Debate of the Day: Which Summer Blockbusters Will Let Us Down?

man of steel new

This happens every year. A slate of cool looking, flashy summer blockbusters are advertised to death, and nearly all of them look pretty good. But there will always be winners and losers, and it’s never the case that each and every one of them is going to pan out.

This year, we have not Transformers or Twilight installments, so there aren’t any obvious picks right of the bat. We do have a slate of promising films, but I can’t imagine that they’re all going deliver on their potential. What do you make of these? I’ll give my own abridged thoughts below:

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Iron Man 3: Probably a safe bet to be pretty good, despite the departure of Favreau. Decent reviews so far, so I suppose that’s cheating. Though I have heard from actual fans that it sucks, so who knows?

Star Trek Into the Darkness: JJ Abrams’ films alternate between good and great, and I’ve never seen them reach “bad” yet. Hopefully his Star Trek sequel is a good last hurrah before he movies on to Star Wars.

Fast Six: A few years ago, this would have been a joke that anyone (besides me) would anticipate it being good, but after Fast Five we’ve learned our lesson, and with the same cast and director, I think it will be a hell of a ride.

Man of Steel: This is the biggest gamble on the list for me. The trailers for the film have been phenomenal, and when Snyder’s good, he’s great, and I can only imagine what he’ll do with a Nolan script. That said, I’ve never seen a Superman movie I’ve liked, even the old ones. He’s a hard hero to master, and this is going to be challenge.

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The Wolverine: This is one I’ll predict will be outright bad. Previously, when Darren Aronofsky was on board, I was more excited for a “good” Wolverine movie at last than I was for Man of Steel. But now? The trailers and promotional materials have been really weak, and painted the film as being as bland as Origins. But it can’t be that bad, right?

Pacific Rim: Is the world ready for the return of the giant monster movie? I’m not sure, but I’m willing to give it a shot with that cast (Stringer Bell! Jax Teller!) and Guillermo Del Toro on board.

I suppose you can count The Long Ranger, World War Z and The Hangover 3 as blockbusters as well, but I’ll just sum those up with Pretty Bad, Really Bad and Possibly Okay respectively.

What about you?

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16 Comments

  1. Erm … hate to nitpick but, technically, MAN OF STEEL is a David Goyer script with a story from him and Nolan. I have absolutely no faith in that movie, so I’m hoping that personal stance gets highly disappointed as I love Supes.

    Of those listed, the most I’m concerned about is TREK because, unlike others, I’m not enamored with JJ. I thought his reboot was admirable, at best, but it wasn’t the Star Trek I grew up with. AICNews has already spoiled what many feared, so I have even less faith in it now. No doubt, it’ll be a good popcorn movie, but that’s probably all for me.

    Also, JJ’s SUPER 8 was a total failure in my book. Major suckage, so much so it was barely coherent.

    I didn’t much care for IRON MAN I or II, but I usually enjoy Shane Black’s writing so I am holding out hope on that one.

    PACIFIC RIM? Meh. Giant monster movies never seem to perform all that well, and this only looks like a cross between TRANSFORMERS and a giant monster movie. I hope it does well — mostly because I love good monster movies — so we’ll see.

    WORLD WAR Z will have to have dozens of solid reviews for me to even see it. The book is just so groundbreaking that I’d rather not spoil the experience by seeing something with someone as tepid as Brad Pitt in it.

    Also, I’m an old school Lone Ranger fan, but I’m not a big fan of Depp as Tonto, so, again, I’ll probably need to be convinced by reviews to check that one out.

  2. World War Z is going to be godawful. It’s a damn shame too considering the book is brilliant, but each trailer the zombie rush pyramid thing is stupid.

    A good adaptation of that would be something of a stretch given the scope of the book but Forster+Company definitely fucked this up.

  3. Agreed, Iron Man 3, Star Trek into Darkness, and Fast 6 should be ok. They will all get huge opening weekends regardless of quality and make good money thereafter.

    Man of Steel looks great, and the people behind it seem to have good ideas and the right passion to make it work. I’ve never been a huge fan of the character or any of the past movies either, so even if it isn’t great, I’m not that invested. There are stories floating out there now that in this movie, krypton isn’t destroyed and Superman isn’t the last of his race but more of an escaped genetic anomaly. That’ll piss off the fanboys. It’ll have a huge opening weekend no matter what.

    The Wolverine looks terrible, and that’s a disappointment. I’d like to think its’ opening weekend will be weak due to how bad the last one was and how mediocre this one looks, time will tell. If it is as bad as we all seem to think it will be, i would assume it wouldn’t keep making money at the box office very long, and hopefully they’ll stop making them so terrible in the future.

