(MOVIE REVIEW) Captain America easily red, white and blew Harry Potter out of the #1 spot in its opening weekend

After the horrible movie that I had to sit through last week (see last weeks blog post ) I would have watched just about anything in an attempt to get the rancid taste of lazy “wand battles” out of my mouth. Potter disappointed so badly that I almost couldn’t stand to get my hopes up for the much anticipated Captain America: First Avenger. However, only minutes into Captain America, I had already seen more good footage than the entire time that I sat through the overhyped bloated waste that was Harry Potter. Captain America: The First Avenger proved to be a great origin story for one of my favorite comic book heroes.

When young Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) tries to enlist in the army, he fails….more than five times. He didn’t have what the Army was looking for. They needed a soldier with size, with strength and with speed. But what they overlooked was a soldier with heart. When Steve is selected to be part of the Super Soldier Program he gladly accepts. He walks in to the complex a short weakling, and emerges as the greatest soldier that the US Army has ever seen. After the complex is attacked, Rogers makes it his mission to bring down the Nazi plague that has ended so many lives. With a hand selected team on his side, Rogers decides to take the fight directly to the Nazi Party, and more specifically to The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving).  He may have entered the Army as Steve Rogers, but he leaves it as Captain America.

This movie is not your typical superhero film. It splits its workload between blockbuster superhero film, period film, and action-comedy. The movie works on so many levels. It doesn’t offer the amount of action that Transformers 3 did, but what it does offer is action of a higher quality. They don’t just slip a lot of fighting and explosions in for the sake of doing it. The action is only a necessity, while the heart of the story focuses on the inner strength of a man that only wants to “do his part”.

Worth the admission? Does Captain America Turtle Wax his shield? Not only do I think that this is a great movie, I think that it is the best superhero film of 2011. It refuses to be one dimensional. And with hilariously dry one-liners peppered throughout the film by Tommy Lee Jones, the movie brings in some much needed levity to some otherwise serious subject matter.

Make sure you check out the bonus footage after the credits and let me know what you thought .

(MOVIE REVIEW) Lantern may have failed to rake in the Green, but it still manages to offer fans an enjoyable movie

Matthew 5:5 says that “the meek shall inherit the Earth”. Well, I don’t know when that will happen, but I do know that the summer of 2011 is when “the geek shall inherit the Earth”. This summer has been loaded with fan-boy movies like no other summer in recent history. We have already seen The Green Hornet, Priest, Thor, X Men: First Class and this week’s Green Lantern on the big screen. Not to mention that Captain America and Transformers are still to come this year. So, needless to say, I am in the dorkiest part of dork heaven…and I love it. 

Green Lantern begins with an origin story and lots of exposition about how the Green Lantern Corps, a group of thousands of defenders that harness the willpower of the universe through their rings to form whatever the rings wielder can imagine, fought to capture a ruthless entity named Parallax. Parallax derives his power from fear. When Parallax escapes his prison, he targets the one Green Lantern that was responsible for his capture, Abin Sur. When Abin Sur is fatally wounded by Parallax, the ring seeks out a replacement Green Lantern to protect earth. It chooses Hal Jordan (Reynolds). When Jordan accepts the ring he is taken to the planet Oa, home of the Corps, to train. Training is cut short when Parallax begins destroying entire planets, causing genocide, and decides to make his next target earth. Jordan must be fearless, he must protect his planet, and he must find a way to defeat Parallax. Can he fight an unstoppable force, or is another planet forced to suffer extermination by Parallax?

Right out of the box I have to say this. I built this movie up SO BIG in my mind that it would never be as good as I hoped. That being said, it was a really fun movie that has a lot of heart, a little comedy, and some truly amazing special effects (especially in 3D). Sinestro (Mark Strong) is a great character in the film and will play a larger part in the next. While I am not a big fan of Peter Sarsgaard, he played the character of Hector Hammond perfectly. 

Worth the admission? Does Ryan Reynolds look good in tights? My wife thought so. The movie is not a 10, but it is at least an 8. What was worth the ticket price alone was to get to hear the Green Lantern Oath. An amazing moment in the movie and well acted by Reynolds. Go see this movie!

Watch the credits for a bonus scene let me know what you thought of the set up for the next film. 

(Movie Review) THOR conquers the box office and the competition in its opening weekend

As I type this, my geek senses are still slightly tingling. Why? Because a movie that I never thought that I would want to see, about one of my least favorite comic book characters, actually turned out to be really good. This has given me TREMENDIOUS hope for the upcoming Avengers movie and I fully believe that the people behind Marvel Films could take the least known character in their roster and make a great movie with them. I just hope DC Comics (my favorite) can mimic this success. 

THOR starts off with a very quick origin. Odin (Hopkins), the king of Asgard, is shown to have won a monumental battle against a race of Frost Giants. Thor (Hemsworth) and his brother Loki (Hiddleston), while very young, revel in their father’s victory. Thor sees this as a great accomplishment and longs for the day when he will be king and can have people praise him for his conquests on the battle field. In present day, Thor has become a very warlike person. When his impetuous and brazen attitude threatens to disrupt the delicate truce between Asgard and the Frost Giants, Odin, in an attempt to teach Thor a lesson,  strips him of his powers and casts him out (to Earth). He awakes as a mortal and is soon aided by Jane (Portman) in his search for his source of power. Thor must find a way to get his powers back, to protect his new found friends, and to finally prove himself worthy to be king of Asgard.  

When I first saw the outline for this movie, I had my reservations about it. They, essentially, rewrite the mythology and replace “gods” (which is what Thor was in the comics) with advanced beings from another planet that were only considered deities due to their technological advancements. However, in a modern world, where more and more superhero movies are being grounded in reality, this is a much easier pill to swallow than having the actual “gods” angle explored. Also, to have the majority of the movie showing Thor as mortal really added a human element to the film that I feared would be lost. 

Worth the admission? Every penny of it. We actually saw it in 3D, which I thought was great but it gave my wife a headache. But for a large scale movie like this, I would recommend 3D if you can. 

NOTES: Stick around after the movie for an extra scene. Also, tell me if you noticed the other Avenger in the film.