I couldn't watch Green Lantern with a straight face. There were far too many similarities between the protagonist, Hal Jordan, and the villain of Megamind, Hal Stewart.
Let's start with the obvious: they're both named Hal.
They both wear really dorky masks that don't really conceal their identity.
They both float down to the girl's railing in an eerily similar scene...
They're both made unwilling heroes.
They're both real life failures.
The differences, however, make up for it, since Green Hal makes all the right choices and Red Hal does not. Green Hal becomes a hero because he cares about the people around him, and Red Hal becomes a villain because he cares only about himself. But they started, essentially, at the same place.
I feel myself all properly prepared for Avengers this spring. I finally gave in and put a hold on the three newest superhero movies from the library; Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern.
Captain America
This film taught us that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, but only if they're genetically enhanced. I would have liked this movie much, much better if the small guy had proved that being small doesn't mean you can't succeed. Instead he proved that being small is useless, but if you keep trying some mad scientist will make you the big guy. The shield should have been superpowers enough. I wanted to see the shortest guy in the entire U.S. Army succeed, and I didn't get that. I was quite annoyed.
My favorite character from Captain America was Howard Stark. Watching this movie made me suddenly more interested in seeing the first Iron Man movie. Geniuses who develop cool tech are my sort of hero. The shield was super cool, but I had a refrigerator moment the next day when I suddenly realized that every time I saw Steve throw the shield I was making an association with Tron. (It's round, you throw it, and it comes back to you.)
Thor
Thor was my favorite of the trio! We actually watched this one as a family. It was a little too intense for my little sisters, though. They tend to get overlooked when it comes to whether or not a movie is suitable. I was also gratified, when I looked up my Norse Mythology, to find out that the movie was more or less accurate.
My favorite character was Loki. Loki always has and always will be my favorite of the Norse gods. His character was extremely well developed, and his motivations were both realistic and totally tragic. I feel so sorry for him, and the Avenger Trailers are not changing that for me.
One thing I thought could have been done better was actually in the editing. Several of the deleted scenes cleared up parts of the movie I found confusing, specifically the ones before Thor's coronation. If they needed to make the movie shorter they could have cut out some of the interminable fight scenes that dragged on for absolutely forever.
Green Lantern
I didn't realize, until after I started watching this movie, that it's not Marvel! It's DC Comics, which suddenly makes my brother's friend's comments about a Justice League movie that much more sensible. Although, with Christopher Nolan remaking the Batman and Superman series a Justice League movie starring those two alongside the types of Green Lantern would be a little incongruous.
I got to watch this one with my brother, which means I got to sit there and make all sorts of snarky comments like:
The mask looks like a bird beak, and really doesn't protect against identity.
Any organization that's been in existence this long has big problem.
The entire Green Lantern Corp is a bunch of over-confident wimps.
"The Emerald Energy of Will..." (say it with a whispery, mysterious voice.)
Overall, I actually liked this movie. I liked the green. I liked the random guy factor. I liked the fact that his girlfriend was intelligent. I had serious problems with the scientific plausibility of the source of power of the two opposing factions. And the guardians are a bunch of idiots. It's definitely not your typical superhero story, and that definitely gives it brownie points. The sequel looks promising, but could we please loose the stupid mask?
Cars 2 has been met with an interesting reaction from my peers. Many of them were disappointed in it, claiming it didn’t live up to Pixar’s standard of quality. Some even said it “felt like a Dreamworks film.” For Pixar geeks, that’s just about the worst insult you can give.
Aubrey Hansen (check out her blog!) is a dear friend of mine, who's been slowly educating me in the world of animated film. Aubrey is a great lover of good stories, beautiful animation, and wholesome morals. I blame Aubrey for the fact that I've been getting Disney Princess films out of the library to watch. But that's another rant for later...
I have been superhero movie hunting as a result of writing superheroes for Nano. I knew there were two animated superhero movies, and I couldn't keep them straight, and neither was ever at the library when I checked: Megamind, and The Incredibles. It wasn't until after I watched Megamind that I realized it was the Dreamworks film, and Incredibles was Pixar. For a few moments I was horrified. What had I done, falling in love with a Dreamworks film?
See, I am not an animation geek. I am not a Pixar geek. The number of animated films on my favorites list is one: The Swan Princess. I like Gulliver's Travels too, but it doesn't really qualify for favorites. Suddenly the number of animated films I loved had doubled. I watched Megamind five times in the week before it had to go back to the library. I eventually got Incredibles too, but after watching all the Behind the Scenes videos I discovered the actual movie was too damaged to play. It was weeks before I had another chance to watch it.
So the final assessment?
