Summer 2019 Review

We have come to the end of another summer full of movies. There were a few that were amazing, some that were good, and a few that were disappointments. Today I am going to take the time to rank the movies I saw this summer and how they all fit in to the categories below.

Top 5 of the Summer

1. Avengers Endgame - I don't think this is a surprise to anyone, but if this a surprise for you...umm well SURPRISE. This movie was a mind blowing experience with so many great surprises and wonderful moments that range from laugh out loud to heart warming. What was so great was that this movie was basically kept under wraps, some predicted a few things but not the whole movie, which made the experience a very pleasant surprise. We live in a world today where it feels like everything is given away in the previews. I am so glad everyone went to great lengths to keep this under wraps and beg not to spoil the movie, at least until opening weekend. This was the epic comic book movie I didn't know I really wanted and the movie that I didn't know would be possible but I am extremely grateful we have.

2. Toy Story 4 - When I heard about a 4th Toy Story being made, I thought why, the 3rd ended perfectly that I felt we didn't need one. But this came out and I saw it and I was very surprised on how well this continued the story for these characters, and how this gave a great conclusion to Woody's story. This felt like a nice adventure movie with plenty of laughs, especially from Duck and Bunny, and Duke Kaboom. The one that gave me the biggest laugh (besides from Duck and Bunny's plans to get the keys) is when Buttercup suggests to frame the dad so he goes to jail. I still think Toy Story 3 is the best, but this proved that the Toy Story world can continue with a great movie.

3. Yesterday - How would you react if you woke up one day and your favorite band disappeared from off the face of the earth? You remember the music but no one else knows what the disappeared band is. This concept is brought up in this movie as one aspiring musician decides to take this as an opportunity to present the music as his own. This is a very entertaining and original idea. The actor also does a great job at performing the songs. One of my favorite bands is U2, if they disappeared, don't turn to me to bring the music back since I am not very good with performing music.

4. Spider Man: Far From Home - After an epic adventure in Avengers Endgame, it's hard to imagine where the MCU could go, but this movie gives us a world on what would happen after the events of Endgame. As well, this was a nice palette cleanser. We get a very compelling villain with Mysterio. There is one sequence that was really mind blowing visually, talking about it in detail would be a huge spoiler, so I will just say it's mind blowing and hope you get to check it out as soon as possible, it is amazing what special effects can do these days. There are plenty of surprises, and after the movie was over I wanted to rewatch the movie with the new angle I was given.

5. The Farewell - A movie I heard about but never bother looking up a trailer for, but I heard nothing but great things about, and so I went to see it and this movie was really good. This had a story that made me think about what I would do in that scenario. For those that don't know, it's about a woman who has her grandma get diagnosed with cancer and the family chooses not to tell the grandma about it, and this is supposedly how China culture functions. This had some good laughs here and there, and great performances, especially from Awkwafina, who I have known from comedies, so it was good to see her attempt something a little more serious.


Other great movies

Hobbs and Shaw - Somehow after 8 movies, I have become a fan of the Fast and Furious movies. I did not care for the first few movies, I say the 5th movie was when things got very interesting. So we are with this spin off, and this movie was a blast to watch. Even the few cameo additions really added to the fun. Even if you aren't a fan of the series but enjoy dumb action movies, you will have a ton of fun watching this and don't have to see the other movies to enjoy it.

Detective Pikachu - I didn't grow up as a fan of Pokemon, I did watch some of the episodes of the first season and was aware of the games. Each trailer I saw for this just painted a very fun movie, and that's what I got when I saw the movie, a very fun movie where the world that was created was just fun to explore. Plus, Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu, that was perfect casting.


Enjoyable

Aladdin - This was a movie I had no anticipation to see whatsoever, if you review my list of anticipated movies, I included Lion King and Dumbo, but not this at all. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would, this was one of the biggest surprises of the summer. Yeah, we didn't need this movie, but I feel they handled this movie very well. Props to casting Will Smith as the Genie and allowing him to put his own spin on the character instead of trying to personate what Robin Williams had done before.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters - To properly enjoy this movie, watch it on the big screen, I understand this isn't in theaters anymore, I mean watching it on a big screen TV or projector screen. This is a movie that was made to be experienced on the biggest screen possible, even on your biggest TV you have at home, and a very good home theater set up. I saw this on the IMAX screen and many of the shots of the movie were so epic, and the monster fights were enhanced by experiencing it in that way. Also, don't go in expecting a deep story, just go in for awesome monster fights and you will have a fun time.

Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark - I don't have many experiences with the books this movie is based on. I might have heard a couple of the stories, but I don't have a strong connection to the stories. I went because I had a few friends that invited me to join, and I was curious enough to check it out. I ended up enjoying the movie more than I expected to. This had the right amount of scares for me. I was entertained, and this could end up as one of those movies that I might put on my list of movies during the Halloween season.


Watch once, then move on

The Lion King (2019) - Let's describe this movie as the photorealistic version of Lion King. It is suppose to be live action, but since it's done on a computer it's basically animated but it's animated in a way it's suppose to represent real life, so I consider it photorealistic. I didn't have high expectations, but I did have hopes that this would be more different than it turned out to be. The big disappointment for me was this was a movie was done better in traditional animation, and I understand the reason, the creators were trying to trying to go for a realistic approach, and since lions don't show emotion in real life, they didn't emote here and that became a distraction for me. However, the visuals were still incredible, and the story is still good. This was just one of those I wished they did something a little more different with, kind of like Aladdin.

Men In Black International - Ever since I saw the trailer in December, I was excited for this, it looked like it was going to be a fun movie, I ended up being really disappointed with it. However, once we got past the first half of the movie, it got better and I enjoyed it more than the first half, so I walked away with a smile on my face at the end of the movie. However it wasn't enough for me to make this a repeat watch, which is sad because the first movie is one I can watch quite a bit and also the third one as well.

47 Meters Down Uncaged - This should probably be in the major disappointments below, but the thing is, I wasn't disappointed...because I had no expectations going in at all. Did this excel my expectations then? No. But I certainly got plenty of laughs out of this, one could almost say this was one of the best unintentional comedies I saw this summer. The decisions made were kind of baffling. But hey, you want a dumb shark movie and want stupid unintentional laughs, this movie is perfect, but I would wait for Netflix.


Major disappointments

Dark Phoenix - I really think they should have ended the Fox X-Men saga with Logan, that was a perfect ending, also, X-Men Apocalypse ended the prequel trilogy just fine, we didn't need a continuation. So with all this in mind, I had no expectations when I saw the first trailer debut last year. My expectations didn't grow overtime, but I decided to see it regardless. Even with no expectations, I was surprisingly disappointed because I realized there was potential with the movie and it could have been somewhat fixed with a different director and made different choices.


So these are the movies that I saw this summer. There are some I didn't see this summer that I would like to check out soon, and if they blow my expectations away, I might include them on my top 10 at the end of the year. Anyway, I will be back later with a list of my most anticipated movies of the rest of the year. See you soon.