Friday, June 17, 2011

Green Lantern

Synopsis:

This movie tells the story of Hal Jordan (aka Green Lantern played by Ryan Reynolds.) In the beginning, we learn that Hal Jordan is a test pilot that has no fear...a lesson he learned a long time ago from his father who's also a test pilot but gets killed right before young Hal's eyes during a test run. He flies a Hi-tech warplane and matches it up against a DRONE plane that's suppose to be unbeatable. Unfortunately, Hal didn't like to lose and broke the rules of the fighter plane engagement. And though he beat the drone (which in turn cost the company millions) he also destroyed the Hi-tech fighter plane he was flying.

Meanwhile, in a far off galaxy, we learn of the Mighty Green Lantern Corps. They are an intergalactic police force that keeps peace and order throughout the universe. Unfortunately we learn of a presence known as PARALLAX that is powerful enough to defeat the Green Lanterns because it feeds off of fear itself. Parallax engages against one of the best Green Lanterns (Abin Sir) and injures him to the point where he knows he needs a replacement.

Upon crashing down to Earth, Abin Sir sends out an ORB to find a man that can overcome fear. This ORB eventually finds Hal Jordan, takes him to his spaceship, gives him the power ring and he later becomes in DC Folklore, the Green Lantern.

This movie was slightly above average at best. Story telling could have been better, and the cinematography could have used a little better direction.

Case in point #1(Story telling): They could have shown Abin Sir (the purple dying Green Lantern) crash down to Earth...instead what we got was just the finished product...the spaceship that had already crashed upon on Earth. When the ring was looking for a replacement for Abin Sir, they could have made the ring move around the planet searching for a man without fear (personally, I would have loved it if they had "the ring" pass by two of
the future Green Lanterns we see in both the comics and cartoons today: Guy Gardner or John Stewart: )

Case in point #2(Cinematography): When Carol Ferris throws the ring towards Hal Jordan so that he can become Green Lantern and save the Earth, we see her throw the ring, but there's no movement...just a quick flashy throw. Hal snags it pretty quick in the air and the scene is over. The scene was so weak and quick that even I could have snagged it...or at least air and made it look like I grabbed it. They needed to show some movement...maybe "the ring" twirling in the air with a little slow motion to give it better visual effects. Instead, all we got was a toss and a catch...all in less than a second.

In closing, I just want to point out that this is NOT a 3D movie as it's hyped up to be. I know I shouldn't be comparing movies, but THOR had better 3D visual effects than Green Lantern. As a person that's always for the consumer...don't bother wasting your money seeing this movie in 3D or it's lack of it. See it regular and save yourself some money...just my 2 cents on that matter.

If I were to give this movie a grade, I probably would give it a C+ (or 3 1/2 stars out of 5.) If you know nothing about the comic book, then I highly recommend that you see it. But if you are a long time fan of the comic book series like I am, I personally felt the movie as a whole fell flat.

Friday, June 10, 2011

SUPER 8


"Super 8" is a throwback to the classic Steven Spielberg movies of yesteryear. Though Steven Spielberg only produced the movie, his influences are felt and J.J. Abrams does a fine job Directing this movie.

The movie in a way, is a mash-up of both "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" and "The Goonie's. " Throughout the movie, there is a continuous build up that leads to an unfortunately a very weak ending. Don't get me wrong...I love the fact that there wasn't too much CGI in this movie. In my own opinion, too many Sci-Fi movies today rely so much on special effects that their story basically falls flat...this wasn't the case with "Super 8." The movie had a great story to tell and there was a lot of good character development throughout the movie.

Everything about this movie breathes circa 1979....From the retro-clothes featuring funky bell bottoms and sideburns, to the classic sounds of "The Commodores" and their hit song "Easy."

The movie starts off with a group of Middle School kids, who are trying to make a movie for a film competition. They sneak off into the night and head towards a train station where they needed a location for a Zombie movie they are working on. Upon acting, the kids figured it would be a perfect film shot to get the train passing during filming. Unfortunately for the kids, a driver crashes into the train head-on and all havoc breaks loose. From people disappearing, to dogs leaving town, there is a sense of Area 51 Government Conspiracies throughout the movie. And the mystery keeps building because one see's what this creature looks like, until we get a glimpse of it from the Super 8 film the kids were using to make their movie.

