X-Men: First Class

Albeit a bit late, this review is coming before the release of X-Men: First Class on DVD, so it is definitely not too late!

If you pay attention to the reviews and reception of movies when they come out, then you know that this movie did extremely well in the box offices and on critics’ notepads. With a lot to expect from such numbers and scores, this movie successfully came through.

The cast that this movie put together is really quite astonishing. With your one-two punch of male leads, Michael Fassbender playing the metal controlling, concentration-camp-nightmare driven Magneto, and James McAvoy playing the telepathic leader who will do anything to help mutants. Fassbender (300, Inglorious Bastards) gets what is likely his biggest, truest role in a movie yet, and he delivers powerfully. His next few years of acting are going to be incredible after this, so keep him on your radar. McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) has had success in the past, and is great as Professor X.

The rest of the cast lines up pretty good along the leads. Kevin Bacon is your bad guy, which everybody loves to see. Jennifer Lawrence (lead of Winter’s Bone), and then we have the beautiful and provocatively dressed January Jones (Mad Men), who I’m thinking will bring a lot of new viewers to her main-line acting performance, the main character’s wife in Mad Men. With other greats sprinkled into the mix of this movie, the cast alone is enough to guarantee a good time.

Then there is the production value. Again, this movie brings it. The editing, the camera shots, the direction, the make-up, and the special effects are all top-notch and come together in a great way. Your eyes and ears are always intrigued by what you are perceiving throughout the movie. I don’t think any of the production is going to win awards, but there are really no weak points, which is pretty much just as good.

Last, and absolutely not least, there is the story. I am absolutely no expert on the history of X-Men, having never read a comic book in my life, but I am pretty sure that it gets the characters and their backgrounds correct. The movie takes place in the critical Cold War time in history, and it puts an interesting spin on mutants’ involvement in what was almost WWIII. It is sensible in the universe in which it takes place, and does a perfect job of giving us the beginning of a very popular work of fiction.

My Rating

 3.5/4.0 – Fast paced, action packed, and with little to nothing to detract from it, X-Men: First Class is a nearly perfect comic book movie prequel with great production and a young and exciting cast.

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Hanna

A 16-year-old who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.

It really is great to see so many young actors being cast in such leading types as this movie, where Saorise Ronan shines as she did in The Lovely Bones. Alongside her, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett complete the very well performed cast. Director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) in his first big action/thriller movie, gives us some good paced fight and chase scenes.

The story is enough to be a thriller, but it was predictable for me and was the big let down for this movie. Every “twist” that came out of it along the was either already assumed or not crazy enough to surprise anyone. The ending also seems to just start wrapping up, when it blackscreens for credits, although the alignment of the opening and closing scenes was pretty cool.

The soundtrack was the high point for me. Minutes before starting this movie, I learned that The Chemical Brothers did all of the music. Not only do I love the Chemical Brothers, and have for a long while now, but probably my favorite movie soundtrack of all time is Daft Punk’s TRON: Legacy soundtrack. So the idea of an electronic band that makes really unique music doing an entire soundtrack for a movie really excited me. For the feel and genre of the movie, the music really was a nice compliment.

My Rating

 2.5/4.0 – Solid performances, especially from the young and promising Saorise Ronan, try to carry a weaker story line, with help from some solid directing by Joe Wright. Also included is an excellent soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers.

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Everything Must Go

 

 

When an alcoholic relapses, causing him to lose his wife and his job, he holds a yard sale on his front lawn in an attempt to start over. A new neighbor might be the key to his return to form.

I know that most every movie-goer is interested in the dramatic side of Will Ferrell. He was pretty damn good in Stranger Than Fiction, which wasn’t actually too dramatic, but it was definitely different from what he has built a career out of, and it was definitely good.

