Author: Darren Goodhart

Our setting is the Old West and as the movie begins, outlaw Jake Lonegran abruptly awakens out in the wild.  He’s been beaten and has no clue as to who he is and how he’s ended up where he’s ended up.  He notices a mysterious wrist attachment, and while he’s trying to take the attachment off, he’s encountered by a trio who’s making their way to the town of Absolution.  When Jake doesn’t give them answers that they’re looking for, the trio decides to “teach” this stranger a lesson.  Jake reacts instinctively and quickly teaches the trio a lesson of his own and soon he’s taken some of their clothing, their money and some guns and makes his own way to Absolution, still having no clue as to who he is and how he’s ended up in this situation.

Once he’s made his way to Absolution, Jake finds out a little about the town and a few of the people, and then comes across Percy Dolarhyde, the reckless son of Woodrow Dolarhyde, a former Colonel who controls the town thanks to his cattle business.  Percy ends up getting himself into quite a bit of trouble as he’s trying to teach Jake a lesson and lands himself in jail.  Soon though, the town’s sheriff takes notice of Jake and recognizes his picture from a wanted poster.  Jake has also caught the eye of a mysterious woman named Ella, who seems to know everything about Jake’s situation but isn’t really giving anything up yet.

Soon, word gets to Woodrow Dolarhyde about what has happened to his son.  Dolarhyde and his men make their way to Absolution in the middle of the evening to try and get Percy free just as Percy and Jake are both being taken away to the Federal Marshal.  Just as this happens, strange flying craft appear over the town, quickly establishing that they’re there for destructive purposes and in the process, abduct many of the townspeople.  Now, Jake and Woodrow Dolarhyde find that they have to join forces to find out the secrets behind these mysterious visitors.

That’s the premise to Cowboys & Aliens the latest comic/graphic novel to make it’s way to the big screen as well as the latest from director and actor Jon Favreau, who’s best known recently for his work at the helm of both of Marvel Entertainment’s Iron Man films.  Now, I’ve never read the graphic novel (written by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg), so I’ve no clue as to how close this is to it.  I’ve heard though that the main inspiration for the adaptation has been more from the cover image of the book more than anything else, so take from that what you will.

Favreau’s got some very impressive talent both behind and in front of the camera, with the driving script having such notables as Lost creator Damon Lindelof and the duo of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are currently the driving forces behind the TV shows Hawaii Five-O and Fringe as well as having had their hands in many big movies, including the Transformers franchise and the latest re-working of Star Trek. With writers with that pedigree, you certainly do expect big things from Cowboys & Aliens.

For the most part, Cowboys & Aliens delivers a fun, popcorn experience.  Favreau’s movie certainly has a terrific look (I think it’s his best-looking movie to date) and has some pretty impressive visual effects.  Where this falters is with it’s script.  Now when I say that, please keep in mind, I still had a great time with this movie, so I’m not really being damning with my criticism.  I think they’re trying to pack a little too much into this though and not necessarily paying everything off as satisfactory as they could.  Plus there’s a few holes (in particular behind the character of Ella) that you could drive a truck through.  It’s still a pretty rousing good time with some pretty terrific set pieces, but it’s script could’ve probably used a few less hands involved.

Of course, when you’ve got a cast that’s as large and diverse as this, I guess the temptation is there to try and give everyone their due, and for the most part, everyone does get their due but to varying degrees of satisfaction.

The cast is headed by Daniel Craig as Jake Lonegran and Harrsion Ford as Woodrow Dolarhyde.  Craig, of course, is best known these days for being the latest actor to play James Bond, and here he’s just as intense as he is as Bond, being quite convincing with his action sequences.  I tend to see Craig in the same vein as the late, great Steve McQueen with a coolness and confidence that all guys wish they could have, and he certainly continues that perception with Cowboys & Aliens. I haven’t been quite as impressed with some of the more recent work from Harrison Ford, and as this gets started, I was almost wishing for that part to have been played by someone like Gene Hackman instead.  But, Ford does get some nice service from the script and has the most satisfying arc that any of the characters of this movie can hope to have.  His character actually does go through a transformation here, and it’s very much evident on-screen.

They’re backed up with a very impressive array of talent including Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Paul Dano, Noah Ringer, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, David O’Hara and Walton Goggins.  All of these guys play some specific Western archetypes and they’re all certainly very serviceable in their parts.  I thought that Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano were both quite good. Rockwell plays Doc, the man who runs the local saloon and who’s getting tired of being pushed around by the Dolarhydes.  For myself, Sam Rockwell, whether he’s playing a lead or he’s in support, is always money in the bank.  He’s strictly support here, but he certainly brings enough to the table to stand out amongst this impressive cast.  Paul Dano plays Percy Dolarhyde and he’s certainly quite effective in creating this spoiled son character that you really want to see get hurt at just about every opportunity.

