Capsule In-Theaters Movie Reviews

Due to a lack of time and motivation, I’m going to give a brief review for each of the last three movies I’ve seen in the local movie theater: Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Man of Steel. One eclipsed the others completely and you’ll have to read on to find out the clear winner.

Iron Man 3

After the great fun that was The Avengers, I was hopeful that Iron Man 3 would continue the quality of that movie after the disappointing Iron Man 2. The Mandarin was always one of the more interesting villains in the comic books since he was a challenge both intellect and firepower to Tony Stark. So when I read they were taking a different approach to the character I became concerned.

My concerns were valid for they completely butchered the character in favor of anti-business and military political agenda. While Shane Black made a more entertaining film than the previous installment, there were multiple moments where I felt my intelligence being insulted. The comic moments are still there and carried by Robert Downey, Jr. who could play Tony in his sleep at this point. As for the main villain, he was formulaic and not terribly interesting.

It isn’t a bad movie, but there is no depth to it at all and is actually more of an ‘80s action flick with modern effects thrown into it. Remember how there used to be a kid for the hero to bond with in those flicks? Yep, that’s here too and those scenes have the best lines in the film.

Visual effects varied quite a bit in quality (I saw the 2D version) with the big finale suffering the most. One of the things I loved about the first two movies was the emphasis on practical effects over CGI. For this movie, they threw that out the window and the suits remind me of the Transformers movies in a bad way. No longer do they feel like something that could eventually be made, but are more magical without any grounding in physics or engineering.

If this is the way the series is going, it has mined all its gold and will go downhill fast if continued. All in all, a disappointment.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

J.J. Abrams reboot of the Star Trek series was not something I looked forward to but was pleasantly surprised by. The first movie was a combination of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan taking the best bits of both for a hugely entertaining flick. So I was looking forward to seeing where they would go with the new alternate universe versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the others.

Due to the predecessor looking like a 3D film while only being 2D, I was eager to see the Enterprise pop from the screen. I wasn’t disappointed, Into Darkness is one of the best 3D conversions I’ve seen and equal to The Avengers and sections of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The effects were excellent throughout.

So what about the movie itself? Well, it derived from The Wrath of Khan again and Star Trek 2009 as well! Instead of going somewhere new, it is filled with retreaded ideas. Unfortunately, the scenes meant to evoke emotions are more formulaic and felt flat. Also, the movie doesn’t pause anywhere to take a breath, which makes it inferior to the previous one.

Into Darkness is a great popcorn flick, mind you. I found it more entertaining than Iron Man 3 but it is bogged down by the same politically correct messaging as that movie. Both are movies ostensibly about terrorism but end up blaming the government for it all. If you are going to be politically preachy, you either have to be up front about it or very clever in presentation in order to avoid pulling the audience out of the story. It did not pull that off.

Main villain problems pop up again, though Benedict Cumberbatch shows flashes of being interesting. The problem is when he begins chewing the scenery by over delivering his lines. A better script would have served him well, I think.

Despite having a new gal on the ship, Carol (Alice Eve), don’t expect romance in the film. Expect bromance instead as the focus is on the relationship between Spock and Kirk. However, there is some fun with relationship difficulties with Uhura and everyone’s favorite Vulcan.

Entertaining, but shallow is my final verdict.

Man of Steel

Out of all the movies I planned to see this year, this was the one lowest on my list. I’m a fan of the flawed Donner Superman films and really doubted a more serious take would be successful. Yet there was a lingering interest due to Christopher Nolan being one of the producers involved and apparently shepherding the movie. Still, it’s Superman – what can you do to make him an interesting character in only two hours?

Initial reviews from professional critics were not positive that I glanced at, but I wasn’t paying that much attention anyway. So when I walked into the theater on Friday night, I wasn’t expecting much. It didn’t help that I’d accidently gone to a 2D version rather than 3D.

The movie starts out on Krypton and frankly I thought it was weak. It was the rush as much spectacle in front or your face kind of thing. At least that was my first impression. Once things got to Earth, the move changed. Oh there was spectacle, but it was used to introduce flashbacks to Clark Kent’s childhood that amazed me and it wasn’t just Kevin Costner’s excellent performance as Jonathan Kent.

Man of Steel is an intensely emotional movie and that came as quite a shock to me. The device of flashbacks is used to give us a look at what is going on in Clark/Kal-El’s soul during various events of the movie. They show why he is doing the things he is rather than filling the screen with exposition and it works brilliantly. Henry Cavill is far better than Christopher Reeves was and somehow manages to be slightly alien while being the best of humanity at the same time.

I’m afraid to write much more and spoiling a movie you should be going out to see. The performances across the board are fantastic which is not something you normally see in movie with this many explosions. One of my few knocks on The Avengers was how the final battle didn’t seem to do that much damage to the city and there was no feeling of human loss. The destruction in this movie is vast and sobering with hits like a jackhammer.

Ever wonder what it would be like to see a battle in real life between godlike superhuman beings? That’s exactly what you get to see and it is horrific. There is little use of slow motion in the movie, every action scene is depicted in real time. It’s dizzying and intimidating, which lends to the realism that permeates a movie about aliens with super powers. Yeah, that sounds strange, but it is one of the things that makes the movie great.

If you are a Christian, you will see a blatant and respectful analogy to Christ in Kal-El. Bryan Singer was a little more subtle with this in Superman Returns, but it is prominent in Man of Steel. So is patriotism, respect for the military, and everything else that makes Superman the boy scout of superheroes. None of it is mined for irony or mocked.

I suggest seeing it in 2D instead of 3D, now that I’ve seen it in both. Yes, I love the movie so much I went to it again the next night. The 3D loses a lot of detail and is jittery whenever the action moves too fast. Being a visually beautiful movie, that’s a crime. Hans Zimmer’s minimalist score is incredible as well.

Okay, I’ve written too much for a capsule review and need to finish.

Man of Steel is an amazing movie and resonated deeply with me. It’s a brilliant achievement and managed to surpass The Dark Knight as the best comic book movie I’ve seen. I never dreamed that I would write that.