Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

After the disaster of "Spider-Man 3," which all but destroyed the hero that made superheroes box office gold, the world wasn't exactly craving more Spider-Man. "The Amazing Spider-Man" isn't the superhero movie we needed, but we got it, and it's actually a stellar installment of the myth of a man in red spandex.

To compare "The Amazing Spider-Man" with Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" is to tiptoe on a tightrope, as saying that the new one is better than the old one would be potentially putting down something that I deeply cherish. "Spider-Man" was one of the first movies I watched multiple days in a row when it first arrived on DVD, and it spurred an interest in comic books that led me to a giant box full of them in the attic (benefits of having an older brother). But then again, what makes "The Amazing Spider-Man" work is its ability to build on and improve the flaws of its predecessors.

Movie Review The Avengers

At one point, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) describes what is basically the film's premise, in which a bunch of superheroes are put into a room in order to see what happens. What he just described could also be a pitch for a new MTV reality show called "Real World: Superheroes."

At its worst, "The Avengers" is cheesy and derivative. At its best, it is fresh, funny, and exhilarating. There was never one moment in which I wasn't in some form of awe at what was occurring on screen.

Movie Review: Iron Man 2

I might've enjoyed watching the superhero genre be mercilessly mocked in "Kick-Ass," but I'm no hater. I've been anticipating "Iron Man 2" ever since the moment the first movie ended. This one comes with some minor disappointments and a few major promises. While I can certainly recommend "Iron Man 2," there isn't enough to truly give it flat out praise.

"Iron Man 2" leaves off directly where the first one left off, with weapons connoisseur Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) admitting to the media that he's Iron Man. The world has changed since then. Thanks to Stark's design, the world is now safer. For now at least. The movie catches Stark at something of a crossroads in his life: he's more successful than ever, yet the same technology that's kept him alive is now turning against him. He becomes more and more narcissistic than ever.

While Stark remains in denial that the Iron Man technology can ever be doubled, someone looks to do just that. There's Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), an even more smug version of Stark who's looking for a job in the Pentagon, and psychotic Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) who's seeking revenge on Stark for past injustice.

One thing I must hand it to director Jon Favreau for doing is putting his own comedy background into an action film. His natural eye for comedy always adds a good extra entertainment value to the "Iron Man" films. The brand of humor he incorporates here probably wouldn't be a good fit for a Batman or Spider-Man film. However, this particular story involves a character who's CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world, yet he's still willing to call a senator a jackass.

In Favreau's strength, unfortunately, lies his weakness. While he knows his way around humor, he just couldn't quite nail a lot of the action here. Strangely though, he seemed to know what he was doing in the first movie. In "Iron Man," some of the war sequences had an odd sense of realism while the scenes where Stark was just mastering his suit were sometime even quite graceful. Here, much of the action was either too silly to take seriously or too quick to ever appreciate. I call it the "Quantum of Solace" complex: a sequel to a great action film which looses hold of the great action of the original.

Take for example, the final battle. I'll do my best to spare the details. What I will say is that for a battle built up so much, in a location so tight, it turns out to be a major letdown. It's as if the whole scene, the whole plot line, was simply to end with a giant laugh.

One of the main factors that keeps "Iron Man 2" from falling apart is its superb cast. Downey is almost too perfect for the part. Only a free spirit like him could portray a free spirit like Tony Stark. But unlike the first film, "Iron Man 2" adds a level of emotional vulnerability to Stark. He's certainly not the Messiah he once thought he was. Downey manages to balance that fine line, without turning Stark into a total contradiction.

Then there are a few supporting actors truly worthy of recognition. While this film suffers from a loss of The Dude, it makes up for it with the presence of Mickey Rourke. Call it a stretch, but his performance reminded me somewhat of The Joker with more motivation. He always seemed to take such ease in being such a psychopath. While I can sometimes be annoyed by too much backstory for a villain, here it's used simply to show motivation rather than to create unnecessary sympathy.

But I digress. Rourke shows here why he's such a great actor. He is an actor who needs no direction. All he needs is a character description, and he makes it into his own (his odd relationship to his bird was all his idea). The only problem is that Rourke is given such limited screen time. Maybe with a little more freedom, and a little more time, Ivan Vanko would've been even more of a villain to remember.

Yet another scene stealer is the even better Sam Rockwell. He taps into all the anger, frustration, and even dark comedy that define his other performances (especially in "Moon"). His character differs from most other villains of superhero mythology because he doesn't achieve evil through highly advanced weapons or murder. Rather, he is so creepy because he's such an egomaniac that he will resort to literally any means to get to the top. View him as a much less intelligent version of Hans Landa.

While the cast is sprawling, one problem is that many are either underutilized, or are just plain useless. No offense at all to Gwyneth Paltrow, but her performance mainly consists of her yelling "Stop!" and "Don't!" at Tony. While Scarlett Johansson's Natalie Rushman certainly has a little more purpose than that, her role in the film would've been better in another sequel.

