One of the most successful adaptations from book to film is finally completed. Back in 2001, audiences were introduced to a small, unassuming child who lived with cruel family and called the cupboard under the stairs his room. Though Harry Potter had already been out in book form, the movie woke American audiences to the wizard world of J.K. Rowling, and her wonderful protagonist, The Boy Who Lived. As you may recall, I enjoyed the first part of the finale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I but felt the movie would suffer some unfair criticism for feeling incomplete. It does feel that way, but honestly it fits perfectly with Part II. While I felt the first part is a bit unbalanced in terms of where it leaves the story off, it is harmoniously completed by the last film.

Voldemort has the Elder Wand. Dobby saved the characters but at the cost of his life. Snape has a stranglehold on the students as Headmaster of Hogwarts. Only a few Horcruxes remain, pieces of Voldemort’s soul that can be destroyed and leave He Who Shall Not Be Named vulnerable. The movie begins moments after the end of the previous installment, as Harry has just buried Dobby. As the movie was not striving to make the final film two movies, there aren’t a lot of wasted explanations, like “Oh, right remember that earlier we…” or treated the audience like they didn’t remember what happened moments before in Part I. The movie starts right off, getting the next Horcrux within 30 minutes of the movie starting. There will be some Harry Potter purists who will find flaws in the changes made in the movie from the story, most notably between the fight between Harry and Voldemort and what happens to the Elder Wand, but they are inconsequential to the story overall, and are forgivable, especially considering how well the rest of the movie is handled.

The best thing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II gives the audience is heart. After the fourth story, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there are few moments when the reader (or audience) feel a strong connection to the characters, or feel how much could be lost if they fail. While Part I helps alleviate some of those attitudes, Part II solidifies them, ending the series with the optimism and heart that made us fall in love with the story from the first time we picked up (or watched) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. There is hardly any levity or moments of humor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, because the heroes (and audience) know the clock is ticking to the end. The producers could have easily tweaked a few scenes or wrote in some moments where the characters share a laugh or give us something goofy. They were smart to keep the movie focused. The goal is the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, and although there are a few times where the characters aren’t destroying Horcruxes or battling Death Eaters, the focus remains on the mission at hand. Otherwise, the monumental task of defeating the Dark Wizards would not feel as daunting and seemingly impossible.

One of the strongest parts of the movie is how the simultaneous moments of the story are edited and share screen time. It can be easy for a storyteller to focus on one part of the action and forget to show the audience what the other characters are up to at the same time, even when it’s paramount to the events onscreen. Between looking for a Horcrux at Hogwarts, trying to figure out how to destroy it once they get it, and the students and faculty preparing the grounds for an attack from Voldemort and his Death Eaters, there’s quite a bit happening at once; we see enough of some of the non-essential moments to prepare us for an upcoming event, and the focus goes back to the big picture so we can follow how the moments will come together. Harry’s search is the most important event, but as important is how the Horcrux will be destroyed. Between these moments we see the teachers at Hogwarts readying the school for an attack, and it all seems harmonious. The movie really hits it’s stride in telling the story in a non-linear way, especially concerning Snape and the reveal of his motives. With few words on-screen, Alan Rickman gives a chilling and heartbreaking performance as the turncoat Severus Snape. I’m at a loss for trying to think of someone recently who’s done such a good job in a film role with few interactions with the main characters.

There is not much to be said about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, and that’s exactly why the movie is the perfect ending to the series; the movie speaks for itself. Some will take with them a story about a boy who overcomes great trials and proves to himself what loyalty and hope are all about; others will simply be entertained by the fantastic action sequences, with wizards using every spell in the proverbial book to battle each other. There will be a lot of people feeling tears come as the screen fades to black for the final Harry Potter film, and that’s a good thing. In a world where movies are scrutinized and analyzed beyond belief, it can be easy to overlook what we as the audience take with us from them. Everyone likes being entertained, and most movies can on some level entertain, but the movies and series’ that inspire people and leave them feeling a bit better about our world is truly magical.

Fanboyz Grade: A

Bay shows his best in his third and final Transformers film

There’s been a lot of anticipation for the newest Transformers movie, Transformers: Dark of the Moon. And while many have knocked the previous movies for their spectacle and typically convoluted story lines, both filmmakers and stars have been reassuring people this one was going to be the best foot forward the series could put out. Director Michael Bay has a formula: Time dedicated to explosions/number of well-lit Victoria Secret-esque + plot twists = well done movie. Anyone who’s seen Bad Boys or Armageddon will tell you it’s true. A lot has been said about the length of the movie, the recasting of the female lead, and what things he’d include or not include for the new movie. When all is said and done, Michael Bay took the parts form the first and second Transformers movies that work best, not perfect, and send off the trilogy with a big, big epic robot slugfest.

