Man of Steel. Entertaining but no "Super"man.

I went to see Man of Steel over the weekend with my 8 year old son.  He actually started getting a bit bored after about 1-1/2 hours.  In general the movie was entertaining and the flashbacks showing Clark growing up weren't bad.  The explanation of why Krypton was being destroyed and how Kal-El was different from other Kryptonians wasn't a bad twist either.

Although Henry Cavill and Amy Adams were the top billed stars, my favorite was Russell Crowe's portrayal of Jor-El.

Overall this reboot had one of the same major flaws that Star Trek Into Darkness had.  Plot direction.  When you are trying to create a new direction and new vision, don't go back and re-use the same villain from a previous version/movie.  Zod was a great villain in Superman II.  There are lots of other superpowered enemies Nolan and Goyer could have used to guarantee action:  Brainiac, Darkside, Mongul...  Doomsday would be good for a sequel. 


SPOILERS

The scene where Clark's mother, played by Diane Lane helps him start to learn focus so his super hearing and x-ray vision was good and it helped create a temporary vulnerability in other Kryptonians - who were overcome by the sounds picked up by their super hearing and got a bit freaked by the sudden onslaught of odd sights with uncontrolled x-ray vision when their helmets were compromised.  I get it.  Their suits/armor and helmets create a filter, but ONLY for those powers?  They still flew, has super strength, and super speed? 

Also, I wasn't fond of how easily Lois Lane tracked down Clark/Kal-El based on stories and rumors and then called him Clark throughout the movie, went to his mother's house...  Makes it kinda hard for him to setup a secret identity.  Superman himself doesn't make it any more discrete at the end when he knocks down the spy plan tracking him and then tells the General "I grew up in Kansas.  What could be more American?"  Did he have to be that specific?  He could have just commented on his growing up in the U.S. and never trying to seize power.  Zod had helped confirm that mentioning that Earth had been "sheltering one of his citizens." 

Bottom line.  Man of Steel was entertaining, but not super. 

So, 3 movies about Justice League heroes in recent years and only one really measured up?  If the movie powers that be are really thinking of a Justice League movie to match up with X-Men or Avengers success, they need a new direction.  Maybe hire the team that handled Smallville?

Prometheus in Black III (two movies for the price of one blog) Minor spoilers

Over the weekend I had a chance to see both Prometheus and Men in Black III.  Bottom line, both were entertaining, but I'd give the edge to Prometheus just because it was the fresher of the two.

Prometheus:
Previews and trailers hint about how the mission of Prometheus is based on ancient astronaut messages found by scientists.  Not a bad premise.  (MINOR SPOILER) It gave an entertaining twist on the creation vs. evolution story with a brief discussion about aliens who may have influenced our evolution.  Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (always wearing a cross) has a great line about the aliens when asked about the religious implications - "Somebody had to create them." 

Now, I'm a Christian, but I have some reservations about creationism vs. evolution.  Maybe they're both right.  Maybe God did it all in 6 days, but 6 days from God's POV could be very different and people during biblical times probably couldn't have understood the idea of anything taking millions of years.  Anyway, back to the movies.

I liked Noomie Rapace as female lead Elizabeth Shaw.  But in many ways, the one who stole the show was Michael Fassbender as David.  He was creepy from minute one. 
Charlize Theron gave a good performance as Meredith Vickers.  Definite Alpha female material with a chip on her shoulder and not trying to hide that she had her own agenda (but keeps that to herself - she just wants to put everyone on notice).


MIB III (or MIIIB):
Entertaining, but I'm hoping this will be the last of this series.  (Spoiler ALERT).  No Zed or Frank at all.  While Frank would probably have gotten annoying, I loved Rip Torn as Zed in the first two movies.

Josh Brolin did a phenomenal job as young K.  Kudos for the casting there.  There were times I wondered if they'd dubbed in Tommy Lee Jones's voice.  That said, I think they could have picked a better villain than Boris the animal. Oh well, nobody's perfect.  It was also fairly clever how they explained (or hinted) why J wasn't effected by the timeline change when Boris goes back and kills young K.

The character Griffin had some interesting abilities, but his babbling got a bit annoying.  He could have easily become the Jar Jar Binks of the movie.  Fortunately it didn't come to that.

Also, the tech downgrades to 1969 were funny (especially the neurolizers).








SPOILERS

Prometheus:
When Meredith Vickers invites our two heroic scientist to talk and there is the brief discussion of her quarters/lifeboat and how self-sufficient it is, they might as well have just said that would be a critical means of escape.  It wasn't as subtle as Ripley's skills with the loader in Aliens (her coming out at the end using it to fight the queen was a great twist in that movie).  Maybe if they'd made Vickers more of a germaphobe or something it wouldn't have been so obvious.

