Green Lantern

 Green Lantern is one of those movies hat is far from great, but the harsh reviews that critics gave this movie ended up being pretty unfair in my mind. I think critics went into this movie with too high of expectations because of Thor and X-Men: First Class opening in the summer of 2011 before Green Lantern. Had Green Lantern opened before these two movies I believe the reviews would have been a lot more favorable. I felt that while it is not one of the best super hero movies ever made it was still enjoyable and better then a lot of other movies that have been put out by movie studios. Green Lantern ended up giving me exactly what I expect from a super hero movie with a strong battle between good and evil, a reason to care for the super hero and at the same time strong action with a decent story. Green Lantern though was one of those super hero comics that I know very little about, but the general powers from a ring that bends to the will and mind of the person wearing the ring to create anything the person can think up.

The acting in Green Lantern was a lot better then what I expected after hearing what the reviews said. Ryan Reynolds in the role of Hal Jordan who becomes Green Lantern, was really a lot better then what I expected going in. I knew Reynolds would easily come across as a likable hero as Hal Jordan, simply because of his ability in the romantic comedy roles to be a very likable character. I was not sure though how he would fare in the action sequences and if he would be able to command the screen as a super hero. In the end he really ended up giving a strong performance and I felt like he completely engrossed himself into the persona of Hal Jordan and Green Lantern. Blake Lively in the role of Carol, the main love interest and lifelong friend to Hal Jordan gives a pretty decent performance. While I am sure a big part of her being cast was because of her eye candy appeal, she showed she can simply be more then eye candy and I felt that she was able to bring a great amount of emotion to her scenes and she seemed to not only connect with her co-stars, but she also connected with the audience. Peter Sarsgaard in the role of Hector Hammond, one half of the villain for Green Lantern to go against. Sarsgaard has a great ability to play a role with such ease that it comes off as if he is not playing a character onscreen, but that he is truly that character. The progression that we see in his character is perfect and it is through this progression that we are able to see the depth as to why his character is overcome and allows the power of fear to control him into being evil, while on the opposite end of the spectrum Hal is able to use his past to overcome the fear and use his willpower. The rest of the supporting cast are very minimal, which has its strengths and weaknesses, but in the end all of the characters seem to serve a purpose for each moment in which they are onscreen.

The story for Green Lantern ended up being precisely what I expect when going in to see a super hero movie. While one of the big aspects in super hero movies of late has been the use of a darker, grittier story telling. The story for Green Lantern being lighthearted and not being serious, but having those moments with great comedy seemed to fit perfectly. Unfortunately, the story did have its downfall moments throughout. The aspect for the story was that there were really some characters that were glossed over when it would have been more beneficial to give the characters more development. One such character was that of Sinestro, with where his story arc is going for a possible future movie. I did not feel like there was enough back story and development with his story to know why he made the decision he did toward the end of the movie. With the movie being under two hours, They could have made the decision to have added more time in the end to give the characters some additional depth that would have only strengthened the movie in the end. The action sequence while far from amazing, they worked very well for  everything that was happening in the movie. The direction ended up doing a great job at making all the sequences flow seamlessly. The CGI used for the Green Lantern suit I felt was done very well and I thought that they made the suit look pretty awesome in the end. There were however moments where the CGI came across as being pretty CGIish particularly some moments with Parallax. Parallax, I felt could have been a lot more fear inducing, but because of a lack of strength in the CGI came across just as being a huge villain in size and not in fear.

Green Lantern was a super hero movie that was a lot better then what a lot of the critics gave it. The acting ended up being pretty strong and ended up giving the exact type of performances that is needed for a super hero movie. I felt that this movie had a lot more going for it then what the credits gave them credit for and while it did have its weaknesses, it was still a fairly enjoyable movie to watch. The story for Green Lantern ended up being precisely what was needed for this movie to be successful and enjoyable to watch. This light story telling ended up fitting the persona of Green Lantern very well.  While I felt that they could have made this movie a little longer I am giving Green Lantern two and three fourth buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie that is worth the price to rent and simply because it is a super hero movie it will end up getting added to the movie collection in the near future

-The Movie Man

Fast Five

Fast Five is the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise. After the original I would have never thought they would be able to take this franchise this far. After seeing the trailer for Fast Five I knew this would be a definite action packed movie that I would end up seeing and at the very least one that I would at least enjoy watching because of the fast cars. In this go around we are taken to Rio as Dom and Brian are on the run after breaking Dom out of prison, after a job goes wrong they are accused of killing three DEA agents, which puts a specialist team for catching fugitives hot on their trail. After learning this Dom and Brian plan a heist that ends up being one of those not as it seems moves.

