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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.

The Dark Knight: Shadows and Mastery

[Click on the poster above to go to Art.com and buy the poster]

(Just no words)

This was what we’ve all been waiting for. The weekend to end all others this summer, most likely the year, possibly even years to come. The moon shone down on theaters nationwide as dedicated fans of comic books and gritty action movies alike lined up for the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight, the second in the revamped Batman franchise headed by director Christopher Nolan. The hype was dynamic, nearing the rampant fervor last held by Matrix Revolutions, but this time the anticipation and buzz machine wasn’t met with disappointment and disdain. The Dark Knight lived up to every expectation and exceeded most others. Much more than a comic book film, this piece of history breaks many of the long held rules and traditions of movie making. Without getting into too much detail, let’s just say the sun doesn’t shine down on our heroes very much and without that the audience is not given what would be considered the Hollywood ending. Nolan put his best foot forward and also had to stomp it down on the fact he wasn’t going to lighten this up, make it more palatable to the mass public, because I think he felt they were ready and they deserved it. He set the tone in Batman Begins and he keeps that gritty calmness on the same tightrope with tense anticipation and sliding levels of psychosis. The continuing character development of Batman running right next to the introduction of the Joker and Harvey “Two Face” Dent shows that Nolan is just as good on the page as he is on the camera. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is left unexplained, and that leads to everyone leaving the theater fulfilled.

What words could I possibly write about Heath Ledger’s performance. I was recently talking to my friends after we saw the film about how sad I was. Not only because we will only get one more chance to see new and original performances from Ledger (when his finished footage is used in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus), but also because this brilliant turn on the already once-made iconic role of the Joker will forever be marred by the events that followed it. There will forever be those people that will say we in the Hollywood community and beyond hail this role because of his death and not becuase of its sheer talent and genius. To those small and deluded voices I say this, Heath was an amazingly gifted actor and his interpretation of the Joker would have gone down in the record books no matter what happened to him afterwards and when the accolades and congratulation were lauded on him (an Oscar nomination is guaranteed, the win is probable) he would have accepted them with the same grace and humiliy he has shown so many other times before. He brought something new, something daring and something intentionally terrifying to this character. It’s incredibly unfair to compare his performance with that of Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton’s Batman because that film went in a totally different direction. Burton created a comic book world where Batman and his peers existed, whereas Nolan made a dramatic effect of creating our world, this day and time, which just happens to have Batman, and in turn those who will always turn up to fight against him. The final effect of all that work is a film with much more power, more substance and a raging river of emotions that rush over the audience.

Let’s not forget the other great roles in this film. Christian Bale brought even more to the Batman side of the equation this time, where we spent a lot of time seeing the person under the mask in the first film, now is our chance to see his psyche slide across that dangerously thin line between one personality and the other. One might use the term “the light and the dark”, but for the character of Bruce Wayne it is more approriate to think of it as “the dark and the pitch black”. Aaron Eckhart gives a little touch of his character from Thank You For Smoking and shows what happens when good people are pushed too far. Michael Caine brings a sense of class and stoic nature as always, showing a little more depth of the relationship between Alfred the loyal butler and his charge. Gary Oldman proves once more that he can be a skilled actor without showing how crazy he can be. Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and a cameo by Cillian Murphy round out the cast, all refusing to let the quality and level of the film dip below outstanding.

Overall, this is a near perfect film. Running at 2 and 1/2 hours, I honestly didn’t feel one minute was overdone or unnecessary. One of the great successes of this piece is on paper this shouldn’t work at all. The normal rules of storytelling are completely shattered, the traditions of Hollywood movies (especially those that cost $180 million to make) are left whining and sputtering in the past. Chistopher Nolan has just secured himself a place in the annals of movie history as a great storyteller, accomplished director and soon-to-be most profitable moviemaker of all time. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and go immediately. I didn’t see it in the IMax first because I was afraid I might miss small details, but now that I have had the Arclight experience first, IMax…here I come for Round 2!

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Also, here’s a link to one of the better posters to come out of the marketing campaign. Many of them were sensational, like the “Why So Serious” series, but this one had a particular creepiness to it which resonated.

Sitcom Dreams to Super Giant Robot Panda: A day in the life of…(4/30)

1 – Could my dream come true? Could 90210 and Full House be combined into one magical TV experience? The answer is YES! Lori Laughlin, who many remember as Uncle Jesse’s way-too-attractive-for-him girlfriend on Full House, has signed onto the 90210 spinoff show. If the momentum continues and they do sign pop/media sensation Hilary Duff, Lori will be playing her mom. If we don’t get an Uncle Joey cameo in there somewhere, i’m going to be very perturbed. [via Variety]

2 – The kids who played Final Countdown by Europe on their cellos just got served. [via GorillaMask via afrojacks]

