Well another summer and another #1 hit for Marvel... Only no one expected this one. Guardians Of The Galaxy was considered a risk to every person that did not work for Marvel, working in house Marvel knew that it had a hit with James Gunn taking on this colourful collection of characters. It's earned nearly $650,000 worldwide and outgrossed Transformers 4 here in North America... Take that Michael Bay.
Honourable Mention: Transformers: Age Of Extinction - Transformers is over 1 Billion worldwide, but everyone saw that coming. The numbers are way lower here in North America and the rest of the world will soon realize these films have been declining in quality and the numbers will show.
Best Summer Sequel: How To Train Your Dragon 2
The original was a near perfect movie, the sequel improved on it. This was seen as a sure fire hit and a favourite among box office buffs to be the highest grossing movie of the summer, and although it seems unlikely it'll hit 200 million domestically, that by no means makes this movie a failure, the worldwide gross has been up and just like the original it will play well to the home video crowds.
Best Summer (Re)Launch: Guardians Of The Galaxy
Be prepared to have Guardians merchandise thrown at you in every possible direction. The movie has already spawned a sequel, which was announced after opening weekend numbers were in, a cartoon series and a crazy amount of toys and comics.
Honourable Mention: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Regardless of how you might feel about the film, it introduced the heroes in a half shell to a young wide-spread audience. It already has a successful TV series on Nick and as an old school fan, this movie wasn't as bad as everyone said it was.
This movie looked so great from the trailer but then you watched it and you thought to yourself "okay not as good as I would have thought... But not bad!" Then the ending came about and you retracted that statement. Lucy was always going to be a tough sell, but critics mostly liked it and it was a surprise hit taking in over 100 million domestically. But for me and everyone I spoke with that saw it, it lacked a lot, so all that potential was wasted.
Honourable Mention: Sin City: A Dame To Kill For - The opposite of Lucy here, I quite liked this movie, however critics were mixed and box office receipts might as well of been non-existent. Sin City deserved better.
Biggest Summer Surprise: Edge Of Tomorrow
I'd be lying if I said Edge Of Tomorrow was on my must see list upon it's release, it was a fringe movie for me then the reviews were spectacular so I decided I'd watch it, when I finally got around to it I was obviously surprised. It was action packed, it was a fresh outlook, which surprised me since well the trailer made it seem like The Source Code. Tom Cruise can still be an action star, and in a sci-fi movie no less, a genre that has really struggled to turn out hits.
Honourable Mention: Lucy - You just can't ignore those box office numbers...Best Summer Thrill: The Purge: Anarchy
I could not peel my eyes away from the screen during The Purge: Anarchy, after watching I realized the movie had some flaws but I could not ignore the fact that I was enthralled with watching these 4 stories cross over with each other to become one story of how people deal with a 24 hour time period where all crime is legal including murder.
Honourable Mention: Edge Of Tomorrow - Damn you Tom Cruise, why can't you just kill those aliens on your first try.
Best Summer Laugh: 22 Jump Street
This was truly the summer of sequels, for me anyways... 6 out of 16 movies I have seen as of this writing were sequels. And most have been honoured already so let's go ahead and honour the funniest movie, also a sequel, 22 Jump Street. The sequel to 21 Jump Street starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum take them to college to stop a drug ring... Yup that's almost 21 Jump Street and this is almost as funny, but it still beat out the other comedies.
Best Summer Family Affair: How To Train Your Dragon 2
In case you haven't figured it out yet I really liked this movie.
Honourable mention: Maleficent - This was the role Angelina Jolie was born to play... And she played it Maleficently... I mean magnificently. This was a fun fantasy film for the whole family that took an old tale and gave it a whole new spin. It gives me lots of faith in Disney live-action reboots after I was scratching my head at Cinderella and Jungle Book movies forthcoming before seeing this.
Worst Summer Movie: Sex Tape
I literally just finished watching this movie... I planned to review it for this Sunday special, until I watched it and realized I wouldn't be able to say that much good stuff about it, which makes for a short review, so you get this award type post instead... Thanks a lot Sex Tape.
Best Summer Movie: How To Train Your Dragon 2
You guys are so smart for guessing this right!
Honourable Mention: X-Men: Days Of Future Past - This movie had a lot going for it, however it did not have an adorable animated dragon. Fox step up your game, that could've been the difference maker.