The story goes that as the battle on Cyberton raged, a technology that would have allowed the good Autobots to defeat the evil Decepticons was lost. Crashing on the Moon, Kennedy sent NASA in motion to go to the Moon and report what they detected on the surface. The Soviets also found some of the wreckage, and as they tested it, caused an accident (see Chernobyl). Locking away the secrets, the Autobots were left in the dark by the US government. Hidden in the crashed ship was the Autobot leader, Sentinel Prime. Optimus and crew go to the Moon and bring him back to life to find out what the Decepticons might be up to. Our human character, Sam (Shia LeBeouf), is living in Washington, D.C. with the impossibly attractive Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). She works for a ridiculously wealthy man (Patrick Dempsey) who Sam is increasingly going jealous of. Eventually Sam is drawn into the Decepticon plot, fighting for not only his and Carly’s lives, but for everyone on planet Earth.

The action in the movie is what people will walk into the theater for, and leave talking about. No one goes to Thanksgiving dinner exciting for the dressing; they’re there for the turkey. The 3D looks great, it doesn’t get in the way of the action. There’s a few times where all the motion gets a little nuts, but that’s a cinematography move, not a 3D issue. The first movie had a lot of choppy, blurry fast action, but this one slows down and focuses on the battle. We see a flying Optimus Prime shooting at a giant Decepticon cutting a building (with our heros in it) in half. Being 2 1/2 hours long, the first 1 1/2 hours have some pacing and editing problems (cuts to black, that feel like we’re supposed to be getting teased but become frustrating), but the last hour is straight up action. It’s a giant set piece, arguably one of the biggest action scenes to date.

I get that the filmmakers think we need a lot of human characters and storyline so that we “relate” to the situation, but all the plot points in the movie grow tiresome. It’s really funny to see Sam’s continual flaunting of winning a Presidential medal from the Commander-in-Chief (I would be the same) but in the movie he grows too whinny. In the first movie, Sam’s a kid who’s living a normal, sad teenage life, when all of the sudden giant robots from outer space come into his life. He throws himself into the action in the first movie, but in the second decides he wants to settle in a normal life. Going off to college and saying “This isn’t my war” is his mentality. The third movie, Sam wants to be the hero, the guy who’s saved Earth multiple times, but no one will even give him a job. A few times, he acts like no one appreciates him. Which is true, but the entitlement mentality goes weary. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is a great addition to the cast, not just in appearance but in acting talent as well. She doesn’t get many opportunities to shine, but she’s leaps and bounds better than Megan Fox. A slew of supporting human characters are thrown in, including Ken Jeong, John Malkovich, Alan Tudyk, and Frances McDormand. McDormand and Tudyk are the best, bringing both a few laughs and some substantial aid for the characters.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the Transformers movie I was hoping to get from the series. It has a pretty cool story, though choppy and overly-twisted, but it knows it’s secondary to the giant scale of action we get on the screen. There’s dozens of robots fighting, humans doing their part, and our hero trying to save his love. The movie is sometimes held back (Sam’s attitude to just about everyone) and sometimes moving forward really fast (hey, that guy is actually helping the Decepticons?!) but both problems are balanced by some serious robot pain slugged out in breathtaking 3D. Knock Michael Bay for not making Transformers a work akin to Shakespeare all you want, that’s not what he does. What he does is make big movies, and there are few, if any, bigger than Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Fanboyz Grade: B-

A movie based on the Green Lantern franchise has long been overdue. With huge comic book adaptation success in the past decade, both Marvel and DC Comics stories have been brought to the big screen. Some have soared while others have floundered. For every Spider-Man 2, there’s a Hulk. For every The Dark Knight, a Superman Returns. Ryan Reynolds, one of Hollywood’s hottest commodities right now, has a lot ridding on the success of Green Lantern. In fact, there’s a chance Green Lantern might alter what comic book movies are green-lit in the future. So, does Green Lantern burn bright, or does it get buried in the blackest of nights?

