Alejando González Iñárritu, the director of the magnificent “21 Grams” and “Babel” is trying comedy with his upcoming film “Birdman”. The film, according to FirstShowing, is said to follows a former actor, who once played an iconic superhero, as he decides to take on a Broadway play based on a short story by Raymond Chandler in order to reclaim past glory.
And who will play this role? None other than Batman himself, Michael Keaton, who played the caped crusader in the Tim Burton films. The film also has Emma Stone, Naomi Watts and Zach Galifianakis in it as well. This sounds like an amazing comedy. Can’t wait to see it.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
As summer is winding down, I figured it’s as good a time as any to start looking back at the summer movie season. Let’s start with the superhero movies. “Thor” kicked off the summer back in May, with “X-Men: First Class”, “Green Lantern” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” following suit.
Which of the four was the best? Obviously, you can scratch “Green Lantern” from the list. It bombed at the box office, bombed in terms of critic reviews and the film, starring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, was viewed as a disappointment by fans and casual movie-goers alike.
“Thor” was definitely entertaining. It didn’t take itself too seriously, the humor was better-than-expected and the special effects were great. Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek) did a fantastic job in the title role and it was one of the better entries in the Marvel film canon. Yet, I found the main villain (Loki) a bit uninteresting, it’s action swift and a little bit underwhelming. As with the first “Iron Man” the script and the acting was able to mostly hide this, but, looking back the two films shared a lot of the same problems.
“X-Men: First Class” was probably the biggest surprise of the superhero bunch for me. I was growing a little mutant weary after three X-Men films and the dreadful “Wolverine” film. Yet, this one, a period piece set in the 1960s, felt fresh, and was entertaining. Though some of the secondary mutants seemingly had no point except to prove that the two sides were gaining members, I liked the film as a whole. Solid script, solid acting, and it was a nice alternate take on history. It left me willing to see a sequel if there is one, and hope they up the ante on action and set pieces.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” was solid, if unimpressive. Chris Evans did a fine job as Steve Rogers and Hugo Weaving was excellent as Red Skull. But, there was nothing groundbreaking here, director Joe Johnston essentially choosing to play it safe here to set up “The Avengers”. Though, with Johnston’s last film being “Wolfman” perhaps playing it safe was a good choice.
The verdict: My pick goes to “Thor”. I really did like “First Class”, but “Thor” was just more entertaining to me overall. “First Class” suffered a little from I just didn’t buy into Kevin Bacon as a serious threat or villain.
Lukas Eggen can be reached at eggen.lukas@gmail.com.
Lukas Eggen 