Torgo's Superhero Throwdown 2011

[Torgo]

Greetings all! Torgo's here to bore you all with yet another of his movie threads. This time it's time to save the world with a batch of superheroes. This 16-part extravaganza will explore who kicked bad-guy butt and took names this year. From worst to best...up, up, and away!

Worst Superhero Film


BLOODRAYNE
THE THIRD REICH

“Guten tag, motherf***ers!”

The worst of the worst superflicks this year comes from the master of the bad movie, Uwe Boll. What’s sad, though, is that as far as Boll flicks go, this one isn’t that bad. I haven’t seen a Boll movie since he stumped me with Postal, one of my most painful experiences watching a movie ever as I stared there in stunned silence as to what I was actually supposed to laugh at. Boll’s attempts at serious filmmaking are far more effective at hilarity than his attempt at comedy.

My memory of the previous BloodRayne films is a bit sketchy. From what I remember of the first film, it was probably Boll’s best film. From what I remember of the second, it was probably his worst. This third (and final?) film in Boll’s trilogy is a more enjoyable go around, because at least this one had the decency to show boob. The nipple-less-ness second installment only enhanced the poor qualities of Boll’s work. Whereas in the Third Reich, we’re given two totally random sex scenes, one of which is lesbian, if that matters to those who are interested. They’re poorly shot, and sometimes as unintentionally hilarious as the other elements in the film, but hey…some nudity is better than none, as far as this type of film is concerned.

The film chronicles the adventures of human/vampire hybrid Rayne and how in her fight against Nazis in Germany accidentally created an entire Reich of vampires. Now she has to kick ass in her S&M outfit and clean up her own mess before they successfully turn Adolf Hitler into an immortal. The film runs at a bit of a sluggish pace, and feels long even at a brisk 70 minutes. The action scenes feel cut short at the expense of watching Clint Howard overact.

Fans of the BloodRayne video game may be interested in the film seeing how it’s the only film in the series to take place near the same time period as the games, as opposed to the first two films which were set in the 1800’s. I can’t say for how faithful the film is to them, because I haven’t played them. But even if it were faithful, the lacking quality probably won’t sit well with the gamers anyway.

But I can’t help but admire the film series that is trying be made, chronicling a vampire’s adventures throughout the ages. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Boll had some sort of vision for this series. But who am I kidding? If Boll makes another one, it’s not because he feels he has to, it’s because he’ wants to prove to the world he can, whether they want him to or not.

Apparently there’s a sister film to this entitled Blubberella, which Boll directed at the same time with the same story as a comedy. As much as I attempt to watch every superhero film out there, I think I’m just going to pretend that film doesn’t exist.

Awards


Worst Performance by a Supervillian
Michael Pare as Ekart Brand

No effort was put forth into creating a menacing villain. He’s does bad stuff. He’s a vampire. That seems to be all the thought put into it.

Pare doesn’t even execute a character. He says his lines in a bored droll, and just does what the script tells him too. I don’t think there’s ever been an actor who looked as if he wanted out of a movie more. All I know is that if he really was trying, then he may very well be the worst actor I’ve ever seen.

At least the villains in the previous BloodRayne movies had the virtues of being played by Ben Kingsley and Zack Ward. They didn’t try either, but brand name counts for something.

Worst Performance by a Lackey
Clint Howard as Doctor Mangler

Ron “Opie Cunningham” Howard’s little brother embarrasses himself in yet another Uwe Boll production. One would think he would have learned from House of the Dead, but nope. This time he’s overacting his little heart out.

Clint’s not just a mad scientist, he’s a mad Nazi scientist. Therefore, he is madder than mad. Clint takes every opportunity to ham it up and cranks it to 200. I’ve rarely ever winced at a performance, but god…damn… It would have been funny if it wasn’t so grating.

It’s sad. When I saw Howard’s name in the credits, I had a little hope that I might get some cheese. Instead I got mold.

Worst Performance by a Non-Hero or Villain
Brendan Fletcher as Nathaniel

You know how in Predator there was that one chick who was just kind of there for no reason? I don’t remember her name (and I’ve seen that movie about 500 times), so I usually just refer to her as “The Load.” Well, we finally have a male counterpart for her. If one could play matchmaker through movies, I think we’d have a love connection.

Nathaniel is a member of an anti-Nazi resistance in the film, and doesn’t really do jack s*** for the run time except hump Rayne in a rather odd moment in the film. The nameless lesbian whore that got it on with Rayne earlier in the film had more personality, and she didn’t even say a f***ing word.

Of course, in the eyes of direct to video trash, he did his duty. He got the heroine to take her top off.

Worst Director
Uwe Boll

I considered cutting Dr. Boll some slack this time around and awarding this to Michel Gondry for his ineffective direction of the Green Hornet, but as I was watching BloodRayne: The Third Reich, I just couldn’t do it. Boll is an entirely different level of bad, and to not acknowledge this would be a disservice to the man and an insult to Gondry, who while proved to be useless as an action director, actually managed to craft the tiniest bit of excitement in his movie.

For one thing, for a movie that’s taking place in the 1940’s…nobody looks or talks like they’re in the 1940’s! Everyone looks as if they’ve wondered in from a post-apocalyptic set with shaggy hair and tattered clothes. The only hint of the era it’s set in are the Nazi uniforms. It definitely didn’t help that I watched Captain America: The First Avenger just before I watched this, which was more careful about its look than this film.

The action scenes are fine, but are careless and it’s hard to really care about anything that’s going on. There’s even a rather decent opening credit sequence of Nazi’s unloading Jews off of a train, and it might even have been effective had the primary movie not been about a super-vampire that likes to slice heads off.

What it boils down to is when you can’t even shoot a lesbian sex scene that is arousing, then your director kind of sucks. And that’s not even the worse of the two sex scenes!

[Torgo]

THOR
TALES OF ASGARD

I’m self admittedly not a fan of Thor. From the fantasy settings, the ye olde speech, and bold characterizations, it’s really not my thing. There are a few aspects of the character I like, all of which were emphasized in Kenneth Branaugh’s adaptation, but those aspects don’t shed their head in Marvel’s long belated release of Thor: Tales of Asgard, Marvel and Lionsgate’s final direct to video animated feature (technically, that honor was supposed to belong to last year’s Planet Hulk, but Tales of Asgard was shelved to cash in on this year’s theatrical Thor film).

