2013 Summer Movie Reviews

This Summer's movies have been more hit than miss for me.

Started off with Iron Man 3. For starters, I promised my wife that I would not watch a single trailer for this movie before seeing it in order to watch it spoiler free. So I did, even though I'm fairly familiar with the source material, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the same issue that most comic purists had with the Mandarin. Maybe because I was never a huge fan of that character so I enjoyed the joke and the extermis seemed way more interesting and fit better in this world that Iron Man lives in. One of the only problems I had with the movie was the removal of Tony's ARC reactor. But I have faith in the Marvel Studios movies that they will redeem the character for Avengers 2, or maybe Guardians of the Galaxy since Tony might show up there as well.

Then there was Star Trek: Into Darkness. I was a huge fan of the last movie and this one felt like more of that goodness. Not a huge fan of the original movies this franchise relaunch has me hooked. Love the look, sound and feel of these movies. The actors are really some of the best in my opinion and Benedict Cumberbatch was a fantastic addition. Can't wait to see this guy in future movies.

My pick for movie of the summer so far is Man of Steel. First off, I'll start by stating that I have never been a fan of Superman, in fact, I might got as far to say that he's my least favorite superhero. Superman was just so cookie cutter and blah. So I was really surprised that I loved this movie as much as I did especially over established franchises like Iron Man. This movie was beautifully shot and had some great actors in it. They tossed old trite Superman concepts like Lois not knowing who Clark is and kryptonite. Such a good movie. Lot of destruction but overall best movie this summer. If you wanna know more about it just listen to our spoiler review of the film on our podcast here.

Next would be Pacific Rim. Oddly this was the film I was kinda looking forward to the most. I just have an affinity for giants monsters fighting robots. It's the Godzilla fan in me. This movie was pretty much what I thought it would be. One of those movies where logic and plot hole checkers can leave their brains at the door and just enjoy some good old smashing. There weren't any really big actors in it but overall I left feeling entertained. You can listen to our more in depth review here.

And the most recent movie I've seen this summer would have to be The Wolverine. I had the lowest expectations for this movie since the last one was such a stinker. It sucks because I enjoy Hugh Jackman's performance as Wolverine but Origins was just a bucket of balls and really spat in the face of any Wolverine fan. The Wolverine on the other hand, although not completely accurate, felt like a more grounded Wolverine solo flick. I liked that they didn't flood the movie with random mutants that didn't fit (well almost, I'm looking at you Viper). This movie was based off of the Chris Claremont/ Frank Miller mini-series from the 80's and did more right than wrong. I was personally really attracted to the Japanese local and Wolverine's integration into that culture. Very reminiscent of Karate Kid 2. The action sequences didn't feel forced and flowed with the rhythm of the movie. And I ended up really liking the bullet train fight scene. We just recently recorded a spoilercast for the Wolverine as well, you can listen to it here.

There have been other movies that I've seen so far. Maybe I'll get around to reviewing them on the podcast. I personally enjoyed After Earth and GI Joe Retaliation. This Summer Movies season is the odd season for the most part. Next year's Summer is already sounding fantastic. Overall though I haven't come across a movie I really didn't like. I'd give it 4 out of 5 Summer Blockbusters for this Summer of 2013.