Pundit Poll: Experts Name This Summer's Most Anticipated Films
"I am most looking forward to J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg's Super 8. It looks like the real deal. It's an original." -- Anne Thompson, Thompson on Hollywood at indieWIRE
"While I could name about 10 movies I'm very excited for this summer, the one above all else that I'm most excited for is J.J. Abrams' Super 8. Not only does it play exactly to the genres and stories that I personally love (sci-fi, coming-of-age period-set small town drama with big action, etc.) but it looks like it might be better than any other movie this summer. It looks to be so much more than just a summer action blockbuster. Super 8 reminds me of the kind of classic, sci-fi/adventure movies from the 70s/80s/90s that we don't see anymore and I have a feeling Abrams tried to go back and capture that feeling all over again and contemporize it and put his twist on it."
"From the casting of the kids to the story and setting to the bits of action we've seen so far, I just feel like Super 8 could truly be a modern sci-fi classic that pays homage to all those films that I grew up with. It just so happens to be getting released in June, right smack in the middle of the summer, but maybe that's good, because if this turns out to be amazing, it deserves to be a box office hit, too. Oh and I'm also crazy excited to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. It's going to be a hell of an unforgettable finale." -- Alex Billington, FirstShowing.net
"Of all this summer's big films, the one I'm most excited about is probably J.J. Abrams' Super 8. Intellectually, I like the idea of at least one summer film without a roman numeral, a previous version or 50 years of comic-book history trailing in its wake, and emotionally Abrams' Spielbergian pastiche of big events and big emotions looks perfectly aimed at a very specific time in my own life -- evoking that time when I was not merely young, but, also, when I was first starting to love film. Of all this summer's films, Super 8 is the one I both most want to see and least want to know about before I go (I walked out of the theater when Paramount tried to show 23 minutes of it at Cinema Con) -- because, frankly, in our clip-and-preview, spoiler-and-scoop-heavy age, just once I'd like to go to the movies feeling the same kind of expectant, hopeful wonder I did when I was a kid." -- James Rocchi, Critic and Journalist, MSN Movies/Toronto Star
"I'm not one of those critics who goes on lockdown regarding the marketing for anticipated films -- I don't run from trailers, or hide my eyes from official photographs, I don't mind being hideously spoiled for an upcoming film. But when it comes to Super 8, I don't want to know a thing, I want to go in fresh, if only because I am already convinced that I am going to love this film. It's the exact type of "blockbuster" the local multiplex needs -- something that is new but grounded in the classics, something that doesn't involve suspending your disbelief at the possibility of superheroes, something that everyone can enjoy. At least, from the limited marketing I've allowed myself to take in, that's what it looks like to me, and that's what I am hoping it is."
"And, if I am allowed to throw in a guilty pleasure pick, I stand by my desire to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon. My strong, strong desire." -- Kate Erbland, Managing Editor, GordonandtheWhale
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So there you have it! J.J. Abrams' Super 8, a film in part about filmmaking itself (and aliens and kids and the kind of small town retro wonder we rarely get at the movies anymore) tops our pundits' must-see lists. What's on yours as the summer season gets underway?
Check out all of Movieline's Summer Preview coverage here.
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Comments
I don't get the JJ Abrams love. Mission Impossible 3 and Star Trek were both seriously flawed, the guy has no discernible style of his own, completely interchangeable with a dozen other directors. He can't do his own thing, first he takes on Mission Impossible, then Star Trek and now Amblin... to compare him with Spielberg and Cameron is ridiculous. I guess critics are an easy lay these days. I'm with sci-fi author China Miéville:
"I've never met [JJ Abrams]. I am not a member of his fan club or anti-fan club. I disliked Cloverfield a very great deal. I disliked Star Trek intensely. I thought it was terrible. And I think part of my problem is that I feel like the relationship between JJ Abrams' projects and geek culture is one of relatively unloving repackaging - sort of cynical. I taste contempt in the air. Now I'm not a child - I know that all big scifi projects are suffused with the contempt of big money for its own target audience. But there's something about [JJ's projects] that makes me particularly uncomfortable. As compared to somebody like Joss Whedon, who - even when there are misfires - I feel likes me and loves me and is on some cultural level my brother and comrade. And I don't feel that way about JJ Abrams."
I was a big fan of the Star Trek movie, but that doesn't say much. I was never a fan of the franchise, so I went in with no "fan boy" expectations.
On the other hand, I thought J.J. Abrams did a horrible job with the Alias series. He started out with a great idea and a wonderful cast, then halfway through the second season completely destroyed the series. More annoyingly, he made up a random mythology that changed virtually every episode and never made any sense.
As for Lost, unless I'm seriously mistaken (very possible!), he helped set up the initial plots, but for the most part was there in name only.
I think J.J. Abrams is talented, but I think he is horrible when it comes to creating a realistic mythology. Which is why I'm actually very interested in his new movie. He's doing an original story with no complicated mythology or ties to any other franchises. I think he's strongest when he can tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.
You and this China dude must be great at parties.
I'm with Joe Leydon on this one. Everything I've read about Cowboys and Aliens has me extremely curious...just curious enough to buy a ticket!
Fired Up!? Good?