Star Trek Into Darkness

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

Star Trek Into Darkness is the sequel to the first Star Trek movie based on the original Star Trek television series. It was directed by J.J. Abrams, whose previous work includes Super 8, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and of course the aforementioned Star Trek.

Chris Pine is Captain James T. Kirk, Spock is played by Zachary Quinto, and McCoy is played by Karl Urban, who played Black Hat in the movie Priest, and also Dredd in the 2011 version of Judge Dredd. The entire crew from the first movie in what promises to be a series of several returns to its places on the Enterprise. Simon Pegg, of Shaun of the Dead fame plays Scotty, Zoe Saldana is the beautiful Uhura, John Cho plays Sulu and Chekov is played by Anton Yelchin, who played a major role in Terminator Salvation. John Cho played in several Harold and Kumar movies, prior to becoming Sulu on Star Trek, most of which were pretty stupid, although quite popular.

The movie begins with Kirk and McCoy running from the inhabitants of a planet which they are trying to save from volcanic destruction. In violation of the Prime Directive, they risk making themselves known to the natives. Spock is actually in a volcano, with a device that will freeze it and save the planet. In spite of some difficulties, they manage to save the planet, but the natives see the Enterprise, which means that the Prime Directive actually is violated.

When they get back to Star Fleet Headquarters in San Francisco, Earth, Kirk is debriefing with Admiral Pike, played by Bruce Greenwood, a veteran actor with many credits. Greenwood's resume includes parts in Super 8, I, Robot, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Kirk glosses over the earlier events, but finds out that Spock has followed the rules and reported completely and honestly. Kirk ends up relieved of his command, and Spock is reassigned to another ship.

The scene shifts to a different Star Fleet Location, the Archives, in London, Earth. There, a Star Fleet officer, Thomas Harewood, played by Noel Clarke, is visiting a very sick child in the hospital with his wife. Clarke was on the Doctor Who series from 2005, for some fifteen episodes, as Mickey Smith, one of The Doctor's traveling companions. Anyway, the child has a debilitating illness, and is in a persistent coma. The officer and his wife are sad about their poor child, and a strange man offers them a cure in exchange for some action on the part of the officer. The strange man is a rogue Star Fleet officer named John Harrison, and is played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch plays the Necromancer in The Hobbit trilogy.

What Harewood does is carry an explosive into the archives, and then sets it off, causing a high crisis in Star Fleet. An emergency meeting of Star Fleet Command is ordered, and so Admiral Pike, who has assumed command of the Enterprise, and Kirk, now his First Officer are present. The meeting is proceeding with the highest ranking officer, Admiral Marcus, revealing some details about the man who caused the explosion in the first place. The meeting is interrupted by an attack on the meeting place, which is in a high floor of a skyscraper. The attacker flies a helicopter-like vehicle, and shoots up the place, killing several people. Needless to say, Kirk plays an important role in stopping the attack.

Admiral Marcus is played by Peter Weller, who was lead in Robocop and Robocop 2. Weller also played in the Star Trek: Enterprise television series. He survives the attack, and restores Kirk and Spock to the command of the Enterprise. Then he sends them on a secret mission to Chronos, the Klingon homeworld, to catch Harrison. The rest of the movie does depend a lot on what happens on the Klingon planet, so I can't really say any more after this point. You have to see it yourself.

Someone commented somewhere that this movie is limited in plot, seeming like just a series of events leading to the end. I think whoever said that was not a real Trekkie. The story is a retelling of at least one original episode of the TV series, with elements of at least one of the first Star Trek the Motion Picture sequels. I don't even want to name the antagonist, who by this time everybody knows. There is also a reference to someone with the middle name of Noonian which I think reaches into Next Generation territory. There are lots of references to Star Trek lore, although some are not exactly as seen originally.

Star Trek Into Darkness is a fun, action-filled and thrilling movie. It has a lot of good acting, and as I said, a lot of Star Trek history wrapped up in it. It is good and long, as I like movies to be. To me, Quinto does a really good Spock, although I wish he had more bass in his voice. Pine is adequate as Kirk, nowhere near as entertaining as William Shatner. It is tough to follow Shatner in the role of Kirk. My favorite is Urban, who really does an amazing Dr. McCoy. He nails it.

