Canon Movie Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Earlier tonight, My brother and I went up to the theater and took in the latest offering from Marvel Studios, Captain America: The First Avenger. Directed by Joe Johnston (Hidalgo, The Rocketeer), Captain America stars Chris Evans as the titular character, and includes a supporting cast of Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, and Dominic Cooper. In Captain America, a young man named Steve Rogers wants nothing more than to enlist in the army and fight the Nazis in WWII. However, his small frame and a few medical problems cause the army to reject him, until he runs across a scientist named Dr. Abraham Erskine (Tucci). Erskine is looking for a man to become a 'super' soilder through a series of injections, and despite his small frame, he thinks Rogers is the perfect man for the job. Even though Colonel Chester Phillips (Jones) doesn't share Erskine's beliefs, Rogers is eventually chosen to receive the treatments, and he eventually becomes Captain America, the U.S.'s best hope against the evil Red Skull (Weaving).

Not surprisingly, the film is full of action sequences and CGI effects, the most impressive of which is the transforming of Evans into a little weakling. At the start of the movie, Rogers is all heart with hardly any muscle, and because of that he's a scrappy underdog that one can't help but to relate to. Once his transformation takes place, even though Rogers is the same guy, he just becomes a boring one-dimensional hero. I don't know if it was Evans or the screenwriters, but something was definitely lost in the transition of Rogers from zero to hero. It's not as if he's an arrogant jerk, but rather he's just dull. Rogers' main love interest in the film, a British solider named Peggy Carter (Atwell), looks the part, but I was never convinced that these two had any sort of sparks despite the fact that the story practically forces that down our throats. Actually, Peggy's also much more interesting in the first part of the film when she's a tough woman soilder in a man's world rather than the love stricken girl we see in the second part.

As for the rest of the cast, it's solid, but not spectacular. Tommy Lee Jones plays, well, himself as a no-nonsense army Colonel. I will say that some of his wisecracks were quite enjoyable. Weaving is also solid as the evil Johann Schmidt, who eventually becomes Red Skull, while Sebastian Stan was solid as Rogers' close friend, Bucky Barnes. I must say that I wasn't too impressed with Tucci's performance as Dr. Erskine, as his German accent was inconsistent at best. In the second half of the film, Rogers leads a team into various battles against Red Skull and his Hydra squad, which are full of action and explosions. The problem is, we never really learn anything about these guys and why they were chosen other than the fact that they just happened to be in the same unit as Rogers's buddy. Heck, they didn't even mention their names until the credits.

Director Joe Johnston does a nice job of recreating the 1940s in Captain America, from the 'World Fair' setting at the beginning of the film to the montage of Captain America shilling war bonds and starring in films. Although it may have seemed a little long and really didn't mean much to the overall story, it was a humorous look at the parading of Rogers as some sort of Uncle Sam type figure. The film looked great in some parts, although most of the action sequences kind of looked similar and featured so many explosions that they eventually lost all meaning. Plus, maybe it was because I was seated right next to the speakers, but I found the score of this film to be overwhelming and just plain annoying.

Overall, this is a decent flick that will provide entertainment for the time you're in the theater. However, it's not much more than that. The acting is decent at best, and the script could have used a little more in the way of character development. Plus you never really get the sense that Rogers is in any sort of peril in his battles, and they just rush through the second half of the film to get to the next action scene. Overall, I'd give Captain America: The First Avenger a 4.5 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this movie, then feel free to share them by leaving a comment.

Canon Movie Review: The Matrix Revolutions

Here is a review of a movie I refused to see in theaters after being so disappointed in the film's predecessor, Matrix Reloaded, although I did see it later on DVD. However, that was like five years ago, so I decided to give The Matrix Revolutions another chance because, honestly, I really didn't remember a lot about it. Anyway, The Matrix Revolutions is the final film of the Matrix Trilogy. Released in 2003, the movie was written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers (although now one of them is technically a sister, but that's not relevant here) and stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Hugo Weaving, and a whole lot of other people. In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo (Reeves) and his girl Trinity (Moss) choose to stop the evil that is agent Smith (Weaving), who seems hell-bent on destroying everything in its path, while everyone else retreats to the great city of Zion to defend the town against the invading machines that control the Matrix. A few notes about this film, and there will be SPOILERS, so if you haven't seen the movie, read carefully.

