The Summer of the Threequel - Midterm report

Well this weekend's release of Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End is the second of 5 big name part 3 that mark this summer's blockbuster season. And at the moment it looks like despite the hype, we might be heading for a rather disappointing time:

Spiderman 3 was a bit of a confused mess - entertaining at times, but a let down after parts 1 +2.

Pirates (full review to follow soon) is likewise a bit of a confused, but entertaining mess. A marginal improvement on part 2, but still leaves you with the feeling they'd have been better off leaving well alone after the unexpected success of the first movie.

Next up comes Ocean's Thirteen - Clooney, Pitt, Damon and co. in their collective apology for Oceans Twelve (a film that looked like it was far more fun to make than to watch). They at least have the advantage that Twelve was so bad, almost anything would be an improvement, so expectations are that much lower.

Early reviews of Shrek the Third suggest it could be the biggest disappointment of the lot, having almost completely lost the humour of the first two films.

Which might leave it to Jason Bourne and his Ultimatum to save the day again, coming at the end of the summer (August release date) and somehow, despite two commercial and critical successes under his belt, still seeming to manage to slip in under the radar and the hype of the bigger films. This is currently my prediction for the summer's best blockbuster.

Of the other, non threequel blockbusters - The Fantastic Four has so little expectation after the fun, but not that great original, it might turn into a pleasant surprise. Personally, not really too excited about Transformers, although the trailer is quite cool. Die Hard 4.0 is such a bad idea it might just work, but will probably be dreadful. On the other hand, if Shrek fails, hopefully The Simpsons can be relied on for a burst of animated humour. I doubt Evan Almighty will live up to Bruce, but maybe Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will turn the weakest of the books into the best of the films.

On a less blockbuster'y note, for those who prefer a bit of politics in their films, watch out for Taking Liberties an angry British Documentary about the erosion of civil liberties under New Labour - out next month, whilst The War on Democracy tackles American involvement in Latin America.