"Dark of the Moon" is a step up, but that's not saying much (3/5)

I often get annoyed by film watchers who try and defend a film they covet (and that critics hate) with the simple phrase of “Geez, it’s a movie about an over-the-top fictional subject. It wasn’t meant for the Oscars!” With how much hate Transformers: Dark of the Moon is getting, expect to hear that phrase quite a bit for the next few months. Let me start off with saying that Michael Bay is a director who has a keen eye for filling a frame with visual panache. It’s just that Bay gets distracted by a shiny object off in the distance to the point that he loses focus on the story and characters that emanate from within.  Naturally, I expect those who love this film to offer me a rebuttal along the lines of, “It’s not about some amazing story! It’s about the robot on robot action!” No, everything is undeniably about the story. The action means absolutely nothing unless a story is present and logical within the film’s framework.  Hell, if story wasn’t significant, Bay and his team wouldn’t have even bothered with trying to craft one. Instead they would’ve released an hour long action fest to satiate those who like to watch big, combustible objects go up in flames.

"The Green Hornet" is a disappointment (3/5)

I admire Seth Rogen’s attempt to hand the superhero genre a face lift. Through The Green Hornet, Rogen was given free rein to breathe new life into a project that had been gestating in the stomach of Hollywood for well over a decade. One could certainly see Rogen’s ambition on display. He not only took on the lead role of Britt Reid (aka The Green Hornet), a raucous party boy who is in line to receive his father’s massive newspaper fortune, but he also wrote the screenplay with his writing partner Evan Goldberg. Goldberg and Rogen were able to construct a screenplay that alters comic-book conventions to a degree. The alterations are not overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination, but the seeds of change are planted and recognized. Yet, what the screenplay fails to do is give the film’s characters proper motivation to propel themselves into the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles.

"Your Highness" is a weak, muddled effort (3/5)

Concept comedy has been faltering as of late. With the likes of Year One and Land of the Lost assaulting the comedy genre with a poopy stench, it feels like spending money on an expensive comedy is a foolish gamble for most studios. Obviously a great concept can come along and light the box office on fire, but most of these comedic concepts don’t have the power or wit to be anything beyond a last minute Saturday Night Live sketch.  Unfortunately, the recently released Your Highness, despite its attempts, would’ve been better off if it was five minutes and not one hundred.

"Iron Man 2" loses the structure of its predecessor (3/5)

I guess I don’t entirely understand how sequels are continuously handled they way they are. From the outside looking in, I understand that they have to be bigger and louder in order to justify the film going public to buy another ticket to see these celluloid characters. But at the same time, they’re consistently driven away from what made the original film a critical and commercial success. To no one’s surprise, there are obviously exceptions to the rule. The “Toy Story” franchise and “The Dark Knight” are all prime examples of sequels living up to the original film, if not exceeding it. Yet, often sequels fall to excess. Despite the goodwill Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau generated with “Iron Man” back in 2008, all of it was seemingly thrown away with “Iron Man 2”. With the first “Iron Man”, we received probably the most charismatic Comic-Book film you’d ever see. Featuring witty banter, a great lead performance, and extremely well executed action scenes, “Iron Man” was more than a pleasant surprise. As a matter of fact, it was heading up, in association with the “The Dark Knight”, a comic book renaissance that will bludgeon the multiplexes for summers to come.