And on a lighter note

And on a lighter note... after seeing Super 8 a little over a week ago, I am now contemplating what to see next in the theater.  The one other summer, blockbuster movie that has struck me this year, beyond the awesome special effects of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is Captain America: The First Avenger.

Ol' Cap was never a childhood favorite of mine - I much preferred Batman and Spiderman to World War II Superheroes at the time.  But there is something about those decades in the American psyche that has endured.  It was, in our brief history as a country, the Golden Age in America.  A time of Myth and Legend bore out of the horrors of a just war, when heroes opposed villains and victory was the only objective.  (The music from those years is some of my favorite, too.)  

Thus, that Era has also been a virtual goldmine for movie making as well.  I could list off a couple dozen, if not a hundred, remarkable films that are set between 1930-1950, but I won't.  I'm sure you could do the same, and have thought of a few while just reading these past few sentences.  It just works well for us.  And likely always will.

This film has one thing going against it for me.  I do not like seeing actors play more than one superhero, for ridiculously obvious reasons.  (Ryan Reynolds second turn as a superhero in Green Lantern being a good example.)  Though don't get me wrong, I think Captain America: The First Avenger looks great, and Chris Evans appears to have made the role his own.  He should make for a Good Hero.  But Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull?  You could not have cast the role better.  He is going to be so over-the-top intense - I can't wait!  I’ve seen some stills of him from the film.  And you are telling me that Hugo will have that maniacal glean in his eyes, like a younger Gary Oldman or Jack Nicholson before him, while staring out of that crazy looking red skull?  Forget about it.  Great Villain!  I'm there opening night.

I must also mention the movie which slipped by me without garnering my attention at the time.  When I first started to see trailers for X-Men:First Class, it seemed to me  just another X-men movie.  (Is it me, or is this the Year of the Colon?)  Then, after it came out, people started talking... and word spread that it was better than expected.  The director,  and I hadn't paid attention to this film at all, so I had no idea he was the director of Layer Cake, is Matthew Vaughn.  But wait, I thought to myself as I began adding it all up, I really liked Layer Cake.  It was a good movie.  And he had directed the new X-men?  I had missed it.  Let it slip by.  Change of plans folks.  It seems I have made an error.  This movie, and its World War II backdrop, may very well deserve viewing after all.

Thanks for reading.


 -aap