Green Lantern Review

Green Lantern Review

If I were to rate superhero films on a spectrum that had the 1978 classic Superman: The Movie on one end, and the messy diaper that was 1997's Batman & Robin on the other, then the Green Lantern would fall somewhere smack dab in the middle.

The movie is a fantastic introduction to the character.  If you have never heard of the Green Lantern, or Hal Jordan you don't have to worry about being left out of the loop.  You will get to experience and learn all about who Hal is. You will get to learn all the demons of his past. You will learn the names of  who his supporting characters are, including the traits and personalities of the main members of the Green Lantern Corps. For those of us in the know, this is a bit painful, but those who are new to the world of Oa this will be a fascinating and wonderful peek into the vastness of the Green Lantern Corps. The less you know about the Green Lantern, and the story of Hal Jordan, the better off you are. However, because the movie spends so much time on this the movie drags in sections. 

I should also mention that I feel the movie could have used a bit more humor. The movie wants to be taken seriously, it wants to exist as a thoughtful action film, but thats not what we want from our spandex clad gods of summer. We want a witty remark, or a joke, or something that lightens the mood. The movie forces itself away from the typical light hearted super hero movie so desperately that it at times becomes too heavy, and bogged down by its own weight.

Visually speaking this movie is beautiful.  The toughest part of creating the world of the Green Lantern is making us believe in the interstellar universe and in Oa, the home planet of the Green Lantern Corps.  The film does an exceptional job with this, and you believe in the reality that they have created.  Many people have complained about the suit being a completely fabricated piece of CGI. I disagree. Personally I think that this was the only way to go when it comes to the Green Lantern. He is a hero who is only limited by his imagination, so why not allow that to flow organically from within the suit.

On the whole I was satisfied with the acting in the movie.  I was especially impressed with the performance of Ryan Reynolds.  Initially I thought he was too funny to play the part and too silly for the  intergalactic space cop role of Hal Jordan.  I was wrong.  Reynolds takes this part seriously, he knows this character, and you can tell he belongs in the part. Also perfectly cast was Mark Strong (most commonly known as Lord Blackwood in 2009's Sherlock Holmes). Besides being well cast based solely on his resume, Mark Strong does a brilliant job in his portrayal of the great general of Oa. The trickiest part for him is that he has to play Sinestro just right, with enough charm for us to like him and yet enough menace for us to believe that he can easily follow the path he is headed on.

The major theme in the movie is that the strength of will can overcome the power of fear. Hal Jordan is just a man, who has fears just like all men.  So the choice of villain for the origin story was very appropriate.  An enemy who embodies, and feeds off of the fear in others, is a worthy first opponent for a man who must conquer his own fear. Where Hal Jordan's strength lies is in his ability to face his fears, to present his courage to any villain that would use fear to manipulate those around them. I am sad to say that I am looking forward to the sequel not because of the greatness of this one, but because we can skip the origin story and get right to the betrayal of Sinestro.

Overall it is a good movie, not the great movie I am sure everyone was hoping it would be, but good.  I truly hope that it is does well enough financially to kick off the second wave of DC heroes.  I am excited to see feature films of the Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman.  Weather or not we need a combined DC Universe team of heroes I don't know but it would be nice to see the second tier DC hero get a shot at being made into movies.

Mr. Popper's Penguins Review

Mr. Popper's Penguins Review
Mr. Popper's Penguins is a wonderful children's book. In the book Mr. Popper is a house painter in the 1930s and, like most house painters, only works Spring through Fall. in the wintertime he drowns himself in National Geographic and radio shows about world explorers. During one such show, he learns of Admiral Drake and his Antarctic adventures. He writes to him, and surprisingly Admiral Drake responds to Mr. Popper's letter with a live penguin. The adventures start with one and soon enough, the penguin family grows to nine. Mr. Popper, his wife, and their two kids take the penguins on the road as an act to earn money. The act eventually gets old and there's a run-in with the law only to be bailed out by Admiral Drake. Mr. Popper is then faced with a moral dilemma that questions the penguins' future.

Its hard to imagine messing up a movie version of this book, but somehow someway the filmmakers behind the movie version of Mr. Popper's Penguins found a way to bastardize and destroy every single ounce of charm out of this clever story. They have replaced the poor painter with the story of a workaholic divorcee, who spends most of his time as a slick corporate real estate mogul. Of course he is a absentee father because his father wasn't there for him, funny how movies recycle old cliches. For some reason they thought that telling the oft told story of a jaded modern business man who finds a heart and also wins back his family, would be far more entertaining than the clever idea of a family on the road with a penguin circus during the great depression.

I can see the development meeting in my head...

Studio Executive: Penguin's are up 40% in popularity this quarter, what should we do to get in on this market? 

