Movies this Summer

1) Neighbors-- I went and saw this twice, and loved it both times. It was silly without being outright dumb (at least not intolerably so), and honest without being overly sentimental. Do frat boys party and get obnoxious? Yes. Do they also have a sincere brotherhood and take care of each? Yes. It was a little ridiculous, but I left having had a good time and an appreciation of little Franco brother.

2) Godzilla- There was nothing wrong with Godzilla, but it was just another generic Godzilla movie. I didn't realize until after I left the theater that the main character is also the actor who plays kick ass, which explained why I felt like he was more adorable than anything else. After my Asian studies class this semester, I feel a little more endeared to Godzilla, but it would be interesting to get a body count on that movie. Sure, kick ass and the Olsen sister and their son survived, but basically everyone else on the west coast died.

3) Maleficent- I was going in hoping this would be awesome without any faith that it had a reason to be. I was right. The movie is more like Disney fanfiction than actual Disney, but Angelina Jolie was great and I loved her daughter's cameo in the movie (because no other little girl would be brave enough to face Maleficent). The rape-metaphor scene was awful to watch but also totally appropriate to the story, and I don't hate that we're going to a place where we rewrite the traditional princess story (can we just call it a "frozen" ending now?), but they also took the most bad-ass Disney villain and redeemed her, which I didn't really want. Maybe that's a reflection on me, but I wanted to leave her scary and evil.

4) X-men- Currently my favorite of all the summer movies. James Macavoy stepped up his game, and it's like he just walked around with eyes brimming with tears the whole movie. There was also considerably less weird poses to indicate mutant power being used, which was my main complaint with First Class. I won't say much more about it, other than if you haven't seen this yet you need to.

Totally agree, Michael Fassbender. 

5) TFiOS- I'm going to see this today, because I've been wary about wanting to see something that will make me weepy. Seriously, just holding the book or thinking about going to the movie makes me want to cry right now. I actually like Shailene Woodley, and the fact that John Green loves it makes me confident that it will be just as good as everyone says. Bonus points for the filming they did in Amsterdam!