When we think "summer," we usually think of a few things: warm weather, vacation, the beach, getting a tan that we'll lose in three months. And then there's the movie theater, a place that, during the summer season, is ripe with action-packed blockbusters. Whether it's alien invasions, super hero blowouts, zombie mayhem, or the next installment in a fan-favorite franchise, the summer movie season brings with it the flicks that rake in the cash; the mindless, plot-thin, effects-heavy extravaganzas we've come to expect from the theater this time of year.
But does a "summer blockbuster" have to be a mindless special-effects driven spectacle? Recent years have proven the answer is 'no.' While a good popcorn flick is good for the soul every once in a while, the summer season doesn't necessarily have to be associated with the phrase "leave your brain at the door." The most recent example is Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the sequel to the 2011 reboot/prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Dawn is the kind of summer film that offers an intuitive glance at our own world and behavior through the lens of a sci-fi premise. It's a film about apes gaining human-like intelligence, and their rise to power that would eventually nearly wipe out the human race. But underneath it all is a commentary on society, and real character development. Those characters just happen to be motion-captured, CGI apes.
The point is that there are films that don't only transcend the summer blockbuster, but they redefine it as well. And in recent years we've seen these films go on to massive critical and financial success, proving that a film can be smart and complex, but not devoid of the aspects that make it entertaining and a crowd-pleaser. Pixar films are prime examples of this. While their track record most recently hasn't been the best, 2008, 2009 and 2010 saw them release three of their best films in the summer season, two of them (Toy Story 3 and Up) going on to receive Academy Award nominations for Best Picture.
The best summer films are those that, like Dawn, commentate on society through a new spin on a popular genre. 2008's The Dark Knight and Wall-E both did this. Not only did The Dark Knight transcend the summer film, it transcended the comic book adaptation by being much more than that: it broke down walls and said something about justice, and chaos, and heroes and villains. It's a superhero movie wrapped in a character crime drama. And Wall-E gave us a glimpse into our own unhealthy, polluted future through the lens of a children's movie.
2009's District 9 is another example, using alien segregation as a metaphor for racism and genocide. It went on to be nominated for Best Picture as well. Sometimes, though, these films don't necessarily have to be a commentary on societal issues. Sometimes they're just complex, original ideas, such as Inception, a 2010 summer release (also being nominated for Best Picture), with a smart script, great action (that is never overdone) and superb performances. While not as high in quality as that, this year's Edge of Tomorrow is another surprise hit that is a smart, original film. It doesn't necessarily "transcend" the summer blockbuster, but it knows exactly what kind of movie it wants to be (I'll get to that later) and has fun while being smart in the process.
Back in June, Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly Wrote an article about how, mainly, summer movies (specifically Godzilla) were getting too serious (https://popwatch.ew.com/2014/06/12/godzilla-pacific-rim-serious-blockbusters/). He uses last year's Pacific Rim as a fun counter to Godzilla's depression. I don't think the problem with Godzilla is that it's too serious, though. Before going into the theater I was pumped for a Godzilla movie that takes itself seriously. The problem is that it doesn't follow through with any of its "serious" glimpses at our own world. Godzilla as a character has always been a metaphor for something. He was created as a metaphor for nuclear bombing. But what is he in the reboot? Franich is right that the characters are boring. They're boring because they have no real development...especially the title character.
As for Pacific Rim, that film is great because it knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn't try to be anything else. Godzilla suffers from an identity crisis in that it doesn't know whether the King of the Monsters himself is a hero, or villain, or just a force of nature which Ken Wattanabe seems to be pretty sure about, but I don't know if the writers of the film were. Yes, Pacific Rim is fun, but it's great because, unlike, say, the Transformers movies, it's a silly movie in a silly world that doesn't try to make sense of it all and be more "complex" than it can get away with. I agree with Franich on that front: movies that don't need to be serious shouldn't try to be. But Godzilla could have benefited from a "serious" tone (and it did in some ways) if any of it meant something in the grand scheme of things.
If you look at a film like Dawn and then at a film like Godzilla, it's clear that the big difference is that Dawn manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking, while the latter film tried being both of those things and failed to really carry through with either. The best "blockbusters" will be both.
