MANILA, Philippines - The Bourne Legacy more or less ends the US summer movie season — no, Total Recall does not count. This season saw the same old concepts: Sam Worthington dressing up like an ancient warrior fighting Titans, and some that we still aren’t sure what to call, i.e. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. As much as we would have wanted to see every summer movie, we only caught a few; either because of lack of time or because we really decided not to watch those movies. Still, we’d like to offer a review of the ones we did watch. We present our kinda-sorta Summer Film Review Spectacularastic!
Battleship
Directed by Peter Berg, starring Taylor Kitsch, Liam Neeson, and um… Rihanna.
Jiggy: With the ridiculous success of Transformers, Hasbro wanted to try to turn another one of their products into a movie franchise. However, Battleship came at a bad time. Their lead actor just came from a starring role in John Carter, a movie that became this year’s Green Lantern. The wounds of John Carter’s blockbuster flop were still fresh with the public. Battleship also came at a time when no one really wanted to see a movie based on a board game.
Jonty: Battleship really lost it for me when the Navy veterans came in at the end. What I thought was some shout-out to the Navy at the start of the movie, suddenly becoming a crucial plot point in the end was just too hard to digest. I could take Brooklyn Decker “acting” but all logic leaves when the elderly start kicking intergalactic ass. I expected more from you, Peter Berg.
The Bourne Legacy
Directed by Tony Gilroy and starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz and the proud citizens of Metro Manila.
Jonty: This movie should’ve been called Bourne Filipino. Everyone in the country watched this for Manila more than any other reason. This could’ve starred Vanilla Ice and Rachel Weisz’s sister, and Filipinos still would’ve watched it. With that said, this was still a wonderful movie. Tony Gilroy continued the brilliance of the first three Bourne films, and made a smart action film worthy of a Joel Torre cameo.
Jiggy: All in all, I found the story a bit simple. I was pleasantly surprised though that almost half the movie was set in Manila. Hats off to John Arcilla and Lou Veloso who have cameos in the film, and to Joel Torre for portraying the best citrus salesman ever!
The Amazing Spider-Man
Not directed by Sam Raimi and not starring Tobey Maguire and James Franco.
Jiggy: I really thought Raimi’s version was better. And I still do. A lot of women loved this new take on Spider-Man, which in some weird way helps me out. Emma Stone was great as Gwen Stacey and I really appreciated the addition of the web-shooters. Still, I love the original movie more. Sorry, Garfield.
Jonty: No.
The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, and the guy from Flowers for Algernon
Jonty: I can’t think of a better way Nolan could’ve ended his take on Batman. It’s the best trilogy since the original Star Wars. That’s not to say that I don’t have questions, though. First one being: when did Batman have the time to make a bat-signal made out of fire? And how did Bane bring a paralyzed Bruce Wayne from the Gotham sewers to the prison pit in what looked to be the Middle East?
Jiggy: Best. Trilogy. Ever. I can’t stop praising the end to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight story. It was just brilliantly done. Nolan made sure that his story of Bruce Wayne came to a fitting and definitive close. If this does not get nominated for Best Picture at the next Academy Awards, then there’s no hope for superhero movies ever winning at the Oscars. As much as I’m a Marvel fan, The Dark Knight Rises was the best end to a superhero trilogy. This movie made me forget about the horror that was Spider-Man 3 and X-Men: The Last Stand.
The Avengers
Directed by Joss Whedon and starring the whitest actors alive.
Jonty: Loved The Avengers! The best thing to come out of the movie’s success though has to be Joss Whedon signing on to develop a new TV show for Marvel! And it’s set in the Avengers universe! What more could a movie give you?! Exclamation points!!!
Jiggy: First of all, one cannot compare The Dark Knight Rises to The Avengers. It’s simply not apples to bat-apples. You have to hand it to Marvel as they had a disadvantage of not having a studio to back them up like what DC Comics has in Warner Bros. Pictures. Yet, Marvel did it before (any I’m betting better than) a Justice League movie. Director Joss Whedon gave us the best summer movie in decades. It became more than just a movie with Iron-Man, Captain America, Thor, and the Hulk in it. It was truly The Avengers. Joss Whedon is my master now.