Top Summer 2011 Movies

[Mr Light]

Well with the release of "Planet of the Apes" I think we can safely say the summer movie season is officially over, though I usually think of it more as May-June-July. What were your favorites?

10. Green Lantern: my favorite comic, but a very, very disappointing movie. horrible CGI, way more boring than it should have been. lame villain, poor choice for Hal Jordan... at least Sinestro was cool

9. Cowboys and Aliens: it wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either. too much of a Western, not enough of a sci-fi. I expected a bigger story, not one tiny little tower and some flyers and aliens who never use the guns they have.

8. Super 8: well done. no complaints. needed more lens flares, though.

7. Captain America

6. Pirates 4: not bad, but disappointing. it was alright. it felt much smaller budget-wise, though.

5. Kung Fu Panda 2: a worthy sequel, lots of fun, good story, gorgeous to look at, liked seeing more of the Furious Five.

4. X-Men First Class: a very well done prequel. good use of powers in it as well.

3. Thor: very entertaining!

2. Harry Potter 8: incredibly well done and moving, would definitely rank first if I didn't know every single second of the story beforehand!

1. Transformers 3: definitely better than the sequel, the final hour was just a non-stop amazing all out war. extremely dumb fun!

 

[Agenda]

Of those that I saw:

5. Thor
4. Captain America
3. X-Men: First Class
2. Harry Potter
1. Planet of the Apes

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
3. Super 8
2. X-Men: First Class
1. Captain America: The First Avenger

 

[Starbreaker]

5.Transformers: Dark of the Moon [C]
4. X-Men: First Class
3.Thor [B+]
2. Super 8 [A]
1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II [A]

No interest in seeing the rest until they come to the cheap theater.

 

[RAMA]

Well with the release of "Planet of the Apes" I think we can safely say the summer movie season is officially over, though I usually think of it more as May-June-July. What were your favorites?

10. Green Lantern: my favorite comic, but a very, very disappointing movie. horrible CGI, way more boring than it should have been. lame villain, poor choice for Hal Jordan... at least Sinestro was cool

9. Cowboys and Aliens: it wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either. too much of a Western, not enough of a sci-fi. I expected a bigger story, not one tiny little tower and some flyers and aliens who never use the guns they have.

8. Super 8: well done. no complaints. needed more lens flares, though.

7. Captain America

6. Pirates 4: not bad, but disappointing. it was alright. it felt much smaller budget-wise, though.

5. Kung Fu Panda 2: a worthy sequel, lots of fun, good story, gorgeous to look at, liked seeing more of the Furious Five.

4. X-Men First Class: a very well done prequel. good use of powers in it as well.

3. Thor: very entertaining!

2. Harry Potter 8: incredibly well done and moving, would definitely rank first if I didn't know every single second of the story beforehand!

1. Transformers 3: definitely better than the sequel, the final hour was just a non-stop amazing all out war. extremely dumb fun!

Ugh Transfomers 3 was a disaster! Green Lantern was way better than that.

Of the ones I saw:

1. X-Men
2. Captain America
3. Green Lantern
4. Super 8

Don't really feel a need to rank the others.

RAMA

 

[Procutus]

We've only seen four summer films, but here in reverse order is how I ranked 'em:


4. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

3. X-Men: First Class

2. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes



Let us not forget that Conan is yet to be released, and certainly can be considered to be part of the summer movie season.

 

[CaptainCanada]

8. Cowboys and Aliens
7. Super 8
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
5. Thor
4. Crazy Stupid Love
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2. X-Men: First Class
1. Captain America: The First Avenger

 

[Kegg]

Kind of a weak summer, although not one over for me. Super-8 has only recently been released over here, and I may or may not go to see the new Apes film (and/or the Conan flick). Even if I pass on Conan it's been a good excuse to actually read the Robert E. Howard stories, which have been pretty fun summer fare.

Best 'summer' movie would be The Guard, by a comfortable margin. Brendan Gleeson is darkly hilarious as a darkly cynical Galwegian garda, and his chemistry with Don Cheadle is very good. No more fun time at the cinema than this one.

Probably the best film would be Terence Malick's beautifully elegaic The Tree of Life, which actually provided the best spectacle I've seen in a summer film for years and years.

Really enjoyed the foreign language dramas A Separation and Poetry more then I thought I would (at first glance they seemed like they'd be Kirostami/Hou type dramas focusing placidly on everyday events, but both actually had quite a bit of engaging story and humour), and the rerelease of Gilda was buckets of noirish fun.

 

[od0_ital]

From what I've seen so far this summer...

1. Captain America: The First Avenger
2. X-Men: First Class
3. Thor
4. Super 8
5. Priest
6. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
7. Green Lantern

I guess I should get out more...haven't seen Transformers 3, Cowboys & Aliens or Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is at the local discount theater, too...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

1. Captain America
2. Cave of Forgotten Dreams

That's it. I wait for practically everything on DVD. Who wants to chat about Rango?

 

[Captain Craig]

Let us not forget that Conan is yet to be released, and certainly can be considered to be part of the summer movie season.

True.
Hollywood's "summer" starts a few weeks before school is out, first weekend of May and goes till a few weeks when it starts back at Labor Day.

I'm still going to check out Cowboys & Aliens along with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Conan.

For now my order would be:

1. Thor
2. Captain America
3. Super 8
4. X-Men: First Class
5. Transformers 3
6. Pirates 4
7. Green Lantern

I wait for ALL comedies on DVD. I'm not paying full price, matinee even, for a comedy. Despite the repetitiveness I hear Hangover 2 is good. The other good WOM comedies I'm looking forward to are Bridesmaids, Crazy Stupid Love and Horrible Bosses.

