Summer 2009: The Season Of Bad Movies [Updated]

I am ashamed to admit I missed J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (you can count on me to see the re-release in IMAX), which many feel is the best Trek in years, movie or TV. But consider this: J.J. was frustrated because he couldn’t make any changes to the script leading up to and during a good part of the production, because of the WGA Strike. Could Star Trek have been even better than it was? We may know when the sequel hits.

Marvel took a hit with its one-time plans to have at least Thor out this summer, thanks to the WGA Strike (and a projected $300 million budget for the film), which forced it into re-writes and delayed it until 2011.

The good news? There were a few diamonds in the rough this year, including:

District 9
Star Trek
Inglourious Basterds
Moon
UP
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker

Summer 2009 District 9 Inglourious Basterds Star Trek

Blomkamp, Abrams, & Tarantino helped shed some light on a dismal summer

There are other highlights, of course, many of which were independent films made outside the Hollywood system – there is hope! And let’s not forget: many of those indie directors who did well this summer might just end up handling big-budget movies down the line (See: Jon Favreau and Christopher Nolan). Could we see District 9 director Neil Blomkamp finally get handed the keys to the Halo franchise? Stay tuned to find out.

So, looking ahead, what can we expect for the summer of 2010? It’s safe to assume that things will be a lot better, quality-wise. We have Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, Inception, and many promising prospects – plus, now that the studios have ample time for scripting and on-set re-writes, it looks like the bar for summer movie scripts might get raised back to average… We hope. Summer 2009 has proven that blockbuster movies need to have at least a little bit of mind to go along with their “mindless entertainment.”

Here’s a perfect little clip that sums up the Summer of ‘09, courtesy of Quentin Tarantino and Rachel Nichols (G.I. Joe) on Jimmy Kimmel Live:

Did you think that Summer ‘09 at the movies was as disappointing as we did? Sound off in the comments.

Source: /Film

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Tags: 500 days of summer, angels and demons, district 9, gi joe, moon, public enemies, star trek, terminator salvation, the hurt locker, transformers 2, up, wolverine, year one

Olu

Wow.It all makes sense now.

I didn't see most of the Summer Movies anyway.

Wickamo

Ya know...I really like this site, but this habit some of you writers have of stating that movies are bad as if it's a fact is really getting on my nerves. Stating that you think it's a bad movie or that in your opinion it is a bad movie is one thing, but I and many of your readers don't agree with you all the time. I happen to think Wolverine, Transformers, Terminator, and GI Joe were very good movies. I enjoyed them immensly. But of course that is my opinion, but on this site, I guess I should just state it as fact. The movies of Summer 2009 made for a season of EXCELLENT movies!

Matt Keith

The only two I cared to see were Tranformers 2, and T4...both of them were good, but I was more disappointed with T4 than I was with Transformers.

Vic Holtreman

@Wickamo

Fine, disagree, we encourage discussion - but find me an editorial movie news site out there that is "kinder and gentler." It's what we do - if we didn't think we were right what would be the point of telling you what we think?

Vic

Gary

I thought it was a bad summer.
But what I liked such as Up and Star Trek,
I REALLY liked .

John "Kahless" Taylor

I believe it was a bad summer for movies. I haven't seen Moon or The Hurt Locker but I hear nothing but good things about them and look forward to seeing them. I know this may seem biased because of my avatar but I still think Star Trek was the best of the summer movies (although, like I said, I haven't seen Moon nor Hurt Locker).

Johnny-K of Norway

I think most the movies was ok, I loved Wolverine and Transformers was ok, they squised to much into it i felt, even do there was loads of action the last half hour I was yawning in my seat.

I dont think the films would have been much better without the strike, the wirters still have to stay true to their hollywood cliche handbook, and make child firendly funny movies with predictable endings....

I see 2 movies a week and have seen over 2000 movies so far in the 29 years I have been alive, and the gems are spred evenly aorund whatever decade, fad or strike is there...

