We are in full swing in the summer movie schedule and this year is no exception to having a plethora of comic book films. No one should be surprised by this. Comic movies have become all the rage in the Hollywood blockbuster hit lists. Sure, there have been plenty of movies about pulp heroes over the past few decades, but things are really ramping up. Rather than have this be an exhaustive and comprehensive list of this year’s movies compared to the ones of yore, we’ll just hit the highlights.
Priest
Priest is a movie that, on the surface, sounds like it should be interesting and worth seeing. You have a dystopian society lead by a corrupt church with super soldiers, referred to as priests, fighting against vampires. At very least the vampire angle should work toward this movie’s favor since we as a society have a fascination with the blood suckers (see the Twilight series and all the other vamp movies within the past five years). The movie is based on a successful comic book series that has a fairly strong following, from what I am told. I’ve personally read the stuff and I can say that I never will based on how bad the movie was. The movie was released in standard 2D as well as 3D and I saw it in the former. There is simply no way that the 3D experience was worth the upcharge theatres love charging. I remember laughing many times at ridiculous scenes that the director clearly wanted another emotion conveyed. I’m not saying I expected the film to be amazing in terms of story, but I like a little bit of substance to go along with the eye candy that was the violence and dessert scenery.
I understand that the movie was based on a Korean comic. I get that it had a large amount of violence for print media. Honestly though, how does this not translate to a decent movie? When you base a movie off of comics, you have the first draft of the story boards already drawn for you as well as the first draft of the script. Even if you decide to change wildly from the source material as in the case of the Batman movies, you have something to go on. With Priest, they banked on having 3D effects being the motivating force to see the film. And it really showed.
The Green Hornet
First off, The Green Hornet is the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. I physically made myself sit through it. That said, I still didn’t pay that much attention, being distracted by a moving blade of grass that was more interesting than the film. It is hard to blame the film being bad on one biggest issue unlike the Hulk movie starring Eric Bana (if that movie had a different director I think it could have been infinitely better). The dialogue, acting, and camera angles, while at times were entertaining, mostly felt like they were there just to kill time in the most boring way possible. There really isn’t much a difference between this film and other Seth Rogen films except that Rogen gave himself more dialogue and the moments of zaniness were way out of line with the feel of the film. Only good thing in the film was when Rogen’s character made fun of Cameron Diaz’s being so old. I know it was one character talking to another on film, but clearly Rogen meant every word he said about Diaz. That was the only time I felt mildly interested in the film. I’d love to continue ranting about how bad the film was, but I honestly don’t remember much about it anymore and I think I am blessed by my forgetfulness.
Thor
Thor is a movie that would not have been possible four years ago. I don’t say that because of the technology, but rather because of the climate the movie industry is in. Marvel started something they could not have possibly predicted with the success Iron Man. Iron Man was definitely not one of the best known super heroes, but he wasn’t the worst. He was somewhere between Spiderman and Daredevil in the nations mind. With the overwhelming success of the Iron Man franchise, Marvel decided now is the time to have an Avengers movie. For those of you who don’t know who the Avengers are, don’t worry because most people have no clue. Just remember the Avengers are team of superheroes and you’ll be fine. In order to have a team, you have to have characters to be part of the team. This is where Thor steps in. Along with Iron Man, Captain America (whom will have his own film later this summer), and presumably the Hulk, Thor will set out to defend mankind. Before that, we will need to have some kind of an introduction to the character, what powers he has, and understand how a god from another realm has anything to do with Earth.
The movie actually covered all the bases and was entertaining, too. I doubt that it will win any awards, but I can say that paying to see it in Real 3D or 2D would be worth it, especially at off peak pricing. IMAX 3D would be a waste as the viewer gets nothing that special. The visuals were good, the acting was good, and even the story was good. Overall, I’d say it is my comic movie choice of the year thus far.
With X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, and Captain America, to name a few, being released this summer, it is safe to say that Hollywood has caught the super hero bug. I’ll do a few more pieces this summer about these movies and some of my favorites like The Dark Knight and Red (yes, a comic book movie). Here’s to hoping the summer goes onward and mostly upward. As the man said, Excelsior!
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