Summer in the theaters is generally a breeding ground for superheroes, aliens and merchandise-friendly animated creatures. It is a time when movie makers become lazy, giving us remakes and continuations of franchises as if no creativity is left in this world. Occasionally, a movie comes along that doesn’t follow any of those paradigms.

Set on a New England island in 1965, “Moonrise Kingdom” follows the adventures of a young boy, Sam (Jared Gilman), and girl, Suzy (Kara Hayward), after they fall in love and run away from home. Contrary to what the plot summary may lead you to believe, it is not a re-imagined Romeo and Juliet, nor is it a heart-warming family film about children overcoming adversity. It is, however, a well-told story populated with fantastic characters.

My favorite of these characters were Scout Master Ward (Edward Norton) and Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis). Both were portrayed as men wholly devoted to their jobs despite being rather bad at them until the hour of need. Norton in particular brought an earnestness to his character that made me root for him, no matter how ridiculous the situation.

And it seemed like every situation in this film was ridiculous. There was the tame, Suzy’s mother (Frances McDormand) using a megaphone in the house to corral her family, to the middling crazy, Suzy’s father (Bill Murray) throwing a shoe at Captain Sharp, to the absolutely insane, a moment I can’t write about without spoiling all the fun.

I liked this movie. It was fun and gave me a lot to think about. I left thinking about things like “Why was she wearing so much teal eye shadow?” “That kitten was SO CUTE!” and “Am I dumb? Because most of that didn’t make any sense.”

Part of my confusion came from the massive amount of detail in the movie. Most scenes were packed with not only relevant plot information but tons of background elements. A memorable one was a small boy doing backflips on a trampoline. Look for him if you see the movie.

This movie may be difficult to find in theaters, since it came out nearly three weeks ago. If you can find it, I whole-heartedly recommend going. “Moonrise Kingdom” offers a nice reprieve from the big-budget action movies and candy-coated family flicks that generally dominate the summer season.