With last weekend being the lowest grossing at the box office in 16 years, I think it’s safe to say the Summer movie season has officially drawn to a close. I must say I think it was one of the strongest lineups in years. Granted, I also didn’t see The Mummy, Pirates 5, The Dark Tower, All Eyez on Me, Baywatch or King Arthur but like, those looked trash from the jump. I did see Transformers 5 though… Anyway! Let’s start with the best .
The Best
Wonder Woman
What can I say about Wonder Woman that hasn’t already said? It’s best DC film since The Dark Knight. Quite honestly, it might be my favorite DC film ever. Only because when people typically think of DC and good DC films, the general consensus is that it has to be dark and dreary and that’s not the DC universe I’ve grown to know and love. Wonder Woman spotlights the optimism, exuberance and pure heroism I’ve always known to be essential to the DC universe. While Marvel has the heroes you can relate to, DC’s are aspirational figures, heroes you can look up to. Until now, the DCEU didn’t have any true heroes, just powerful men who were either angry or stoic about it. In my eyes Wonder Woman is now the linchpin of the DCEU and the model I hope they follow going forward. Not to mention, it’s just a goddamn joy to watch plain and simple. With iconic moments (that trench scene though), lovable characters and a killer theme song, Wonder Woman easily cements itself in the pantheon of great superhero films.
Baby Driver
Baby. Goddamn. Driver. Or as I like to call it, Edgar Wright stuntin’ on us for two hours. I mean, it’s basically the Pootie Tang of movies. It’s so cool it’s incomprehensible. Every shootout is a marvel, every car chase is a thrill, every joke gets a laugh. Like what the actual hell. The bar shouldn’t be allowed to be set this high. Especially since the only thing that’s probably gonna clear it is the next Edgar Wright film. If you haven’t seen Baby Driver then stop reading this, go watch it and you can thank me after.
Dunkirk
I was initially not excited for Dunkirk. The trailers just didn’t do it for me and I went in expecting that it was going to be Nolan’s first dud. Then the movie ended and I came out like.
Dunkirk was a thrill ride from start to finish. Much has been made about how you never get a grasp for any of the characters and I’m unsure how I feel about the arguement. I cared about the survival of these men on the beacg. I cared about Mark Rylance’s Mr. Dawson’s safe passage with his son. Through sheer virtuoso film-making and unique narrative structure, Nolan took what could’ve been just another WWII film and made it into one of the finest modern examples of Pure Cinema. Emotion is evoked through the sheer, fundamental power of the medium. I genuinely don’t know how much longer the Academy can keep sleeping on Nolan.
Girls Trip
Girls Trip wasn’t just the Blackest movie of the summer, but one of the funniest. As the only R-rated comedy to cross the $100 million mark this Summer, I’m inclined to think many of ya’ll would agree. The camaraderie displayed between the four leads is infectious, it’s New Orleans setting is vibrant, the movie feels like a party that the whole audience is invited to. Hell, the theater I saw it in had people nodding and singing along with the Essence Fest performances. In a year that has been particularly trying for people that aren’t straight and white, it’s simply a joy to see a group of Black women have a great time and celebrate their friendship. It’s a simple comedy but these days laughter is essential and Girls Trip delivers it in spades.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
One of the biggest flops of the summer wound up being one of my favorites. It’s a whimsical, frantic joy to behold. Yes, the movie stops dead when Rhianna comes into the fold but even her sub-plot winds up being a fun side-quest. The world Luc Besson crafts is vibrant and simply stunning. The action sequences are inventive and are some of the most impressive I’ve seen in any of the mega-budget blockbusters this year. Chances are you didn’t see this film and you should change that real quick. Whether you Redbox it, catch it at the dollar theater or wait for HBO Go, it it’s a fun, unique vision that is definitely worth your time.
Honorable Mentions
Cars 3: As someone who wasn’t a fan of either of the previous entries in the series I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable this film was. The film had a surprising amount of heart, warmth and genuine humor. I was actually invested in the stories of Lighting McQueen and Cruz Ramirez. Is it a top tier Pixar film? No. But it’s certainly worthwhile of the Pixar name.
War for the Planet of the Apes: An intelligent, emotional and supremely satisfying conclusion to the Planet of the Apes trilogy. If you told me in 2010 that one the strongest trilogies of the next decade would stem from a Planet of the Apes reboot that no one asked for, I would’ve told you “Shut up, The Dark Knight Rises hasn’t even came out yet, dumbass.” Yet a strong script, powerful acting and incredible effects work makes War of the Planet of the Apes one of the best films of the summer and maybe even the year.
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Yo, like. How the hell is the second Spider-Man reboot gonna be the best Spider-Man movie, though? It’s like, I found Spider-Man 1, 2 and The Amazing Spider-Man to be relatively satisfying spins on the character and then Tom Holland’s ass comes up here basically being the perfect Peter Parker making all of that invalid. The movie gets extra points for making me cry from laughter over a line about detention.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2: I mean it’s the character driven Marvel sequel I’ve been begging for for like five years now. It’s a humorous, emotional, self-contained journey with a refreshing focus on the inner lives of it’s characters in lieu of just the standard grade CGI bombast that is already a given for the genre.
Biggest Dissapointment
Alien: Covenant
Sigh. I actually let myself get excited for this one. After removing the Alien connection from my mind I found Prometheus to be a heavily flawed yet fascinating piece of film. It broached some heady themes, in an admittedly ham-fisted manner, but I appreciated the ambition. The early word on Alien: Covenant was that it was throwback to the Alien we know and love. That it was a horror-centric thrill ride. That was only partially true. Alien: Covenant feels like two movies smushed into one. One is a meditative sci-fi film about the nature of creation and humanity’s relationship to it. The other is a gory, hyper-violent monster movie set in space. To say the movie doesn’t thread that needle is an understatement. Watching it I got the feeling that Ridley Scott wanted to make a heady sci-fi film but shoehorned Alien elements into it so he could get the budget he wanted. My biggest beef with the film is that it answers questions that no one was asking. Part of the fun of Alien is that the audience doesn’t know what the hell the Xenomorph is or where it came from. Covenant gives it an origin and it is so, so disappointing. This was the Alien franchise having it’s Terminator: Salvation moment. Here’s hoping they cut their losses before they go full Terminator: Genisys.
The Absolute Worst
Transformers: The Last Knight
So I’ve been a long time Transformers apologist. I’m of the mind that Transformers and Transformers: Dark of the Moon are some of the coolest effects driven extravaganza’s of the modern era. This though, this is indefensible. This is just laziness. This what it looks like when a franchise has run out of ideas. The movie actually starts promising with a bat-shit crazy sequence involving a robot dragon and King Arthur. But then the rest of the movie happens. The plot is nonsensical, which would be fine if it had any humor, heart, charm or excitement. There are no real set pieces in this film, just robots posing and shooting, people running and screaming and Anthony Hopkins somehow managing to be great in an utter shit show. The man’s got talent, I’ll say that much. I really hope the franchise course corrects or goes on ice and that Michael Bay legitimately steps away this time. Say what you will about prior entries qualities as films or storytelling endeavors but in exercises in being cool as all shit, they worked. I can point out moments in the prior films that managed to be memorable in spite of whatever flaws the overall movies themselves held. This though. There’s nothing here. This is just a waste of $200 million.
So there ya have it! The highs and lows of summer 2017. With It, Blade Runner 2048, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Thor: Ragnarok and of course, Star Wars: The Last Jedi we still have plenty more to look forward through the end of the year.
WNDRWRLD 