Green Lantern (2011)

This was a fun romp into another comic book themed movie, and I think it was put together rather well. Technically, the special effects worked, never seemed out of place and the story provided an engaging but straight-forward plot for us to follow along on. There was some lack-of-depth with the main moral of the story being that courage overcomes fear.

Ryan Reynolds is always fun for me to watch, I enjoy his delivery of mostly sarcastic remarks, filled with attitude. That was lessened to a certain degree here, because he had to play for most of the film, but it's still present and fun to watch.

Being the focus of the film, it's only natural that our hero become the most powerful of them all, but I think some depth could have been achieved if all of the green lanterns would have been more involved here. The flipside of that being as it stands, it's a hero coming-of-abilities story, and enjoyable as just that.

Early on we're treated to a flashback of his father dying, and that's used as the basis for the fear that he has to overcome. While an adequate plot device, it also felt weak too. Maybe I'm looking into it too much, especially seeing as it's only a PG movie so it's aimed at a wider audience, but a better establishment of the fear, or experience would have gone a long way.

There certainly weren't any twists and turns here, but they made a glaring omission in terms of tying off loose ends, and that seems to leave room for a sequel, which I'm sure is their intent.

Finally, it's a fun ride, with good special effects, and I enjoyed watching Tim Robbins in a more mainstream flick.

Platoon (1986)

This movie is hard for me to rate. In so many ways Full Metal Jacket is my favorite Vietnam--nay, war movie--ever. That aside, there was a lot to like here. I enjoyed the transformation of Taylor from a cleancut rookie into a battle-hardened soldier who's actions end up mirroring the actions of a commanding officer he despises.

The movie is wrought with symbolism, everything from the U.S. soldiers honouring their dead by bringing them home whereas they discard the Vietnamese dead with bulldozers and group burial plots to rebel and Nazi flags seen, although, the Nazi flag seemed out of place to me, and I'm not sure what it represented.

One thing that stuck out to me was the lack of soldier code names. Sure, there were some, but these are names that were used in iconic fashion in FMJ, yet here the soldiers mostly go by their last name. I can't help but wonder if Stone was trying to differentiate his film from the onslaught of Vietnam films that came out in the 1980s.

Phenomenon (1996)

This came on TMN, so I sat down to watch it. In a lot of ways, this is what Limitless should have been: a story about unlocked potential and the emotional consequences of that potential. It's so well played here, maybe Limitless had to completely diverge in order to establish it's own path.

It's funny that in 1996 this movie pushed the idea of green energy (solar panels, etc) yet today those technologies still haven't been established in a widespread fashion. Being a bit of a treehugger, I liked seeing those references.

All of the main characters here were captivating, and had great chemistry together. Kyra Sedgwick really brought this home for me.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

I've pretty much liked all of the X-Men movies, and as an origins story, X-Men: First Class does a great job.

January Jones has been added to my short list of infatuations (along with Rachael McAdams and Amy Adams), and she was great here, both from a sexual presence standpoint, as well as being able to hold the character. I've been meaning to check out Mad Men for sometime, and am more inspired to now.

McAvoy and Fassbender kept me engaged throughout. In a lot of ways, I'd almost say this came across similar to Batman Begins, wherein we get a seedier more down-to-earth telling of the mutant world, especially with Fassbender and all of the Nazi background. You really get to see where his anger comes from.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

First off, I hate 3D, so much so that I watch them in 2D. The problem is, you see the 3D effects even in 2D, and they're obvious and obnoxious. Robert Ebert agrees with me. :)

That aside, oh Megan and Michael... how I wish you two hadn't parted ways. That said, I figured a Victoria Secret runway model would more than fill in for Megan's sex appeal and pouty-ness. Instead, we ended up with a very nice opening shot, a lack of a second female to bring additional sex appeal to the film, flat chemistry between Shia and Rosie, but nothing else otherwise. I understand that Sam might be growing up, but I really enjoyed the sexier side of the first two movies, and felt this one changed the formula too much in this area.

Speaking of Sam growing up, I really think the writers could have done better. I mean, for Transformers 2 they were on a strike! That being said, Sam "[buys] a car, turns out to be an alien robot," then Sam "just wants to be a normal kid," and now Sam "saved [the world] twice and can't talk about it." The undertones seemed to be that Sam just wants to be a part of the alien team N.E.S.T., but for some reason a) can't bring himself to ask or b) isn't allowed to. Instead of addressing that idea head-on, the writers take us through reams of job interviews (John Malcovich is great here), and find a round-about way to get Sam back into the robot war, whilst constantly throwing in our face that Sam's not a robot war soldier. That's the first half of the movie. In the second half, we actually got some robot action on.

Some of the tertiary characters were interesting. I always enjoy John Malcovich, and the Frances McDormand held her own, however some strange stuff happened, like the parents just seemingly falling off the face of the earth once the action started rolling. They sort of did that in 2, but then brought the parents back in.

Last but not least, let's keep in mind that we've been with Sam since he got his first car, almost said the L-word to Megan Fox, went to college, and is now dating a super model and looking for a new job--pardon me if I broke down the 4th wall a little too much there. After all that, why the heck is he still considered a "kid"? It seems a misused term now, a full 4 years after the first movie was released.

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

I keep searching for great kids movies. I'm a big lover of them, and I want stuff to be able to watch with my kids. There's just something in the formula that works for some, and doesn't for others.

Here, Jack Black's voice really threw me off. I know he's this quirky guy with this half smile (or, as I prefer him, the "SPRAWL" guy from The Jackal), and it just felt like there was too much Jack here. As a counter, take Megamind (2010), you know it's Will Ferrel as Megamind, but he pulls it off so well that you entirely forget about who's doing the acting. Maybe that's the competent that this was missing: honest character, and the ability to lose myself in the characters and story.

Cars 2 might be good, but I really wish Pixar would have done an Incredibles 2. :)