Captain America: The First Avenger - Review

Out of all the Marvel comic movies, I think Captain America has probably had the toughest time transitioning into film. It's not hard to see why... a patriot-themed superhero comes off as a bit campy, especially in a time where America isn't exactly seen in a particularly positive light these days. The character actually been adapted to film 4 times before. The first of which was a 1944 serial. It was decent for it's time I suppose, but like most serieals from the time period, it hasn't aged well. 1979 saw two forgettable made-for-TV adaptations that made little to no impact on audiences. Of course, the most infamous adaptation was the 1990 film, simply called Captain America. This low budget abomination went straight to video and is often considered one of the worst superhero films ever made. So yeah, the Captain's film history hasn't exactly been stellar, that's for sure. Is director Joe Johnston's film adaptation, Captain America: The First Avenger, the one to change all that?

This World War II themed superhero flick begins in the city of Brooklyn in the year 1942. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a young man who wants nothing more than to serve his country as a soldier in the US Army. However, due to his lack of physical strength, his asthma, and general poor health, he is deemed unfit for military service. That all changes when rogers meets Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a military scientist who after recognizing Rogers' perseverance and good nature, selects him as a candidate for his super soldier program. The experimental procedure would change Rogers from an asthmatic weakling to super-strengthened fighter and the prime American soldier. The experiment is a success, but when the program is sabotaged by Nazi spies, the government shuts down plans to create a super-powered army and instead turns Rogers into a costumed character known as Captain America. He is then treated as a gimmick, paraded around USO shows selling bonds and boosting soldier morale. Not content with simply being a sideshow attraction, Rogers takes to the battlefield as Captain America and stumbles onto a heinous Nazi organization known as Hydra, led by an equally powerful Nazi known as the Red Skull. With Hydra becoming stronger everyday and the Skull's hunger for world domination increasing, Captain America becomes the world's only chance of stopping them and saving the world.

Eep! I hate it when I give away that much plot information, but every time I tried to cut it off, I felt like I was selling this movie short. This movie really has a lot going on in it, both as it's own film and it's role in the continuity of the Marvel movie universe. It's a superhero film, it's a WWII epic, it's a prelude to the Avengers, and it's a prequel to Iron Man, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. What's funny about all that though is that the story itself is essentially a straightforward comic book plot, the basic good-natured hero vs evil villain, albeit with patriotic overtones. Still, almost everything in this movie works... like really well. The storyline is engaging, the characters are fun, and the action is awesome. It's one of those movies that feels as if I shouldn't have liked it as much as I did... but everything comes together so nicely. Seriously, there's next to nothing in this flick that doesn't work.

Probably the biggest success comes from the perfect casting of nearly every character in the movie. Chris Evans (The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies) tones down his usual snarky attitude and rather plays the Captain with a likable and rateable demeanor. Unlike many disturbed (Iron Man), troubled (Spider-Man), or borderline psychotic superheroes (Batman), Captain America is one of the more straightforward comic books heroes. He's a good natured, friendly, and overall decent guy who loves his country. This doesn't mean he's stale or underdeveloped, in fact I'd say his good guy demeanor actually makes him one of the more refreshing superheroes in recent memory. Sure, one might still see him as little more than a glorified boy scout, but I personally think there's more to the character. He starts off as a weak man who becomes a national hero that's based less on his physical ability and more on his passionate yet not arrogant patriotism. If nothing else, he's an incredibly fun character that's a blast to watch.

Speaking of fun characters that are a blast to watch, the movie also features Hugo Weaving as the film's central villain, Johann Schmidt aka The Red Skull. The depiction of the character bares many similarities to his comic book counterpart, the best of which is his spot on appearance. One element of the Skull's backstory that was cleverly reinvented for the movie was this. He starts off as a prominent Nazi official (like the comic) and head of Hydra, the Nazi advanced weapon manufacturing division. Soon after the movie starts, Hydra succeeds from Nazi affiliation due to the fact that Hitler consider Schmidt to be too evil... Wow! Overall, I found Weaving to be incredibly entertaining as the red faced villain, finding a perfect balance between camp and seriousness. There are also great supporting performances from Haylee Atwell as the female lead Peggy Carter, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark (Iron Man's father), Stanley Tucci is great as always as the scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine, as is Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips. Overall, it's a great cast!

