Iron Man 2

First Hit:  As a follow-up this is a good one, but there is a lack of surprise and a good simple story that makes it hard to enjoy fully.

With most blockbuster action films (Superman, Star Wars, Lethal Weapon), there is a letdown between the original and its follow-ups. For me, this let down specifically relates to the lack of wonder which is present when I see an idea and concept for the first time.

Good follow-up films either get into the characters at a deeper level to tell more involved stories, or they bring in new foes which enliven the film. Some will do a little of both. No follow-up film can ever recreate the wonder of the first except if it is really just a better overall film like the 2009 Star Trek film; which had a sense of wonder and depth to it.

When the first Star Wars film opened, I’ll never forget that initial scene when a very large space ship passed overhead creating a sense of wonder and foreboding excitement. The Star Wars series held its own because we wanted to know about the characters and what would happen to them as they moved from world to world.

A series that lasts, like Batman, generally has downs and ups with each new installment. The downs might be because either the actor playing the main part changes and the character lacks consistency. The ups might be that they have the right main character and they delve deeper into them or they add a powerful new counterpart (foil) character to test the will and fortitude.

In the initial Iron Man, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) was irreverent, funny exciting, action oriented and whimsical. Iron Man 2 didn’t deepen Stark’s character although they tried by giving him the problem that he is dying because of the Iron Man energy source. This didn’t deepen the character. They did, however, bring in Mickey Rourke playing Ivan Vanko as Stark’s main foil.

Rourke chews up the scenes he is in and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him whenever he was on the screen. Building on Ivan’s character and his father’s link to Stark’s father might have been a better story; however it wasn’t for the producer.

Therefore they brought in Scarlett Johansson playing both Natalie Rushman and Natasha Romanoff and Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury from some special government ops unit to create more complication which wasn’t required. Although the presence of both did add to the whimsical dialogue, it didn’t really add to the depth of the film. I just made it overly complicated.

Downey was OK here but the writing to make Stark narcissistic failed to get traction and sort of turned me off to the character. Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts held her ground and was solid enough in a role she carried over from the first film. Rourke was great and scene stealing. Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, Stark’s main business rival, just doesn’t have the inner darkness to make his character believable. Don Cheadle is steady and solid as Lt. Col. James Rhodes. The director, Jon Favreau, could have uncluttered the film and made it more fun by simplifying it and maybe adding some depth to Stark but he didn’t.

Overall: Although Iron Man 2 is not like the original in its sense of wonder and fun, but this film is definitely watchable even though it does lack the punch of the original.

Kick Ass

First Hit: An oddly funny and intensely dark action oriented film that is compelling to watch.

My interpretation of the previews was that this would be more comedy than anything else. I was wrong.

This film is also dark and intense. The beginning sets this tone with a young man standing on a very tall building spreading the wings of this superhero costume, the voice over has you believe the voice and person on the building are one in the same. The voice over is talking about the phenomenon as to why more people haven’t tried to become a superhero.

Meanwhile, in the street below, people are standing looking up at the young man as he spreads his wings and jumps off the building. As he speeds towards the ground the crowd gasps and is enthralled. Watching, we all expect him to turn up and either glide or fly to a landing. Instead he just continues straight down crashing head first on to a taxi. Shocking, yes but that isn’t the end of these sorts of scenes.

This film follows the journey of a self proclaimed nerdy young man named Dave "Kick Ass" Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson) attempting to find his own place in the world by becoming a super hero. Although Dave gets his ass kicked on his first outing as Kick Ass, it gets filmed on mobile phones and these exploits go viral on the internet. He becomes a hero with his own website and emails flood in asking him for his assistance.

In another parallel story, Damon Macready aka Big Daddy (played by Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Mindy aka Hit Girl (played by Chloe Moretz) are practicing their ability to kill and maim efficiently and accurately. They seize on the new wave excitement that Kick Ass is bringing and join him on one of Kick Ass’s attempts to bring justice.

However, what happens is that Big Daddy and Hit Girl (she’s 12 years old) waste the bad guys in a way that shocks Kick Ass. The real goal of Big Daddy and Hit Girl is to kill the town’s mobster and his minions because they killed Big Daddy’s wife.

It is a wild story by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and made even more intense and visual by Vaughn’s direction. It is comic book, it is outrageously violent (Tarantino like), and it is touching.