Green Lantern tells the story of the first human Lantern Corps member, Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). A kid haunted by the memory of watching his father’s aviation accident death, he lives life on the edge, always pushing himself and his aircraft to the limit. He’s a pilot for his childhood friend’s company, Ferris Aircraft. There, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) and her father are trying to get a military contract for an unmanned vehicle. Dog fighting the machines, Hal is reckless. He ends up disappointing everyone and not sure if his life is on the right path. Across the universe, our sector’s Lantern Abin Sur is mortally wounded by the evil entity Parallax. Abin Sur’s ring seeks out its replacement, which brings Hal to the dying alien’s side. From there, Hal learns about the Green Lantern Corps, the Guardians of the Universe, Sinestro and his destiny to protect the galaxy. It’s a huge mythology, spanning decades in comics and chopped down and reshaped to fit into a movie.

I would love to say Green Lantern is a fantastic movie. It isn’t. I’d love to say the story is well paced, and the script is tight and great. Neither is correct. First, the movie has a serious pacing problem. It starts right out with rapid-fire narration, giving the audience a crash course in Lantern history. Even I, a novice but somewhat knowledgeable comic reader, had a hard time keeping up with all that is explained. We jump into some action, then pull back to Earth and Hal Jordan, the charming pilot. Throughout the movie, we see majestic realms like Oa share time with boring old Earth. Every movie, especially an origin story, will have to balance action with story and character development, but I feel like audiences will come for the out of this world experience of the Green Lanterns, and end up realizing much of the movie was spent building up characters like Hal and Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) with little to no significance. I for one didn’t know Hal Jordan had brothers and a nephew, but the several minutes the movie spends on them do not pay off. Parts of the movie that are truly entertaining, like Hal’s training on Oa, would have been much more entertaining had they spent more time dwelling on them. The other pacing problem the movie has is how much of the film is spent on Hector Hammond. What I feel we should have got was a man infected with Parallax who seeks out the Green Lanterns to wipe them out, and instead we are treated to a geeky scientist whose daddy issues and inferiority complex make him out to be more pathetic then threatening. It may be that’s how it is in the comics, but it didn’t work for the movie.

One of the better points of the movie were the Lanterns themselves and what they can do. Lanterns like Tomar-Re (Geoffrey Rush) and Kilowog (Michael Clarke Duncan) are shortly on-screen but still good. Mark Strong does a brilliant job as Sinestro, one that makes me direly want a sequel that focuses more on him. As fans of the story know, Sinestro becomes a Yellow Lantern, the founder of the Sinestro Corps and prime enemy of Hal. We do see those seeds planted in the movie, enough to make a fanboy smile while having to sit through the frustrating pains of the film. One of the biggest challenges that I felt the movie handled well were the constructs. Having a ring that allows you to create anything you imagine is a powerful weapon. These constructs range from anything as simple as a sword, to a giant gun and even a Hot Wheels racetrack. Part of what makes Green Lantern fun is the creative things the ring can do. Just like with the other Lanterns, the problem with the constructs is a lack of screen time. We see a few cool ones, but we could have done for more of them.

I wish I could have enjoyed Green Lantern as much as I loved X-Men: First Class. Unfortunately, it’s another comic book movie dud. I do hope it makes enough at the box office for another movie or two to get made, I think the filmmakers can learn from the mistakes and right the course of Green Lantern. I’d much rather see that than a reboot a few years from now. A second Green Lantern film could focus much more on Sinestro, and even maybe introduce some of the other Corps or human Lanterns. Regardless, this movie was a letdown, leaving me happy to see some things happen in the movie but ultimately left wanting more.

Fanboyz Grade: C -

Growing up, my best friend and I used to be amateur filmmakers, shooting black and white horror movies, that in our eyes, were cinema at its very best. We had a video camera that would plug directly into the VCR (I am dating myself here) that obviously limited how far we could go in terms of “location” filming. These were some of the most memorable times of my childhood, and now as I sit here and type this, I have an inkling to go find that toy camera and relive those days.

Watching Super 8 was like a throwback to my childhood. Before we had the Internet, X-Box, and Netflix, we would actually make our own entertainment. I’m thinking writer/director J.J Abrams must have lived a similar childhood. Abrams continues his streak as a visionary filmmaker with Super 8, a film which is most enjoyable when you know as few of details as possible. So with that in mind, I intend to keep this review completely spoiler free.

Taking place in a small industrial Ohio town, the film is set in the summer of 1979, and follows a group of five friends who are passionately working on a horror film to submit to an amateur film festival. One night, the group of friends go on location to shoot at a train station. The production is all set to go, and as the boys film their scene, a train passes through and derails off the tracks, resulting in a fiery, explosive crash, that is one of the most intense sequences I have ever witnessed.