You just have to be willing to watch alot of ok and bad movies to find the good ones. You can not listen to rewievs and critics or what the general peublic feels about a film, you have to find out foryourself, and the only way is to watch.....

I am sure alot of people are pissed of and angry when they see a bad movie, cause the only go the the theatre once every 2 months or less. to bad ofr them, whatch more movies and you get to se more good movies....

Heath McKnight

@Johnny-K Wow, you're a true film lover, very cool!

@Wickamo If we liked everything, we'd be like a certain critic no longer on the air.

Heath

John "Kahless" Taylor

To me, Land of the Lost was the worst this summer. Dragonball wasn't in the summer was it?

piratedan

all I can say is that in these economic times, the dollars I spend on entertainment are fewer and farther between. I depend on sites like this to help me pick and choose what I spend my time and cash on. Fortunately, while there were some gems out there, I have to admit that I didn't spend too much matinee time in the theatre this year because the pickings were slimmer than usual.

MCat

@wickamo
Yeah the writers opinions doesn't mean a movie is good or bad so I don't understand why they say things like that.

This summer was one of my favorites. T4, Trek, RotF, The Hangover, District 9 and others no matter what these guys think. Why be a fan if you can't enjoy these movies. As Bob Marley said: Lively Up Yourself!

Magnus

i thought transformers was ok for an action movie. wasnt anything extraordinary, same goes for wolverine. G.I joe was somewhat of a ridiculous movie. the action was cool (loved the acceleration suits) but there was so many stereotypes, just seemed lame and not that good. (but everyones got their own opinion)

Now Star Trek was good. i think it was the summer movie number 1:) yeah that was it, havent seen that many movies this summer:p

K-man

I'm with Vic - I was disappointed. Take Wolverine and Transformers, for example, they were both sequels to previously established characters. I enjoyed the first movies, so I have certain expectations that I have built up based on the previous movies. I was so excited to see the movies that I disregarded the reviews and saw them in the theatres anyway. Fault me for having â€˜expectations,â€™ but now that the studios have not met those, I will not be so eager to shell out my $10 bucks for Wolverine 2 and TF3. Iâ€™ll wait to rent it. You know how it goes, â€œfool me once, shame on you; fool me twiceâ€¦â€ I look at it as a long term relationship. They got my money this time for big box office numbers for 2009. I trust Pixar, Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams etc. to give me a good product. I will continue to support them until they prove otherwise (Read: M. Night Shyamalan - BTW I hope he turns it around) Others like Michael Bay I wonâ€™t trust again until proven otherwise.

Matt Keith

"I will not be so eager to shell out my $10 bucks for Wolverine 2 and TF3."

Same here. Transformers 2 was good, but unless they make some changes(like get rid of the juvenile humor, and bring in an actual story), then I really don't find myself excited for a third.

skippy2057

Wolverine was weird. It had it's moments in action terms, but the lack of blood became noticeable and even laughable as the movie went on. I guess that was a "ratings" thing, and I don't need to see Monty Python-esque artery-spurting every few minutes, but it seemed sanitized beyond any logical sense. No smears of blood even on his claws as he pulls them from someone's chest? Huh??

One of the many good parts about the original X-Men movie was how visceral some of the flashback/origin parts were, such as Magneto as a child in the concentration camp screaming for his family and being smashed down by a rifle butt, and Wolverine himself emerging from his "procedure" naked, bloodied and anguished.

I don't recall the Wolverine movie having anything close to those scenes.

Chiguy

I think some of the "fanboy" movies are a bit harshly critiqued only because they are becoming more of the standard fare. When you had "fanboy" movies last summer like Ironman and The Dark Knight that went above and beyond in all aspects (action, story, production, etc.) it raises the bar for movies that follow. TF3 and GI Joe I don't think were really all that bad if you went in just expecting eye candy and not concerning yourself too much with a story.

