Move Over 2010; 2011 Films Are Outta This World

After days of trying to rack my brain to come up with the top movies I’ve seen in 2010 I came to a very important conclusion; 2010 sucked. I could come up with maybe five films I thought deserved to be on the list, but this was leaving out recent films I hadn’t seen yet like Black Swan, The Fighter, and True Grit. So rather than focus on the past I’m looking to the future. With 24 hours left till the new year here are twelve films I’m looking forward to seeing in the next twelve months.

12) A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas (T.B.D.)

I’m not sure what is going on with this film. I know Kal Penn quit the series House so he could go work for President Obama. If he has found a way to replay the lovable stoner along with John Cho I’m all for it. These films are stupid, let’s be honest. But sometimes it’s those stupid films that keep us entertained. And isn’t that what movies are made for? I smell a Christmas classic in the works.

11) The Company Men (January 21)

In this time of economic recession it’s nice to see that Hollywood isn’t shying away from bringing this problem into the lime light. The story is about three men; Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, and Tommy Lee Jones, and how they are dealing with the corporate downsizing in America. It’s about their struggles, their efforts to keep their families together, and all things that will probably make you cry. But with three great actors leading the way I think this could be a good one.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPohmhNFwi4

10) Priest (May 13)

Based on a comic book series this film takes place in an apocalyptic future. There is an order of priest who has all but wiped out the vampire race. Just when they think the war is over a warrior priest, played by Paul Bettany, gets his niece kidnapped and must save her from a new breed of the undead.

This movie looks like it’s going to have some kick-ass fights, and I love movies where they show vampires like they should be, blood thirsty monsters who can rip people apart. Vampires don’t complain about being in love or sparkle. What a bunch of pansies.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmlo6MyhDXw

9) The Hangover 2 (May 26)

Not much is known about the story surrounding this sequel to the 2009 comedy. Mel Gibson was supposed to be in it but got kicked off. Former president Bill Clinton makes an appearance I’m told, and the entire cast is returning. As long as Todd Phillips is still directing you can be sure I’ll be ready for another night of drunken debauchery.

8) Fright Night (August 19)

A remake of the 1985 classic, Charlie is your typical teenage boy who just wants his girlfriend to give it up already. But Charlie has other problems to worry about. His next door neighbor is a vampire, he is killing people, and nobody believes him. Soon the blood sucker turns his eyes on Charlie’s girlfriend, and he’s looking to do more than pop her cherry before Charlie.
It doesn’t get any better than vampire or monster films in the 1980’s. The vampire would seduce his victim and then bite them in bed. It’s like dinner and a snack. Colin Farrell is playing the sleek vampire, and Terminator: Salvation’s Anton Yelchin is playing young Charlie. The casting and nostalgia alone is enough to get me to see this film.

7) Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22)

It’s not that I don’t think Chris Evans, a.k.a The Human Torch, will do a bad job playing Steve Rogers but I don’t think he’s the best choice. Rogers was just a skinny kid from Brooklyn during World War II until he volunteered for an experiment that turned into in the ultimate soldier and symbol of hope.

This is of course part of Marvel’s cinema world, in which it all comes together with The Avengers next summer. Hugo Weaving is a great choice to play Cap’s nemesis, and Nazi bad guy, The Red Skull. The pictures I’ve seen look good, and I love Captain America. I think I’ll hold my complete judgment on Evans until I seen a trailer.

6) Green Lantern (June 17)

Unfortunately for Mr. Reynolds I’ve seen the trailer for his film and my suspicions may be right. Ryan Reynolds is a funny guy, but no Hal Jordan. In the film Hal accepts a ring of power from a dying alien. He then joins an intergalactic space police that fights off evil in the galaxy.

I’ve been a big Green Lantern fan for years now, and the writer who made the comic so enjoyable, Geoff Johns was always on set for this film. This gives me hope, but the trailer does not. Sure the effects look cool, I think Mark Strong is perfect for Sinestro, but to rest the film on the shoulders of a guy who is known for only his comedic roles and a TV teen soap actress does not give me hope. DC is hoping to compete with Marvel in Hollywood so let’s hope this film doesn’t suck.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_axLoYlwwmU

5) X-Men: First Class (June 3)

I have always collected X-Men comics so I take their interpretations to film pretty serious. Byran Singer did an ok job, Brett Ratner needs to be shot for what he did, and I have no grudge against Gavin Hood for the Wolverine movie. Matthew Vaughn is just coming from bringing the hit comic book Kick-Ass to film, and I’d say he gives me hope for this film.