- What's strange about The Matrix Revolutions is that hardly any of the film takes place in the actual Matrix itself. About 85 percent of the movie takes place in the 'real' world controlled by machines, most of it either concentrated on the machines' attack of the dock of Zion or Niobe (Pinkett-Smith) and Morpheus' (Fishburne) attempt to sneak their ship into Zion through a mechanical line. As a result, this film is probably the least impressive of the three Matrix films as far as action is concerned, and unfortunately, the story is not nearly compelling enough to make up the deficit.

- In the original Matrix movie, the plot revolved almost entirely around Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. In the second film, it was pretty much more of the same. However, in The Matrix Revolutions, Morpheus and Trinity take a major step back, as all Morpheus does for the most part is co-pilot Niobe's ship and sit back while everybody else goes to war, and Trinity is merely a supporting player in Neo's flight to the machine city. Even Neo is not immune from this shift, as he goes at least 45 minutes straight without being featured in a scene. Instead of focusing on the characters we all know, the Wachowski brothers focused large amounts of screen time on such characters as Sati, Captain Mifune, and the Kid (yes, that's what he was credited as), characters that either serve no purpose (Sati) or we have no idea who they are, so we really don't care what happens to them.

- For all the talk about how philosophically deep The Matrix trilogy is, this movie bludgeons the viewer over the head in explaining it's underlying themes. Neo is presented as a Christ-like savior, as a lot of the dialogue is spent on characters either expressing faith in Neo as the 'Chosen One' or people doubting that he is what he's supposedly proclaimed to be, and the film even has Neo assume a cross-like pose towards the end of the movie. Also, every character in the first thirty minutes or so just can't help but mention that Neo and Trinity are so in love with each other that they'd die for each other, and Agent Smith spends most of his screen time mocking human emotions such as love. There's also a lot of allusions to the importance of choice and free-will, as the Oracle spends most of her time in this movie telling characters to make their own decisions.

- Even though this movie seems to try it's hardest not to let their best actors shine, there are a couple of highlights to speak of. Weaving as Agent Smith is just as evil and compelling as ever, although after a while his ad naseum talk of the inferiority of humans becomes a little tiresome. Also a highlight is Ian Bliss as Bane, the soilder who is taken over by Agent Smith in the real world. Bliss does a nearly spot-on impression of Weaving, and seems even more menacing in doing it. What's interesting about Bane's metamorphasis into Smith is that it takes forever for Neo to realize what's actually happened. You would think he would get after the sixth time Bane calls him Mr. Anderson, but not our man Neo. As far as Reeves' performance, it was about what you would expect.

- As I mentioned before, the action sequences in the Matrix Revolutions were the weakest of the three Matrix movies. The shootout with Trinity and company at the Merovingian's nightclub was poorly-lit and the camera shook so much that you couldn't tell what was going on. Meanwhile, the climatic fight scene between Smith and Neo looked cool, but basically followed the same pattern for 15 minutes (exchange of strikes, big punch that knocks both men back and causes an earthquake, flying towards each other, repeat). The best action scenes were probably the scenes where the machines come in to Zion's walls and meet resistance by these giant robot looking crafts with machine guns called APUs, although it kind of lost its luster after 20 minutes or so.

- Before I conclude this review, I want to talk about the ending, which although it's presented as happy and all seems to leave the humans back at square one. Yes, Smith is dead, but so is their Chosen One and while the machines retreated from Zion due to Neo's actions in getting rid of Smith, they still not only killed lots of people and destroyed a huge chunk of Zion, but also still have the majority of humans plugged into the Matrix and still harvest them for energy. However, it does somewhat leave the door open for a sequal when the Oracle mentiones to Sati that perhaps we will see Neo again (even though I don't see how that's possible).

Overall, I will say that I liked this movie more than The Matrix Reloaded. Then again, that's damning with faint praise since I strongly dislike Reloaded. Both movies would have probably been better as one movie and at least half the scenes in each movie could have been cut out, but sometimes art is sacrificed for profits, and this is the case here. As far as Revolutions goes, the main problems were that it decided to shift the focus away from the characters so vital to the Matrix franchise and center large parts of the story around characters which they really didn't even bother explaining their importance to the story. Plus, the whole idea of the humans and machines somehow teaming up to save the world flies against the original notion of the series, which was basically man vs. machine, and really makes the machines' attack on Zion seem like a waste of energy in retrospect. The action scenes were hit-or-miss, the acting was decent at best, and the film was as subtle as a sledgehammer. Overall, it's not the worst sequel ever, but it's not all that great either. I'd give it a 4 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you any ideas for future posts, or thoughts about this post, than either leave a comment on the blog or send them to me at e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.

