The Green Hornet (2011) Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg Directed by Michel Gondry Runtime 119 min. 2.5 out of 5
Irresponsible and party-it-up guy Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is living the life as the son of the well-to-do publisher of The Daily Sentinel, but when his father is found dead after a fatal bee sting, Britt’s life is changed. Since he never liked his father, he goes to the cemetery and, meaning to sabotage his dad’s memorial, he and his dad’s mechanic, Kato (Jay Chou), end up saving a couple people from being mugged. Later, Britt convinces Kato that the two of them should pose as criminals so they could get close to real criminals and bust them.
Kato agrees and Britt adopts the identity of the Green Hornet. His target is Benjamin Chudnofsky, a Russian mob boss who is trying to unite the crime families in Los Angeles. Soon the Green Hornet and Kato find themselves neck-deep in the city’s underworld.
Sometimes it takes a criminal—or one posing as one—to catch a criminal.
I don’t know, man. I was super jazzed when I found out they were making this movie because I’m a big fan of the 1960s TV show starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet and Kato. I thought, hey, imagine doing an updated version where it could be a mob story with all sorts of intense drama, action and be a kind of Sin City, you know, with Green Hornet being an antihero and all?
Instead, I got a goofball comedy out of what was supposed to be a serious idea. I blame Seth Rogen, who I usually don’t mind. He was one of the writers on this movie so obviously wrote to his strengths versus what the character was really about.
The costumes were cool, the action was fantastic, Chou’s martial arts was aces—but they got the Green Hornet wrong and took the gist of him and then did their own thing. Too bad. This really could have been a hit had they done the original series justice and then tweaked it for a modern audience.
Maybe sometime down the line they’ll do another one and do it right. In the meantime, if a straight-up, not bad superhero movie is your thing, check it out, otherwise there are other lesser-known-superhero movies I enjoyed more like The Phantom and The Rocketeer.
Ghost Rider (2007) Written by Mark Steven Johnson Directed by Mark Steven Johnson Runtime 114 min. 3 out of 5
After having made a deal with the devil to save the life of his father when he was young, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is a cursed man. When the devil’s son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), comes to Earth in search of a contract that would bring Hell to the planet, the devil makes Johnny the new Ghost Rider and tasks him with killing Blackheart. If Johnny succeeds, he can have his soul back.
Supernatural excitement and thrills ensue in this paranormal tale about a haunted man facing his own demons—both internally and externally—and what it takes to be the Ghost Rider.
There’re lots of ways of looking at this movie, everything from was it faithful to the comic to simple eye candy to story to themes to—well, you get the idea. For me, it was all right. I like Nic Cage because, well, he’s Nic Cage and usually just plays himself, it seems. Sometimes he steps outside that, but in Ghost Rider, he was Nic Cage. Ghost Rider did look amazing in this, looked real. That first transformation sequence was insane! It’s hard to sell the image of a walking, burning skeleton in leather, but they pulled it off here.
The motorcycle—trippin’. Can you imagine owning a hog like that? Know how many heads you’d turn? And if you could ride up a building like he did? Yeah, thought so.
The story’s pretty good and carries its own mythology and purpose. The elemental demons that Ghost Rider has to go up against were pretty cool and tough to beat, and the effects needed to portray them looked real. It’s amazing what Hollywood can do these days.
This movie got a lot of mixed reactions from fans. For me, it was okay. Wasn’t one of those superhero movies I could watch over and over again. At the same time, it did do its job in getting me interested in the sequel, which is on my to-check-out list, so that definitely has to count for something.
I’m a huge fan of Max West’s Sunnyville Stories, which are slice-of-life tales of anthropomorphic animals in a small town. He releases the comics issue by issue then, when he has enough, collects them into trade paperbacks. Presently, there are two trade paperbacks: Sunnyville Stories Vol. 1 and Sunnyville Stories Vol. 2. They are available both in print and eBook.
Fantastic Four (2005) Written by Michael France and Mark Frost Directed by Tim Story Runtime 106 min. 3.5 out of 5
Five people are endowed with superpowers after an accident on a space station. Four become a force for good. One becomes a force for evil. That’s pretty much it.