The film portrays Thor and his brother Loki as teenagers. The brash and egotistical Thor seeks to find honor by obtaining some magic sword. By doing so, he pisses off the Frost Giants and almost creates a war between them and Asgard. Basically, it’s the first 20 minutes of the theatrical film stretched out into 70 long minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Tales of Asgard is about as boring as a Thor film can be. The animation is barely above Saturday morning cartoon level and the voice actors are as generic as they come. The dialogue suffers from bold delivery. And I mean BOLD DELIVERY. EVERYONE IN THIS MOVIE TALKS BIG. SO BIG, I EXPECT THAT THE ENTIRE SCRIPT WAS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS LIKE THIS.

The film does have decent qualities. The action in the finale is pretty solid, for example. That alone solidifies it’s a better film than the godawful Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. I can’t help but question the fact that this movie had the longest production to release schedule of any of these damned animated films have had, and this is the best they delivered?

To hell with that. Disney, if you read this and intend to get the DTV line moving again, overhaul it. The crew that was working on it at Lionsgate clearly gave up.

[Torgo]

ALL-STAR
SUPERMAN

I wanted to like All-Star Superman. I really, really did, but the entire product is blissfully ignorant of proper storytelling and wanders into its own little world leaving the viewer behind, puzzled as to where the hell any of this is going. And when it does finally reach its conclusion, it doesn’t seem worth the wait. Kind of like Smallville, only more amped up in dramatic pauses and stilted dialogue. Hell, I didn’t even think that was possible. Smallville reigned supreme in that department for a long time.

The whole affair starts out with a thoroughly confusing opening sequence taking place around the Earth’s sun, where one random event happens after another, and I can’t make heads or tails of what exactly is going on. The characters try to explain it, but only manage to make things worse. One of my biggest pet peeves in storytelling is when you make something so ridiculously complex that you need to explain everything that happens in dialogue littered throughout.

“Where’s that shield coming from?”
“It’s Superman! He’s extending his bio-electric field somehow!”

…

Um…what?

I swear, sometimes I just want to take a movie aside, smack it across the face, and tell it to shut the f*** up.

Anyway, the whole thing was a diabolical plan by Lex Luthor to get Superman too close to the sun and overexpose him to his power source. Superman’s cells start to explode, he is dying. The tale of a seemingly immortal character dealing with his mortality is a great idea for a story done in an unfortunately frustrating way.

I have one expectation of any film I watch, and that’s that it must stand on its own two legs. All-Star Superman owes too much to knowledge of Superman lore, leaving those who are only familiar with part of it completely lost. Subplot builds upon subplot builds upon subplot, most of which come out of nowhere and aren’t very well conceived. The most interesting comes early on, in which Superman reveals his identity to Lois Lane. Then it sours up as she gets paranoid for some annoyingly convoluted reason and tries to kill him. When that doesn’t work out, she gets his powers for a day and they foreplay by kicking ass in Metropolis. I can’t get behind a story that shifts its ideas so suddenly on a whim.

All-Star Superman then goes on several random misadventures, including evading Parasite in a prison, a couple of Kryptonians conquer Earth (Buh? It’s not even Zod? Boo!), and a final battle with Lex Luthor. None of them have any lasting impact and all succeeded in boring me to no end (though I will say they actually managed to make Parasite freaky).

I haven’t read the comic book version of All-Star Superman, and after watching this chore, I don’t intend to. I have nothing against episodic storytelling, I just ask it be done well. The only point of All-Star Superman that generated any reaction from me was its final moments as Superman meets his fate and Lois Lane sits in shock on a bench waiting for him to return. That only succeeded in reminding me how good this story could have been if it weren’t so poorly told.

Awards

Best Director
Silver Award
Sam Liu

To give credit where credit is due, I really dig the look of this movie. It has a bright pallet and it’s easy on the eyes. A lot of the artwork, which I’m sure was done to mirror the comic’s, looks quite beautiful.

Liu directed a very calm movie, focusing little on action and more on character. For the most part he succeeds, and it’s not his fault the script sucks.

Worst Performance by a Sidekick
Whoever (the credits don’t say) as Robot 7

Granted, this is a fault of the screenplay rather than the actor, but in one of the most hilariously pathetic moments in superhero film history, one of Superman’s pet robots suddenly confesses his sins out of nowhere and states “ROBOT 7 MUST ATONE!” When this happened, I just about died laughing. The entire idea is just so abysmal, to explain why would just be a waste of time.

Because of that, I’m going to leave Robot 7 alone. He’s still going to get this award, but the poor dope has suffered enough.

Worst Screenplay
Dwayne McDuffie

It pains me to give a post-humus middle finger to someone (Dwayne McDuffie died mere days before the release of this movie), but I’m going to rationalize that the issues with the script most likely lied with the source material. I’m pretty sure McDuffie just abridged it.

If there was anything about the comic left out that made this awful story better, I don’t know what it is, but it’s hard to imagine what it could be. This cluttered up character drama needs a janitor, because it’s all over the place. The last thing it needed was more bulls*** nonsense tossed in it.

[Torgo]

PRIEST

Scott Stewart’s directorial debut, Legion (also starring Paul Bettany), was one of the most entertaining so-bad-it’s-good films in recent memory. His sophomore effort, Priest, doesn’t disappoint in being a laughable mess, but it isn’t as fun.

Based on a comic series from Korea, Priest displays a post-apocalyptic future overrun by vampires in which men of God have been trained as the badass warriors to protect the people. Think of it as Blade meets Constantine meets Jonah Hex, only the hero is more melodramatically depressed and definitely doesn’t get laid as much. This particular Priest (played by Paul Bettany, who superhero nerds will recognize as the voice of Jarvis in the Iron Man series) is out to prove that the vampire menace, thought to be long over, is still very much alive, meanwhile duking it out with a former ally-turned-vampire Karl Urban (who is playing the title character in the upcoming Judge Dredd reboot and challenged Vin Deisel in the futuristic superhero thriller the Chronicles of Riddick). Urban hams it up to his full glory here. One can look directly in his eyes and see he very well knows he’s in a bad movie, and as long as he’s here he’s going to live it up.

The movie also features Maggie Q and Brad “Chucky” Douriff. Now if those two had been the leads, this would have been the greatest movie ever. Oh yeah, and there’s a little known actor named Christopher Plummer. Good luck knowing who he is.

