A Summer of Dragons, Fairies, Mutants, and Superheroes Galore

The summer movie season is in full swing and I've managed to get out and see most of the ones I wanted to pay money for. Here is a quick impression of each movie I've seen so far.

The Amazing Spiderman 2- I am always a little leery of sequels with movies. But this one was very enjoyable. There was lots of action with Spiderman fighting the bad guys, but there was quite a bit of humor throughout the movie as well. I will warn you that you will need a tissue box if you are prone to crying during sad parts in movies. There is one such part in the movie near the end that I wasn't expecting. But I will admit that I haven't read most of the comics I see the movies for. I just don't have time to keep up with all of them. I rely heavily on my younger brother to keep me straight on how well the movies stick to the storyline. I do believe that for spidey fans out there you won't be disappointed in this rendition. My son enjoyed it and he's a big spidey fan.

Picture of my personal DVD

I liked the fact that the storyline for X-men days of future past       resumes the thread were the origins movie left off and deals mainly     with Mystique's character. What I didn't enjoy about this movie was   the fact that you are thrust into the storyline in the future and get to watch all of the X-men being annihilated without really knowing what is going on. You get at least twenty minutes into the movie before you really understand what is happening. Also, [POSSIBLE SPOILER HERE] the young Charles Xavier is kind of a self-pitying jerk through most of the movie. Of course, Wolverine is awesome as usual and you do get to see a lot of him in one scene. So those of you with younger children be aware if you decide to take them to see this. Though, my son let out a surprised giggle and covered his eyes. My daughter forced me to cover mine. SMILE. For the most part I liked this movie and I enjoyed seeing the school up and running again at the end. I won't say more than that. If you are an X-men fan this movie is much better than the third one was and you actually get to cheer for Mystique throughout most of the movie. Jennifer Lawrence does a terrific job with her character.

Picture of my personal DVD

 I wasn't sure how this movie would turn Sleeping Beauty. I was pleasantly surprised. The writers did an excellent job of lending credence to Maleficent's reasons for hating King Stefan. I don't want to say too much here for fear of giving away the story, but it is an empowering story thread for young girls to go watch. I was very moved by Maleficent's narration of events in the same way I was moved by Elphaba's story in Wicked. I would recommend it to anyone who loves fairy tales and loves to see new interpretations on the traditional tales as told from the villain's point of view.
out. My daughter was very excited to see it so I went along mostly out of curiosity. After all, there are very few redeeming qualities about Maleficent in Disney's original animated version of

Picture of my personal DVD

I was very excited about seeing How toTrain Your Dragon 2. I loved the first one. I don't see how anyone can fail to love Toothless and his best friend Hiccup. In this rendition of the story, Hiccup and Toothless are about five years older. Now that Hiccup is considered a man his father is anticipating training him to take over as chief of the village of Berk. But, Hiccup is too busy to settle down to this responsibility. Instead, he spends most of his time exploring the world and trying to discover where the edges of civilization lie. In his travels he stumbles upon some dragon trappers who warn him of an impending invasion by a power hungry viking who is building a dragon army. Hiccup wanting to keep the peace sets off to try and reason with the villain and finds his mother in the process. All of this you can glean from the movie trailers. So, hopefully I'm not giving too much away for those of you still planning to see the movie. I loved it! But I will warn you that for younger children there is one part in the movie that is incredibly sad and even made my husband who claims not to be into these movies tear up a bit. As with most hero stories geared toward children the heroes do manage to save the day and the movie does end happily. If you loved the first movie you will enjoy this one.

As for the movies I'm still looking forward to seeing, I'm still anticipating the release of Melissa McCarthy's latest movie Tammy, and maybe Disney's Planes, Fire and Rescue. My son is looking forward to seeing the new Transformers movie. So I will probably be seeing that when it comes out. I'd also still like to see the new Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie, Blended. What about you? Any movies you would recommend? Leave a comment and let me know.