"Creative" Mind: Animated penguins who sing and dance? 

Studio Executive: Wait Warner Bros. already did that with Happy Feet.

"Creative" Mind: Well We have this wonderful children's book we optioned about a man who lives in Stillwater and has a penguin circus to feed his family during the depression. We could do a live action/animation blend.

Studio Executive: I like it. But lets loose the circus angle and for that matter change everything else in the book. Also, this memo I got says we need to humanize Wall Street after the housing crash.Make him a rich and pompous New Yorker, so that when he learns something people can love real estate moguls again. and make sure he gets pooped on a lot. Oh and at the end can we have Ice Ice Baby play over the credits? I mean who doesn't love Vanilla Ice?

Of course I don't actually think anyone actually said these things, but something tells me that there was hefty market research done. And it is the business of art that makes lousy uninspired drivel like Mr. Popper's Penguins.

My biggest problem with the movie wasn't that they modernized the story, or that they decided to lose the circus, or even that they picked a recycled storyline. My biggest problem with the movie lies in the fact that it took a great children's book, and reduced it to penguin poop. Literally,  I counted no less than seven jokes about penguins pooping. Some of them were Jim Carrey getting pooped on, some of them were penguins pooping on each other, or in toilets, and most of them were not in the least bit funny. Its a sad comment on today's youth if this is what they consider high brow humor.

I can accept that this was a children's book. I can also accept that the producers wanted to attract a modern audience, and that they felt in order to attract that audience they felt obligated to change plot lines and characters. But are kids today that superficial that they cannot appreciate a period piece? Do we have to add a fart joke to a classic tale for it to be more relatable to kids today? This is the part of the review where I bring up the god awful Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black, because it did the same thing to a good book. Taking a tale, modernizing it but also reducing it to nothing more than a collection of out dated hip hop montages laced with dick and fart jokes. I am sorry, maybe I am old and out of touch, but when you reduce a beloved children's tale to nothing more than poop jokes, then you are not just pooping on Jim Carrey, you are pooping on the people who love the literature in which it is based.

Do yourself a favor and spend the evening reading the book to your kids, or even to yourself.  The book is far more entertaining and thought provoking than this movie, and if you order it on amazon its only like three bucks.

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

Kung Fu Panda 2 Review

Admittedly I was a bit put off by the idea of a sequel to Kung Fu Panda.  The first film was a nice little kids film with some clever kung fu movie references, but I didn't think it had much potential to be much more than that the one film.  I was wrong.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is without question a superior film to the first. As a series it is now much more than a simple love letter to kung fu philosophy. With Kung Fu Panda 2, the series attempts and succeeds at becoming a part of kung fu philosophy. The movie takes itself seriously as a kung fu film, but also retains an innocent level of silly humor obviously aimed at children.  My hope is that as these children grow up they experience true kung fu films and appreciate them because they have been given a solid baseline with these movies.

Most Kung Fu Films have a philosophical purpose, or thesis, that serves as the moral of the story. You are supposed to learn a lesson from the film, something about yourself that you can take with you and apply in your own life.  Kung Fu Panda has taken this concept and applied it to its narrative. We are supposed to learn and accept the philosophy it provides, and properly apply it to our lives.  Yes it is a children's movie, and yes it has silly comedy, but the philosophical thesis is still present.  In fact because it is a movie designed for young children it blatantly and repeatedly bashes us in the head with it's philosophy.

Kung Fu Panda 2 begins with the legend of the disgraced peacock Lord Shen voiced by Gary Oldman. His story revolves around a prophecy of a black and white warrior who will defeat him.  Fearing his fate, Lord Shen hunted and butchered all the pandas of the world. This of course is all prologue to the original Kung Fu Panda, and explains why Po, voiced by Jack Black, calls a soup cooking goose his Father.

Po's desire to reconcile the ghosts of his past, while simultaneously attaining inner peace, give us the philosophical base that all true kung fu movies need. I can see each chapter in this series being about another chapter in the development of Po. Another another philosophy he must apply to his life, and another lesson he must learn in order to grow as a master of kung fu.

The animation in the film is top notch. Initially I was not a fan of Dreamworks Animation.  I always felt that their art came second to being clever.  Last year, when How to Train Your Dragon was released, I began to hope that perhaps they finally understood that the beauty of the animation is what makes these movies pop, not just clever stories (although that is important too).  Kung Fu Panda 2 demonstrates their desire to create beautiful pieces of moving art. Hopefully with each passing film the Dreamworks Animation Studio doesn't forget this.

This movie serves as a bridge from the first Kung Fu Panda, in which we are introduced into the world, and future Kung Fu Panda movies, of which 5 more have been announced.  This entry also theoretically serves as a template for future Kung Fu Panda movies. A template where we are pleasantly treated to heaping gobs of kung fu concepts, philosophy, and ideology, while also being cleverly entertained.