The kids investigate the scene, but quickly flee before they are noticed. The events following the devastating train crash are a mystery to the small Ohio town. Joe (Joel Courtney) is the the son of the town’s deputy, played by Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights.) Joe is in charge of makeup and special effects for the horror film that his best friend Charles (Riley Griffiths) is directing. The boys are able to cast Alice, a female classmate played by Elle Fanning, whom Joe immediately takes a liking to. The relationships between the characters in this film are what drive it. After watching two hours of Joe, Charles, Alice, and Jack, you become instantly drawn into this as more than just a film. These characters are all a part of who he have been at sometime in our life. Not only is Abrams masterful at big screen special effects, but he is clearly a capable director of filming relationships, dialogue, and ultimately brings out the depth in his characters.

What follows the massive train crash is a series of mysterious happenings in this small blue collar town. Animals have fled to neighboring cities, electricity seems to come and go, and the military has arrived to investigate and clean up the crash site. Nobody knows exactly what happened the night of the accident, except the kids who were filming there that eventful evening.

The curiosity of these kids will remind audiences of classic movies like The Goonies and E.T. The comparisons are rightfully so, and Super 8 has earned its place as a modern day throwback to these films. Watching J.J Abrams tell this story is reminiscent of the direction of Steven Spielberg (who is actually an executive producer on the film.) Directing outstanding performances from child actors is a feat in itself, and Abrams has the best of the best here. The film also works tremendously well being set in the 1970′s. The film would not have had the same sense of wonder, awe, and authenticity, if it had been set in modern day, with modern technology. The film is an ode to simpler times, where childhood was an adventure. Watching Super 8 I frequently had a big smile on my face, as this film genuinely made me realize why I enjoy going to the movies.

With a summer filled with comic book adaptations, sequels, and major studio blockbusters, a movie like Super 8 is exactly the reminder Hollywood needs: audiences do still enjoy original film.

Fanboyz Grade: A

Young Erik watched painfully as he was separated from his parents in Nazi-controlled Poland, 1944. A child named Charles sneaks out of his bedroom to find a woman, claiming to be his mother, in the kitchen. Erik is taken into a room, where a man named Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) tells Erik the abilities he has are a manner of genetic mutation, and tells him his mother will die if he doesn’t manage to simply move a coin on the desk in front of him. Charles psychically can tell the person in front of him isn’t his mother, and watches as she mutates to her blue, scaly form. Erik watches as Shaw murders his mother, and in a fit of rage, virtually destroys everything in the room made of metal. These two boys, Erik and Charles, are destined to come together, seek out other mutants like them, and eventually be locked in an eternal struggle for good and evil.

James McAvoy, known most recently for his starring role in the action flick Wanted, nails the character of Charles Xavier. He’s quickly dedicated to protecting life for both homo sapiens and homo superiors. Idealistic, he serves as a perfect balance to Erik. We think of Xavier bald and in a wheelchair, but this is before the characters we know. We see how they operate, what makes them tick, and what sets them on the path of good or evil. Charles is perfectly crafted by James McAvoy, filling the young shoes famously filled by Patrick Stewart.

The movie closely follows the mission of Erik Lensherr. Watching the original X-Men trilogy, it appears Magneto is a villain. This movie sets another, more sympathetic role. He’s less of an evil monster, and more of a heartbreaking antihero. While I watched as he hunted down Nazi supporters who knew Shaw, I wasn’t disturbed by the justice he dealt. Maybe it’s because we know Nazis are bad, and Michael Fassbender has a history dispatching Nazis, but Xavier wouldn’t support his actions. Magneto’s power is strongly connected to his emotions, and in moments of rage or heartbreak, his power is maximized. Charles tells Erik he thinks there’s a balance between the emotions that will help Erik control his power, and Xavier delves into a memory Erik shared with his mother before the camps. It’s a touching moment, as Erik had buried the memory under layers of anger and anguish. Charles tells Erik “Thank you” for allowing him to share the memory. It’s moments like this that show how strongly connected the two men are. We don’t know for how long Charles and Erik are side by side, but it’s not very long. Small moments like this show that it wasn’t a matter of time, it was about opening up to someone who knew what you had gone through.

