Originally Posted by
Duvall
Not to distract from the "top movies" discussion, but do any of these films look like they will be any good? Even Pixar's offering looks uninspired.
Look at writers and directors for that. Titles and basic premise mean next to nothing to me. Put a good director and a good writer together and you usually get a good film.
I have great faith in JJ Abrams, so I think Star Trek 2 should be strong. Zach Snyder and David Goyer have produced plenty of quality stuff in the past so I think Man of Steel could be good. Pixar has had a couple down films recently, but giving up on them seems insane given their long track record of success. Gore Verbinski and his entire Pirates crew have done well together in the past so Lone Ranger might be ok. I worry about After Earth with M. Night but there is some pretty good buzz around this project. I like most of what Mark Forster has done and think he could make something interesting out of World War Z. I am sorely tempted to write off Hangover III but, despite it being a total knock-off, II did make me laugh and I was brilliant. We haven't seen a really bad Marvel comic book movie in several years and I think RDjr. is just fabulous as Iron Man. Pacific Rim reminds me of the horrid Battleship but Giullermo del Toro has done cool things in the director's chair in the past.
I could go on... it is too early to tell if any of these will be good or bad. Odds are some will stink, some will be average, and a few will be really good. That is how it works most summers. But, deciding in advance that they will suck because they have a 2 or 3 or even 6 after the title seems just short-sighted to me. There are plenty of reboots and sequels that are truly excellent films that everyone enjoys watching.
Here is a very incomplete list--
Empire Strikes Back
The Dark Knight
X-Men II & X-Men: First Class
Two Towers & Return of the King
The Road Warrior
Silence of the Lambs (Manhunter came first!)
Toy Story 2 & 3
Aliens
Terminator II
Spiderman 2
Superman 2
Godfather: Part II
Back to the Future 2 & 3
Shrek 2
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (last summer)
The James Bond franchise (some of them)
The Bourne franchise (but not the latest one)
The Harry Potter franchise
Rocky II and II
Mission Impossilble III & Ghost Protocol
The even-numbered Star Trek films
Son of Bonnie and Clyde (just kidding)
-Jason "I think I have made my point " Evans