Captain America does Marvel justice

Finally, they got it right.

I’m not just talking about a secret origin on screen.  Or special effects.  Or great action.  That’s all there.

What I’m talking about is making a superhero movie with heart.

Captain America: The First Avenger has it in spades.

You probably know the story.  It’s World War II, and as Hitler’s Germany tries to overtake the world, Brooklyn’s Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) wants to do his part by joining the fight.  Problem is, he’s 97 lbs soaking wet, asthmatic and unqualified for duty.  No army recruiter will take him, until a chance encounter with an ex-pat scientist named Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) gives him a shot at becoming America’s first super-soldier.  In training, Rogers proves he’s got more heart and guts than his puny body indicates, and Erskine’s procedure imbues him with great strength, speed and agility.

Speaking of strength, one of Captain America’s greatest comes from proving itself against the audience’s most likely conceit.  Going into a movie about a guy dressed in a flag, you know the material could be hokey.  Admitting to that, the film plays along and laughs at itself.  After Erskine is killed following Steve’s procedure, Rogers uses his new abilities to chase down the German spy responsible.  Impressing a local Senator, Steve is offered two choices – be a lab rat so the military can figure out how to duplicate Erskine’s procedure, or become a symbol for a war bond campaign.

Driven by his sense of duty, Rogers steps up as “Captain America” despite being uncomfortable with the title and star-spangled outfit.  As well as he performs in the role, Steve still wants to be fighting on the front lines, and when he learns on a tour stop that one of his oldest friends is trapped in an enemy base, Steve takes it upon himself to mount a rescue while others want to give up.  Succeeding in the rescue, he comes across his eventual nemesis in Johann Schmidt, leader of the Nazi deep science division Hydra and Erskine’s first attempt at making a superhuman, now misshapen as the evil Red Skull.

Steve consistently steps up and proves himself to those around him, including the snarky, doubtful Colonel Chester (Tommy Lee Jones) and SSR agent Peggy Carter, with whom Steve finds something in common.  She’s a capable soldier struggling to overcome the attitudes of a more sexist time, while Steve is a little guy suddenly in a big man’s body trying to do his part.  By proving himself to those around him, Steve also proves himself to the audience.  He’s like Sean Astin in Rudy; he never quits, and you want him to win for his tenacity alone.

What else works in Captain America?  Tommy Lee Jones collects a paycheque with style as Colonel Chester, dryly quipping throughout as only he can, while Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter straddles vulnerable and capable enough to make her extremely likable for reasons beyond filling her period costume perfectly.  The CGI to make Chris Evans a weakling for the film’s first act is flawless, and Joe Johnston’s efforts as director result in a film that’s part nostalgia piece, part superhero epic (complete with nods to other Marvel films) and even part tragedy.  Fans of the comics know how the story ends, but seeing it done with as much emotion as in the film’s final ten minutes punctuated the fact that the director of The Rocketeer was exactly the right choice to handle the material.

Are there flaws?  Sure.  Chris Evans is known for playing more of the smartass role and does well with an understated performance as Steve Rogers, but could have looked like he was enjoying himself as Cap just a bit more. As villainously wonderful as Hugo Weaving is as the villainous Red Skull, you never get to understand exactly why he’s so keen to take over the world with his brand of villainy. Also, the 3D isn’t necessary.  While it worked a bit more for the supernatural elements of Thor, Captain America is still too rooted in reality to warrant the extra dollars at the box office.

In every way that matters, Captain America: The First Avenger works the way many wish all comic book movies would work; it makes the superhuman simply human.  At the end of everything, Captain America is just a man trying to stand up for the little guy and live according to the voice in his heart.

If only we could all do the same.

Captain America: The First Avenger
Starring Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Directed by Joe Johnston
4/5

Transformers: Dark of the Moon best left hidden

To put it bluntly, I was expecting Michael Bay to take a dump in my eye.

I mean that literally.  To see, in Real 3D, a worm’s eye view of the director of Bad Boys and the first two Transformers films press his naked rear against a toilet lid as he unleashes the final result of an all-you-can-eat burrito buffet.

That’s what I expected.  In a lot of ways, that’s what I got.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon sees Michael Bay take a third stab at making Hasbro’s beloved toy line a summer blockbuster success – which it no doubt will be – especially when word gets around that it’s the best of the trilogy.

This time out, there’s a ham-handed attempt to fictionalize the story behind the moon landing in 1969 – that the whole space race was in response to the crash landing of an alien spacecraft on the lunar surface.  Turns out, it’s a ship from Cybertron, the home planet of the warring Autobots and Decepticons, and it contains some special technology that could save the Transformer race.  Fast forward to years later as the Autobots, working with the U.S. military to secure the planet against Decepticon threats, discover this technology at the site of the Chernobyl disaster.  Finally getting the straight goods from the powers-that-be, the Autobots head to the moon to find the ship and its pilot, Autobot leader Optimus Prime’s old mentor, Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy).