James McAvoy plays a young Charles Xavier, and along with his friend Erik Lehnsherr they are going to show the world that mutants are nothing to be feared. Along the way some stuff goes down and Erik turns into the terrorist known as Magneto. Meanwhile Xavier starts his school for gifted youngsters. Cameos include Kevin Bacon, January Jones, and Oliver Platt. Ok Fox, you got two strikes on you. Don’t make it a third. Hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorned!

4) Cowboys and Aliens (July 29)

Jon Favreau did a great job bringing Iron Man to the big screen and now Favreau has moved on to something even bigger; getting James Bond and Han Solo is the same film. Daniel Craig is a man who wakes up in the desert with no memory of who he is except that Olivia Wilde has the hots for him and Harrison Ford wants him dead. In comes the aliens to kill them and you’ve got one crazy film.

Favreau is mixing the western and sci-fi genres together for what looks like a real treat. This is great cast with a great director so I can’t wait to see what comes out of it.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH7KZD5vGBY

3) Sucker Punch (March 25)

300 and future Superman director Zach Snyder takes us into a very disturbing place; the mind of a teenage girl. Baby Doll is put into an insane asylum by her step father. She soon escapes into a world inside of her head and envisions a way of getting out. Only in her mind it looks way cooler.

Snyder has always had a very stylistic way of making a film and this one looks no different. The trailer leaves you wondering not only just what the hell is going on, but out of all these young girls if a boob is bound to pop out. With a film full of hot girls kicking ass you can be sure I’ll be there along with every other heterosexual male in America, and maybe even a few gays.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrIiYSdEe4E

2) Thor (May 6)

If you would have asked me which film I would be more excited for, Thor or Green Lantern, I would have chosen the emerald warrior no doubt. But after getting a glimpse of their trailers I’m more excited to see a film that is based on a comic book I have never seemed to get into.

Thor is the god of thunder and protector of Asgrad, but when his father, played by Anthony Hopkins, banishes him to Earth he’ll have to find a way not only back into his kindgdom, but to defeat his evil step-brother Loki, the god of mischief. Natalie Portman is our hero’s love interest in this film and our hero is Captain Kirk’s dad, Chris Hemsworth. After watching the trailer my interest is peaked. "You called down the thunder well now you got it."

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOddp-nlNvQ

1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (July 15)

One day my wife and I made a deal. She would read a stack of graphic novels and I would read the Harry Potter book series. In the end she enjoyed Joss Whedon’s run of Astonishing X-Men and I couldn’t wait for the seventh Harry Potter film to come out; damn it. In this final film it’s the showdown at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends against Voldermort and all that is evil. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine must find and destroy the remaining horcruxes if they have any chance of getting rid of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

Since the first part of this book has mainly been put into the previous film is seems that almost all that is left is the big battle at Hogwarts. I won’t spoil anything for you except to say if you cried at the end of part one you’d better bring some tissues because not everyone makes it out of the wizarding school alive. Alright, I want a nice, bloody, dirty, emotional wrenching, fight just like in the book. Now let’s get it on!

Tron: Legacy, Visually Stunning / Plot Lacking

Great sci-fi, like wine, only gets better with age. When Tron was released in 1982 it was a financial disaster. However as the years went by it started to grow on people, and now has a big enough cult following to sell out a sequel for an entire weekend at theaters all across the country.

Sam Flynn is a rebellious young man who refuses to take control of his father’s billion dollar video game company. It may be because he’s too busy pulling pranks on the board of directors, or having a huge chip on his shoulder from when his dad disappeared on him as a boy. His dad’s partner sends Sam to an old arcade where Sam is soon transported to a world he never imagined known as The Grid.

 The Grid is ruled by carbon copy of Sam’s father known as Clu, both played by Jeff Bridges. Sam must play the games and survive if he has any chance of finding his father. Along the way Sam gets help from a mysterious girl known as Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde. Quorra helps Sam find his father, who has been trapped in The Grid for decades, or thousands of cycles in computer time. The three must then find a way to stop Clu from taking his army of technological foot soldiers into the real world and bringing his idea of order to the masses. You know, I just realized a lot of good sci-fi stories are tales of boys with daddy issues. I find that peculiar.

 My decision to wait and see this film for the first time in IMAX 3-D was well worth it. Like Avatar, I couldn’t possibly get the same experience from watching it in a regular theater. The film didn’t switch to 3-D mode till Sam entered The Grid, which I found very proper. From there the light cycle battles and air combat action scenes where some of the best I’ve seen on screen. Rookie director Joseph Kosinski definitely knew what it took to wow fans that have waited over 20 years for a Tron sequel.