Later in the movie, we learn that the creature is a victim...a victim that crash landed on Earth back in 1958. All the creature wanted was a little help to get off the planet but unfortunately, the Government and their Scientist wanted to experiment on the strange visitor from another planet. This made the creature turn against the Earthlings and in the end, he gets off into space in fast fashion.

It's a fun movie to watch and there is a build-up throughout the movie where you sense a very big ending, but I felt that SUPER 8, with all it's build up fell flat....that's just my opinion on the movie.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS


First off, let me just say that this is a fun movie to watch. What stands out to me is the nostalgic feel you get while watching this movie, like you're in a 1960's James Bond flick with it's backdrop of the cold war, and people wearing turtle neck sweaters. This movie is a prequel of sorts and tells the story of how the X-Men were formed. You also learn the origins of how Professor X (James McAvoy) and his future nemesis Magneto (Michael Fassbender) came to be.

The movie starts off in the 1940's, with a young Erik Lehnshirr (Magneto) being separated from his mother in a Nazi Concentration Camp. Upon the separation, Erik uses his undeveloped mutant powers to try to destroy the metal gate that separated him from his family. Dr Schmidt, who later changed his name to Sebastian Shaw (Played by Kevin Bacon) see's the potential in Erik and tries to get him to use his power by threatening to shoot his mother. Dr. Schmidt eventual shoots his mother and changes Erik for the rest of his life...the man will never trust another human being for all eternity.

In America, we find a young Charles Xavier (later Professor X). He's learning to hone his psychic mutant abilities in the huge mansion he lives in. Upon sleeping, he hears a noise down stairs where he meets up for the first time, another mutant...a teenage and very blue chameleon shifting mutant Raven (later Mystique). Charles and Raven becomes best friends as they are growing up but you see a sense of self doubt in Raven because of her natural looks.

In this movie, we learn that Magneto's origins were hard and cruel and you get a better understanding of how his hatred towards the human race was formed. Xavier, on the other hand was pampered and always believed that both human and mutants can get along.


I did see a few holes in this movie, if you're into that sort of stuff:

In the movie X-MEN FIRST CLASS, we see a bullet that was deflected by Magneto that caused Xavier's disability leading him to be on a wheelchair. In the movie WOLVERINE: ORIGINS, we see Professor X walking, older, & bald getting the captive mutants on the helicopter. This may not seem like much to some people, but this was suppose to happen years later...which makes us all wonder, "what's he doing walking when he's suppose to be paralyzed?"

And speaking of WOLVERINE. Hugh Jackman made a short cameo appearance in the movie.
In this scene, Professor X and Magneto are searching the world to recruit mutants and they find Logan drinking a beer at a bar. There reactions to him are based on Magneto able to pickup on the metal in his bones & Professor X able to read his mind. Huge Jackman played it well. The scene was pretty funny and got a huge laugh from the audience.

There are some really cool mutants in the film with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

We learn of Dr. Hank McCoy (Beast), a mutant with monkey type feet that's also one of the greatest physicist in the world. Unfortunately, he has a complex about his features and tries to create a cure for his disfigurement. He comes up with a serum that backfires and changes him forever in Marvel Folklore as the blue colored Beast we have all gotten accustomed to.

And of course, there's
Mystique (aka Raven) the blue chameleon mutant. Mystique's character is one that can't come to grips with the way she looks throughout the movie but later you see a relationship build-up between her and Magneto that makes the timeline fit in really well.

There are other Mutants in this movie like a man that makes tornadoes come out of his hands, a mind reader that can change into diamonds and a Red Devil looking mutant that can teleport from one place to another in a blink of an eye. One of the more impressive Mutants was the role played by Kevin Bacon (No...his mutant power isn't singing with the Bacon Brothers)

I'd also like to add that if you are into the EXTRA HIDDEN SCENES AT THE END OF A MARVEL MOVIE, that you
please don't stay for the END CREDITS...nothings there (unless you want to waste a good 7 minutes reading the credits)

If you are a fan of the X-MEN, you will definitely love this movie. The visual effects are pretty awesome and there is a lot of action and explosions in this movie. There are also some good catch phrases in this movie...my favorite is when Charles Xavier talks about getting bald and sitting in a wheel chair. This eventually happens at the end of the movie. All in all, this is a fun movie to watch, so kickback with friends and family, grab a popcorn and enjoy the ride.