Devin vs The New 52

Action Comics #1

Verdict: Buy

A depowered Superman?  This is the reason I liked "Superman" post death, because him and his replacements weren't Superman.

Green Lantern #!

Verdict: Buy

Here is my problem with rebooting continuity, when certain comics don't really get rebooted.  This is the only problem with Green Lantern.  If Green Lantern has only been on the scene 5 years he has gone through the Sinestro Corps War and Blackest Night in those times?  Was he Paralax?  Does that mean Superman died?  Does that mean Doomsday exists?  See the problem... I'm thinking too much.

Green Lantern Corps #1

Verdict: Buy

The story seems intriguing and I like Guy and John Stewart.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #1

Verdict: Read

Since this is Kyle Rayner's origin story are we to believe Paralax never happened and Hal never went bad?  Then there wouldn't really be a reason to remove him from the Corps right?  This is why you don't reboot.

JLA #1

Verdict: Buy

If not for the Jim Lee art, buy it for a cocky Hal and fresh take on Superman.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

Verdict: Read

I love the art.  Red Hood and the archer guy are interesting, but I don't get the reason for the alien chick.

Red Lanterns #1

Verdict: Burn

I love Green Lantern and all around it.  I'm still going to get #2, but this issue was almost completely useless.

Resurrection Man #1

Verdict: Read

I'm intrigued.  The only comic I bought where I had no idea what I was getting.  This feels like it shouldn't be in the DCU proper.  Feels more Preacher, Sandman and Fables than it does DCU.

Suicide Squad #1

Verdict: Read

It isn't bad.  I like the art.  I'm hoping for a lot of main character deaths as this series continues.

Superboy #1

Verdict: Read/Burn

If you don't read Teen Titans, this could be a solid Read.  If you read Teen Titans, nothing more REALLY happens.  I have hope for Superboy because I like the idea of a depowered Superman.

Supergirl #1

Verdict: Read

I guess.  I don't know.  It was so much of a "meh".  The entire issue felt like it was dog paddling until it could introduce Superman.

Superman #1

Verdict: Burn

Superman fighting a giant fire monster?  This is how we reintroduce Superman proper?  Yawn.

Teen Titans #1

Verdict: Read

I like Robin.  I like Kid Flash.  I like the idea of kids trying to be superheroes. 

And there we have it...quick hits on the new DC 52.  I will probably drop Superman.  Everything else still has my attention for one more issue.

Devin vs Green Lantern

I was always a Marvel fanboy.  There was something about X-Men that spoke to me in a way no other superheroes did.  I always loved the tragic nature of having these powers could destroy your life.  Superman never held any appeal to me.  I only started reading Superman when I knew he was going to die.  I remember the trade paper back of the Death of Superman being passed around my Elementary school like it was porn.  It was THE Superman getting beaten to death.  When he was replaced by the four Supermen I fell in love with the comics.  Each of these Supermen were flawed in their own way and all wanted to be Superman.  When the story arc wrapped up and Superman returned, I stopped reading.  But from that story arc I was introduced to a character that I hadn't seen before, Green Lantern.  He had the ability to create anything using his green ring.  He was a facinating character that intrigued me, but not enough to start reading his comics.  It was right around then that I moved to Sweden and was unable to get comics on a regular basis.

Years pass and I fall out of comics for a while.  It wasn't until I was in college, and moved to California that I tried picking them back up.  I picked up Marvel (with the House of M storyline) and read the Infinite Crisis event from DC.  It introduced a lot of new characters, but there was so much backstory that I couldn't really get into it.  Then came something called the Sinestro Corps War.  I had heard of Sinestro and since it was a Green Lantern story I thought it would be a good time to get back into it.  I read Green Lantern: Rebirth (a prelude story that brought back a previously dead/kind of alive Hal Jordan) and then jumped into Sinestro Corps War.  It was the first time we saw the full line up of the Sinestro Corps that I was hooked.  A splash page featured The Anti-Monitor (who I had been introduced to in Infinite Crisis), Superboy Prime (also from Infinite Crisis, my favorite moment was watching him punch someone's head so heard it literally exploded) and Cyborg Superman (from the Reign of Supermen arc).  My jaw dropped.  I have been hooked on Green Lantern ever since.  I've tried reading Batman, Superman and some other DC stuff, it never hooks me like Green Lantern.  Green Lantern is my favorite DC character.

