Way late review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Superhero movies are all the rage. At least they were during the summer of 2011. When I saw the superhero movie lineup before the summer began, I was most interested in Captain America: The First Avenger. One, it wasn’t a remake/reboot. Two, it was set in the past, World War II. Seeing a superhero’s story told within the context of a real historical setting was different. Learning how a superhero helped make history rather than exist in his own version of a world like ours was an exciting proposition for me. Don’t get me wrong, I like the comic book superhero movies. Tim Burton’s Batman, Spiderman 1 & 2, Superman 1,2,3 are all movies that I enjoyed and each existed in its own version of reality, a comic book world. But, that’s been done and done well. Then we have films like Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, which is grittier yet still set in its own world. A darker world, sure, but still not close to the one you and I live in. There’s nothing wrong with any of these approaches. But both have been done and I was looking forward to Captain America doing something different by living in and impacting a real period of time. A superhero period piece of sorts.

Maybe my expectations were wrong and that set me up for disappointment. Captain America is a rather generic superhero movie set in WWII but ignoring much of the historical significance. Apparently Nazis and the fate of the world at stake weren’t good enough. Captain America creates a replacement for Hitler in Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), who captures a mysterious glowing cube. The cube is supernatural and leads to the transformation of Weaving from a Nazi to the ultra strong Red Skull. Think Darth Maul minus the lightsaber. Red Skull creates super weapons based on the cube’s power. These weapons don’t just kill people, they make them explode and disappear at impact. With a comic book villain and weapons from a galaxy far, far away in place, we have the creation of HYDRA. Goodbye Nazis, hello HYDRA.

Meanwhile the US knows about HYDRA and has a refugee German scientist Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) who is working on a super soldier program of his own. Dr. Erskine runs into the future Captain America, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). He discovers that the puny Rogers has attempted to join the armed forces numerous times, even going so far as to lie on his applications. Dr. Erksine decides that Rogers is the right man for his super soldier experiment. Rogers goes to training camp, shows a lot of heart but little physical prowess. Throw Rudy into WWII era basic training and you’ve got the idea. Dr. Erksine finally runs the experiment on Rogers, which transforms Rogers into a tall muscular man capable of superhuman tricks. The experiment appears to be a success and this should lead to an army of new soldiers for the US Army, but a HYDRA operative steals the special sauce and kills Dr. Erksine.

Instead of using Rogers in the fight against the Nazis, oops, HYDRA, the US government uses him as propaganda for pushing the sale of war bonds. He’s Captain America, complete with the costume and shield. That goes on for a while until Rogers takes his act on the road for the troops where he is promptly laughed off the stage. This upsets Rogers and gets him in the mood to use his powers for more than just selling government backed paper. Once he learns that his best friend, Bucky (Sebastian Stan), has gone missing behind enemy lines, he takes matters into his own hands and has Iron Man’s dad fly him to HYDRA headquarters. From there Captain America the superhero is born. We see him use his powers as he rescues a large group of soldiers, including Bucky, from Red Skull’s labyrinth.

The story goes on from there and ultimately leads to where all modern day Marvel movies lead, the birth of The Avengers. The details aren’t all that important. Some not so spectacular action sequences take place and we get to the end of the movie. WWII is ultimately rendered unimportant. What we’re left with is a solid origin story followed up by a lackluster retelling of one of the most exciting and dangerous times in (modern) world history.

While this probably makes it seem like I hated Captain America, I didn’t. I enjoyed Chris Evans’ performance throughout the film. I liked his budding relationship with Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erskine. I even enjoyed seeing how Captain America went from mere propaganda to full blown superhero. The problem became the unnecessary invention of a villain (as if Hitler wasn’t evil enough), a silly magical cube that powers unreal weapons and the wasted opportunity of WWII as a setting. The second half of the movie was only somewhat entertaining as a result and felt like it was only there to fast forward us to next summer’s big event, The Avengers. I can’t say I’m all that excited.

[xrr rating=2.5/5 label=””]

This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY6HhoHPH7Y[/youtube]

Way late review: The Tree of Life

Amusement can be had by reading reviews of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Some will tell you it’s a masterpiece while others will argue it’s pretentious garbage. Films that evoke such a reaction always peak my curiosity.

I’ve only seen one other Terrence Malick film before this, The Thin Red Line. I thought that movie had its moments and gave it 3 out of 5 stars. I also know that providing that rating just made my friend James Lorenzen punch a wall. Another Malick film, another line drawn between those who love and hate it.

