Summer movies

I don't go to the cinema very often. I think the last time I went was to see Spiderman 3. Going to the theater is too expensive to risk seeing a movie I won't like. I generally only see a movie in the cinemas if I'm pretty sure I'm also going to buy the DVD. Although recently even that has changed -- I'm not buying any more DVDs and I don't have a Blue-ray player.

Food at cinemas are also way too expensive. The last time I bought cinema food was in grade school. Though I guess technically even that was a big fat "no" -- the food was purchased by the parents of the birthday boy.

Anywhoo, after having carped on how expensive cinemas are, I have to say that this spring/summer there are quite a few movies I'll most likely see in the theaters.

May 2nd: Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr.. I never read Iron Man comics like I did Spider-man and X-Men, but I do know the backstory. Why do I want to see this? Mostly because I'm a Marvel comic fan (with a few notable exceptions), the previews look good, and it's been a long while since I've seen anything with Downey in it.

May 16th: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This movie is a maybe. I liked the first in this series, but I'm worried about whether the sequel will focus on the character of Prince Caspian or on the Pevensie children -- if the latter, good, if the former, bad. My worries are probably unfounded, but still significant enough to make me hesitant to see this one in the cinema.

May 22nd: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, starring Harrison Ford. This one is a definite YES. I'm a huge fan of the Indiana Jones movies, and I'm really looking forward to this latest (and last?) sequel. I was contemplating buying the DVD collection until Blue-ray/HD-DVD appeared.

June 20th: Get Smart, starring Steve Carell. I'm seeing this one for nostlagia. I liked the t.v. series with Don Adams in the title role -- my only regret is that I was never able to watch this show consistently. There are significantly fewer episodes I've seen than not.

July 18th: The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale. Why am I seeing this one? Because the first of this series was great. I can't decide which is better, the first Batman movie starring Michael Keaton, or Bale's first outing as Bruce Wayne. Nevertheless, The Dark Knight gets my nod because of the quality of the first.

July 25th: The X-Files: I Want to Believe, starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Chalk this one as a movie that I thought would never materialize. I watched the first movie, Fight the Future, because I'm a HUGE fan of the X-Files t.v. series (maybe not so much after Duchovny left). It's been what, a decade since the series ended, but I'm still going to watch this one. Why? I guess nostalgia comes into play. I expect this movie to be average to above average, but not great.

There are other movies coming out this Spring/Summer that sound interesting, but they're more in the rental category rather than the spend my money at the cinema category.

Currently I'm debating whether to see Iron Man this weekend; if I do it would go against my rule of never watching films on opening weekends. Whenever I've decided to break this rule, I've always regretted it.

UPDATE: Whoops, the last movie I saw at the cinema was The Kingdom, October of last year, while Spider-man 3 was in May. Not really so long ago as I thought.