It is very hard for me to gauge just how I felt about this Summer. There were many high's and just as many low's(thanks August, you useless movie month). It is impossible to to critique it all in one fell swoop because it contained so many different elements. One of those elements which make up every Summer, and can determine its overall success or failure are the releases of the now very familiar comic book movie adaptions. With Xmen: First Class, Thor, Green Lantern, and Captain America leading the way,and as a comic book movie geek, I was very eager to see what was in store.
In truth Xmen:First Class blew the other three away. It had a decent run time, very solid special effects, and it succeeded in where so many failed in that its story was extremely fascinating. The performances by Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy as Magneto and Charles Xavier( Professor X ) carried the film, as the friends turned enemies who created the initial Xmen Team. The film was dark, brutal at times, but still held the playfulness of a comic book film. It should be recognized as one of the best "comic book films" created to date, and was my third favorite movie of the entire Summer. Things kind of go down from there
Thor was incredibly well cast with Chris Hemsworth playing the cocky young god and Tom Hiddleston was even better playing his brother Loki. The special effects at times were, at least I thought so, very well done. However, the love story completely ruined it for me and Natalie Portman's character sort of had me wishing she would get the Maggie Gyllenhall treatment from The Dark Night. The acting was fine for what it was but the movie seemed merely a set up for the next Avengers film, something which is okay, but to a point.
Green Lantern on the other hand was just plain atrocious. I love Ryan Reynolds. I think he wanted to make a good movie. Blake Lively is hot. Mark Strong looked great as Sinestro. This movie, sucked. Wayyyyy too short and Parallax, the villian, was some of the worst cgi I have ever seen. The film did not know what to do with itself and when it ended, I, for one of the few points ever in my movie history, hated a comic book movie. Such a strong cast should have been given better material and the director Martin Campbell, (Goldeneye, and Casino Royale) should have not let this film hit screens.
Finally, Captain America was released and somewhat salvaged the debacle previously mentioned. Chris Evans was awesome as Steve Rogers, the genetically enhanced hero. Even better was Hugo Weaving as the "Red Skull"; he oozed that evil charisma that a good super villain should have. Even better was Tommy Lee Jones, whose witty comments kept the film going and the audience laughing. However, despite the fact I really liked the film, it to fell victim to the Avengers situation just like Thor. It kind of burdened the film, which I enjoyed. However the after the credits clips were AWESOME. Seriously though, and this was my biggest problem, for those of you who do nothing but read and talk about comic's, please, PLEASE, shut up during the movie. No one is impressed you know how many variation's of Captain America comics have been issue. SHUT UP!
So to grade the films I give Xmen First Class and A-, Thor a C+, Green Lantern a D, and Captain America a B. O and by the way Cowboys and Aliens also came out.......Lets not get into that fiasco, seriously Jon Favreau I love you but somehow James Bond and Indiana Jones could not save this film.