As far as the villain, I am underwhelmed by the acting of Benedict Cumberbatch. He does too much enunciating and his mouth movements seem strange as a result. Also, the Russian accent of Anton Yelchin is contrived, at best, and sometimes sounds like he is doing a French accent. I cringed a couple of times when he was speaking.

Another negative, in my opinion, was the part where Kirk was flying through the debris field in his spacesuit. It was exciting, but the amount of debris present at that location in space was not explained by events leading up to them arriving there. The Enterprise had sustained substantial damage, but there was way more stuff floating around than could have been part of the Enterprise, or of the ship it was in battle with at the time.

So, three little flaws. But overall, the movie was a good investment in terms of a ticket and the time in the theater, and the popcorn and drink. I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend seeing it to anyone with an interest in sci fi in general, and Star Trek in particular. J.J. Abrams is a talent to be admired, and rarely fails. He is so good, that he is slated to work on the Star Wars third trilogy.

I give Star Trek Into Darkness 4.5 Shurikens for a great story, really good effects, and weaving the lore of the Star Trek into a complete experience. The few flaws are the only things to keep it from being a full 5 Shurikens. I  am looking forward to future episodes in this continuity.

Iron Man 3

Rating: 4.5 Shurikens

I waited a long time for this movie. Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his role from two previous Iron Man movies and The Avengers. He plays the role of Tony Stark, the man inside the armor, with an incredible familiarity. At this point, Tony Stark IS Robert Downy, Jr. He practically owns the character. Tony Stark is the hero much more than Iron Man, much like a James Bond movie.

Gwineth Paltrow returns as Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's girlfriend and confidant, pretty much the female lead from all Iron man, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers. Don Cheadle is Colonel Rhodes, Stark's liaison with the Military, which is a big customer of Stark Industries. Rhodes is also the Goverment's own version of Iron Man, the Iron Patriot, formerly known as War Machine. Cheadle was in Iron Man 2 as the replacement for Cuba Gooding, Jr, who was Colonel Rhodes in the the first Iron Man.

A few new characters are introduced, such as The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley. This Mandarin is really not the one that was in the comic books that I used to read as a kid. In this movie, he is a terrorist leader who really has nothing to do with China, while the original comic book version of The Mandarin was a Chinese villain working for the Communists back in the days of the Cold War. I was glad that Kingsley was cast in the role, as I am a pretty big admirer of his previous works, most of which have nothing to do with comics or sci-fi.

The story begins at New Years of 2000, with a girl that Tony Stark meets at a New Year's party of 2000, in a city in Switzerland. This girl is Maya Hansen, played by Rebecca Hall, an actress with some screen experience, but not one that I have ever seen before. She is a scientist who has developed a technique for regenerating plant tissues. Tony has a bodyguard, Happy Hogan, who is played by John Favreau. Favreau is the director of the movie, and also has played Happy Hogan in the previous Iron Man movies. He also was the director of both previous Iron Man films, and also Cowboys and Aliens, and he played Foggy Nelson in Daredevil.

That same evening, Tony meets another man in the elevator, Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pearce, who was last seen in Prometheus, and starred in a few other notable movies, like The Road, the dark post-apocalyptic film from a few years back, and the 2002 version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, which he starred in. Aldrich has some ideas, and is starting a company called Advanced Idea Mechanics, AIM, which is based on a classic Marvel Comics brand, featured in several early Marvel titles like S.H.I.E.L.D. and of course the Iron Man comic book. Aldrich wants to discuss them with Tony, and Tony promises to meet with him, but Tony leaves him hanging because he is otherwise occupied with the lovely Maya.

The story jumps to the present day, when the Mandarin is in charge of a terrorist organization, and manages to hijack the television signals of the entire world to promulgate threats and warnings of terrorist attacks, based on suicide bombings. Meanwhile, Aldrich Killian appears at Stark Industries HQ, to meet with Pepper Potts, who apparently shares some history with him. He is accompanied by an employee, a very malevolent-looking character named Savin, played by James Badge Dale. Happy Hogan notices Savin, and follows him to a Chinese theater. There, he experiences a suicide bomber, but it isn't what you expect.

After Happy is injured in an explosion, Tony challenges the Mandarin on TV, and the Mandarin retaliates by destroying Tony's mansion on the coast. Tony escapes in his latest suit, but is presumed dead. Interestingly, the attack on Tony's house is coordinated by Savin, who is seen in one of the helicopters, revealing a sinister connection between Killian, AIM and the Mandarin.