Vin Diesel in the role of Dom is precisely what we have come to expect in this character of being kind of a meat head on the surface, but with the street smarts to get out of a lot of situations when more then brute force is needed. Over the three movies that Diesel has played in the franchise, his character has not really changed much and we have not seen much depth added to the character. Yet, his character is one that the audience cares and roots for, even though he pulls off heists in his street racing cars. Paul Walker co-stars as Brian O'Connor for the fourth time. His character has had an interesting progression throughout the franchise, starting as an undercover agent only to be on the other side of the law this time. Walker's character has some development that has gone on, but in the end he is still kind of the arrogant, cocky street racer, who makes calls on feelings even if it may not be the best decision in the end. Dwayne Johnson plays the D.S.S Agent Hobbs, who is sent to bring the fugitives back to justice. Johnson is the federal agent version of Dom and is a lot of brute force who is trying to physically out power the fugitives. Unfortunately, Johnson's character did not do much to impress me, I did not have the feelings of dislike that you want from the hunter in trying to catch the fugitives. The rest of the supporting cast all serve the roles perfectly and they all fit different roles so well, whether it is the comedic moments to the action they all take part. Joaquim de Almeida in the role of Hernan Reyes the true villain fits so well. He has played so many various villains that it is truly easy to hate him on screen and want everything to go against him. He is a devious and unforgiving crime boss who is able to run Rio through fear.

The story for Fast Five is nothing new and while it was far from groundbreaking it was still enjoyable to watch. The interesting part for me is that the heist part of the story was Ocean's 11 meets Italian Job with fast street racing cars. While some may say that having such a similar story is a bad thing, but the story worked for me. While the similarity to the nothing is as it seems  heist with the Italian Job, the aspect of the story that was similar to the original Fast and the Furious was a little stale. The aspect of the DSS agent being soft in the end, rather then bring in Dom and Brian, decides to give them a 24 hour head start, much similar in fashion to Brian letting Dom go free in the end. In the first film Brian letting Dom escape makes sense. In Fast Five Agent Hobbs letting them go seemed completely against everything we are made to believe in his character. We are told that Hobbs is the one they bring in when they need to catch someone because he always gets his man. So why would he risk his reputation for Dom and Brian? While they are able to outsmart Hobbs with some things in the end which work well I would have liked to see them outsmart him in order to escape.

The action sequences are over the top and many times it passes the point of ridiculousness, but that is what I think makes the movie so fun and enjoyable in the end. The stunt driving in the cars is not nearly as much as what was used in past movies. Yet, Dom and Brian  dragging a vault through the streets of Rio behind their obviously torqued up cars was pretty cool even though it was pretty unrealistic at being able to control a vault safe as much as they are able to. The action keeps everything moving at such a good pace in which the movie does not drag, but does not move so fast that we are not able to follow the story and the plot points that in the end are vital to the audience knowing what is going to happen.

Fast Five is an action movie that gives us some fast cars and fun action scenes. Nothing in the movie ends up being stellar, but all of the acting ends up being enough for what is needed. The story has its good points and a point or two that I did not love. I am giving Fast Five two and three fourth buckets of popcorn out of five. Fast Five is not a great movie, but it is one that is worth renting.

-The Movie Man

The Avengers

After five individual super hero movies, The Avengers ends up being the culmination of these movies and finally getting to see the forming up of The Avengers. Once the rumors stated flying of The Avengers movie I was very excited for this movie to finally come about. The buzz for The Avengers has been huge that while they had a good advertising push for the movie, the real push for The Avengers has been the fact that the five individual movies have been strong representations. With this it has truly only added to the expectation and excitement that I had for The Avengers. One of the greatest strengths I found throughout this movie was that it had that huge feel of a comic book that it is light and funny while still being a great action movie.