The Tree of Life has no plot. I don’t care what the synopsis says. You can make the narrative be whatever you want. This is a film that has scenes from the present day, 1950’s small town Texas, outer space, and dinosaurs. That’s not even to mention the short scene where Jessica Chastain is floating above the ground in front of a tree outside her house. There is little dialogue and many whispered voice overs. In fact, the whispers must have been a known issue as the blu-ray I watched told me to crank the sound – that’s the way the filmmaker would want you to watch it.

The first forty minutes of the film includes nearly no dialogue at all. Instead of setting up a coherent story, we’re presented with beautiful images of nature, both of the present and distant past. The soundtrack is classical and moving, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was at an IMAX science film. I was waiting for Morgan Freeman to start narrating at any moment. He never did. Fortunately the Discovery channel like beginning breaks into the 1950’s setting where we see Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and start their family. It is during the next eighty minutes that I was completely enthralled by The Tree of Life.

During the middle of the film we see a young boy (Jack) grow up in a way that captures small yet memorable moments that stick with a person even as they reach adulthood. For example, there is a scene where Jack and his brother are walking across a street in town and they see a handicapped man struggle to walk to his car. They witness some criminals get thrown into a police car. These scenes are shot from the child’s point of view and it’s clear the impression on the kids has been made. Other times there are scenes where a group of boys go out and get into some mischief by throwing rocks at an abandoned building’s window or tying a frog to a small rocket and firing it into the air. There is something tugging at Jack that makes him feel guilty about this. The soundtrack changes its tone during these moments and becomes dark, a bit menacing even. These are small moments in a child’s life but seem much bigger to the child experiencing them.

Another focus of the film is Jack’s relationships with his mother (Jessica Chastain) and father (Brad Pitt) which morph in sometimes disturbing ways. Pitt is a stern father who isn’t afraid to use force to get his point across. Contrast that with the mother, who is almost childlike in her playful, care free behavior – as long as father is away. When father is home, mother is a sad shell of a woman who does her best to protect the children, though by the end of the film, the bond between Jack and his mom was portrayed in an almost unhealthy manner.

Had The Tree of Life ended at around the 1:50 mark I would have been satisfied. Yes, it was a burden for me to make it to the middle of the film, the part I adored, but some things are worth the struggle. However, the last twenty-five minutes or so were pretty brutal. It was much like the beginning of the film, except we get an attempt at some sort of resolution, which includes a grown up Jack (Sean Penn) joining his mother, father, younger brothers in a beach/heaven like setting. In between that we have images of nature once again and soaring music. Beautiful cinematography and music, but Malick had stretched my patience too far. I was eagerly waiting for the end which eventually came, though I was almost convinced it would not and I would be stuck in the ending of The Tree of Life for the rest of my life.

I can relate to both those who love and hate The Tree of Life, as I both loved and hated the film. I loved more than I hated. A strange reaction to a film, but when there is no plot, little dialogue, and lots of weird odds and ends, I guess that’s OK.

[xrr rating=3.5/5 label=””]

This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpVSKHSwOSc[/youtube]

Sticks or straw?

That is the question every wolf asks just before it’s game over for me and you. And now it’s available in a stylish t-shirt that my son insisted I design for him. Good timing, as I’m sure these will be popular gifts for the 2011 holiday season. I can definitely picture millions around the United States on black Friday flooding the Zazzle web site with requests for sticks or straw gear. Enjoy.

Sticks or straw t-shirt frontSticks or straw t-shirt back

Way late review: Hanna

Hanna is part Bourne, part modern day fairy tale. It is more interested in sights, sounds, and odd characters than intricate plot development. The narrative holds together just as long as you don’t spend too much time thinking about the details.

Straight from the movie synopsis: Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a teenager raised and trained by her father (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA operative, to become a highly skilled assassin. But when she’s sent on a deadly mission across Europe, Hanna takes to an English family and starts longing for a normal life.

The fairy tale elements of Hanna are important, as we have characters on the screen who make no sense otherwise. Take Cate Blanchett playing the role of the wicked witch…errr…Marissa, a CIA official. Then there is Marissa’s chosen henchman, Isaacs (Tom Hollander), sporting a 70’s track suit, slick backed blond hair and playing the part of the wolf. Isaacs even yells out from his car, “Run little piggy!” as he hunts down Hanna’s father. The final act of the movie is set in a run down Brothers Grimm theme park. If the veiled hints and references to a fairy tale were missed before, it’s hard to ignore by the last scenes of the movie.

