HOME TRAILERS RELEASE DATES PODCAST REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS MOVIE NEWS ABOUT US APPS FSnetwork

EDITORIALS

Sunday Discussion: What Will This Summer Be Like?

by Alex Billington
April 27, 2008

By the time I write next week's Sunday Discussion, we'll be well on our way into the summer movie season. Not only will Iron Man be out, but we'll have seen new trailers for The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and Indiana Jones 4. Now I'm curious to hear about the buzz for this upcoming summer season. For the first time today I heard someone tell me that this summer is nothing in comparison to last year - although there were endless sequels hitting theaters, which meant the excitement had built over about seven years, by the end nothing had really delivered. Spider-Man 3 was a let down, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 was mediocre, and Transformers was the only one that a majority seemed to enjoy. What will this summer be like? Does it already look like it'll end up better than last year?

Whenever I talk about the summer and how excited for the movies I am, someone always has to remind me about Spider-Man 3. They say, well, we were this excited (if not more) for Spider-Man 3, and look how that turned out. We've all learned our lesson from that movie, but that doesn't mean every movie that is that hyped will turn out bad in the end. And I keep that in my mind heading into this summer season now. While I'm not trying to get too excited, there are some movies, like The Dark Knight, that just can't be bad, no matter what! Beyond that, there are numerous other great movies that I'm looking forward to that have built up my excitement to levels beyond last year. Can I really by more hyped for this summer than I was in April last year?

I'm wondering what we'll feel at the end of the summer and I'm trying to figure it out. I know it's impossible and even the movie studios won't help hint at what we can expect. I'm hoping this is going to be another "summer to remember," like 2003 or 2005, but there's no way to tell and it's probably worse off that I'm setting my expectations that high. At this very moment in time, I have a feeling we'll be looking back on 2008 as one hell of a year: Iron Man making his debut to replace Spidey, the beginning of a truly connected Marvel universe, Heath Ledger and the incredible Dark Knight, the beloved Indiana Jones returning after 19 years, a 1960's Mel Brooks TV show reignited, and yes, even the triumphant return of the stoner movie genre.

Who knows what could happen, but I'm excited enough to talk about it and I love speculating, especially when these are the last few days we have left. I'm wondering what everyone is thinking right now about the summer. Some of you are finishing school, others are getting out the summer clothes, and I'm wondering what the heck is going on in your mind! Am I the only one this excited for the summer of 2008? Please tell me there are some of you out there who are looking forward to the line-up this year more than you were last year. And please tell me this isn't going to be another summer full of let downs and mediocre hits! Don't let me down Christopher Nolan!

Pin It

Related categories: Discussion, Editorials, Opinions

Boo-Yah

I certainly share the same eager anticipation for this summer movie season, that's for sure. Some of these movies (Ironman, Dark Knight), I've been following since pre-production. It'll be nice to final see them on the big screen and from the looks of everything thats come out from both films, I won't be disappointed. Then throw in there the return of Indy, another trip to Narnia, what I think is a Hulk revisioning that is really flying under the radar and well wow. Since I live in Chicago, I'm also keen on Wanted since that's where they filmed it. Plus I'm a fan of Timur's Night Watch series and it looks like he's bringing his unqiue vision to that film. Oh, and being a young guy, my friends have given me a LOT of sh*t about this, but Wall-E looks like one of the best Pixar movies ever. I never thought I would be excited to see a movie about a little robot, haha. Next Friday can't get here soon enough...
darrin

to be honest the crowds wouldnt be as good as last year but the quality of the movies would be good.
Eric

Personally, I think this summer season could be one of the best. It starts out perfectly with Iron Man, then Speed Racer, Then Prince Caspian and after that Indiana Jones 4. There are atleast 10 other movies coming out this summer that I am SO excited to see... There goes my money haha. Kungfu Panda, The Happening, The Incredible Hulk, Get Smart, Wall-E, Wanted, Hancock, Hellboy II, The Dark Knight, The Mummy 3, Pineapple Express and finnally, Tropic Thunder. All of these movies I would be willing to pay to go see in the theaters and I barely ever go to the theaters. A poor college student has to save somehow.
Anthony

I think this will be the best summer by far. Just the first 4 weeks make it the best. Iron Man, Speed Racer, Narnia, and Indian Jones. I mean come on. Then there is Batman, Hulk, Wanted, Hancock, Pineapple Express, The Happening, Wall E, and Hellboy II. That is one lineup to die for in my opinion. I'll be at the theater every Friday this summer.
Lisa

I'm excited for this summer. It's unbelievable how many movies are "must see" for me. Almost every single weekend there is a must see movie opening. Iron Man, Speed Racer, Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indy 4, Kung Fu Panda, Zohan, Hulk, Wall-E, Hancock, Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight!!!, Mummy 3, Pinapple Express, Tropic Thunder!!!!!! I'm hyped for this summer. I was looking over the release schedule and just realized that Hulk comes out 3 weeks after Indy and 2 weeks before Wanted and 3 weeks before Hancock. Hulk is the only new action movie coming out after Indy for 5 full weeks!! FIVE FULL WEEKS! After everyone has seen Indy 3 or 4 times, there will be NO OTHER ACTION MOVIE TO SEE IN THEATERS OTHER THAN HULK! For 5 full weeks. If the marketing gets on the ball and puts out a full-on Hancock-type action and humor trailer for Hulk, Holy Cow, that movie could clean up!
Tyler

