every summer without a Batman flick is going to be disappointing.

TGM

If you were looking forward to Prince Caspian, and are now depressed that none of the current slated 2009 summer flicks seem to stand up to the dreck that was Indiana Jones 4, then there is no help for you.

jeffbase34

Lol, well I was excited about these movies prior to their release. The hype of Indy 4 was huge, and I'm a big fan of the series. I thought Caspian was quite enjoyable, and Indy was decent.

I did forget The Dark Knight. I must have watched that movie trailer 30 times before seeing it. It would be a better summer if Marvel had released more movies this year. Really pisses me off that they killed the Xmen franchise along with Fantastic Four.

Mondo Kane

It's still better than the summer of 2001. From what I remembered, the Planet of the Apes remake was the only "Event movie" from that summer. And that one certainly delivered.

islandclaws

I mostly agree here. There isn't one single title that really has me super excited. I'm banking on Transformers 2 to be the most fun, but I wasn't excited for Trek (but then I saw it and loved it), and T4 still has me on the fence. The HP films I enjoy, but I don't always see them in theaters. I think next summer, with Iron Man 2, among others, will be a bit better.

hapgilmore

Inglorious Basterds + Public Enemies + Funny People = my most anticipated movies

RichC2

It could be worse, we could have a repeat of 2007 where there are 3 huge sequels due (Shrek 3, Spider-man 3, Pirates 3) and all three turned out horribly. Last year's summer was fairly packed and delivered for the most part.

This summer has a lot of movies, but most appeal to demographics... that I'm not a part of. From now - August:

Wolverine
Star Trek
Angels and Demons

Rest of the movies, marked with what I'll probably end up seeing.
Terminator: Salvation
Drag Me To Hell
Up
Night at the Museum 2
The Hangover
Land of the Lost
My Life in Ruins
Away We Go
The Taking of Pelham 123
Imagine That
The Proposal
Year One
My Sister's Keeper
Transformers 2
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Public Enemies
Bruno
I Love You Beth Cooper
Harry Potter and the 5th sequel
All the Good Things
500 Days of Summer
G-Force
The Orphan
The Ugly Truth
Aliens in the Attic
Funny People
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (imo, this looks terrible.)
District 9
Taking Woodstock
Inglorious Basterds
Final Destination 4

jeffbase34

2001 also featured The Mummy Returns, Pearl Harbor, and Jurassic Park 3 as tentpole movies. I remember being really excited about Pearl Harbor until the reviews came out, and then I didn't bother. lol

Draven

There are more movies I want to see this summer in the theater than any other time I can remember. 12 on that list above, and I usually only go to three or four in a given summer.

Michael Corvin

Coming into this summer there were only two films that I have been excited to see, Up! and 9. Unfortunately there is a 3 month window between the two where countless movies I don't have interest in fall.

Woverine - Entertaining enough. I didn't have high expectations for it though.
Star Trek - I'm not a Trek fan
Harry Potter - also not a fan
Angels & Demons - Never saw DaVinci code or read the book. No interest here either.
Terminator 4 - T3 killed any excitement I would have had for T4.
Transformers 2 - I mostly stood alone(with Draven) on release week thinking Transformers was the worse piece of shit to hit the screen in years, needless to say, I'm not looking forward to the sequel.
Night at the Museum 2 - Night at the Museum was fun enough, but that was during the holidays. Night at the Museum 2 doesn't feel right for summer.
Final Destination 4 - I loved 1 & 2, but 3 was terrible, so I don't have high hopes for 4.
Ice Age 3 - I might take the kiddos, I really like the original, but the sequel was terrible.

So, yeah... the only three movies that I'm remotely interested in are animated. This is a complete reversal from last year where I saw more movies in a summer than I had in years.

Quake1028

I'm excited for and have seen / will see all of these:

Wolverine
Star Trek
Angels and Demons
Terminator: Salvation
Up
The Hangover
The Taking of Pelham 123
Year One
Transformers 2
Public Enemies
Bruno
I Love You Beth Cooper
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Funny People
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Inglorious Basterds

NitroJMS

I'm looking forward to:

Up
G.I. Joe (I know it'll be ok at best, but I love the toys/cartoon)
Transformers 2 (sorta)
Harry Potter 5 (sorta)
Final Destination 4 (guilty pleasure horror series)
(500) Days of Summer (can't wait for this one)

Don't really have any interest in Terminator 4 (3 killed my interest in the series), and Public Enemies, which I was excited for until I saw the high school AV team cinematography. I'll also avoid Ice Age 3 like the plague.