Of course for any summer blockbuster, especially a superhero movie, one would expect some great action scenes and special effects. If that's all you come to this movie expecting to see, then I can all but guarantee you'll leave happy. Aside from some a few dodgy cgi shots, I'd go as far to call the action scenes perfect... or at least as great as one can expect. There's the usual hero vs villain fights, but there's also a Bourne style on-foot chase scenes (minus the erratic camera) and some well shot WWII battle scenes. Like I said, there were a few cgi shots that could have been rendered a little better. The most apparent one would have to be Chris Evans pre-experimented body, digitally made shorter and weaker. At times it looks real, but more often that not it looked like a digital effect. Granted those are nitpicks that didn't take me out of the movie. It delivered on all levels as an over-the-top summer blockbuster, a War film, and a fun superhero flick.

If Captain America was simply a fun summer blockbuster with cool action and fun characters, I probably would have been fine with that. Apparently, that wasn't enough for the filmmakers and director Joe Johnston. In addition to the action and characters, this movie features top notch production design, amazing costumes, a great musical score from Alan Silvestri, and an engaging story. It's one of the few superhero films to find a great balance between camp and seriousness while never loosing track of basic solid filmmaking. The 40s setting gave the filmmakers a great opportunity to play with some fun retro themes. It kind of reminded me of Joe Johnston's earlier and very underrated WWII superhero film, The Rocketeer. The sets compliment the 40s vibes and gives the movie a really stellar look. I also dug the tinted old-film inspired color correction, again aiding in it's retro appeal.

My favorite element of the production design had to be the costumes. All of the outfits are extremely well made and seem to be authentic, but it's the main hero's costume that really did it for me. Captain America's costume is about as perfect as you can get. It honors it's source material, updates it appropriately, and appears to be a fully functional costume for it's actor. In other words, Evans is able to move around and pull off the action scenes without looking stiff or robotic. Honestly, if this movie doesn't have the best superhero costumes of all time, it's definitely in the top 5. It's right up there with Spider-Man and Iron Man.

It's so refreshing to see a great superhero film made by passionate filmmakers, especially coming off of the disappointing Green Lantern. It goes to show that when you have a great director, cast, and team all pouring their heart and soul into any movie, especially one as difficult to adapt as Captain America, the results can be awesome. Let me just make this clear... do NOT miss this movie! It's awesome! Not quite Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2 awesome, but definitely my favorite out of the connected Marvel movies (Cap, Thor, Iron Man, and The Increidble Hulk) and somewhere in my Top 10 favorite superhero movies. Now bring on the Avengers!

My Score: 4.5 Out of 5!

Thoughts On The Teaser For The Amazing Spider-Man

Let's try something a little different today... instead of a movie review, how about a movie trailer review. Today, the teaser trailer for the newest Spider-Man movie, entitled "The Amazing Spider-Man," was released. If you don't know, this flick is a complete series reboot with absolutely no connection to the previous Spidey flicks directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire. Instead, this movie will be directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) and stars Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The main difference is that this movie will take place during entirely during Parker's high school years, when he first gets bit by the radioactive spider responsible for making him super-powered.

Here's the teaser... My review after the jump.



My thoughts... I've been skeptical about this movie ever since I first heard about it. I enjoy Sam Raimi's take on the Spider-Man series (yes, I even kind of liked the third one) and was actually looking forward to a fourth entry... but that got scrapped when Sam Raimi had creative differences with the studio. This teaser actually gives credence to something I've been concerned about since this movie was announced... that it would either be too similar to Twilight or a mediocre teen sci-fi show on the CW. Eep!