This is a fun movie and I liked it. It had a solid origin story, some good action, and pretty good SFX. Each character was clearly defined, even stereotypical, but that’s the Fantastic Four for you.
A lot of people griped on this movie. It was not bad. Wasn’t as “cosmic” or over-the-top as I would’ve liked, but it wasn’t a bad flick by any means. It was a great translation of comic book to screen and carried that vibe with it from beginning to end.
The invisibility effects of the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) were awesome, a sweet combination of complete I-can’t-see-you-at-all invisibility with the glass-like, transparent humanoid figure so we can see her enough to know what she’s doing.
The Human Torch (Chris Evans) looked like a man on fire, which he is, but animated enough so we can make out his actions, his costume, facial expressions and anything else we needed to in a given scene.
Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd): at some points he looked like a real-life stretchy dude, at others the CGI was very clear (i.e. that scene when he stretches his hand under the door to unlock it from the outside).
The Thing (Michael Chiklis), arguably the hardest costume because you didn’t want to run the risk of making him look like a cartoon character by going all CGI (as good as the Hulk looks even in The Avengers, there’s still an animated quality to it), but you also didn’t want bad prosthetics either. The Thing in this movie looked amazing and looked real. Well done.
Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) was fine as is, his costume something like an elaborate cosplay. I would’ve liked more detail in the cloak, some sort of pattern, but the whole how-he-got-his-armor thing was pretty cool.
What worked especially well was the dynamic of family and all the love, bickering and craziness that goes along with having one. There was real chemistry between all the main players and it added a dynamic to the team that made the whole scenario believable.
What also makes the Fantastic Four different is they’re public superheroes without secret identities, that is, though they have codenames, everyone knows who they are. While Iron Man did this, too, having a whole family who everyone knows who they are changes the game. It’s also different because, unlike Iron Man, they didn’t decide, “Hey, let’s be superheroes,” but instead it’s something that kind of happens and they discover how important it is they use their powers to help people.
For me, Fantastic Four was a good movie that I like popping into the DVD player now and then.
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) Written by Don Payne and Mark Frost Directed by Tim Story Runtime 92 min. 4 out of 5
Galactus, a giant planet-eating alien, is heading for Earth and he sends the Silver Surfer to scout things out. When the Fantastic Four meet this herald of destruction, all bets are off and it’s a race to save the planet before Galactus can consume it.
What a great follow up to 2005’s Fantastic Four. I remember when news hit that the Silver Surfer would be involved and that Galactus would be the bad guy I was beside myself with fanboy joy. And that trailer? Man, sweet stuff and totally got me stoked. Did this movie live up to the hype? Not completely, but that’s not to say it was a terrible movie. It was every bit as good as its predecessor, but more exciting thanks to the Silver Surfer zipping around on his board and the Fantastic Four trying to track him down. That scene where the Human Torch meets the Surfer and the two quickly have it out? Yeah, sweet stuff.
This flick played up all the stuff that made the first one good, which was the family dynamic of the Fantastic Four, the bitter evilness of Dr. Doom, and then upped the ante by bringing in Galactus. Unfortunately, Galactus—while just fine as a concept—failed to deliver in terms of execution as comic book fans were really hoping for the giant space man with the purple helmet instead of the big haze of cloud we got. Some would argue that a big man that’s larger than planet Earth wouldn’t translate to film and a space cloud works better, but I disagree because Galactus is an all-powerful alien, can change size and could work as is if written well.
I totally dug Laurence Fishburne as the voice of the Silver Surfer. The guy can say anything and it’ll sound cool (i.e. see his dialogue as Morpheus in The Matrix and its sequels; the words themselves are ridiculous but he makes them sound awesome).
The story arc as suggested at in this flick would’ve better been the stuff of a trilogy, starting off with the Silver Surfer’s origin, how he got involved with Galactus, even a demo of him going ahead of his master to a planet other than Earth, the destruction of that planet then going to Earth, meeting the FF, and the whole planet getting ready to fend off this literally giant threat. So I feel we got the Reader’s Digest version of such a story in this movie. It still works, but it could’ve been expanded upon.