The bad thing, however, about waiting for a film for over 20 years is that it’ll never live up to your expectations. Tron: Legacy is a film with a simple story and characters that are unfortunately not fleshed out enough. Garrett Hedlund does a good job of playing Sam, especially in the more emotional scenes. But I felt like a few more sarcastic comments would have served the character better, and gotten the audience to care about him more. Also, as a user, Sam should have seemed more powerful in The Grid. In Tron, Kevin Flynn had the ability to make things, like a bridge to help him and his allies escape. In this film Sam just seemed no different than the programs?

The special effects crew not only did a great job of creating the virtual world, but also creating a Jeff Bridges that looked like he was still in his twenties. The close-ups even looked great, and if you think they didn’t, just chalk it up to the idea that he’s a computer clone so he’s supposed to look a little digital. The two best performances in this film I think where by Olivia Wilde as the doe-eyed Quorra, and Michael Sheen playing an underground gangster type who is a little nutty, but entertaining.

My question to whether the actual Tron character was going to be in this film was answered, but he was only on screen for nano-seconds, and not done properly. Cillian Murphy seemed to play the role of Sam’s rival in the real world, but also had less screen time than Natalie Portman in Episode III, which gave us no time to see what their possibly relationship is like. I also expected to find more actors in The Grid that where in the real world, like in Tron, but that was not the case.

 A special treat for Tron fans was that most of the film’s score sounded a lot like that of the original Tron, only an updated versions of it. Which was something the resonated in every aspect of the film. Plus the bad-ass music that was heard in the trailer actually was in the film, which rarely happens in cinema.

Through all its faults I did find this an entertaining film that is worth seeing. I think I may have to see it again, not necessarily in IMAX, but in a regular theater, just to process the story more. My belief is that all the little things they skipped in this film, like Murphy’s character and the fate of Tron, will actually be played out in another sequel, but left the story in this film a little less complete. Then again, maybe we just expect more from our movies than we did 20 years ago.

RATING:  B

Merry X-Mas

Back in the 90’s there was a group of individuals who dominated everything from video games to Saturday morning cartoons. The X-Men are the children of Stan “The Man” Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Marvel’s mighty mutants have been through everything from series cancellations, movies that never got off the ground, and movies that didn’t even look like the X-Men. God I hate Brett Ratner.

In 1991, with the help of Jim Lee’s 'cool as ice' comic run, the X-Men were everywhere.  Later, Spider-Man took center stage in the Marvel Universe, but now is the time for X-Men fans to step back into the light. Here are several reasons I’ll be celebrating X-Mas this year.

Games

X-Men the Arcade Game

The 1992 arcade smash hit is back, but you don’t have to keep paying 25 cents every 15 minutes to play. For ten bucks you can bring the childhood joy to your Xbox or PS3. Sure the game isn’t much compared to the graphics of today’s video games, but you can switch difficulty levels and team up with other mutants through online playing and defeat Magneto as part of a team. The only problem is when you fight with people on the other side of the world you tend to not work well together. In any event, it’s awesome.

X-Men Destiny

Not much is known about the upcoming game from Activision.  I’ve only seen brief teasers for it, but from what I understand you may able to become your own mutant, choose a side, and go crazy in a world full of X-Men and Sentinels. Here is a link to the website and trailer:

http://www.herohq.com/xmendestiny

Movies

X-Men: First Class

I haven’t been a big enthusiast of X-Men movies since X3 ruined the Fox franchise for me. God I hate Brett Ratner. I have small hopes for this film. However Snatch and Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is helming this project so that raises my hopes a little. Next is the casting of James McAvoy as a young Charles Xavier, Kevin Bacon as Hellfire Club leader Sebastian Shaw, and January Jones as Cyclop’s future lover, and one day Head Mistress of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Emma Frost. Also, Chuck creator Josh Schwartz and former X-Men and X2 director Bryan Singer helped write the script. I’m trying not to get excited but with a crew like that I can’t help but dream.

The Wolverine

The sequel to the 2009 film and X-Men spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, is set to start shooting in April. Hugh Jackman is already hitting the gym to buff back up for the role as the man who is the best at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice. This film is set to look at Logan’s samurai past and his time in Japan. Darren Aronofsky is directing this film after just coming out with the Golden Globe nominated film, Black Swan. Aronofsky also directed The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke and the sci-fi classic Robocop. I’m always a little biased on anything X-Men because I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, so we’ll see how a Wolverine movie holds up without Ryan Reynolds jokes.

