Did Abrams capture Magic or Cliche' with SUPER 8?

J. J Abrams is one of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers. After helping reboot the STAR TREK film series with the 2009 hit film, Abrams is given complete creative license to tell whatever story he desires. Here is where “Super 8” comes into the picture. Abrams played most of his cards pretty close to the chest by showing vague trailers and the mass marketing push of his and Steven Spielberg’s name on the posters. The question that stands now: “Did Abrams and crew deliver another winner?”

For the most part, yes. That said the film isn’t entirely devoid of flaws. The story is about a group of childhood friends making a small home movie in 1979. While filming, they happen upon a train accident that slowly unravels to a county-wide crisis that threatens the small town and the “something” that was being transported on that train. The story of the kids was a tried and true formula of kids happening upon something bigger than the both of them. The science fiction element of the picture is a location for a boy’s coming of age tale, and this is the mistake that Abrams plays with the audience. Anybody expecting a creature feature will be disappointed, but will be pleasantly surprised by the coming-of-age story. The kids are, front and center, the stars of the picture and why the film works very well. The story with the kids play on those nostalgic moments when you made home movies. The film is a love song to all film geeks about how much fun it was to make movies and get caught up in the dream of the movies.

What ultimately doesn’t work about the film is the few beats that it decides to take in act two. What story choices Abrams made in that middle section seem a bit out of place with the combination of the character’s choices and the whole military aspect to the film. It seems that Abrams was drawing a bit too much from his inspirations and the films he clearly is trying to emulate. It’s a blow that picks back up by the third act, and recovers from. This storypoint is my only complaint with the film.

This is clearly just Abrams’ picture. The problem with the picture comes with how it’s being pushed as a monster film to the mainstream. It’s not the film audiences are expecting, but it’s also not going to be the one they want to walk out with on their minds. That said, for what it is, it’s a great send-up of the 80’s film from yesteryear. The cast works amazingly well and the group is clearly what they film needed to center on more. Audiences will be left with a film that is that perfect middle ground where children will like it, but adults will be able to relate to it. This isn’t a science fiction film, this is a boy’s coming of age tale that happens to have a creature in it. Not a perfect film, but a deep and ambitious film at that.

7 of 10

GREEN LANTERN can't block Mediocore's light

With Comic Book films aspiring to be something more than just men in tights, i.e. 2008's "The Dark Knight", there does come the occasional film that is there for the dumb summer blockbuster slot, i.e. 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", Green Lantern falls into the later category. While not aspiring to be a deep introspective comic film, It does turn into an ambitious and fun one at that.

The story revolves around Test Pilot,Hal Jordon (Ryan Reyonolds), being bequeathed a mystical ring that transforms him into an intergalactic police officer, a Green Lantern. While Jordon trains under the Lanterns, an unprecedented danger looms at home and across space that threatens the very existence of the Green Lantern Corps and the universe. The story is tired, but it's visually interesting to watch at the least. The Story seems a bit convoluted and overstuffed. Characters are given the rush job in terms of their arcs. Even Hal Jordon's motivating factor and the way he overcomes his character dilemma, if you can call it that, is very rushed and unclear. The story at best is serviceable, but forgettable.

The acting was all over the place. Reynold's Hal Jordon was a bit overstated as an "asshole", but Reynold's natural charm makes that hard believe as his character change in the first act is unbelievable to fully buy that. Peter Sarsgaard as Dr. Hammond is hallow as a villain. Just a bit generic and turns evil when the script calls for him to do so. Sarsgaard "Hams" it up so much that it becomes a comic book villain.

The film's effects were a lot better than expected, but still a bit hallow at points. The action scenes were good, but you'll forget them the moment you walk out the theater. The 3D post-conversion on the film was actually decent, but you won't miss out if you decide to see the film in traditional 2D. It seemed as if the story on Oa was were the Lantern movie was really at, they just didn't go into the story of what it was to be part of a galactic space police. All of the scenes on Earth all seemed to come a different film altogether.

With comic book films like "Thor" and the significantly better "X-Men: First Class" in theaters still, it's hard to recommend Green Lantern. It's not a bad film by any means. It's quite an ambitious film with a CGI world it only scratches the surface of. It's a Green Lantern movie for the summer, but it's not the comic book film we have come to expect. Comic fans will like the film, but it's likely we won't see a sequel. Marvel still owns the Comic Book film market. Green Lantern proves DC Comics still has some learning to do.

Duke Nukem Forever fails to "Hail to the King"

Duke Nukem is an icon in the video game culture. The latest title from GearBox Software and Tryptic games, "Duke Nukem Forever", is a title that has been on the backburner and switching developers for 12 years. The big question is: "Were those 12 years worth waiting for?" Sadly, the answer is no.

With the game being on the back burner for so long, Forever feels like a game that is 12 years too late on it's release. Everything from it's sense of humor, tone, gameplay, and it's protagonist’s one-liners; all come from the 90's, back when it was cool to be self referential. This game is nothing, but self referential. Instead of saying something entertaining with the meta-humor, it just revels in it to the point where it gets tedious. By this point in time, Duke Nukem feels like that cool older kid you idolized when you were a child, only to grow up 12 years later and just realize how kinda full of crap he was.

On the positive side: Duke Nukem is a funny game at points. The humor is something that works, but only in small doses, problem is: it’s constant! The humor works to an extent. It’s hard to not chuckle at Duke’s remarks to the “Halo” franchise as he tries to stand out on his own. The game is challenging, not just because of it’s gameplay mechanics, but because at points the game becomes a bit glitchy. An interesting aspect to the game is the Ego-boosting. Your health is regained by interacting with your environment. Writing on chalk boards, signing autographs, doing weight curls, literally; even throwing turds at enemies will gain health. It’s an interesting mechanic that definitely gives the humor and tone of the game a bit more of that manly badassness that we expect from Duke.

On the negative side, the game is a bit glitchy. The game chops up quite a bit during boss battles and when a lot of particle effects happen. The graphics are passable at best. There are far too many turret sequences in the game. The worst sequences in the game come from the driving sequences. The driving sequences just don’t work. The controls are painfully unresponsive. The player will find himself crashing more than driving in these horribly executed sequences.

The game does have it’s moments, but that doesn’t mean it’s a lot of fun to play through these moments. For a game that has a variety of weapons, ego boosting, and fighting aliens, it does feel a bit hallow and boring. The game could have used more time to rethink itself conceptually. In a world where “Halo”, “Call of Duty”, and even “Borderlands” have helped to redefine the first person shooter genre, “Duke Nukem Forever” awkwardly tries to place itself in the AAA league of games it used to be in all those years ago. Sure, the game will be fun to a select few and the hardcore Duke Nukem fans, but it’s fun moments are fleeting.

Sorry Duke, but you’re late to the party.