Ramblings

• Since it's been a tremendously long time since my last post, I'll ramble on a few things:
  

1. The summer of origin tales is off to a good beginning

With "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and "Star Trek" opening that past two weeks, the summer of the "Non-Original" may turn out to be the second-best summer movie season of my life, taking a backseat only to last year's fantastic session. I was going to say prequel, but some of them are sequels and some prequels have been turned into sequels. G.I. Joe, Angels & Demons, Terminator: Salvation, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and the "best movie title of the summer" in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, all release between May and August, meaning that I'm going to be dropping some serious cash this summer. 

Wolverine, despite being critically-panned, is enjoyable to say the least and superbly cast with Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Taylor Kitsch as Gambit (FINALLY), and Liev Schreiber as Victor Creed/Sabretooth. Reynolds and Kitsch have already secured spinoffs. 

Star Trek is another tale documenting the rise of a cultural icon, Captain Kirk, this time portrayed by Chris Pine, rather than the forever-pausing William Shatner. Pine seems too eager to take a punch in the film and that's my only negative critique. Zachary Quinto delivers a superb performance as half-human/half-Vulcan Spock, and the film is complete with a cameo by Leonard Nimoy as Spock for one last time. 

I'm going to preview the summer season with two simple lists, the first being the five movies I'm looking forward to most, and the second being those that will be tops at the box office. The lists exclude Wolverine and Star Trek, as I've already seen them

Looking forward to:

1. Terminator: Salvation
2. Up!
3. Public Enemies
4. Year One
5. Angels & Demons
   

Top Earners

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
3. Terminator: Salvation
4. Up!
5. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Explanations:

• Terminator: Salvation

I've had a man-crush on Christian Bale since Batman Begins, so seeing him as John Connor is perfect after his turn as the Caped Crusader. 

• Up!

Finding Nemo. Monsters Inc. Toy Story. Cars. Wall-E. All Pixar films. All monstrous hits. 'Nuff said. 

• Public Enemies

Continuing with the man-crush of Christian Bale, paired with Johnny Depp (of whom I'm not a fan), is enough to intrigue me. 

• Year One

Michael Cera is hilarious, and I'm not too fond of Jack Black, but this just looks hilarious. Bruno, Sascha Baron Cohen's new film, could easily slide into this slot, but his last stab in Borat got old too soon, so I'm thinking the Bruno schtick will too. 

• Angels & Demons

If Robert Langdon had been better cast and Ron Howard not directing Dan Brown's prequel to The Da Vinci Code, this would be at the top of my list. After all, Angels and Demons is my favorite book. However, Tom Hanks and his hair piece do not appeal to me. I do appreciate Ewan McGregor as the priest though. Great choice there. I'm afraid to see this because of the massive disappointment it could become. 

Well, it's almost 2 o'clock for me, so I'm hittin' the sack. 

Leave some comments and we'll banter about film choices.