Olivia Wilde plays the mysterious Ella and she’s the one character that I have the most problem with, though it’s not any fault of Wilde’s.  Ella is key for this group’s discovery of why the aliens are here.  Her character really does nothing more than advance the plot to the writer’s convenience.  Ella leaves more questions than answers and while I don’t think that every film necessarily has to dot all of their “i’s” and cross all of their “t’s,” as far as her character was concerned, this needed more completion.

Still, even with it’s script problems, I thought Cowboys & Aliens was a fun genre mash-up.  I certainly had a good time with it despite it’s script shortcomings.  Jon Favreau has certainly done all he could to at least make this look fantastic and he keeps things moving at a pretty brisk pace.  Harrison Ford is the biggest standout for me with it’s extremely impressive cast, getting the best character payoff by the film’s end.  I wouldn’t necessarily say to run right out and see this right away, but it’s certainly a fun diversion, just as long as you’re not too demanding in getting every question answered.

Flat out, right from the start, I think Marvel hit one out of the park with this one…

While comic book super-hero movies are all the rage now (and I certainly remember a time when they weren’t) to the point where there seems to be a certain amount of fatigue setting in from some viewers, Marvel is doing something distinctly different in trying to create fully satisfying standalone movies that also all tie together. In my estimation, they’ve really succeeded.  They’ve given their hardcore fans something that they know, but they’ve also given a fresh viewer something that they can really get into.  With Captain America: The First Avenger we’ve gotten one of the most pure conversions yet and my hat is off to director Joe Johnston, producer Kevin Feige and the entire production team of Marvel Entertainment.

We start off in the present day, as a a mysterious aircraft has been located buried under an arctic mass by an as yet unidentified team (though those in the know already have an idea who this team is).  As the team makes their way into the aircraft, they discover a familiar red, white and blue object and from there we flashback to the 1940s.

In short order, we’re introduced to Johann Schmidt, also known as the Red Skull, the leader of HYDRA, a group that supports the Nazis with their work into the supernatural and the paranormal.  Schmidt is in pursuit of a mysterious object in Norway (giving us our first little tie into Thor) that he believes will lead him to some sort of ultimate power.

The we meet young Steve Rogers.  Rogers is a 90-lb. weakling who has a good heart and wants to do his part for his country.  He’s repeatedly tried to enlist into the armed forces and repeatedly gets classified as 4F, making him unable to serve.  As Rogers is getting ready to see his best friend off to war, James “Bucky” Barnes, he’s discovered by Dr. Abraham Erskine.  Erskine sees great potential In Rogers for his Super Soldier project and is immediately drafted into service, much to the chagrin of the head of the project, Colonel Philips and one of his top agents, Peggy Carter.

Needless to say, the project is a success and from there… well, I’ll leave that to you to discover.

Captain America: The First Avenger is the fifth in the series of Marvel comic adaptations to be directly handled by Marvel itself, following on the heels of the first two Iron Man movies, The Incredible Hulk and Thor leading up to next year’s big Avengers movie.  It’s also, in my opinion, the best film yet in the series.

Joe Johnston is the director of this film and he’s certainly no stranger to working in the realm of the fantastic, having spent many years before as a lead concept artist with Lucasfilm and having previously directed such films as Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, The Rocketeer, Jumanji, Jurassic Park III and last year’s The Wolfman. When I first heard that Johnston had been selected to direct this, I was thrilled by the prospect, primarily due to his work in bringing the late Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer to cinematic life.  Johnston doesn’t disappoint at all here.  He gives us a very satisfying full story about the good Captain as well as tying it into the other Marvel films, and it’s just loaded with nice “Easter Eggs” that fans will appreciate, that in no way will detract from anyone else’s enjoyment.

The look of the movie is absolutely first rate.  Everything from production design, to shot framing to visual effects is absolutely stunning.  For a movie that’s slightly over two hours long, it’s tightly edited and wonderfully punctuated with a terrific score from composer Alan Silvestri.  In fact, I hope this gets an Oscar nomination for visual effects primarily for the wonderful job the movie does in transforming actor Chris Evans into a 90-pound weakling.  Near as I can tell, this looks seamless and the only way you know it’s a visual effect is because you have a recognizable guy like Chris Evans in the role.  I’d hazard to guess that if this same technology was used with a total unknown, with the exception of the height differential, most would think that an unknown actually made a physical transformation himself for the role.

Chris Evans plays the part of Steve Rogers/Captain America and he’s just fantastic.  He’s certainly no stranger to comic book movies having played The Human Torch in The Fantastic Four movies, and Jensen and Lucas Lee in last year’s The Losers and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World respectively.  I first got familiar with Evans when I saw him in Not Another Teen Movie back in 2001 and it’s been fun to watch him come along since then.  His Captain America is sincere and quietly confident to the point of what I’d expect that some might see as corny, but I love that, and think it’s just the thing that this character needs.  He wouldn’t have been my first choice to have played this part, which is no reflection on his skills, I just wouldn’t have thought of him to do it.  I’m sold though, Chris Evans is perfect here and you just want to see him do more.

