Biggest Surprise (Jurassic World): This answer is two fold: First of all, I thought the movie would suck. While I wasn’t blown away by anything, it was a solid effort, with a great final act. The second answer is obviously the amount of money it made (third highest grossing film of all time). I understand Jurassic Park is an iconic movie, but how in the world did this happen?! I don’t get it. The last movie came out in 2001. Not only was it poorly received, but it didn’t even get to $200 Million domestic. I know people were looking forward to this, but I had no idea the hunger for a Jurassic Park movie was the size of a T-Rex. It is what it is. While this movie was fine, I’m not looking forward to the nine horrible sequels we’ll have to endure now.
Most Overrated (Straight Outta Compton): It’s a good movie, I gave it a positive review, you should see it, but let’s calm down. It’s way too long, and the acting is just okay. And just to get this out of the way right now, no, it won’t be up for any Oscars.
Most Underrated (Terminator: Genisys): I’ve already talked a lot about this one, but if you were scared off because of the reviews, please give it a chance. If you’re a fan of the Terminator series, I can’t imagine you won’t like this. If for nothing else, go for Arnold, who really is fantastic. If they do make another one, I implore the studio to release it in January or February.
Most Disappointing (Fantastic Four): Oh, we’ll talk about this one more, don’t worry. Even though I’m one of the defenders of this film (there aren’t many), it’s still a massively disappointing effort. I had very high hopes for this movie, and so badly wanted it to be great, but clearly that was not meant to be.
Best Performance of the Summer (Charlize Theron/Mad Max: Fury Road): I was tempted to do a dual award with Theron and Tom Hardy, but Theron deserves the edge. Everything that has been said about her performance as Furiosa is all accurate. She’s fierce, vulnerable, raw and 100% captivating. Much like Ryan Gosling in Drive, her acting is all in the facial expressions, and to be able to convey so much, while doing very little, is the mark of an extraordinary actor, which Theron is. She won’t be nominated for an Oscar, but her name will be brought up several times. For a movie like this, that’s an achievement in itself.
Worst Performance of the Summer (James Spader/Avengers: Age of Ultron): Granted, most of this wasn’t Spader’s fault. Ultron’s failure was due mostly to bad writing, but the performance is what it is. When Ultron is first born, there’s potential. Spader plays him as cold and ruthless. But after that initial scene, it’s a complete and utter mess. He’s pure evil, then he’s jokey, his logic is all over the place. The performance is so disjointed, it almost makes you crave a boring one note Marvel villain like all their other movies. Ultron was a real opportunity for Marvel to show us a villain who’s complex, and truly threatening. Instead, they gave us this clown show.
The Movie I Was Too Hard On (Trainwreck): Let me be very clear – I don’t like this film. Having said that, I was too hard on it. It had moments, and Amy Schumer is giving a good performance, even if the character is hard to latch onto for over two hours. If this was a 90 minute film, it could have been a good comedy. If only there was someone there to tell director Judd Apatow to cut the crap. Trainwreck wasn’t my cup of tea, but unlike a Vacation, it tried.
The Cry Baby Award (Joss Whedon/Avengers: Age of Ultron): Joss Whedon has experienced an unprecedented barrage of praise and love from the film blog community. So when he makes a movie that doesn’t please everybody, and experiences back lash for the first time, he quits Twitter? That’s low, man. You’re a popular film director with one of the most anticipated movies of the last ten years. There are going to be criticisms. Get over it. It happened with Christopher Nolan. It happened with J.J. Abrams. And it happened to you. Do I know for a fact Whedon quit twitter because of negative Age of Ultron tweets? No, but his explanation overall was pretty convoluted. All I can do is offer my opinion, and it’s my opinion he left social media because he couldn’t take the heat. He also committed a cardinal sin of my mine, which is blame the studio when your movie doesn’t get the praise you anticipated. Whedon should know better than anybody that part of directing a big budget film is battling through the studio notes and nonsense. You’re the director, dude. You need to make it work. To piss and moan about what Marvel did after the fact is low. If you can’t tell, I’m not a Whedon fan. I’m curious to see what the guy does next, but for me, he’s just not that good of a director, I’m sorry.
The “What the Hell Happened” Award (Tomorrowland): Wow. Talk about a movie that came and went. This was another big disappointment for me. The previews looked great, but the final product was flat as hell. The first half wasn’t bad, but that last hour was excruciatingly boring and forgettable. Talk about not caring anymore. While Brad Bird excels in animation, I’m not convinced of his live action prowess yet. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was good, but this was a huge step back.
The Lazy Award (Ant-Man): I’m tired. I can’t take it anymore. When the hell is Marvel going to stop getting free passes for these mediocre movies?! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! There were a couple solid action scenes, and the acting was good, but this is a run of the mill whatever movie, yet critics gave it a free pass, while so many other summer films got obliterated. Maybe I’ll be an old man waving my cane, but at some point there will be a Marvel movie that gets bashed by critics. FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
The “We’ve Lost Our Minds” Award (Fantastic Four): I said this in my review, and I stand by it – had this not held the name Fantastic Four, and was a random Sci-Fi movie, the Rotten Tomato score would have been around 40%. I originally gave this movie a 7, and in retrospect, that was probably too high. It’s more like a 6. Regardless though, it’s going to be on everybody’s Worst Movie list at the end of the year, and I just can’t go there. It’s a movie that people wanted to hate, and so when the final product wasn’t good, the flaws were multiplied. This is a classic example of bringing baggage into a movie, and to me, that’s an irresponsible way to analyze a film. It’s a solid film with an atrocious final act, but because it holds the name Fantastic Four, and because people didn’t like what they read going in, and because there was drama left and right on the production, its perception is so much worse than the movie actually is. If you don’t like it, fine, but to compare it on the level of Catwoman and Batman & Robin is completely and utterly ridiculous.
The Movie I Want to Say is the Worst Movie of the Summer, But Can’t (Avengers: Age of Ultron): I really, really hate this movie. I hate everything it represents. It’s a bloated mess that tries to appeal to every single film blog known to man. It needs to hit its quota of jokes, Easter eggs and action. It could give two shits about character and story, yet the shallow attempts to give it depth are laughable (Hawkeye’s family). It’s obnoxious swipes at better films like Man of Steel prove it’s more concerned with appealing to the masses, then actually taking chances with its material, which the better superhero films do. This movie blows bags.
The Worst Movie of the Summer (Vacation): I really don’t have much to say here. The downside of making comedy, as opposed to any other genre, is that when you fail at comedy, the result is worse than all the others combined. The goal of this film is to make you laugh, and throughout its 100 minute run-time, that goal is never achieved. The last fifteen minutes are absolutely pathetic. It’s the type of film that drains the life out of you, and thinking about it more is actually making me drowsy, so let’s leave it at that.
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