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Captain America: The Real Hero Lies Beneath the Mask

If I just act like nothing is blowing up behind me, maybe it will all go away.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Yes, this is yet another comic book superhero movie. Yes, this is another Marvel comic big-budget franchise trying to get off the ground. You might start to wonder why you should bother seeing any of these if a new one just hits the screens one month later. First off, it definitely helps to be a comic book fan from the start, but beyond that, in terms of pure movie magic and box office trending, this newest chapter gets a little boost from being the last in a long line of films leading to a culminating epic fanboys have been frothing over for years now…The Avengers! But, I’ll dip more into that later, for now, let’s look at the throwback hero of the group who takes us back to a time when heroes were not only cheered for their strength, but also for their conduct.

Captain America: The First Avenger details the transformation of a skinny kid named Steve Rogers into the national icon (and medically-induced super-soldier) known as Captain America. Rogers is created into this new evolution of man in order to combat Hydra, the deep science/black arts division of the Nazi army, led by a ruthless tyrant named Johann Schmidt, who is more frighteningly referred to as The Red Skull (you know, cause his face fell off and such). Captain America must prove to the people who gave him his powers, and to himself, that he was the right man to do the job of saving the world from utter annihilation.

I had fairly muted expectations going into this movie, mainly because Captain America is essentially a retro-hero, a classic clean-cut good guy with no character flaws. He always does the right thing, or at least attempts to, no matter the cost to himself. It flies in the face of everything we have been seeing in terms of comic book heroes over the last decade. The grief and anger of Batman, the drunken power trips or Spider-man, the ego and pride of Thor; all these traits give the characters layers that assist in making them human, someone the audience can try to relate to. Captain America really doesn’t have any of those flaws, but here’s the surprise…they made it work anyway. The opening thirty minutes of the film we see Steve Rogers pre-magic-roid-juice, where he is a ninety-pound poster boy for the “Before” shot in workout ad campaigns. In those early scenes his struggle is how to find a way to match his frail muscles outside with his unbreakable drive inside. We find ourselves in the hopeful spot of routing for the little guy (and I mean really, really little, like me in high school) and those opening scenes help pull the crowd in, hopefully holding them there through what comes later.

Once we lose the physicality of the “before” picture and it’s replaced with superhuman “after” shot, it loses a bit of the charm. Chris Evans should take no blame for this, in fact I think he was cast perfectly. He held on nicely to the innocence of his smaller self and truthfully brought to life the heroic nature of those comics from the late 40′s and early 50′s. The real downfall was that he didn’t face any real obstacle after he got his new physical form. We never really felt he was ever in any real danger because he could basically accomplish anything that came to mind, no matter how insane.

On the topic of the shield, our iconic piece of comic book memorabilia, I was torn on it. I liked the design and the fact it could get scuffed up, dirtied and otherwise sullied, but I would have appreciated one scene where we got to see him learn to throw it. Within one scene of him picking it up for the first time, he was chucking it around like a world-class discuss champion, fully expecting it to return to him, instead of wondering how the hell that worked. The minor flaw sort of mirrors the bigger issue that the latter half of the movie was really just a long montage of Captain America jumping, swinging, shield tossing and otherwise being heroic (lots of it in slow motion). The heart fell out of it and the movie descended into flashy colors and catch phrases.

In terms of the cast, as I said before, Chris Evans did a hell of a job and I look forward to him building up the character even more, hopefully with more internal struggles in movies to come. Sadly gone after the first thirty minutes, Stanley Tucci was wonderful as Dr. Abraham Erskine , the scientist behind the super-serum, which made the man out of the molehill. Tucci worked in such charm and natural flavor into his German accent and characterizations, I really wish he could have stayed on screen much longer.