While many comic book movies have done a decent job crafting a good story around the major characters of the story (Batman, Spider-Man), one thing that sets X-Men: First Class is how well they use supporting characters. Hank McCoy, known to many as Beast, isn’t Beast for most of the movie. At first, I wished he became Beast sooner, but by the end it made perfect sense how they developed his character. He works for the CIA, disguising his mutation. He isn’t blue and furry to begin, he’s got hand-like feet. While he’s wallowed in despair that his feet look goofy, when he meets Mystique, it puts his feelings in perspective. On a few occasions, Hank and Raven share heartfelt moments, talking about if mutants need to hide from the world, and if they should hide their different looks to society. Mystique is equally handled great, giving the audience an authentic look at how a child born different would look and feel about a world blind to their existence.

Sebastian Shaw is a wonderful villain for the story. We see a mustached Shaw in Poland, witnessing Erik’s power as he struggles to get back to his family. Erik pursues Shaw around the world, trying to connect the dots to a very elusive man. We get a look at the legendary Hellfire Club, and Shaw unveils a unique helmet the Soviets made for him to block telepathic intrusion. It’s Magneto’s iconic helmet. That’s one thing the movie does well, it gives good explanation about why certain things are the way they are in the X-Men universe. There are a few moments of levity, involving teenage mutants showing each other their powers and trying to perfect and control them. In one particular scene, we see Charles and Erik traversing the world looking to find other mutants that might want to join the team. There’s a cameo in this scene that’s sure to put a giant smile on every X-Men fan’s face. The movie does make a good attempt to keep continuity with the X-Men trilogy, despite the fact that Alex Summers, known as Havok, isn’t meant to be the younger brother of Scott Summers (Cyclops). Also, in X2: X-Men United, we see Hank McCoy on a television before his mutation into a blue fur ball, but it happens in the past in X-Men: First Class. Not big deals, and most comic fans will overlook these small changes.

X-Men: First Class is handily the best X-Men movie to date, and quite possibly one of the best comic book movies to date. There have been times I’ve said that Green Lantern is the biggest chance for comic book movies to remain sincere to their source material yet still create a fantastic world different from our own. I was wrong. That movie is X-Men: First Class. It creates a world that embodies the story and characters we’ve grown up reading, yet doesn’t become a watered-down gritty world treatment. The characters and storyline are wonderfully handled, perfectly entertaining, and enough to excite X-Men fans even more than ever.

Fanboyz Grade: A

A movie like Attack the Block is hard to describe as being in one genre. On one hand, it’s a comedy about inner city British youth. On the other, it’s an action movie about an alien invasion. When the movie begins, it jumps right into a group of London kids mugging an innocent woman. The kids act tough and pull a knife, but as they’re committing their crime, something hits a car on the street. Something from the sky. After the kid’s leader, Moses, investigates, he ends up being attacked by a strange creature. Toting it around their block, they take it back to their apartment building. As more creatures begin falling from the sky, the teens decide to take on the aliens themselves, protecting their block.

There’s something about British accents that always throws me off. Granted, every nation has all sorts of dialects and manners of speech, but when people talk English English, I have a hard time following what they’re saying. I remember hearing about how some people thought the movie should have subtitles, but it’s not too difficult to follow what they’re saying. Each of the kids is sort of their own unique person, with some being brave, others timid and one standing tall as their leader. One thing that really works for the movie is how they don’t feel like they can tell the authorities about what’s happening. If kids with criminal backgrounds told cops about what was happening, they’d just ignore their complaints and arrest them for whatever they could pin on them. The kids peddle small drugs from a grower in their building, where we see the awesome Ron (Nick Frost). He answers to a tough gangster, who obviously the kid’s cross and have to worry about too.

The movie was made on a small budget, at least, small for a movie about an alien invasion. The first alien they come across, which we find out to be a small female that’s used to lure the larger, angrier males, is shown in quick shots. The kids lug it around back to their homes, which ends up luring the aliens to their apartment complex. The small female was made as a puppet, but the other aliens are CGI. They’re completely black, only showing their glow-in-the-dark teeth. The aliens look pretty cool, obviously nothing close to Avatar, but still cool. There’s even a couple of cool shots in the movie, which felt like the touch from producer Edgar Wright. One in particular has a character running through a room full of baddies.

Attack the Block is very similar to Shaun of the Dead, but only in the way that it’s a unique way to show an alien genre movie. Some people have a hard time classifying it as a horror movie or a comedy. It blends both, and that’s why it’s so good. Same goes with Attack the Block. It blends genres, not always being goofy, and not always being a scary alien movie. There’s a few issues with the pacing of the movie, and the acting is sophomoric, but it’s not nearly bad enough to avoid watching the movie. It’s fun, British, and will entertain you.