He’s got a lot of great back-up, starting with actress Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter.  Carter’s first skeptical of what this weak guy can do, but as she gets to know Rogers further, she really opens up to the guy.  That chemistry that Atwell has with Evans is genuine and certainly convincing in the context of the film.  Tommy Lee Jones plays Colonel Phillips and really this is the type of part that Jones can do in his sleep, but it’s still terrific to see him do it.  Jones brings a big sense of humor to the film that’s never condescending.  Sebastion Stan plays “Bucky” Barnes, Rogers’ best friend, and though his scenes seem relatively brief, he’s right on target.  Stanley Tucci plays Dr. Abraham Erskine and brings just the right touch of both compassion and authority.

Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt/The Red Skull and ever since first seeing him in The Matrix I’ve been thoroughly impressed by his skills and confidence in every part he’s played.  In V For Vendetta he confidently and convincingly played a part without ever revealing his true face.  While he does show his face in his opening scenes here, at one point his true look as The Red Skull is shown and from that point on, he plays that part in the full make-up and to me, from that point on, he’s Jack Kirby’s classic character brought to true cinematic life.  Weaving’s just terrific here and the promise is certainly there that he will return to the part.

I chose not to see this one in 3D and though I’m glad I did see it in 3D, I’ve since seen Christy Lemire’s and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky’s review of the film (in 3D) on Ebert Presents At The Movies to which both gave it a “thumbs up” review.  I’ve of course heard others de-cry the 3D yet again, so really I guess it just where you stand on 3D yourself as to whether you choose that route to see the film.  There were certainly sequences that I saw in the film that I could imagine looked great in 3D, but would those sequences justify the full price?  I really can’t say.

But regardless of how you see it… do see it.  Captain America: The First Avenger is terrific fun and just a rousing good time at the movies.  Chris Evans carries the film with a commanding presence and charm and the film itself just looks awesome under Joe Johnston’s masterful direction.  As has been the case with all of the Marvel movies, stay through the end credits and you’ll be treated to a preview of next summer’s Avengers film.  Don’t miss this one…

As our story begins, we’re told that this is puled from over 7 hours of video footage shot by three Norwegian film students.  These students are shooting footage first around what seems to be a rash of killings caused by bears around Norway.  As they dig deeper, they find out about one particular hunter who’s not quite like all the rest and in fact resented by the bear hunters.  The students, Thomas, Johanna and Kalle decide to follow this one hunter around and find out what’s up. This hunter, Hans, only goes out at night and so one evening the students follow him and get way more than they expect when they find that Hans hunts for Trolls, the great creatures of Nordic myth.

That’s the premise of TrollHunter and this is one hell of a lot of fun.

Now, I already see something with it that’s a potential turn off to a lot of folks, and that’s the fact that this film is the type that’s made of “found footage,” the same type of movie as films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity. Some out there have a definite bias against these types of movies immediately.  Mostly, at least from what I understand, it’s because of the rampant handheld photography and the idea that there’s something inherent in them that doesn’t always seem “true.”  Well, I love these sorts of films, I love their sense of immediacy and Iove the tricks that they play with some of the visual effects to pull off the reality of their situations.  I tend to think that TrollHunter could be a movie that’s more appealing to the naysayers of this style, mostly because of the film’s actual story content and also by the fact that’s use of “found footage” seems to be more measured.  Yeah, there are those scenes of people running with the camera out of position, they need to be here, but it’s not as rampant as one would think.

More importantly though are just the ideas that are present, the nods to Nordic myth are true, but as things are uncovered, its set against a Men In Black type of milieu.  Finding out the “true” story of the existence of Trolls is just fun as can be, and hearing the measures that are taken to keep them under control is even more entertaining.  It may be presented as “found footage,” but there’s a tongue-in-cheek quality that creates a very entertaining offset to that.

Another potential turn-off that I could see is in the look of the Trolls.  Now again, for me, this isn’t any problem at all.  I absolutely loved the look of the Trolls and I’m quite amazed by the visual effects used to bring them to life.  Their look, at least to me, is more rooted in fantasy illustration than anything else and thus they may not be “real” enough for some viewers.  But as I said, I loved their look, putting me in the mind of Jim Henson creations on a massive scale.  It’s a lower budget film, but it doesn’t look it at all.

Now there are also some distinct tonal shifts, and if this was an American made movie, they’d probably bother me more.  Because it is Norwegian and me not being a part of that culture, I’m way more forgiving of that here.  It can also be explained away as well, simply by the fact given at the start that it’s taken from over 7 hours of footage and so whoever “assembled” this footage, just didn’t see that as a necessity to what they wanted to tell.

Otto Jesperson plays Hans and I can only imagine that right now in Norway, he might be as big as say a Russell Crowe or Christian Bale is here.  His Hans is just so cool, this is his everyday life and it’s his job, but there’s still something to the guy that makes these students want to follow him around.  But that “something” isn’t just confined to the kids, as I certainly thought he was extremely magnetic and as this goes along, there’s way more revealed in subtle ways beyond the surface.

The young actors who follow him are also quite good, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, and Tomas Alf Larsen (Thomas, Johanna and Kalle, respectively) play the students with real interest and a good nature that I found appealing.

TrollHunter is currently being offered by Magnet Releasing as a Pay-Per-View movie through most cable operations and just got a limited release theatrically as of June 10th (only showing up here in St. Louis this weekend).  Magnet also did this with what I think is the best movie I’ve seen all year (so far) with Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins. My cable company is offering this up at $5.99 to watch at home in High Definition.  I think that’s great if you’ve no other avenue to see the film (and more than likely, much like more of Magnet’s releases, this should show up on Netflix Instant Play in a few months), but if you have the opportunity to see it theatrically on a big screen, that’s the way I’d urge you to see it.  I would expect that If I saw this at home first, I still would’ve enjoyed it.  Seeing it theatrically on a large screen without the distractions of home viewing makes it even more special.

TrollHunter is just one hell of a good time.  American director Chris Columbus has the rights to remake this for American audiences and who knows, it may very well be a good movie when it happens.  I can’t help but have visions though of a Robin Williams in the part of Hans and all of the kids having this snarky side that at least to me might kill some of the charm that’s in the Norwegian original.  But like I said, who knows?  I’ve been surprised before and Columbus certainly might surprise me with a remake. Still, if you have interest in this, then I’d urge you to seek out the original and see this the way director André Øvredal has intended.  TrollHunter is highly, highly recommended.

Race car Lightning McQueen has returned to Radiator Springs following a successful race tour.  Once there, he’s reunited with his best buddy, the reliable and folksy tow truck, Tow Mater.  Lightning’s ready for some rest and relaxation, but thanks to Mater, that’s a little short-lived.  Mater sees a TV program announcing a big race sponsored by Sir Miles Axelrod promoting his new alternative fuel, Allinol.  On this same program, champion Italian race car Francesco Bernouli starts to make some disparaging remarks about Lightning McQueen.  Mater, of course being Lightning’s loyal friend calls in to the program and starts to defend his pal, which of course leads to McQueen getting involved with the race.

For the first time, Lightning decides to take his buddy Mater with him on a race tour.  Soon, Mater finds himself getting involved with two secret agents, Finn McMissle and Holley Shiftwell as they uncover a plot to discredit Axelrod and Allinol.

That’s the basic premise behind Cars 2 the latest movie from Pixar Studios.  I enjoyed the previous Cars film quite a bit, though not to the same lengths as such films as the Toy Story movies, The Incredibles, or Wall•E. The first Cars, along with Monsters, Inc., are to me, the weakest of Pixar’s impressive filmography.  Inevitably, whenever I make this remark, someone is always quick to defend these movies and that’s fine, but I’m not saying they’re bad movies at all.  In fact, I enjoy them quite a bit, they just don’t have the same resonance with me as other Pixar movies.  And weaker Pixar movies are still tons better than most other computer animated efforts out there.  So please, when I say that, I’m not insulting those movies by any means.

Cars 2 actually changes things up quite a bit and really this time around, this is Mater’s movie, with Lightning McQueen more as a supporting player, with even the new secret agent cars, Finn McMissle and Holley Shiftwell getting (at least in my eyes) more screen time than Lightning.  Larry the Cable Guy provides the voice for Mater, and while I’m not exactly a Larry The Cable Guy live-action fan, he does a pretty good job with Mater and makes him a character that you do care about, though it’s one that I don’t think is as universal as say Woody from the Toy Story films.  Most of Pixar’s movies have a great universal appeal to both adults and children, but in the case of the Cars movies and Monsters, Inc., I think they’re just a touch more geared towards children, and that’s fine, I think kids will absolutely love this.  I think adults will too, but again, not to the same extent as other Pixar efforts.

I like Cars 2 more than it’s original, and actually like the idea of changing things up a bit, with a different character getting the spotlight and adding all of these James Bond-like secret agent elements.  But what amazes me more is how Pixar always raises the bar technologically with each of it’s films.  Some of the visuals here are just astounding.

The voice casting is certainly well done.  Owen Wilson returns as Lightning McQueen, as do most of the previous Cars cast.  New to the cast this time though are Emily Mortimer as Holley Shiftwell and Eddie Izzard as Sir Miles Axelrod.  The real standouts for me in the voice work though are Michael Caine as Finn McMissle and John Turturro as Francesco Bernouli.  Turturro in particular sounds like he’s having a great time here.

Cars 2 is, pardon the expression, a fun ride and for children, I expect it’ll be a really fun ride.  A word of warning though to parents taking their kids to see this, there is a good deal of, for want of a better word, violence, in the movie.  Lots of scenes with guns, explosions and even a couple of car “deaths.”  Now, it does all move pretty quickly, so none of it ever seems like it’s dwelled upon for too long, but still these scenes are there and you might want to keep that in mind depending on how you think your child will handle it.