When I first heard about the movies that were going to arriving this summer I couldn't believe it.  Thor, Green Lantern, X-Men First Class and Captain America all in the same summer.  The only one out of those four that I wasn't worried about was Green Lantern.  While I don't think Ryan Reynolds is a good choice for Hal Jordan, I like him as an actor.  He was able to elevate Wolverine.  Mark Strong as Sinestro is a perfect choice.  The rest of the cast I could go either way on.  But the previews showed me exactly what I wanted, Oa.  I didn't want them to completely disregard the science fiction part of Green Lantern.  He is a space cop and that's what I wanted.

Liking Thor and loving X-Men First Class I guess I was bound to be disappointed somewhere.  Green Lantern isn't a bad movie, it isn't a good movie, it's just a disappointment.  It tries to do too much and fails at almost everything.  Daredevil was a horrible action movie that was elevated from Ben Affleck's protrayal of Matt Murdock.  This is the opposite.  Hal Jordan is a horribly boring character that you never really get to love.  He's portrayed as a womanizing man that's afraid to fall in love with the one woman he actually loves.  Yes, they made him into Tony Stark.  But he's Tony Stark without any of the confidence.  But when Tony Stark gets the Iron Man suit, he kicks ass with it.  When Hal Jordan gets the ring, he doesn't want it.  He pulls off the reluctant hero thing, but it doesn't even seem like it fits with the character.  Blake Lively isn't bad, but isn't given ANYTHING to work with.  She's the Mary Jane of this movie, but given even less backstory.  I didn't get any feeling that the two were supposed to be in love with each other until Hal gives the "remember that time we had sex" memory in the bar.  Then I realized she was supposed to be the love interest.  All she does is yell, get into danger and then get saved.

The Green Lantern Corps does a little bit better.  Kilowag and Tomar-Re are perfect for what they are, but are given so little to do.  Them and Sinestro are the Warriors Three of Green Lantern, but given even less screen time.  Abin-Sur looks cool, but again, nothing about him makes you think he's a great Green Lantern.  We are told that he contained the villain Paralax, but they don't tell you how.  The problem with Paralax (and science fiction/fantasy movies in general) is that if things aren't clearly defined you don't know what you are dealing with.  Paralax is a giant floating pile of dust, how and why is that a threat?  Well it shows Paralax eating creature's souls.  But the amount of time it takes to steal a soul seems to vary depending on when the movie needs it to.  To show it's power it kills off other Green Lanterns like it isn't a problem.  But sometimes it takes it's time.  

Sinestro is done really well but not given enough screen time.  Most of his motivations make sense.  Hector Hammond is completely wasted in this movie.  He doesn't need to be a villain and the only reason he exists is for the fighting to occur on Earth.  The performance is actually kind of fun to watch, but unnecessary.  

One of the things I did enjoy about the movie was the Green Lantern powers.  They did a good job of varying up what gets created by the ring.  It isn't all shields and blasts of energy.  It feels like someone actually tried to be creative with it.  The special effects were cool.  It just feels like nothing is earned in this movie.  It feels like this is what Thor could of been if it sucked.  Green Lantern failed at mixing the space stuff with the Earth stuff and that is where Thor worked.  Thor made an asshole likeable, where as Green Lantern made it's asshole try to convince us that getting a super powered ring makes him a nice guy all of a sudden.  

Similar to: Iron Man, but for the DC crowd. 

Watch Thor instead.  Or X-Men First Class again.

SPOILER TALK:

* The turn for Sinestro at the end of the movie is completely unearned.  There is no reason for him to turn to Fear.  His worry was that they would be unable to stop Paralax, but they do.  So then he tries it out?  It's like they completely left out a scene.

* The "Warriors Three" showing up at the last minute to save Hal?  Really?  So stupid it doesn't even make any sense.

* While I thought the way Paralax got stopped was a cool idea, the setup for that event was so weird I didn't even understand it at first.  Kilowog is able to just create a sun with his ring?  Just...weird.

* The mask still looks stupid.

* The suit looks cool.

* I loved how Hal spoke the oath near the end.  Just a great scene.

* The training montage was the best action sequence.  Seeing creative use of the rings is what I want to see.  No more stupid Blake Lively.

* The projector at my screening kept shaking back and forth.  Any still moments were almost completely ruined.  But it gave me an excuse to look away at the screen.