Most of the movie takes place during December, right around Christmas. This is kind of odd for a movie that is released to theaters in May. I blame marketing for this. I predict that the video will be made available during the waning days of November, along with a whole bunch of new Iron Man Merchandise. Kids who watch Iron Man 3 on Christmas Morning will get to play with all of their nice new Iron Man Toys, while wearing their snappy new Iron Man PJ's. I don't object too much, because I want comic book movies to make lots of money so that they will keep being made. I buy Iron Man and Thor toys myself. But I digress...

Iron Man 3 is long, at 2 hours, 10 minutes but it never gets laborious, and manages to entertain the whole way through. The climax of the movie features a lot of action, almost to the point of excess. One of the poorest comic book movies I have ever seen was Spider Man 3. They threw everything in there at once: Sandman, Venom,

I have a few complaints, but I don't do spoilers, so I will keep them to myself, for the most part. One thing I will say is that the Mandarin character is completely wasted for this particular continuity, although it probably doesn't matter, since there will likely not be any more Iron Man movies past the next Avengers. Another thing is that the armor has become something more like the Transformers than I would like to see. This was actually evident in the first couple of movies, where the armor unfolds itself way too much for the apparent mass and volume that it fills beforehand. I basically overlook all of these factors while watching the movie, and I fully enjoyed this movie. The little nagging things don't come for a day or two afterwards.

Tony Stark is a very likable guy, and it is fun to watch him in action. A lot of this movie is about Tony Stark, and he spends a lot of time outside of his armor. Ben Kingsley is a heck of an actor, and the way he unfolds his character is quite enjoyable. Even though The Mandarin is not what you expect him to be, it is very entertaining to watch. There is quite a bit of humor in the movie, and some really good laughs at that. The humor is wound into the story, but not in such a way as to make it seem campy. This is a comic book movie after all, and the word comic once referred to humor.

I definitely recommend seeing this in the theater.The experience is way too big to wait for the first time to be on a small screen. I don't mean to disparage home theater systems, but there is a distinct advantage to seeing this in a theater. I give it 4.5 Shurikens, for action, humor and long-lasting entertainment, not quite 5 because of some of the elements of the later parts of the movie which you will have to see for yourself.

Oblivion

Rating: 3.5 Shurikens

The most interesting movie out last week was Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise as Jack Harper, a futuristic repairman of sorts who keeps a fleet of highly weaponized robotic drones working to protect the fusion power source which is converting Earth's oceans to energy.

The backstory is pretty elaborate and requires a lengthy narration at the beginning to get the audience up to speed. It goes something like, in the future, Jack Harper is a technician assigned to Tower 49. He is partnered with a beautiful red-haired woman named Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough, She is a mate and co-worker, and operates the controls of the tower while he travels around in a helicopter-like aircraft. They are tasked with keeping some drones working to protect the power source which is powering the Earth-colony on the largest Saturnian moon, Titan. The reason for this is that all of the people of Earth have left because an alien race of scavengers, called Scavs, came and blew up the moon, causing the Earth to suffer cataclysmic natural disasters and leading to the use of nuclear weapons to put the Scavs in their place.

This all happened 50 years ago, and the Scavs are leading a low-level guerrilla-style campaign trying to stop the people of Earth from obtaining energy for the colony on Titan. There are these huge power plants that are sucking up ocean water and converting it to energy via a fusion reaction. The drones that protect them are almost cute, but they pack an incredible amount of firepower. Jack has to keep these drones working, because the Scavs are always trying to shoot them down.

Now, Jack is having some dream visions, memories of a time before the Earth was devastated. There is this hauntingly beautiful girl, and you can just tell she is a past love. The Empire State Building, that really famous tall building in New York City, is a part of his visions, where obviously something happened way back when. As part of the assignment of Jack and Victoria, there is a mandatory memory wipe that is performed, ostensibly to keep valuable information from falling into the hands of the Scavs, so the audience isn't quite clear at first why he is having the visions.

Finally, there is an orbiting space station which is the control center for the last remaining humans on Earth. It is called the Tet, which I figured is short for Tetrahedron, a four-sided geometrical solid. It is cool-looking in the sky, as well as the depiction of the moon blown to pieces. The Earth is a wasteland for the most part, and there is sand and dark gravel everywhere, and ships are laying on top of it, while the top of the Empire State Building of the future is sticking right up out of the ground.