Canon Movie Review: V for Vendetta

Recently, Canon Review reader Ben W. requested that I watch the movie V for Vendetta and write up a review on it. Well, some two weeks later, I have finally gotten around to it. V for Vendetta is a 2006 film produced and written by the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix, Speed Racer) and directed by James McTeigue. Based off of a series of graphic novels by Alan Moore (The Watchmen), V for Vendetta stars Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Fry, Stephen Rea, and John Hurt. In V for Vendetta, a rebel known simply as V (Weaving) tries to bring down a totalitarian government in futuristic Britian. Along the way, he meets a young woman named Evey Hammond (Portman) after rescuing her from a group of policemen. On Guy Fawkes Day, V blows up the Old Bailey courthouse, and promises to blow up the Parliament building on the next Guy Fawkes Day.  A few notes about this film, and there are spoilers ahead, so if you haven't seen it, than I suggest you enjoy another fine post at The Canon Review.

-  Hugo Weaving plays the titular character V, and even though he is behind a mask the whole movie, Weaving manages to make V a larger than life character due to his voice acting and use of body language. Even though his facial expression never changes, Weaving is able to convincingly portray V as angry or compassionate or humourous or whatever emotion the script calls for. I feel that Weaving was perfectly cast as V, which is somewhat odd because he was not the first choice for V, as he was to be played by James Purefoy. But Purefoy apparently had trouble with the mask, so Weaving was called in as a replacement.

- As for the rest of the cast, Natalie Portman did an excellent job as Evey Hammond, a young woman who found herself heavily involved in V's quest for revenge and rebellion, and really V's only true friend. To be honest, I had my doubts about whether or not Portman could pull off a role like this, but I must admit that I was wrong, and she was nearly as great as Weaving in this film. Stephen Fry also does an excellent job as Evey's boss and friend Gordon Dietrich, while Stephen Rea more than holds his own as the dogged inspector Eric Finch, who in the course of his investigation of V finds out a little more than he had bargained for. However, even though Rea is a talented actor, I don't think the film's script explained properly the type of person and the beliefs that Rea's character had.

- It is safe to say that this movie has a rather anti-government slant, to say the least. With the exception of Rea, there seemed to be no redeemable qualities of the men that were in charge of the government or had major roles in the government. The men in charge seemed to be either sniveling cowards unable or unwilling to own up to their mistakes or men of great cruelty who would shoot somebody in cold blood without provocation if they felt that person was a threat of any sort to their government. Meanwhile, V is portrayed as the great hero, almost a savior type figure, but he is not afraid to spill the blood of innocents if it means getting vengeance on those that have wronged him. Evey, unsurprisingly, was kind of disgusted by V's rather militant and aggressive ways. To me, I think the film portrayed the two sides as too one-dimensional, as the government is automatically evil while the terrorist is the true hero in this film. I really think they made it too simple, if that makes any sense. In situations such as this, things aren't as black and white as this film made it out to be, and I feel that by glorifying V and portraying the government as the most despicable of people, the film almost seemed to be calling for some sort of anarchist to rise up and take control. Yes, it's just a movie, and yes, V probably was justified in pursuing revenge in the way he did, but I just don't feel we got enough justification from the other side, as instead the film makers chose to portray them as one-dimensional evil archetypes. Just my opinion.

- Since this is a Wachowski Brothers picture based off of a comic book, I somewhat expected that the film would be full of over-the-top special effects and explosions and whatnot. However, although there are a few special effects and explosions, the director James McTeigue does not rely on them like a crutch, unlike the way the last two Matrix films did. McTeigue and cinematographer Adrain Biddle (who died shortly after completion of the film) were able to captivate the mood and spirit of the story and were able to enhance the film with their excellent use of shadowing and visuals. The explosions in this film are quite memorable, which is something I usually don't say in a film review, and the final fight scene was quite well done, even if it went a little over the top with the amount of gore. Also, I must say that the score provided by Dario Marianelli really added a lot to the film as well.

- I'm not going to say too much about it, because I don't want to spoil it, but if I had experienced what Evey experienced at the hands of V, I don't think I would be that understanding of his actions, whatever his motives may have been. Just saying.

Overall, this is quite a good film that is well acted, well filmed, and has a story that will really make you think after seeing the film. My only real complaint is that, except for Evey, V, and Dietrich, every other character in the film seems to be too one-dimensional. But every other aspect of the film is well-done, so overall, I'd give V for Vendetta an 8.5 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any comments about this or previous posts, or ideas for future reviews or posts, than share them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com.