Getting back to the real buzz around this movie, the next film in line for Marvel Studios is The Avengers, the first time any studio in the recent decades has tried to tie together a handful of other movie franchises into one single film. The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (who Jeremy Renner cameoed as in Thor) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) will all assemble on screen for the eagerly anticipated culmination of Marvel’s long term film plan. The genius inside is they are using all the original actors who made these roles so popular (with the exception of Hulk, who was played by Edward Norton in the franchise film and now replaced by Mark Ruffalo). For me, as a movie junkie, this is where the franchise will become something truly special. Just to see all those actors on screen playing off of each other is immediately worth the price of admission (and maybe a box of Raisinettes too).

The End of the Page recommendation: Captain America is a light-hearted throwback to the heroes of before, but the back half of the movie doesn’t hold up the charm and warmth of the opening. Matinee on the big screen could be valuable though, just for the special effects.

Thoughts? Are you looking forward to The Avengers?

Green Lantern: Shines Dimly Behind Reynold’s Charm

This suit is powered by sheer will (and a fanny pack of 9-volt batteries)

Rating: 5 out of 10

Every trend in the movies goes through the same motions. They come out of left field when no one thought it would be a viable idea, then instantly becoming the most watched genre in years, finally over-extending itself to the point of pure silver screen saturation and the profits nose dive off the celluloid cliff. You can usually mark the first movie going over the edge by how far it pushes the genre out beyond the norm. For fans of the comic book genre, even knowing that Iron Man 3, Captain America and The Avengers are still on their way, this weekends superhero offering gave many pause, wondering if this was one spandex’d crusader too many. Did the curtain begin to fall?

Nope. Not quite yet.

Green Lantern tells the story of Hal Jordan, a reckless flyboy who is chosen by a magical ring to protect his planet from destruction. Never one to follow through on anything, Jordan must struggle to discover the hero he never imagined was waiting inside.

I was going to start with some of the struggles and hardships that this story and script had to work through, but really, let’s get down to the green, glowing tacks here…Ryan Reynolds. He is not just playing a superhero, the man actually is one. No matter how bad the dialogue, no matter how convoluted the script, no matter what crazy situation you put him in, his charm and nearly flawless ease on screen allows him to raise that bar a little higher. I’m not saying that all these things were necessarily terrible here, but they could have been and Reynolds still would have found a way to make it work. Following his career since the Van Wilder days, Reynolds has never failed to enliven each and every project and provide at least one or two solid moments of wit and enjoyment on screen. For his generation of actors, I believe he is the closest they will get to George Clooney, a man who can truly balance comedy, action and drama all while looking like he was born to play that part.

Now that we have that out of the way, back to the problems. With all the comic book movies capturing the audiences recently, most are earth-bound or at least set mostly in an environment we can all easily recognize. Thor was the first in the new battalion of superhero flicks to test the waters of magical landscapes and far away universes and it succeeded fairly well. Without that preceding it, Green Lantern might have suffered more by spending so much time in outer space, but Thor built a bridge to that arena (and then busted it at the end of the movie…*in-joke*) so Green Lantern flew right over and pushed even farther out into the cosmos. Instead, the surrounding characters and subplots became the weakest links. Sadly the first half of the movie had to do so much of the heavy lifting: establishing the universe, literally, and giving some foundation for all these new and outlandish creatures, while still getting enough time to bring in their human counterparts back home. Peter Sarsgaard pulled out some decent angst and rage, but was never given enough time to really fuel the fire. Even worse was Blake Lively, who was given absolutely no room to breathe in a virtually lifeless character. Her introduction as a fellow fighter pilot was painfully unnecessary and forced her to try and work her way back into relevancy, which might have worked if given time, but she really wasn’t. As for the arch-villain CGI cloud creature, Parallax, the effects were impressive, but the story behind him felt flawed and unstable, so he never brought a whole lot of weight or tension to the scenes.

Overall, I still give this a five rating because it brings us back to those true summertime carefree flicks that didn’t try to give more than we bargained for. People who say this is a failure because it isn’t Dark Knight are making unfair and outlandish comparisons. Director Martin Campbell (who helmed two of the more successful recent Bond chapters, Goldeneye and Casino Royale) wasn’t going for grit and bones, he wanted light, fun and entertaining for the few moments he had you trapped in the theater. In that context, and with the effortless abilities of Ryan Reynolds, they achieved their goal, albeit one set far lower than what audiences may have envisioned.

