Considering that this seems to be the summer of superheroes and 3D turds, it was nice to hear that Jon Favreau was making an honest-to-goodness summer blockbuster with real actors (no Shia here!) and no fancy extra-dimensional trickery. Yet, I was sad to hear that many of the advance reviews of Cowboys & Aliens were largely negative. I didn’t read any of them but I can see where they probably are coming from. It’s not as good as I hoped but it was enjoyable enough. At least 66% of it was.

The late 1800s must have been a terribly interesting time what with the recent conclusion of the Civil War, a burgeoning industrial nation threatening the traditional old-timey towns, and of course those greedy, gold-seeking aliens who snatch up unwilling science project participants. But no air conditioning. That’s a deal breaker for me. When Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of nowhere, he doesn’t seem fazed by the lack of air conditioning, or even his lack of memory. After dispatching a few guys and acquiring a dog, he meanders into town where he is stitched up by the preacher (Clancy Brown), accosts the local entitled douchebag, and is arrested by the Sheriff for outstanding warrants of mayhem and murder.

Jake even has a history with the local douchebag’s father, and grizzled businessman, Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) who is still peeved that Jake ran off with something of minor interest: a booty of gold. As Jake and douchebag are loaded up for transport to the federal marshals, flying alien craft invade the town, blowing stuff up, and snatching up poor hardworking townsfolk. Jake manages to take down one of vessels courtesy of an technologically anachronistic bracelet attached to his wrist, causing the other craft to retreat. Jake, Dolarhyde, the preacher, and Sam Rockwell then set off in pursuit of the aliens to free their people.

Considering that there are no less than five credited screenwriters plus an additional screen story credit, Cowboys & Aliens could easily have been an awful mess, not unlike another based-on-a-comic western from last summer. That’s Jonah Hex in case you were wondering. But the majority of the story is pretty good, especially at the beginning as Jake and the townsfolk are scrambling to understand what the hell is going on. As everything unfolds, we get a good look at this lowly town just trying to scrap by and the people that inhabit it. Most summer movies (hell, a lot of movies period) skip any sort of characterization but we get that in spades here. It is nice to actually be able to connect with a character before they are carted off to the mothership or killed.

It is unfortunate, however, that the rest of the movie did not feel as real as the characters. Surely, no one can argue that Favreau is an incompetent director and he shows here that he has the skills to create some tense and exciting sequences such as when the band of townies run across Jake’s old gang or the remaining Apache tribe in the area. But, the fact that CG is used entirely for the aliens is disappointing. I can understand for practical purposes, a CG flying craft is much easier than a practical one. But that the aliens are entirely CG is almost inexcusable, especially for a movie that is almost positioned as the anti-2011 summer movie. The design of the aliens is a bother since they really have no defining characteristics except for their bizarre physiology. Their motive is questionable as well but that is all but called out by Olivia Wilde’s character.

The real problem begins once the human characters launch their assault on their aliens. Everything up to then is solid, if not spectacular. But the final act of the movie pulls out the cliché checklist and follows it to a T especially when it comes to the payoff to poorly written character moments, hero moments from previously less than heroic characters, and the conclusion of character arcs you can see from a mile away. For me, this was not enough to destroy the excitement up until that point, but it is a bad ending tacked onto an otherwise good film.

It’s a shame though that the film did not deliver on its promise all around. The cinematography was beautiful (in fairness, a lot of westerns are), the music by Harry Gregson-Williams was appropriate (more than I can say for that Mastadon BS from Hex), and the characters were fleshed out so you actually give a damn about them. Favreau has done well for himself with the Iron Man series and C&A proves that he can branch out successfully. Just leave the written-by-committee at home next time.

Duncan Jones’ Moon is a science fiction story in the purest sense of the term. It concerns the plight of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) working alone on the moon running a facility that mines Helium-3 for an energy company back on Earth. Inside of the first scene the audience is crushed by the sense of isolation shown to us as Sam has only GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) the station Artificial Intelligence with whom to communicate. Through the simple premise of a man alone on the moon, this film explores speculative technology that leads Sam and the viewer on an emotional and introspective journey of what it really means to be human.

If it seems that Hollywood is all about the easy dollar these days with remakes, adaptations, and sequels to existing properties, you would be correct. But let us remember a time, back in the day if you will, that movies could be movies without launching franchises. Here are several pretty big movies that may (or may not) have missed their shot at spawning offspring.

9. Twister
The inclusion of this film may be premature, but it is hard to believe that 1996′s $240 million blockbuster did not spawn a sequel. Maybe a sequel could shift the focus to Alan Ruck and Philip Seymour Hoffman in a small town where tornadoes are targeting a nuclear power plant. Oh wait. Zack Morris already did that movie.

8. Independence Day
This is another one with recent rumbles of a sequel but who knows when we might see more of Bill Pullman playing President Awesome or Will Smith being … every other action star Will Smith has ever played. Now, I get that this is not a high-caliber movie but who did not cheer when Randy Quaid did very suggestive things to that alien spaceship? Anyone? Okay, moving along now.

7. Runaway
You have all of the elements of classic 80s and cheese in this movie: mustache, KISS, Kirstie Alley. Why did Michael Crichton never think to get on a sequel where Lois goes hay-wire and carves up young Bobby for Thanksgiving dinner? Get Paul Stanley this time as the evil genius behind it all, add Shelley Long in the mix and you’ve got yourself a blockbuster going!

6. Galaxy Quest
Star Trek fans may not have liked it too much but Galaxy Quest was fine cinema spoof and/or satire (I can never tell which) at its very best. I am sure it can’t be hard to drag Tim Allen back for another after the latest Toy Story movie comes out. The rest of the cast … eh, that may be a bit harder. As long as Sam Rockwell is in, I can dig it.

5. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Director Robert Zemeckis had over a decade after the first before he would go crazy with motion-capture animation, more than enough time for a sequel to reunite Roger Rabbit, his lovely wife Jessica, baby Herman, and the rest of the animated and live-action cast. Hell, if Bob Hoskins wasn’t available, we could have lived with Kenneth Branagh in his place.

4. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
If anyone could make calling in for a sick day from work entertaining, it would be Ferris Bueller. You know you’ve played hooky from work to sit around and read Movie Scum or plant in the garden. It would be tough now without John Hughes but to see Ferris weasel his way out of staff meetings and team building exercises just to drink beer and watch porn would be the catharsis of an entire working class.

3. Office Space
Realizing it would be next to impossible to recapture the passive-aggressive, self-loathing sense of the characters in the original, I would love to see another workplace comedy that nails the characterizations of the smug, SOB boss, annoying co-workers, and sense of dread when walking into a cubicle farm or retail establishment or fast food restaurant or anything else Mike Judge deems is funny.

2. Blade Runner
Sure, so it tanked at the box office back in 1982. But since then, the tales of replicant-hunting Deckard have been etched into the mainstream of cult cinema and beloved by all … except me that is. Possibly a forthcoming sequel could entice me to actually sit and watch the entire first part without falling asleep or becoming insanely homicidal from boredom. So what if it’s over twenty years later? That didn’t stop another Harrison Ford series from being unjustly resurrected.

1. Any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (except Conan, Predator or Terminator)
Just look at his resume and tell me you would not want to see a sequel to Commando, The Running Man, or Total Recall. Hell, I’d even be game for a Kindergarten Cop sequel if it was Ah-nuld in high school English as he wields puns in his thick Austrian accent. I would really love though a True Lies sequel if James Cameron can get off his giant CGI Smurf infatuation.

Three years ago, a guy like me would have never had a concept of, nor would have cared about, a B-series comic book hero like Iron Man. Sure, he is a superhero featured in a barrage of comic books but Iron Man did not have the household appeal of the other more well-known comic book superheroes. With 2008′s feature Iron Man, that all changed as the wealthy son of an intellectual rose to stand along side the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel.

Picking up where the previous film left off, Tony Stark has outed himself as Iron Man and is subsequently dealing with the consequences of the injury that birthed his suited armor and the power it entails. However, as a man who has “privatized world peace,” Stark enjoys his adventures fighting the big baddies as much as his detractors like to point out the danger in his technology’s existence. When the son of his father’s former collaborator creates a powerful suit of his own, Stark is busy fending off other corporate slimeballs, frenemies, and disgruntled Russian physicists.

Iron Man is almost the polar opposite to a superhero like Batman. He may do what he does somewhat begrudgingly, but Stark is drunk on the power he exudes as Iron Man. He was a filthy rich playboy before the incident that caused shrapnel to circle his heart and a minor medical impairment does not cease those activities. He has the money, the technology, and the ambition to become the most important man in the world (suited or not). The film mirrors Stark’s lifestyle as instead of brooding shots of urban landscapes and harping on the disease of human nature, Iron Man the character and the movie are focused on spectacle and importance that being a superhero would likely carry.

Most of the main cast from the first film are back for the second installment, save for Don Cheadle taking over for Terrence Howard in yet another jarring recast. Robert Downy Jr. is still on his incredible streak of awesome movies and characters that was cemented by his first turn donning the Iron Man gear. His portrayal of Stark is a magical combination of cocky jack-ass with a dash of used-car salesman slime wrapped in a cozy shell of a guy that you would admire but probably would not be friends with (at least not for very long). Gwyneth Paltrow fortunately is given more to do this time around as she assumes controlling power of Stark Industries.

Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell are along for the ride as a sexy double (or maybe even triple) agent and a wormy Stark Industries competitor respectively. Johansson might not have immediately sprung to mind as the best choice for Black Window but she pulled it off nicely with a good balance of strength to play off of Downy and kick-ass tendencies to take down a dozen guards in the blink of an eye. I especially enjoyed Rockwell though as the wimpy Justin Hammer, a guy so seemingly inept and wishy-washy that you wonder how even ascended to more than a janitorial supervisor. See also Galaxy Quest for another wonderful Rockwell performance.

The one new addition to the cast I was somewhat disappointed in was Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko. Coming off of a Downy Jr.-ish comeback, Rourke’s character was almost too one-dimensional comparatively to the rest of the cast and especially to Jeff Bridges’ villain in the first. As the scorned son of a former Stark Industries collaborator, Vanko seeks to avenge his father’s passing on Stark. This is all well and good but Rourke disappears for stretches of the movie and save for two very brief scenes when he is battling Iron Man, he role is mostly pedestrian as he tinkers with his physicist stuff. Also MIA quite a bit was Cheadle as Rhodey who steals an Iron Man suit and releases it to the government and Hammer because he feels Stark is a bit too immature to handle the power.

In all just like PBF commented on in a previous episode, Iron Man 2 falls into the same trap as Batman Returns. The core group of characters is greatly expanded to include new friends and foes taking time away from the existing cast and leading quite a lot going on. Fortunately, most of this is tied up within the actual story (the whole SHIELD subplot notwithstanding) but things could have gone much smoother with a more simplistic and straight-forward story.

Iron Man 2 is a solid picture though. Maybe not as solid as the first due to some of the small nitpicks that I pointed out but it is still an great couple of hours to spend with largely entertaining characters and stories.