3 – I’m digging the poster campaign here. Making it feel like the Joker is trailing right behind Batman on the promotional tour and screwing around. Nice touch, marketing gurus. [via Film School Rejects]

4 – USB jump drives are getting weirder by the second, but leave it to a Japanese company to combine creepy with cute into something that you just can’t stop yourself from wanting. Personally, the pirate USB drive is calling to me in my sleep. After the jump, you’ll find there is actually a contest to win some of these little geek toys. Yaaarrrrr… [via JoshSpear]

5 – As many suspected, the intensely awaited film Blindness is going to open the coming Cannes Film Festival. Hopefully it will not take long to get from there to the local theaters because I am already dying to see it. [via Variety]

6 – OK, this has been going on for a couple days now, but it’s time to let it go. Miley Cyrus took what many consider to be a risque photo for an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. The photo was taken by visual arts legend Annie Leibovitz. As you can see from the photo (scroll to the bottom to see the final photo) there is a lot of skin showing and the subtext is to make it look like she’s naked, but the issue comes to bear when you remember that Miley Cyrus is 15 years old. So, was Annie wrong for setting up this photo? Were the editors of Vanity Fair wrong for printing it? Were Miley and her parents wrong for agreeing to it? Personally I think it was a little bit of all of the above, but the truth remains none of this would be an issue if some of the more outspoken and vocal members of society didn’t get all in a huff over it. Now it’s turned into another case of everyone pointing fingers at each other to blame and Miley being whisked out of the spotlight to try and force people to forget as quickly as possible. Disney execs have already stated that she will not be appearing at any events or public signings for four to six months. The only thing I am worried about is that she seems primed and ready to turn into the next Britney-trainwreck-fallen superstar-VH1 special-cliche. That’s just one thing we really don’t need to go through again. [via Defamer via The Superficial]

7 – Proof once again that there is a bright side to everything, even a nuclear explosion. [via College Humor]

8 – My only real question about this video is: Was the trombone really necessary? [via GorillaMask via unibrow]

9 – I posted this video a long time of a teacher drawing an actual perfect circle on his blackboard, but it resurfaced and still has the power to creep me out. Even creepier is the other, harder to find video, of him drawing a perfect BLT sandwich in the same amount of time. [via Pandachute]

10 – I hope you all realize that this video game is the first step in us being able to draw things that will instantly come to life. Here’s comes the Super Giant Robot Panda!!! [via swissmiss]

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Daily Musings 3/10

1 – As much as I hate the what has become of the Star Wars franchise and also for what it did to my childhood (listen people, you will never, ever be original or humourous when you say, “You’re name is Luke? He He…I am your father. Ha hahaha get it? Like in the movie with that muppet dude?”), I still have to throw some love out there to the creators of this post from College Humor. This is actually all in the films themselves, but it’s played in the subtext. Just read between the lines and you’ll see it.

2 – The thickness of one’s skin is only truly dependent on the sharpness of the barb.

3 – Have you ever thought to yourself you wanted your PC to be more musical, more tonally impressive? Maybe the real fact is you have never really listened to it correctly. Try it again after watching this video of a musical jam made out of only Windows 98 and XP sounds, I think you’ll hear a distinct difference. [via College Humor]

4 – We’ve seen the original Mentos commercials, we’ve seen the anime versions as well, now let’s take a gander at what happens when the Mentos confidence goes awry. [via Pandachute via College Humor]

5 – Leave it to the fanatics to find something a way to turn the upcoming animated Horton Hears a Who! into a protest piece. Pro-Life rallies sprung up at the premier because they latched onto the moral of the story, “A person is a person, no matter how small.” and are using it as an anti-abortion catch phrase. I’m a Pro-Choice person myself, but if someone can bring me proof that at the very moment of conception the cluster of DNA and cells becomes a furry accountant with a penchant for rhyme, that’s when I make the switch. [via Starpulse]

6 – As if there was a role I wouldn’t be happy to see Johnny Depp play, now he is on the lookout for screenwriters who can create a worthwhile story about Salvador Dali. When this film gets made I am only going to be truly happy if Depp plays through a whole scene while it virtually melts around him. [via Starpulse]

7 – I was going to post up the first trailer for Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, but it was so unimpressive that I decided this other trailer for Zombie Strippers was more valuable to your day. Your welcome. [via FilmDrunk]

8 – There will always be a time when certain things need to be updated, evidently the Catholic Church thinks that time is now and they are planning an overhaul to the seven deadly sins. It seems we as a society have found new and improved ways to offend the almighty and the Church wants to make sure that we are appropriately covered for all our hell-bound needs. [via CNN]

9 – Yes! Yes! Yes! A whole company dedicated to firearms for Legos. Yes! [via Uncrate]

10 – There are a handful of new photos from the upcoming Dark Knight flick. Here is my favorite from the bunch. My personal caption would be, “Do you ever get that feeling like someone is watching you?” [via ComingSoon]