There’s not a whole lot to say about this movie because it is what it is. Either you’ll succumb to its doofus charms or you don’t. It has solid action, cool effects, and a script that tries to kill your brain. I got my kicks out of it, but I can’t deny what it is. But it’s hard to hate a movie where every crucifix is a switchblade.

[Torgo]

THE
GREEN
HORNET

You know, the Green Hornet wouldn’t be so obnoxious if it wasn’t called the Green Hornet. I gave this film a lot of benefits of the doubt, and even after the casting of Seth Rogen made the news, I was still hoping for a pure blooded adaptation of this hero.

Instead I got Seth Rogen’s satirization of the superhero genre using a hero that honestly deserves better than this. If Rogen had created his own hero (much like James Gunn’s vastly superior superhero comedy Super), then I would have accepted this for what it is, a goofball belly laugh comedy. Instead it’s a nutkick to Green Hornet fans and really only a service to Seth Rogan fans. Granted the latter is probably larger than the former, but as an admirer of the Hornet (and not-so-much an admirer of Rogen), I can’t help but feel like Rogen and the gang just gave me the finger.

Michel Gondry is a director that got a lot of heads nodding in approval when he made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie I’m sad to admit I haven’t seen, though it’s been on my to-do list for quite some time. Instead my only subjection to the man has been the awful Jack Black/Mos Def comedy Be Kind, Rewind, which I found to be a pointless exorcise of a vague idea. Gondry already hasn’t impressed me as a comedy director, but the decision of using him as an action director is equally puzzling, as the movie caters to post-production 3D with bizarre popping effects (at one point Kato jumps over the hood of a car, only to have a dozen cars suddenly appear before him. 2D experience for this is WTF?).

All of this aside, the movie isn’t a total loss. Some of the jokes work (especially in the case of two characters who will be honored in my “awards” list), though a grand amount of them are just lame. Even the action starts to spice up at the climax of the film, which actually gives me hope for any sequel this film might have, even if the comedy element is retained. Maybe they can actually make a solid superhero movie next time.

The main problem though lies with the humor of the heroes. It does everything in its power to disgrace the legacy of the Green Hornet. In Green Hornet lore, the Hornet was the brains and Kato was the brawn. The movie pokes fun at this by making the primary joke “Kato does everything and Hornet does jack.”

To that I pose the question “Then why the hell is this the Green Hornet?”

Awards


Best Performance by a Supervillain
Silver Award
Christoph Waltz as Chudnofsky/Bloodnofsky

Here is one bright spot in this movie that shows that it actually had promise. Waltz is absolutely hilarious as the mid-life crisis kingpin Chudnofsky. In his old age, he feels as if he’s lost his intimidation, so he takes the name “Bloodnofsky” and dresses entirely in red to contrast that of the emerald superhero that has taken the town by storm.

This is truly a brilliantly conceived role for a villain, and Waltz plays it amazingly. He hits all the right notes it needs, including the vulnerable lack of understanding of how times have changed, yet never losing the dangerous touch that every good villain needs.

The only reason I’d ever watch this movie again is to witness Waltz again, and honestly I look forward to it. Too bad I have to sit through the rest of the movie to do so.

Best Performance by a Non-Hero or Villain
Silver Award
James Franco as Danny “Crystal” Clear

Franco, who made a name for himself playing Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, makes a fantastic cameo at the beginning of the movie playing off of Christoph Waltz. In the role of Danny Clear, he plays a kingpin wannabe who sits Chudnofsky down and explains to him how old he is, possibly setting himself up to be the villain of the movie, until Chudnofsky shows off that age doesn’t mean as much as Clear thinks it does.

Franco’s role in the film is pretty much to do a tough guy monologue and then snivel like a baby. But he does it so well. It’s pretty painful to see him leave the movie so soon, but as a brief foil to Christoph Waltz, we got something special.

Worst Performance by a Superhero
Seth Rogen as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet

I gave Seth Rogen the biggest benefit of the doubt I’ve ever given, and I’m one of the people who supported Brett Ratner during the production of X-Men: The Last Stand (I mean, the guy directed Red Dragon for Christ’s sake! There was some hope!). With Rogen, I had absolutely no reason to believe in him, but I at least tried. Interviews had stated he was taking the role seriously, and I believed them. He got into shape for the role, and I respected that. Then I saw the movie, and honestly Mr. Rogen, go to hell.

My biggest problem with Rogen is that he built a career on playing roles that anybody could play. Then he got the role of the Green Hornet, where he could actually could prove something to both himself and the audience. What does he do? He turns it into a role anybody can play.

Almost all of the problems in the movie stem back to Rogen. He plays the superhero in a way it shouldn’t have been played, he gives off a lot of the most groan worthy lines in the movie, and he even helped pen the script. When you have so much riding on your shoulders, it’s easy to collapse. But Rogen brought nothing to this movie. And he gave nothing. Is it wrong for me to expect something?

[Torgo]

GREEN
LANTERN
EMERALD KNIGHTS

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Fanbase choice for the live action role of Hal Jordan, Nathon Fillion, gets the animated voice-over as a consolation prize in this mediocre feature film tie-in. Though it is done with the same character models and animation style of the infinitely superior Green Lantern: First Flight from 2009, it obviously doesn’t share continuity with it (seeing how Sinestro is a Lantern again and whatnot). It is implied that it might be a continuation of the feature film, but is loose enough that it doesn’t really have to be.

Much like Batman: Gotham Knights, Emerald Knights is an anthology of short stories. Hal Jordan takes new recruit Arisia under his wing and tells her a series of stories involving various members of the Green Lantern Corps, including fan favorites Abin Sur, Sinestro, and Kilowog. These stories are designed to teach Arisia the power of will and overcoming the odds. The most engaging story comes halfway through as Hal tells an adventure of a Lantern named Laira, who battles her own family in a series of spectacularly choreographed action sequences.

It’s pretty standard fare, and it’s not bad by any means, but it’s not all that entertaining or engaging. It feels very underdone, like the idea wasn’t fully developed when they decided to execute it. Of course, it was made on the deadline of the impending release of the feature film, which probably supports that theory. And it’s recycled character models don’t disprove it either.

