Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones (Summer Movie Reviews Part 1)

As I said last month, there are quite a few movies this summer that I am looking forward to seeing. Now that they first month of the summer movie season has passed, how do my movies fare?

I saw three movies this month: Iron Man, Prince Caspian, and Indiana Jones. I will not do a plot synopsis of each movie (that’s always the part of a review I skip), but there are serious spoilers, so be warned.

Iron Man

What worked: The cast was almost perfect for their roles. Gwyneth Paltrow played the bubbly, but practical secretary. Terrance Howard played the understanding and supportive best friend. Jeff Daniels played the creepy bad guy. And Robert Downey Jr. played the playboy turned superhero. The only flaw with their performances had nothing to do with acting ability or dialogue and everything to do with RDJ stealing. every. scene.

What didn’t work: RDJ was having too much fun playing the hero and you know what? I was right there along with him. But, it was a bit too overpowering in some scenes, leaving a film that was out-of-balance in areas.

Weakest Scene: The secretary, Pepper Potts, was given no motivation to make a move on Tony during the benefit dinner.  Why would she want to kiss a man who she thought was a womanizer? She really didn’t have any reason to think better of him until much later in the movie. This scene was only salvaged by the fact that she came to her senses later.

Favorite scenes: *When Rhodes looks over his shoulder, sees the other iron man suit and says, “Next time”.(In the comic, Rhodes ends up becoming a suited up superhero himself called War Machine.)* Or at the end when Tony Starks bumbles over his words then decides on a whim to reveal that he is Iron Man. * Of course, the best scene came after the credits when Samuel L. Jackson made a cameo appearance as Nick Fury- which will set up a chain of events that eventually leads to an Avengers movie in 2011 (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America will get their own movies before then and will tie it all together). Look for Samuel L. and RDJ in the upcoming hulk movie.

Nathan’s rating: 9/10

Prince Caspian

What worked: I have read two Narnia books, but never read Prince Caspian, so everything in this movie was fresh to me. Because of that, some unexpected twists kept things moving.  I also have to admit that I didn’t think the first one was all that great. Caspian, however, more than made up for what was lacking in the last movie. The acting performances from all the Pevensie children and the villains received a serious upgrade. In the last movie, I thought the only performances that delivered were the White Queen and a CGI Aslan.

What didn’t work: Choppy plop points. I kept thinking that a child was narrating the story “And then this happened and then this happened…” *Confusing elements like Aslan’s appearance. Aslan did virtually nothing, but was still given a triumphal entrance… at the end of the battle when it didn’t really matter. I also felt they could have trimmed the movie about 15-20 minutes and not lost a thing.Oh, and the mouse,Reepicheep, was the most fun to watch- a CGI character was the most fun to watch… hmm…

Weakest Scene: The battle between Peter and the evil king. Why would you give respite when you’re about to win? That didn’t make any sense to me. Of course, my problem could be with the book itself at this point, I don’t know.

Best Scenes:* When they pulled the rug out from under the attacking army and let them literally fall into the Earth.* The tension during the White Queen scene (best in the whole movie). *The initial raid on the v illian’s castle was clever.

Nathan’s Rating: 5/10

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

What worked: Every scene with Indiana fighting was gold. Ford has shown he still has what it takes. Also, when Jones is bickering, the dialogue works and is pretty funny at times. In fact, the movie overall is hilarious. I like to see action movies that don’t take themselves too seriously. And Kate Blanchette plays a creepy villian that makes you really dislike her in a good way.  Finally, they did a good job of keeping the good guys good and bad guys bad. No grey areas, no blurred lines. No ethical quandries. Jones is good, the Ruskies are bad, and it makes sense.

What didn’t work: The Ruskies replaced the Nazis and nobody noticed.. because they played out exactly the same. Other than Blanchett, they were pretty bland. When Jones is not bickering with someone, the dialogue comes to a screeching halt. This took me out of the movie at times. And w hat was with all the super soft lighting? It looks like they tried too hard to make this movie look old. Hey Speilberg: it worked in Saving Private Ryan, but didn’t here.

Weakest Scenes: The giant ants were neither creepy, nor realistic and reminded me too much of The Mummy. Also, the wedding scene at the end- where was the romantic build-up? And I think George Lucas has an obsession with Tarzan. Did anyone else see the comparision between Mutt swinging through the trees and Chewbacca doing the infamous tarzan yell?

Fav Scenes: Sheesh. Too many to count. Those of you who saw the movie will know what I’m talking about: the blowdart, the motorcycle switcheroo, the swordfight, quicksand… and snake (Call it a rope!), “When I get loose the first thing I’m going to do is punch you in the nose!”,the refrigerator, and the fedora at the end (take that Shia! No passing of the torch for you!)