The End of the Page recommendation: Green Lantern may hold a little more light for the comic book enthusiast, but for the mainstream moviegoer, this is only a mildly flickering flame, not a bright light of the summer.

Thor: Branagh Brings Out the Human in the God

By kissing this hand, I hearby make you Queen of Comic-Con.

Rating: 7 out of 10

With comic book movies sweeping across the cinematic landscape like a dust storm across the Sahara, there was bound to be a point where the phenomenon was going to hit a gorge, somewhere the storm would falter and fizzle out. During the last golden age of comic book flicks, that Hindenburg failure was The Phantom (although personally I think most of the audience missed the tongue-in-cheek humor of it). This time around, we haven’t quite picked the rotten apple out of the planned line up yet, but there were many early on who cast their votes against this tale of a Norse god with magical roofing equipment. I was even on the fence myself until they attracted legendary Shakespearean Kenneth Branagh to the helm, which lent a sense of credibility really unseen in this recent comic crop. Did it work? Read on and see…

Thor is the fairy tale of a tempestuous prince (Thor) and his brother (Loki), both waiting for the day when one will become the new king of Asgard and protector of the Nine Realms. Thor is a fierce and bloodthirsty warrior longing for the days of battles gone by, where his father staked his claim in the legends of yore. Loki, on the other hand, is more mischievous and plays the games using his trickster magic instead of his fists. After once again rushing headlong into battle without thinking, Thor angers his father to the point of being banished to Earth with none of his godlike powers, where he meets Jane and her crew of storm chasers. Odin (Thor’s father) then collapses under the stress and anguish into a deep sleep, leaving Loki to run the realm. Now the tables are turned and Loki unfurls his true plan for Asgard and all the Nine Realms, including Earth, where Thor must stand up and reclaim his birthright.

Now that description has one major flaw, which really was part of the reason many were so skeptical before about how this film would turn out. A good deal of the story takes place in a magical kingdom far out in the universe above sparkling star clouds. All the comic book films were are used to in this go around have been about people with extraordinary powers, but all living here on our world, basing everything in our reality.  Thor is the first in recent history to yank the audience back out to the realm of Superman and mythology. Some film critics were worried audiences wouldn’t follow the trend into the magical wonderland and lose connection with the characters. Well, that was a valid fear, but once the project fell into the more than capable hands of Kenneth Branagh, he did exactly what was needed and found a way to ground pieces of the film in more relatable themes; family discord, paternal acceptance and of course, true love. Sounds simple on paper, but I think it was an impressive effort to balance those themes with scenes of shiny kingdoms, multi-colored armor and big blue Frost Giants (who reminded me of angry background actors from Avatar). Bringing the movie together from that vantage point, the writers and Branagh were able to save Thor from becoming the first real stumbling block for the comic book genre this time around.

But Branagh’s success was not only in finding those relatable themes, but his casting of Chris Hemsworth as the legendary Norse god worked better than I could have expected. Stepping into those shiny boots and grabbing the magical hammer would be terrifying for any actor because it would be incredibly easy to be written off as a joke, but Hemsworth really brought something human out of the myth and played a tender balance between over-confident warrior and gracious visitor. For much of his screen time I felt Hemsworth pulled heavily from old films about King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, their valor, chivalry and bravery. By giving glimpses of those well-known archetypes, he helped overshadow the magic and spectacle of Asgard and its myths. Riding high in the clouds with Hemsworth were Anthony Hopkins (as Odin), Idris Elba (as Heimdall, the gatekeeper) and Tom Hiddleston (as Loki), among others.  Hopkins again helped to lend some dramatic weight to the film and shined a little brighter than he has in his past few projects. He admitted in an interview to phoning it in recently, giving Branagh credit for forcing him back into pushing his limits. Elba was a controversial choice early on because some die-hard comic fans felt the changing of the original character’s race was kowtowing to political correctness or unneeded diversity, but whatever the original reasoning was, Elba brought a real stoutness and stoic resolve in each scene, proving his casting as worthy. Tom Hiddleston also did a commendable job as the mischievous Loki, balancing his devious nature with the true pain of someone who felt they had been betrayed as well, but the writing of his character left many holes and setups which never truly paid off.

