Green Lantern

Welcome back to After the Credits. Tonight I had the pleasure of going to see Green Lantern and was pleasantly surprised to find out that "Steel" is still the worlds worst comic book movie. Green Lantern was directed by Martin Campbell, the very man who also brought us a couple of Zorro movies, a few James Bond flicks and 2010's Edge of Darkness. With a pretty decent list of titles under his belt, I only wonder one thing, how did he get roped into this ball of cheese whiz? These are my seconds after conclusion thoughts and reflections.

First off, Green Lantern is staring none other than Ryan Reynolds (Definitely, Maybe), in my opinion, one of the best up-in-coming actors who is not just a talented actor, but a skilled on screen personality. His leading lady in this movie, Carol Farris, is played by Blake Lively (hottie, Accepted), only this time she is a brunette (hotter as a blond). Following these on screen lovebirds we have a star studded cast including Tim Robbins (random Senator),Angela Bassett (random doctor), Michael Clarke Duncan (Kilowog, a Green Lantern CGI version of himself), Peter Sargaard (Robbins's son/evil doctor), and last but not least we have Mark Strong as Sinestro (one of the good guys, for now).

The movie opens up with a beginning monolog describing the history of the Green Lantern Corp. and the creation of their planet Oa (not as horribly done as many people have said). We all know the story, Hal Jordan is a fighter jet pilot and is the first human ever chosen to wear the ring and become a Green Lantern. What you might not know is that in this movie everyone seems to have either a daddy issue, a God complex or both. The basic story line goes as followed, Hal loves Carol but is afraid, becomes a Green Lantern but is afraid, wants to help out humanity but is afraid, gets a little kiss from a hot girl and all of a sudden is good to go, the end. My favorite part was the ending, not because it ended, but because he dispatched the bad guy in a pretty cool way.

In a mere hour and forty five minutes Green Lantern managed to fill itself to the brim with cheesy dialogue and an occasional comedic save from Reynolds. The CGI was pretty good, but at times it was really cartoonish, probably because of the 3D (yes I went to the 3D showing, I didn't feel like waiting an hour and a half for the next 2D showing). There are a few different versions of the Green Lantern in the comic books and the movie follows one that I forgot about. Hal Jordan uses the rings power to create objects like guns, fighter jets, and yes, a giant RC car track. This at times was a bit to digest with the "seriousness" of the script, but not horrible.

As you can see I have given Green Lantern a 2 on the Willis scale. This means I liked it, but would probably advise you to wait until Netflix or Redbox. It was entertaining and funny, the CGI wasn't the worst, but could have been better, and the effect of using the rings power was pretty cool. There is a clip about half way through the ending credits (if I could figure it out before it happened then I'm sure you could to). That will do it for this installment of After the Credits, tune (click) in next time for more movie reviewing goodness, probably Transformers 3.

Super 8

On today's After the Credits I am covering Super 8. As you can see I have given Super 8 a 3.5 on the Willis scale and I might be under cutting it. This movie is written and directed by none other than J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Fringe), the man who previously brought Lost into the world (personally one of the best TV series ever created). I personally think very highly of anything that has a "J.J. Abrams" label attached to it and only hesitated to go see Super 8 mainly based on the "Steven Spielberg" tag. After sitting through 2008's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Spielberg's reputation has been a bit tarnished and might need years more to recover. These are my seconds after conclusion thoughts and reflections.

Super 8 is full of fresh faced young up-in-coming Hollywood talent. Most of the gang is little known of except for Ella Fanning (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), little sister of The Runaways star Dakota Fanning (not to mention a much better actress).  Ella has played the younger versions of Dakota in a few movies including I Am Sam, but is branching out on her own and making a name for herself. Aside from Fanning and Kyle Chandler (King Kong) there is little to be said about the rest of the cast, many of which are making their first appearances in Super 8.

The movie starts out on a sad note as the main characters (Joel Courtney) mother is killed in an accident at her work, quickly establishing the mood for the rest of the movie. Fast forward four months where the rest of the movie takes place when school is let out for the summer and the kids are hard at work. The gang is making a zombie themed movie for a local competition and while filming one of the new scenes the train derailment takes place. A lot of mystery surrounds this small town as the U.S. Air Force steps in to clean up the mess. People go missing and all of the dogs run away, a lot of appliances and car parts are stolen and no one knows why or how, but it is up to the kids to investigate the disappearance of their friend playing by Fanning.

