Captain America: The First Avenger

I get excited about most comic book movies where I know a little about the character. I have also loved the Captain ever since the fight from the Civil War series where he beat the crap out of Spiderman. I wasn't too excited about this movie though because the last Comic book movie Chris Evans was in (besides Scott Pilgrim) was the Fantastic Four and it was terrible. Not his fault of course but it is hard to disassociate  the two when they share a leading man. Putting that aside, I enjoyed this movie. My low expectations could have been a factor but I left feeling like Captain America has a future in good movies. The movie did seem hurried a bit at moments but that seems almost unavoidable when covering the span of Captain America's career.
Backstory of a character, or his development, his debatably the most important aspect of a comic book movie. Who cares about Steve Rogers (Captain America) if he just gets pumped full of super Government steroids then fights Hitler? Sure it's cool but we need to feel a connection with him and they did a good job on this one. Steve Rogers spends the first 30% of the movie as a scrawny asthmatic young man dying to help his country but finding himself denied. He gets found by Stanley Tucci, kind of randomly, and gets put into training for the candidacy of this new experiment. This is where we see Roger's character in action. He is smart, dedicated, and selfless. He would take a grenade for strangers and a highly experimental drug just to help his fellow man. He seems very much like Spiderman in this regard. Starting out as a very small weakling then becoming a super agile and strong powerhouse. I don't want to spoil the end with more plot points but I would like to say this was an entertaining film with some moments of heart. Not my first recommendation for the summer but it is on par with Marvel's earlier big screen adaptation: Thor. It was fun and entertaining the way a summer popcorn flick should be but with too few moments of heart that would make it into a great movie. Go see it if you are a big comic book nerd or at the very least rent it before the Avengers comes out next summer so you don't feel lost. Oh yea, and definitely wait for something after the credits...
Excelsior

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser!!!

I technically am aloud to rant about this under my rules for this blog that I made up myself. I am ranting. There is a movie involved. This teaser is INCREDIBLE! It shows us the perfect amount to get totally, out of this world jazzed about July 20, 2012. Why is Gordon in the hospital, seemingly dying!?!?!! Why has Bruce lost faith in his mantle!?!?! The scene where Bane is ominously approaching the caped crusader while he backs up, seemingly overwhelmed physically for the first time! Bane seems ominous, and totally frightening. I cannot wait for this!

http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/watch-first-teaser-trailer-for-chris-nolans-the-dark-knight-rises/

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Harry Potter defined a generation. J.K Rowling created a phenomenon that books have never achieved before and probably won't be in my lifetime. I find it a great honor that I got to be part of the generation that discovered their love of reading due to Miss Rowling. That being said, the movies have always disappointed me on some level. Goblet of Fire was made as if no one on set read the book at all. Dumbledore was a raving lunatic and the triwizard tournament was devoid of great action and more importantly, Dobby the House elf. Ever since that legacy insulting film, the franchise has improved dramatically (not saying too much because of how bad #4 was). But I'll try to focus on this movie alone. HP&DHP2 was an action packed, emotionally charged drama that closed out the film series as good as I expected. I was entertained and at moments, emotionally engaged in the characters. The special effects were fantastic and the battle at the end did the wizarding world justice. That being said, WHY would they change anything in the movie. There were important moments in the book that happened for a reason and the writers decided they knew better than the best selling author of all time and switched things up. I understand adding extra stuff (Luna and Neville love story) or taking away minor stuff but why change things for seemingly no reason?! First of this would be Ron and Hermione's kiss (I know I'm a girl...shut up). In the book, they kiss because Ron says something that means a lot to Hermione and she finally lays one on Ron. In the movie they kiss after an adrenaline charged moment making it seem like a drunken kiss as the bar or that the adrenaline is what turned them on rather than any character driven reason. It was a cheap trick for a laugh. Frustrating. 

The best part of the book is arguably the Story of Snape, which seemed rushed to me. But people won't watch or award a movie that is too long (Avatar, Titanic, LOTR series, Ben Hur, Dark Knight etc) so they should have hurried. Please don't hurry through something important because of some false notion that length will ruin a movie. Take some time!!! 