[Torgo]

GREEN LANTERN

It wasn’t a good year for superheroes associated with the color green. I should have seen it coming the minute I saw Green Hornet back in January. But Green Lantern is a film I was looking forward to very much, because DC’s films don’t have enough diversity. If the hero isn’t Batman or Superman, who gives a crap? They went outside those two for bombs like Steel, Supergirl, and Catwoman, and did dozens of graphic novel adaptations, but seriously, where’s Wonder Woman? What about the Flash? He’s pretty popular.

I might be in the minority on this, but I’d really like to see a movie based around Black Canary. Sure, it might not be financially successful, but I can’t help but think it would be a whole lot of fun.

Finally we got Green Lantern, who is a pretty interesting hero, so I was happy with their choice for their next big hero franchise. The intergalactic beat cop angle has always intrigued me, and the scope is nothing short of epic. The promise of a movie based around the Lantern Corps has the potential to be the most unique and original superhero take on film.

Instead the filmmakers create a movie that caters to every cliché in the book, even the ones that Green Lantern can easily soar above. Why is Green Lantern dicking around on Earth when there are far stronger journeys that can be made? Even at the clichés it executes it doesn’t execute them well. When Green Lantern makes his debut in front of human beings, everyone stares at him wide eyed, seeing their very first superhero, then the movie proceeds with a “eh, who cares?” attitude. What a waste.

To be fair, Green Lantern isn’t as bad as the reputation that precedes it, but if you genuinely think it’s a good movie, I can’t help but feel you’re kidding yourself. Very little about the movie goes the extra mile to become anything memorable, as it very much seems that DC and Warner Brothers examined the most popular Marvel franchises, which would be Spider-Man and Iron Man, and tried to fuse them together with a hero that doesn’t suit their tone well at all.

Hence the casting of Ryan Reynolds as the hero, who has a natural charisma and a dry wit. The studio no doubt thought they were casting a Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, but in all actuality Reynolds looks out of his league the entire film. I like Ryan, and I am fully in support of his use in a Deadpool movie (name one person who could play the character better, I dare you), and while his casting had out-of-the-box echoes of Michael Keaton as Batman, he never seems to be taking the role that seriously.

In fact, that seems to be the problem with the film as a whole. Nobody seems to care. Which is sad, because the special features on the Blu-Ray show a lot of passion, but why is none of this in the actual movie? Director Martin Campbell has done some great work in the past, but you’d never know it by watching this movie. Where did all the effort go?

More importantly, where did all the money go? At a $200 million budget, the film does look stunning, but movies twice as visually appealing have been made with half the budget. Reportedly the film also carried a $100 million price tag on advertising, which isn’t a part of that total. That might be the problem with the studio’s decision to make it. They were too busy telling people they wanted to see it instead of making a movie they wanted to see. So the movie bombed, and now they’re paying the piper.

What’s kind of bizarre to think about, though, is that despite box office to budget performance, domestically outside of Batman and Superman, Green Lantern is the highest grossing movie DC has made yet, and second highest worldwide (just mere millions below Constantine). If there’s a lesion to be learned here it’s that restraint should be kept, but trying something new isn’t a bad thing.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
For those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power, Green Lantern’s light.

That is the oath of the Corps. The trouble is, with this movie, Green Lantern has found his “Blackest Night.” If he’s worth anything he’ll survive this and deliver something grand next time. If not, let the Corps die. You know, along with just about everybody in Coast City at the end of this movie (Rule 1 of a superhero movie: Don’t make the superhero completely suck at his job).

Awards


Best Performance by a Sidekick
Silver Award
Michael Clarke Duncan as Kilowog

The most entertaining portion of the film is no doubt Hal being trained on Oa. One can point to the pitch perfect voice casting of Duncan as the reason why.

Duncan previously played the Kingpin in 2003’s misunderstood superhero film Daredevil, where he had the build but not the tint. He was very largely criticized for being a black man playing a comic character that has always been white. But Duncan is a fairly strong actor, and regardless of whether his skin color matches the character being portrayed, he’s always a grand presence in any movie. Duncan also played the villainous lackey Balrog in the fighting game based Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li.

As Kilowog, Duncan is left behind a microphone, and the filmmakers let the bass in his voice do the work. The delivery is excellent, and it’s by far the best portrayal in the movie. His fight scene with Hal has gusto and humor, as the Drill Sargent breaks in his trainee. There’s too much fun here, and it’s a shame the rest of the film didn’t live up to this promise.

Worst Score
James Newton Howard

There’s one thing that DC’s films always excelled Marvel’s at, it was the score work. DC exploded out of the gate with John William’s Superman theme and Danny Elfman’s work on the Batman franchise. Hell, even the Batman themes of Elliot Goldenthal were pretty fun. Meanwhile, Marvel struggled for years, even after hiring Elfman several times and failing miserably to provide anything memorable for Spider-Man or the Hulk (by contrast for the latter, Craig Armstrong’s score for the Incredible Hulk is pretty good. A little awkward at first, but it had grown on me over time).

I was looking forward to hearing what the Green Lantern theme would sound like. Howard’s previous work included teamwork with Hans Zimmer on the themes for Batman Begins and the Dark Knight, which were both pretty good. But after hearing Green Lantern, it’s clear why Howard needed Zimmer.

Uneventful, unexciting, and even downright childish are the best words to describe Howard’s work on this film. It sounds about the quality of a direct to video release. And while I do have a few direct to video flicks on this list, at least I have lower expectations for them. This one had no excuse, becoming one of the most dull and ill-fitting movie and music combinations for a superhero flick since John Ottman’s bombastic and monotonous score for X2.

This isn’t the only superhero score Howard has provided this year. He also did the Green Hornet, but it’s painful to think that that score is actually above average, even if it is a worse movie.

That said I retain hope for his work on the Dark Knight Rises next year. The Batman themes throughout the years have been the most consistent in superhero lore, even if they’re ever changing. But he needs to stay away from the Lanterns.

[Torgo]

It's time to sing-a-long!



Honorable mention


SMALLVILLE
Finale

Let it be known that this isn’t a serious contender for anything because technically it’s not a movie, just two episodes of a television show stapled together for feature film effect, even though both halves feel entirely different. But Smallville is the longest running superhero series in the history of television, so neglecting it’s feature length ending seems a bit disrespectful. If I were to rank it, this would be the approximate spot.

