Summer Movies! Yeah!

I must admit, the summer movie season has been very good to us this year. Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Harry Potter 5 in a week . . . yes, sequels, but I enjoyed them, despite their flaws.

I saw a few other new movies lately, and thought I'd offer my snippet of a review(s).

Transformers
To be honest, there's nothing I can say about this that Shamus didn't say quite eloquently. The movie is a technical marvel, and quite a joy to just observe. That said, some of the camera work left you feeling like you just stepped out of the Tilt-a-Whirl, and some aspects of the story just didn't pass the fantasy filter, even in a movie about giant robots from outer-space.

Still, he's right: It's like everything was turned up to 11 and left that way until the credits rolled. And for those of us who like action movies, that is a good thing. Go see it.

Ratatouille
I've always been a huge fan of Pixar's work. The Incredibles was a movie that took me back to 5th grade, watching X-Men on Saturday mornings and ready to tape pencils to the back of my hands and pretend to be Wolverine. Great movie.

This movie really hits the mark. It's a comedy, and it is really satisfying, even for adults. There was hardly a moment I wasn't laughing in the theatre, so it did the job for me. And, as usual, the short film Pixar always has before the main feature is there, and this one's a hoot. I can't recommend this movie enough.

On a bit of a side note, I payed some attention to the graphics when I saw Shrek 3, and again when I saw Ratatouille. Dreamworks really improved their graphics, as far as I can tell, since Shrek 2. Everything just looked phenomenal. Pixar made great improvements for Ratatouille, but they didn't seem as pronounced as those Dreamworks made. Still, Pixar always did a good job, so it's not as big of a deal.

I still have to see Live Free or Die Hard, and I can't wait to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I'm not sure what else is in the summer movie line-up, but it's been so very good so far.