So, as the plot progresses, Jack is captured by the Scavs, who are led by Beech, played by Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman is a venerable actor, who has been in the latest series of Batman movies and has a career that goes back several decades, The Scavs are clothed much like the Jawas is Star Wars. Jack learns that they are actually human, and that everything he believes to be real and true, is actually not. They turn him loose, unharmed, and he goes back to work repairing drones and reporting back to Victoria, who in turn reports to Sally, the person at the Tet who gives them instructions.

Soon, they discover a signal beacon, and Jack goes to investigate, and finds out that it is on the top of the Empire State Building. This triggers some flashbacks for him. Soon, a NASA spacecraft crashes to Earth, and he goes to investigate, finding the suspended animation capsules of several humans. One of them turns out to be the beautiful girl in his visions, Julia, who is played by Olga Kurylenko, who was billed as a co-star as Camille in a James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

Oblivion was long at over 2 hours. The special effects were excellent, and the plot was interesting enough to maintain involvement. The in many ways resembled Star Wars,with the spacecraft chase scenes. There was plenty of action, too. So, for the money, it wasn't a terrible expense. However, to me, Tom Cruise is overexposed. He has done some good stuff in the past, like Vanilla Sky and Minority Report, and also he has been in four Mission Impossible films, with more on the way. I guess they have him in The Man from U.N.C.L.E, which beats me why they can't find anybody else for that role, but I digress. The point is, Tom Cruise plays pretty much the same role in every movie, with a different name.

A couple of other things bothered my about Oblivion, the biggest of which was the absence of any aliens in the story, after we learn that the Scavs are actually human. Also, Olga Kurylenko is very beautiful, but she has obviously had some cosmetic procedure done on her upper lip. When she lays back in the survival capsule, you can almost see the injection points where they inserted the collagen. I hate this about actresses, that they are so fine and all, but then they have their lips all puffed up to where they look almost disgusting. But again, I digress. Oh, well.

Finally, the woman who plays Victoria, Andrea Riseborough, is also very pretty, but her pupils are hecka dilated! Every scene where she has her face closeups, her pupils are like manhole covers. Either she is using some major drugs, or there are new contact lenses that make pupils look big. They say that people's pupils enlarge when they are looking at something interesting to them, so she must really, really like cameras.

So, overall, I would recommend Oblivion over any other movie out right now, but not unless you have nothing else to do. It has the advantage of being the only decent sci-fi movie out at this time. It would be okay to wait for the Blu-Ray and watch it on your home theater screen. I give it 3.5 Shurikens for action, special effects, and a positive outcome at the end.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Rating: 4 Shurikens

The story of the nerdy teen-ager bitten by a radioactive spider, who gains spider-like abilities, is now in its second big-screen incarnation. This is a complete reboot of the story, starting with a backstory of Peter Parker's childhood, and how he came to live with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The prelude shows Peter before he was orphaned, and how his father had been working on some very important scientific experiments. The actual results of the work were worth keeping secret, and a break-in at the Parker household causes his father and mother to flee.

They gather some important documents and drive to the home of Peter's Aunt May and Uncle Ben, played by Sally Fields and Martin Sheen. I am always impressed by some of the name actors that will appear in movies like this. Fields and Sheen deliver some fine acting, which helps the story long, seeing as how they are integral to the origin story as told in the 1960's comic series by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

After some tearful goodbyes, his parents leave, and are never seen again. The next thing we know, Peter, played by Andrew Garfield, is a high school student, dealing with the bullying of Flash Thompson, the quintessential bane of nerds' existences since time immemorial. Most of us nerds have fond memories of being pushed around by people of his sort, but I digress. Part of the story of Peter Parker is his reputation as a weakling and an egghead, and how he gains abilities which turn the tables on his tormentors. Garfield's biggest achievement prior to his brilliant debut as an action star was his portrayal of Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network.

This is also where we are introduced to Gwen Stacy, the original love interest from the comic books. Gwen Stacy is played by Emma Stone, who became a star in the movie Superbad, and also starred in Zombieland. Peter takes a drubbing sticking up for one of Flash's other victims, and Gwen notices him, even though he came out on the losing end of the exchange. The next time they meet is at the headquarters of Oscorp, which we will get to in a moment.

