2019 Summer Movies in the Rear-View Mirror

There have been very, very good summer movie seasons littered with great and interesting films and there have been other summers that didn’t connect quite that well.

Entering September, Autumn is just around the proverbial corner (it officially begins on September 23rd) and school has begun for most if not all students in the U.S.

What better time to look back and the Summer Movie Season of 2019 and assess it?

Matthew Jacobs over at Huffington Post does just that, and his views parallel my own:

Let’s face it: The 2019 Summer Movie Season was dreadful

Man, do I agree with almost everything he writes in this article. From his notes regarding Disney, the big winner at the box office not only for summer, but for the entire year, to the fact that too many sequels didn’t connect and there were almost no comedies that found interest among audiences.

Thinking about the summer movie season, we started with Avengers: Endgame, the concluding chapter of the “phase 1” Marvel films. I have yet to see the film, though I fully intend to, but it made a great deal of money during its release yet, curiously, it feels to me like it was a big splash in a rather shallow pool.

I don’t see people analyzing this or that about the film, it seems like they watched it, enjoyed it, and moved on to the next big thing. Disney, of course, doesn’t care if the film is five years down the road looked upon as some kind of modern movie masterpiece. Especially when they pulled in as much money as they did from its initial and second run.

From there, though, things get sketchy.

Disney did well, also with Aladdin, The Lion King, and Toy Story 4 but, once again, I’m getting this feeling that the films were seen, enjoyed, made their money, but they won’t linger too long in the public consciousness afterwards. Toy Story in particular feels like its been played out and I wonder how much longer Disney will be able to make “live action” versions of their animated films before people lose interest in that.

I could go on and on, but I fear I’m going to start cribbing more and more ideas presented so well in Mr. Jacobs’ article and there seems little point in doing so.

So if you have a moment or two and are one of those film geeks like me and want a rundown of the stuff that worked, and didn’t, in the Summer of 2019, click on the link above.

It’s interesting stuff.