Again, "Iron Man 2" is a film I can recommend, but only give slight praise to. It can be hard to give a movie a passing grade for entertainment value alone, but "Iron Man 2" manages to deliver a solid two hours that never has a dull moment. Yet, with the high standard set by recent comic book films ("Spider-Man 2," "X-Men," "The Dark Knight," "Sin City"), "Iron Man 2" could've been a lot more. And with the extreme likelihood of a third film, Favreau and the "Iron Man" crew should stick to the factors that made the first film great rather than the ones that made the sequel decently mediocre.

Movie Review: Kick-Ass

Remember those people that always said that you should never be the hero? They never told you why: because you might get knifed repeatedly before being mixed up with a bazooka and some samurai swords. Thank you for that valuable lesson, "Kick-Ass."

All joking aside, "Kick-Ass" is a grand new addition to a genre of meta satire where the story becomes both satire and the subject in which it is actually satirizing (on purpose, of course).

The subject being satirized in "Kick-Ass" is a hybrid of the worlds of both comic books and movies. In order to dive into this world, "Kick-Ass" uses Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson). Dave is the archetypal comic book hero pre-transformation: he's a nerdy teenage outcast with girl troubles. Dave escapes his miserable, almost meaningless existence through an extreme comic book obsession.

Dave's obsession goes a little too far when he believes being a hero is as easy as putting on a costume, so he sets out to rid the streets of crime. Despite becoming a pop culture phenomenon, his super hero name is Kick-Ass not because he wins every fight but rather because he always seems to get beaten to a pulp.

"Kick-Ass" has what is almost two interwoven plots. The two plots serve as the two separate films "Kick-Ass" strives to be: a comic book movie, and a comic book satire. Dave's transformation into Kick-Ass serves most of the film's satirical moments. These moments serve to tell us that the great heroes such as Spider-Man, Superman, and Batman were kept flat on the page for a reason. These heroes served as fantasies for a reason. That reason is that they're not supposed to exist in reality.

There is another part of "Kick-Ass" that always remains funny, yet also tries to be like a true comic book. The film gives us the dynamic duo of the young, foul-mouthed, and very skilled Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz) and her weapon-loving father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage). Wherever they fight crime, they leave an extremely gory trail behind.

"Kick-Ass" has generated a lot of controversy for its sometimes less-than-serious look at ultra violence. To simply dismiss it as a product of violence-loving culture would be to totally miss the point. "Kick-Ass" comments on a society enamored by superheroes and explosions by in a way, becoming a very product of it as well. For example, Hit-Girl's shocking fighting techniques might produce laughter. This isn't because the act of murder is supposed to be funny but rather because these moves are all carried out by such a young child. One of the most important rules of comedy is breaking away from the expected. Then again, the often humorous view shows how little the characters understand reality.

Not all of the violence in "Kick-Ass" is pure humor. Director Matthew Vaughn has a Tarantinoesque ability to balance out over-the-top violence with much more realistic (and even dramatic) violence. Nobody gets injured and then heals instantaneously. Vaughn never neglects to remind the audience that in the end, these are just a bunch of inexperienced kids fighting people with guns.

"Kick-Ass" is supported by a flawless cast. Johnson creates a neurotic persona so awkward that it manages to rival the reputation for awkwardness created by co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse. It was nice to see Nic Cage actually acting for once, or better yet actually playing a character fine-tuned to his own personality. He's had too long of a streak playing characters abusing women while wearing a bear costume.

Of all the cast, the biggest standout was the most inexperienced actress. Moretz handled such a gutsy role with such gusto. She gave off the sort of ease and believability that only a pro could ever pull off. Despite having such a small role, Moretz turns Hit-Girl into the funniest and most memorable character of the film. She's even worthy enough of her own spinoff.

The reason that "Kick-Ass" is my favorite film so far this year is because of how courageous it truly is. In this day, it's hard to make a movie that truly feels daring, that feels as if societal norms were broken in order to make it. "Kick-Ass" is that rare film that seems like a shock that anyone ever produced it. It contains violence that is at times uncomfortably gruesome and at other times uncomfortably funny. It even uses a four-letter word that is still taboo to say.

Yet, the film is never shocking for the sake of shock value. It is shocking because it earns the right to be shocking. It's shocking because parts of it feel like the kind of story you'd hear on the local news at 11, and then later watch it become a YouTube phenomenon. It's daring in both its hardcore violence and its storytelling. Vaughn carefully balances both realism and jet pack absurdity into one film. It's stylish and ridiculous at the same time.

In a world where people can watch movies on laptops and phones, "Kick-Ass" feels like the kind of film that was made to be see in a theater. Its unique story is worthy of a variety of responses. One scene can make some happy, and others angry. It's also shot well, and contains some humor that works best in collectivized laughter. "Kick-Ass" has something to say and something to give. It's both a disturbing look at the world, and a hilarious comic book fantasy. Genius couldn't have come in a more stylish, more fascinating package.