Johnson is really good as this guy who can look nerdy and cool all at the same time. The cool kids see him as nerdy and the nerdy kids see him as cool. As Kick Ass he’s perfect. Cage is his usual wild eyed, yet caring father who is a little twisted. Moretz on the other hand is amazing. She carried off the look and feel of a girl doing all the things that she does as Hit Girl. Crouching behind a foyer sculpture stand she looks frightened like a 12 year old, yet when she steps out to kill 7 men shooting at her, she is a superhero and looks it.

Overall: A very entertaining film, but there are shocks and therefore this isn’t your typical film and it is rated R for a reason.

Clash of the Titans 3D

First Hit: What a waste of time and energy.

This previously made story has finally hit its zenith of being bad.

Seeing Liam Neeson take on the role of Zeus was simply shocking. Why would he downgrade his resume with this? He did speak one fine line, “Release the Kraken” but I saw this in the previews. The same almost goes for Ralph Fiennes as Hades.

Except with Ralph there were a couple interesting moments which lasted more than one line long, but mostly it was a waste of his talent as well. Sam Worthington plays Perseus (son of Zeus) and the promise he showed in Avatar was totally absent in his role here.

I won’t go into the story here as it has been done before and the bottom line is Perseus saves the human world… ta-da (the end).

Louis Leterrier directed this mess and one would think that with the abilities of computer animation, Neeson, Fiennes, and Worthington something interesting might have been made of this remade film. But what we get is mediocre 3D (lots of shadowing), bad costuming, and ash people riding scorpions. Even the Kraken got little full face screen time.

Overall:  I’d much rather watch the 1981 version; at least I could laugh in good conscious.

From Paris With Love

First Hit: Although not an intelligent film or full of interesting plot twists, I enjoyed its silliness, self depreciating humor and suspenseful attempts.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays James Reece an attaché to the US Ambassador to France. He doubles as a special agent doing some low level work like switching license plates on vehicles of suspected individuals or by planting bugs in an office.

Reece is involved in a serious relationship with a French woman named Caroline (Kasia Smutniak). One evening he gets a call from his special agent boss who tells him he’s been promoted and will work with a partner named Charlie Wax (played by John Travolta).

He picks Wax up at the airport where he is giving the customs people a hard time about cans of energy drink. This scene is where Wax provides the audience a look at his character; bold, brash, single minded, and seriously violent. This takes Reece by surprise but as he spends time with Wax there is an understanding that Wax is clearly on a mission. 

The trail Wax is following begins with drugs and drug dealers and ends with a possible terrorist plot to kill a US delegation and involves Reece's girlfriend. Plausible? Probably not, but the fun of this film is the bold brash ways of Charlie Wax.

Travolta is funny and mostly unbelievable but this wasn’t supposed to be a real life story. Meyers is OK although he looked 18 years old in a couple scenes but in other scenes he looked more age appropriate. The story line is not plausible or really serious, almost comic book in nature but that is what made it fun to watch.

Overall: It was amusing, implausible, seriously violent, and makes fun of itself. A romp which had me laughing more than once.

Daybreakers

First Hit: It you like stupidity, or a bad story with poor acting and directing, watch this film.

I’m shocked that Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, and Sam Neill actually signed up to do this film. Maybe it is because vampires, werewolves, and zombies are “in” right now, or maybe it’s about the money; regardless I find it hard that these excellent actors made this film.

Briefly, the world is inhabited by vampires so everything is done at night. The remaining humans are either being farmed for their blood, or are being hunted for placement into the farms. However, the human blood supply is running out and this means the end of the vampires. 

Therefore Hawke (as Edward Dalton) is attempting to find a substitute. Dalton also has a conscious and has a certain regard for humans, therefore he refuses to drink human blood because each day he has to walk past his company's human being blood farm while they are being tapped for their blood.

On his way home from work one day he accidentally runs into some humans who need his help. This leads him to meeting Lionel “Elvis” Cormac (played by Dafoe) who was once a vampire and somehow turned back to being a human.

Dalton figures out how and wants to change all the vampires back to human beings. His plans don’t work very well but something else does.

Hawke looked staged in a few too many scenes, especially at the end of the film with the sun coming up and he is staring straight at it. Neill poorly plays a greedy vampire who is the head of the company which farms humans for blood and also is sponsoring Hawke's search for a substitute. Dafoe was overly dramatic as the once vampire, now human car buff. I’m not sure what the Spierig brothers were thinking when they wrote and directed this montage of bloody and messy scenes but they were successful in turning me off within the first 15 minutes of the film.

Overall: If you like your blood splattered everywhere and in unrealistic ways, or if you like your films with an unrealistic story attempting to be serious, watch this waste of celluloid.