Well, the last note has been sung and the last paper turned in. The 2010-2011 school year is done, which means I can spend some of my free time reviewing movies. Unfortunately, the school year ended about a month and a half after the summer movie season began which means this first entry is all about playing catch up. Let's get to it!!!
"Thor"/Paramount Pictures/Dir. by Kenneth Brannagh/Rated PG-13/115 min.
Of all the Marvel comic characters, this is the one that's always left me a little bewildered because it's the one that moves the furthest from the "real world" sensibilities of most of the others. Stan Lee prides himself on creating fantastic characters that are rooted in human problems and frailties, so adding the Norse God of Thunder to the Marvel canon of superheroes feels a little....odd. However, the movie does a terrific job of not only explaining how the mythological Thor fits into the Marvel universe, but of making him feel, for lack of a better word, human. I attribute this to the writers, the director and Chris Hemsworth, the soon-to-be star playing the titular lightning slinger. Two of the writers credited with writing the screenplay (Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz) are also responsible for the summer's other awesome superhero saga "X-Men: First Class" (more on that later) and they do a terrific job of grounding the immortal characters with human motivations and frailties. This not only serves to make them more empathetic, but it also makes the relations that Thor forges with the human world more understandable. Director Kenneth Brannagh, who has never directed this type of film before injects the film with the grand Shakespearean angst that's defined his career and he proves to be an inspired choice for bringing this movie to life.
Best of all is Hemsworth, who energizes the whole movie with the innate likability that he brought to his brief moments in 2009's "Star Trek". He effortlessly makes the audience want to root for this character and it will be a treat to see him interact with the other Marvel characters in next year's "The Avengers".
As for the other actors, including recent Oscar-winner Natalie Portman, they do a fine job with what they're given to do, which isn't a lot, but it's fine for this type of an origin story. Here's hoping that in future films their characters are fleshed out a little more.
Grade: A-
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides/Walt Disney/Dir. by Rob Marshall/Rated PG-13/137 min.
Pirates 4 is not a bad movie, it's simply an uninspired one. I know that the last adventure of Jack Sparrow, "At World's End", has it's detractors, but I'm not among them. I found "A.W.E." to be a perfect ending to the story of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, with each of these characters ending their arc in a surprising, yet somehow inevitable place.
The mistake that "On Stranger Tides" makes is it assumes Jack Sparrow was the hero of the previous Pirates movies. He wasn't. Not even a little bit. Those films were always the story of Will and Elizabeth with Jack being the "Puck"-ish character throwing a wrench into everything. However, here he's cast as the leading rogue and it just feels off. He's given a romantic sparring partner in Angelica Malon (aptly played by Penelope Cruz), however their romantic chemistry is never given much time and the audience is meant to care about it not because of said chemistry, but because...well....we're told they used to care about each other a lot. Sorry, but moviegoers usually prefer to see a relationship built on character and situation rather than be told to care about a couple.
The real romantic sub-plot is shuttled off to a bland preacher and the only bland mermaid in the movie (for some reason the mermaids are represented as horrific piranha-like creatures, other than this one pretty, but bland exception) and their stories conclusion is frustratingly unresolved.
The characters are still fun and there are a few nice moments (the revealing of the fountain of youth is pretty nifty), but it's easily the weakest of the series and a bit of a disappointment.
Grade: B-
"Kung Fu Panda 2"/DreamWorks/Dir. by Jennifer Yuh/Rated PG/90 min.
Think about the original "Kung Fu Panda" for a moment. If you didn't like it, you won't like this one. If you liked it because of the fat-panda-getting-beat-up jokes, you probably won't like this one. If you liked it because of the sincerity of the screenplay, the beautiful visuals and the surprisingly well-choreographed fight scenes, then this movie is an easy recommendation.
Much of the plot is spent explaining how a big panda ended up being the son of a noodle-obsessed duck and the answer is simple and satisfying. Po (Jack Black) learns about his past through his experiences with a new threat to the valley of happiness, a vengeful peacock named Shen (terrifically voiced by Gary Oldman). "Kung Fu Panda 2" not only amps up the threat-level (surprisingly so for an animated film), but it is every bit as visually thrilling as the original. For example, the villainous Shen hides his arsenal of knives among his feathers, so it looks like he's pulling metal feathers out of his skin and hurling them with deadly accuracy. It's kind of a neat visual and is a great metaphor for the character itself, making his menace seem innate, but also revealing it to be more surface-bound. The movie is filled with "more beneath the surface" moments like this in its narrative, which is part of the reason this is such a treat for adults as well as kids.
Grade: A
"X-Men: First Class"/20th Century Fox/Dir. by Matthew Vaughn/Rated PG-13/132 min.