As is common practice with a Pixar movie, we also get a short in front of this under the banner title of Toy Story Toons. Yes, the Toy Story characters are back for a short titled “Hawaiian Vacation” and it’s just terrific.  The real surprise for me out of the short is that it takes place after Toy Story 3, so now Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang are part of Bonnie’s toy collection.  This short is just a lot of fun, and the entire voice cast, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, everyone is back for this, including Michael Keaton as the Ken doll, who’s also the standout for me in that short.

I chose to see Cars 2 in 3D, and much like the the 3D use in other Pixar films, it’s used more for a sense of immersion rather than going for in-your-face effects.  I think it’s pretty nicely done, but not really essential to your enjoyment of the film.  It’s more of an enhancement than anything else, still some of the scenes really do shine with that enhancement.

So anyway, I’ve been a huge Green Lantern fan for over 40 years now, so when it was first announced that Warners and DC Comics were readying a movie based around the character, I was pretty excited about it.  The more I kept seeing about it along the way, the more enthusiastic for it I got.  This was a big leap for Warners and DC as far as their movies go, even bigger than making movies of such comic characters as John Constantine or Jonah Hex and chancier than the past movies made of Superman and Batman.  Green Lantern was going to fully embrace it’s comic book roots, and as a comic property that’s not as publicly well-known as Superman and Batman, that was a huge gamble.

These days, DC and Warners are really no strangers to taking a huge chance.  They’ve made recent news with the announcement of relaunching their entire line with 52 new first issues with the idea of bringing in newer readers.  The idea here being to give anyone who wants to try their books out a fresh jumping on point, and further with a day and date release of all of their books in the digital playground as well.  This news has been met with both anger and joy.  As a lifelong fan of DC Comics, and one who’s used to seeing these characters got through a lot of drastic changes over this time, I’m actually looking forward to what DC has planned and hope for the best, not only for them, but the comic book industry on the whole.  The Green Lantern movie looks to be the first concerted step in advancement of this plan.  It helps get the word out in it’s own way, even though from the early things I’ve read with fan reactions, it didn’t look like things were going to fare to well.

Green Lantern is the latest movie from director Martin Campbell.  Campbell’s no stranger to taking heroic properties and giving them a fresh movie sheen.  He’s done it previously with James Bond with both GoldenEye and Casino Royale and he’s also done it with Zorro with The Mask of Zorro. Armed with a high-powered cast and a huge budget, could he do the same with this untried comic book property?

Well, I think he has, but more as we go along the way…

As our story starts, we’re told of the Guardians of the Universe and how they’ve managed to harness the emerald energy of the emotional power of Will.  They’ve used this energy to create a galactic peacekeeping force called the Green Lantern Corps made up of alien beings of all sorts.  The Corps does this with energy contained within mystical rings.  The Guardians tried to further their power by harnessing the yellow energy of Fear but with disastrous results.  A being known as Parallax came into possession of the power and caused chaos, but was ultimately brought to justice and imprisoned by the Green Lantern known as Abin Sur.

Parallax has been planning his escape, and when the opportunity presents itself he strikes back at Abin Sur causing mortal damage.  Abin Sur desperately escapes and finds himself dying on a young planet within his space sector, the planet Earth.

From there, Abin Sur uses his power ring to seek out a successor with the biggest qualifier being that the being chosen must have no fear.  The ring finds that successor in a brash test pilot named Hal Jordan.  And from there, the inevitable hijinks ensue…

As I said above, I’m a huge Green Lantern fan and I just had a ball with this movie and I only hope it does well enough in the end for more to come.

Some of the early complaints that I’ve read of involves there just being too much told in this and that it was hard to follow because of that.  Sure, there’s a lot crammed into this first film, but the only way it’s hard to follow is if you’re just not paying attention and either texting or Twittering while you’re watching it.  I had absolutely no problems at all following this.  The only faults that I thought it had were a couple of plot holes here and there (minor in my estimation) and a little bit of a pacing issue with some scenes.  But the sheer enthusiasm of the rest of the film, at least for me, overcomes that.

I’d also read in a few places about a cartoon-ish and cheesy quality to it’s visual effects.  Well, I absolutely loved the look of the movie.  I like how it embraces it’s bright color palette and made for something that looks quite lively. I love the theatricality of it’s visual effects, it doesn’t necessarily look “real” (though what the frame of reference for what is “real” with aliens who use power rings to fight injustice is, I’ll never know) but it does look like a comic book brought to life.  To me, the look of this movie has a real sense of wonder which is what a good comic book should have.

And what a joy to see these characters brought to life.  Ryan Reynolds has the plum role of playing Hal Jordan.  Right off the bat, he looks just like how Hal Jordan looked when he was first drawn by artist Gil Kane and some shots of him in his full Green Lantern regalia bring to mind the work of artist Neal Adams, who made his own historic mark in the comics.  Reynolds’ enthusiasm and drive are evident in every scene he’s in- he looks like he’s having fun with this and for this Green Lantern fan, that was just infectious.

