Super 8 Review

I acknowledge that I have a bit of a weird sensibility when it comes to movies. (And when it comes to…anything, really.)

For example, I’m the guy who goes to see a monster movie and comes away thinking that the monster was, by far, the least interesting thing in the movie.

Yet that’s precisely the case with “Super 8,” the modestly-budgeted, “J.J. Abrams-does-Steven Spielberg” spectacle.

It’s too bad because I basically loved everything else about the movie.

“Super 8” follows a group of middle school-age kids — Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Riley Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso and Zach Mills (they were so good they each deserved to have their full names included, damnit!) — in fictional Lillian, Ohio as they try to make a low-budget zombie movie.

While filming one night, they witness a catastrophic train crash. The train was carrying…something that I won’t spoil here, but which gets loose and starts running amok in Lillian.

Of course, you can argue that the movie’s throwback/nostalgic vibe was just as big a draw as the “monster movie” aspect. “Super 8” is equally inspired by the movies director J.J. Abrams and executive producer Steven Spielberg made when they were young, and by some of Spielberg’s own movies from the late 1970s and early 1980s. (Which happen to be some of the most popular movies of all time.)

This isn’t the first time Spielberg has exerted his influence on a younger filmmaker. In fact, I saw it very clearly in (of all places) the first “Transformers” movie, which Spielberg also produced. Sure “Transformers” was loud and dumb, but the core human story of a boy and his robot was positively Spielbergian. (On the other hand, the fetishistic shots of the military and Tyrese yelling was all Michael Bay.)

Obviously, Spielberg and Abrams make for a more comparable pair than Spielberg and Bay.

The most impressive thing Abrams does — besides staging a spectacular train wreck that seemed to escalate and go on for about 10 minutes — was the way he conceived (Abrams also wrote the script) and handled his young, mostly inexperienced actors. The characters aren’t unrealistically wise beyond their years or overly cutesy. They’re funny, scared, immature, and loyal. In short, they’re real.

Joel Courtney is a real find as Joe Lamb. He’s got an incredibly expressive face (which serves him well when he’s not saying anything) and he easily carries the responsibility of playing everything from dealing with a petulant best friend, running away from a monster, having a crush on a co-star and trying to connect with his well-meaning, distant father (Kyle Chandler, who is terrific with relatively limited screen time.)

Elle Fanning (the most well known young actress in the cast) gives a star-making performance as Alice, the initially brusque object of Joe’s affection. Alice projected a maturity and a hint of otherworldliness which rightly separated her from her young male co-stars, but still managed to connect brilliantly and believably with Joe over time.

The rest of the kids — especially demanding director Charles and budding pyromaniac Cary — mostly provide comic relief, but each plays their part in a wonderfully specific way.

Much less specific is everything having to do with the creature in the train.

I understand that the references and elements from “E.T”, “Close Encounters of the Third King” and “Poltergeist” are intentional. I guess I was just hoping Abrams would give us his own inspired twist on these tropes (misunderstood creature…humans who are more monstrous than the monsters…a-hole who will most definitely die by the final frame) instead of playing it straight. (There's even more than a hint of "Jurassic Park" during the monster's assault on a bus.)

Basically, if “Super 8” had been a movie about a bunch of kids sneaking off to make a zombie movie (stay through the credits) while dealing with their distant parents (Ron Eldard is also strong as Alice’s dad), I would’ve been perfectly happy.

Except that I would’ve missed that spectacular crash.

Super 8…B+

X-Men: First Class Review

I’ll admit I wasn’t terribly excited when I first heard about “X-Men: First Class.”

How could I be? It was coming off the low point that was “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and — besides Professor X, Magneto and Mystique — it was going to feature a bunch of C-list mutants I didn’t know. I even derisively referred to it as “X-Men Babies.”

So it was an especially pleasant surprise for me to find that “First Class” is actually one of the best movies of the year.