As always, the SFX were great and they tidied up Mr. Fantastic’s stretching abilities so they weren’t as cartoony as in the first movie.
I totally would’ve been up for them to make a third movie, but with Marvel’s Phase One plan no doubt in the works at the time this flick was released, we’re basically going to get a Fantastic Four reboot at some point in the future, probably sooner rather than later.
I’ll be there because I liked these movies and am eager to see how things will progress from here and if it’ll be an all-out reboot complete with origin story, or if they’ll sort of unofficially acknowledge these movies that came before.
Elektra (2005) Written by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner Directed by Rob Bowman Runtime 97 min. 2.5 out of 5
After coming back from the dead and trained in the deadly art of Kimagure, Elektra Natchios is a killer-for-hire. Upon receiving her new contract, she goes up against a band of ninja assassins known as The Hand, who are also after the same target: a young martial arts prodigy with a potential for greatness. Elektra’s past meets her present as she seeks to protect this young prodigy while also facing demons of her own.
I was in the minority of people who liked Daredevil, in which Jennifer Garner also played Elektra. When I heard she was getting her own spin-off movie, I was really excited because, while I’m not an expert on the Elektra character, I know enough to know that a film version would be awesome. We didn’t quite get that with this flick, but that’s not to say it was utterly terrible. However, what audiences expected and what they got were different things.
Let’s see . . . I was happy that Elektra sported her famous red costume in this as opposed to the black one in Daredevil. Though technically totally impractical in real life, having her very-similar-to-comic-book-costume on screen was cool for fanboys and fangirls alike and, no, not for the reason you’d think. Just something about seeing a comic book character “as they are” on screen brings a thrill.
The fighting sequences were not bad and Hollywood’s version/perception of the martial arts is always interesting as they tend to add all sorts of legend and mystique to them as opposed to their reality.
They got the gist of the character but didn’t get hardcore into it, and it was clear this was just a way to cash in on the Daredevil movie that came out a couple years before. A solid story of Elektra’s assassin exploits—even if you want her to fight mercenaries with a similar agenda—would’ve been a great help, but this flick seemed more introspective and slower paced versus something that should’ve been geared toward the action-and-suspense genre (i.e. a high profile target, like a president or something, then have that person tie into Elektra’s mythology. Set her on the run while also giving her history and what it’s like to be someone who was supposed to be dead, some in-costume Daredevil universe cameos, and you’d have a solid story). Just ideas.
In the end, if they ever went back and rebooted the character, I’d definitely check it out as the potential is there, but wasn’t fully exploited with this outing.
Defendor (2009) Written by Peter Stebbings Directed by Peter Stebbings Runtime 101 min. 4.5 out of 5
Arthur Poppington (Woody Harrelson) has a secret: when night rises upon the city, he takes to the streets as Defendor, a lone avenger on the hunt for the ever-elusive Captain Industry. Unfortunately for Arthur, he’s mildly retarded and the line between right and wrong sometimes blurs. Though he means well, sometimes he gets in over his head, especially when his search for Captain Industry takes him into the city’s underworld of drugs, guns and prostitution.
After saving the life of prostitute and drug-addict Kat Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings), Arthur takes her in and, though at first exploited by her for money, the two eventually bond and he accomplishes one of his first objectives he had since donning the Defendor uniform: helping those who need it most.
Being a lifelong superhero fan, there are a few things, to me, that define a good superhero movie and Defendor had more than one of those things. It touched me on that very human level of seeing a sincere human being trying to make a difference regardless of what other people thought of him. Fear of man is one of the things I think holds people back from doing the right thing in real life. To at least see that attribute on the screen means a lot to me because it proves that people are still thinking about it even if it’s just in a movie.
The trailer for this flick makes it come across as more of a superhero spoof than a serious movie, and this was most definitely a serious movie. Sure, there were some funny moments, but this movie wasn’t about that, but instead was about a man who saw something wrong and did the best he could with what he knew how to do.
