With summer passed and the upcoming winter, there have been a lot of great movies, and more to come. However, with the writers’ strike (which officially ended at the end of September), it seems that a lot of movies will be pushed back with no clear release dates for a fair amount of movies.
The movies this past summer were really hyped up, and they held up to it. There were two movies that trumped the rest; Barbie and Oppenheimer. The hype surrounding these two movies was unparalleled by the rest. “Barbenheimer” it was dubbed, because the two movies came out on the same day and people would watch them back-to-back, marking the official return to theaters for moviegoers.
Barbie, the most feminine movie of the year was, as Barbie is, really pink, and everyone that dressed up, was wearing pink. Barbie is about equality and the transition from girlhood to womanhood. Barbie takes a very comedic and light-hearted approach to these complex topics. The Barbie Land in the movie seems like it’s from another dimension. In the movie, the contrast between the “real world” and “Barbie Land” is very drastic. Barbie Land is artificial and very colorful, but on the other hand the real world is very dull and filled with things Barbie and Ken have never experienced before.
Another movie from this summer was Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This movie is the sequel to the first movie about an alternate version of Spider-Man. The usual Spider-Man we know is Peter Parker, but in this universe the hero’s alter ego is Miles Morales, an afro-Latino teenager who goes through all the same things as the original Spider-Man but with a little twist. In the first movie we get introduced to the topic of the multiverse, or how they call it in the movie the “Spider-verse”. And in this sequel, we find out that there is a whole “headquarters” of spider-people ranging from Spider-Gwen to Spider-Plush, to even Spider-Rex, a T-Rex Spider-Man. Each one of these Spider-Men comes from different and unique universes, hence the name: Across the Spider-Verse.
Look ahead, a movie that is coming out soon is The Five Nights at Freddy’s Movie. If you don’t know, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a horror-style video game where you play as a night security guard and have to defend yourself in your office from these animatronics that come to life. As the name suggests, there are five nights where in each night the difficulty increases and new things are added. While in-game, there is a power mechanic, a flashlight, two doors, and a camera. Each of these actions use power and if you run out of power you lose. The movie coming out in October is going to be an adaptation of the game where we follow Michel Afton, played by Josh Hutcherson (known from The Hunger Games as Peta), who applies for a night-security position for the establishment, Freddy’s Fazebears Pizzera (similar to Chuck-E-Cheese). The lore behind this game is very extensive and very complicated that most people would likely have to watch a 3-hour YouTube video about it to follow the story.
Unfortunately most movies that had a set release date for the next year have been pushed back indefinitely until further notice due to the writers and actors strike, pushing against unfair wages and working conditions. The writers are being seriously overworked while not being properly compensated for that work. For example, the third installment in the Miles Morales Spider-Man movie has been pushed back with no clear release date because of the writers push back, and there are plenty more examples of similar delays.
Overall, the movies we had this year, and more that are to come, have been outstanding and have not disappointed. People are excited to see if there can be anything that can top the excitement of Barbenheimer, or if there are any movies that are actually not rushed and worked on with the proper time and put out in a timely manner.