10 years of angst and whining (and listening to the opening screeching of “SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”) has all led to this. Clark Kent finally accepts his destiny of dressing up in blue tights, throwing on a cape, and prancing around Metropolis. Was that so hard?

Well, for Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it apparently was. I swear to god, these two were the kings of procrastination. Every attempt at progress the series attempted was just an excuse for them to snap it back and start at square one. How many times to I have to watch Clark drone on about his great destiny and turn his back on it? Apparently well over 200 times.

Finally, Smallville comes to an end and Clark puts on the most iconic of all superhero uniforms to kick some Darkseid ass. It has blemishes, but ultimately the end to this long running superhero series was soft, but satisfying.

The buildup? Lois Lane and Clark Kent are to be married, but the impending happy day has done nothing to slow down the villainous Darkseid, whose home world of Apokalyps is approaching Earth’s orbit in an effort to conquer the planet. The Justice League isn’t up to the challenge of facing the ultimate evil, and Clark must discover his true potential for the Earth to survive.

On the flip side, an alternate dimension’s Lionel Luthor plays Frankenstein by stitching together clone bodies of the long deceased Lex Luthor, bringing Clark’s fated ultimate nemesis back to life. Michael Rosenbaum’s return to the series has been a long time coming, and it’s good to see he cared enough to come back. Unfortunately his return is anticlimactic, as he only has two or three real scenes in the second half, and unfortunately it feels as if the episode might have been stronger had he chosen not to return. Lex gives a dramatic speech about their future as enemies, setting up the Superman legacy up rather well, but ultimately drowns in his final scene where he confronts his scheming sister Tess Mercer. Tess infects Lex with a drug that wipes his memory clean, meaning he won’t remember anything that happened in the series run.

So…I have to ask, because this bugs the hell out of me…the series developed this character to the point where he’s about to embrace his own legacy and they choose to end it by wiping all away? Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea? It effectively ruins Lex’s return to the point that you wish they just didn’t bother.

Otherwise, the series wraps itself up fairly well. The climax is mildly disappointing, as there’s never a real clear body shot of Superman (it’s usually a close up of his face or a far away CG model), but seeing how the focus of the series was on Clark and not Superman, the artistic reasons behind this are something I can live with. What does bother me is the lacking sense of wonder in his debut. Usually when Superman makes an entrance he is accompanied by the optimistic spectators gaping their mouths in awe. That sense is unfortunately absent from Superman’s grand debut on this series which revolved around it.

Minor nitpicks also include an extremely weird prologue and epilogue featuring Chloe Sullivan reading to her son a comic titled “Smallville” which chronicles Clark becoming Superman. But if the world doesn’t know Clark is Superman, how can such a comic exist?

Strengths? It’s good to see a lot of old faces again. In addition to Michael Rosenbaum; John Schneider, Annette O’Toole, John Glover, and Aaron Ashmore all make cameo appearances. MIA are Kristen Kruek (last seen in Season 8), Sam Jones III (last seen in season 6), Eric Johnson (character died in season 2), Jenson Ackles (character died in season 4), Laura Vandervoort (did appear earlier in the season), Sam Witwer (character died in season 8), and Callum Blue (did appear earlier in the season), but we can’t have everything now can we? Though I will express disappointment that Michael McKean didn’t return as Perry White. I would have given my left nut to see him take over the Daily Planet at some point in this finale.

There’re also a lot of fun money-shots here. Clark finally being able to fly is a great (if too sudden) moment. Clarks final scene in the Fortress of Solitude is terrific. I also love the ending in the future, ending with Clark on the rooftop opening his shirt to reveal the S-emblem to the tune of John Williams’ Superman theme.

Trust me, I especially treasured Williams’ theme. If the rumors are true and Hans Zimmer is starting from scratch on the themes for Man of Steel in 2013, this might be the last time we hear it in the film medium. It’s a classic, and I love it.

Was the payoff worth the wait? I’m hesitant to say yes. Smallville has had some genuinely great moments, but at its heart its storytelling has been sloppy at best, and its final season on the whole definitely wasn’t close to being a high point in the series. The super curious may want to Netflix the final disc to see what we’ve all been waiting for, but to sit through over 200 episodes might seem to be a bit much. Though, as a superhero nerd, I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve seen every episode of this series all for this moment. I didn’t get the sendoff I probably would have done, but it works well for the series it accompanies.

[Torgo]

PUSS IN BOOTS

Dreamworks’ Puss in Boots is a character that I love, but also one I don’t get. Why in the world would such a powerhouse warrior of Fairy Tale Land be spending his free time with Shrek and his friends? I love watching the character, but there really isn’t a lot of logic behind him as he became included in sequel after sequel due to popularity. Puss is a character that never lived up to his full potential in the Shrek series, and finally he’s given his own film to shine…and he’s still not living up to his full potential.

Now in his own film, Puss (Antonio Banderas) is an outlaw desperate to clear his name, and accepts an offer from former comrade Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) and his feisty feline partner Kitty Softpaws (reuniting Banderas with his Desperado costar Salma Hayek) to steal magic beans from notorious outlaws Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris). Together they plan to grow a beanstalk to the giant’s castle, steal the Golden Goose, and bring prosperity to their hometown.

The feline anti-hero shines brightly in the action scenes, but the plotting is obvious and the humor, while cute for children, is fairly forced. As an admirer of the Shrek series, I was expecting something sharper from their spin-off, which had the potential to feel fresher, but it doesn’t feel as if they settled on the right story. I guessed every plot point and every gag several minutes before it happened, making the film feel a bit half-assed.

It’s kind of fun though, making it one of the better superhero films this year. And let’s face it, as far as heroes played by Banderas are concerned, it’s definitely better than the Legend of Zorro or any of the El Mariachi movies. I’ll give the cat credit for that.

[Torgo]

BATMAN
YEAR ONE

Despite his legendhood among the world of comic books, when I see “Frank Miller” stamped on a film project, I feel a sense of dread. Sin City may very well be my most hated film ever, and 300 didn’t fare any better in my eyes, either. I feel the entire world would be best off forgetting the Miller-penned-and-directed the Spirit, which I thankfully wasn’t alone in being repulsed by.