Fanboyz Grade: B+

Adapting the comic book character of Thor for mainstream audiences is one of the biggest risks Hollywood has taken lately. Despite the success of comic book hero movies lately, such as The Dark Knight and Iron Man, Thor is a fantastical story. Whereas heroes do not exist in our world, most of the features we’ve seen lately have highlighted the “mostly grounded in reality” style of said capes and costumed warriors. Thor is not a monicker taken by a mutant who’s power is similar to the Norse god of thunder, he is in fact that same Thor. While the movie attempts to explain that they are essentially beings from another part of the galaxy that happened to be worshiped by Vikings of the past, it’s still a big stretch for mainstream audiences unaccustomed to seeing realms like Asgard and Jötunheimr. Thor is a big, risky gamble that’s meant to stand alone as an action movie yet still be tied to the Marvel universe for the upcoming Joss Whedon feature The Avengers. And by the hammer Mjöllnir, it is absolutely fun.

The story is one that’s been told for generations: a hero loses his way, is no longer a hero, and has to learn how to get back to becoming the hero he is meant to be. However, there’s a lot in-between that helps Thor overcome some of these cliches. First, we open to a desert, where a freak storm sends down a mysterious man. We jump into the realm of Asgard, with helpful narration by Anthony Hopkins, and sort of get how this foreign world works. Odin, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki’s father, has had a strained relationship with the Frost Giants, a warrior race from another world. When they attack, Thor and Loki, along with a few warriors, travel to the Frost Giant realm to take them out. For his brass actions, Thor is stripped of his power and sent to Earth. Meeting the lovely Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and a few other scientists, he becomes accustomed to his new home, finding out he cannot retrieve his hammer (being protected by S.H.I.E.L.D.). Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been plotting Thor’s fall from grace all along, and wants to rid the universe of Thor and their father, who’s fallen into a coma.

Loki is, in my opinion, the best thing about the film. Portrayed absolutely brilliantly by Tom Hiddleston, the god of mischief is the most deep character in the film. At the start, we see his plotting glances while Thor contemplates taking the fight to the Frost Giants, breaking the truce between their worlds. He’s not overtly evil, he speaks in whispers and reverse psychology. He lets Thor feed off his feelings, knowing exactly how to manipulate. His intentions, though, are not exactly evil. His descent to becoming evil is slow, just as it is in our world. His motivation to get rid of Thor and his plans for Asgard are flawed, yet still understandable. The depth of the character is a suprising addition to a rich mythology the movie crafts.

Thor is a fun, entertaining action flick that’s a perfect way to start off this summer’s comic book movie series. While the movie does have some issues balancing Asgard and Earth and does rehash some of the same story arcs about heroes becoming “worthy” of their power, it is still a great story told in a fascinating way. If not for the action, the movie is worth watching just to see how the character Loki is handled. As the god of mischief, he’s still a character seeking acceptance and even redemption. He’s flawed, doing what he thinks he needs to for the best of Asgard. He’s not a super evil crazy maniac like we typically get in comic book movies. In many ways, it’s a Shakespearean take, one that probably would not have worked had Thor not been directed by actor-turned-director Kenneth Branagh. Thor is a fun summer movie, a bit beyond what audiences may have become accustomed to, but none the less brings the action and entertains with rich story.

Fanboyz Grade: B+

We all know the story: a young, handsome prince is despised by his less successful brother. In the case of Your Highness, Fabious (James Franco) is the King’s favorite son. His younger, portlier brother Thadeous (Danny McBride) is the joke of the kingdom, frequently sneering at his brother’s success and mythical quests. Upon returning from defeating the evil wizard Leezar’s cyclops, Fabious returns with a lovely future bride. Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) was being held by Leezar because performing a ritual as the two moons eclipsed each other with Belladonna would create a dragon that Leezar could control. So, Leezar shows up and kidnaps Belladonna from Fabious, and the King sends Thadeous to join his brother to rescue the dame. It’s a tale as old as time, but it’s never been done like this before.

The main drive of the comedy of the film is the unexpected. Of course, we get thy, thee and thou, but there’s a lot peppered in you wouldn’t be expecting. Mostly sexual innuendo and swear words. So when Thadeous says he doesn’t want to do something, it’s “Thou are f–ked in the brain” and assorted obscenities. It’s funny to hear the unexpected, but that’s the problem with the movie. It’s a comedy first and an action movie second, but the comedy becomes redundant with the swearing and crass jokes and the action has all been done before. The best way to describe it is that director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) took an existing script, got with a few of his buddies and rewrote lines to make it a stoner comedy.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy stoner comedies, especially Pineapple Express. The biggest difference between the movies is that while both movies have a lot of drug use jokes and sexual puns, Pineapple Express had more character and varying jokes. Your Highness is stuck on one kind, which is funny, but not for 100 minutes. It’s the sort of movie that’s fun to watch with buddies, but you’ll end up forgetting most of the film except for a handful of funny quotes. Comedy isn’t hard to do, but it’s hard to do right. There’s a big distinction between having a style of jokes and using one or two types of jokes over and over again. Sometimes a style of jokes works for a movie, but it didn’t for this one.