Helping to keep things grounded back on Earth were Natalie Portman (as Jane), Kat Dennings (as Darcy, Jane’s sister) and Stellan Skarsgard (as Erik, Jane’s teacher and physics partner). Portman has shown once again she will not be typecast as the indie darling and consider herself above the big budget blockbusters. She is adorable and relatable with an real ease on screen, but this was also not a big stretch for her talent. Dennings chimed in mostly  as the comic relief and delivered line after line in her classic sarcastic style, helping to set a less serious tone for the rest of the film. As for Skarsgard, good stuff, but he wasn’t really given a whole lot to work with.

The true success here is that on the walk out of the theatre I mentioned to friends the numerous plot holes and unresolved questions, but when they asked, “So what did you think?” I was still able to respond, “I liked it.” The fun was there and the balance of comedy, action and drama was handled well, to which I give much of that credit to Branagh. In a lesser man’s hands, this film could have easily fallen into Fantastic Four territory, and let’s be honest, we all know how that came out.

The End of the Page recommendation: Thor is worthy of a good matinee viewing for big screen afternoon enjoyment. Don’t worry about the story too much, because it’s seems they didn’t either.

What did you think of the winged god of thunder? Let me know.

Kick-Ass: Non-Stop Costumed Insanity

Say hello to my little friends, Laverne and Shirley.

Rating: 7 out of 10

It was only a matter of time until we reached this inevitable moment where the comic book stories started to move away from the radiation-powered heroes and villains  to the non-mutant kids that actually read them. Every kid who turned those colorful paneled pages had those moments where they gazed out the window and dreamed of a world where they could fly, burn holes through walls using only their eyes and actually help the good people in the world (or maybe just rob banks, depending on the kid). In the end it was all about wanting to be more than they were – something extraordinary. For some, gaining that elusive feeling meant putting their heads down and burying themselves in study, research and grunt work until they were recognized as experts in their chosen field. Others put on flashy tights. Tomato, tomahto.

Kick-Ass is a comic-book adaptation about a young boy who decides to make the transition from normal teenage wallflower into costumed vigilante justice. Ignoring the lack of any real powers or drive for vengeance, he plows forward only to find himself embroiled in a real-life crime ring, landing himself in the crosshairs of real criminals with real guns who really kill people. There is help though, from a costumed father/daughter pair who mentors him in what it really means to be a superhero.

[A quick disclaimer: I didn't read the original comic series, so this is a commentary on only the movie itself and not how well or not well the adaptation was made. If it was a wonderfully truthful adaptation, that's great, but that only really helps those people in the audience who have actually read it.]

While it starts out with a very Kevin Smith-style conversation, this movie quickly ascends into a level of ridiculousness that separates it solidly from the pack. It’s grows into something more akin to Unbreakable remade by high school kids, but I mean that in a positive way. The viewpoint throughout the film is not looking down or lording over these characters, but it looks from within, through the childlike eyes of what it would really feel like to try and become a superhero and transform yourself into the savior instead of the saved. It’s an old archetypal story — with a lot more spandex and pleather.