The Good:
I will say that I'm glad that they're taking this movie in a different direction than the previous movies, simply because I like to see a different filmmaker try different things. The apparent darker and more dramatic style is just fine with me. It also looks like that it's trying to keep it character-driven and less action-focused, which in theory could be a good thing (don't get me wrong, action is important too though). Plus, the high school setting doesn't bother me too much seeing as many Spidey comics took place during his teenage years anyways. It's also nice to see them actually using Gwen Stacey as the love interest in her proper setting (ie, not shoe-horned into the story for the convenience of a love triangle a la Spider-Man 3). The cast is quite good as well, Andrew Garfield as Spidey, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, Martin Sheen as Uncle Ben, Sally Field as Aunt May, Dennis Leary as Captain Stacy, and Rhys Ifans as The Lizard... yeah I have no problem with this cast. So yeah, there's barely enough to keep me hopeful.

The Bad:
Eeeesh... this teaser reeks of Twilight and WB bullshit. I really don't mind the high school setting, but I'm hoping and praying that this doesn't end up being a half-rate love story with flat dialogue, stale performances, questionable morals, and shitty abstinence messages. I might have been able to somewhat take solace in all that had the trailer featured some cool action or neat displays of superpowers, but nope! Instead, we get a weird first-person cg running segment that looks like a cut scene out from a mediocre video game. The cgi in that 30 seconds is pretty awful. I know I know... it's just a teaser trailer and they've got a whole year to fix up the effects (which they probably will), but it's just not boasting me with much confidence right now. Not to mention, we only barely get a glimpse of Parker in the costume. Granted, that's not a huge concern but it's just kind of a bummer.

Overall:
Yeah, this trailer isn't exactly doing it for me. Yes, it's only a teaser and it's still way too soon to judge, but if Sony is going to get the nay-sayers to come around for this flick, they'll have to do much better than this.

Green Lantern - Review

One thing that I found a bit interesting about the Green Lantern movie is that it represents something of a minor turning point for Warner Bros. Since 2001, the studio has had the luxury of distributing the Harry Potter movies, a stream of popular, well-made, and lucrative blockbusters that were all but guaranteed to be mega-hits. Now with Potter series on it's final legs, Warner Bros has been on the lookout for a new blockbuster franchise to take it's Place. So the first up to bat is Green Lantern, a movie based on the long running DC comic book. As the first live action feature based on the series, expectations were high. Is this Warner's newest multi-million dollar franchise or is it back to the drawing board.

Green Lantern stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, a cocky test pilot facing some personal demons from his past. One night, he comes across an alien named Abin Sur who crash landed on Earth. Abin Sur is a member of an intergalactic peace keeping alliance known as the Green Lantern Corp, who came to Earth in search of someone to take his place on the Lantern Corp before he dies. He bestows Jordan with his power ring, an item that bestows the wearer with the power to turn thought into reality. Jordan learns to master his new found powers right as a near-unstoppable force called Parrallax makes it's way to Earth with it's sights set on planetary destruction.

I do enjoy comic books and superhero movies, but I was never that big of a fan of Green Lantern. I've never had anything against the series or the character, it was just never my cup of tea. It seemed like a cool idea though, and if nothing else I admired it from afar... enough at least to look forward to seeing this movie. I only mention this so you know that when I say the movie is disappointing, I'm not coming at this as an upset fanboy. All I know of the character is the basic format, the general mythos, and most of the main characters. As far as the nit-picky details as for how well it follows it's source material... I'm not the one to ask about that. It's just a very mediocre sci-fi action film with more than it's share of flaws.

One thing that got me excited for this flick was that it was being directed by Martin Campbell. This was the filmmaker behind some solid and fun action films including Vertical Limit and The Mask of Zorro. For me though, his work on the 007 movies are his great accomplishment, directing two of the franchise's best entries, Casino Royale and Goldeneye. Unfortunately, Campbell's direction is ultimately what killed this movie. It seemed like he had no interest on set in what he was directing. What we ultimately get is a string of scenes featuring lost actors, sub par special effects, uninspired action, and weak humor. Granted the finale had it's moments, but the rest was about as bland as it gets. It's basically like he was directing on autopilot the whole time. What a disappointment...