The movie (alternate title: “When Erik Met Charles”) follows the exploits of Holocaust survivor Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) as he grudgingly teams up with telepathic Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his crew to stop powerful mutant Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) from triggering World War III in the early 1960’s and wiping humans off the face of the Earth.

“First Class” chronicles the formation of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and, more importantly, both the origin and disintegration of Charles and Erik’s friendship.

In fact, the best thing about the movie is that it gives equal weight and credibility to the beliefs of Charles (who wants to peacefully co-exist with humans) and Erik (who is probably a little uncomfortable with how much he agrees with Shaw’s philosophy).

On top of all that, director Matthew Vaughn — hitting his second straight comic book movie home run following last year’s “Kick-Ass” — stages the whole thing like mod, 1960’s spy caper. (No accident, since the Cold War is a major plot point.)

At first, it was a little jarring seeing McAvoy’s Xavier macking on some girl at the pub (and, you know, walking…and with hair), but once we got to see his more compassionate side (toward his students, even toward his enemies) it was incredibly easy to imagine McAvoy’s Charles becoming Patrick Stewart’s Professor X.

Still, I think the movie belongs to Fassbender, who has been very good in a number of movies (especially “Inglorious Basterds”) but becomes a movie star in “First Class.” Erik is fueled by revenge in this movie, but Fassbender never prevents us from seeing the charisma, flair and hints of humor that eventually make Magneto such a powerful figure.

Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”) leads the younger portion of the cast as Raven, who becomes Charles’ adopted sister and eventually grows up to be shape-shifter Mystique. The conflict between assimilating into the human world and letting their mutant freak flag fly plays out most obviously with Raven, and Lawrence does a good job. Nicholas Hoult (the kid from “About a Boy”!) also does a nice job as future Beast Hank McCoy. The rest of the young cast don’t get much of a character arc, but Vaughn finds time to give each mutant their moment in the spotlight. With so many characters, it’s impossible to serve all of them, so a few got the short end of the stick. (Like Rose Byrne’s Moira MacTaggert.)

The bad guys, meanwhile, are led by Kevin Bacon with a, “Wait a minute — I’m actually the biggest star in this movie!” swagger. Unfortunately, he gets relatively weak support from a couple of mostly mute mutants (Azazel and Riptide) and January Jones as Emma Frost, who is so wooden that I just wished she was mostly mute. On the bright side, her bras are the clear front runners for Best Supporting performance at this year’s Oscars.

Now, I may not be a comic book aficionado, but even I realize that all the characters in “First Class” don’t necessarily belong in this timeline and that their relationships don’t necessarily match up with what’s been established by the source material. Hell, despite the fact that “First Class” picks up right where the very first “X-Men” began, “First Class” isn’t even a slave the previous movies’ continuity. (It basically pretend like the beginning of “X-Men: The Last Stand” never happens…and I’m ok with pretending that movie never happened.)

Besides, there have been so many alternate universes and timelines in the X-Men comics over the years, who can possibly say what character belongs where?

More importantly, the movie is so damn smart, stylish and entertaining (there are a couple of very playful cameos) that I don’t care.

X-Men: First Class…A-

Green Lantern Review

(Just a heads-up: I’m going to do my absolute best to not accidentally type “Green Hornet” throughout this review, so I apologize in advance if I slip up.)

Ryan Reynolds takes his turn carrying a mega-budget, comic book flick with “Green Lantern,” which is mostly comprised of parts from other (better) superhero movies.

Reynolds starts as cocky test pilot (is there any other kind?) Hal Jordan, who becomes the latest recipient of a mystical ring that grants him otherworldly powers. Hal’s ring belonged to Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison), a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic squadron whose members keep peace across the universe.

While the Green Lanterns receive their power through force of will, they are tasked with taking down Parallax, a soul-sucking entity that feeds on the fear of others. It’s a cool idea for a villain, but it’s kind of hard to connect with your antagonist when he looks like a giant cloud of gas. (Parallax basically looks like Wario farted.)