One "plot" problem I had was that if the world Prometheus went to was a launch site/bio weapons lab that was creating weapons to destroy Earth, then why leave the clues so it could be found?  Was this a subtle example of the super villains monologuing their plan because they didn't think the humans could ever stop them?

I was also puzzled a little about David's first victim.  I didn't get a full sense of why he did what he did.  Maybe just scientific curiosity.




MIB:
When J and young K met up with and got assistance from the Colonel back in 1969, it took about 5 seconds for me to figure out who he was.  Some of that was hinted by older K.  Just how many African American colonels were there back in 1969?  I may catch some flack for this, but the rank seemed a bit too high for an African American for that time.  Perhaps a lower rank would have attracted less attention (NCO or a lower ranking officer, like a captain). 

I started laughing when young K pulled out the 1969 portable neurolizer and tried to boot it up (dial tone/login sounds that anybody who's had dial-up Internet would recognize). 



That's all for now.  And please remember to always tip your servers.  It could save lives.

Avengers

Last night I attended the openning night of Avengers.  Unlike some, I wasn't jumping up and down about how absolutely fantastic, perfect, and awesome it was.  Keep in mind that if you listen to too many of those comments, you could hype it up too much.  That said, I really just have good things to comment on with the movie.

Warning, I may post some minor spoilers, but I'll try not to give too much away.  The one that I will give right now is that some rumors are true.  There are TWO (2...1+1...doubles...) end credit scenes.  The first after the first part of the credits showing XXXXXX (personally censored), the probable villain for an Avengers 2.  Now some comic collecting ultra-fans of mine commented that they see no way to integrate this villain into a sequel.  To that I say, it's based on comic books (sci-fi/fantasy stuff).  Nothing is impossible.

For writers, here are some of the things that worked.  First, the Avengers were a diverse group of characters who form a team.  I've commented on this in the past.  It's a great formula for books, TV, and movies.  Why?  Because one hero may not always appeal to everybody.  So what do you do?  Bring in different personalities.  Even the less-than-super characters like Agent Phil Coulson have an important place. 

What else worked?  A great mix of action, interaction, and humor.  Tony Stark delivered great action and comic relief (as you would expect).  But the best jokes were the ones you didn't see coming (hint - the second end credit scene was purely for fun.  It had no teaser, but it was worth waiting a couple extra minutes).  Black widow showed some vulnerability (real or not - you decide).  You also really see how clever she is.  She uses some femininity and sexyness, but not quite in the traditional way.  Definitely not just another pretty face. 

I had a mixed opinion of Captain America.  In some ways, I think most people were expecting Tony Stark's overwhelming presence to lead the team, but I was a little surprised when he basically asks Captain America for the battle plan when they get ready to face the enemy.

If I was going to point out one thing I think could have been better.  The circumstances around the second transformation for the Hulk for the last battle.

Speaking of the big green.  Tony Stark had the funniest lines, but some of Hulk's actions really got the best laughs.  Particularly with Loki (nuff said on that).

Summary - lots of fun and it will be very difficult for a sequel to be better.  I hope they realize that just adding bigger explosions won't make a better movies.  We know the actors and director can rise to the occasion.  Let's hope for a good script. 

Real Steel Armor Has Kinks (Spoilers)

Since I had the day to myself, I thought I'd check out Hugh Jackman's new movie Real Steel.  Overall, I have to say that it was entertaining, but it had a really slow start.  Worth going to, but try to save a couple bucks by going to a matinee.

Overall Strengths:  Hugh Jackman put on a good performance to me.  In the first few scenes, I didn't like him or sympathize with his problems.  However, that was probably by design.  Obviously he became more likable as the movie progressed.  To me, the pivotal scene for him was when Bailey Tallet (played by Evangeline Lilly) was talking to Max (played by Dakota Goyo) about Charlie's boxing past and one of his best fights in his boxing career. 

The special effects.  That goes without saying.  They were great.  There were a few views of the star robot, Atom, where one repair weld on his face looked almost like a mouth.  I almost expected Atom to smile.

Chemistry between Charlie and Bailey.  This was credible and not overdone.  This is a mild spoiler (bigger spoilers below), but I liked Bailey's line to Charlie "1,200 miles for a kiss?"  Nice.

Doing the robot.  When Charlie saw Max dancing with Atom, I liked how he spun it.  Making it a gimick for the show.  Smart and funny.

Overall Weaknesses:   Max.  Sorry, but I really didn't like the kid.  While you saw flaws in Charlie and Bailey, this kid seemed too perfect.  Not perfectly behaved and all.  More like too mature, too smart, and too "right."  The kid seemed to have all the right answers.  His character didn't seem real to me at all. 

The opening scenes were way too predictable for my taste.  So many cliches and overused ideas.  While the opening was a bit of a surprise (the fight at the fair), you knew exactly what would happen the moment the competitors were announced.  Pretty much the same thing with the next fights.

