First of all, welcome to the 100th post! Secondly, if you haven't left your house recently, you've been missing out on some killer flicks. I'm glad that with today's movie making technology we can get some good comic book movies finally. Iron Man, Hellboy 2 and the Dark Knight were all great!
Iron Man kicked the summer movie season off the right way. I was a little skeptical since I honestly don't think I even own any Iron Man comics. I kinda figured it'd just be a good action movie w/ big explosions and special effects. And it did have all those elements, but it was an extremely well done movie behind all that. Some friends of mine described it as the best comic book movie, and it certainly ranks up there. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect to play the cocky drunk Tony Stark (go figure). Marvel now has their own production studio, so I have big hopes that they'll make some more quality movies based off their characters. Amazing post-credits scene.
I was surprised to see Hellboy 1, but the fact that they made a Hellboy 2 is amazing. Such a great comic book, and with the success of Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro pretty much is able to do whatever he wants. Thank god, because Hellboy 2 was possibly better than the first one. While the movie didn't follow any comic book, it had the same fairy tale/ legends style story line. The movie was also much more funny, with some Men in Black style moments. Die hards will love it.
Dark Knight had some big shoes to fill being Heath Ledger's last movie, but holy crap did it deliver. Heath Ledger was perfect as the Joker, he played him so dark and maniacal. The Joker is Batman's primary villain, so it was nice to see him in the second movie so they didn't have to waste time on an origin story. I always hated the original Batman series, even as a kid I thought it was lame and cheesy. These more recent Batmans however have taken cues from classic Batman stories such as Year One and the Long Halloween. I really like what they did with Two Face also; his makeup wasn't stupid like the Tommy Lee Jones Two Face either. Overall another solid movie, which might bas as bold as say it was better than the first one.
As far as non-comic related movies I saw this summer... Wall-E, the new Pixar movie was cool. There was a kinda lame love story and a thinly veiled political agenda. It was kinda like watching an animated Michael Moore movie at times. Overall though it was pretty good. Had the typical Pixar cuteness and ridiculously good animation and art.
I also caught Step Brothers one day when my job let us out early and I had some time to kill before a show in Philly. The concept and everything is obviously stupid, but it was a damn funny way to kill time. If you like Will Ferrel and John C Reilley movies, this is one of the better ones I thought. Real low brow humor, but sooo good.
On a side note, they showed a trailer for the new Watchmen movie before Batman. I didn't want to like it, but it honestly looks fucking great. A trailer for the new Wolverine movie also leaked to the internet recently also, and that looks great too!