Comics

Ultimate X

It's been months since the last issue as come out but writer Jeph Loeb is finally continuing his tale of X-Men 2000.  After the events in Ultimatum all mutants are considered outlaws so the surviving X-Men go into hiding.  Jean Grey dyes her hair black and changes her name.  But she is soon found by Wolverine's son and they begin collecting astranged mutants.  That's pretty much the last thing readers know.  I'm a big fan of Loeb so I'm curious to see where he'll take the heroes who have sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them.

Age of X

Over ten years ago Marvel gave us The Age of Apocalypse. This was an alternate reality where Charles Xavier never lived to form the X-Men and his best friend Magneto fought the good fight against the villain Apocalypse in a dystopian future. Now Marvel seems to be bringing that back, sort of.

The Age of X begins in January and is set to be a world where Xavier never formed the X-Men. I’m not sure how this is different from The Age of Apocalypse, but I love alternate reality storylines. In this world Jean is also still alive as the Phoenix and she has destroyed all of Albany, New York, Oops.

End of the Heroic Age

This year has been a good one for the X-Men.  Captain America himself got the team recognized by the president as heroes, and a new Hope has come for the dwindling mutant race.  But I’m going to leave you with a promo image I found yesterday online. This is one of several that suggest the Heroic Age may be ending sooner than expected. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to put on my ruby red sunglasses, get in my car with an Xavier school parking pass attached to the dash, and go to the comic book store. Merry X-Mas everyone! 

'The Dawn Treader' Sails As The Family Film This Holiday

There is a voyage we all must take in life. One that by the end we come out different, no longer a child, but an adult, and ready face the world as a strong individual. Of course for most of this it is a journey inward, but for the Pevensie children their metamorphosis occurs in a magical land called Narnia.

In the third installment of the Narnia series the youngest Pevensie children, Lucy and Edward, are stuck in Britain with their annoying cousin Eustace while their older siblings are in America. Edward, Lucy, and Eustace are soon swept away to the land of Narnia, where they meet up with Caspian. When we last saw Caspian he was a prince on the run, but now he is a king looking for his father’s old friends. Returning beside Caspian is the heroic rat Reepicheep, who was voiced by Eddie Izzard in the last film, but now by Simon Pegg. The young heroes must set sail on Caspian’s ship, The Dawn Treader, to stop an evil that is corrupting Narnia. This green misty menace brings out the worst in people, looking inside of you and playing on your fears and desires. Only when seven swords are laid on Aslan’s table will this great evil be destroyed forever.

This movie was about change, both on film and off. When Prince Caspian was dubbed a failure Disney bailed on making the next book in the beloved series, but 20th Century Fox was more than happy to take those reins. Next, the substitution from Izzard to Pegg as Reepicheep was awkward at first, but Pegg was more than capable of taking over. Finally, director Michael Apted took the chair from Andrew Adamson, who had directed the first two films. Apted is more known for directing television and documentaries, but I think he did a good job with this high budget, high adventure film.

In this film Lucy and Edward are both on the verge of becoming adults, which centered the film around the green mist manipulating the confused adolescents. Edward desire to become a man, and Lucy’s insecurity about not feeling as pretty as her sister drives them both to the edge. The acting in this film is par, but nothing special. However it had been a while since I read this book so I forgot where the character of Eustace went, and his relationship with Reepicheep. To me it was the most enjoyable part of the film. Most of which I will give credit to Simon Pegg and the young actor Will Poulter. I did enjoy Ben Barnes portrayal as Caspian better in this film, maybe because he dropped that silly Spanish accent.

 The 3-D experience didn’t add much to the film except when it came to the green mist slithering around the characters, whispering in their ears. But the films special effects are solid, especially the dragon. The Narnia series is also heavy into being a metaphor as Christian mythology. This really isn’t obvious until the end of the film. It was just an enjoyable, holiday, family, adventure, film.

 This film is way better than Prince Caspian, but I’d have to watch The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe again to see which one is better. Although being how this film takes place mainly on a ship at sea I did get a Pirate of the Caribbean vibe most of the time. If you’re a critic who doesn’t know how to enjoy a non-award nominee, family film, then stay away. I hope this film does well so that I we can see if Fox does The Silver Chair next or just goes straight to the Narnian apocalypse known as The Last Battle.

Rating:  B-