The Incredibles
Absolutely brilliant premise. I love seeing Superheroes trying to cope in an every day world. It was very cute, especially having child Superheroes. I bet my siblings would love it. But, it simply cannot compare with
Megamind:
"Incredibly handsome criminal genius, and master of all villainy!"
Megamind is Classic Doctor Who (specifically the Doctor/Master relationship) meets Doctor Horrible (without the tragic aspect). It is brilliantly funny, and a bit sad in places too. Unlike Doctor Horrible, Megamind's enmity with Metroman is their version of a friendship, and he gets a happy ending. But it's the only other movie that has ever made me laugh and cry simultaneously. Who would have thought that an alien with a giant blue head could be so... cute?
A lot of people get confused by Megamind. They're not sure what the message of the story is, or whether Megamind really reformed. The "message" is one of my all time favorites in stories and can be summed up neatly:
"It's never too late to do the right thing."
That's the beautiful thing about Megamind, as a character. He tries so hard in the beginning to do the right thing, and learned from negative feedback it wasn't possible for him to ever be popular that way. The second half of the movie teaches him that's not true. It's never too late to do the right thing, and even villains can be sorry and become heroes.
"Did you want to hear me say it? I'll say it. I am sorry."
This review is a bit lopsided, notice? What can I say? I may not be a Pixar geek or an animation lover, I can't discuss the finer points of filmmaking or give a realistic analysis of Dreamworks, but I am absolutely a die-hard fan of Megamind.
Next summer the superhero movie to top all superhero movies is coming out: Avengers. And I couldn't have cared less a few weeks ago. My brother told me about Iron man, my friends talked about Thor, and still I didn't budge until the day the trailer came out and I watched it. I've never had my mind changed so fast, and all it took was one name. It wasn't the trailer itself that impressed me, it was the discovery that Avengers is written and directed by none other than Joss Whedon. (I think my exact reaction was "Why did no one tell me?")
Suddenly I went from not caring less about Avengers to being very, very interested in seeing it. But I was already behind the game. I didn't know any of the main players. So I set out to find the characters' original movies and watch them. This meant stalking the library for Thor, Green Lantern, and Captain America, and getting the rest on Netflix.
Ivan Danko
Iron Man 2
"Did you see Iron Man 1?"
"No, it wasn't available instant view on Netflix. The library had two copies, but managed to lose them both. So I read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia instead."
Besides, the villain in Iron Man 2 is more cool. No, seriously. Maybe not the character himself, but his weapons are cool. This is definitely a symptom of the villain being cooler then the hero...
Tony Stark is, in his own words, "a billionaire playboy philanthropist." He's also dying. I can't help but wonder, in a society as advanced as this, isn't there some better method of preventing shrapnel from penetrating to your heart? Can't you do surgery, or something? I feel very sorry for Tony; not because he's dying, but because the writer's are clearly putting him through everything for the sake of the furtherance of the plot.
My favorite character, though, was Tony's friend James Rhodes. I love that sort of friendship in a film. Romance is all fine and well, but romance is overdone. I like just seeing ordinary friendship built on mutual trust. James stole the Iron Man suit, but Tony trusted him with access in the first place. It was James who didn't trust his friend, which he later realized and apologized for and everything was happy.
Hulk
Betty Ross
My mom talked about the Incredible Hulk sometimes, the man who turned giant green when you made him angry. As children we always thought that was funny. As a film, it's still funny. It's so totally an old superhero they're trying to bring up to modern standards, but I always got the Jolly Green Giant and The Incredible Hulk mixed up and so all I can think is "Oh, he's big and green!" I don't care how dramatic the music was, how flashy the cinematography was, or how long the movie was. Nothing can eliminate the entire dated feel of the storyline.
The cinematographer clearly thought he was brilliant, but he only succeeded in being distracting. There were a couple of really pretty shots, and there were a lot of really flashy ones. Instead of cutting from the character talking to see the look on the face of the character listening Frederick Elmes would show us both at once, in a split screen or an inset. I never knew which one to look at or pay attention to. To make things worse, the movie was way too long. 2 hours and 18 minutes is one way of measuring it, the fact that it took a full minute for anyone to say anything was another, and the really long and drawn out fighting/rampaging scenes was yet another.
Also, the villain is more cool then the hero! Bruce's dad can blend with the elements. And elementals are just plain cool. Also, elementals are the good guys. Raging green hulks are the ones you should be afraid of. The reversal of roles was confusing, disorienting, and dissatisfying. The real villain was the idiotic military commander who tortured Bruce into changing.
Incidentally, Bruce is also the name of Batman, so we have two superheroes with the first name. How shall we ever keep them straight?
Remind me what makes Hulk a superhero again?
In Conclusion
Patiently waiting for the library to get the other movies on their shelves. The last time it took two months. Meanwhile I'm going to stick to animated superheros like... Megamind!