One could theorize that the direction was so poor due in part for Campbell not being satisfied with the script... and I really wouldn't be surprised if that was the case, because the writing is awful! The worst part about it that it includes bits and pieces of a quality flick, but cops out on almost every bit of promise it had. The mythos behind the character is very cool... a plot about legion of super powered aliens who protect the universe has all kinds of potential. First problem though, they neglect many aspects of the Green Lantern Corps to focus almost exclusively on the personality-drained Hal Jordan. On top of his character having more in common with Tom Cruise in Top Gun, there's just nothing that hasn't been done before. He receives a great power, nearly budges from the responsibility,and then overcomes it to save the day in the end... haven't seen that a million times before. Meanwhile the far more interesting characters like the other Green Lanterns or the villainous Hector Hammond (played by Peter Sarsgaard) are left underutilized and underdeveloped. As for the rest of the movie... be prepared for lots of exposition, massive plot holes, unfunny jokes, and cliche after cliche.

Now, let's focus on the casting... oh the casting. Ryan Reynolds stars in the title role as Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern. Let's make one thing clear... I like Ryan Reynolds. He's a talented actor with good range, solid comic timing, and the ability to take on different roles. If you don't believe me on that, go watch Buried and see for yourself. His depiction of Hal Jordan, however, is just all wrong. It's partly due to the weak script and direction, but I can't totally let Reynolds off the hook. For the most part, he looks like he's in a daze or just lost. Blake Lively plays Jordan's love interest Carol Ferris. I don't have much to say about her other than that she has absolutely no range whatever in this. Peter Saarsgard as Hector Hammond was actually the only one who comes close to salvaging this movie. His character is largely irrelevant the plot and totally underdeveloped, but his character arc almost works and even though his acting at times borders on campy, he was the only one who actually showed some personality. Not much else to say about the casting other than that it usually doesn't work.

I might have been willing to forgive some of Green Lantern's many problems if the film's technical aspects were better, but sadly they're not. Let's start with the effects... in short, they're not that good. First off is the The Green Lantern costume. It is created not through fabrics or linens, but through cgi. The logic was that the outfit is created by energy, and that a traditional costume wouldn't give it the animated or alien look that was desired. In theory that makes sense, but the costume's cgi looked totally unfinished and unconvincing. Many times, it looked like Reynolds head was just floating around, especially in the scenes set in space. The rest of the action was for the most part just meh. The finale had it's moments, but the rest are ridiculously stupid. The introductory scene for Jordan is a generic dogfight between Jordan and a military drone in a scene that is all to reminiscent of Top Gun. Hell, I expected to start hearing Highway To The Danger Zone while watching it. If that's not bad enough, halfway through there's a scene where Jordan saves a failing helicopter by creating a giant toy car ramp with his ring... even for comic book standards, that is corny. That could actually be said for pretty much every scene in the flick. It's too campy to take seriously but not nearly fun enough to enjoy on an ironic level.

The worst part about Green Lantern is that between the decades of comic storylines and mythos, a previously successful director, and a promising cast, this could have been something really good. It's not the worst comic book movie ever, and I wouldn't go as far to call it the disaster it's being made out to be, but it just made too many mistakes for me to give it a recommendation. If you haven't seen it yet, don't bother.

My Score: 2 out of 5!

Super 8 - Review

Super 8 is one of those movies that I can't help but chuckle at. It's not a bad movie, it's just that it tries so incredibly hard to strike at the nostalgia of those who grew up in the 80s and early 90s that it comes off as less of a movie and more of a laughably over passionate love letter to my generation's childhood. While one could make a reasonable argument that originality is overrated, or that the current generation probably wouldn't recognize most of Super 8's movie references, there is definitely something to say about why a credible filmmaker like J.J. Abrams would feel compelled to rip off nearly every Spielbergian trick and cliche in the book. Yeah, I know this was produced by Spielberg, but nonetheless I stand by my opinion. Still, I guess if you had to rip off a filmmaker, there are worse choices than Spielberg. Is the movie a new summer classic or a forgettable dud?

