The concept of the Summer Blockbuster emerged from the ocean in 1975 with the release of Jaws. Now, 50 years later, we are looking at our Top Five Summer Blockbusters.
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Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
1 Comment
ah man, the only thing that gets me worse than the opening montage in Up, is that damn “what i’m gonna do” adventure book scene towards the end. what a movie.
anyway, as with Rodrigo, my list seems to skew more recent-ish, and is more tied in with periods of my life rather than the actual content of the films, but hey. you’re gonna remember what you’re gonna remember.
5) Independence Day, the prototypical summer blockbuster for me. i was 14 in 1996, and this wasn’t as scary as Jurassic Park a few years ago when i saw it at 11 years old, but big, loud, action-y and “adult” enough for me to look cool at theater with my friends. yes, as Stephen mentioned, it’s uncomfortably jingoistic in retrospect, but just for a bit, as a naive kid, i thought “maybe this planet would finally be able to get along if aliens came and blew up a few landmarks.”
4) The Matrix. my friend who’d already seen it pitched it to me as “a live action anime”, which i didn’t care much about, but holy hell, the action. growing up watching Hong Kong movies *in the original Cantonese with subtitles* with my dad, this was like the moment a few of my worlds collided: the mall-goth industrial metal soundtrack reflecting the edgy alt-kid i wanted to be at school, and celebrating the athleticism and scrappy “let’s just throw a dude off a building and use live ammo” go for broke attitude of HK action cinema. the whole crowd slow clapped at the end of the lobby shootout, and i just told my friend “hey, remind me to show you some John Woo movies when we get back.”
3) Mad Max Fury Road. yes, Scott Johnson isn’t the only person who loved this movie. absolutely brilliant, nearly overwhelming experience, the incredibly staged action and editing, the cinematography and colors, that soundtrack, again….the glimmer of hope that we could reach some level of equity if certain people just stopped treating the world as their own personal toilet/fleshlight combo….sadly, the world continues to be some peoples’ personal toilet/fleshlight combo, and i hope to all the deities in the multiverse it’s not too late to turn it all around.
2) The Dark Knight, opening night, Thursday at midnight, me and everyone from the record store where i worked at the time bought a block of tickets and saw it together. incredible at the time, the crowd cheered at the end of the truck chase when Commissioner Gordon pulls off his mask and nabs the Joker. i got home and flopped on my bed at 4am, woke up with the alarm at 8am, went to work a full day at my day job, then take the bus across town and work til close at the record store. i slept a total of 4 hours over the course of 2 days, but i don’t regret that decision at all. younger, scrappier, more innocent devil-may-care days indeed. now i just want to get home before sundown and i’m usually unconscious by 10.
1) The Avengers 2012. coming out of a pretty bad breakup earlier that spring, this was the Independence Day i really wanted all along, featuring characters i never even cared about as a kid, and never knew to ask for as an adult. the ragtag team of quirky, snarky heroes gelling together as something greater than their sum, to stop the big blue light alien thingie in the sky. there of course have been objectively better movies (even just within the MCU), but growing up reading those comics I never would’ve thought I’d see on the screen, seeing that swirling shot of the original six striking their poses in the face of mildly generic alien annihilation, was truly something special. it was the culmination of all my childhood dreams and my adult sensibilities, and realizing both could co-exist without making me feel ashamed or awkward. it was the year nerd culture truly broke out, for better or worse, and i could finally talk to my co-workers about who the hell Thanos was.