The lead character, Dave ‘aka Kick-Ass’ (played by Aaron Johnson), is the moral center of the story and he’s the audience’s window into this world. While his role is integral to the story, as a character he suffers a bit from being the launching pad for the more extreme and entertaining people. Quickly enough we are introduced to ‘Hit Girl’, played with unwavering intensity by Chloe Moretz, and her comically imbalanced dad, otherwise known as ‘Big Daddy’, played beautifully by the constantly working icon, Nicolas Cage. This dynamic duo are the comic book within the comic book, the fantasy within the reality of Dave’s world. Due to the level of violence and brutality these two characters generate throughout their screen time, it was fundamentally necessary to pick people who could play the ridiculous nature of their actions without allowing the characters themselves to seem or feel ridiculous. Cage was a godsend in this respect and there are few people better than him at accomplishing this kind of task. Cage may have become a joke to some, but I think they underplay this man’s range. Go back and watch Leaving Las Vegas, then immediately pop in Raising Arizona. He is supremely talented on both ends of the spectrum. While he might not be getting those prime roles lately, I think that has more to do with the fact he is working non-stop and those roles don’t come along as often versus proof of his decline in skill. Moretz, on the other hand, may be a relative newcomer by some standards, but in her six years of stealing scenes she’s already racked up a ton of voice-over credits and now seems quite poised to take over as the resident precocious, overly-intelligent little sister/neighbor/friend/what-have-you.

As for the man with the plan, Matthew Vaughn only has three directorial credits under his belt so far (Layer Cake, Stardust and this new addition), but all have been incredibly successful in their own right. He continues to do a beautiful job of creating the world of the story, both in front of the camera and behind it (he co-wrote the screenplays for Kick-Ass and Stardust). Yet, so far I think his best overall effort has been Layer Cake, the one script he didn’t touch (it was written for the screen by J.J. Connolly, the author of the original book). The only thing I believe this proves is the original author can be better with the cutting knife on their own story than someone else.

The End of the Page Recommendation: Kick-Ass doesn’t disappoint in the ass kicking department, but it borders on repetition by the closing credits. For comic book fans, it’s required viewing, just to relive the fantasies you know you had at that age. Oh, on a personal side note, National Treasure is popcorn genius! Viva la Cage!

Wolverine: Cuts Just Underneath The Bar

C’mon, who wants to try and take the Oscar host gig away from me? I dare ya.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Bring on the over-buttered popcorn, the obscenely large sodas and the amazingly radiated hot dogs…the blockbuster season is upon us! Every summer the world rushes into the theaters daring the movie studios to try their best to blow us out of our seats. CGI masterminds and real life stuntmen pull out all the stops in a yearly effort to make us drop our jaws once more at something we believed we would never see. Amazement and imagination collide inside a brilliant torrent of big-budget action flicks for the next five months and most studios bank their entire year on these “tentpole” films. The money made or lost on these cinematic feats can determine whether a studio will even be in business the following summer. With all that pressure, being the first one out of the gate is a big deal and this year that incredible honor is bestowed upon a familiar face, Wolverine.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells of the beginning of one of the most standout characters in the Marvel universe. It follows him from his start as a sickly child though his transformation into one of the world’s most deadly and indestructible killers. It also brings to light his mysterious past in Canada and what made him the missing piece to a terrible and destructive puzzle. Backgrounds and motivations are brought out of the shadows as we delve deeper into the lifeline of this wild and mostly untamed anti-hero.

There was a small rebellion right away when this idea got announced for a Wolverine origin film and the reasoning was some people felt we had already gone down that road in X2. While that is partially true, the secret of this script is it actually tells us more new information on the birth of other characters, letting Wolverine be the lynch pin to bring it all together. Beyond our cigar-smoking hero, we also get the origin story of Sabertooth and Deadpool, which in the end might prove to be the single best thing to come out of this film. Ryan Reynolds, who played Wade (aka Deadpool), has already signed on for a spin-off film surrounding the future of his wise cracking assassin. From the second he was announced as the casting choice fanboys around the world breathed a sigh of relief because they knew they had hit the jackpot. Deadpool is an insanely skilled weapon who never stops talking and cracking jokes, even during the most complicated missions, and that smart-ass nature makes Reynolds that absolute perfect choice for the role. Plus, we had seen him bulk up and take on the comic world before in Blade: Trinity and although the movie itself wasn’t anything to jump and shout about, Reynolds brought some much needed humor to the screen.

