John Carter: A continuation of Taylor Kitsch's bad summer

Civil War veteran John Carter finds himself transported to Mars, where he becomes entangled in a different civil war between the inhabitants of the planet. He must decide if he will help the Martian Princess or simply continue to drift through life as he was doing back on Earth.

At this point, you almost feel bad for Taylor Kitsch. Both of the major summer blockbusters he has starred in (this one and Battleship) have lost their respective studios money and were soundly drubbed by film critics. However John Carter, like Battleship, was not such a horrible movie. The story, while overburdened with an excess of useless subplots, cutesy Disney moments and unnecessary characters, was accessible enough for the audience so they could at least have a basic understanding of what was happening on screen (i.e. John needed to unite two of the warring factions against the third in order to save the planet and rescue the beautiful Martian Princess). The action became repetitive (yes, we know John can jump really high, that was clear the tenth time we saw it on screen!) but it was palpable and kept the audience engaged. Kitsch tried his best to play up John as an anti-hero who was torn between those incidents which broke him back on Earth and the need to become the warrior and leader he seemed destined to become, and there were some scenes which were effective (the part where there are cuts between a battle sequence and John burying his family comes to mind) but there were some points where he just seemed lost and looked more like Abercrombie & Fitch model who accidentally wondered unto the set. The rest of the cast failed to rise above the mediocre dialogue and character development provided to them by the cliched script.

It is never going to be considered a classic or even a great sci-fi fantasy film but John Carter is not the most horrible way to spend two hours of your life.

Grade: C

Green Lantern: An underwhelming adventure

Hal Jordan is a hotshot test pilot who always lives life on the edge. His life is forever changed however after he is chosen to join an intergalactic group of warriors known as the Green Lantern Corps. While he struggles with the demands of being a superhero an evil force gains strength and threatens to destroy not only Earth, but the universe.

There was a chance here for the Green Lantern to be another one of those successful comic book adaptations much in the same vein as Captain America, Iron Man, etc. Hal Jordan was a complex character who, although bestowed the awesome powers of the Lantern Ring, struggled with his own personal demons of fear and tenacity. His story had the opportunity to show the audience that terrific powers can only help one so much, that it takes the will of a person to see things through in brightest day or in blackest night.

Unfortunately the script failed to give the film a consistent flow, juggling too many subplots and characters and simply not keeping the audience mentally engaged with anything on the screen other than the elaborate action sequences which were not all that great. The perfect example of this was the final showdown between Hal and the main villain of the film (Parallax), which was anti-climatic and unsatisfying given the build up of Parallax's powers and abilities as well as the power of Hal's Ring. Ryan Reynolds tried his best to make Hal not only cocky but accessible and vulnerable but he was (again) hamstrung by the script, which gave all of the characters in the film the individual emotional depth found in the characters of a SyFy made for tv movie. Director Martin Campbell only seemed interested in making sure the CGI looked good and also ignored the chance to present the audience with a story that would accentuate the action.

Green Lantern was an underwhelming excursion into the DC comic book universe.

Grade: C-

Kick Ass: Take it or leave it

Inspired by his love of comic books, high schooler Dave Lizewski decides to become a masked super hero himself named Kick Ass. Soon he becomes a media sensation and he inspires others to do as he has done. But his fame also makes him the target of the evil crime boss Frank D'Amico, who wants him dead.

The bright side to Kick Ass was the story of Dave Lizewski (or Kick Ass as he is known to his adoring fans). His intentions in taking up crime fighting were pure (i.e. to do good) and provided the back bone for the story. It was absorbing to watch him wrestle with the problems one always thought heroes like Spider - Man or Batman had, but never got the chance to explore on the big screen. It made him a character one could easily identify with and root for. The film got sketchy however when Kick Ass' story was hijacked by that of Big Daddy and Hit Girl. Inspired by Kick Ass, these two decided to don costumes as well and pursue vengence at one specific target, crime boss Frank D'Amico (an underused Mark Strong). Big Daddy and Hit Girl were not burdened with the sense of "doing the right thing" like Kick Ass, rather they simply went about their business in an ultra-violent fashion that mirrored the other comic book anti-heroes like The Punisher. The most unnerving part of their pursuit was the fact that Hit Girl was 11 years old, and doing and saying things that would make even The Punisher blush. It was almost surreal to see her whirl around in those John Woo inspired slow motion shots, guns blazing, spouting curse words but after a while, it became almost abhorrent and made one wish the film had continued to focus on Kick Ass' internal conflict. Instead the filmmakers tried to mask the holes in the plot with the insanity of more shoot outs and four letter bombs involving a girl who should have been more worried about getting the latest Hannah Montana cd instead of storming the strong hold of the city's most nefarious crime boss.

There was a time, years ago, when I would have lauded Matthew Vaughn's Kick Ass as a well deserved jolt to the comic book adaptation genre for it did not shy away from breaking the well worn standards of said genre  in order to bring fresh new verve to it. However I am older and wiser (though my family and friends would probably tell you differently I imagine) and that "fresh" new verve in the film seems more unnerving and lazy to my weathered eyes.

Grade: C-

Sherlock Holmes: More brawn than brains

Another day, another reboot. This time around it's the erstwhile detective from the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novels that gets the Hollywood retreatment.

The game's afoot as the brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr. John Watson tackle another mystery. The nefarious Lord Blackwood has apparently risen from the grave after he was hung. He intends to create a new world order in which he and his evil group will rule. Can Holmes and Watson stop their seemingly supernatural adversary?

While this reimaging of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson might be missing the usual verbal hyperboles such as "elementary my dear Watson," the fashionable deerstalker hat that became a costume trademark of Holmes during the Basil Rathbone films of the 1940's and a plausible mystery which an audience had a chance in hell of figuring out, it did feature a number of good things. Robert Downey Jr. excelled in the title role, creating his own unique take on the classic detective. He was a scatter-brained sleuth who could cleverly deduce the evil plans of a villain before thoroughly kicking his butt and describing how he was going to do so in detailed fashion via internal monologue and oh so cool looking slo-mo shots (the boxing match in the middle of the film is a prime example of this). His interaction and chemistry with Jude Law (as a tougher than nails Watson) gave the film a much needed emotional backbone. Director Guy Ritchie infused Sherlock Holmes with his signature visual style of quick cuts, slick editing and fight sequences which were extremely intense. For all of its imagistic bluster however, it felt as though he sacrificed too much of the story and Holmes' intellectual persona, a persona that audiences are accustomed to seeing from the Holmes character, in favor of more brawls, scraps and explosios. Lord Blackwood's evil plan for world domination seemed to have gotten lost between the fisticuffs and the subplot of Watson's plans to walk away from the mystery solving gig in order to wed his lady in waiting Mary (and Holmes many attempts to stop Watson from leaving). There was so much going on and so many holes in the plot that when the audience got to the climax of the film, they might not have been entirely sure just what Blackwood was trying to do or how Holmes was going to be able to stop him.

Sherlock Holmes might have been more brutish than brainy, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

Grade: B-