Elysium

Rated: R

1 hr 49 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

Elysium was my last hope for this summer, and the lesson I learned was to stop getting my hopes up.

In the future, Earth has become over-populated and littered with crumbling buildings, a reminder of what once was. The poor are stuck living on Earth, while the rich get a life free of poverty and disease on the space station Elysium. Matt Damon’s character, Max, who has gotten the short end of the stick even more so than everyone else living on Earth, tries to fight his way to the utopian society up in the sky.

The Wolverine

Rated: PG-13

2 hrs 6 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

The claws are back.  And while this installment is better than 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, it still suffers the same fatal flaws of every other X-Men film. 

Despicable Me 2

Rated: PG

1 hr 38 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

I love the minions. They are the reason people go see the Despicable Me movies and who could blame them.  There is something about the minions that mix the perfect balance of cute and funny. And probably, to the surprise of many, they have become a cultural phenomenon. 

Monsters University

Rated: G

1 hr 47 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

While Monsters University passes as a solid animated film, it lacks the originality and creativity of the original, as it falls into a predictable paint-by-numbers plot. 

Pacific Rim

Rated: PG-13

2 hrs 11 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

Giant robots and monsters as tall as skyscrapers tearing each other apart while leaving a mass of destruction in their wake, what’s not to love? Fortunately for Pacific Rim, its cheesy monster movie homage masks its lack of story and weak character interactions. 

Man of Steel

Rated: PG-13

2 hrs 23 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

Man of Steel is better than The Avengers, and so far my favorite film of the year, hands down. It has a huge amount of heart and more morality/philosophical dilemas in the first ten minutes, than all of Into Darkness. And, I can not believe the amount of negativity it is receiving. Stop the hating; Man of Steel is the Superman movie we have been waiting for. 

Now You See Me

Rated: PG-13

1 hr 56 min

Staff Writer: Alison Nitsche

As cool as the magic tricks in the film were, Now You See Me was just an illusion of a great movie. 

Warm Bodies

Rated: PG-13

1 hr 37 min

Staff Writer: Alison Nitsche

Many people, including myself, originally thought Warm Bodies was going to be Twilight remade with zombies; we were wrong!

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Rated: PG-13

2 hrs 3 min

Staff Writer: Nathaniel Brayton

As the new Star Wars films draw closer, Abram’s Star Trek franchise resembles more of the lightsaber than the Enterprise. Into Darkness plays it safe and dumbs down the Star Trek universe for summer movie goers. And while it is entertaining, Into Darkness does not push any boundaries or take any risks.

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Rated: PG-13

2 hrs 23 min

Staff Writer: Alison Nitsche

Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby is known and praised as being an American classic, and although I liked both the book and newest film adaptation, neither are extraordinary.