Speed Racer (near the top in quality at least)

Of the three big summer movies I've seen so far, I'd rank their quality as follows:

1. Iron Man
2. Speed Racer
3. Indy 4

And it's pretty much a tie between those top two. Yeah, that's right. I enjoyed Speed Racer aka "the blockbuster no one's seeing" as much as Iron Man. The anime adaptation is dazzling aside from some odd choices to rough the content up to PG level instead of G. The entire cast works well for me with a fun plot actually tackled with some depth for an all ages film. Racing will never be as entertaining in reality as what this movie offers either. Forget watching drivers turn left for hours, because nothing compares to Speed and Racer X using jump jacks and screaming through the gorgeous tracks full of loops, jumps and drops.

As for Indy, it's too soon for spoilers but Indiana Jones 4 sadly left a lot to be desired from a franchise of that level. The cast all did a fine job with a script that didn't give them nearly enough to do. Not enough fights (barely any use of Indy's weapons either), a close to infamous Tarzan sequence for Shia LaBeouf, Mummy style insect scenes and especially a lame sci-fi quest all bring the film down. There is some very good fun to be had here, but the missed opportunity overshadows it. An Indiana Jones film can be much more than what we got.

Loaded Summer

As a film fan, this summer has to be the most interesting in quite a while. Iron Man has already kicked things off with a solid start, and now I'm planning on checking out Speed Racer before Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Indy 4, short title fans) hits in a couple weeks. I absolutely love years with plenty of movies to see, and I'm looking at my personal count of films seen in '08 being well over a half dozen by summer's end.

Unless you're a film critic, most people only see a handful of films in theaters every year. I was no different with an average year providing around 5 or 6 movies to leave the house for until 2007 when that number went up to a dozen. There were also a couple that had to be tried on DVD because local theaters never got them. It was a blast to see that many films from various genres, although only half were ones I'd watch again or consider buying on DVD. The experience of averaging an intriguing new film or more a month to view was welcome and made me wonder both if that could happen again and if more of them could be higher quality.

This year started slowly with a pair of smaller films (Be Kind, Rewind and Leatherheads), but the list even only going through July is incredible with much more appealing blockbusters than recent summers. I took in Iron Man already and here's the rest of what I'll be checking out (or at least trying to in the case of smaller films):

Speed Racer
Son of Rambow (currently a victim of being crowded out by bigger films in my area)
Indy 4
The Incredible Hulk
Wall-E
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Dark Knight

After all that, there's still the so-called Oscar season which had quite a lot to enjoy last time out. May just top my personal record for trips to the theater again, and I love it.