But that’s actually the least of the movie’s problems.

There’s also the fact that Ryan Reynolds isn’t quite built to carry a mega-budget comic book flick by himself. Don’t get me wrong: I like Ryan Reynolds, and the movie is mostly very smart about the way it uses him. For example, his smart-ass charm serves him well when he’s flirting with love interest Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) or when he’s stumbling around to learn the ins and outs of being a Green Lantern. It’s also no accident that the first time we see the handsome actor, he’s in his underwear. (Not to mention the fact that director Martin Campbell opted to use special effects to paint the Green Lantern’s suit on Reynolds’ body.)

The problem with Reynolds as a superhero is the whole “hero” part. He doesn’t convey the “heroic” depth needed to carry a movie like this. When Hal struggles with fear, Reynolds isn’t nearly as believable or interesting as when he’s trading light-hearted banter with someone. Maybe he’s just too young or maybe Reynolds just isn’t quite good enough of an actor yet, but he simply doesn’t bring the weight that someone like Robert Downey Jr. brought to “Iron Man” to balance the smart-ass part of the character.

Still, Reynolds was MILES better than Blake Lively. Her line readings in Carol’s very first scene with Hal were so embarrassingly bad that I actually thought for a second that her character was supposed to be deaf. (And I REALLY liked her work in “The Town.”) This was some of the worst acting I’ve seen outside of SyFy original movies and porn. Lively is unconvincing as a pilot AND as the high-ranking executive she’s supposed to be. She’s only convincing as someone who’s really hot. (At least there’s that.)

Unfortunately, the movie mostly wastes a talented supporting cast, including Peter Sarsgaard as loser scientist Hector Hammond, who becomes possessed by Parallax and who has one of the more unfortunate hairlines in recent movie history. I liked the idea that the character is basically the physical opposite of Hal, but Sarsgaard simply isn’t given much to do beyond wearing increasingly grotesque makeup.

Given even less to do were stellar actors like Angela Bassett (in a nothing role as scientist-with-a-weird-haircut Amanda Waller) and Tim Robbins, who has a freakin’ Oscar, but basically just acts like a generic jerk toward his son, Hector.

Still, the biggest problem with “Green Lantern” is that there is really nothing that makes it standout from every other superhero movie before it or any other superhero movie currently in theatres.

Reluctant/insecure hero? Check! Brainy sidekick? CHECK! Daddy issues? Double check! Sure, a lot of these elements are staples of dozens of comic books. The difference is that when a filmmaker adapts one of these stories for the screen, he or she has a chance to their own stylistic or tonal stamp on it. Some recent examples: Christopher Nolan making shoe-horning Batman into a crime drama with “The Dark Knight.” Matthew Vaughn inserting to the X-Men into a 1960’s spy caper with “First Class.”

Campbell (who made the great “Casino Royale”) does…nothing, really. The movie’s best scenes take place in outer space when Hal meets and trains with fellow Lanterns Sinestro, Tomar-Re and Kilowog. (Voiced by Mark Strong, Geoffrey Rush and Michael Clarke Duncan, respectively.) Still, even these scenes — a lot of people would probably complain that they look too cartoony, but I don’t mind that it occasionally looks like an animated movie — have more than a twinge of familiarity. (Guess what? At first, nobody respects Hal, but he grudgingly earns their respect!)

The movie DOES come alive whenever Hal uses his ring to conjure whatever he can imagine. Also, at less than two hours, it’s certainly one of the less butt-numbing big budget movies of the year. (Although the brisk pace leaves questions like “Were those crashed aliens from the beginning hanging around a lost planet JUST so they could free Parallax?)

“Green Lantern” is not boring, but also not really special unless you have an abnormally high fondness for Ryan Reynolds. (Which I’m sure a lot of people do.)

Green Lantern…C+