Admittedly I need to read more comics, though most of my money nowadays goes to other things ensuring if I ever do, it’ll be a long way off. I’m sorry to say I haven’t read Batman: Year One, though I have had it on my mind for quite a while. The faithfulness of this animated adaptation is something I can’t comment on as a result, though one imagines it’s probably more faithful than the long dead feature film adaptation from a decade ago probably would have been (at different times rumored to be directed by Joel Schumacher or Darren Aronofsky). Year One finally gets its own feature film in DC’s animated film department, and the results are middling but passable.

Surprisingly slow paced for a film that is only 60 minutes long, Year One is yet another retelling of the rise of Batman’s war on crime in Gotham City. After Tim Burton’s Batman and Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins one can’t help but wonder if it was worth hearing a third time. The answer is probably not, but the comic is so beloved that fans will most likely not care. This doesn’t tread anything more interesting than what Burton and Nolan already covered, though Year One has a more psychological aura in its delivery due to its endless ping-pong-back-and-forth narration between billionaire vigilante Bruce Wayne and frustrated police lieutenant Jim Gordon. The inside-the-head approach keeps the viewer interested, though it helps if you’re a long established fan of these characters.

In delivery, the film is stilted. The animation is stiff and almost hurts your eyes. Like All-Star Superman before it, it’s obvious that the film is trying to recreate the panels of the comic, however of all I detracted from All-Star Superman, at least the animation there felt more than a motion comic. Batman: Year One’s quality is slightly above, but mostly feels lazy (every character seems to only have one facial expression). The voice acting does it no favors either. Everyone sounds either bored or stoned. This is most likely done to reflect the tone of the story, but it fails miserably at it.

But the story works. Batman’s origins are a timeless tale and they’re hard to screw up, so the strength of the source material does carry the film above its shortcomings. It’s undoubtedly the best of the direct to video batch we’ve gotten this year, but seeing how this was the same studio that delivered Wonder Woman and Batman: Under the Red Hood, I can’t help but be disappointed in the quality dip.

For those disappointed in how little Eliza Dushku’s Catwoman is featured in the film, there’s a short film all to herself included on the Year One disc. It’s more energetic and fun than the feature film, and I daresay it’s Catwoman as I hope she’ll be portrayed in the Dark Knight Rises next year. As a minor off-note of this, had anything from Dushku's performance in the short been featured in the actual film, she would have been up for one of my awards. Unfortunately I have to shaft her. She's pretty damned good, but it was showcased in something I can't count.

[Torgo]

SUPER

There’s a lot to recommend in Super, but it’s very hard to actually recommend it. People who had a hard time watching Kick-Ass will get nothing from this movie, except it might make them long for Kick-Ass’s cartoonishness. Super also tells the tale of a man who dares to be the world’s first superhero, and it’s also a tale told in a very brutal fashion. It’s a much heavier, angrier film than Kick-Ass, making it inarguably weaker.

But still…if you like dark humor, or even James Gunn’s previous film Slither, it’s you’ll get quite a bit out of it.

The film features an all-star cast of superhero veterans: Rainn Wilson (Monsters vs. Aliens, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Ellen Page (X-Men: The Last Stand), Liv Tyler (the Incredible Hulk), Kevin Bacon (X-Men: First Class), and Nathon Fillion (Wonder Woman, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, the upcoming Justice League: Doom). Wilson plays a human door mat who has had his wife (Tyler) taken away by drug lord Bacon. Unable to accept that maybe his wife has left him for someone else, he becomes the Crimson Bolt. With his pipe wrench of justice, his eager comic book nerd sidekick Boltie (Page), and his battle cry of “SHUT UP, CRIME!,” he takes his battle to get her back to the streets.

However, the Crimson Bolt’s idea of fighting crime is mostly just beating the living hell out of people who annoy him. Those squeamish of violent images such as the Crimson Bolt beating someone in the head with a wrench for cutting in line and running away, meanwhile while the victim is screaming bloody murder should stay away from this movie, because it’s full of imagery like that. When Crimson Bolt finally does fight some actual crime, he finds himself somewhat unprepared for it. After all, the bad guys have guns. All he has is a red suit and a wrench.

I greatly enjoyed this movie, honestly, if only for one character in particular (see below). There’s a lot of good laughs in it and Rainn Wilson is perfectly cast (those who love him on the Office will love him here). The plain and simple truth of the matter is that after I was done watching it, I wanted to watch it again. The movie has one inadequacy that makes me think lesser of it than I want to, and that is it starts out shameless and kind of cowers in its own shadow as it goes on. The movie starts out by implying that our hero is really just a man who went off the deep end, but by the end it kind of chickens out and tries to convince us that maybe he was right about his wife being kidnapped all along. The ending sequence kind of kills the movie for me, as feels kind of cluttered and inconclusive of what actually happened.

Personally, I like to think that a lot what happened after the climax all happened in Rainn Wilson’s head, and he’s actually sitting in a mental institution somewhere awaiting trial. That’s not actually in the movie, but it would have made the ending seem more logical.

Awards


Best Performance by a Sidekick
Gold Award
Ellen Page as Libby/Boltie

“That’s what you get for f***ing with the Crimson Bolt and Boltie, you stupid c***sucker! AND NOW YOUR LEGS ARE GONE! Oh, you too? It’s called internal bleeding, f***er! And then you die! You tell everyone you know that anytime some stupid f***ing bastard wants to commit some gay-ass crime, that Crimson Bolt and Boltie are going to be there to crush their little f***ing evil heads in!”

From the moment Page is introduced as a superhero know-it-all that works in a comic shop (one that will make all nerds state “I want! I want!”) to the point where she becomes an all-out sociopath, Ellen Page absolutely makes this movie.

Boltie and the Crimson Bolt have one of the most creative and bizarrely humorous relationships in superhero history. The girl, Libby, is a superhero nerd with an encyclopedic knowledge of comics. When research needs to be done about powerless superheroes and how they fight crime, Libby lists off her recommendations: Batman, Green Arrow, Catwoman, ect. She also gets flustered when she mentions Iron Man, since he has a super-suit, and screams in frustration when she accidentally lists Captain America, even though he’s a super soldier. Those who know their heroes will find it difficult not to develop a crush on her.

As the movie goes on, she becomes downright scary. She becomes obsessed with the Crimson Bolt and forces herself on him as his faithful sidekick, Boltie. She is very infatuated with him, not because of who he is, but what he is: The world’s first superhero. As a girl who no doubt dreamed of this day, being his right hand man made her loins tingle. There’s even a point in the movie where she walks out in nothing but the top of her costume and seductively says “Wanna fight some crime?”

