Summer Science Fiction Movies

This is shaping up to be quite a summer for blockbuster science fiction movies.

Here are the movies that I'm aware of:
War of the Worlds
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Star Wars Episode III
Serenity
 

War of the Worlds
This is the new Tom Cruise/Stephen Spielberg collaboration, a reuniting of the team that brought us Minority Report. That was an ok movie, too dependent on special effects and at times hard to follow. Cruise is an actor who rarely connects with this moviegoer anymore, and Spielberg will have to wildly exceed my expectations to make me forget the travesty of A.I.
Still, the trailers have looked kinda cool.
Chances of sucking: 50 percent.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
Based on the beloved Douglas Adams books. The obvious thought comes to mind: how can they possibly not botch this one? It's just too quirky, too unique, too subtle, too brainy to survive a big-budget movie treatment. Right? Plus its British.
But despite my attempts to lower my expectations, I am hoping against hope that this somehow captures the silly, brilliant, and generous spirit of Adams’ whimsical books. I think it's worth noting that Adams himself began the work on this before his death, and that the whole enchilada began as a radio series, then was a book, then a TV series. All were excellent, from what I hear, so maybe they'll pull it off again.
Chances of sucking: 70 percent, but I'm still pulling for this dark horse.

Episode III
"This helmet is chafing my eyebrows. I swear!"
Sorry, now that I've got that out of the way,  I can tell you that I actually believe this to be the best bet for a good science fiction movie this summer. George Lucas is bound to pull out all the stops for this one, which I would think will be the last Star Wars movie he will do. Also, the unending and well-deserved criticism he’s received for the last two movies has, I suspect, lit a fire under him. Well, at least I hope so. If he’s approached this one with a chip on his shoulder and a desire to prove his critics wrong, that can only be good for Star Wars fans.
But if he puts another almost unwatchable mess up on the screen again, well, we’ll always have this:
http://www.sequentialpictures.com/moviestarwarsepisode3.html
Chances of being as appealing as a nebulan nerfherder: 30 percent

Serenity
The science fiction movie by Josh Whedon is probably not going to get the mega-media-blitz that these others will, but it’s a pretty big deal among certain circles. The Buffy/Angel fans are out there and they are eager to see Whedon vindicated after his “Firefly” TV series, which this is based on, was canceled after one season. Wheadon is very good at hip ‘n witty teen dialogue and drama with brooding 20somethings, but I’m still not convinced that Firefly really had the spark of the other two shows. The trailer features a girl with wicked kung fu skills. Oh, that again?
Chances of sucking like hellbeast: 60 percent