Reynolds is backed up with an extremely strong cast.  Blake Lively plays Carol Ferris, who’s both Jordan’s boss and love interest.  Now Hal and Carol have never had what has been a traditional relationship by any means and I think that’s evident here as well.  Lively looks terrific, has her own drive and certainly has chemistry with Ryan Reynolds.

Mark Strong plays Sinestro, who as this movie starts is considered the greatest of the Green Lantern Corps.  Strong is solid as a rock and I just loved his look.  Green Lantern fans know that more is coming when it comes to Sinestro, and Strong has the right qualities to make that a reality.  Peter Sarsgaard plays Hector Hammond, a brilliant scientist who’s brought in by a mysterious government organization to examine the dead body of Abin Sur and along the way gets infected by Parallax.  Like the rest of the cast, Sarsgaard looks like he’s having a great time here and I thought he was quite effective as one of our two villains.

I made the choice to go ahead and see this one in 3D even knowing that it really wasn’t made with that in mind (and even finding out later that Martin Campbell wasn’t for it at all) and fortunately had the opportunity to see this in a room that was using 4K projection.  The 3D is hit and miss, but still I was glad I saw it that way.  I peeked into a room that was showing it in 2D and even with wearing 3D glasses, the projection in the 3D room was much brighter and sharper than how it looked in 2D.  I don’t think you really need to see it in 3D to enjoy it and if you have reservations and do want to see it, the certainly take the 2D route.

I had a ton of fun with Green Lantern. As a big fan, I appreciated all of the nods to the comics and the incredible look of the movie, which really does bring a comic book to life.  I think it’s cast is terrific and the set-up is there for more films.  For a Green Lantern fan, this is a lot of fun.  Will that fun transfer to someone who has no idea at all of what they’re getting into?  I have absolutely no idea, but I certainly hope that it would.  Regardless, I had a fantastic time with this and as a word of warning, there is one additional scene that runs after the end credits get rolling, so don’t quite walk out right away.

Our setting is a small Ohio town of Lillian in the late 70s.  Young Joe Lamb has just suffered through the death of his mother and has difficulties dealing with his father, who’s one of the deputies on the town’s police force.  Joe has a group of friends who he makes short movies with shot with a Super 8mm camera.  He and his friends are currently making their own zombie movie, somewhat inspired by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. One night, Joe and his friends are out by an old train station shooting a scene.  As they’re getting ready to shoot this key scene, a train passes by.  Joe looks out in the distance and sees a truck driving towards the tracks.  The driver of the truck takes his vehicle right on the tracks on a direct collision course with the train.  A devastating impact occurs that in turn unleashes some unknown entity upon this unsuspecting community.

That’s the basic premise to Super 8, the newest movie from director J.J. Abrams, the creator of the TV show Alias, one of the creators behind TV’s Lost and the director of such movies as Mission: Impossible III and the wildly successful Star Trek reboot.  This is the first time, as far as I know, that Abrams has teamed with producer Steven Spielberg.  With a pedigree like that, you certainly hope for the best with this movie, the promise is certainly there.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t quite all come together in a satisfying way.

I was really looking forward to this movie.  In a summer filled with sequels and comic book movies (not that there’s anything wrong with that), Super 8 looked like it was going to be something a little bit different than what was coming down the road.  Abrams has basically stated that this was somewhat autobiographical for him and working with Spielberg, it gave him the chance to homage some aspects of Spielberg’s 70s films.  The early trailers for the film were very promising being mostly pure teaser and not really giving a whole lot away.

Super 8 references other movies that Steven Spielberg made both as a director and a producer.  Those movies include Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E. T., The Goonies and Poltergeist. On the surface, there’s really nothing wrong with doing that but the way it’s mixed together here just never quite comes together for me.  As the events unfold, there’s a pretty hard terror aspect involved which actually is quite nice, but it’s resolution tries to put a heartwarming spin to the whole thing that just feels forced. A very clunky explanation is given to the true nature of this entity that terrorizes the area.  That story in itself is a little too big to be satisfyingly told in the space of this film and still have a proper emotional resonance.  This would’ve worked better had Abrams decided to go either all the way with either pure terror or with heartwarming sense of wonder.  As it is, he’s trying to mix the two and both get short-changed.

The kids themselves are fairly engaging when they’re all together.  It’s when we’re seeing a couple of them deal with their own personal issues is where things start to fall apart.  Joe (played by Joel Courtney) and a young girl who he’s attracted to, Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning), both have issues with their fathers (Kyle Chandler as Joe’s father and Ron Eldard as Alice’s) as a result of what caused the death of Joe’s mother.  Neither relationship has a whole lot of perspective attached to it in regards to what things were like before Joe’s mother was killed.  Things are somewhat resolved between both parents and their kids by the film’s end, but that resolution feels entirely forced without having any sort of idea of what it used to be.

Noah Emmerich plays Colonel Nelec, the leader of a military force that’s been sent to Lillian to contain what’s happened.  Now there’s really nothing wrong with anything that Emmerich does, but it’s the general portrayal of the military that gives me some issue here.  They’re pretty much presented as nearly the same sort of malevolent force that they’re trying to quell and it’s all just on one simplistic note.  Again, I think that’s a result of trying to mash-up two distinct tones for the overall movie and not having enough time to get them all to adequately pay off.