Thus far in the summer of superheroes, this is the best of the bunch. Everything about this film is inspired, from the casting, to the writing, to the direction, it's everything a movie with "X-Men" in its title should be and a wonderful recovery from the scatter-shot "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". By taking the concept of mutants back to its discovery by the U.S. government and placing it against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis, "First Class" re-vitalizes the franchise and re-imagines it as a superhero movie set in a James Bond universe. Michael Fassbender is not only easy to visualize maturing into Sir Ian McKellan, but he embodies Magneto with an understandable and uncontrolled anger that is terrifying and empowering all at once. As Magneto's frienemy, Charles Xavier, James McAvoy is terrific, especially when he's pleading with his friend to maintain his humanity. The special-effects are awesome and the action sequences are what summer was made for, but the movie is great because of this unlikely friendship, which is at the heart of the full-blooded superhero/political thriller.
Matthew Vaughn ("Stardust") is a fantastic choice to direct this film. He's always shown a knack for presenting the fantastic as merely the background to intimate stories about relationships and that is the sensibility that "X-Men" was built around, both as a comic series and as a film series.
Grade: A
"Super 8"/Paramount Picture/Dir. by J.J. Abrams/Rated PG-13/112 min.
I was 11 years old when "E.T." was released in theaters and it was the first movie that I saw multiple times in the theater. (I was too young to see "Star Wars" in the theater and too young to have discretionary money for multiple viewings when "The Empire Strikes Back" came out). At 11, I was the target audience for Spielberg's fantasy combining the mundane aspects of suburbia with the incredible concept of getting an alien best friend. I, like everyone else, was entranced and was transported by the experience.
Director J.J. Abrams has made no secret of the fact that "Super 8" is his tribute to the Spielberg films of the late 70's/early 80's and elements of old-school Spielberg are all over the place. Foul-mouthed, but good-hearted kids? Yep. One parent households? You betcha. The kids even have a middle-school science teacher played by the same guy who played the high-school science teacher in "Gremlins".
With such sincere, but obvious, tipping of the hat to Spielberg, it'd be easy to dismiss "Super 8" as more love letter than movie, but Abrams also realized that the best Spielberg films are about realistic characters overcoming the genuine hardships of life against the backdrop of extraordinary happenings and in so realizing he has made a truly heartfelt film that is as much a tribute to youth itself as it is to Spielberg.
As a word of warning to families, "Super 8" also keeps the Spielbergian tradition of scaring little kids spitless. The other-worldly forces here are not benign like "E.T." and there are scenes that play out more like "Jurassic Park" or "Jaws". If you wouldn't let your child see those movies, don't take them to this. Also, if the kid-related cursing in "E.T." or "The Goonies" bothers you, this one will too. Otherwise, feel free to enjoy. It really is a treat.
Grade: A
"Green Lantern"/Warner Bros./Dir. by Martin Campbell/Rated PG-13/105 min.
Personally, I think most critics were a little harsh on this movie. It's entertaining and fun to look at. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are solid and likable actors and Peter Saarsgard is a perfect nebbish-turned-maniacal villain. The are really only two problems with "Green Lantern". First is the central plot conceit, which is that aliens from all over the universe have harnessed the energy of will power into ringsg that give their wearers the ability to materialize anything they can think of. They use this power to defend the universe against evil. This is a very, very, very silly premise. It is, however, the premise of the comic book as well, so the movie is simply being true to the source material. If you can laugh off the premise and go for the ride, you'll be fine.
Secondly, it's an origin story and as such, it's not much different from the roughly 5,375 other superhero origin stories Hollywood has produced lately. There's a guy, he's in love with a girl, but it never works out because of one central flaw (vanity/shyness/arrogance, take your pick). However, he then gets super powers from an unusual source (dying alien/radioactive spider/unrealistic technology, take your pick) and through that power is able to overcome the aforementioned flaw. The one thing "Green Lantern" has that a lot of these other origin tales don't is a sense of humor. For example, in a lot of these films the heroine can't recognize the hero when he's wearing a mask, in spite of the fact that they've been intimately connected for years. Heck, she usually doesn't even recognize him when he talks in his regular voice (I'm looking at you Lois Lane!). "Green Lantern" addresses this cliche quickly and in a way that winks its eye at the other clueless heroines in superhero films.
While the first two acts of "Green Lantern" are pretty standard for an superhero origin film, the final act hints at the potential of this story as a franchise. In fact, I'll go as far as to say that the last 20 minutes have some of the best moments I've seen yet this summer. If the inevitable sequel can build from that and make a whole movie that's as solid as the last 20 minutes of this one, that sequel could be one of the best superhero movies ever. As it is though, the "Green Lantern" is made up of some great moments and some merely adequate ones.
As such, its grade is an above-average: B-
OK, I'll try to write this blog about once a week, to keep you abreast of what movies are new and worth your time. Thanks for reading!!!
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