The Hangover Part II Review

The Hangover Part II Review

Some movies enter main stream culture and demand a sequel.  The Hangover was one of those movies.  Typically the sequels fail to deliver, they fall short of the original or copycat it to the point where it no longer seems fresh. Last summer's Sex in the City 2 and Iron Man 2 both failed to be fresh or new and that was their biggest failures.  Yes they were sucessfull films, and yes they have their fans, but as movies they were just so so sequels.  Luckily The Hangover Part II brilliantly captures the essence of the original while simultaneously remaining fresh and new.

The best explanation I have ever heard for comedy is that comedy is about the unexpected. You sell an audience on one expected or traditional outcome then give them something different. There are moments in this movie when you will know what is coming, the set up, and the delivery are obvious, but because it is so over the top, and because as a conditioned American audience cannot believe that anyone would possibly put such depravity on celluloid you will still be shocked and will still laugh uncontrollably.

Todd Phillips the director, essentially stripped the first movie down to the foundation, and built a new structure using the same floor plan as the original.  Like the old adage ain't says, if it broke don't fix it. The bones and structure of the original are always present but just twisted enough to make us feel like it is a new and unexpected. There are no surprises when it comes to our characters, Phil (Bradley Cooper) is the same frat boy type, who refuses to accept that he is a grown up with real responsibilities. Stu (Ed Helms) is the same panic stricken pessimist with an affinity for exotic dancers/hookers. And of course who can forget clueless, man child, Alan (Zach Galifianakis), who's innocence is only matched by his awkwardness. They all remain the same characters from the first film, and its nice, for once, not to be forced to endure some sort of deeper character development in a sequel.

This time the guys wake up in a flop house somewhere in the middle of Bangkok, with no clue of how they got there, or what happened the night before.  The only thing they do know is that Teddy, the brother of the bride, is missing, and only his finger remains. Of course the big question is how did they allow this to happen again.  Despite taking all of the precautions, including not even having a traditional bachelor party, it does, and the more we find out about what happened the more we laugh.

In plain and simple terms,  The Hangover Part II is a great sequel. It is not a better than original Godfather Part II kind of sequel, but then again, The Hangover isn't exactly the Godfather.  Fans of the original will definitely be happy with this sequel. The Hangover  and can probably expect a third or fourth film in this series. The only question is can our characters survive another hangover?

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

Pirates of the Caribbean 4, also known as On Stranger Tides, gives us another swashbuckling adventure in the saga of Captain Jack Sparrow. Unfortunately for us it is a soulless shell of the original classic that began the series eight years ago.

The movie is simply more of the same.  Fans of the series will no question find some charm, and fun in this adventure.  They will key in to the fact that Johnny Depp is great at playing the character of Jack Sparrow. They will also delight in the addition of Penelope Cruz as a love interest for their favorite ambiguously gay pirate.  Fact of the matter is, that if this was the first of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, this series would have died on the vine. Like the other sequels before it, On Stranger Tides, is rather uninspiring.

The problems with this film are not in the performances, the actors all perform their parts incredibly well, either because they are skilled actors (Johnny Depp), well cast (Ian McShane), or simply well practiced at them (Geoffry Rush). These fine actors, as well as Penelope Cruz, serve their characters well, and do a fine job.

Also not at fault is the direction of the film. Rob Marshall does a nice job mimicking the well established world that Gore Verbinski created in the original trilogy.  His action is well paced, and not overly chopped like so many action films these days enjoy punishing us with.

The real problem with the film is fatigue.  The film suffers from being painfully unoriginal. It's obvious that this is a paint by numbers creation with no real original thought or content.  I can only speculate on the genesis of this movie, but I imagine it looking a lot like an 11th grader writing a paper on Blackbeard; lazily cutting and pasting Wikipedia articles, paraphrasing, and plagiarizing with no real thought to its coherence,  purpose or accuracy. Nothing innovative or new is brought to this nearly decade old series.

In my opinion, the lack of freshness in the series was a wasted opportunity for the franchise. Had they decided to bring something new to the series, or even just tweaked the formula slightly, we could have had the start of a new saga.  Instead we are given this stagnant, lifeless, clone. A copy, of a copy, of a copy. Just clear enough to remember that something special once existed, but distorted and blurred to an unrecognizable condition.

As far as summer movies go, it is by far not going to be the worst of the bunch. Sadly it will also not be the best.  I wanted this film to stand out, to show that there was life in this series, but it left me hoping that this would be the final bow.  In conclusion I leave you with this thought: is it better to burn out or to just fade away?