I am always jacked, but this summer will be better on all accounts. The Dark Knight alone secures that for me. At the end of the day hype only matters so much. After the first weekend a movies real success rests on the quality or audience enjoyment at the least. This summer has a lot of talented players behind the films, and will deliver both. The first pirates was expected to be a flop and grossed over 300 million, there something about mary did not open at no 1 but got there, my big fat greek wedding never hit no 1 but grossed over 200 million, and the best example of all is titanic- it made 25 million its first weekend but then continued to do it for 15 more weeks, all of them because of word of mouth. Hollywood is really catching on to this, at least I think so, and we can expect things to improve steadily. The new approach to bond and batman I think are the most indicative of this trend. But those are just my thoughts.
craziemutant

indeed a "summer to remember". there's not only one or two great movies coming out, there's a handful. a lot of us are going to be using up a lot of money to sit in a dark room and watch movies. and i'll gladly do it, too.
Reza

I think the weirdest thing about this summer is that it's filled with stand-alone blockbusters. Last year, it was summer of the sequels and everyone was just hyped over something that had been happening for several years prior. This year, there's Iron Man, The Hulk (which isn't really a sequel, right?), Hancock, Wall-E, Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, The Happening, Wanted, Pineapple Express, Tropic Thunder, all of these are stand-alone movies which gives the movie-goer a heckuva lot more diversity. It should be a summer to remember, just because of that diversity. But also, I think there will be mediocre movies out there - Wanted being one of them simply because Night Watch and Day Watch were visual treats but you had to watch the movies two or three times to get the story down pat - so what one can expect is a huge amount of GOOD, with a slight serving of FANTABULISTIC served up by the likes of Dark Knight and some other choice movies - Hellboy II for all of its lackluster marketing still looks amazing, and yeah, I'm a fan of Guillermo del Toro + The Hulk I'm sure will be a much more SATISFYING remake. Overall, I think the summer will be the height of 2008's movie year, just because the months previous have not really been that great. One standout movie would be Cloverfield.......and that's pretty much it. And even that wasn't all that great, it was just ingenious. Winter was meh, Spring was bleh, Summer will be !!!!!!!!!!, and Winter is probably going to be filled with Indie Oscar winners, which Richard Corliss of TIME Magazine, and I agree with him, said is bad for Oscar because people, just average Joe's not avid readers of FirstShowing.net, really don't give a damn about those kinda movies. I just wish something on the epic scale of LOTR + the movie making ingenuity and brilliance of something like The Departed could come by and rejuvenate Oscars. But I digress. SUMMER WILL ROCK!!!!!!!!!
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Like last summer it was claled, "Summer of the Threequel", this summer could be called what #8 said, "Summer of the Standalone" or more, "The Summer of the Possible Threequel" (ie. Narnia, Hulk). The opnly Threequel I can really think of is MUMMY. Looks like it could be a very awesome summer.
http://www.nousha.com Nousha

Thanks for sharing with us;)
Garrett.king

Indiana Jones 4, Iron Man, X-Files 2, Clone Wars. All of it is going to be fuckin' fantastic. I pray I can get in to any one of them.
Rob G

It's all marshmallows, gum drops and charms blow pops from here on out Alex! This is going to be one of the best cinematic summers ever...
TCox

Alex - I love to read your posts. While I don't always agree with them, I find your enthusiasm for movies in general a welcome departure from some of the other sites that do nothing but trash everything with a release date. I too am excited for the Summer movie season. Although I know there's no way I'll get to see all of them in the theaters, the flicks on my list are (in no particular order): The Dark Knight Iron Man Hellboy II Incredible Hulk Hancock Indiana Jones 4 Speed Racer
Conrad

Reza, I am totally with you!!! This summer is looking to be the best summer we've had in at least three years!! There are just hits after hits coming up. Iron Man, The Dark Knight, X-Files 2, Pineapple Express...the list goes on!! I am jacked about this summer. 2008 is going to kick some ass!
Crystal

I think that this summer looks to be much better than lasts..... The industry is really working harder to have better quality - but there is still the formula that they still rely on, Comic books, hit tv shows, sequels, hit novel series. I'll be there like everyone else but I would still like to see more original work but I guess I will be satisfied with well crafted regurgitation.
Roland

Strangely enough some of my friends ( one in particular that writes for another site ) claim there is nothing that grabs her interest . I myself recently went through the upcoming slate of films and must admit there are a few films that I would normally see that I'm going to pass on and catch when they make their DVD debut . I wonder if Spiderman 3 has something to do with the disillusionment I feel concerning some blockbusters .
Jorge Leiner

If you look at it, there are just a few movies that are not comic/book/tvshows-based, but hell, that's ok if, a) the formula actually works and, b) the adaptation fluctuates between being a decent one, to be a very good one. [Take the perfect anti-example, Spider Man 3. As I'm confident that part 2 was one of the best super heroes movies ever made, this last movie pretty much sucked. Period.] But anyway, right now, we have more that a dozen movies that could actually make a (VERY) good number in the box office and be critically aclaimed at the same time. Some comments: 1. Indiana Jones 4: a couple of generations are waiting for this (did I say generations? laaarge groups of people? ring a bell?) 2. Wall-E: Pixar. Space and beyond. Cute robot. Kids dragging their parents and parents dragging other parents to see it. 3. Iron Man: We will see HUGE humber this weekend. MARK MY WORDS! I mean, the movie has it all!! 4. Get Smart: Talking about a perfect guy in the perfect role. Or... could you think of another actor besides Steve Carrell to play Maxwell Smart?? You do?... Well... Bollocks! 5. The Dark Knight: Those killer posters speak for themselves. Christopher Nolan: he knows what he's doing with the franchise... 6. Hellboy II: Thanks to Pan's Labrynth, Del Toro has a whole new exposition that will give him a much better result with this new installment of Hellboy (the first one is so darn good!). And obviously, there is Hancock, Kung Fu Panda, Hulk, Narnia, Tropic Thunder and, (not so sure) Speed Racer and The Mummy. I think it's just a matter of add, mix, and shake all this movies, and voilá! We will talk about this again with a smile in august...