Peter finds a briefcase belonging to his father, and learns some facts about his father's research. He learns of a colleague of his father named Kurt Conners. He finds out that Dr. Conners, played by Rhys Ifans, works for Oscorp, so he pays a visit to the Oscorp building, and gains entrance through some subterfuge. Gwen is giving a tour to a bunch of interns, and Peter is among the group. Conners addresses the group of interns, and we learn he is a amputee who is trying to learn about tissue-regeneration in order to possibly regrow his right arm.

Peter decides to slip away from the group and do some investigating, and ends up in a research area where genetically-modified spiders are being used to create super-strong fibers for commercial use. Of course, this is where he gets the fateful spider bite which changes his life forever. After he discovers his new powers, and trying to figure out what has happened, he revisits Dr. Conners, and shares some of what his father had written in some notes stashed in the briefcase. Dr. Conners then becomes a human test subject of a new tissue-regenerating serum which causes him  to become a giant lizard, also known as The Lizard.

In the original story from the comic book, Peter decides to make some money from his new abilities. He decides to try professional wrestling, and decides not to pursue a criminal who robs the promoter. The robber he refuses to apprehend ends up killing his Uncle Ben. The Toby McGuire Spider-man movies followed the origin narrative a little more closely here, but in this story, he fails to stop someone robbing a store clerk. The robber runs away, and minutes later Uncle Ben is dead. Trying to apprehend the killer of his uncle, he becomes the wise-cracking web-slinging hero we all know and love.

As he discovers his new abilities, he develops his Spider-Man persona, designs his costume and web shooters and starts his career as a crime-fighter. The police instantly take a disliking to his vigilante approach, and so they try to arrest him, although without much success. Gwen takes Peter to her home for dinner, where Peter meets her father, Captain George Stacy. Captain Stacy is played by Denis Leary, who voices Diego, the saber tooth tiger in the Ice Age movies.

After dinner, Peter is on the balcony with Gwen, becoming very close in a romantic way, when Captain Stacy is called away for an emergency concerning a giant rampaging lizard. Peter jumps off the balcony and swings into action. It is interesting to note that when Peter arrived at Gwen's house, he had his backpack with him. Then, they have dinner, but he doesn't have his backpack with him. After dinner, Peter and Gwen go to the Balcony, and Peter is still without his backpack. He doesn't have it with him when he leaps from the balcony. Somewhere along the way to the lizard emergency, he pulls off his backpack and changes into his costume. I am writing this before checking to see if anyone else has noticed it, just to make sure I get proper credit.

The rest of the movie is loaded with action, although some aspects are overplayed, and some of the action scenes are jumpy and shift their camera angles much too quickly to see what is actually happening. There is a time when he is being pursued by a large number of unorganized street thugs, but in reality, street thugs would chicken out much more quickly. Otherwise, the movie is really good. It has lots of action, and lots of interaction. The love interests are well-played, and I would give high marks to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

I give this movie four Shurikens for good action, a coherent story, and some above-par acting. The casting is excellent, and the movie doesn't rely too heavily on special effects, although the web-swinging action is exhilarating. The Amazing Spider-man is great entertainment. A sequel is inevitable, probably involving The Green Goblin, so don't leave before the credits run.

The Avengers

Rating: 5 Shurikens

This is truly a great movie. It is the kind of movie that makes me wonder, “who are the people who give out Academy Awards, and why don’t the give a movie like The Avengers ‘Best Picture’?” This movie is like the most sequel of all sequels, having no less than five movies that it is sequel to: The Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Well, maybe not actually Iron Man, so four. But I digress….

Joss Whedon, a genius in his own right, directed. He is famous for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie and television series, and the Angel spinoff. He brought us the sci-fi series Firefly and the movie Serenity, based on the Firefly TV series. He created the Dollhouse TV series, and wrote Alien Resurrection and the screenplay for Toy Story, a classic and one of my all-time favorite moves.

The top-billed actor is Robert Downey, Jr., in his third movie as Iron Man. He also played Sherlock Holmes in two recent films. Iron Man 3 is being produced even now, and will probably be out in 2013. Gwyneth Paltrow returns a Pepper Potts. Chris Hemsworth returns as Thor. Chris Evans reprises his role as Captain America, having also starred as The Human Torch inboth Fantastic Four movies. He was in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as Lucas Lee and Jensen in The Losers, both comic book adaptations.