In the meantime, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBoeuf), the human hero of the first two films, is struggling with a normal life.  He’s graduated from college, saved the world a couple of times and scored a new hot girlfriend (Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), but can’t get a job that makes him feel like he matters.  Eventually getting hired in an office mailroom, he meets a conspiracy nut (Ken Jeong, Señor Chang of Community) convinced that the deaths of his former NASA colleagues are tied to the moon discovery and that the Autobots can help.
As funny as Ken Jeong is, his presence and much of the lowbrow humour throughout Ehren Kruger’s script felt out of place.  Lowbrow, however, is one of Michael Bay’s film trademarks.  Every time Sam’s  parents (Julie White and Kevin Dunn) or some ethnically stereotyped robots hit the screen, people throughout the theatre were laughing.  I’m usually a fan of lowbrow humour, but it felt so over-the-top in every place that I felt like the only sane person in a nuthouse.

If you know anything about Michael Bay, you know he makes movies with the eyes, ears and libido of a 14-year-old boy.  Cars, military vehicles and women are shot with the same flair as the pictures in a hot rod magazine, and the characters are as deep as a single glossy page.  You don’t get to know the individual Autobots well because, as was the case with the first two films, it’s all about Sam’s journey.   When one of the Autobots gets knocked off, the viewer is given no time to really appreciate what this loss could mean.  Decepticons Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave are all back as villains, but they’re given so few lines that they’re barely a presence in the movie.   How is a viewer supposed to see them as a threat?  It’s Storytelling 101 – if you don’t get to know the characters, you’re not going to care about them.   Going to a Transformers movie, you expect to see Transformers.  Otherwise, they might as well call it Sam Witwicky and the Robots From Space.

Then again, Michael Bay doesn’t care about characters, so why should you?  Everything on screen – the Transformers, Chevy cars and Huntington-Whiteley’s perfect body – are there to be ogled as they fight, drive fast, bend over and, of course, explode.  It’s the magical Bay formula that’s made the 47 year-old director a multi-millionaire.  At least working in the 3D format has forced Michael Bay to slow down the shot-by-shot cuts in each scene, making the action easier to follow but the story more obviously crap.

If logic and decent storytelling aren’t your flavour, feel free to check your brain at the door and see Transformers: Dark of the Moon. 

In this, it’s a rousing success.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Starring Shia LeBoeuf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Peter Cullen, Leonard Nimoy and Hugo Weaving
Written by Ehren Kruger
Directed by Michael Bay
2/5

Larry Crowne not regal entertainment

Larry Crowne
Starring Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Cedric the Entertainer & Wilmer Valderama
Written by Tom Hanks & Nia Vardalos
Directed by Tom Hanks
2/5

Given that we’ve just come through one heck of a recession and currently endure another of a quieter variety, it’s no surprise to see so many movies about getting laid off hitting the big screen.
Up in the Air was a great story about an untethered axe-man (George Clooney) firing folks for business clients in Seattle one day and New York the next. Conversely, Ben Affleck took on the journey of a guy that got laid off and found himself again in 2010’s The Company Men. Both handled the material well and were even enjoyable to watch.
Larry Crowne fits that category too – except for the enjoyable part.
Tom Hanks plays the titular hero, a former Navy cook happily working his days away at a store like Wal-Mart. He gets called to the office by management, expecting recognition as employee of the month. Instead, he gets laid off because he doesn’t have enough education to be deemed worthy of promotion within the company. When door-to-door job hunting doesn’t pan out, Crowne decides to go back to school. At the local community college, he befriends a scooter-riding free spirit (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), takes economics classes from a rigid professor (George Takei) and begins falling in love with his public speaking instructor, Mercedes Tanoit (Julia Roberts).

Larry Crowne features some great actors doing bit parts, including Pam Grier (Foxy Brown), Wilmer Valderrama (That 70s Show) and Rob Riggle from The Daily Show. Even Cedric the Entertainer is…well, entertaining as Crowne’s wheeling and dealing neighbour. Knowing Tom Hanks produced, wrote and directed the film on top of starring in it makes this understandable – if you were going to make a film, why not pack it with friends?

Being able to go, “Oh hey, it’s that guy,” is one of the few joys of the movie, especially since much of the world Larry Crowne lives in is cartoonishly unbelievable; a world where there’s a friend around every corner and no one is really out to screw you over. That might have worked in 1996’s That Thing You Do!, Hanks’ first directorial effort on the big screen, but that took place in an idealized version of the 1960s. Then it was cute. Now? Not so much.
A cartoonish world isn’t Larry Crowne’s biggest problem, however. That’s Julia Roberts. As Mercedes Tanoit, she’s thoroughly unlikable – angry, alcoholic and downright unpleasant. By the time the film’s climax comes around (and if you can’t predict the end to this one, get help), her change in character seems fast, forced and unbelievable. Also, the strange shape of her upper lip will have you wondering what she’s done to it, so much so that you’ll be distracted away from the positive message the film tries very hard to impart.

Make no mistake, Larry Crowne is fluff through and through; a feel-good picture that won’t quite have that effect if you’ve found yourself on the wrong end of a pink slip.

Even in this job market, your time is better spent scanning Workopolis.