* Loved the look of the Yellow Lantern costume.  Gorgeous.

* Was there ever a scene where he demonstrated his ability to overcome fear?  He did completely destroy a multimillion dollar plan because he got scared.

Devin vs Thor

I'm a big comic book fan.  I'm a big Marvel fan.  Because of the recent reboot I have become a Thor fan.  As much as I love all those things I could never get excited for a Thor movie.  Thor is the Superman of the Marvel universe.  They both are extremely powerful and have strictly defined morals.  The only non-comic book interpretation of Superman that I ever liked was Smallville.  The reasons were clear, Superman wasn't super, yet.  

Thor manages to be an origin story without being an origin story.  We start with Thor already being a loved hero of Asgard.  What we get is how Thor learns to become a true hero.  The story is the best one we've seen from a Marvel Studios movie (Iron Man 1 and 2 and The Incredible Hulk).  It was also the first one I loved not because it was intergrated with the greater Marvel Universe, but because it is actually a good movie.  It's not great, not mind blowing, it's not Spider-Man, Dark Knight or X2.  Looking at my comic book movie list:

1. spider-man
2. x2
3. the dark knight
4. scott pilgrim
5. kick ass
6. watchmen
7. wanted
8. spider-man 2
9. x-men
10. blade

Currently it might edge out Blade for the 10 spot, but it'll take a while before I can really nail down a position.  

Devin vs Fast Five

I wouldn't call myself a fan of The Fast and The Furious franchise.  I would call myself a hater of most things Paul Walker.  I'm not a big fan of cars or racing.  I also hate pretty skeletons who can't act.  I'm not a fan of trying to put in melodrama where there doesn't need to be.  

I've only seen The Fast and The Furious and 2 Fast 2 Furious.  I land on the side of liking 2 Fast 2 Furious better.  It's not a great movie but I found it way more enjoyable.  So when I say Fast Five is the best movie I've seen all year, it's because I went into it not expecting much.  

Fast Five has managed to almost completely strip away the street racing aspect of the franchise and focus on the cool stuff, the heist.  The action scenes are long and amazing.  Every one seemed to last exactly as long as I wanted them to.  The final chase in concept is so brain dead that it allowed to sit back and marvel at what I was seeing on screen.  A smile was on my face the entire time.  But like any action movie, there is down time.

Paul Walker should not be allowed to talk.  I am happy to report that I don't ever remember hearing the word "bro" exit his mouth.  He's so wooden and fake, it really is like a CG character or a T1000.  He has his little monologue segment that is actually an interesting moment.  But is ruined by the fact that he is trying to say it.  Vin Diesel isn't much better.  He managed to ooze charisma when I feel like there isn't any there.  I like his character, but I really don't know why.  The Rock is the saving grace of this movie.  Even if he is the most cookie cutter character in it.  I can't believe the writer had the balls to make him utter the phrase "Stay the f*** out of my way."  (This was part of his opening scene where he tells the local cop his "two rules."  That one was rule 2).  It's so dumb that you can almost see The Rock winking at the screen.  Tyrese was a favorite of mine from 2 Fast (it less of a "step forward cause you are awesome" and more of a "well, everbody else step back cause you suck" type of thing).  And in Fast Five he's not really a character.  Again he's the wise cracking black guy who says funny stuff ... because he doesn't really have any other talents.  Luda is also there, as the funny guy, but he has a purpose because not only is he a mechanic, but he is an electronics expert (commence eye-rolling).  The Asian guy, who I never met because I never saw the third one, is Han.  I'll call him Han because I don't know the actors name.  He's likable and probably the "coolest" character in that he actually seems like he's not trying to be cool.  He's the Michael Weston to everybody else's attempt at being James Bond.  Jordana Brewster returns to look pretty, but mostly do nothing.  They have a plot point for her that is so useless I don't even know why they added it.  Nobody watches this movie for the drama.  The other chick, I don't know who she is.  She's so freaking skinny that it is actually kind of gross when SHE decideds to bust out in a bikini.  Really her??  If she tripped she would break into a million pieces.  She's supposed to be good at something, but all she does is try to be the "hot" one.  And for some reason she has the power that the guy from Psych has.  Only she uses it once for the most pointless thing ever.  She uses it to impress a guy who is already in love with her.  She doesn't even do anything cool for the heist.  There is also a rookie cop who is also a hot chick.  She might be the hottest woman in the film, but again it's because the other women aren't.  All she does is look confused.  I'm not sure I saw her ever translate anything (the reason she is chosen), though she does end up having other uses.  I almost forgot about the Spanish brothers.  Best guys in the movie.  Glad they exist because they are actually funny.