Some of the tech that made Atom special also was a flaw in the movie.  (Minor spoiler) The ability to mimick someone.  Wouldn't that have been picked up more?  Give human fighters a chance to compete through the robots.  Only giving that one here because it is in most of the trailers.  More below in Spoilers.















SPOILERS:

The robot fighting a bull?  Could have been better, but when Charlie started getting arrogant and paying more attention to the cute girls in the stand than the bull, I was hoping the bull would knock the robot through the fence and right onto Charlie.  Besides, why wasn't the guy who set up that fight arrested for cruelty to animals?  I mean the bull tore the robot up, but that guy who set it up would have been jailed for trying that.  But then he couldn't have come back to kick Charlie's @ss later.

Max - annoying.  Again, the kid was too perfect and too smart.  From his ability to speak Japanese to his negotiating more money to the

Atom's ability to mimic was one thing, but his ability to absorb punishment and keep functioning.  Again, why didn't other, newer robots have that?

When the aunt was trying to console Max by telling him about all the toys she had for him to play with, I almost laughed.  He never once seemed like the type of kid interested in "toys."  It gave me the impression she knew as much about the boy as his father did.

Zeus running low on power.  Come on.  Okay, maybe they operators were so used to winning early they didn't see a point in giving enough power for a full fight, but that did make the fight a little anti-climactic.

The final fight, from the very beginning reminded me so much of Rocky, I half expected Zeus to start chanting "Zeus in 3..." 

My Review of Captain America - Minor Spoilers

In a rare circumstance, I was actually able to be able to see a movie before it goes to the cheap theater or DVD.  I think it's funny that SyFy's been running marathons of The Greatest American Hero (loved that show) followed by a group of old second rate (or worse) Craptain America movies from the 70s and 80s (maybe early 90s, but they sucked).

Personally, I enjoyed doing my review of Transformers:  Dark of the Moon.  In that review, I made comparisons with the novel.  Well, the only book I could find for Captain America was for kids.  Oh well.

Bottom line is that if you aren't looking for Oscar calibre acting, screenplay or anything like that, you'll be entertained.  Not one of the best superhero movies, but certainly not the worst. 

Good:

• There was plenty of action without it really seeming too gratuitous.
• A couple of fun twists.
• Howard Stark's involvement throughout the movie.  Remember in Iron Man 2 that Nick Fury told Tony Stark that his father, Howard, was a founding member of SHIELD. 
• In the beginning, Captain America is a bit of a joke (More in the spoilers).
• Captain America's final line.  Not to sound too much like a spoiler, but there were a few references to finding the right dance partner between Steve Rogers and Agent Peggy Carter.  What's the line?  You'll have to see the movie.  It may not seem like much to most, but I liked it.

Bad:

• None of the characters seemed to have enough personality.  I've got nothing against Chris Evans, but he was a mediocre Captain America.  I really couldn't sympathize with the character when he was down.  I just didn't see the mastery of the attitudes you want like I found in Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine, Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark/Iron Man, or even Eric Bana's Bruce Wayne/Batman.  Just not much personality.
• Hugo Weaving's German accent.  I love Hugo.  He's awesome, but a bit underwhelming as Red Skull.
• Fight between Captain America and Red Skull.  A bit anticlimactic.  In all actuality, I'd expect Cap to beat Red Skull much easier.  Why?  You get the impression Red Skull was always considered a tough guy.  Steve Rogers was the 89 lb weakling always getting beat up.  He was use to getting hit by bigger and stronger guys but he always got up.  I'd just say that he can take a punch better than Red Skull.
• Opening scene.  It takes place in modern day.  This and the ending scene are typically the scenes snuck in after the credits.

Spoilers below

• Finding Captain America's shield in the mysterious reckage during the first scene made it too obvious what would happen at the end.
• I can't help but wonder if that power source is going to be part of the Avenger's movie.  You can assume it's alien tech throughout the movie, and I think the near-ending confirms that pretty well.  Think about it - the whole plot leading up to the cube falling from the plane to be found by Howard Stark.  What happens to the cube? 
• Does anybody else thing Red Skull will return for Avengers?  It looked like he was teleported, not destroyed.  Why teleport him if you don't plan to send him back.
• Bucky dying was no big deal.  Remember what I said about the characters not having enough personality?  I didn't really fell a sense of loss from Steve Rogers regarding his friend.  I felt more sympathetic that he couldn't get drunk!
• I liked Captain America as a marketing tool for selling bonds rather than using him as a real soldier.  I don't know if that's how it worked for the comics, but I liked it.  When he's trying to entertain the troops and gets things thrown at him and the ridicule by the front line soldiers was, to me, one of  the best part.  It showed Steve Rogers that getting his new strength and power didn't automatically mean he'd gain the respect of those he wanted as his peers.