Only a few movies left for me to see-- The Mummy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, & Wall-E. But overall, not even The Dark Knight has quite superceded the dolldrums that have cast a pall over this summer. Perhaps the anticipation just kept me waiting too long and forced my expectations too high but I was expecting The Dark Knight to be an "A+++++++++++!!!!!!" rather than a simple "A/A-." The X-Files was also very "meh."
Maybe some of it is just that there's too many mediocre sequels this year. After all, it seems like the movie that surprised everyone into liking it was Iron Man. OTOH...
I still don't see how The Chronicles of Narnia could appeal to anyone except for children & those who like movies with banal Christian themes.
The Incredible Hulk demonstrated how soulful Ang Lee's version of Hulk was.
Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The X-Files: I Want to Believe were both mildly entertaining adventures but didn't really justify coming back to these franchises after such a long hiatus. To me the story of Indiana Jones still ends with him, his father, Marcus Brody, & Sallah riding off into the sunset at the end of The Last Crusade. The X-Files: I Want to Believe would have been much more impressive if it had been a TV episode.
Everyone loves The Dark Knight but I feel like, despite all of its merits, it failed to really build on the Bruce Wayne storyline that was the core element of Batman Begins. Instead, he spent too much of the movie being overshadowed by the Joker, Harvey Dent, & Lt. Gordon (much in the same way that everyone criticized the Burton/Schumacher movies for).
Sex & the City, while not a sequel, was a follow-up to the TV series. Unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down in the middle by a LOT of moping.
Still, I'd say that 2008 is shaping up to be better than 2007. Nothing made me want to start shouting "You suck!" at the screen this year like Spider-Man 3 did last year.