Ferrell’s character is not the usual angry, violent alcoholic, but rather the decent guy who has the wrong priorities. Clearly the role has its complexities. The story [written by director Dan Rush], from what I have read, does justice to the short story that it was written after, but it is not really as well done as you hoped it would be, and what I think it could have been, leaving the role Ferrell plays a little less stellar, but nonetheless, he was excellent. I still think his career-starring dramatic role is ahead of him, however. He’ll find that role someday.

Side note: Rebecca Hall, who plays the pregnant neighbor to Ferrell, is just adorable, and is very drawing in most all of her performances I’ve seen. People should really take notice to the name.

Again, the story is a little lackluster, but it is a hopeful one, a story that most everyone can take something away from, which is always a very pleasant thing to find at the end.

The production is simple, and the soundtrack follows suite, but it all fits together in a nice little package.

My Rating

 3.0/4.0 – Despite a somewhat underwhelming yet powerful story, Will Ferrell delivers a very promising and noteworthy dramatic performance that should be the opening of the door to hopefully a future classic role.

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Win Win

A struggling lawyer and volunteer wrestling coach’s chicanery comes back to haunt him when the teenage grandson of the client he’s double-crossed comes into his life.

I don’t know about you, but if the two words “Paul” and “Giamatti” are ever mentioned in reference to a movie, I want to see it. I saw a trailer and reviews for this movie a long while ago, and it is just now coming out on DVD. Rottentomatoes gave it some pretty good reviews, so the hype was big coming out of the gate, and this movie had a reputation to follow, and I’m glad to say that it did so.

The general feel of the movie was much different than I thought after watching the trailer. I thought it would be something really dramatic with a sad overtone, but in reality is was pretty lighthearted and actually funny. The story is relate-able and the characters are connect-able and unique in their own ways, and while there are no real surprises, it has it’s complexities.

The acting is really quite superb, as to be expected from Giamatti as the conflicted lawyer who is struggling financially but has good intentions. He’s good enough to almost not even notice that he is acting, which is saying a lot. Amy Ryan projects the true powerful aura of a mother who sees a child in need, and Alex Shaffer is the newcomer actor who does a fine job for his very first film, and he can actually wrestle, which makes his performance very convincing.

My Rating:

 3.5 / 4.0 – While it will not go down as a “great” film, ‘Win Win’ is a winner all the way, an extremely entertaining watch with almost effortlessly convincing acting, a thoughtful story and characters that we can all relate to, and a genuine ending.

Super

After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, though he lacks for heroic skills.

Rainn Wilson has interested me for a while with his great work on the show The Office, and I’ve hoped to see him get something like this role, an indie drama, for quite some time. It was just a matter of time before I was able to get hold of a version for myself to watch.

I thought that I knew what to expect from the trailers and here-and-there comments on the movie, and I sort of did, but this movie really did take me by surprise. It is labeled as a comedy, along with action and drama, but if anything, it is a dark comedy, a little too dark for my liking. Hitting people in the head with a wrench and fracturing their skull for butting in line at a movie may make some people laugh, but seeing it happen in this movie was not enjoyable for me. Not only is the comedy of a dark variety, but the rest of the movie, mostly the ending in particular, is just as dark. I really didn’t like how messed up some of the things in this movie were, even though I knew to expect some of it. It was also based a lot on God, which wasn’t bad in anyway, just surprising and sort of misplaced.

Wilson does give a good performance, and Ellen Page does what she needs to, but production-wise there isn’t really anything special about this movie, and the thrown in 2D comic book animation stylings are pointless and not even well done. The story and the idea of the movie are unfortunately timed, coming shortly after Kick-Ass, although completely different in the details, they are the same general idea.

The sole thing that I actually did like was the ending message of the movie. I thought it was a good one to give, and one that isn’t very-often given in this self-centered thematic era of ours.

My Rating:

  1.5/4.0 – Despite a meaningful ending message and decent performances, Super puts a dark twist on the average-Joe superhero, but in a senseless and overpowering fashion.

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