To it’s credit though, I think the movie does have a good look to it, even though sometimes I think Abrams takes things a little too far in trying to reference the look of a Spielberg movie from the 70s.  Michael Giacchino produces another terrific score for the film and the visual effects are pretty well done.  The initial devastation with the train is particularly well done.

But still, I cannot give this Super 8 a recommendation.  The premise is certainly decent, but it goes to the extremes for the two tones that it’s trying to mix without the proper filler to make it all seem really cohesive.  I’m sorry to say that as I’m a big fan of J.J. Abrams.  Here’s hoping things fare better when he returns to the future with the ext Star Trek movie.

X-Men: First Class is a prequel film to Marvel’s and Fox’s highly successful X-Men series.  The first two movies (X-Men and X-Men 2), both directed by Bryan Singer, are terrific films.  While I like the third film in the series, directed by Brett Ratner, I’d also be the first to tell you that it falters behind the first two movies.  I also include X-Men Origins: Wolverine directed by Gavin Hood, with this bunch as well, and like X-Men 3, I thought it was entertaining, but nowhere in the same league as the first two movies.

Now director Matthew Vaughn has been given a chance at the reins of the series, working under a story with Bryan Singer as part of the credits.  Matthew Vaughn has previously directed Kick-Ass, Stardust and Layer Cake. Prior to this, he was first connected to Thor which he dropped out of to be replaced by Kenneth Branagh.  But still it looks like someone was bound and determined to get him connected with a Marvel Comics movie…

…and thank goodness they did.  X-Men: First Class is a winner and I can’t wait to see it again.

As our movie opens, it’s the 40s and we’re shown the parallel stories of Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier as young boys, first learning about their mutant abilities.  Lehnsherr is being forced by the Nazis to use his talents, while Xavier has more academic concerns, including meeting the mysterious Raven as a little girl (who later becomes Mystique).

We move to 1962, and now both have grown to young men.  With the war long over, Erik Lensherr is in pursuit of the Nazis who killed his parents.  Charles Xavier and Raven are following their academic roots, until they’re contacted by CIA operative Moira MacTaggert for help with the CIA’s work.  Eventually Xavier and Lensherr finally meet, and both discover common ground in their pursuits with mutantkind.

Looming in the background though is Sebastian Shaw and the Hellfire Club and their plans are at extreme odds with those of the CIA.

Now, I know I’m being real vague here about the overall story, but honestly, I don’t want to spoil a thing.  X-Men: First Class is a movie, for an X-Men fan, to be savored.  There’s nice little story turns and Easter eggs throughout this film and remarkably it all ties in well with the previous movies.

X-Men: First Class absolutely looks terrific.  Matthew Vaughn isn’t afraid to play with bright colors here at all and setting this primarily in the 60s also plays with the shooting style of the film, including some nice montage areas.

This is one packed film and nothing feels wasted.  The pacing is terrific and right when you think something’s been forgotten about, they come right back to it.  Henry Jackman’s musical score is perfectly suited to this film and nimbly helps with the pace.

It also helps that you have a terrific young cast.  James McAvoy plays Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender plays Erik Lehnsherr.  McAvoy is both smooth and smart, and right from the word “go” ably projects the same authority that Patrick Stewart did in the prior movies.  I’ve become quite the fan of Michael Fassbender and he does not disappoint in the slightest here.  He manages the same sort of regality that Ian Mckellan had in the prior films, but also brings a real physical joy to playing a character with super-powers.  I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Rose Byrne plays Moira MacTaggert and Jennifer Lawrence plays Raven.  Both ladies are fantastic in their parts and I really like just how well lawrence works with McAvoy in the early parts of the movie.  Oliver Platt plays an unnamed (but important) CIA liason to this crew and delivers the right amount of authority.  Rounding out the rest of Xavier’s core team, you have Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy, who’s also the mutant who becomes known as the Beast, Caleb Landry Jones as the sonic-powered Banshee and Lucas Till as Alex Summers, also known as Havok.  All are great, but I really have to give some high marks to Hoult, who in many ways to me seems almost the heart of this film.

On the villains side, we’ve got Kevin Bacon as Sebastian Shaw, and he just looks like he’s having a great time being part of this film.  January Jones plays Emma Frost, extremely loyal to Shaw and really quite the knockout.  Alex Gonzalez and Jason Flemyng round out the villain side, as the mutants Riptide and Azazel respectively, and though they don’t get the lines that everyone else has, they both have real physical presence.

And there’s even more, especially two very nice cameo appearances, but I don’t want to say any more than that.  Matthew Vaughn has assembled a terrific ensemble cast and you can’t help but want to see this same assemblage come together again.

