Is Summer 2010 the weakest summer movie slate ever?

May:

Iron Man 2
Robin Hood
MacGruber
Shrek 4
Sex and the City 2
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

June:

The A-Team
The Karate Kid
Jonah Hex
Toy Story 3
Grown Ups
Knight & Day
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

July:

M. Night Schlabadan's The Last Airbender
Predators
Inception
Salt

August:

Step Up 3D!!!!!
The Expendables
Scott Pilgrim v. the World
Centurion


Early reviews on Iron Man 2 are positive but just about every critic has said that it's kinda uneven (sounds like a lot of the comedy doesnt work this time around) and not as good as the original, which is disappointing, as the trailers made it look like it had the potential to blow the first out the water. I'll see Robin Hood just because it's Ridley Scott directing, and Scott has had success with period films like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven (director's cut of course). The rest of May looks pretty weak IMO. Mike Newell is a solid director, but Prince of Persia looks like a CGI shitfest based on the trailers.

June looks even worse. I'm sure I'll see the A-Team just to get an action fix, but other than that I don't know if I'll see another release. I'm sure Toy Story 3 will get great reviews, I just don't have much interest in seeing it. Jonah Hex has barely even been promoted, so that is a bad sign there. Sandler teams up with all his boys for Grown Ups, but honestly when was the last good Sandler movie? Knight & Day looks like a terrible over the top Cruise/Diaz action-comedy in the vein of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. And Twilight will be total dogshit as expected.

July kicks off with M. Night's latest offering, the effects heavy The Last Airbender. Can M. Night make a more horrible movie than The Happening? That is yet to be determined. The trailer for Predators looks great, and it's one of my more anticipated movies as of right now. But still, I'm worried about Rodriguez going overboard like he has in his last few movies and fricking this thing up. And then we have Nolan's Inception, which should be a badass mindfrick of a film. Nolan is one of my favorite directors working today and as of now this is my most anticipated movie of the summer. It's got a great cast and Nolan has the pull after The Dark Knight to do basically whatever the frick he wants. It should be pretty awesome. Salt is the new Angelina Jolie spy movie which was rewritten at the last minute when Tom Cruise dropped out the lead role so that they could change the lead character from male to female. The trailer wasn't anything special and I doubt this movie will be any good.

August brings us the guaranteed masterpiece Step Up 3D. Also, we get Stallone's action extravaganza The Expendables, which should be a lot of fun. No one is expecting any award winning writing here, we just want to see shite blown up good. Hopefully the action is on par with the action and gore in the new Rambo. Scott Pilgrim v. the World is directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), and based on that alone I'll see it. The trailer, a lot like the trailers for Kick-arse, does a really bad job of selling this movie, but like Kick-arse it's just a tough concept to sell. It'll probably be a really good movie but bomb at the box office. Last is Neil Marshall's Centurion, which tells the story of the Roman Army's Ninth Legion which disappeared in Britain. Based on the trailers the film looks to be a more action oriented movie, but I think it has potential to be a late summer surprise.


Of all the films I can only really pick out a handful that I'm excited about, with Inception by far leading the pack. Quite frankly, I can't remember a recent summer that was this weak.