Here Come the Summer Super Movies

GREEN LANTERN
ACTION/FANTASY

I am very glad DC is expanding their superheroes besides Superman and Batman. Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is an expert pilot who is reckless and aimless is chosen by Lantern Corp after Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison, Jango Fett ,StarWars2 Attack of the Clones) plane crashes on earth after wounded by an evil force called Parallax. Hal is transported to Oa for training, and he feels he is not up to the job. We all know he is and he proves himself in the end.

The movie is expensive and it shows. Some critics say it's cheesy, but I do not see it. It is entertaining as a movie as a comic adapted to the movies, though maybe not to the diehard fanboys and fangirls. Ryan Reynolds is good as Green Lantern but I don’t think Hal Jordan was reckless in the comics. Mark Strong as Sinestro is brilliant!!! He is Green Lantern’s mentor. His voice is eerie and you just know he will be a villain very soon.

Blake Lively (Gossip Girl) is hot as his love interest. DON’T jump up as soon as the credit come on!!! Stay a few minutes for a startling scene!! Some sequels get better, and I do hope this is one of them.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS
ACTION/ADVENTURE

Here we go again. Comic book fans may feel different about the film than just a movie fan. I am judging it as a movie. It is about the beginning of Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy, Wanted, King of Scotland) and Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Michael Fassbender 300, and the TV show Hex), and how and why they started the X-Men. This is an intelligent version of the X-Men franchise. It has action, but is not action packed!!

There a lot of subtitles like a foreign movies!!! The two actors are amazing especially Fassbender. He is very INTENSE!!! There is a reason he is that way. The guy kills in unique ways and as much as tolerable for a PG-13 movie. Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) is evil as can be, and January Jones as Emma Frost just as wicked, sexy as Shaw’s mutant assistant. Hank McCoy/Beast (Nicholas Houit) looks like a furry toy. Jennifer Lawrence is good as Mystique, a shape-shifter who wants to be “normal.”. She is sometimes when the shapely actress tries to be a teasing teenager.

SUPER 8
SCI/FI

In the summer of 1979 in Ohio, while teenagers make a movie, a train crashes with something inside that was not meant to get out. The flick is like “The Goonies meet Alien”!!! There is a lot of drama in the popcorn film--very rare indeed, and Elle Fanning (Dakota Fanning’s sister) is very good as Alice, whom two guys have a crush over. Glynn Truman as Dr. Woodward is important to the story and he was excellent, even if he was only in it briefly.

It is not as good as the hype, but it was good as a teen drama that turned into action science fiction flick. J.J. Abrams (Star Trek---the reboot) is a good director and he keeps you guessing, but the payoff was weak. I can see why it made money, but I can also see it drop box office after one week.