The movie begins at SHIELD headquarters, where scientists are working on a project involving a blue glowing cube of some unknown energy, under the watchful eye of Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson. He has his agent Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner, standing guard. Jackson is a versatile actor, one guy whose movies I always enjoy, such as Pulp Fiction. He played Mace Windu in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Nick Fury in the other Marvel movies, and was Octopus in The Spirit. His works are too numerous to mention. Jeremy Renner was crazy bomb squad guy in The Hurt Locker, and was also in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. 

The main villain of the movie is Loki, brilliantly portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. A relatively unknown actor before Thor, Hiddleston seems like he was born for the role. The scientist Professor Erik Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgard, is in charge of studying the cube. Most of the characters in the movie are directly from the comic books, but Professor Selvig was created for Thor, the movie. Loki appears from nowhere and takes over his mind, and mind of Hawkeye, and he uses them to capture the cube and escape from SHIELD HQ. It is kind of funny watching a nigh-omnipotent demigod riding in the back of a pickup truck, but if you don’t think about it too carefully, you will be OK.

We are introduced to SHIELD Agent Marie Hill, who is played by Cobie Smulders. I knew I recognized her, but was at a loss until I learned that she is from the TV series How I Met Your Mother. She fit right in to a dramatic role, even though her TV show is a comedy series. The series is quite funny, in fact, and better, in my opinion, than that stupid show that purports to be a comedy about nerds like myself, The Big Bang Theory. I watched a couple of episodes of that, but found it strained and not really funny, while I can sit and watch How I Met Your Mother for hours at a time. But again, I digress…

The scene shifts to Black Widow, introduced in Iron Man 2, played by Scartlett Johansen. She is tied up to a chair and being interrogated by some Eastern European mobsters when her cell phone rings. The part that follows is retty darn entertaining to say the least. She is needed to bring in Bruce Banner, the human who becomes The Incredible Hulk if angered. Edward Norton didn’t reprise his role of Bruce Banner, but they managed to get a decent replacement in Mark Rufallo. Clark Gregg returns as Agent Phil Coulson, who had a role in Thor and was seen in Iron Man and Iron Man 2.

The action is quite intense at times, and the number of heroes and villains threatens to overwhelm the audience, but somehow this does not happen. The story moves easily from one scene to another. The tensions between the characters play off nicely, and the fight scenes between the members as their team is forming are classic. The Avengers clocks in at around two hours, twenty minutes, and is full of action from the start until the very end. There are clashes between Iron Man and Thor, Thor and Hulk, and Hawkeye and Black Widow. Nick Fury gets some action and a bigger part than any previous Marvel film. The damage to New York City is epic as alien creatures in league with Loki attempt to invade Earth. SHIELD’s venerable Helicarrier is impressive, brought well up to date from its original conception in the early Marvel comics.

As for future stories, Iron Man 3 is in production, expected to be out next year. Both Thor and Captain America have their own sequels announced and should be in theaters in the next couple of years. Apparently, there is some backstory involving Hawkeye and Black Widow, which hopefully will make it into some future movie. So far, I haven’t seen any rumors about a Hulk sequel or either of Black Widow or Hawkeye spinoffs, but would not be surprised to see them in the near future. I would go see any of those, even if they sucked as bad as Ang Lee’s Hulk. An Avengers sequel is also a pretty good bet, but probably won’t be seen until 2015.

The Avengers could easily be the best movie this year. It may end up being the top grossing movie of the whole year, and is setting records at the box office in America and around the world. The essence of the original comic books is captured, and I am one who actually read those comics way back when my parents thought they would waste your mind on useless fantasy and teachers would confiscate them. One of the hallmarks of the early Marvel comics was the propensity of the heroes themselves to crack wise, as it were. The Avengers has an amazing amount of humor that does not detract at all from the seriousness of the storyline. I highly recommend seeing it, and I intend to see it a cople of more times before it gets out of the theater. I give it a full 5 Shurikens for excellent story, awesome characterizations by the actors and spectacular special effects, and also for the wisecracking humor. Go see it.

The Hunger Games

Rating: 3.5 Shurikens

What to say about The Hunger Games? I heard the movie was coming, based on a trilogy of novels, written by a woman, and aimed at a teenage audience, about a post-apocalyptic future. It seems that the central government of the country that rises from the ashes of America, after rising oceans and natural disasters, has to put a revolution down by force. The country is then named Panem, and the twelve Districts become  basically enslaved colonies of the Capital. All of the efforts of their labors are taken, and they are allowed to keep only enough to subsist. All the other resources are sent to the capital, and if there is anything left, it goes to the Districts. There was a thirteenth district, but it was reportedly eradicated as an example to the others.

