Want to catch up a little on our movie-going outings on the site as it seems there will actually be quite a bit to see this summer, and that’s very exciting. We’ve thus far made it to Godzilla (thumbs up!) and the two movies below. I think the buzz is good on Edge of Tomorrow although the marketing is getting a touch overbearing, but likely we’ll catch it this weekend. One of the movies I’m leaning towards missing is Maleficent – that’s one I think I will just watch someday at home. Anyway – up first is what is probably the best movie we’ve seen so far this summer!
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014). Saw it on May 24, 2014 at the Vista Theater.
The concept for this movie was really ambitious and had all the potential to be terribly executed….yet the moviemakers totally stuck the landing and created a fantastic comic-book movie, based on what is by all accounts (though not mine as I am not a comic-book guy) one of the better comic-book storylines around, Days of Future Past. The story managed to not only tie together the two X-Men casts (both from the original X-Men movie series from the 2000s and then from the 1960s-set reboot) but do it in a way that actually worked and made sense, within the world. It was great to see the old cast again though, especially with material that was well-written and -directed, unlike the disappointing X-Men 3.
The story took things in exciting directions too; the existing timeline ended with the X-Men getting hunted to extinction by the Sentinels, developed by Tyrion Lannister, and the world entered a police-like oppressive state. Wolverine was sent back to stop the catalyst from happening, and of course, he does, but it only causes more and more problems which have to be solved. But the interesting thing is that through preventing the earlier future, a whole new present was generated, and some old and previously thought-gone X-Men were back, while some other developments remain in limbo. Did Wolverine still get his adamantium? What has happened to the “villainous” X-Men in the meantime? What did Mystique do? And then of course, what the hell was that Pyramid-building super-person doing and who was it? A lot to look forward to and with this effectively rebooting everything, a chance to tell new stories. Very very good!
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014). Saw it on June 1, 2014 at the Pacific Theaters at Americana on Brand.
You may have seen the reviews and the relatively poor box-office for this movie in its opening weekend, especially as it was competing against Maleficent and the previous week’s X-Men. Having read reviews for both this and Maleficent, which were both pretty mixed to negative, it came down to which one we’d more likely enjoy. Since we both laugh at Family Guy and it was Larry’s birthday weekend, we went to see Seth MacFarlane’s movie. You know what? We both laughed a lot at it. Is Seth MacFarlane a good actor? Not really, and it did seem he was playing himself but in a Western, but that kind of seemed the point. It clearly wasn’t meant to be a “real” Western so that didn’t bother me. Actually, nothing really bothered me about this movie. Was it particularly original? Nah. Was it as good as Ted? No. Did we laugh though? Yep. So I don’t regret choosing this over Maleficent. There are funny moments throughout, funny performances from the supporting cast as well as surprising cameos, and Charlize Theron making fun of Amanda Seyfried’s big eyes. To her face. I’d probably recommend it as a rental or cable watch though – there’s no real reason to see it in the theater.
My Summer Movie Rankings, Thus Far! (as of June 3, 2014)
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Godzilla
- A Million Ways to Die in the West