thoughts on The Green Lantern

Well. That was better than I expected. Seriously. I went to see this movie simply because I felt like seeing a movie yesterday; I would have rather seen Midnight in Paris, but it was playing at an inconvenient time at a theater way across town. Fortunately, I wound up enjoying it quite a bit.

As superhero movies go, I tend to see about 80% of the ones that come out, even though I've never read any of the comic books on which they are based. My favorites so far have been the Christian Bale Batman movies and the Iron Man movies. I think I like those the best because 1) the heroes don't have actual superpowers, just skills, money, and gadgets, which make their feats both more plausible and more impressive and 2) those movies tend to be more...serious? Adult? Something.

The Green Lantern is nothing like those movies. It is, however, fun. I don't really have a strong opinion on Ryan Reynolds one way or the other; in fact, looking at IMDB, I realize that I have not seen a single movie that he has starred in (besides, of course, this one). He was apparently in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle; I don't remember seeing him in it. He was also apparently on episodes of Scrubs and My Boys, which I also probably saw but don't recall. However, I liked him as Hal Jordan in this movie, and I liked how Hal Jordan's main issue is that he can't commit to things because he's afraid. Relatable. I liked Peter Skarsgaard as the villain; I also found him very interesting/relatable. Tim Robbins is good in a minor role. I think Blake Lively does fine as Hal's love interest, Carol Ferris, but I will admit that I am such a Gossip Girl fan that I have a hard time separating Lively from the character she plays on that show, Serena van der Woodsen. Serena is such a great character and Lively does such a great job as her that it almost seems weird seeing her play someone else.

As for the plot...the explanation of how/why Hal Jordan must become the Green Lantern is sort of overly complicated, as far as superhero origin stories go, but at its core the movie is about Jordan accepting the responsibility associated with the role and overcoming his fear. It's entertaining; like in Thor, there is a fair amount of going back and forth between what's going on on Earth and the trouble unfolding on a distant planet, but I will say that this held my interest quite a bit better than Thor did. I should probably admit, however, that I had a terrible, terrible headache when I went to see Thor and thus spent a lot of the movie sitting there thinking, "Why does everything have to be so loud?" I did think the ending of this dragged out a bit. However, it was fun, and I enjoyed it, and the other moviegoers at the theater I went to seemed to agree: "That was a cool movie!" said one eight-year-old boy to another as we all walked out. "I thought it was a good movie," said a forty-something tattooed man who had attended the movie with a friend and their kids, one of whom was still wearing her 3-D glasses even after we had all made our way completely outdoors. "It had more of a storyline than I expected." Yes. Yes, it did.

Bottom line: entertaining story and performances that made it even more enjoyable. I had a good time.

thoughts on Scream 4 (mild spoilers)

I don't like scary movies. However, I didn't realize this until my mid-twenties, because some of the first scary movies that I ever saw and liked (the ones that came out during my teen years, a.k.a. my prime scary movie watching years) were, as I sensed at the time and would later confirm, not like other scary movies. Scream, its sequels, and even the not-quite-as-good-but-still-entertaining wannabe movies that followed it (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, etc.) were more fun than the average scary movie. They interspersed some funny moments in with the gore. They had entertaining characters. They (and I'm including both Scream and its followers, here) featured lots of the actors I liked from my favorite TV shows (including-- but not limited to-- Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt from Party of Five; Courteney Cox from Friends; and Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek). So, I entered my twenties thinking that I liked scary movies, only to go on to watch "real" scary movies and find myself grossed out, disturbed, and well...scared. I stopped watching scary movies. I hadn't seen one in the theater since The Ring in 2002.

Then, Scream 4 came out. I was interested in seeing it, but not as interested as I was in seeing other stuff that came out at the same time, I guess, because I didn't see it until today, after it had arrived at Showplace Cinemas South, a.k.a. "the cheap theater." I am happy to say that it didn't disappoint. The fun (including not one but two "fakeout" opening scenes)! The familiar actors (including the stars of the original Scream movies and actors from current TV shows, like Lucy Hale from Pretty Little Liars, Aimee Teegarden from Friday Night Lights, and Alison Brie from Community)! And a storyline-- and characters-- that expressed not only a knowledge of the horror genre, but a knowledge of current teen culture: a culture where, as one character notes, everyone lives their lives in public, and you don't have to achieve anything to be famous-- you just have to have messed up stuff happened to you. I don't want to give too much away here, but let me just say that not only does it not disappoint, but that I could totally get behind a new Scream movie coming out every five or ten years or so. I'd definitely recommend this one, everyone.

Friday Night Lights Season Five Episode Eight

You know what I love about FNL? I love how it's good enough that you don't necessarily miss the characters that have left Dillon, yet it's always so exciting to see those characters again. I love how the old Panthers are all making an appearance in the final season. I was especially excited when I thought that stupid Julie was turning her car towards Tennessee to see stupid Head TA Derek Bishop, but then who came to the door she knocked on but MATT SARACEN! MATT SARACEN! I also fully gasped during the preview for next week's episode when Julie tells Matt about her "affair." THAT is one conversation I can't wait to see. Stupid Julie.

(I've never cared for Julie Taylor all that much, in case you can't tell. I've thought she was pretty bratty since the very beginning of the series, with her whole "I don't date football players" business. And people let her get away with being a brat, is the thing. I have, however, thoroughly enjoyed this Derek Bishop storyline. Julie's really the only character who they could do this "fooling around with a married TA" storyline with and have it have any impact. Tyra and Lyla have both always acted a lot older than they are, so it wouldn't seem like nearly as big of a deal if the same thing happened to either of them.)

Anyway. I have mixed feelings about Billy Riggins being such a big part of this season, but I am enjoying watching Mindy and Becky be friends. Also enjoyed how the scenes with the girls getting ready for the pageant were cut and edited similarly to the scenes of the strippers getting ready backstage, yet all of the pageant people acted all uppity towards the strippers (though obviously the strippers didn't need to boo when Becky got second runner-up). Also, Luke Cafferty is pretty much the sweetest guy ever-- and I mean, he's on a show where like 90% of the guys are incredibly sweet, nice guys, and where even many of the guys who don't seem sweet are good guys deep down, so that's a bold statement. That said, Vince's dad is the devil.