Unlike modern day fairy tales told in cute animated flicks, Hanna never loses its grit or grasp of reality. Even while the Chemical Brothers soundtrack pumps noisy electronic tunes and the cinematography flashes (literally at times) with colorful action set pieces. The actors never break out of their character, which keeps the near perfect tone throughout. Those who need to be over the top (Blanchett and Hollander) are and those who need to be less so are just that (Ronan and Bana). There is never a sense of anyone ironically winking at the camera. The action is real and so are the stakes, even when the characters do seem straight out of the pages of children’s tales written long ago.

Hanna was entertaining throughout, avoiding the temptation to add unwieldy plot twists and characters (I’m looking at you Harry Potter). The tone of the film hit me just right. The experimentation within the action genre was a great success. While not a fan of sequels in general, I wouldn’t mind seeing Hanna 2.

[xrr rating=4.5/5 label=””]

This post is part of my Way late reviews. Read more reviews here.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugireeCoYyU&hd=1&t=7s[/youtube]

Way late reviews

My home projectorSince I’ve struggled to post much, I’ve decided to push myself a bit. I’ll do this by writing movie reviews and posting them here. I’m a pretty big fan of the moving pictures and watch at least a couple a week. My goal is to write a review for each flick I watch. The catch is that most of the movies I review are not new. They’re not necessarily old or classics, but they’re typically not the latest releases in the theater. Thus the name, “Way late reviews”. Creative, I know. Let’s hope the reviews are better.

And for those sticklers out there (you know who you are), I’m including several useful bits for every movie: An image of the disc (Blu-ray when available) with a link to Amazon, the first link for the movie title will be to the IMDB page, a Netflix add button and, whenever possible, a trailer for the movie. Enjoy.

Ready? Read the reviews here.

A few people I’m said to look like

For whatever reason I have a face that reminds people of either someone they know personally or of a celebrity. I’ve gotten this since I was in grade school, back when I was considered a minority and many kids thought I looked like Christopher Reeves from the Superman movies. I often took this to mean that all white people look alike. 😉

Christopher Reeve - Superman

Then, in high school, numerous people pointed out that I looked like Smashing Pumpkins’ lead singer, Billy Corgan. It was around this time that I too had my head shaved. And, yes, I also looked like a younger version of Uncle Fester.

Billy Corgan

In the last ten years or so, it seems that I remind people of Matt Damon, which is funny because my wife is a fan of his. It must be because Matt reminds her of me, right?

Matt Damon

And finally, this is me now that I’ve worked from home in my basement for two years.

Me

Throw some shades on and I’m one step closer to writing epic manifestos and living off the land, huh?

Update (May 14, 2012):

This past weekend I was told that I reminded two friends and former co-workers of Colin Morgan who played Merlin in the BBC series simply titled Merlin.

Colin Morgan

 

Quote from EC: “It’s like a fun house that’s no fun.”

Fun houseI forgot to post this earlier. My now 10 year old son made this statement at his Grandma’s house over Christmas. The house is unique in that everyone who enters seems to lose at least one personal belonging (not including one’s mind). EC made the fun house reference after EC’s uncle couldn’t find yet another item of his.

Getting USB devices to show up in VirtualBox 3.2 on Ubuntu

This is more for me than anyone else. Every so often I have to run Windows to update some (USB based) device that only works with some terrible software. That terrible software almost always only runs on Windows. My next three steps are opening VirtualBox on my computer (running Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) at the moment), launching my Windows VM, and then scratching my head trying to remember how to get USB devices to work. The USB devices are discovered, but they’re all grayed out. If this sounds familiar, here’s what you (Joshua) have to do/remember:

  1. Make sure you’re running the full VirtulBox package, not the open source edition (OSE)
  2. Open System > Administration > Users and Groups
  3. Click “Advanced Settings”
  4. Check the “Use VirtualBox virtualization solution” checkbox and click “OK”
  5. Logout and login of Ubuntu (or just restart all together)
  6. Open Virtualbox
  7. Select your VM and click the “Settings” button
  8. Click on “USB” and make sure “Enable USB Controller” and “Enable USB 2.0” are both checked
  9. Click the “Add empty filter” button and click “OK” to close the settings window
  10. Start up your VM
  11. Click Devices > USB Devices and select the devices you want to use (so they have a checkmark next to them)
  12. Enjoy the thrills of updating/using your USB device in Windows running on top of Ubuntu