Thoughts on Summer 2011

The summer movie season ended a few weeks ago, and it's been almost two months since the last major tentpole release. But as fall begins and Hollywood moves away from explosions and mayhem toward more serious fare, I thought I would take a look back at the last several months.

I should preface this by saying that I didn't get to see nearly as many movies this summer as I'd have liked. Some summer fare that's still on my to-see list includes Will Ferrell's dramatic turn in "Everything Must Go," the relationship dramas "Last Night" and "Beginners," British comedies "Submarine" and "Attack the Block," and studio comedies "Friends With Benefits" and "Crazy Stupid Love." I also haven't yet gotten to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" or "The Help," though I'm hoping to make it to those two soon. So when I say that Summer 2011 was a very poor few months of moviegoing, that should probably be taken with a grain of salt. But despite all the big-name sequels and would-be franchise starters, I just didn't get a good vibe from the season overall.


The Bad

I actually don't have much to talk about in terms of bad films from this summer, since generally if a movie is supposed to be bad, I don't bother seeing it. The only genuinely bad movie I saw all summer was "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Granted, it wasn't as miserably, horridly terrible as the last entry, "Revenge of the Fallen," but it was just another overlong explosion fest with no purpose other than to show emotionless CGI robots beating the pulp out of each other. Fortunately the film saw a $50 million dropoff in its domestic gross from the last entry, and when the 3D upcharges are factored in, roughly 25% less people saw "Dark of the Moon" than "Revenge of the Fallen." That's a victory for quality cinema over crap cinema, but the film's massive international numbers ensure that the franchise will continue. I'll talk more about the explosion of the international box office shortly.


The Mediocre

Another film that falls closer to bad than good for me was "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." I'm in the extreme minority in that I really enjoy the "Pirates" sequels in addition to the first film, "The Curse of the Black Pearl." But I never had high expectations for this unnecessary fourth entry, and I essentially got what I expected: not much. The same goes for "The Hangover Part II," which was practically a remake of the original...not to mention less funny.


The Good

And now for the high points. I'd say there were four very good films that I saw this summer, with a couple others that were enjoyable, but not necessarily great. I'll start at the top with "Midnight in Paris," which I consider to be the best film I've seen all year so far. Just a great, fun, lighthearted comedy with plenty of Woody Allen wit and some great performances, particularly from Marion Cotillard and Owen Wilson, as well as Rachel McAdams as a stereotypical culturally ignorant American. The more knowledge you have of early twentieth century literature, the more you'll get out of this film. It's an absolute must-see in my opinion and while it's not likely a contender for any major awards (save possible for its screenplay), it could manage quite a few nominations at the end of the year.

Keeping things on the independent circuit, another summer gem was Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life." This is a film that I think takes multiple viewings to fully appreciate it, and I definitely need to give it a second look to really think about everything that's going on, particularly in the film's last twenty minutes. But I definitely appreciated the sheer artistry on screen. Malick's films play almost more like visual poems than traditional narratives, but he's an absolute visual master; the twenty minute creation sequence that takes up the film's entire second reel is one of the most amazing visual sequences I've ever seen put on film. The film also has great performances from Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as a couple living in small-town America in the 1950s.

Moving to the studio side of things, another film I really loved was J.J. Abrams's Steven Spielberg homage "Super 8." Sure it has some cheesy moments, but then again so did many of Spielberg's beloved '80s films. But the film had a heartwarming story with plenty of drama and suspense, and a host of great performances from mostly unknown child actors. Elle Fanning is Oscar-worthy in this film in my opinion.

And finally we come to the big kahuna of the summer, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2." Yes it's only half of a much larger epic (which I think will be truly amazing when seen in it's entirety once "Part 2" hits home media on November 11). But director David Yates, writer Steve Kloves, stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, and the rest of that enormous cast and crew brought this saga to a truly impressive and satisfying conclusion. I had the chance to see the film at a midnight showing (the only such showing I've been to for a Potter film), and I can say that it was one of the most memorable moviegoing experiences I've ever had. I've seen the film an additional three times too, so I can say that it definitely holds up to repeat viewings without that electric midnight atmosphere.

A couple other entertaining high points for me this summer were "X-Men: First Class" and "Bridesmaids."


Comic Book Overload?

The summer of 2011 saw no less than FOUR comic book-inspired films hit theatres. The only one I saw was the aforementioned "X-Men," but I'm starting to wonder if studios are getting to the bottom of the barrel in terms of characters that are recognizable to the general public. None of the four managed to hit $200 million at the domestic box office, which has got to be disappointing to the studios after the huge successes of the Batman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man franchises. Comic book movies are probably here to stay, but I think there's a huge amount of pressure on next summer's "The Avengers" to perform, since only Iron Man has proven to be a popular character individually from that group. Of course "The Dark Knight Rises" will be a huge success, but with that franchise Warner Bros. has wisely let Christopher Nolan and his writing team do their own thing. Marvel has been much more hands on, and has spent a lot more money, in the development of their Avengers franchise, and now they'll be waiting to see if if all pays off.


Decline of 3D

I'll just say upfront that I absolutely loathe 3D. I think it is a money-making gimmick that adds absolutely nothing to the moviegoing experience; in fact I think that it makes it worse. And this summer, it seemed that the general moviegoing public (at least in the U.S.) is starting to feel the same way...or at the very least they're tired of paying anywhere from $5-15 extra for the experience (those higher numbers are if you include IMAX or some of the other large-format showings). Of all the 3D tentpoles this summer, only "Transformers" made a majority of its domestic cash from 3D showings. All the others did more business in 2D. Yes the format is still hugely popular overseas, which means it will likely continue for at least another few years, but at least it looks like U.S audiences are tiring of the format, which is a huge positive in my opinion.


Growth of the International Box Office

Finally, this summer saw huge gains in overseas box office totals. Many franchises saw their international numbers increase dramatically, including "Fast Five," "Thor," "The Hangover," "Cars," and "Transformers." Big epics like "Harry Potter" and "Pirates" were still overwhelmingly popular as well. This summer also had THREE $1 billion worldwide grossers in "Harry Potter" (now the third highest grossing movie of all-time with $1.325 billion), "Transformers ($1.118 billion, just below "The Return of the King" for fifth all-time), and "Pirates" ($1.039 billion, eighth all-time). Of course all of those were in 3D, which helps to explain the huge dollars, but I think the international markets are finally beginning to catch up with the U.S. in terms of theatres and amenities and just being able to offer a first-rate moviegoing experience. Many of these films were released internationally at the same time as they were in the U.S., or in some cases even earlier. That cuts down on potential piracy issues as well. I fully expect this trend to continue, with at least two candidates for $1 billion lined up for next year in "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

Well, that's a wrap on my (very lengthy) thoughts on Summer Movie Season 2011. I've already seen a couple of the fall's highly acclaimed films, and I'll work on getting reviews of those ("Drive" and "Moneyball") posted over the next couple days.