Through the movie there is a lot of mysticism surrounding what this creature looks like and where it came from. If I have anything bad to say about the movie it is that the reveal of the beast is brought on a little to abruptly. I have to give it to J.J. Abrams though who to create a pretty unique alien.  He didn't make a cheap knock off of an alien from another movie and just add lights and dreadlocks (Skyline). There were tons of explosions and the monster rampages through this little county town like it was nothing. All in all, the movie had an old school Goonies/ET feel and the cinematography was amazing.

Lastly, there is something I should have been doing from the start of the blog. Ironically I am one of those people who stays until the end of the credits to see if there is any clips or glimpses. This is a tradition amongst me and a few of my friends for the better part of 8 years (every movie after Constantine came out in 2005). Considering that this blog is titled "After the Credits", I should inform you if there is or isn't a clip during or at the end of the credit reel and in the case of Super 8 there is. During the credits there is a clip a couple minutes long, but nothing after the reel has ended.

What's next from Abrams? We have the Cloverfield and Star Trek sequels coming in the next few years, as well as another Mission Impossible later this year and more Fringe to look forward to. Whatever is on the horizon, it looks like J.J. Abrams is emerging as an "originator" in a city of people who seem to believe in copying the past. That will do it for this edition of After the Credits, what movie will be next? Probably The Green Lantern, please God don't make this movie suck too bad.

X-Men: First Class

Welcome back to After the Credits. This week I will be reviewing X-Men: First Class and hopefully not spoiling to much of the movie for those who are excited to see it. As you can see I have given X-Men: First Class a solid 4 on the Willis scale and I feel it has earned every point. These are my seconds after conclusion thoughts and reflections.

Fist off, this movie is directed by Matthew Vaughn, the mind that brought us both Kick-Ass and Stardust. After giving the X-Men franchise a youthful re-cast, the script was beefed up with some super mutant action. Professor X is now played by James McAvoy (Wanted), Magneto is played by Michael Fassbender (300), and rounding up the re-casts Mystique is now played by Jennifer Lawrence (Super hottie and The Beaver). The rest of the mutants are well casted, yet little is known about most of these rising young stars, except of course for Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy), all grown up and playing a blue furry monster. Lastly, we have Emma Frost played by January Jones (hottie and Mad Men) adding to the overpopulated (no complaints) amount of hot girls in little clothing.

The movie starts out with a little nostalgia, recapping the events that took place at the beginning of the first X-Men movie, we find ourselves in the Nazi camp where Erik Lehnsherr develops his powers. The story unfolds from there, introducing Kevin Bacon (Footloose) as Sebastian Shaw, the movies chief villain. There are a number of story lines that unfold and end up merging as the mutants are recruited and then trained by Xavier. The story line is well written with only a couple mistakes. There are a couple of concepts that don't quite follow what has been already established in the other four movies (I'm not going to give many of them away, if you are a fan of the franchise you will pick them up too), but all in all I think the writers did well.

At times the CGI was a bit cartoony and didn't really flow. Beasts transformation was portrayed first person, as if seeing through his eyes. Although afterwards, there was some disjointed audio and visual with the syncing of his vocals to his mouth. As far as I can tell all of the powers matched up to their respected mutants, but not all of them were really noteworthy, namely Angel. She has wings and can fly, but the fact that she can spit fire is a bit of a turn off, the effect was less than impressive as she flew across the screen spitting fire missiles at Banshee.

At this time I would like to point out my favorite mutant of the movie, Azazel. Played by the talented Jason Flemyng, Azazel is the father of X2's Nightcrawler and shares the same powers. Super agility and the ability to teleport wherever he wants makes Azazel a cunning and agile assassin. The difference however between him and his son are obvious, Azazel's smoke is red and he is a villain (Nightcrawler is a good guy and has blue smoke).

MINI SPOILER ALERT

For those who are wondering, there is no preview clip after the credits are over, but there is in my opinion the best cameo of all time in this movie. Yes, Hugh Jackman makes a 5 second appearance as Wolverine and promptly tells Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr to "Go fuck yourselves." This is the only appropriate cameo for Wolverine, who is sitting in a bar in Japan smoking a cigar. A small reminder that there is a sequel in the works from the 2009 X-Men Origins featuring the birth of Wolverine which is set to release in theaters at some point next year (2012).

My final thoughts about First Class are this: out of the 5 movies spawned from the popular comic, this one was one of the better ones. There are a couple moments and events that stray from the cohesion to the other 4 movies, but if you can forgive the changes they have made to the back stories of these characters so far, this shouldn't bother you to much too. The only real problem I had with the ending was that Professor X, now a cripple, pulls a "Superman 4" style mind erasing kiss at the end (even if its more appropriate here).