The acting continued in The Avengers to be just as strong and enjoyable as the performances that came about in the individual super hero storyline movies. Robert Downey Jr. once again in the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man fits perfectly in every scene he is in. The development that has taken place with his character has been minimal, but it has worked perfectly because he plays the eccentric billionaire playboy very well. His character flows so well with all of the characters in such a way that the one-liners come off the cuff so smooth and with such an ease that you feel like he is just talking normally and not going off of a script. With the way Downey Jr. is able to come off with such an ease that I feel like you do not view as him playing a role, but that he is truly Tony Stark/Iron Man. Chris Hemsworth in his role of Thor really showed more then just strength, but also a caring emotion throughout the movie that was not as prevalent in the Thor movie. This caring side came out strongest in his interactions with his brother Loki. While he could have easily just been physical and overpower Loki with his strength, he tries to appeal to his brother in trying to tell him how much he still cared for him and that he wanted his brother that he grew up with back and that there was still time for Loki to turn things around. Mark Ruffalo in the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk was the biggest wild card going into this movie. Being the third iteration of The Hulk I was not sure how I felt about him in the role going into the movie. After seeing him in the role he ended up fitting the role very well. He ended up really having the look that you would expect Bruce Banner to have especially after being in hiding in third world countries for so long. Tom Hiddleston in the role of Loki once again he played the villain perfectly. The audience in this go around immediately does not like Loki, and as the movie continues forward the way he commands the screen works. The character of Loki is a strong villain for the Marvel franchise, of the opponents so far he has been the strongest and his character development has worked so well. While he imposes the fear in all of us, I am sure that many can relate in some ways to Loki and the feeling he is the son that can not compare at all to the power of Thor. The rest of the cast all do similar strong performances. It was nice for the role of Nick Fury to be more prominent and Samuel L. Jackson does a strong job. Likewise Scarlett Johansson in the role of Black Widow/Natasha is able to twist and get her out of a lot of different sticky situations.

The story for The Avengers was really done well. Having a movie that features six separate super heroes working together to defend the Earth is a story that could easily get muddled with so many different superheroes  or in trying to avoid this so much that we feel like we are viewing the depth from miles away. I felt that the story was brought about perfectly in the simple fact that we were not thrown into the team being together and working together, instead we get to see the super heroes having the issues that cause them to be at each other's throats throughout. Director Joss Whedon is truly spot on with The Avengers. Whedon's scripts usually include clever banter, gripping action sequences and an air of mystery and The Avengers is no different. Whedon has an utter love for comic books, and it is proudly put on display in The Avengers. The feel for this movie works perfectly as Whedon gives each super hero moments to shine and during these moments the super heroes take full advantage of these moments. Whedon has such a great ability to bring everything together with such great pacing, even though The Avengers  is two and a half hours long the pacing was set perfectly that it truly did not feel like it was that long of a movie.

In The Avengers they are able to successfully give us a full of action movie, that has great moments of feeling light and not an overly serious movie through the use of clever banter and off the cuff one-liners throughout the movie. While Tony Stark seems to have the most of the one-liners, most all of the main characters get these one-liners from time to time and they have been written into the script so seamlessly that nothing feels forced from the comedy. A lot of times in action movies you get the one character that is the comic relief and other then that the purpose is not clear as to why they are even in the movie. Because of that by the end the jokes seem old and forced by midway through the movie. The Avengers spreads the humor out so well that you never feel bored with the comedy. To counter the comedy Whedon gives the audience some great and nearly perfect action sequences The camera angles are set perfectly for all of the fighting, because you were able to sit there and watch the action unfold and you actually could tell who was hitting who. With the camera not being the shaky action where in wanting you to feel like such a part of the action that you do not know what is actually happening, it works greatly to actually know what is going on with the action sequences.

I went in to The Avengers with very high expectations, because of how well executed the individual super hero movies had been I expected no less. The Avengers went out and improved on the individual movies. Whedon in his directing was perfect with his touch as he gave the audience perfect moments of each super hero. While Downey Jr. in the role of Tony Stark was just as charismatic and perfect as he had been in the Iron Man movies, it ended up being the interaction between all the characters and the chemistry that was strong between them all that really helped make The Avengers be such a strong movie. The comedy and action sequences flowed together perfectly. The Avengers has been the best movie I have seen in a while, that is why I am giving The Avengers four and a quarter buckets of popcorn out of five.  The Avengers was well worth the price for a ticket to see in the theaters and even after seeing I would be very intrigued to go back and see it in 3D/IMAX.

-The Movie Man