I was surprised to not see Potter make the list either way, good or bad. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with it, I didn't feel it could stand on it's own as in individual movie like the others could and it felt incomplete. I've never read the books so I can't really compare them, but it totally felt like it was a set up for the next movie while the others had a sense of completion to each of them.

Kofi Outlaw

@ Wickamo

LOL. What do you think are "bad movies" then????

Kofi Outlaw

@ Wickamo

And before you answer keep in mind: We've met the writers of some of these films in person, and I can tell you, THEY don't like the state they put these scripts out in and wouldn't defend them for a second as being good.

So...

Andy S

I don't think this was the GREATEST summer of films, but I didn't see alot of the films released. I passed on going to see Transformers, Terminator and GI Joe in the theater, but I really enjoyed the movies I did see. I thought Wolverine was better than what most people though, Star Trek was just plain AWESOME, Up was a very enjoyable film and I really got into District 9. So for ME, for the films I spent my cash on, I thought I was well compensated for my time and money.

AD

are u joking???? tf2- a&d - t4 - xmen all the movies of summer2009 not only great but fantastic too, more better than 2007 & 2008 summers

boborci

Journalism suffered this year, too, for maybe the 50th year in a row, as evidenced by your speculations on Star Trek which you admit you haven't seen and your innacurate intel on some of the facts surrounding TF2. But I understand your desire to say, "See, I predicted this summer..."

Love the site.

boborci

Correction:

inacccurate

boborci

with only 2 c's

Stephen

I thought people already knew that the writers strike was the cause of many disappointments this summer.

Paul Young

@bob - be specific, which facts is he work about in regards to TF2? As far as I know, Bay did in fact do the script changes and comedic parts himself during the strike. Hell the twins were his idea weren't even part of the original turn-in.

Of course this summer was filled with lack luster films, it's just that some reason moviegoers have settled for mediocre entertainment which is obvious by the Box Office #s.

Tell me one part of Wolverine that made sense, same with T4 and TF2. The SFX in TF2 were second to none, by far the best of the year but each one of those stories suffered from poor writing and Wolverine and GI Joe may tie for worst CGI.

PG

The Hurt Locker. Best film I've seen this year thus far. Nuff said.

I also agree that 2009 has been pretty lousy for movies thus far. I can probably count on one hand the number of quality movies I've seen vs. the dozen or so bad ones. But October looks like a strong month with many must watch movies. Then hopefully as we get to the end of the year and closer to Oscar season, there will be a few more good ones to digest.

the old man

What seemed strange to me was that several things I enjoyed others didn't. "Star Trek" for example I liked the prequel comics, which I read after seeing the movie, more than the movie. After having seen all of "TOS" numerous times, "TNG," most of "DS9," "Voyager," and "Enterprise" plus all the movies, I'm throughly burnt out on time travel movies. But keep in mind, over the course of the summer, I've read "Time Ships" and six other novels dealing with time manipulation of one sort or another. About 2917 odd pages, fine paper back print. Plus movies like 2007's "Time Crimes."

"Transformers 2" I was pretty blasÃ© about, but used it as an opportunity to get my sisters' opinion, seeing that she liked the first one and typically hates the genre. She felt this was inferior because it was too much about the robots and not the people. Which most posting their opinions seem to feel the reverse. I also talked her into seeing "GI Joe" which I think we both enjoyed more but not as much as say the third installment of "Indiana Jones" or "Jaws" which we saw together in the past. I think overall "D9" was better than any of the other movies I saw this summer. The political undercurrents were timely and while it has been done before it's been awhile for this one. For the volume of movies with action in them It's been a rather lackluster season. Here's hoping for better stories in summer 2010.

Vic Holtreman

@boborci

Email headed your way.

Vic

790

This really was the year of bad distribution.

"Moon" showing on 11 screens, "Hurt Locker" and "Fanboys" both playing in only limited markets.

Besides the horrible short sided distribution I felt that "Moon", "District 9", and "Hurt Locker" were all remarkable films. They made up for the Terminator Salvations and Land of the Losts.