The best part of the movie is Natalie Portman. She brings a sense of class and sophistication that doesn’t belong with the cast and script, and that’s what makes her so good. The way the crass and downright nasty lines she speaks rolls off her tongue is equally shocking and impressive. She plays the standard tough woman warrior who scoffs at the ugly brother’s facade of strength, but she does it well. However, it’s not enough to save this one. If you’re looking for a laugh, you’re better passing on this one and taking a hit from something else <cough cough>.

Fanboyz Grade: D+

Today we feature a new writer from Denver, Colorado. His name is Orion Carrington and here is his review of James Gunn’s ‘Super’

I knew the movie Super was going to awesome when it opened up with a cartoon music montage with actor Kevin Bacon (along with the entire cast of characters) twirling and dancing around. That’s exactly one-degree of separation from being best movie opening of 2011. It also had really nothing to do with the film but it set the tone and the movie delivered from that point on.

“Super”, is a movie that takes a look at what would happen if the crime fighting bug continued to inspire the “Average Joe” lacking super powers to become a vigilante. Only this time our hero has not been hit by a car to have his nerve endings deadened or trained from a very young age to be an assassin like in the movie Kick-Ass. In Super, Frank D’Arbo, played by Rainn Wilson of The Office, takes on the alter ego of the Crimson Bolt, who draws his powers purely off of his hatred for injustice and the will to rescue his wife, played by Liv Tyler, back from a drug dealer, played by Kevin Bacon. The Crimson Bolt is later joined by a self proclaimed sidekick who names herself Boltie, played by Ellen Page and they chaotically fight crime with a monkey wrench and a handful of other homemade weapons.

This movie has instant cult classic written all over it, and if you’re not already familiar with director/writer James Gunn’s work, it will definitely inspire you to watch anything that he comes up with in the future. The movie was seven years in the making so before you start making copycat accusations keep that in mind. That would be difficult to do anyway because the movie does a good job of differentiating itself from any other movies about powerless super heroes. Besides, I say the more the merrier, when you go into the comic book store you find thousands of different comics on the shelves, many of them are different adaptations of the same story.

When you strip away all the blood and gore from the Super film you find a movie with a deeper meaning behind it. Super gets to the root of why we all at times still want to put on a cool costume and take matters into our own hands. There’s a great line in the film “Living between the panels” and I believe that’s what the movies ultimately about and how it relates to everyday life.

Rainn Wilson carries the movie very well as the lead, and Ellen Page was great as the psychopathic teen turned sidekick, a role that was completely different than any of her roles in the past, but is still very convincing. I’m starting to think that Page can play well off of anyone and she’s quickly becoming an all-time favorite of mine.

If you’re comic book enthusiast like I am then you’ll thoroughly enjoy the movie Super. It was like discovering a completely new comic book with a brand new hero on the big screen. It’s very original but still manages to tastefully push the edges of the envelope and keep the audience laughing the entire movie. A definite must see.

Grade: A

Now a fellow FanBoyz.net writer has already posted a review about this movie, but like io9, IGN and myself, we disagree. My first review of the movie was going to be a gif of a woman having sex with an assault rifle but I figured I should be a little more descriptive. Spoilers below, it’s hard to not to spoil something when you thought it was dumb. If you saw the movie, you might be able to keep track a little better. But for those who didn’t, well good luck, it was hard enough trying to stay on track when I watched it.

The story starts with a curtain rising to show Baby Doll on a bed crying during a thunderstorm where we get a nice, long, silent back-story while a dark cover of Sweet Dreams by Emily Browning plays in the background. During this intro you gain knowledge of her mother dying and her leaving everything to Baby Doll and her younger sister. Her stepfather was balls to the wall pissed when she died and left everything to the two girls. He was going to take it out on Baby Doll but she lashed back and then he was set on doing something to the sister. Now the movie was rated PG-13, it would have been worse if it was R but more on that later, so with that rating we can’t be sure if he was going to kill or rape the girls. Baby Doll manages to stop the stepfather from doing whatever to her sister by acquiring a gun quickly. I’m pretty sure that Baby Doll was going to kill the stepfather but accidentally killed her sister instead. We didn’t see anything probably because of the rating but I guess we’re to assume…then again, you think later on that the stepfather is blaming her for the killing of the youngest daughter. Either way, this could be debated since we didn’t see him touch the daughter or her get shot. Later on, Baby Doll says she wishes she could take things she’s done back so who knows.

