Summer Movie Preview - August

Well we finally made it! August is just around the corner and Hollywood is ready to roll out all the leftovers that weren't good enough to duke it out with Iron Man or Batman or even Will Smith. I actually took a long time getting to this partly because I have a bunch of stuff from Hungary to share, but also because there is very little to talk about. In fact I only have one trailer to show.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars August 15

Just like pudding and jello there is always more room for Star Wars. Right? This is one of Lucas' planned Star Wars TV projects that he is promoting by first having it appear as a movie. I think it comes from the success of the little mini-episodes that were made in between Episodes 2 and 3. They were 2D animation made by Genndy Tartakovsky (who also made Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, 2 cartoons that I wish were around when I was younger to avoid the embarrassment of watching them a bit in my older age) and each episode lasted about 3 minutes. He did 2 seasons with Don Lucas' blessing and you know what? I like them more than the prequels. Yeah, thats right. The little cartoons were better than the movie. Thats usually something reserved for novels that are adapted into movies or something, but these achieved that status. They seemed like Star Wars and they were more fun to watch. Sure the Jedi were supercharged to extraordinary levels of super abilities (I think Yoda makes Star Destroyers crash into each other by thinking really hard with the force), but I liked them. In fact after they came out it made me wish that rather than make the prequels that George had decided to tell these stories in this cartoon format or other mediums (like comics and video games, those are respectable art forms...at least to nerds and geeks, which do make up a decent proportion of the Star Wars fan base). I think it would have been more creative and it would have kept the Original Trilogy in the light I wish it had remained. So maybe this new series will be good like that too? Probably not. Genndy's name is no where to be found on it and more of Lucas' is. Still I'll check it out. Not saying I am rushing to the theaters of anything, but I'll see it. I mean I could find the time. It is going to be a weekly TV show (I think this serves as the first few episodes) exploring all the stories that take place during the Clone Wars, you know, that enormous intergalactic war that was just sort of skipped over in the movies because really what people want to see in Star Wars is tariff disputes and angsty whining. What would they want with wars in the, you know, stars? So there will be plenty more to come. Even for me this is getting to be too much Star Wars.

So thats it for this month. Really thats the only one I can even get a little excited for. In recap:

Probably going to see someday, but does anybody actually want to go watch a Star Wars cartoon with me at the theaters?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Also coming out, but not mentioned here
-The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (I don't understand, the first Mummy was bad, the second one was terrible, and it's spin off (The Scorpion King) was no good, but here we have another one, did these actually perform really well and how on earth do we have a summer with two Brendan Frasier movies and all we can talk about is Batman?).
-Tropic Thunder (you know that Shakespeare has written a lot of stories, but even some of his work probably hasn't been adapted as many times as the great Three Amigos (unless that was also a Shakespeare story?), and here we have another "entertainers mistaken as heroes" and "entertainers mistaking reality for a fantasy" movie, but hey it has Ben Stiller and Jack Black who both make me laugh and Robert Downey Jr. is playing an actor who becomes african american for a role, I think the trailers are funny, but it is also getting that fat R rating on it so won't be seeing it for a while).
-Pineapple Express (this is made by the same guys that are making all the big money making comedy movies these days, I haven't really seen any of them, but I like the music in the trailer for this one, but like all their other movies it also has the blasted R rating so I guess I'll wait for TBS).
-The Rocker (has that guy from the Office that is becoming popular playing an aged rocker in a band with kids, wasn't this movie all ready made with Jack Black?).
-Babylon A.D. (some sci-fi movie with Vin Diesel, Vin is determined to make us think of him whenever the words "science" and "fiction" are mentioned together, I all ready do this whenever I hear the words "dungeon" and "master", come on, you just know this guy was the treasurer of his high school's D&D club right?).