And he did. He showed us who Captain Industry really was: the villain that all of us have in each of our cities, the one comprised of drugs, guns and illegal sex that has ruined countless lives yet for some reason authorities refuse to do something about.
This movie makes me think of the real life superheroes that are out there, those real men and women who don guises of other personas and do what they can to help us. Lots of people mock them. Lots of people mocked Defendor, but when all is said and done, they, like Defendor, do the right thing and try to right a world full of wrongs, bring hope to those who need it, and set an example that we should all follow.
Defendor is a fantastic movie and I’m really glad Peter Stebbings went ahead and made this flick.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan Directed by Christopher Nolan Runtime 165 min. 5 out of 5
It has been eight years since the Batman took the wrap for the murder of District Attorney Harvey Dent. Eight years since the last time the Dark Knight was spotted in Gotham. The streets are safe, the police are receiving praise for doing a good job—except Commissioner James Gordon knows it’s all based on a lie. About to come clean of what really happened that fateful night, Gotham is suddenly thrown into chaos at the hands of a mastermind, muscle-loaded criminal named Bane. With the city about to fall, the Batman must return to restore order to his beloved city otherwise it will fall into the hands of a sadistic genius bent on its destruction.
To complicate matters, a mysterious female cat burglar is working out an agenda of her own and her endgame is tied into the legacy of Bruce Wayne.
Will Batman rise from the shadows to defeat evil once more, or has he had his day and should stay in the dark?
Saw the midnight screening of this gem before it hit theatres all over the world. This movie is epic on a scale that is hard to fit into a simple review, especially since I don’t want to give away any key plot points and/or spoilers.
The Dark Knight Rises picks up immediately after The Dark Knight storyline-wise, and eight years later in movie-time. Running throughout the whole flick are threads from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, plotlines that reach their ultimate climax in what I have to say is one of the best endings to a trilogy I’ve ever seen. It’s on par with, third-movie-wise, Return of the Jedi and Return of the King. All comes to a head as we’re led down a deep tunnel into who Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) truly is and what being Batman has done to him. Glimpses of his scarred psyche were hinted at in the previous two movies, but really get hit home in an emotional and powerful way throughout this final installment.
Batman himself also shines as he gets to show off his physical skill against a villain that can truly stand toe-to-toe with him, something we never saw in the previous two films. The battle with Bane (Tom Hardy) is realistic, strongly-delivered, and one where this reviewer felt the punches thrown as if they were happening to him. Yeah, it was that good of a fight.
The other Bat-flicks struggled with having two villains in the same movie. To be honest, I never thought I’d see the day where a modern superhero movie would have more than one villain and be just as good as if it had just one. Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman is the best rendition of the character I’ve seen on screen, both in movies and on TV. She had to play multiple roles given her identity as a thief and work her deception in such a way that a lot of the time we weren’t sure who’s side she was on. I’m an Anne Hathaway fan, but this movie easily contains her best career performance to date.
Bane was a crazy good villain, a kind of cross between Joker—intelligence-wise—and Ra’s Al Ghul—combat-wise—of the previous two movies. Especially since most of his face was covered with a mask throughout the whole flick, Tom Hardy had to act with his eyes in such a way as to deliver a performance as if he wasn’t wearing a mask at all. It was something he did in spades. Bane was one of those on-screen villains that you were afraid of because he’s that smart and that powerful and that sadistic.
Gary Oldman did an amazing job, as usual, as Jim Gordon, and Sir Michael Caine nailed it once again as Alfred. In fact, I’d be shocked if Sir Michael doesn’t get an Oscar nomination for his emotional portrayal of a hard-headed vigilante’s butler.
It’d be so easy to give away several key plot points in this review, but I’m keeping it vague on purpose because you simply need to see this movie for yourself. You might think you have it figured out, but you’d be wrong, my friend.
All dangling story threads from the previous two movies are resolved, the SFX did its job but the movie didn’t rely on it, and The Dark Knight Rises had one of the best movie endings in history, to me, one equal to the incredibly-satisfying ending of The Shawshank Redemption.