Getting back on track with this film, while the storyline of Wolverine might not feel incredibly necessary, the fans can’t seem to get enough of Hugh Jackman playing this iconic comic book role. This film is the fourth time we get to witness him wear the scowl of Wolverine and according to various Hollywood trades it won’t be the last. Making me and scores of other comic book geeks happy, the word has come down that the next Wolverine film will center around his time in Japan, which is a much more interesting storyline than this one.

Following the trend of causing your comic-loving audience to geek out for the sheer joy of it, Wolverine flooded the screen with numerous other characters, which sometimes can be a detriment, like in the original Batman franchise, but Marvel seems to have a slightly better hold on how to approach multi-character films. The most anticipated in this category was certainly Gambit, played by Taylor Kitsch from the TV show Friday Night Lights. I appreciated the physicalization of Gambit and the expression of his powers, but they toned down two of the best parts of who Gambit is, the Cajun accent and his overbearing romantic nature. Admittedly there was no female character for him to draw a bead on, but they could have dropped in at least one line or moment of him making a super-cheesy move on a girl in a bar and watching her melt under his skills. In the comics one of the most memorable things about Gambit is his determined romantic assault on Rogue, which in the X-Men film universe would have to take some clever restructuring since by the end of X-Men: The Last Stand Rogue has given up her powers completely so she can have a real relationship with Bobby Drake (aka Iceman). There were some rumblings about a possible Gambit spin-off as well, but I think his showing in this film wasn’t strong enough to warrant the money and resources, especially not when the Deadpool film is already greenlit and the Magneto script has also already been written (supposedly).

To the other names and faces popping up throughout this film, there was not too much else to get excited about. Will.I.Am, from the music group Black Eyed Peas, did a fine job as the teleporting cowboy, John Wraith, but nothing extraordinary. Dominic Monaghan, who is undoubtedly more connected to Hollywood history than anyone in this film due to his roles in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the TV phenom Lost, played the cool and quiet telekinetic Bolt, but he also felt slightly underused and just there to fill out a head count of comic book archetypes. Without going through the rest name by name, I will leave you with the person I thought was the worst represented, The Blob. No disrespect to the acting talents of Kevin Durand, but the physicalization of The Blob when he reached his massive and imposing size just ended up looking silly on camera. This brought one of inherent and most dangerous problems of the recent trend in adapting comic books for the big screen, some of the characters just don’t translate well in a realistic fashion. Sometimes you have to find creative ways to get them up there in a different physical form while still holding onto the core meaning and nature of the character, not that I know a way to do that in the case of Blob, but the fact remains, he ended up reminding me of Chet from Weird Science when he got turned into a big pile of crap.

Recommendation: Having a three movie lead-in for this character built up a huge following, which is great for box office potential, yet it also built up huge expectations, which this film did not completely meet. It has some really good scenes, but it fails to keep the pace up throughout.

Push: Borrowed Style Replaces Substance

“Wait a sec,  she’s only thirteen?!”

“Wait one more sec, he was in Fantastic Four? I can’t be seen with him.”

Rating: 4 out of 10

Just over three years ago hordes of people sat in their living rooms and bore witness to the birth of a phenomenon (however short it may have lasted). Heroes debuted and quickly gained a worldwide following as people everywhere attached themselves to the notion of ordinary people suddenly becoming extraordinary. While being glued to the comic-book styled serial every week, we all silently asked ourselves what power we would want, what would we do with those powers and would we turn into a ‘hero’ or a ‘villain’. No matter what the end result of those internal polls was, we were hooked to the live-action X-Men update and the rest of Hollywood was quick to make a note of that. Cut to three years later, Heroes is fighting to regain its mass appeal and while the shine has worn off of our shiny new TV toy, Hollywood unleashed their response to the comic book craze, Push.

Push takes place in a world where descendants of human experiments conducted under the Nazi regime have evolved into modern-day test subjects for the U.S. Government. Powers are unveiled, but not controlled, so a group known as Division is created to hunt down and collect ‘special’ people. In all the various types of powerful people, one group  is called the Watchers, who see the future, and a young, inexperienced Watcher has a vision which she must change, because if she doesn’t, she and others will die. A ragtag group of mutant outcasts on the run is brought together to fight Division and take possession of the one object they need to bring the whole conspiracy down to its knees and finally find their freedom.