The Hunger Games are staged annually, and each of the twelve Districts has to volunteer two young people between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, to fight in an arena which is based on a new and original design each year. But wait, there's more. The district that produces the winning contestant earns rewards for their entire district. But even that is not all: There can be only one winner, and all the others must die at the hands of each other. Only one can walk out alive.

The story is about one girl, Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take the place of her little sister, who just turned thirteen and had the bad luck for her name to be drawn from the names of all the teenagers in District Twelve. Katniss has a lot of experience hunting with a bow and arrows, even though it is illegal to go out into the wilderness to hunt. She has been quite successful and has a real talent with the bow, a lot like Robin Hood or Hawkeye. The books are written in the first person, essentially from the point of view of the girl herself.

This is pretty heavy stuff. I quickly obtained each book in the trilogy, and I found the first book fairly entertaining, the second book was better, but by the time I was finished with the third book, I was tired of the first-person narrative. It was hard for the author to keep the heroine involved in the complicated storylines resulting from tying up all of the loose ends created in the second book.

The movie follows the book quite closely, although some details were changed to allow a shortening of the story. Some other details were omitted completely, and of course, as with all book adaptation movies, you lose a lot of the character interactions and nuances, especially if you read the book first. In the case of The Hunger Games, it remained entertaining in spite of the abridgements. I think that the enjoyment of the movie would be enhanced by reading the book, otherwise you would have little idea what is actually going on.

Katniss is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who played Mystique in X-Men First Class, and is expected to be in the same role in the sequel due in a couple of years. She will also be in the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, which is the title of the second book. This probably means that there will be a third, since the second movie is expected next year. This particular series will be best exploited quickly, lest the readers all grow up and forget about it.

Katniss has a close friend, who is her hunting partner, named Gale Hawthorn, who is played by Liam Hemsworth. Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor in Thor and The Avengers, is the older brother of Liam. Anyway, Gale and Katniss are good friends, and you can just tell there is a spark between them. This relationship is not well-developed in the books, and even though you almost expect Katniss and Gale to go into the arena together, it isn't happening. Peeta Mellark, the Baker's son, is picked as the boy, and the obligatory love triangle is formed. Peeta is played by Josh Hutcherson, who was in Journey to the Center of the Earth alongside Brendan Fraser, and its sequel Journey 2: The Lost Island. In my opinion, the casting for Peeta was unfortunate, as Hutcherson is a little boyish-looking, and doesn't present a serious heroic appearance, but that is just My Opinion. He will return in Catching Fire, as will Liam Hemsworth.

The story unfolds as the drawing of names takes place, and soon the contestants are on a train to the Capital, where they meet one of very few winners from their own district, Haymitch Abernathy, played by Woody Harrelson. Haymitch is obligated to be the mentor of contestants from his district, and his help is important to Katniss and Peeta. When they arrive at the capital, they are assigned a wardrobe artist, Cinna, played by Lenny Kravitz, the rock musician. Seneca Crane is the leader of the team which designs the games, played by Wes Bently, a very capable villainous actor who played Blackheart in Marvel's Ghost Rider. President Snow is played by the venerable Donald Sutherland, who has numerous movies to his credit.

The outcome of the movie is highly predictable, especially if you read the books. The target audience has mostly read the books, so they are probably not surprised at all. The acting is fine, but the story is weak in places, and you can see the actors trying to appear as if they are making some kind of sense in their dialog. Part of the difference between the movie and the book is the whole first-person narrative thing. It doesn't translate as well to the screen since all through the book you are in her head the whole time, and the movie is mostly viewed from the outside in.

I wasn't too thrilled with the movie. I am happy that the woman who wrote the books has seen them really take off and make her tons of money plus being immortalized in movies. I love a capitalist success story. Other than that, I would recommend waiting for the DVD or Blu-Ray or just get it on demand. The special effects are good, but the story somewhat weak, and some of the characters are also kind of poorly acted, and even the star seems unconvinced of things which should be core values for her. I won't say any more, you have to see it for yourself. I give it 3.5 Shurikens.

John Carter

Disney reportedly spent 250 million dollars on this adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs classic, John Carter. Burroughs was the author of the original Tarzan books, which spawned numerous movies, comic books, paperbacks, a TV show, and even a Disney cartoon. John Carter was the subject of some science-fiction fantasy novels, but I remember it most from the comic book adaptation done by Marvel in the 70's. When I heard it was coming, I had to go see it.

