The 2014 Summer Movie Roundup!

I recognize that this is a bit late in the year to be doing my annual review of the summer move season, but as I said previously, summer seems to last in Juarez until at least Halloween, so this still counts.

This last summer, I shared the same concerns that perhaps many of you had.  Now that Ryan has a baby, will he still have enough time to go see summer movies?  What will become of the summer movie roundup tradition?  Thankfully, I was able to persevere, push past adversity, find a babysitter, and make it to the movies.  So, let's get started.

5. Godzilla

I wasn't expecting much when I heard that Godzilla was being rebooted.  I've never really been a big Godzilla fan, and pretty much everything about the the 1998 version was terrible (and yes, I'm including the Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page collaboration for the theme song).  So I was pleasantly surprised at how good this movie turned out to be.  I found it a bit odd that they spent the first hour of the film trying to solve the mystery of what was causing all these nuclear disasters (spoiler alert: it was Godzilla), but overall, very fun to watch.

4. Edge of Tomorrow

As you know, I always try to applaud originality during summer movies.  Granted, the movie is based on a graphic novel, but at least it's not a reboot/sequel/prequel/spinoff of some other film.  I know there are a lot of Tom Cruise haters out there, and the dude may be weird, but I appreciate that he's not afraid to do original, high-concept sci-fi movies.  It was a great concept with plenty of explosions, which lands it firmly at #4 on this year's list.

3. X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men: First Class was a fantastic movie that breathed a lot of life back into this franchise, so I thought this follow-up film would be a bit of a disappointment.  If anything, I think this film may even be the better of the two.  Time travel movies are always tricky, but this one seemed to manage without any major gaps in logic.  It also had one of the best uses of slow-motion that I have seen in a film in a long time.

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This may be the best movie that came out in the summer of 2014.  It was probably the best-acted, best-made film that I saw this summer.  I even saw it one and a half times in the theater because I enjoyed it so much (the power went out the first time we went to see the movie, so we had to go back two weeks later).  Despite its awesomeness, however, it still got beat out by the surprise blockbuster of the year.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy

If Captain America is the best film that came out this summer, why is Guardians of the Galaxy my #1 choice?  Because I always look for a certain goofy, absurd quality to summer movies.  Captain America may have been the best movie, but Guardians was the most fun.  Probably the hardest I have laughed in the theater this year, as well.

So that's it.  One more year in the books.  There should be some good movies coming out next year, but, of course, I will be living in London, so it will probably cost about $40 per person to see a movie.  Hopefully, Sarah will be willing to make the investment!  Until 2015!