One more thing: Some people complained that Indy didn’t fit in to the sci-fi/nuclear age genre of adventure. I disagree. I think the movie portrayed EXACTLY how Indiana Jones would react in this situation: A smart-aleck sceptic who loves America but hates the current government scare tactics. He was in character the entire time! And, think about it: Ford definitely looks older, so they have to place him in historical context. And what ELSE would be better for Indy to tackle in the 1950s than the Ruskies going after alien artifacts stored in, of all places, Area 51 and El Dorado!

Nathan’s Rating: 8/10

Hope you enjoyed the first of my summer movie reviews. Stay tuned at the end of June for more.

A Super Summer: Superheroes in the movies

“Danzig!”

That’s what my best friend Reggie said to me when I asked him who should play Wolverine in X-men the Movie… if they ever made one. That was in 1989, 11 years before the first X-men movie came out. Glen Danzig was who we had pegged to play Wolverine. That or Jean Claude Van Damme (yes, we were naive).

I was just a kid dreaming of my favorite comic book super heroes hitting the big screen. I knew the FX wasn’t there to do justice to them in movie form, but I could still dream, right?

Then, in 1998 Blade came out. It was the first big screen adaptation of a marvel comic  book. But, it wasn’t until 2000 that the first Superhero movie came out since Batman. X-men was long anticipated by many of us. For me it was anticipated for 11 years in the making.

Then the onslaught of Superhero movies followed. Some great (Batman Begins, X-men 2), some awful (Catwoman, Fantastic Four), and most just average.

Fast-forward to 2008- We have six, count ’em, six big budget Superhero movies coming out in one summer. They are: Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, The Dark Knight, Hancock, Hellboy 2, and Punisher: War Zone.  Three of them are from Marvel.

Why do they keep doing this to me? I love movies. I love comic books. I don’t like spending money. Yet, I just know I’ll see them all in the theater (well, okay, I probably won’t see Hellboy or Punisher in the theater).  Add on to that Narnia: Prince Caspian, Indiana Jones, and Tropic Thunder and I’m broke bloke.

Yes, I know I don’t have to go. I don’t have to do a lot of things I want to do. In fact, quite frequently I don’t do a lot of things I want to do. But, I am going to go see these and here’s why:

Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr. looks like he’s going to be the perfect Tony Stark. The movie looks funny, well directed, action looks tight, and, unlike the other big budget action movies this summer, this one is NOT a sequel. So, they’ll be things that we haven’t seen before.

The Dark Knight: Chris Nolan directed Batman Begins and I consider that to be one the best superhero movies ever made. Christian Bale is back as Batman, whom I loved in the first one. That and the “Brandon Lee” like aura surrounding the death of Heath Ledger (who’s playing Joker in the new Batman). Those of you who are old enough may remember when Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon starred in a movie called The Crow. He was accidentally killed during the movie, but they released the movie anyway. The publicity for this movie is going to be crazy.

Incredible Hulk: This is considered a reboot (they’re ignoring the Hulk movie that came out in 2003), so I have some hesitation, but it IS the hulk, my all-time favorite comic book character. And it looks way better than the 2003 version. Another reason: Iron Man will be sharing some of the same characters. General Ross will be in both movies as well as Nick Fury- and there are rumors of both Iron Man and the Hulk sharing the same scene! Don’t miss this- it is the first time that I can recall where two independent stories will share the same universe on the big screen. Very exciting stuff for a Marvel comics fan! (I know none of the rest of you will care, but still…)

Indiana Jones: Schwarzenegger did it with Terminator 3, Stallone did it with Rocky Balboa and Rambo, Willis did it with Die Hard 4, and now Harrison Ford is reprising his franchise role for the last time. Indiana Jones fighting Commies in a race to recover an alien artifact from Rozwell, New Mexico. I love this kind of stuff. My childhood, fan-favorite, eighties actors going one more round. And ‘Jones’ looks like good clean fun.

Prince Caspian: C.S. Lewis has been an influence on me as a Christian, but more important than that, my wife Amy loves the Narnia books and this makes a super-easy date for me. 🙂 Plus, I’ll have to make up taking her to see all the other movies I want to see :).

Hancock and Tropic Thunder are both comedies. The premise of Hancock is Will Smith playing what looks like a homeless superhero who wrecks more than he saves. The premise of Tropic Thunder is… well… you’d have to watch the trailer to know why I want to see it. Just know it involves Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and the aforementioned Robert Downey Jr. playing “a dude, who’s acting like a dude, who’s disguised as another dude”. Watch the trailer, trust me.

Just had to get this off of my chest. If you read all this, you’re a brave soul and just as bored as I am.

I’m sure some of these movies won’t live up to their hype, but it’ll sure be fun making new friends and having a good time hanging out in my hometown of J-ville!

So, anyone else looking forward to this summer’s movie line-up?