Movies

As of last night, I've finally seen all the Avengers movies.  I really liked Captain America, The First Avenger, but it was a bit less than the sum of its pieces and I put it on a par with The Hulk, Iron Man 2, and Thor.  I liked all of those movies, but all of them fell short of the standards set in Iron-Man, Batman Brgins, The Dark Night, and by Sam Raimi in Spiderman 1 & 2.  Frankly, the best superhero movie ever may be X-Men First Class.  We've finally got a trailer for the Jos Whedon directed Avengers movie, to be released next summer, and it looks fantastic.  I'm not sure how the disjointed, dysfunctional nature of Avengers stories will translate to the big screen, but I'm looking forward to it.  In the mean time, if you've missed any of the previous Avenger's films, go see them.  Here's my take on Cap:

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

Good stuff.

2.5 Stars out of 4

I took my son to see the "#1 Movie in America" last night. Frankly, it was shallow, the characters were mostly sketches with all but the most basic outline of their motives left to our imagination, and the villainous plot had major holes in it. Basically, it exceeded my expectations for what a G.I. Joe movie ought to be. The action was relentless, mostly very well done, and less engaging than it might of been until the climax, which hooked me despite my lack of caring for the characters. Overall, I was pretty surprised it was as good as it was. So, go in with low expectations and you should be pleasantly surprised.

I heard a critic the other day claiming this had been a horrible summer for movies. My first reaction was "Not! Star Trek was incredible!" Then I realized that Star Trek came out in mid-May, and was not technically a summer film. Up came out this summer and immediately became my third favorite animated film ever, after The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, just nudging aside Finding Nemo and Aladdin. One summer gem, then. I started to think back on the movies I've seen this year. There was Star Trek (twice) and Up (thrice) and ... Hmmm. I didn't see Transformers 2, but it sounds like a movie I'd have despised. I saw some VERY good movies at the beginning of the year, but they mostly came out last year; Grand Tourino and Changeling, specifically. I don't really recall what else I watched this year. Push? Not memorable. Please help jog my failing memory. What else worth noting came out in 2009 and failed to disappoint?

A short list culled from a release website: