By Alexis Navarro
This summer has been one of the best years for movies everywhere. From Toy Story 5 to Devil Wears Prada 2, this past summer was seen as a revival of cinema. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey, and Obsession all stand out to me as the best summer movies released this past summer.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day was one of the most anticipated summer releases of this year. It was released July 31, 2026 and has made $2,229,461,878 worldwide. The movie has received a lot of positive reviews from both old and new fans of marvel superheroes. The movie can be for anyone of any age and can be enjoyed by people who love superheroes, Tom Holland, or Zendaya.
Tanya Bik, a Spider-Man fan and senior at Benicia High School gave her review on the new movie, saying, “the new Spider-Man was really good in my opinion. It was filled with tension, drama, plot twist, and emotion. I would definitely recommend this movie as the actors and director and all the workers put their heart and soul into it and you can tell. I loved the whole story of the movie and felt with the characters themselves and I never thought the movie was boring or slow, 10/10!”
The Odyssey was another blockbuster movie that was released this past summer, with big name actors like Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Matt Damon, and Robert Pattison. It also featured amazing sets and a compelling take on Homer’s Odyssey. Which starred Matt Damon as Odysseus, and his journey home after the Trojan War, and all the obstacles he has to face to make it home to his wife and son. It came in right after Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the box office making $1,456,145,500 worldwide.
Benicia High School Senior, Francie Mader, gave her own review on the movie, stating, “I saw The Odyssey this summer and I really enjoyed the cinematography and design, the cast gave incredible performances and the story was very compelling. Overall it was a great movie and I’m very glad I saw it in theaters!”
Obsession is personally one of my favorite summer releases, and my favorite horror movie of all time. This movie brought in not only new and original ideas, and new faces onto the big screen. It was made with a budget under $1 million and made $501.6 million worldwide making it the highest-grossing original film of the 2020s and the highest-grossing film with a budget of under $1 million ever. For a movie that had a lot of things stacked against it, the movie did better than expected, and showed that Hollywood needs new faces both behind the scenes and in the camera. Keemo H, left a five star review on rotten tomatoes saying “Best horror movie of the year!” and another review by Kate N describes the movie as “One of the best written, directed, filmed, and acted horror movies I’ve seen in a long time. More of a psychological thriller than outright scary, but it will haunt you for weeks. Absolutely go see this movie”
This past summer has brought a major comeback for movie theaters with a wide variety of new movies that have been released that can appeal to anyone who likes any genre and these three movies are must watch releases and deserve all the praise they have been receiving by the media. There was truly a movie for everyone!
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