The story isn't horrible.  The set up is okay, the team is brought together to do a heist job.  But I feel like nobody was ever taught how a good heist story works.  You don't spend a good 30 minutes trying to solve a problem that has the dumbest solution ever (so dumb that the useless guy figures out the solution).  But the BEST part, they don't even use it.  It's like a training montage for Rocky and then in the end Drago gets two in the head by the ghost of Apollo Creed.  I tend to ignore moments that make no sense from a physics stand point because the whole franchise is based of the concept that a 10 second race lasts 5 minutes.  But there are dramatic plot points that make 0 sense.  They land in the "this would be a cool thing to see," but doing the easy thing would have accomplished more. (Honestly entire plot is like that, but we won't worry about that...unless it's SPOILER TALK).

Fast Five is a really good movie.  I'd watch it again.  I'd own it.  

SPOILER TALK:

• Reyes has his entire network of money on a chip.  We know he knows where his money is.  So he doesn't NEED the information.  He just needs it not to be in the wrong hands.  So someone could have just stolen the monitor from the car.  That way they wouldn't need drivers, no white people and everybody goes home happy.  OR he could have just moved the damn money.  You know, picked 10 new houses to place it.  I'm pretty sure they have more than 10 buildings in Rio.  I'm pretty sure I saw at least 30. 
• Jordana Brewster getting pregnant was stupid and had 0 point.  All it does is handcuff them for any more movies.
• I still don't understand why they spent so much time on trying to race past the cameras.  Really?
• And just leaving 8-10 million on a table in Rio.  Really guys?  Maybe they could have sent her a check.  How long before she is dead?
• Why burn the money?  If you would ahve stolen it, he STILL would have been pissed.
• I'm not really going to make fun of all the tech stuff, because it's a movie and they set their own rules.  But you shouldn't break the rules once that happens.  Like why was The Rock able to pick up Vin Diesel's car the second time he goes to the street race but not the first?

Devin vs Source Code

Source Code is an interesting movie.  I think it is a good movie and I'm pretty sure I liked it.  I am confused because I'll never buy it and I never want to watch it again.  But boy do I want to talk about it.  Source Code is directed by Duncan Jones, who created one of my favorite movies in the last few years, Moon.  If you haven't watched it, watch it immediately.  There are similarities between Source Code and Moon in that it deals with a very interesting concept but in a real world way.  The problem is that I feel Moon dealt with it's issue so much better than Source Code.  The actual concept of the movie is so awesome that I feel it gets dumbed down to try to appease the general audience.  Moon isn't a movie for everybody.  If you like mysteries you are going to love it because the entire movie is a "I wonder what is actually going on here," type of movie.  Source Code has mysteries but the answers are so damn obvious that they answer them 5 minutes after they are posed.  Even the concept of the movie "Source Code" is actually answered in the trailer.  The "how" it works is glossed over in the movie, but the problem is that the "how" is probably the most interesting part of the movie.  And because it's glossed over so much the "reveal" at the end of the movie has ZERO weight to it.  

At the highest level the concept is that Jake Gyllenhaal's character Captain Culter Stevens is entering the "Source Code" to relive 8 minutes of another man's life to try and find who bombed a train.  Kind of cool.  This involves a Groundhogs Day style structure that lends itself to a few comedic moments.  I'll tell you right now, the ride is the best part of this movie.  Don't go in thinking that the mystery is the best part of the movie.  The Sixth Sense created a twist to overcome a low quality movie, Source Code does the opposite.  Michelle Monaghan does a serviceable job as the "pretty girl."  The worst part is the forced love connection that Stevens has with her.  Trailer spoiler territory, but I don't get why he falls in love with her at all.  I understand his obligation to try and save the train, but falling in love with HER?  