Also, after Harry finds out his fate, he heads to the forbidden forest but on his way out hidden under his cloak he runs into Neville. He tells Neville that he must kill the snake in case Ron or Hermione are dead. This is a HUGE PART OF THE STORY. Instead of doing this, they have Harry speak with Hermione and Ron which ruins the entire emotional difficulty Harry has to leave. He can't bring himself to speak with Ron, Hermione, or Ginny because he knows he'll never leave if he speaks with them. The mark of a hero. He sacrifices his true desires for the good of others! This is a defining moment for Harry but instead of this the movie decides to have an emotional goodbye between Harry, Ron, and Hermione! This frustrated me so much because it was this huge emotional goodbye that didn't need to happen! Also, it made since that Neville attacks the snake at the end of the book instead of voldemort with the sword. Harry asked him to! Neville has the drawn out set of scenes where he heroically kills the snake because people would be way too stupid to recognize his heroism if it was quick. They needed to draw it out and ham it up. I liked Neville finally getting his moment in glory but the book made more sense. I think they did a great job with the entrance into the forest and King's Cross with Dumbledore. This being my favorite part of the book, I was very excited they did it as the book was written. 

But of course my satisfaction is short lived because of Harry and Voldemort's final showdown. Don't get me wrong, their last fight was very entertaining but it ruined Harry's sacrifice at the end. In the Book, Harry and Voldemort cast one conflicting spell on each other which results in the Elder wand turning on Voldemort to kill him. They ONLY reason this happened was because of the elder wand. Harry was not the better wizard than Voldemort. In fact, he could not have killed Voldemort on skill alone. He was under the protection of greater magic than Voldemort knew. This was the point. Harry battled a wizard he never should be able to beat but Voldemort's arrogance blinded him to the truth. A truly powerful scene in the book. In the movie, however, they have along drawn out fight that makes it seem Harry could fight off Voldemort with any skill. This was stupid. Voldemort, while pure evil, was possibly the most powerful wizard in the Harry Potter Universe. But they made it a drawn out fight because the makers of the movie decided that viewers wouldn't be full of action already with a 30+ minute battle scene at hogwarts between thousands of wizards. Uh Duh the people need more action because they are stupid. Just give them more Pew Pew and they'll be happy. It works for Michael Bay right? Well the difference between the two is that my generation grew up loving these characters for who they are. Reading books has zero PEW PEW outside of the imagination and we loved them anyway. We loved Harry's bravery and stubbornness, Hermione's brains and conscience, and Ron's humor and humanity. We want character, story, and emotion. Pew pew has its place and I love it sometimes but these characters didn't need it. They would have been great had they just gotten Harry's final taunt and explanation to Voldemort why he could not possibly win then the quick Avada Kedavra vs Expelliarmis to defeat Voldemort. 

But as I said before, the movie was pretty good. It is tough for me to turn off 11 years of being a fan of the book to love the movies the way others do. My expectations are too high. These books shaped my childhood and leaving anything out seems like heresy to me. 

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good"

