Let’s just admit it: the 2014 summer movie season has been a bust. Box office grosses are down 45% from last year (according to Box Office Mojo), and this year’s July 4 weekend numbers were the worst in 15 years. There have been solid performers and good films, like “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (which is hardly a summer movie having opened in early April), but nothing that has knocked our socks off.
So what’s left to salvage the summer movie season? Can Brett Ratner and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson deliver a “Hercules” that is even good, much less the season’s saving grace? Questionable at best, doubtful most likely.
The best contenders for summer movie savior at this point seem to be “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” the sequel to 2011’s surprise hit “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Solid, perhaps, but probably not one Hollywood wants to hang its hopes on.
Maybe, just maybe, it can be Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy,” based on a little-known superhero team that includes a human, a green chick that is NOT She-Hulk, a walking tree, and a talking raccoon. Yes, you heard all of that right. A ragtag bunch to cling to, but there’s a TON of buzz about this film, which opens August 1, A 17-minute “first look” was held at IMAX theaters around the US this past week (I attended one of these), and it was SPECTACULAR. Containing all of the elements of a summer movie season flick, the clip was full of great action and humor, a fresh cast including Chris Pratt (of TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) and Zoe Saldana (of “Star Trek” and still looking sexy under green makeup) and featuring voice work from Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel.
It also stands as something different, even though it’s a superhero film and part of the “Avengers” franchise. Saldana’s character is the daughter of Thanos, the mysterious villain who appeared in the mid-credits sequence of “The Avengers.” And you never know if a more well-known hero may pop up at some point.
“Guardians” may stand poised as the galaxy’s best hope, but it’s also at this point Hollywood’s best hope.