 

[davejames]

Haven't seen Apes yet, but so far:

1. Green Lantern - it may not be the "ideal" GL movie, but I still enjoyed the heck out of it. So sue me.

2. Cowboys and Aliens - not very original, but still a well-executed action movie

3. Captain America - good story and loved Evans as Cap, but found the action to be strangely flat and dull.

4. Thor - loved Hemsworth's Thor, and the Earth scenes were fun, but the Asgard stuff bored me to tears.

5. Super 8 - not nearly as interesting or mysterious as I wanted it to be.

6. X-Men - lots of great style, but the humans vs mutants theme just feels completely tired and played out by now.

7. Transformers 3 - loved the first movie, but found this almost as awful as the second one.

 

[Shazam!]

Let us not forget that Conan is yet to be released

I'm trying to forget it's even been made.

 

[Goliath]

Best 'summer' movie would be The Guard, by a comfortable margin. Brendan Gleeson is darkly hilarious as a darkly cynical Galwegian garda, and his chemistry with Don Cheadle is very good. No more fun time at the cinema than this one.

I would really like to see this. The trailer was hilarious, and I'm a fan of Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor novels, which are also set in contemporary Galway. (The first book in the series is even called The Guards.)

But I don't see any release dates in Canada. Maybe it'll be shown at the annual world & Canadian film festival in September.

Probably the best film would be Terence Malick's beautifully elegaic The Tree of Life, which actually provided the best spectacle I've seen in a summer film for years and years.

Now that will be showing here, in August. Looking forward to it.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Out of the ones that I've seen so far here's my ranking:

1. X-Men: First Class
2. Captain America: The First Avenger
3. Super 8
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
5. Thor
6. Green Lantern
7. Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

I've heard very mixed reviews regarding "Tree of Life". Some from critiques and people who think it is one of the most atrocious films they've seen, while others have praised the movie. I'm on the fence if I want to see it or not.

 

[PK95]

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two
2. X-Men First Class
3. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
4. Captain America: The First Avenger
5. Thor
6. Kung Fu Panda 2
7. Transformers Dark of the Moon
8. Cars 2
The above movies are the ones that I really liked this summer and did not have much negative to say about any of them. I really was impressed that both X-Men and Transformers were as good as they were considering the last installments were so bad.

9. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
10. Larry Crowne
These two movies were all right and I enjoyed them but did not love them. Pirates just did not feel special and Larry Crowne had good performances but since I work in the workforce development I felt it was a little too cute for the situation. I did like that the main character realized he had to downsize but I have seen too many people lose it recently for the movie to feel authentic.

11. Cowboys and Aliens
12. Green Lantern
These two are the only movies that I have been been disappointed in. I liked parts of Cowboys and Aliens (especially Daniel Craig) but felt that the parts did not add up to a good movie. And, Green Lantern was just an overall disappointment in my opinion. And, it pained me and I hope that I director's cut is available on blu-ray that might somewhat save this movie.


The only movie that I missed that I really wanted to see was Super 8 but never found the time to see it. There were a few more that I kind of wanted to see but did not watch them either. I am taking my wife to see Crazy Stupid Love this weekend and will be seeing Fright Night the week after that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Green Lantern is my favorite so far with Captain America a close second.

 

[Harvey]

I think The Tree of Life is the best film I've seen this summer, although I enjoyed Bridesmaids and Captain America: The First Adventure. I haven't seen the new Apes movie yet.

 

[Kegg]

But I don't see any release dates in Canada. Maybe it'll be shown at the annual world & Canadian film festival in September.

Unsurprisingly, the film was on general release here. I actually saw it while vactationing in the southwest, in a local theatre that never shows more than five or six films. (The Guard's company: The new Harry Potter, Transformers 3, Hangover II, Horrible Bosses.)

It's directed by Martin McDonagh's brother, and they have a pretty similar sensibility really. Any fan of In Bruges looking for another film sort of like In Bruges, here you are.

 

[Christopher]

I would find it difficult to rank the films I've seen numerically, and I haven't seen Cowboys or Apes yet (I'm looking forward to seeing the latter, but I'll probably wait for home video to see Cowboys). But the films I've seen this summer have mostly been excellent. Those films include all four superhero adaptations, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Harry Potter. And none of them have disappointed me. All three Marvel films were excellent, with Thor being a particular favorite for me, and Panda was superb. Potter was pretty good, though it didn't quite live up to years of expectations. I even liked Green Lantern well enough. It was certainly an imperfect film, trying to cram in too many ideas and elements and lacking focus, and it had problems with pacing, but it was nowhere near the worst that superhero cinema has to offer. It had elements that worked well, and I thought Ryan Reynolds was very effective in the lead. I think it was only received so poorly because the competing superhero films were so terrific. If it had come out, say, six years ago, in the wake of Daredevil, Catwoman, Elektra, and X-Men: The Last Stand, it would've probably been perceived as a much better movie.

However, I've been increasingly dissatisfied with movie theaters. The main one I go to has twice failed to remove a lens used in 3D projection before showing a 2D print of a film, rendering it too dim to see clearly or comfortably. And when I tried going to a different theater to see Captain America, I made the poor choice of a run-down discount theater that used to be only second-run, and was so poorly operated that they didn't even get the signs pointing to the theater right. I had to complain to get them to put the right lens on the camera (the trailers were in the wrong aspect ratio), and the sound was painfully loud on the trailers but too quiet on the movie. Hell, even the parking lot was full of potholes. I'm certainly never going back there. On the other hand, the theater in which I saw Green Lantern was so small that it looked like a converted college classroom or something, and yet the picture and sound quality were the best of any theater I've been to in some time. Too bad it's kind of out of my way.