Green Lantern

Comic book movies are tough to pull off correctly. Comic books are set in fantasy worlds where aliens save the planet and mutant animals biting someone is beneficial somehow. This is a hindrance because dark, realistic films are the rage right now which counters some of the preset universes of comics. This benefits movies like The Dark Knight but movies like Green lantern are having trouble bridging the gap. GL did what FF4 did a few years ago. It seemed to miss the important parts of the characters and instead focused on their social quirks for too long. Sure we understand Hal Jordan a little better with his father's untimely death. We understand his fear when he locks up in mid air but how did he become one of the best pilots in the world with that phobia? He didn't understand overcoming his fear yet.  This isn't a guy who is down and out or lost within himself. He is a ridiculously good looking world class pilot who hooks up with beautiful women all the time...boo hoo. Yea your father died when you were young in a plane crash but then you choose to fly planes!? A slight phobia at 50,000 foot free fall doesn't make him epic, it makes him human. And how did veteran GL's get RAPED by paralax 5 at a time but Ryan Reynold's was able to beat him solo after a couple of weeks with the ring. Does experience count for nothing? Abin Sur was the greatest GL who already defeated paralax but he got ambushed and died. So the other 3.5k GL suck at their job? They don't understand courage like this model-like human does? There is a line where Killawog says humans think they are the center of the universe... Seriously? The script justified him by us writing a movie that made a human the messiah to the GL core! They have an infinite amount of experience but Ryan Reynold says the oath and summons fighter jets so he is the savior of the universe!? He had the ring for like a week! It just didn't make sense even with my attempt to turn off this part of my brain. Plus before all this the best he could come up with was a lame race track to save the flailing helicopter! Like a week after this juvenile attempt at heroics, he saves the ENTIRE UNIVERSE!!!!
The movie just felt cheesy without trying to be. It felt like FF4, the Hulk, and Spiderman 3. It didn't succeed where other movies have.
 Superman becomes the last of his species (almost) when his world was destroyed and feels the weight of his new world on his shoulders, Batman pretty much becomes insane with his parents death, Spiderman is a scrawny 15 year old hated by the very people he protects. These are qualities of a hero. Sacrifice with a sense of detachment. GL has these qualities too but the movie didn't focus on that. They focused on Ryan Reynold's abs and his ability to be funny. Why not show him younger learning how to fly and overcome his father's shadow? How about showing him trying other professions before he is sucked into the world of flight? I don't really care if it isn't 100% accurate to the comics. I just want a comic book movie 100% accurate to the character. X-men first class wasn't exactly like the comic book story lines but the characters were and that's what made it fantastic. These directors and writers have 50+ years of character development to work with but for whatever reason (studio execs, producers, appealing to the masses etc) they focus on flash instead of substance. And the sad thing with the flashy pew pew, it wasn't even good. Even when Transformers isn't great with some stuff, the CGI pew pew is awesome and I feel entertained. I really wanted this one to be good. I don't know much about GL and I know he has more heart than the movie gave him.

Super 8

JJ Abrams has created something special with this one. He has taken his love of mystery, story telling, and characters and combined them into quite possibly the best two hours you will spend at the theater this summer. Abrams' Super 8 had me feeling oddly nostalgic of my childhood when I watched movies like E.T. Jurassic Park, or Indiana Jones. He has given us what Spielberg gave to us, popcorn movies with heart. Something has happened to movies in the passed decade, with exceptions of course, that seem to communicate heart and entertainment are mutually exclusive. You can't have entertaining action and CGI while developing characters that the audience cares about! Well Abrams proved this wrong with Super 8. He takes the time to develop his main ensemble of middle school film lovers so when the action hits, the audience genuinely cares for their well being. It has been too long since I have had goosebumps, emotional upheaval, and suspenseful fear in the same movie. 

Abram's story of a mysterious creature being let loose in a small town is only the backdrop of middle school children transitioning from childhood into adulthood. The main character, Joe, is a middle school boy who starts out the movie attempting to cope with the death of his mother. He is left with a loving, yet stern, father who doesn't understand his new found role of both mother and father. Joe is left to fend for himself with only his fellow film makers to help. Throughout the movie, Joe learns of loss, love, and the necessity of letting go.

X-Men First Class

X Men: First Class is the first movie since The Dark Knight that exceeded my already high expectations. Hype can kill a movie. It has happened far too much to me in my life so I attempt to avoid it when possible but because of my love of the X-Men Universe, I could not help but be hopeful. Not only was the X-Men universe enough to keep me interested but the cast was out of this world with talent. James McAvoy as an idealistic Charles Xavier was a great fit. And a hero is only as good as his villain and few are in the same league as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr (Magneto). To fill such a role, director Matthew Vaughn chose the scene stealer from Inglorious Basterds, Michael Fassbender. Fassbender continues his scene stealing habits in First Class. His story line was the most understandable and tragic. As much as one would love to be the idealistic telepath, Charles Xavier, one can't help but think "what would I become if faced with the same horrors as Lehnsherr?". This villain had heart and good in him, as we all do, so his inevitable fall from grace hurts that much more. With Xavier's idealism pitted against Lehnsherr's pessimistic realism, we are faced to look at ourselves and ask "where would I stand?"

My Movie Rants

I am starting this Blog for three reasons. I love going to the movies, I have a tendency to rant, and my little brother gets me free movie tickets at local rave theaters. So to save my friends the pain of listening to my rants, that can go a bit long, I decided to just get it all out here where I am sure only my brothers and Zeke will read them. With Branch's hookup at the rave, I can see as many movies as I can handle and with such a good line up of movies this summer, it seems foolish to not abuse Branch's new found power.