This summer graced the world with a plethora of movies that will warm our shelves for, possibly, the rest of eternity. From Pixar’s Inside Out, to the remake of the Fantastic Four, we weren’t left without an exciting Friday night at the movies. There’s more to the summer than beaches and vacation—settling in for a good movie is another great way to spend the rare free time we get in between internships and jobs. And this summer’s blockbusters provided some great entertainment during that free time.
Kicking off the summer in May of this year, Marvel brought us: Avengers: Age of Ultron. In this brilliant movie, Earth’s mightiest heroes team up with two unlikely heroes to save another city from a peacekeeping program—created by none other than Tony Stark and Bruce Banne—gone wrong. The film is filled with classic one-liners and a great sub-plot building off the already existing Marvel storylines, leading us to Marvel’s next epic; Captain America: Civil War. I went to see this movie shortly after opening night and I believe it is just as amazing as the first one—it’s definitely a must-see!
 Also in May, the entertainment world gave us Pitch Perfect 2, a wonderful sequel to an already a ca-awesome movie. In this second installment, the Bellas face another humiliating performance at the Lincoln Center and must enter themselves into an international competition to redeem themselves, but there’s a catch—no American group has ever won! Finally, May ended with a bang as Disney’s newest movie Tomorrowland hit theaters, taking us all back to 1952 to figure out the future. In the movie, dreamers are destined to run Tomorrowland and add to its greatness. But when the park’s creators lose their curiosity, it’s up to Athena, an android first tasked with bringing dreamers to the park in 1952, to find dreamers in the current time period and bring pins to them so they can save the futuristic haven—and the world. I also went to see this movie over the summer and loved being pulled into this world, and was sitting on the edge of my seat as I waited to find out what would happen to the main characters Casey, Frank, and Athena.
All that was just the beginning, though, because June brought us plenty more excitement and wonder. First up was Minions, a spin-off movie from the Despicable Me series, where the Minions, including Stuart, Bob and Kevin, search throughout history to find a villainous master to serve. This epically hilarious movie sees the silly henchmen serve everyone from a T-Rex, a caveman, and finally Despicable Me’s lovable villain Gru, which is where we find the minions when the first Despicable Me movie begins.
Shortly after we learn the true past of the Minions, we learn about what happened to the Jurassic Park that John Hammond first imagined. Jurassic World shows us what the next level in the popular amusement park filled with genetically engineered extinct animals, looks like in the present day. The attractions at this park are various prehistoric animals found in the Jurassic Period, including, but not limited to: a Mosasaurus, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptors, Pterosaurs, and a new hybrid species Indominus Rex. When the Indominus Rex gets loose in the park, operations manager Claire and the velociraptor trainer Owen must find a way to stop this dinosaur before it harms the park’s guests. When I saw this movie, I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed amazed at the amount of science and technology used in creating it; it was beyond great.
After the adrenaline rush that is Jurassic World, Pixar’s newest movie, Inside Out, came to bring tears to everyone’s eyes while inspiring everyone with its deeper message. The movie follows the life of Riley, through her emotions in her head: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear. Joy tries to keep Riley happy, but when Sadness accidentally interferes, we travel through an emotional whirlwind to learn that it’s okay to be sad about something and no one has to be happy all the time. I loved this movie when I saw it, and I think it’s definitely a must-see for everyone. June ended with the release of MAX, a film about an loyal dog who helped Marines In Afghanistan. When Kyle Wincott, Max’s handler, dies in Afghanistan, Max is brought back home to the U.S. and must re-adjust to normal life. He warms up to Justin, Kyle’s brother, but has a hard time adjusting to life without the daily threat of dangers and reacts aggressively one day, causing him to be caught by animal control. Will Justin save Max before animal control euthanized him? Watch this exciting movie to find out!
July began with two action-packed and uplifting movies: Terminator Genisys and Magic Mike XXL. After four previous movies, Terminator Genisys kicks off in 2029, where John Connor leads the Human Resistance in launching a final offensive against Skynet, an artificial general intelligence agency who wants to get rid of the human race. Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, John Connor, and the Guardian must work together to deactivate terminators left and right, but their most important—and dangerous—mission is to travel back in time to 2017 and stop Skynet once and for all. Another movie from the beginning of July is Magic Mike XXL, which begins three years after the original and finds Mike as a furniture business owner, like he always dreamed. Mike travels to Tampa after hearing that Dallas has left the crew and is given an offer to join his old friends in their last show in Myrtle Beach. He agrees to join them for one last time before they all split up and go their separate ways.
Marvel released another action-packed movie this summer with Ant-Man. In this epic movie about a man who can shrink down to the size of an ant, Scott Lang (Ant-Man, played by Paul Rudd) teams up with Hank Pym to try and steal the yellow jacket from Darren Cross and a device from Avengers headquarters, in a movie full of great jokes and exciting action. Also in July was John Green’s Paper Towns, a movie adapted from another of his bestselling novels. Q, who is in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman, accompanies Margo on a night where she gets back at everyone of her “friends” who hurt her. But the very next day, Margo disappears, leaving Q with the belief that she left clues for him to find her, and he goes on a crazy adventure with his friends to find where she ran off to. I saw this movie and it’s definitely a great movie just like John Green’s The Fault in our Stars, but less dramatic and sad. It maintained a balance of humor and excitement, perfect for a night out at the movies.
Southpaw is the last movie that July brought us. After losing his wife, Billy Hope turns to drugs and alcohol as he searches for his brother who shot her. Billy spirals out of control and hits rock bottom, having his house and possessions repossessed and custody of his daughter taken by Child Protective services. In turning his life around, Billy fights to become sober and to get his daughter back by getting a job as a boxing trainer.
           Lastly, August brought a couple of good movies as well. First came the animated Shaun the Sheep: The Movie. Shaun and the flock he lives with are always trying new things to add to their boring lives on the farm, but it usually backfires on them. In this film, Shaun and the flock accidentally knock The Farmer’s mobile home, with The Farmer inside, down the hill and he rolls into town! The sheep must then follow the trailer and stop it from crashing into various things while attempting to blend into the human scene and keep the Farmer from finding out what happened.
The last big movie that came out this summer before we returned to campus was The Fantastic Four. Reed and Ben are recruited to join Storm’s children, Sue and Johnny, in completing a quantum gate designed by Victor who also joins the team. Though their experiment is successful, NASA denies their request to join the expedition, so Reed, Ben, Johnny, Sue, and Victor decide to take an illegal voyage to Planet Zero where everything goes wrong, and they all rush back to their shuttle, accidentally leaving Victor behind. A machine explodes before they can leave which causes molecular alterations to the four of them: Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue can become invisible, Johnny has the ability to engulf his entire body in fire, and Ben turns into a giant rock person. When the government places them in their custody and confines and studies them, Reed blames himself and escapes the facility, causing the other three to try and find him.
           This summer’s movies were full of suspense and action, along with a little romance and childlike wonder. With a mix of adult dramas, animated children’s films, and everything in between, there was a movie for everyone this summer. There’s no doubt that next summer’s list of movies will be just as good, if not better, than these were.Â
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All photos from here.