Hats off to director Christopher Nolan and crew for the amazing stories and respect they delivered to Bat-fans everywhere throughout the entire Dark Knight Trilogy.
Go watch this Bat-flick. You must return to Gotham. You must.
The Dark Knight (2008) Written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan Directed by Christopher Nolan Runtime 152 min. 5 out of 5
Where do we begin?
Three years ago, movie-goers wouldn’t dare touch a Batman movie. I mean, what happened? Did you get your act together and deliver us one of the best Bat-flicks ever?
Seems so.
And now you’ve done it again . . . times ten!
Batman has made a difference in Gotham. Criminals are running scared. Underworld organizations are toppling. He has indeed become the symbol he set out to be.
Now a psychotic clown-faced criminal is tearing his way through the Gotham City underworld, quickly establishing himself as the Clown Prince of Crime. His method: death, and lots of it. His motive: madness. But is he crazy? As he would say, “I’m not. No, I’m not.” And he’s right. He’s not crazy. This man—this “Joker”—is brilliant, and if he gets his way, Gotham will fall into his hands.
Unless Batman can stop him.
The Joker’s reign of terror starts in the underworld but reaches deep into Gotham’s social structure, various men strategically placed throughout the police, mayoral offices, everywhere. And they listen to him. Except for Gotham’s White Knight, Harvey Dent, the do-gooding district attorney who’s dedicated himself to cleaning up Gotham and taking down the crime syndicates that have oppressed it for so long.
Death reigns supreme in this movie. People die, and Batman is faced with the hard choice of becoming that which he hates . . . or risk losing Gotham and those he loves to this madman.
I cannot say enough good things about this movie. Going into this thing back in 2008, and despite the crazy good trailers for The Dark Knight, I wasn’t sure if Batman Begins could be beat or even tied. Batman Begins was what put serious superhero flicks back on the map in a big, big way. It was what restored the faith of us fans in DC Comics and gave us hope that they started the journey to taking down their number one competitor at the box office, Marvel. And with Superman Returns being just plain poopy, I hoped against hope they’d at least get Batman right a second time.
And they did. They so did and me and everyone in that theatre were gushing with joy that not only was The Dark Knight as good as Batman Begins, it was even better.
Christian Bale delivered another solid performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. The new suit rocked hard. Loved the detail. Though he was less buff than the previous film—why? who knows? You’d think a crime fighter would maintain a fitness regimen—he did a great job differentiating between the boring and dull playboy Bruce Wayne and the rage-filled-justice-driven Batman. My only issue was the voice. In Batman Begins, it was gruff, cool and tough. In this one, he sounded like he was growling the whole time and he had to force the words out to make them all gravelly. (And, FYI, WB, Batman’s voice doesn’t have to be like he’s talking through pebbles and sand; Kevin Conroy proved that.)
Heath Ledger’s Joker was utterly amazing. Creepy. Gothic. Funny, but not comical (like Jack Nicholson’s was). Eerie, disturbed, crazy—delicious. What I loved the most was two things: 1) the clown makeup was just that: makeup. At first I didn’t like this idea and wanted the Joker to have been a victim of an acid bath ala his comic book backstory, but after watching the movie, I see why they went this route. Bringing us to 2) Joker was a genius. It was his brilliant criminal mind that enabled him to quickly establish himself as a powerful evil force in Gotham and the makeup was his edge in doing that both in a scary-because-I’m-crazy way, but also it made others think he was merely a lunatic in turn making them drop their guard so he could move in.
Once more, I really dug Gary Oldman’s James Gordon and seeing him officially become commissioner in this was cool.
Likewise Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent and, eventually, Two-Face—hey, he did a good job on both sides of the, um, coin. My only thing with Two-Face in this flick was that I wasn’t expecting him to show up. I thought this movie would establish the Harvey Dent character in turn setting him up to become Two-Face in the next one. So, yeah, that part was a bit rushed but them’s the breaks.
I enjoyed Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes better than Katie Holmes. Maggie’s kind and cute, but can be rough and tough when she needs to. Worked well for Bruce’s childhood friend/love interest, especially when that twist came that changed Rachel’s future forever.
