The summer movie season has come to a close and there’s no better time to look back on the best and worst that each month had to offer.
May: Hot off the heels of the surprise success of the first film comes Deadpool 2, which upped the ante in every way.
The humour in the film was on-point throughout and wouldn’t have been possible without the powerhouse cast of Ryan Reynolds, Zazie Beetz and Josh Brolin.
While the film is mainly a comedy, it never stumbles with its compelling dramatic beats, which elevated this film above the rest of the films in the month.
The worst that May offered moviegoers was the second Star Wars spinoff, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The characterization of the titular character is completely off and doesn’t feel in any way consistent with the other films featuring the character. This falls more on the writing than Alden Ehrenreich’s performance.
Overall, Solo was bland, predictable and instantly forgettable. If you want to watch a good film about Han then The Empire Strikes Back is the way to go.
June: By far one of the best times to be had in a theatre in June was Tag. It was funny, heartfelt and perfectly paced.
The chemistry between all of the actors was fantastic and made it easy to latch onto them, the standout being Hannibal Buress.
In this film, jokes are never run into the ground the way many comedies do, making the film feel fresh all throughout.
While Tag was highly enjoyable and entertaining, on the other side of this monthly coin is Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom.
The fifth instalment of the blockbuster franchise was unfocused and felt like two separate movies that didn’t flow well together at all.
July: Coming in hot at the end of the month was Mission Impossible: Fallout, which was a dazzling action spectacle that wiped the floor with the rest of the summer action movies.
Tom Cruise doesn’t just nail the action but also does a great job developing the character of Ethan Hunt. The rest of the returning cast is also superb and newcomer Henry Cavill was the standout of the film.
Going back to the beginning of the month, The First Purge -- the prequel to the low-budget horror franchise -- was released and it was inexcusably bad.
None of the characters in the film even have a toe dipped in the world of realism and all of their interactions are highly laughable, which likely wasn’t the intent, given the subject matter.
The film tries to have a political message but gets muddied by poor writing. Cinema can have impactful messages but that needs to be developed beyond a surface level idea.
August: While The First Purge stumbled with its political message, the best film that August had to offer, BlacKkKlansman succeeded.
The political parallels between the current political climate and that of the 1970s was handled expertly by director Spike Lee. The film's ending is so powerful and will leave audiences speechless.
The cast all do magnificent work, but the ones who stand above the rest are John David Washington and Topher Grace, who play Ron Stallworth and David Duke respectively.
Finally, to cap off this 2018 summer movie season retrospective is The Meg, which had a lot of potential to be a fun monster film but just didn’t work.
The movie wasn’t fun as much as it was boring. The characters aren’t interesting so there is never a reason to care about what happens to them.
The few moments with the shark were entertaining but are simply fleeting and not enough to carry a full movie.
Ty Rothermal is a reporter with the Olds Albertan.
