JUNE 20 — Unlike the first few months of the year where there really was some exciting variety to the movies offered on our movie screens, the arrival of June marks the beginning of Hollywood’s summer blockbuster season. 

What this means is that distributors and cinema operators will be dedicating most of their screens to these summer blockbusters to account for the huge number of people willing to spend their hard earned bucks to see these movies.

Film lovers have always had a bone to pick with this as what it also means is less screen time being dedicated to Malaysian films and other films of the non-blockbuster kind. The cold hard fact is that these blockbusters bring in really big bucks, regularly crossing the RM20 million mark with the current champion being Furious 7 (RM55 million) followed by Iron Man 3 (RM45 million) and Transformers: Age Of Extinction (RM44 million). 

Even the universally reviled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brought in a healthy RM17 million in Malaysian box-office. So it really is a simple case of the supply needing to match the demand.

Still, blockbusters or not, sometimes a theme can emerge among the films currently playing in Malaysian cinemas and this week it looks like movie bonanza for kids as there are three very different types of blockbusters playing here now that are obviously aimed at kids. Let’s see if they’re any good, shall we?

Cast member Chris Pratt poses at the premiere of 'Jurassic World' in Hollywood, California, June 9, 2015. — Reuters pic

Jurassic World

A massive, massive global box-office hit, hitting US$511 million worldwide in its first three days, there will undoubtedly be a backlash from people who just want to be contrary (even though they might not realise it, they’re just wired that way). 

I say ignore the backlash (even the ones involving a character running away from a T-Rex in high heels) and go in and enjoy the movie for what it is – a supremely entertaining theme park bonanza that miraculously resurrects the gleeful magic and wonder of the original Jurassic Park. 

Nostalgia can sometimes taint people’s memory but people seem to forget that the original was obviously made, as a lot of classic Spielberg pop movies are, as a family movie. I literally felt that thing people call "movie magic" when I watched Jurassic Park in a packed old cinema in Ipoh, and I felt it again when I watched Jurassic World almost 22 years later. Colin Trevorrow (director of the awesome lo-fi sci fi flick Safety Not Guaranteed) was definitely the right choice to do this one.

Minions

I told my friend before watching the movie that if Minions turned out to be as smart and funny for adults as it surely will be for kids, there’s a very big chance that it might even turn out to be 2015’s all-round box-office champ, such is the level of anticipation and familiarity everyone already has with its beloved characters. 

After watching it, I’d have to say that while it’s still perfectly cute and laugh out loud funny in a lot of places, it’s nowhere near the Pixar classics so beloved by both kids and adults. 

It will undoubtedly score big at the box-office, and parents won’t have to worry about getting bored when taking their kids to see it, but it’s just a shame that the film-makers missed the chance to turn it into something really special as this kind of already established and built-in love for its characters doesn’t come along every day.

Poltergeist

This is another film that will surely fall victim to nostalgia’s rose coloured glasses as people will be harping on the fact that the Spielberg-produced and Tobe Hooper-directed original will always be better. I made it a point to re-watch the original before going in to see the remake, and I’d have to say that I’m definitely not disappointed, at all. In fact, I’d say that this remake will do the same thing that the original did for a whole new generation of kids – scare them silly in a PG-rated, wholesome and wholly entertaining way, just like the original did for their parents in 1982. 

If you’ve seen the original, let me tell you that there are only five major differences – the revelation about the whole burial ground thing occurs way earlier, the identity of the family member who goes in to save the little girl is different, the psychic/ghost hunter is now male (I doubt anyone can ever replace, let alone top, Zelda Rubinstein’s turn as Tangina), there’s an additional scary set-piece involving the ghost hunting crew and you can see what the "other side" looks like this time (before you scream Insidious, know that Insidious feels like a tribute or borderline rip-off of the original Poltergeist anyway). 

Other than that, this is a comfortingly reverential update that hits all the same buttons for 2015 people that it did for 1982 people, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

** This is the personal opinion of the columnist.