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blmulholland
Reviews
The Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Man (1977)
Go to the dentist instead.
Comic book movie adaptations have a terrible record overall, and Marvel comics has the worst record of all. This movie should be banned by the Geneva convention. The movie really seems to try to do credit to Peter Parker's comic book origins, but the budget, and effects limitations ensure that the movie looks cheesy and corny. For decent comic book adaptations look to X-Men, the first Batman movie, and (to a lesser extent), the Superman movies.
X-Men (2000)
Suprisingly Strong
As a devoted fan of the comic book when I was younger, I expected this movie to be a real flop. I expected my critical eye to be overworked spotting flaws and unnecessary deviations from character. I've seen other comic book adaptations and they never translate well. The best was the first Batman movie, and it could hardly be said to have been particularly true to the comic.
X-Men was MOSTLY true to the comic. Obviously any movie is going to have time limits and as such cannot portray hundreds of issues of story in that time. Given these limits, the essence of the characters and origins were all as sound as they could be. In fact, a few of the changes made were improvements over the comic book.
The only thing I expected this movie to be good in was effects. Given the high bar set by movies like the Matrix, I expected a strong effects and stunts show. This was really the one place where X-Men was average. Many of the stunts flopped, failing to capture the speed or essence of what they were trying to portray. You could tell which stunts were done with wires, and which were cgi. It was very transparent, which in this day and age is unacceptable.
There also were no particularly stunning camera angles during the stunts like Matrix had. They tried once or twice, but none really came off as they should have. It may seem unfair to compare ANY movie to the effects wizardry shown in Matrix, but this movie and subject matter was perfect to exploit such dazzling effects work, and it was very disappointing to see how poorly many were done.
By no means do I want to imply that the stunt work was BAD overall, nor that is substantially detracted from the overall strength of the movie. It was primarily a minority of the action that had these problems. This one is worth seeing. I was merely disappointed by the missed opportunities to do something truly spectacular when the movie opted for simpler, less dazzling effects, and on the rare occasions when it reached for the stars, it was executed poorly.
Aliens (1986)
Action-packed, but completely different from Alien
Aliens is a pure, by the book action/war movie set in a science fiction setting. It differs from it's predecessor in that it's predecessor was a horror movie in a sci fi setting. Alien was a better movie, but both are quite good. Unfortunately, this back to back success has subjected us to the third and fourth movies, both of which were among the worst movies I've ever seen.
Air America (1990)
Cookie cutter Mel Gibson action/comedy.
It's like Lethal Weapon without Danny Glover. More comedic focus than the Lethal Weapons with less action, though there is still enough action to call it an action movie. Movie focuses on a Vietnam alliance with questionable military officials who are involved in opium smuggling, but never gets terribly deep into any of the real geopolitical issues of the war, choosing instead to paint everyone involved with the war in the same stereotypical light of corruption.
Akira (1988)
Above average anime, but merely average film.
Akira is the kind of movie that seems to inspire extreme loyalty from the vocal minority who have seen it. Overall though, it's only an average movie. The story is pretty weak, and like all anime, the drawn characters are guilty of 'over-acting'.