Finally, after that is where it gets more confusing. The stepfather sends her to a mental house and the first thing that happens is her being introduced to the stage that we saw in the very beginning. Shorty after hearing payment issues and what the plan the asylum coordinator and stepfather have for Baby Doll, we cut to a scene where Baby Doll is being strapped down to have…well a chisel inserted into her head to I guess make her a vegetable. But before any of that happens, everything changes! The doctor, the nurse and even Baby Doll all change into girls on stage acting. Now we’re in a brothel we’re the girls preform I guess stories? Chances are, they were just trying to find a way to transition from the real world to this first fake world layer. That’s right, Inception stuff but without reason! That’s where everyone you’ve already met is someone else. Now Baby Doll is an orphan being dropped off at a strip club by a priest? So instead of being mental patients, all the girls are now dancers. Now she meets all the characters and a little about what’s going on, then she’s told to dance and when the girls dance (or maybe just Baby Doll) that’s when the 5 girls are in a fantasy world with steam-powered Nazis, fire breathing dragons and T-1000s.

So now you see that there’s the real world, then the middle world then the fantasies. So when the girls are dancing, they think they are fighting with guns and swords instead of dancing or something. There’s almost and underlining of women can only achieve anything in their dreams. It’s also a message of men are terrible like a Lifetime movie. I don’t agree that the world is this way. I also don’t think all crazy houses are internally corrupt like dozens of movies make it out to be, then again these are movies. The girls have to collect these 5 items in their fantasies but then collect them in the real world because when they are dancing they are really sneaking around and collecting the items they need instead of fighting dragons? They are never doing what they think they are doing because they are doing something entirely different? It’s hard to explain. Even in the fantasy worlds, what they are trying to do is almost nothing like what they need in the second layer. Sure, when searching for the map they were looking for a map. Then when they needed the fire, it was a dragon, that was cool and those both fit. The dragon one was just a little more creative and imaginative. Now they needed a knife, but in the fantasy world they had to disarm a bomb on a train. I don’t see how the bomb makes sense. Yes, there was the water flowing towards the exposed cord and then the cook is the bomb but that still doesn’t have anything about them collecting a knife. There should have been more in that fantasy instead of a extended fight scene with robots.

Here’s the end, it’ll all ruin it for you. Turns out this was all in her head! But wait, there’s more! One of the girls escapes and it isn’t Baby Doll. Yea, how that works I don’t know. So maybe it’s a story about a girl who has a story about another girl in her head and that girl is crazy with stories in her head? Look, I don’t know. The story was pretty bad. The character development is lacking, you don’t really hear about the origins of anyone besides Rocket and Sweetpea. It’s hard to care about any of them when you don’t know them. My favorite character turned out to be a bus driver who had nothing to do with any of the girls until the very end.

In the end, you’ll leave thinking ‘OK…so how does that make sense?‘ or you’ll be telling everyone else who’s confused what really happened since you thought it was amazing and super deep. I thought everything would come full circle but it doesn’t. I know I’m still confused, who died? Who really got out? How? They did all of that in heels? And finally, who cares?

I will say that the cinematography was pretty good and what we’ve come to expect from Zack Synder movies. Not as good as say 300 or Watchmen but still really pretty to look at. I really enjoyed the soundtrack as well. I loved the girl covers and the Queen with Armageddon (aka Geddy) song. The soundtrack itself falls a little short by not including the Silversun Pickups and Lords of Acid songs from the trailer and a few others but that’s alright, if you can acquire those extra songs then it’s even better. So the movie wasn’t all bad, the fantasy fight scenes were fun and the music fit and of course, the eye candy of both the girls and the CGI. It’s very pretty and visually stimulating, I would watch it again for the visuals alone.

Would I recommend it? There’s a flimsy story that barely holds together but tries to support itself from the inside with a “bigger” picture and cheesy dialogue with the ticket price. I left the theater thinking ‘who is this movie marketed towards?‘, if you like to watch girls play football in lingerie then this might be for you. Or if you’re 13.