Watchmen

I am far more excited for this movie then I should allow myself to be. But just look!!!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I’ve been sitting here trying to honestly think of stuff that I didn’t like about this movie. Not having much luck.

I was a huge fan of the first movie. It had a very dark and steam punk feel and look to it. Both of which I’ve always liked. This one takes a slightly different style visually. Del Toro is pure genius with his visuals. He made a point of using puppets and costumes for as many monsters as possible in this, which gives it a very Jim Henson feel to it. Only Del Toro’s visuals are a lot darker. Pan’s Labyrinth almost feels like it was just a small taste into his mind, and this movie is a full serving. I’ve already said I’m a huge sucker for overly visual movies. So this movie had me swimming.

The story is simple and pretty straight forward. There are a few twists to keep it a little interesting. But it’s nothing groundbreaking or all that memorable. It does have moments that really make you feel for the characters, even the bad guy. While he is a crazy power hungry war monger, he does have some good points in his view of Humanity. Since I’ve never read any of the comics that this story was based off of I cant comment on how close it followed it. I do know they took lots of liberties with the story of the first movie. But it all worked in the end. And knowing that Del Toro is a huge fan of the comics, and that him and Mike Mignolia, the creator of the comic books, both worked on the script I am sure that the story and all the characters are very faithful to the series.

All the characters are as good as they were in the first. It takes a few moments to get used to the fact that David Hyde Peirce isn’t the voice of Abe, you quickly get used to Doug Jones. Plus it’s nice that he finally gets to do the voice work of the character that he is in costume for. Everyone gets a good amount of screen time as well. All three of the main three all have parts of the story that moves them along.

Hancock

With all the comic book movies coming out now, and with them doing so well (finally), it was only a matter of time before someone made a non-comic book super hero movie. This is defiantly different then most hero movies. It appears that they were trying to make a real world hero movie. If someone had these kinds of powers how they would affect him in real life. And what the public reaction would be to his feats.

I really like the idea of the hero being so apathetic. After a while I’m sure every super power would grow tired of the same old thing over and over, and eventually realize they are above everyone else. It’s great to see him realize that everyone hates him, and slowly begin to care about it. And begin to take steps to be better.

This role defiantly didn’t test Will Smiths acting skills. He doesn’t do a bad job of it, mostly because there really isn’t anything there. Same goes for most of the cast. The only one that really has to show any range is Charlize Theron.

My biggest pet peeve with this is that it suffers from a Michael Bay like Summer Blockbuster Shooting Style, which is quiet frankly, crap. Half the movie is out of focus. They try to be creative with camera angles, but end up falling completely flat and leaving you asking “why is the screen filled with the back of some guys head?” Most of this really seems like it was done to help cover up cheap special effects. Many other comic movies have made use of special effects far better then this one. Almost feels like they spent their entire budget on big names.

I am a little suprised that they managed to get away with using the term Super Hero through out the movie. Marvel and DC comics have that term copywritten.

Wanted

There are some movies that you really just have to suspend all belief. If you can’t get past the idea that these people can shot other bullets out of the air, or “curve” the bullet around other objects, then you just aren’t going to like this movie. It is full of mindless action, which isn’t a bad thing.

There have been some complaints that they use Bullet Time too much in this movie. Being a movie based around the idea of doing fancy tricks with bullets, you kind of need to use Bullet Time to show this off. How else are you going to realize that Angelina Jolie just shot another bullet out of the air? It never feels played out or used in pointless scenes like often happens in other movies that insist on using Bullet Time to be hip and trendy. Each time it’s used it is showing something interesting or important, bullets colliding midair, a bullet arcing around a corner to hit someone, or a bullet releasing parts in stages like a rocket.

The story is simple. It has a few twists towards the end, but it is nothing spectacular. It is really just an excuse for all the over the top gun fights. The one good part of the story is the whole idea of taking a guy who’s bored with his life and job. Nothing is really going for him, then throwing him into this action packed underworld. Most movies like this are all about the lead coming to terms with this new life and getting used to it. But in this one he actually jumps whole-heartedly into it. He’s done with his old life, ready for a new more exciting one. All of which leads to the best “I quit” scene in a long time.

The whole thing isn’t anything magnificent, but it is an all around enjoyable film. I can’t help feel that the film makers were kind of hoping to make another cult classic. With a cast like this I could see it being one, but only time will tell.

The Incredible Hulk

While I am a big fan of comics, I can’t say that I’ve ever really read much Hulk. I know the basics of his whole story and happenings, but not very detailed. But I am a fan of smash’em up movies.

A couple years ago Ang Lee did the first big screen Hulk movie. But Ang Lee isn’t really the kind of director you want for something like this. While it had very good action it was bogged down with too much heavy story, not something associated with the Hulk. So it is kind of suprising that they green lighted another Hulk movie after that one bombed. This time around they got Louis Leterrier, who did The Transporter 2. Not only is a fun action director, he’s a big fan of the original television series for The Hulk, which you can see in many of the nods to the series throughout the movie. This seems to be the thing that Marvel has got right this year with their comic movies, actually getting fans of the comics to do the movies justice.

The special effects in this are much better then the last one as well. When I first saw the trailer I have to admit they didn’t look that good to me. But the more I saw of them, the more detailed I realized they were. They actually use Edward Norton and Tim Roth’s faces for their CGI counterparts. As well as using motion capture to get their movements to match the live action actors. This all made the fight scenes and action much more interesting and realistic.

The story is simple, but good. It’s not trying to be real in-depth or heavy, it has what it needs to move it along and get where it’s going. It even leaves stuff open for a sequel for the nerds that can catch what is happening during the movie.

Just like Iron Man, there are lots of easter eggs for fans of the comics. I personally only saw a few, but others have said its chock full of them. It doesn’t have a secret ending after the credits like Iron Man did, but it looks like there was going to be one, but they put it before the credits instead. And with where these endings between the two movies are going is pretty exciting for the comic nerds out there.

I really didn’t have many problems with the movie. The one thing that bugged me during the climax is all the pedestrians. There are two large monsters fighting on this street, are you really going to run back and forth on that same street? How about you get off that street and run another direction. With the amount of smash and destruction there is bound to be monstrous amounts of casualties, but they never really mention it. Especially when the army is trying to stop the hulk, the amount of firepower they are bringing into a University Campus is just asking for tones of friendly fire.

Gabriel

I'm a little biased with this movie, I’m a sucker for Angel stories.

Good: Story. It was an interesting take on Archangels, Fallen Angels and Purgatory. There was some slight character development, but nothing great. The look of the movie is great. The main baddy, Sammael, had the creepiest eyes I’ve seen in a while, and the actor wore them well. And the actor for Gabriel was not only hot, but I thought he was pretty good actor, doesn’t look like he’s really been in much other stuff though.

The style of the world was a lot like Dark City or The Crow, very dark, goth and dirty. And really the world is a character into its self. A big part of the movie and how the characters are the way they are is because of the world. I found the idea of Angels trying to cope with a world of darkness and violence really interesting.

Bad: It didn’t have a great budget, which when they use some of the special effects is real obvious. During some of the fight scenes they make it look like they were moving real fast by adding blur lines. But it just didn’t work. They should’ve just stuck with the nice martial arts of the first few fights.

It also looked like they pulled too many little things from other movies. There are several scenes that have been seen in other movies like Equilibrium, and The Transporter. Nods are fine for some genres, but stealing scenes from other movies isn’t.