The major summer movies have come and gone, so it’s a good time to evaluate how this summer stacks up in terms of the winners and losers. Every year the industry predicts doom, and then the summer box-office breaks last year’s record. This year will be no different. Here’s a quick checklist of what we’ve learned from the summer movie season 2007 – the surprises, the biggest, the best, the worst, and more… according to me anyway.


Biggest Box-office Winner
Spider-Man 3
Ranking currently at number 15 on the all-time U.S. box-office list with $336 million dollars in ticket sales, the only thing people are wondering about is if there’s a fourth in the works… and who might star in it.

Biggest Box-office Loser
Stardust
At a cost of over $100 million, this well-reviewed Neil Gaiman-written fairy tale with a stellar cast made a paltry $9 million in its debut weekend. It seems audiences are just not in the mood for a Princess Bride-style adventure. As you wish.


Biggest Disappointment
Evan Almighty
Okay, no one was looking forward to a sequel to Bruce Almighty wrapped up neatly in a modern telling of Noah’s Ark story… but Steve Carell is hot! Well, er, he was.

Surprise Hit
Knocked Up
Vulgar and sweetness should be trademark of Judd Apatow and his gang of merry men. Seth Rogan and Katherine Heigl are now the proud parents of a sub-genre of romantic comedy that delivers gross-out laughs with a heart.

Surprisingly Good
Transformers
The word was that director Michael Bay was just going to disappoint the hardcore fans who watched the original cartoon and played with Transformers toys as kids. That disappeared after the first screening when Bay delivered probably his best film yet. So, will we see Micronauts next?


Surprise Failure
Sicko
Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 made $119 million at the U.S. box-office and quickly became the highest-grossing doc in film history. Sicko has yielded a respectable $23 million in ticket sales so far, but has yet to really engage the public in a debate about health care. Too bad as the film is perhaps his best yet.

Best Sequel
The Bourne Ultimatum
All Matt Damon has to do is talk fast into a cell phone and run, run, run away as the camera shakes in an attempt to keep up… and it’s ends up being a thrill ride that is intense as hell. Do that again for us, will you?

Worst Sequel
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
So, the story of the coming of Galactus ends in a cloud. Really? A cloud. That’s all you got? Did they not read the comic book? Lose the slapstick and reboot this series with an indie filmmaker who can get to the deeper layers of Marvel’s super-family.


Bright New Star
Seth Rogan
Who knew that “schlumpy” was the new “sexy”? Thank you Seth Rogan.

Falling Star
Bruce Willis
Live Free or Die Hard is clearly the second best in the Die Hard series, but failed to live up to expectations. Something not to miss when it comes to DVD.

Why did they even make this film? (Or, I can’t believe this movie was so bad!)
It's a 12-way tie!
Daddy Day Camp and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and I Know Who Killed Me and Hot Rod and License to Wed and Becoming Jane and Nancy Drew and Who’s Your Caddy? and No Reservations and Underdog and Rush Hour 3 and Bratz
There clearly was not a shortage of bad movies this summer… and in six months, landfills across America will be filled with DVDs bearing their names. In fact, I’d be surprised if you even remembered that half these films were released over the summer.


Tracy Turnblad wishes every day were Negro day... one day her wish may come true.

Summer 2007’s Best Film
Hairspray
This is the only summer movie that not only lives up to, but surpasses the hype. Hairspray delivers a much-needed wake up call with messages about not only about racism, but people with different body types. Nicole Blonsky as the new Tracy Turnblad is just plain hot.

Gore gone.

Chris_Gore spent his summer indoors watching movies and remains proud of his "indoor kid" heritage.

The Fantastic Four was my gateway comic book. It was the comic book that made me fall in love with comics. Like many who discovered Marvel comics as a kid, I enjoyed reading stories involving super-heroes burdened with personal problems. These were characters that I could relate to. While the adventures were larger than life, the events were always grounded in the reality of everyday life. Heroes not only had to deal with their sworn enemies, but school, work, family and relationships.