    Pacific Rim looks great to me, but I think most people will consider it to be a transformers rip off. The general public most likely will be swayed by the marketing and it’s opening weekend will reflect that, it’s quality will determine if it keeps making money after that.

  4. I’m with Zimmerman on Man of Steel and Star Trek. And Iron Man 3.

    And I’ll comfortably remain on the outside looking in on the Lone Ranger hate. That movie looks like a lot of fun for me, and Verbinski is a straight-up visionary as far as I’m concerned. That guy knows how to put big, entertaining images up onscreen in a way that few others can match.

    That said, Pacific Rim is, as far as I’m concerned, the only movie I actually need this summer. Part of that comes from being a hugemongous Guillermo del Toro fan, and part of it comes from that movie actually looking like something brand new (despite being part of a somewhat familiar subgenre). I’m speaking in relative values here. I have no doubt that del Toro will be making the good version of what that movie appears to be, and he’ll be making it in a different flavor than the rest of the blockbusters coming out this year.

  5. Lone Ranger will be good. That double train action sequence looks amazing. Say what you want about the story in some of Verbinski’s movies but when it comes to directing action sequences that guy knows what to do.

    Pacific Rim looks amazing. The scale in that movie is absolutely impressive and will probably set a new bar in that particular genre. I wasn’t as goo gaga as everyone else about the Hellboy flicks but this looks amazing.

    I’m stoked to see Man of Steel. Origin stories may be overdone, but when they are done right they’re hard to beat. The way Superman is chucking punches while flying at the end of the last trailer got me pretty excited.

    Star Trek and Ironman 3 will be good. Hopes are for Trek to be great.

    I want The Wolverine to be rad. I really really want it to. Please God!

  6. I’ve seen Iron Man 3 (benefit of living in the UK!). As a fan I have to say that I really did enjoy it, but I can also see how it’s going to annoy people and could come in for criticism.
    The nods to the Extremis storyline are handled really well, and you actually get a sense here that Stark is a real guy and is struggling post Avengers.
    That being said, it has to be seen in a post Avengers light. It isn’t Avengers, and I think that is going to disappoint a lot of people. If you see it in the context of the other Iron Man films (or even the rest of Phase One), then I think it is up there with the best (which is Iron Man 1 or Captain America for me).
    I personally loved how they handle the character of the Mandarin, but I know that there are going to be a lot of annoyed fans as a result of it as well.

    I’m excited for Man of Steel (I hope it matches the trailer!). Wolverine is the one on this list I don’t think I will worry too much about. There are too many blockbusters to go to, and given my previous experience with Wolverine, and the fact that Days of Future Past is in the pipeline means that I will probably wait for the DVD.

  7. I have to say iron man 3, but only because I have no faith in superman or wolverine, so I can’t be let down. I like Star Trek but I’m not enamored with it, so if its good, its good, if not, oh well. No big deal. Pacific rim looks boring to me, and I hate the fast and furious series.

    That being said, I already saw iron man 3 and while I did enjoy it, I feel it was a bit of a let down compared to the other 2 and avengers.

    The other one that might let me down is one ranger. Not overly excited about it, but I love Depp and I loved the pirates movies. I am kinda looking forwas to it, but not too much, but I feel they will try too hard to recapture the funness of pirates. The trailers already paint Depp as he star, even though its called the Lone Ranger and the fact that tonto is just a sidekick.

  8. Iron Man 3 is unlikely to break the curse of 3, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

    Star Trek is likely to be good. I’m onboard.

    Never seen a “Fast” flick. Never plan on it.

    Man of Steel…..well, I’ll keep fingers crossed.

    Wolverine is a rental.

    If Pacific Rim doesn’t make my entire summer, I may just quit going to the movies altogether. Even if the stuff I’ve seen in the trailers so far is the only coolness that is actually in the movie and the rest of it is gay furry porn, it’s still going to be worth it.

  9. Fast Five was awful. Special effects were crap. Fast Six will be so much worse since apparently they all can fly car to car now. I hope Pacific Rim and Superman are good. Iron Man 3 was very solid but with a ending that was predictable and a little disappointing.

    And all of you know you will see all of these movies.

  10. Iron Man 3 does suck

    Man of Steel might suck(I hope it doesn’t)

    Pacific RIm will be cool

    Wolverine will be good

    Fast Six probably good

    Star Trek will be good

    World War Z will be shit

  11. At least my, or anyone else’s, expectations of World War Z couldn’t be lower, so that might actually turn out to be enjoyable 😛

  12. About Iron Man 3, fanboys will say it sucks but for them pretty much everything that is not the source material sucks. As a guy who only reads comic books every now and them (it has been almost a year since last time I bought a comic book) and doesnt know much about Iron Man, I tought the movie was pretty good and quite fun to watch. Better than Iron Man 2 (i didnt really like that one)

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