I think this superhero relationship is a warped play on the homoerotic interpretations many humorously make of Batman and Robin. It’s definitely a relationship between hero and sidekick that would make history, probably the first time a sidekick attempts to rape the hero they serve.

I hope Rainn Wilson enjoyed that scene. The last thing I expected was a sex scene between him and indie-princess Ellen Page. Juno has definitely grown up.

[Torgo]

TRANSFORMERS
DARK OF THE MOON

I’m not going to recommend this film to those who hated the first two. That would be a waste of time, both yours and mine. If you hated those two, you’re going to hate this one. It’s that simple.

I can tell you what I got out of this film, as a Transformers fan from the 80’s who found the original a watchable disappointment and the sequel a torturous exorcise in excess with brief shining moments (all featuring childhood favorites Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream). I sat down to watch the third film as a loyalty to the brand name (I still watch the cartoons every now and then, most often Beast Wars), even if it was a brand name I had lost faith in, thank you very much John Tuturro and dangling robot testicles. What I got was a sweeping, if stupid, action epic that took me for the ride I was hoping for when I watched the original. It’s not the perfect Transformers movie, but it’s the closest director Michael Bay has gotten thusfar, and if I have to settle, then I’ll take it.

Not all plot elements of the film make sense. In fact, almost nothing about the film makes sense. Even if you bought the mythology of transforming robots, a lot of the details the film tries to make us buy come into direct contradiction to quite a bit that the first two films told us. Megatron’s alliance with Sentinel Prime and their plot to use the Earth to help rebuild Cybertron seems pointless when Megatron’s master, the Fallen, was out to destroy the Earth in the previous film. And why giant-assed robots need teeny-tiny frail human beings as slave labor is anybody’s guess.

You know, for a planet that was supposedly “unknown” in the first film, so much crap on Cybertron seems to revolve around Earth.

Don’t get me started on how the existence of the Autobots and Decepticons is still a secret after the Fallen announced their existence to the entire world in the previous film. Even after wiping Chicago off the map, I halfway expect the Transformers to still be in hiding should a Transformers 4 be made. Something tells me the screenwriters are just that stupid.

Where Dark of the Moon succeeds is being a balls-to-the-wall thrill-ride from start to finish. The action is some of the finest of the series, and finally we get to see an all-out war between the Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticons themselves are positively merciless in the movie, wiping out defenseless humans left and right. Certain sequences in this film brought back memories of Paralax’s descent on Coast City in Green Lantern, a sequence that honestly kind of pissed me off as the hero was out romancing his love interest while people were being eaten up like we were the universe’s biggest buffet. However, in Dark of the Moon the idea is used much more effectively as the weight of the situation is felt in the actual movie, which was something I never got from Green Lantern.

Though I will admit, the Autobots in hiding while this happens to teach our government a lesson? Optimus, you’re my boy, but you’re kind of a dick.

The humor is less prominent in the film, thanks to a somber tone. There are a few groan worthy bits in the film, such as an Asian guy who I’m told is popular because he was in the Hangover (I’ve seen the film, but honestly have tried to forget it’s unimpressive lameness), but at least he has the decency to do whatever it is he does and then bow out of the film. This is more than I can say for select characters in the first two films. The human characters themselves are just as uninspired as they’ve always been. Shia LaBeouf still does his hyperactive chipmunk routine, and Megan Fox has been replaced with the new upgraded model hot chick, action star Jason Statham’s girlfriend Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, who has a nice ass, but not much else.

I really like this movie. I should probably be ashamed of it, but I’m not. The wonky alien invasion craziness got me to grin like a five-year-old watching my cartoons. Though, I’m still convinced that Michael Bay should be kept as far away from this franchise as possible, since he seems unable to approach it from any direction except self-parody. Luckily, rumor has it that he might be out of the picture meanwhile the franchise is most definitely going to continue, thanks to its box office success. Here’s hoping it can finally reach its potential out of the wrong hands.

Awards


Best Performance by a Supervillain
Gold Award
Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime

Spoooooooooooooooooock!

Nimoy played Galvatron (an upgraded Megatron) in the original and still best Transformers movie back in the 80s. Ever since the Michael Bay movies started, he was always said to be in the cards for some role, most notably the Fallen in the second film. The fact that he is related to Bay didn't hurt these rumors either. Nimoy, who has said he was eager to return to the franchise, finally gets another shot. I would have cast him as Unicron, myself (seemed fitting, since Unicron was the creator of Galvatron) but I must say I approve of the role he was ultimately given.

Sentinel is an elder Prime who is the mentor of Optimus. He escaped from Cybertron in the heat of battle, but unknown to the Autobots, he had double dealings with Megatron. When he is finally descovered by the surviving Autobots, he betrays them, even killing a few (in the novelization, he kills Mudflaps and Skids brutally, and the world rejoiced. Scene was cut from the final film, because the Twins were so unpopular that nobody wanted them back. Not even to die). He leads the Decepticons on a brutal rampage through Chicago, where the epic climax takes place.

Being both hero and villain at the same time is tricky. With Nimoy's noble tone, it's easier to swallow. Sentinel is memorable, even if you fail to buy the backstory (and I don't blame you if you don't).

Best Performance by a Lackey
Gold Award
Charles Adler as Starscream

As sucky as the first two Transformers films were, for long time G1 fans they got at least three things right: Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream. These three character portrayals were greatly pleasing, and they make the films worth watching more than once.

Normally, I'd put all three of them up for awards again, and believe me I considered honoring Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving for Optimus and Megatron, but I decided only to give Adler props in this go around. Why? Because in the third film, Optimus is an asshole and Megatron is a puss. Starscream? Still a wicked little devil.

My one complaint about him in this movie is that they gave him a death scene. I didn't want to see him die! And if he did have to snuff it, it should have been at the hand of Megatron. Instead, it's at the hand of Shia LaF***ingBeouf. How weak is that?

Best Performance by a Lackey
Silver Award
Frank Welker as Soundwave

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Soundwave didn't really do jack. He sucked up a satellite, said a few lines, and sent Ravage to tear some s*** up. In Dark of the Moon, Soundwave not only cuts loose, he's more kickass than Soundwave has ever been! When he executed Que in the final battle, chills went up my spine.