My only other little quibble was the whole bat-sonar thing. That was venturing into Batman Forever territory and we all know how that one turned out, but the positives of this movie more than made up for the couple of minor issues I had with it.
This movie is just tremendously good. Good fighting. Good story. Good stuff.
Daredevil (2003) Written by Mark Steven Johnson Directed by Mark Steven Johnson Runtime 103 min. 4 out of 5
An A-plus report card brings young Matt Murdock to the docks to show his father. All he ever wanted was to please his dad and, as per his father’s advice, “be a doctor, be a lawyer.” Except, stumbling upon his alcoholic, washed-up ex-boxer father as a leg-breaker, Matt takes off on his skateboard in a hurry, only to accidentally run into a truck with barrels of radioactive liquid that cause him to go blind. But all is not darkness because he also mysteriously inherits a strange “radar sense” that enables him to see in a sort of X-ray way because of his newfound ability to convert sound waves into sight.
Him and his father vow to fix their relationship and their life, promise to never give up and be fearless, and embark on a journey to perfect themselves and hit the comeback trail—Matt via the books and honing his senses and disciplining his body; his father to enter the ring once more. With Matt by his side, Jack “the devil” Murdock makes good on that promise, but a fateful night in the ring changes everything and Matt promises from then on to stick up for those who can’t defend themselves and watch out for the long shots like he and his father were.
Now, all grown-up, he’s a lawyer by day and masked crime fighter by night. His name: Daredevil.
And he’s not the only one who wants a piece of New York. Crime boss the Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) is on the rise, as is his hired goon, Bullseye (Colin Farrell). Adding to matters, Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner)—a shapely martial arts master—has her sights on Daredevil (Ben Affleck) as well, leading us into a battle for New York, for vengeance, and for those who have been a victim of crime.
For some reason a lot of people didn’t like this movie. I thought it was great. I liked the overall story; the costumes (except Bullseye’s); the atmospheric New York City; the sense of darkness Matt Murdock carried within himself; Elektra’s close relationship with her father; Foggy Nelson (Jon Favreau) and his being a “come-with” guy—very enjoyable. There was a sense of humanity about this version of Daredevil that I was able to relate to on a lot of levels.
The fight scenes were nothing short of amazing, especially that barroom brawl where Daredevil clears the room. I remember seeing that in the trailer and just being absolutely stoked.
Who cares that Kingpin was black? So what? The dude’s one of my favourite actors and it was interesting to see him play the bad guy as he’s usually the nice, innocent one, but for some reason people didn’t like the character being black in this. It doesn’t matter, folks. He did a good job.
The whole Matt Murdock-Elektra/Daredevil-Elektra relationship was well-handled, in my opinion, and I particularly enjoyed how those elements intertwined with each other throughout the film.
If I was going to criticise a few things—and while I enjoyed Daredevil’s gallivanting throughout New York—his spinning jumps and aerial movies were very similar to Spider-Man’s (who made his feature film debut the year before Daredevil came out), and some of the stuff Daredevil was able to do was pretty farfetched. I mean, I don’t care how awesome you are at acrobatic stuff or if you’re more fit than Bruce Lee on his best day, but falling face first toward a window washer’s station at lightning speed won’t get slowed down by doing a somersault in the air so you could land on your feet. You’d break your legs and die from the impact. But whatever. It’s superheroes, so I overlook most of the impossible these guys accomplish. Just goes with the understanding that superheroes can do things we can’t, whether realistic or not.
That’s really my only critique. I liked everything else. Wasn’t crazy about Bulleye’s costume. Would have liked to have seen him as more of a stealth assassin. I also don’t read Daredevil comics so I can’t tell you if this is a faithful adaptation or not. I know Daredevil’s backstory and a bit about some past adventures, but that’s about it.
I haven’t seen the director’s cut of this either, so need to get around to doing that.
Still a good movie and I’m proud to have it in my superhero movie collection.
If you like superhero flicks, you’ll like Daredevil (2003).
