Wonder Woman Chris Pine

Weekend Movies: Days of Wonder

Buckle up, folks. June is kicking off and we’re in the middle of week-after-week of huge new movie releases to keep up with. While DC Comics movies weren’t widely loved last year, the studio is back with a vengeance with what’s being labeled the best DC adaptation since Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy.

In addition, since it’s been eight weeks since ‘Smurfs: The Lost Village’ debuted and flopped, Fox is dropping a new animated kids’ movie with the hope that it can clean up before ‘Cars 3’ opens in two weeks.

Batman v. Superman‘ and ‘Suicide Squad‘ may have been box office successes last year, but neither garnered the critical or fan base support that you would have expected. All of that changes this week with Patty Jenkins’ ‘Wonder Woman‘. Badass bombshell Gal Gadot reprises her ‘Dawn of Justice’ character as Diana Prince, an Amazon goddess with unmatched ass-kicking capabilities. Set during World War I, this origin tale manages what few comic book movies have done well; it not only builds characters (in fact, it creates a wonderful large ensemble of characters), but it follows a true cinematic structure instead of falling victim to a meaningless third-act villain (see: ‘Iron Man’). Blending fun action, well-played humor, three-dimensional characters, mythology and philosophy in a masterfully directed film, ‘Wonder Woman’ is easily one of the best comic book origin stories told on-screen to date. Let’s hope that November’s ‘Justice League’ can capture this same flavor of magic.

Whenever an original film has the balls to give itself a “Part 1” or a semi-coloned title prior to a sequel being greenlit, I always chuckle. This week’s animated release ‘Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie‘ makes me wonder if, 1) will play well enough to earn a second epic movie?, and 2) will it be epic enough for the sequel to contain the word “epic” in the title? If it’s not at all epic, do you think the sequel might be titled ‘The Second Meh Movie’?

Based on a popular kids’ book series, ‘Captain Underpants’ follows a pair of prankster boys who concoct a plan to hypnotize their school principal and make him believe that he’s a principal by day and oddball superhero by night. Looking almost as bad as the movie itself is the CG animation, which appears to be taking the medium back a few steps. Alluding to the caliber of the movie is the voice cast, which includes Kevin James, Ed Helms and Nick Kroll.

Hoping to follow the successful path of ‘How to Be a Latin Lover’ is the Spanish-language ‘3 Idiotas‘ (which, if you didn’t guess, means “three idiots”). Debuting on 349 screens, the Mexican comedy tells the story of three friends who reunite for a trip to find one of their college friends who disappeared without a trace after graduation.

1 comment

  1. ‘3 Idiotas’ is a remake of the Bollywood movie ‘3 Idiots’, which I accidentally caught in 2009 when all ‘Avatar’ screenings were sold out. Me and my friends were the only Belgians in a theater full of Indians, but we laughed our butts off. A truly excellent and hilarious movie, that demands to be seen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *