How does one define the summer movie season? In our polarized culture, people tend to label things as either The Best or The Worst. If you’ve read any online movie criticism over the past four months, you’ll surely know that this summer has been labeled one of the worst ever.
As early as June, publications such as Entertainment Weekly wrote off this year’s summer season, declaring the sequel to be dead and 3D to be an outrageous ploy to jack up the price of movie tickets. While I don’t necessarily disagree with either of these conclusions, they seem too generalized to really get at the heart of things.
Likely due to the nature of journalism nowadays, very few movie critics are content to label anything as purely “mediocre” or “about as good as anything else.” But that’s exactly what this summer was.
It was not the abhorrent disappointment that so many claimed it to be but neither was it a summer of unparalleled achievement. It was mediocre.
It had some spectacular films (Inception), some disappointments (The Expendables), some surprises — both modest (Robin Hood) and genuine (The Karate Kid) — and some films that were just about as good (Toy Story 3) or bad (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) as we expected them to be. Summer movies rarely differ from our expectations of them.
Audiences that approached fare like Scott Pilgrim vs. The World this summer sought the film out intending to enjoy a film that catered to their sensibilities. Audiences that avoided Knight & Day purely because of their hatred for Tom Cruise only missed a film that could be appreciated by Cruise fans.
There’s an objective side to art but, ultimately, the ability to like or dislike a movie rests very much with viewers and their prejudices or failure to appreciate certain aspects of film restricting them from liking or disliking certain movies. Regardless, in the case of this summer, the rules of Hollywood were just about the same as they always were.
No film this summer satisfied like Inception did. Christopher Nolan’s dream heist movie dominated the summer movie season, critically and commercially. Inception was original, intelligent and had a terrific cast.
It respected the intelligence of the viewer and encouraged repeat viewing. It also entertained. It had energetic action sequences and marvelous set pieces. It moved quickly and contained a lot of sharp, witty humor (mostly due to Tom Hardy). Inception was the film of the summer.
Toy Story 3 was also excellent, offering up Pixar’s best outing since 2007’s Ratatouille. The emotional wallop of an ending more than made this a film worth seeing and the fact that it was a sequel to two much-loved classics only sweetened the deal.
The indie gem, The Kids Are All Right, remains the critical favourite of the summer and with good reason. This comedy/drama about the children of a lesbian couple who decide to seek out their sperm donor father contained excellent acting on all counts. It was able to make some pointed universal statements about relationships and family that didn’t just serve political purposes. As well, it was hilarious, which is always an added bonus.
Iron Man 2 was just about as good as its predecessor despite the views of many movie critics. Either these critics never properly assessed the first film or their attitudes towards Tony Stark changed over the past two years. They misunderstood what the film was trying to accomplish and didn’t see that it was really just a superhero comedy staring an alcoholic narcissist.
A similar inability to see a film for what it is plagued Robin Hood’s critical reception. Instead of the dour affair that many saw it as, Robin Hood was in fact an entertaining, technically amazing medieval adventure. It may not be the Robin Hood we’ve known over the years, but it proved that that’s not such a bad thing.
The Karate Kid also surprised. Instead of an unnecessary remake, it was a well acted, entertaining underdog story. Its plot progression may not have been original, but by its close, The Karate Kid earned your admiration and emotional investment.
There’s not much to be said for this summer’s failures. M. Night Shyamalan became Hollywood’s whipping boy with The Last Airbender, the most hated film of the year. I never saw it so I refuse to offer any substantial judgment of it.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, on the other hand, was seen. Eclipse was subject to all the same problems as its predecessors, even if its computer graphic werewolves looked a bit better.
The Jerry Bruckheimer films Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice were poorly made and incomprehensible, despite how stupidly enjoyable they were.
Dinner for Schmucks was that sad mix of painfully uncomfortable and uncomfortably funny.
And The Expendables was a disappointment. Sylvester Stallone couldn’t decide whether he wanted his film to be a mindless ’80s action-fest or a serious men-on-a-mission film, and the result is a tonal mess that’s both mindless and boring. It may be passably enjoyable, but only at the expense of any coherence.
These are not great films, but they’re not bad.
Splice succeeded at being original and atmospheric even if its ending was a mess.
Predators was also a modestly enjoyable sci-fi film that succeeded at what it tried to accomplish, even if that wasn’t anything substantial.
Tom Cruise fans (myself included) got a kick out of Knight & Day but it’s hardly the best film that Cruise has made, nor the best around-the-world adventure of recent years.
The Other Guys was a classic Will Ferrell comedy with a great supporting cast but like all Will Ferrell films, it wasn’t so much a good film as it was a funny one.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was kinetic and enjoyable, but certainly not the brilliant masterpiece that so many hipsters have labelled it. It succeeds despite its meaningless plot and repetitive nature because of Edgar Wright’s directorial prowess and a strong supporting cast, not because it is a revolution in filmmaking.
As you can see, there were just about as many good films as there were bad films as there were average films this summer. The summer season never produces the best films (mostly due to studios holding all their “great” films till the fall Oscar season). It produces enjoyable but often mindless, occasionally brilliant but always commercially minded films, that can surprise or disappoint.
What one needs to know when going into the summer movie season is that there isn’t a giant Hollywood conspiracy to make only good or bad movies that year. Yes, Hollywood is trying to scam you out of your money but it’s also concerned about entertaining you because, at the very least, it realizes that people don’t enjoy being scammed consciously.
When looking back on the summer movie season of 2010, don’t evaluate it as either the best or worst summer ever. Really try to see it for what it was, which is, honestly, just another summer movie season.