Ryan's Summer Movie Round-Up

I realize that it is now October, so my annual summer movie roundup is a little late this year. But better late than never, because I know you're all dying to see what movies I picked. Overall, I felt like this wasn't the strongest summer movie season. So many of the big movies were sequels or other less-original fare, so I have limited my list to three films instead of the usual top five. But first, how about some honorable mentions:

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen - This movie was fun, but made absolutely no sense. Like many of the films this year, plot holes were rampant. Why did the evil robots bother dragging Sam's parents out into the middle of the desert? And how come there is a robot heaven?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - I think it's safe to say whenever there's a colon in the title, that the film probably won't be that original. Although Wolverine did blow up like eight helicopters over the course of the movie, so it had that going for it.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - This one had a colon in the title, and it doesn't even have a sequel yet. It's like this movie was planning to be ridiculous from the get-go. Sarah and I agree, however, that the dialogue was top-notch. Upon discovering that the team would be heading to Paris, one character cleverly remarked, "I like croissants." Oscar-worthy.

Monsters v. Aliens - This was pretty clever, entertaining entry by Dreamworks, but they still don't seem to be at the same caliber as Pixar. Still, I'm sure this is better than the fourth Shrek movie that will be coming out next year.

And now on to the big three that made the cut!

3. Star Trek - Let me first say, that I hate Star Trek in general. When it comes to being a male teenage nerd, you can only like Star Wars or Star Trek. Liking both is completely unacceptable! I chose Star Wars as an adolescent in hopes that girls might still talk to me. Regardless, I was amazed at how good this Star Trek movie was. It completely revitalized the series and opened it up to a whole new audience. Although an excellent film, it was still not devoid of the plot holes that seemed to plague the summer movie season. Why was Spock living in some ice cave when he knew there was a weather station a few miles away?

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Although technically a sequel as well, I think this is by far the best Harry Potter movie to date. It was exciting, scary, humorous, and spent a lot of time developing the characters and setting up for the big two-part finale. Great movie!




1. Up - Pixar is awesome. We have all known this for years, and yet they continue to amaze us. I was impressed that they could make me almost cry with a robot love story last year, but they took it up a notch with the story of a cranky old man who lost the love of his life. Sarah cried for a good half hour of the film, and most of the way home, so I guess that's a winning endorsement. This movie had everything I could hope for in summer fare. And most of all, it finally answered the question of what a dog would say if it could talk.