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"