The Blockbuster Season Is Upon Us Part 2

Here we go with another round of shameless attempts by studios to get you to part with your cash. I'm just excited because it means a ton of popcorn personally. According to reports cinema audiences in the UK have plummeted, but it has come at a time when mainstream filmmaking has been genuinely brilliant. This year has already thrown up some crackers and this summer looks to be one of the best in recent memory if things live up to their pre-release hype.

Let's kick it off with one I personally cannot wait for as I love all things Pixar (even Cars, I know, I know):

Wall.E



I like how they've not really done this as epic crash, bang sci-fi or even as something that's being sold entirely to kids. The trailer's actually quite old-fashioned in the way the voice-over reveals the plot and characters. And those look fantastic. I admit to feeling slightly tearful at this and it's only a two minute advert. The cinema better be empty when i go to see it!

The Dark Knight



Now this is a bit more CRASH, BANG, WALLOP! After loving the first one 'm looking forward to this as well, even though the trailer left me a little indifferent. I suppose it's because it's pretty much run-of-the-mill action blockbuster fair and most of the stuff to actually get excited about (The Joker, Harvey Dent) were already revealed. Still this will be the finest film featuring a hunky man in tight black rubber this year, unless the porn industry gets a grip.

Hellboy the Golden Army



The same could be said for the Hellboy 2 trailer, not the black rubber bit obviously, but I found myself getting right into this one thanks to not having followed this in any way. The first one was good and by the looks of some of the creature designs Del Toro is doing his bit to help the studio's "from the visionary director of Pan's Labyrinth" speil. Basically it looks like imaginative, cheesy fun. So good then.

The James Bond Identity (Crisis)



Now I've never been a Bond fan in any big way, loved some of the better Roger moore ones when I was a kid and Goldeneye was good, though the N64 game was better. And with the Bourne franchise making Bond look as creaky jointed as something that old should be it was inevitable that Bond would begin to ape it, I'm sure I heard Judi Dench shout "find Bourne" at one point. Not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe not proper bond either. As I said not really a fan so I don't know if the loss of the cheesy charm is a bad thing for people who genuinely like it.

As I said this has been a good summer so far and there's some belters to come by the looks of it. Now if the weather would just play along this could be a great summer, damn you Scottish weather!