Superhero films continued to fare well both with audiences and critics. “Thor” opened with great promise in May making solid money. The campy approach taken by director Kenneth Branagh as well as a star-making turn by the beefy Chris Hemsworth laid the groundwork for “Captain America” that was to follow in July. And from the same Marvel playbook but in a completely different universe and Hollywood studio, the world of the mutants developed dramatically with “X-Men: First Class.” Unquestionably, the best superhero film released in 2011, “First Class” gave us top notch performances primarily from James McAvoy and the man who was literally everywhere in 2011 Michael Fassbender. That movie was directed by “Kick Ass” helmer Matthew Vaughn.
Although “First Class” made money, audiences were slow to warm to the serious side of superheroes, which means it is more likely we’ll see less sophisticated takes on the genre moving forward. And you really couldn’t get any more unsophisticated than the toy/comic book adaptation “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” that made crazy money by delivering a roller coaster ride instead of anything resembling a coherent story. The broadest and worst example of Hollywood excess and money grabbing, “Transformers” might have contained the best 3D visuals next to “Cars 2” and “Hugo” but gave viewers little to care about. Faring slightly better but still lacking emotional context and depth was “Cowboys & Aliens.” That movie didn’t even make great money and sadly did little to help Harrison Ford’s comeback (that’s not right, not a comeback, rather, a new career as character actor).
The DC Comics entry into the superhero space was “Green Lantern,” a blah, but perfectly harmless film with some neat special effects. While most critics slammed the movie, I thought it was pretty cool (in a 13 year-old kid way), and I was impressed that the green effects looked as good as they did. My fear was that the greenish glow of the effects would make them look incomplete and fake. I was surprised how well they worked. Ryan Reynolds made a solid hero, even if the villain was hard to believe.
The last superhero film of the summer was certainly the hammiest as “Captain America: The First Avenger” two fisted his way to the top of the box office. I appreciated the origin story much more than the war story that followed. The smartest move by director Joe Johnston and his team was making use of special effects to slim down and shorten the muscular Chris Evans, who played Steve Rogers/Captain America both before and after the super soldier transformation. This consistency of actor made the striking change credible and endeared the character with the viewer. Like “Thor,” “Captain America” hinted at the expected mammoth release of “The Avengers” coming this May.
Next: Pixar’s misstep and the continuing motion-capture controversy.