So you would think that we have the recipe for a good mystery even without the "source code."  Where is the bomb?  Who is the bomber?  Why does he want to kill millions of people?  Can our hero stop him in time?  All of those answers are given with the least amount of fanfare possible.  Even the reveal of the bomber, probably the longest running mystery, I guessed the first time I saw him/her.  Now, I will say that the reason I thought they were the bomber was probably silly, but it turned out to be correct (the problem lies solely on the director and the editor for this reveal).  Then you through in the "source code" related mysteries, but they get revealed one at a time and the answer is EXACTLY what you think it is.  The only "reveal" isn't so much of a "oh wow, thats awesome," moment, but rather a "so they went that direction," moment.  

You might like Source Code if you liked: Moon, maybe.  Donnie Darko

You should probably just watch Moon instead.  

You might not like Source Code if you hated: Southland Tales.  Both have interesting concepts, one takes it too far, the other, not enough.

Now on to the Spoilers:

1. I guessed the bomber the moment the guy runs out the first time to return the wallet.  While I believe the moment was put there just to show how the same things happen over and over again (see also, the coffee spilling), it seemed out of place enough that he was my guess the entire movie.  And honestly, there never was another "oh it might be him," character in the movie.  And why did they go to the college kid TWICE in the movie.  The already seemed to count him out and then returned back to him for some reason.  

2. He was dead the entire time.  Yawn.  Glad that wasn't the big "reveal."

3. The room is all in his head.  Yawn.  Given away when the doctor said "is that what you see," or something to that affect.

4. I liked how completely unimportant catching the bomber in the real reality was.  Shown in news footage, no drama.  Oh, the entire point of the movie you just watched, not really that important.

5. And the whole "alternate reality," thing?  The Dr. said just as much the first time he explains "source code."  I understand he didn't really mean that he creates alternate realities, but come on.  Marvel comics have been using this theory to explain their version of time travel forever.  You can't change your past, but you can go back, change something and THAT creates a branching path.  The Fantastic Four did it in the "death of the Invisible Woman" storyline.  So Dr. Rutledge created the Source Code.  It basically takes a dead body and is able to use it as a vessel to revisit the last 8 minutes of that person's life.  What I don't understand is how he thought this was happening.  Rutledge seemed to think it WAS so sort of weird computer simulation, not an actually alternate reality.  The movie implies that Rutledge doesn't know alternative realities are being created (this of course assumes that Source Code creates alternate realities and that these realities didn't always exist).  Or it's possible Rutledge thinks time travel is possible, but they are unable to change the future.  But how would they know this since Stevens is the first candidate they've had.  Or maybe they've sent him back in time and tried to change the past, it just didn't change the future (see now this would have been cool to see and would have given more sympathy to Stevens).  What the movie seems to want to show us is that Source Code creates alternative realities that people are able to visit and make changes.  It makes me wonder about the 8 minutes though.  What is the point of that?  If the Source Code creates the alternate realities why is there a time limit?  The "halo" effect only lasts for 8 minutes after, but we've seen that the reality keeps going.  The entire reality can't be reliant on Stevens STAYING in that reality (which would mean only the final reality stayed and all others were erased).  What makes me wonder is how he jumps back from realities.  What would happen if Steven didn't die in the new reality?  I think that it is implied that Steven stays in the alternate reality until he dies.  In every version he dies and comes back.  Most of these happen because of the exploding train (exactly 8 minutes), but there are two instances where it doesn't happen that way.  The second time is when Steven finds the bomber and is shot.  When I first saw it it seemed to imply to me that after the train exploded he was pushed back to his normal reality.  But we know that doesn't happen because the first time he doesn't die on the train he doesn't return until he is run over by the other train.  There was a good minute or so between the train exploding and him getting hit by the train.  So my conclusion is that when he finds the bomber and is shot, he dies.  

Rules of Source Code:

1. You need a dead body to use as the anchor.

2. You need an almost dead body to transfer.

3. You can only travel 8 minutes in the past of the dead body

It has occurred to me that you never see the anchor's body.  You see Steven's body, but never see Sean's.  Rutledge does state that Source Code uses the "halo" of the brain to do this.  So they must have Sean's brain somewhere.

Rules of Source Code:

4. You must die to come back.

Now this part is interesting.  The time that the "pod" seemed to completely break down was when Stevens stayed longer than 8 minutes.  I'm not sure why this happened.  They never explain what happens, he just gets cold.  Which would seem to point to him just dying, all the way.  But does staying in the Source Code longer than expected cause more problems?  Is that the reason the 8 minute time limit really exists?  The only problem with that theory is that there seemed to be problems in the "pod" even prior to that.