On paper you have everything you need for a youthful, superhero-laden smackdown between the forces of good and evil, but what Push delivers is a badly paced, clunky, big-brother-esque mess only working its way up to four points on my ratings scale due to a fantastic fight scene at the end. In truth, those points might be cancelled out since while gaining points for the badass action sequence, it lost equal points for proving it could make great action scene and just chose not to. I fully support the right to try and create something new in an over-worked genre, but there are particular criteria which remain steadfast and necessary, like a training montage (such a popular tool, the South Park fellas made a song about it). We were supposed to buy the transformation of a main character from barely being able to mentally tip over a pair of dice to yanking down entire building structures without any increased practice with his powers. Beyond the holes in the structure, the visuals also leave something to be desired since numerous times throughout the film it cuts to grainy, 16mm-looking stock in an effort to make it look cool and edgy, but while dazzling you with the flashy technique they hope you won’t notice the scene is either totally unnecessary or unmotivated. I celebrate stylistic choices, but using them purely to make up for a bad script is sacrilege. Another sacrilegious thing is using a cinematic style that is a poor representation of Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire is not a fluke, he’s just that good.

Flexing their dramatic abilities in this colorful mess is a group of young actors with a couple seasoned vets tossed in for critical weight. First in the brat pack is Chris Evans, who is no stranger to the land of comic book inspired cinema. He lit it up as The Human Torch in the pair of Fantastic Four movies and I will give him a certain amount of credit for being one of the only things done right in those tragedies. Evans gets a touch lost in the current landscape of young male leads, but he has done a decent job in the roles he sneaks in. He actually gave a surprisingly good show in the dark sci-fi thriller, Sunshine (directed by none other than Danny Boyle, coincidence?). Evans plays Nick, our reticent hero with the ability to move things with his mind, but unfortunately for the audience he is unable to move them for most of the running time of the movie. Next in line, stepping out of her creepy adult-like doll phase, is Dakota Fanning, who plays Cassie, the inexperienced and willfull Watcher who sees bad things ahead for her band of misfits (does she possibly see the sequel?). Fanning is doing her best to remind people she is a teenage girl and growing like a chemically-laden flower. There are a few moments where I think they took her need to look more adult a touch too far, considering she was thirteen when she shot it in Tokyo, but then again, Fanning played a rape victim at twelve, so nothing is really going to push her too far at this point. She still proves her level of talent and in a few scenes manages to vault herself above her castmates, but in the end the project felt more like a choice to open her up to a broader audience instead of being base don the merit of the story. Camilla Belle rounds out the youthful runts of Push, playing Kira, the mind-controlling supersoldier escaped from government hands. Of course, she also has a few hidden plot twists up her sleeve, but those never seem to play out right or feel supported in any fashion. They mostly appear in moments where the writer was thinking, “I bet they think it is going to go this way. It should go that way. Logically hat way makes sense. So I’ll do something totally different and they’ll love it because it’s unexpected.” Such a simple and flawed argument. Bringing in a touch of critical weight, beyond Fanning, is Djimon Hounsou, who first burst onto the scene as the earnest and determined slave looking for human rights in Amistad, which won him a Golden Globe nomination as well. Hounsou plays Carter, a powerful mind-controller on the government’s side who is on the hunt for Kira and has no qualms about who or what gets in his way, even his own people. While there is no doubt Hounsou has the ability to be amazingly intimidating, his stone-like stares and deep intensity have no context in the movie and never really get the chance to grow. His smoothness is indisputable, but the audience never truly gets to see how he backs up all that confidence. Not to be left out, Ming Na and Cliff Curtis have side roles as a “sniffer” who can figure out google-levels of information from the scent of anything and a “shifter”, which is basically a fancy term for an illusionist, respectively. Both do a decent job, but I know their work is much more layered when given better environments to perform in.

