A Summer of Super Heroes...

So I already wrote a post about Thor, but I haven't managed to give my two cents for the other super hero movies to come out this summer, and there have been some good ones.  To be completely honest, I have never read a comic book.  The more I see all of these movies, the more I think I ought too, but then I would be really disappointed that I missed Comic-Con in San Diego this last weekend.  That's only six hours away from Phoenix, and I am sure I would have had a good time, but somewhere between family, work, and everything else that life throws at me, I have not taken that step... ...yet.  I am getting close though, and these three movies are pushing me in that direction.

I must admit that I was really excited to see Green Lantern.  I have enjoyed the couple of movies in which I have seen Ryan Reynolds so far; although, I was disappointed with X-Men Origins: Wolverine and his role in it as Deadpool.  I don't blame him because I really think it was the script and direction that ruined that movie and especially his character, but Green Lantern felt like a good fit.  In anticipation of the film I admit that I came into possession of a Green Lantern t-shirt, and I memorized the Green Lantern oath.  In brightest day, in blackest night... I had heard that for the comic book world, Green Lantern was kind of like Star Wars.  The Green Lanterns are the Jedi, and they consist of a plethora of different alien species working together to maintain intergalactic peace.  That works for me.  Did I mention Mark Strong is in the movie???  I was happy with Green Lantern; in fact, I believe it to be the best of the comic book movies released this summer.  That's where my dilemma begins.  DC or Marvel?

This brings me to X-Men: First Class.  Even though I have never read a comic book, the franchise with which I am most familiar is X-Men.  I watched the after school cartoon series religiously as a kid.  Only a couple of years ago, before the miracle that is Netflix made instant watching so accessible, I downloaded all five seasons of that X-Men cartoon after seeing the second or third X-Men movie in order to rewatch the series.  It was as good as I had remembered, and I have just recently started watching them again with my kids on Netflix.  My problem with the Wolverine movie was that it didn't feel like an X-Men movie.  That is precisely what I liked about First Class.  Even though it involved a different group of X-Men apart from Professor X, Magneto, Beast and Mystique, it felt like an X-Men movie.  It was about social issues and fitting in which is what I always did and still do enjoy about the franchise.  Just as Professor X was able to spot "mutations" such as auburn hair in people in the film, we are all genetically a little and a lot different.  The movie's shortcomings were in the overall number of significant characters.  I am sure a true fan boy could have named each mutant easily, and this would have only served as an ultimate Easter egg hunt, but I struggled to keep track of everyone.  The lack of time to develop so many characters left me wanting.  On the plus side, it has been a while since I have seen Kevin Bacon in anything, and he added to the movie.  There were also a couple of nice cameos which I won't spoil.  All in all, X-Men: First Class comes in second place, and I ask myself, Marvel or DC?

Just last Friday, on opening night, I went to see Captain America: The First Avenger.  This is the final movie in preparation for next summer's The Avengers movie, and it leaves me questioning the upcoming blockbuster.  I just mentioned that X-Men had too many significant characters which caused it to get a little muddled since it couldn't adequately develop them all so The Avengers has taken a different approach.  There have been two Iron Man films now, and Robert Downey Jr. has more or less revived his career with them.  I had almost forgotten, but a couple of years back there was an Incredible Hulk movie starring Edward Norton.  Hulk is one of the Avengers, but will Edward Norton return and take a back seat to Downey?  This summer gave us Thor with Jeremy Renner showing up in a small cameo as Hawkeye.  I guess Hawkeye doesn't get his own movie?  Last but not least, there is Captain America.  So most of the Avengers have had their own movie, and we have been introduced to each of them adequately, but when combined together into one grand super hero sandwich, will it actually work?

I guess I will have to wait and see next summer so in the meantime I will get back to Captain America.  It was a hokey WWII/Nazi movie, and I think that was its charm.  I read a tweet from Ryan Scott, a video game journalist, who compared it to the Rocketeer which makes sense because it was the same director.  It had a nice throwback feel, and I can only guess that Hugo Weaving used Arnold Schwarzenegger as inspiration for his accent in the film which I found amusing.  Somehow it missed its mark though.  I don't think Chris Evans as Captain America carried the movie well enough to place it in the same league as or even near Iron Man.  When the dust settles, it was just a bit underwhelming.  I feel the same way about Chris Hemsworth's role as Thor.  Both were entertaining popcorn movies, but how will these characters unite as one super hero super force?  My only wish is that they won't suffer from Spider-Man 3 or Batman and Robin syndrome.  To sum everything up, it has been a fantastic summer for super hero movies, and I am that much closer to going into a comic book store to pick up some comic books to read.  It's too bad that with Chris Nolan directing The Dark Knight Rises next summer my chances of siding with Marvel are looking pretty slim if/when I do take the plunge.