Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Get out your BBQ tools, fire up the grill, and crack open your seventh beer of the afternoon. It’s a holiday after all. Oh and then later in the week head to the theater for what might be one of the best movies of the summer.
And just remember, I'm not reviewing these movies, but rather predicting where they'll end up on the Tomatometer. Let’s take a look at what This Rotten Week has to offer.
X-Men: First Class
Leave it to the big movie studios to get their grimy hands in on the educational debate. First we have those commie, liberal, tree-hugging Waiting for Superman folks making the outlandish claim that all kids have the right to a decent and fair education. (Rolls eyes). And now we get a little history lesson regarding the mutant debate and how all of those little freaks needed to band together, start a quasi-charter school for the “gifted” and use those special powers to stop (or ally with) the evil forces of the world. God, I’m so sick of talking about our nation’s educational problems. Aren’t you?
But at least it’s an origin story, and not some franchise reboot. And though some origin stories, in the wrong hands, can turn into a tired mess of cameos, devolving story arcs and characters that look like this, the newest addition to the X-Men franchise looks like a true winner. The story of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr at the forefront of the mutant civil rights debate, having a hand in the Cuban missile crisis, and just generally doing all the cool crap that mutants do is one most comic book fanboys (and gals) will rush to see, if done correctly.
By most early accounts Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass - 76%, Stardust-76%) might just make us forget the snoozer that was X-Men: The Last Stand (57%) by creating a fantastic film that could end up on top of a summer already full of comic book adaptations. In fact, it might end up the critical darling, all genres aside. With eighteen reviews in, each more complimentary than the other, the Tomatometer is sitting at a cool 100%. And while I don’t think it stays there, there’d have to be a major movement of negativity to have it drop out of the 90’s.
For someone who loves comic book adaptations (even the bad ones like the mess that was Ghostrider), this is the best news of the summer. An X-Men story thinly disguised as an awesome flick. Maybe our schools aren’t going to s#$% afterall. Thanks Professor X. The Rotten Watch for X-Men: First Class is 93%.
This poll is no longer available.
Recapping last week:
I complained about the movie industry’s (and our society as whole) reliance on the affront to creative sensibility that is the sequel. And for half of my argument, I was right with The Hangover Part II (Predicted: 55% Actual: 34%) falling even further below expectation than I foresaw. While the prediction was wrong, the sentiments weren’t as even the cast wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that it just wasn’t nearly the greatness that was its predecessor. But it made crazy bank so we’ll probably see the dreaded third installment in which the trio black out again somewhere because of something else and perceived hilarity ensues.
Kung Fu Panda 2 (Predicted: 62% Actual: 80%) was another animated film that outperformed my prediction. I need to reevaluate my thinking on these flicks. Or the animation could just go away, which would be fine with me.
Next week JJ Abrams derails a train and Judy Moody gets her summer on. It’s going to be a Rotten Week.