Super 8 centers around a group of kids living in a small Ohio town in 1979. One summer night, they sneak out to film a short movie by an old train station. In the midst of the filming, they witness a catastrophic train accident when a car drives onto the railroad tracks and causes it to derail. Soon afterward, they realize that the train belonged to the US Air Force and was carrying a creature unlike anything they've ever seen. Now, with a giant alien wrecking havoc around town, the kids are forced to take action and stop it.

Like I was saying, Super 8 tries... boy does it try hard. To me, it comes off as this movie that feels if it includes references to every Spielberg movie it can, that it will go on to be this timeless summer classic. To be fair though, many great movies are mainly homages. Star Wars, for instance, was basically a salute to sci-fi serials of the 50s. Then there's Indiana Jones... an homage to adventure serials of the 30s. Ridley Scott's Alien was essentially a big budget B-Movie from the 50s. The list goes on. The main difference between classics like that and Super 8 is this... Super 8 intentionally targets your nostalgia and goes out of it's way to remind you of the classics. Sure the other films mentioned may have been nostalgic, but they had their own unique touch to separate them from their inspirations. Super 8 has scenes that wholeheartedly rip off nearly every movie directed or produced by Spielberg. There are scenes taken from Jaws, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Gremlins, The Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, even Schindler's List. Not mention there are small tributes to non-Spielberg filmmakers like John Carpenter and George Romero. Though hands down the most prevalent tribute is ET, going out of it's way to include a plot with an alien and even scenes that were almost completely remade from the classic. As a result, Super 8 comes off simply as a nostalgic piece with little originality and practically no lasting value.

Despite those criticisms, Super 8 does a lot of thing right. The first of which is the acting. Super 8 boasts one of the better child casts I've seen in quite a while. In fact, it's one of the rare occasions where the kids outshine the adults. Not so much because the adults are bad actors, but simply that the kids are more engaging characters. They have diverse personalities, fun characteristics, and some memorable comedic moments. I won't critique all of them, but I will say that Super 8 will likely be remembered as the star-making vehicle for actors' Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney.

Probably the most frustrating thing about Super 8, though, is the fact that the story doesn't take advantage of it's child characters as well as it could have. As I mentioned before, Super 8 has a promising script with an intriguing concept and fun characters, but unfortunately it also has a boatload of problems. It switches every so often between the main plot with the kids, and two subplots - one of which involves a government conspiracy involving the alien (a la ET) and another involving Joe's (the main character) neglectful father coming to grips with his recently deceased wife (a la... too many Spielberg movies to name).

The story has a great first act... with a solid setup, promising exposition, and one of the best train derailment scenes I've ever seen. The second act is when the movie starts feeling cluttered and overstuffed, struggling to balance it's multiple stories. By the time the third act rolls around, not much has changed. The finale is appropriately exciting, but it's also predictable as hell. Plus, when the alien's appearance is finally revealed... it's pretty ho-hum. Not awful but a minor letdown after the great buildup. Though I do have to mention the hilarious post-credit scene. That alone makes Super 8 worth seeing.

From a technical side, Super 8 works. The special effects are appropriately adequate, the cinematography is decent, and it had enough visual flair to keep me interested. As I mentioned, the train derailment scene is very cool, arguably the best train accident ever depicted on screen. You've also got some suspenseful and exciting scenes with the alien reigning chaos on the town. While the camerawork was overall decent, many of the shots had multiple lens flares that got really distracting. Plus, there's the less-than-stellar appearance of the alien, as I mentioned before. Overall, it works but aside from the train scene, I can't think of much that will be especially memorable.

What's frustrating about Super 8 is that it makes as many wrong choices as it does right choices. It's just when it work... it really works, but when it doesn't... it falls pretty hard. In the end, I think the pros outweigh the cons enough to see it once in theatres, but with all of the film's positive qualities, it should have been much better. It's too bad... this could have been a new classic. Still worth a watch though.

My Score: 3.5 out of 5!