John Carter is an entertaining story, certainly worth the amount of money Disney spent on it. Carter, played by Taylor Kitsch, is a civil war veteran who, while searching for gold, finds himself on Mars. At the time when he arrives, Mars is inhabited by several races of beings: Humanoids, very much like humans, make up two factions warring for control of the planet, while a monstrous race of twelve-foot savage creatures called Tharks eke out an existence of there own on the barren world. Not surprisingly, Mars is portrayed as a desert planet. The politics are complicated by a third race, the Thern, very human, but also somewhat supernatural and also immortal. This third race seems to enjoy fomenting conflict between the human factions, for reasons unknown.

The main romantic interest is a beautiful woman named Dejah Thoris, played by Lynn Collins, who was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine as Kayla Silverfox. Thoris has discovered some sort of energy source, which is used by the opposing human faction, the Zodanga, to cause death and destruction on her side, known as Helium. Nobody will listen to her, because she has been promised to the enemy leader as a tribute to end the war, and since Helium is mostly losing the war, her own father is willing to marry her off and surrender.

The movie begins near the end, with Carter evading someone in the rain, as he gets in touch with his lawyers and his relative, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It seems he has died and left Edgar in charge of his estate. The journal he left tells the whole story of how he was searching for gold in the Indian territories of the Old West, but the Army is truying to press him into service to help quell Indian uprisings. He refuses to join, and is jailed, but escapes, and kidnaps the Army Captain who commands the troops in the area.

While fleeing the Army, with his captive, he discovers the cave he has been looking for. Inside there is gold, but a strange being appears, and not expecting to see anyone, attacks Carter with a knife. Carter is too fast, and kills the stranger with his gun. The stranger drops a blue glowing amulet. If you haven't guessed already, this is the way he gets to Mars.

When he arrives, he discovers that he can jump really high, and is also quite strong. The difference in gravity apparently gives him quite a bit of strength relative to the natives of Mars. He meets the Tharks first, who he makes friends with, as he impresses them with his abilities. At first, he is clumsy and quite comical. Soon, he is invited into their community.

There is quite a bit of interpersonal drama between the different Tharks, which helps make the movie interesting from the beginning. Carter starts out on the right side, but his lack of understanding causes some difficulty, and he comes out on the wrong side later on. A huge dog-like creature, which is extremely fast and a pet of the Tharks, takes a liking to Carter, and turns up at different times to add some humor to the story.
Tars Tarkus is the leader of the Tharks, and is played by Willem Dafoe, who is probably best known for his role in the Spider-Man trilogy of the early 21st century, playing Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. Sola is the Thark that Carter is given to, played by Samantha Morton, who played the precog Agatha in Minority Report. Thomas Hayden Church, who played Sandman in Spiderman 3 is Tal Hajus, the next leader of the Tharks, also quite anxious to take over. The Tharks are all twelve feet tall, and have four arms, so there is a lot of computer-generated content, and the actors are not that easy to recognize.

At some point, he encounters the warring factions, as the Zodanga are attacking the forces of Helium. He gets involved in the battle, and meets Dejah Thoris for the first time. The people of Mars, which they call Barsoom, have flying ships as transportation. She falls from one, as they are battling, and Carter rescues her as she is falling.

Her father is ready to make peace by marrying her off, and she is trying to rally the troops on her side to keep fighting. Meanwhile, the Thern known as Matai Shang, has been helping in the war effort be giving the Zodangans access to a secret technology to use as a weapon. The Thern are pushing for the marriage of the Zodanga leader to Dejah Thoris, coinciding with an eclipse of Mars' 2 moons. Matai Shang is played by Mark Strong, who has been in quite a few good movies, such as Kick Ass, Green Lantern, and Sherlock Holms. Most of the time he is a villain, and he is a good one.

 John Carter has a lot of the excitement of the Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace. The Barsoomian airships are much like the speeder races, and the Tharks are quite like Jar Jar Binks, but John Carter does so much better by not making the Tharks completely ridiculous. The dog creature is aimed straight at little kids, and the rest is pure sci-fi, with the talent of a great writer of nearly a century ago.All in all, it is a great package. Long, at over 2 hours, epic, with lots of action, and even some really interesting plot twists near the end, I give it 4.5 Shurikens.