Like I said, X-Men: First Class is a winner, and I even enjoyed it more than Thor.  Out of the big four comic book movies announced for this summer, I thought X-Men; First Class was the sleeper of the bunch.  The more I kept seeing of this in trailers and the news, the more I was looking forward to it.  The sheer idea of taking this series back in time to the 60s is brilliant and to me anyway, really helps bring in huge sense of wonder.  Don’t miss this one…

At the end of Japan’s feudal era, peace reigns across the land, though that is starting to be abused by the Shogun’s brother, Lord Naritsugu.  Naritsugu abuses the people for his own sport and is on the fast track to ascension within the hierarchy.  Sir Doi, the minister of law, wants to stop him but can’t overtly due to political conflict.  Doi seeks to do so through covert means, contacting a legendary samurai, Shinzaemon. to do so.  Shainzaemon puts together a group comprised of eleven other samurai and with their guide, the feisty Koyata, seek to overcome impossible odds and assassinate Naritsugu while he’s under the protection of 200 men.

13 Assassins is the latest movie from Japanese film director Takashi Miike.  Miike, has directed all sorts of different genres of film and at a prolific rate, many times directing as many as four or five films a year.  In the United States, Miike is best known for his twisted cult movies, first (at least in my mind) rising to fame with his brutal horror story of a relationship gone awry, Audition (2000).  Audition was my own personal gateway to Miike’s movies and after that I actively sought out other films like Dead or Alive, Fudoh, Gozu and of course, Ichi the Killer. More recently, he’s been part of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series with the intense episode Imprint and directed the western Sukiyaki Western Django, which I still have yet to see.  These movies are not for the faint of heart, so if you’re new to the world of Takashi Miike, consider yourself warned…

13 Assassins is a much more conventional film than those listed above, but that doesn’t mean that it’s any less special.  Last year, we saw a spate of “men on a mission” movies with films like The Losers, The A-Team and The Expendables and there’s certainly varying degrees of fun to be had with all three of these, but there’s still a bit of a quality of winking at the audience with all three of them.  13 Assassins is the real deal when it comes to this sort of film having more in common with movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Magnificent Seven. I’d take this a step further, and add that after seeing this, in my mind, it was like Miike made his version of Sam Peckinpah’s immortal classic, The Wild Bunch.

It’s a straightforward story of good versus evil.  Evil with Lord Naritsugu gets set up quickly and brutally, and right from the start we want to see this guy meet an extremely violent end.  Shinzaemon and his group of men all get their chance in the spotlight and as much as we hate Naritsugu, we grow to like and care for this group of samurai.

The first half of the movie is all set-up, not just with the characters but with the intricate set-up that Shinzaemon comes up to take out Naritsugu.  The second half of the movie is a glorious pay-off with an epic battle between these 13 men and the 200 who protect Naritsugu.  This is spectacularly played out with no special effects tricks to highlight the action.  It’s just pure and logical action and it’s just glorious to watch.

I honestly can’t say that I’m familiar with any of the cast, though I’d expect that in Japan, they’re probably all pretty big deals.  Regardless, their performances are absolutely fantastic.  Kôji Yakusho plays Shinzaemon and just by force of his character, you’re ready to follow him into glorious battle.  Amongst his men, standouts include Tsuyoshi Ihara as the heroic Hirayama, Yusuke Iseya as their guide Koyata and Takayuki Yameda as Shinzaemon’s nephew Shinrouko.  Ihara’s Hirayama commands the screen when we see him in action and you could almost imagine an entire movie made around this guy alone.  Iseya’s Koyata puts the whole thing in perspective for a common man and at the same time offers up some of the film’s comic relief.  Yamada’s Shinrouko goes through the most personal growth, starting this adventure preoccupied with losing himself in gambling and women and uniquely transformed by the film’s end.

On the other side, Gorô Inagaki plays Lord Naritsugu with an aristocratic snideness that makes him a perfect villain.  Naritsugu is protected by Hanbei who leads the 200 men.  Hanbei, played by Masachika Ichimura, is Shinzaemon’s opposite number, but just as crafty and cunning in his own right.  A final battle between Shinzaemon and Hanbei is foreshadowed early in the film and when it comes it’s fantastic and very, very satisfying.

13 Assassins is a masterpiece, it really doesn’t get any better than this.  Takashi Miike’s maturity as a filmmaker is in full evidence here.  It is an extremely violent movie though, so it’s not for everybody.  I have to confess, this is the first time that I’ve ever experienced one of Miike’s movies on the big screen and I was literally blown away by the experience.  It makes me wish that I could’ve experienced some of his other movies like Audition or Ichi The Killer on the big screen.  Oh, I was certainly impressed by them watching them at home, but I imagine the experience would’ve been amplified considerably with the theatrical experience.  Magnet Releasing is currently offering this through OnDemand viewing, so if you want to pursue this, the opportunity is surely there (and most of Magnet’s movies also eventually find their way to Netflix Instant Play, so if you have that, 13 Assassins should eventually be available).  But honestly, if you have the chance to see this on the big screen… do it.  Easily, 13 Assassins is one of the very best movies I’ve seen so far this year and obviously this is highly, highly recommended.