Soundwave's given another minion in this film, this time Laserbeak, who is ruined by giving him the totally unnecessary power of speech. Oh well. Can't have everything.

Best Performance by a Lackey
Bronze Award
Frank Welker as Shockwave

It's a full sweep! That's how awesome the Decepticons are in this movie! And two of these prizes are claimed by the same actor! Behold the power of Welker!

To be honest, I've never been a big Shockwave fan. In G1, he always hung out on Cybertron and jerked around. In Dark of the Moon, he is the epitome of epic. He tears buildings down with his pet cyber-tentacle and gives the Autobots a run for their money...by himself.

S***. I'm just going to admit it, I wanted the Decepticons to win. Anybody who is this hardcore is worth bowing down to.

[Mighty Jack]

The word "best" can never, ever be used in association with a Transformers movie. I believe it's a Federal law... unless you speak in antonyms.

So that makes it official. You are no longer allowed to give me a hard time about the Hulk.

Oh - and I dug Super too, so that's cool (though the ending worked for me. Your proposed finish is too cynical for my blood)

[Torgo]

"Best" is a relative term. Technically there has to be a "best" if there's three of them, even if none of them are really that good.

And I can give you all the hard time I want about Hulk. But Howard the Duck trumps them both.

[Torgo]

CAPTAIN AMERICA
THE FIRST AVENGER

Hail to the Star Spangled Man!

It was difficult to really know how well Captain America: The First Avenger would turn out. Director Joe Johnston’s track record has been spotty at best. Jumanji and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids are childhood favorites of mine, I’ll admit, but recent work such as Jurassic Park III and the Wolfman have failed to live up to their full potential. Even the film that solidified Johnston as the man for the job, the Rocketeer, is far from a favorite. Others will disagree, but I was far from wowed by it. The casting of Chris “Human Torch” Evans wasn’t exactly reassuring (then I saw his performance in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and thought just maybe he could pull it off).

The final product is a rip-roaring adventure film of the highest caliber. Evans pulls off a performance I never thought he’d be capable of several years ago, and actually plays it straight. The boy scout, black and white of good and evil route has been outdated in recent years, but in this period piece adventure film it was actually the right road to take. While it might treat several aspects of it with tongue-in-cheek (most notably Cap’s turn in the middle as a glorified USO Girl), it both respects its own source material and that of the brutal reality of World War II, while hailing the propaganda that fueled these dark years . It’s kind of a fantastic achievement as it walks a very thin line and succeeds.

The entire movie is one of the most fun rides I’ve taken all year, as it honors the heroic serials of old up to modern day actioneers such as Indiana Jones and GI Joe. This is exactly the type of film I enjoy, and I hope to see many more of them in the future. It’s hard to tell if the Captain America franchise will provide these thrills, though, as the shift from the past to modern day may prove to be a tone-killer, but I’m hoping for the best.

Awards


Best Performance by a Superhero
Bronze Award
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America

Gotta admit, that Evans kid really pulled it off. He was a highlight of the Fantastic Four series (especially his repartee with Michael Chiklis) but I never really seriously considered him an actual actor, even after other Superhero performances in TMNT and Push.

Evans looks phenomenal in costume and pulls off the humble “just the kid from Brooklyn” angle. Captain America has definitely become a franchise to watch just to see Evans alone. The finale between Steve and Peggy is genuinely moving, most notably because of the fine performances featured.

I adore gusto in my superhero flicks, and this performance has it in spades. Great job, Chris! Keep up the good work.

Best Performance by a Non-Hero or Villain
Gold Award
Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phelps

Tommy Lee Jones has seen a lot of mixed reviews in the comic book film genre, from playing a wild take on Two-Face in Batman Forever (say what you will, but he had to keep up with Jim Carrey somehow) to his dry, tough as nails contrast to Will Smith as Men in Black’s Agent K (which he is set to reprise again).

Phelps proves to be one of the most delightful supporting characters on film all year, owing a lot to his rock solid straight face. There’s a reason why Leslie Neilson is so damn funny in Airplane! and the Naked Gun, and that’s because a gag and a witty line is always funnier if the character plays it serious. Jones has the same thing going for him, and when he delivers comedy, he knocks it out of the park.

But the actor’s dramatic chops are not lost in the film. The Academy Award winning actor (the Fugitive) flexes more than just his humorous muscle in the film, also displaying the seriousness of war through his body language and tone. Which, in essence, enhances the humor somewhat, he’s funny because he’s not supposed to be funny, if that makes sense.

It’s good to see Tommy in anything honestly. He’s one of my favorite actors, and Captain America reminded me why.

Best Screenplay
Gold Award
Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely

There’s a lot of tricky tones in the film, but it pulls them off well. I have to give a lot of credit to the script, which is breezy, fun, humorous but serious, and gave the film so much to work with.

As a part of the Avengers cycle (or Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it has been referred to on the net), there are a few aspects of the film that don’t stand on their own. However, that was to be expected as the only film in this series that feels as if it can stand on its own is the first, the original Iron Man (which may or may not have been conceived and scripted without planning for the Avengers crossover, though the also 2008 Incredible Hulk obviously was). This is hardly a knock at the screenplay, which does its best to work around obvious winks and setups (something the mediocre Iron Man 2 was unable to do).

The story arc of the film is solid and involving, and Steve’s transformation into Captain America is done brilliantly. All-in-all, this is a well-executed screenplay, and probably one of the strongest in the MCU to date. Hopefully the Avengers lives up to the buildup, but we’ll find out in less than a year.

Best Score
Gold Award
Alan Silvestri

Silvestri’s scores have always been favorites of mine. Back to the Future is probably my all-time favorite score, because it’s one of the few that actually enhances a movie instead of just providing noise. I’m also a fan of his work on Predator and his collaborations with Stephen Sommers on the Mummy Returns and Van Helsing.

A couple years ago he teamed up with Sommers yet again on GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, and I expected the music to be spectacular. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. I was worried the man was losing it, until I heard his score for Captain America.

While the tunes seem to be holding back from developing an actual theme for the character (it comes close, but it never pushes itself that far), the music is wonderful. It intertwines with the film itself to become a glorious whole, something not many scores in Marvel’s lineup do.

Sorry, I ever doubted you, Alan. Thank you for proving me wrong. Alan also recently got the gig to score the Avengers, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.