There were certain issues of the FF that were so grand in scale that it diminished any piece of fiction that I’d experienced as a 12 year-old. In particular, issue number 48 of the Fantastic Four, which I read reprinted in an aptly-named “Giant-Sized” edition of the FF, told a tale titled “The Coming of Galactus.” The story was epic. It introduced the Silver Surfer and Galactus. And other characters like the Watcher and the Thing’s girlfriend Alicia, paid off in ways that were genius. In its original printing, the story spanned three issues, which was not normal at the time when most comics were wrapped up all their conflicts in about 20 pages. Reading this one story as a kid was off the charts and blew away any book, television show or movie I’d seen. I remember thinking then, wow, this story would make a really good movie.

Cut to years later, and the Fantastic Four was being made into a movie… by Roger Corman. This was the infamous low-budget project that was shot in 1993 so that a German production company Constantin Films could hold onto the rights. To do that, the FF movie had to be in production before the end of the year. I somehow talked them into allowing me to write a story about the production and I was on the set for most of the two week shoot. I interviewed just about everyone involved and the cover story appeared in Film Threat. I recall a sense of sadness at watching a cheap production being made from my favorite comic book. The other memory is seeing poor actress Rebecca Staab, who played Sue Storm, in her blue leotard costume… it was very revealing in the most embarrassing places. If you’ve seen a bootleg copy of this film, you know the result is not much better than a fan film, but it amazed me how much heart was put into that little movie.

In 2005, director Tim Story brought us the latest incarnation of the fab four. While this Fantastic Four film’s flaws have already been discussed at length, what he got right were the characters. Sure, the effects seemed anemic and the budget seemed low, but there was heart at the center of what was ultimately a disappointment. Super-hero origin stories seem to come with their share of baggage – translating the characters, costumes, situations and decades of history onto the screen while pleasing the most fickle fans.


Now Story returns with the inevitable sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and without the burden of telling that origin tale. He’s also tackling that epic adventure from issues 48, 49 and 50 of the Fantastic Four comic book that many, including myself, point to as one of greatest stories ever inked, drawn and lettered. The result is a mixed bag. There is as much to like and there is to, I don’t want to say hate, so much as cringe at. There’s good and bad at every turn. It’s like having sex for the very first time and it’s so amazing and then you realize that… your mom is watching. You know, it’s good and then bad. Really bad. Okay, that’s a really creepy thought, but I can’t explain it any other way.


If you plan on catching the film, here are a few things you need to know… most of them spoilers, so read them at your own risk.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

The Silver Surfer is cool.
He’s mostly seen in digital form when flying around, but the make-up and costume as worn by Doug Jones is spectacular. It really is.

It’s about character.
The character interplay between the four, in particular, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, is dead on. In fact, it’s so entertaining, special effects are not required to enjoy their presence on screen – the two rivals are so much fun to watch.


The story makes no sense.
The climax in which the cloud dissipates is not explained very well and we seem to be prompted to cheer the finale by the music cues and not by any actual events. Doctor Doom wants the Surfer’s board because, um, I think he wants power? Or something? It’s not really made clear. The Silver Surfer reveals his identity to Sue, that he was once Norrin Radd, and that means, what exactly?

Galactus is a cloud. Yep, a cloud.
The movie begins as we see an enormous cloud hurtling through space toward earth and that cloud destroys a planet. We find out later that this cloud is Galactus. I don’t see any reason that a huge spacecraft couldn’t be seen at the center of the cloud and some 40 foot giant wearing a Mardi Gras style head could not have appeared and scared the bejeezus out of our heroes. The absence of Galactus being seen in some type of human form makes the threat far less menacing. And Doctor Doom is not a good replacement for Galactus’ presence.

Humor saves the day.
In the end, the humor really saves the movie. It’s not quite as juvenile as the first flick, and the switching powers thing does pay off in the end.

If I’d never read that comic as a kid, I probably would have enjoyed this movie much more. Unfortunately, I cannot unread it and the idea of what this could have been still lingers in my mind. I still feel as if that epic comic book tale remains to be told in the form of a movie. Perhaps someone like a Christopher Nolan could reinvent the FF years later and tackle this story in a way that would go beyond my imagination. One can’t help thinking how much better it would have been if they’d just been a bit more faithful to the original comic book.

Gore gone.

Chris_Gore fights crime in Los Angeles as the costumed avenger known as the Weasel.