I'll probably catch most of the Apatowish comedies at some point, and a few others on my random days off.

NitroJMS

Well, there was also Shrek, which was still fresh at that point. Plus Jurassic Park 3, American Pie 2, Fast and the Furious, Rush Hour 2, Pearl Harbor, and a few others. Christmas that year certainly had a lot more event style movies (Fellowship of the Ring, Harry Potter 1).

Giles

forgot about 'Bruno' - that should be a riot!

Mr. Cinema

There are about a dozen movies I'm interested in, which means I'll probably only watch 6-7 of those. Aside from Public Enemies, Star Trek, and Transformers 2, nothing really is a must-see for me. Taking of Pelham 1,2,3 is high on the list though. Like PE, it's an R-rated thriller made for adults. And I love Denzel and Travolta. I'll check out T4 as well. Not sure about GI Joe.

riley_dude

There have only been two so far. One I liked, Trek, and the other Wolverine, I disliked.
So the verdict is still out.
I am looking for to Harry Potter sequel and Transformers 2. Not sure about Terminator Salvation.

GoldenJCJ

I think most summers are like this, there's a couple big movies that get mild to heavy attention (T4, Transformers 2) and then there's a list of other movies that may be good but fall under the "Big Blockbuster" radar.

I think the reason we're noticing it more this year is because last summer was such an impressive year. Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indy (it may not be great but man, did it have us all excited!), The Incredible Hulk, and Wall-e. IMO, it was the best summer in YEARS. It's rare that a summer movie turns out to be really good, much less several summer movies that turn out to be good.


The one Summer I remember being being really excited for and being totally disappointed with was the Summer of 1999. We had The Phantom Menace: most hype ever! It sucked. The Mummy: I've learned to appreciate it's cheesy charm now but at the time I didn't like it. Wild Wild West: Will Smith coming off of hits, ID4, MIB, and Enemy of the State, so the hype was there; WWW sucked! The Haunting: My most anticipated movie of the summer was also one of the worst movies I've ever seen!

Ever since then I've tried to keep my expectations in check.

jeffbase34

You're right about the year 99. I remember people just going back to see THe Matrix over and over because the summer movies really sucked. People wondered how could a spring movie be more of a blockbuster than the summer ones. The Phantom Menace was hyped so much. I remember people camping out 4 days in advance to see the movie. lol

RichC2

Yeah, 1999 was a noteable year (The Matrix, eXistenZ, Election, Fight Club, American Beauty, Green Mile, Being John Malkovich, The Insider, etc; ) but the Summer flicks were weak... though, while I didn't like it at all, The Sixth Sense was technically a summer flick and that cleaned up and South Park : BLU kicked ass.

cranberries fan

So far and it's early "Star Trek-2009" maybe the other real fun fick of the summer season after that?
Angels and Demons I just don't care one bit about it.

Then as for the rest???
Terminator: Salvation (^^)
Drag Me To Hell (I don't go and see many horror but it is sammy behind the camera!)
Up (wake me up when it's over)
Night at the Museum 2 (I got free ticket to see it enough on the matter)
Land of the Lost (this is bull-shit movie of the year,they screw my childhood!)
Transformers 2 (yeah ok,no I don't care)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (WHY!)
Public Enemies (Dam it's winner in my book)
Harry Potter and the 5th sequel (I just my pass on this)
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra (It looks like a good old-time at the movies "fun-dumb")

majorjoe23

99 also had Austin Powers 2. That did well.

RichC2

Yeah, it did well but imo it was the worst of the trilogy.

superdeluxe

No, because we are only 3 movies in.

So far Wolverine was okay. Star Trek was awesome. and I haven't seen A&D yet.

next weekend has T4 (Which will be great), and NATM2 (Which should be fun).

Sure June looks pretty empty, but then you get TF2