My last issue with Push is it repeats one of the worst things about Jumper, which easily qualifies as one of the worst sci-fi flicks of last year. Both films fail to adequately resolve the main story and arrogantly tease a sequel they fully expect us to beg for. Although Push gets to walk a couple spaces ahead of Jumper in the line of quality, neither is deserving of a second go-around.

Recommendation: My review isn’t all doom and gloom. There is a kick-ass fight scene at the end, which hopefully will be properly emulated if the filmmakers use some sort of mutant power of their own and manage to create a sequel. Wait until this hits cable TV, unless you have never learned to properly cook a decent hot dog, then go to the Arclight for a matinee.
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Daily Musings 3/6

1 – Foamy is back, people. Let the rejoicing begin promptly.

2 – Maybe I find this amusing since I also have a line of t-shirts, but there is no doubt American Apparel’s advertising has always been borderline porn. The weird part is it’s really awkward 70′s style porn, like no one is happy to be taking part in it. So in essence, their awkwardness and possible repressed feelings from doing those shoots makes this parody video funny. I guess that’s something. [via FantasticBlognanza]

3 – You know what happens when races get too close to call? The person least confident of winning starts whining and complaining about the race being unfair. Hillary Clinton is pushing for Florida and Michigan to get their delegates in the race, which are at the moment not counted since both states violated Democratic Party rules and moved their primaries up into January. Both state knew what the ramifications were when they made the move and are only rallying about it now because the race is incredibly close. Clinton is stumping for the rights of the states and those “unheard voters” only because everyone else skipped campaigning there except her, so she won both those states. If they get added back into the count, Clinton will get a huge boost and it will also be completely unfair. The more I read about this, the more this sounds like a Bush move. Way to show you’re the candidate for change, Hillary. [via CNN]

4 – Possible good news, Swayze fans: His own doctors came out yesterday to confirm that he is battling Pancreatic Cancer, but they report that he is only inflicted with a small amount of the disease and the dire proclamations made yesterday are far from the actual diagnosis. In this case, I am in full agreement with Perez Hilton and I think we should all buy and download Swayze’s song She’s Like the Wind off ITunes and push it back into the Top 10 as a sign of support. Help perk up Dalton!!! [via People and Perez Hilton]

5 – These USB batteries could the coolest new tech trinkets I’ve seen in a very long time. The people who thought this up need to stop thinking so much and give me some of that brain power. Do they even know how long it takes me to type these things? IQ Hogs!! [via JoshSpear]

6 – Ashton Kutcher could be an evil mastermind. It turns out that he has been secretly filming a new show, in Punk’d style, but this time he is not trying to fool the celebs, but the paparazzi. The show will set up ridiculous things for the photogs to run around, freak out about and waste tons of money and time printing in their daily gossip rags, only to be exposed later as being completely duped. If you have heard rumors of Paris Hilton walking around with a spiritual guide looking like an extra from Enter the Dragon, that would one of Kutcher’s masterpieces at work. I hate to admit it, but he could be kinda brilliant. [via WWTDD]

7 – It turns out that Buffy may be gone from our TV sets, but she is living on in the comic book world and inside that six-color-press universe, she might be playing for both teams. If they had only made Sarah Michelle Gellar go down this road with Eliza Dushku on the show, honestly, rating through the roof! (not that I had any problem with Alyson Hannigan blazing the path for her, that was equally fantastic) [via Perez Hilton]

8 – This is my first attempt at posting multiple thumbnails in one post, but this is worth it. They have just released the first shots of the actors in full Watchmen costume for each of their characters. I am personally excited by this because I happen to have the honor of being friends with Malin Akerman, playing Silk Spectre. The pics are incredibly rad and only boost my confidence that Zack Snyder will make this film utterly bad-ass.

9 – Another clever group of people have found a way to continue the parody cycle for The Bourne Ultimatum. Here’s the newest volley, The Waldo Ultimatum:

10 – I posted this video once in my old MySpace blog, but this is making the rounds again and I think it highly worth mentioning one more time. Here is the Latvian Cello Choir performing Europe’s rock classic “The Final Countdown”: