Man of Steel

3 pipes out of 4

Superman returns to prime form in his triumphant return to the big screen. With the reinvigoration of the storyline from previous films Zach Snyder explains many of the details that had fallen by the wayside such as why kryptonite is so toxic to Superman. Henry Calvill does a surprisingly good job as Cal-El aka Clark Kent considering his previously biggest role was in the lackluster Immortals. The younger versions of Kent struggle with their powerful abilities and what they are supposed to do with them. Kevin Costner plays Superman’s adopted father Jonathan Kent putting a much darker town to the character, questioning whether Clark should use his abilities to help others and risking his identity. Russell Crowe performs at the opposite of the spectrum as Jor-El, Clark’s biological father who sends his son to earth where he will be viewed as “a god”. Cal-El is sent away from his home planet in order to escape the destruction of the over harvested core and a military coup-de-ta by the head of the military, General Zod. Snyder puts an interesting and more realistic take on the Superman character with Superman wanting to help the humans but having them not immediately accept him as a savior. Instead he is greeted with hostility and suspicion with not all of it dissipating by the end of the film. In the previous set of films General Zod was introduced in the first but then delegated to the second. While being a villain in the second he was one of three villains, not being the top dog. Snyder wisely added Michael Shannon as Zod who finally appears to be getting the recognition he deserves for a wonderfully underappreciated career. Shannon gives Zod a deep mental anguish and desire for the greeter good which iterates the resounding question of the film; do the ends justify the means? Another bright spot is the acceleration of Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Superman’s courtship giving us a new take on the relationship that never has appeared on the big screen before. A minor gripe is that Laurence Fishburne play Perry white, Lois’ boss at the daily planet, and while Fishburne is a wonderful actor this is obviously an attempt to make one of the characters black so as not to appear racist or discriminatory. Overall Man of Steel is leaps and bounds above Superman Returns and is a firm stepping stone towards the eventual Justice League.

This Is The End

2 ½ pipes out of 4

An apocalyptic film to end all apocalypse films. With the group of actors cast playing themselves only stereotyped to the max as Jonah Hill is viewed as the general good guy, he overplays his niceness coming off as obnoxious while James Franco hilariously plays up an obsession with Seth Rogen. The central focus of the movie is the relationship between Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel while all hell breaks loose around them. The initial party that the two attend at Franco’s enormous house is a cameo fest with Paul Rudd, Kevin Hart and Rihanna to name a few. At the party the apocalypse begins leaving only Hill, Franco, Rogen and Baruchel trapped inside the house along with a hilarious Craig Robinson and the worthless Danny Mcbride. With the removal of Mcbride and Michael Cera from the film This is the End could have improved immensely. Cera pretends to be the light headed douche that he seems to always play only this time he is obsessed with cocaine. Mcbride plays the jerk who everyone hates but no one has the guts to kick him out of the house despite his waste of supplies with no regard to any of the other housemates. Despite these facts the film is amazingly funny, taking shots at all apocalyptic films and film making in general taking special shots at The Exorcist, Your Highness, Moneyball and The Green Hornet. Emma Watson makes a small appearance in finally breaking from her innocent Hermione character from Harry Potter, creating a witty foulmouthed independent woman, making you wish she had a bigger role than she does. With surprise and expected cameos This is the End proudly makes fun of itself and the stupidity of its own characters. Easily worth the price of admission and could be the best R rated comedy of the summer.

The Internship

2 ½ pipes out of 4

The Wedding Crashers are back and they are the just the same as before only in a new environment. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are introduced as watch salesmen whose business has gone under in a watchless society. Forced into the job market with no market able skills, they happen to land an interview for an internship at Google. Amazingly they happen to get the internship and begin competing with college students from the like of Brown, Stanford and MIT for only 5 permanent jobs. As typical with these types of movies they are grouped with the dysfunctional group and are made fun of for their impossible naivety in the likes of Harry Potter, X-Men and the internet. Most of the comedy comes from this generational gap and their awkwardness with technology though some comes from the social anxieties put upon the ‘geeky’ group members Vaughn and Wilson are paired with. Both the young bucks and then old veterans teach each other lessons in that Technology does make life easier but it also can remove the human element and that is what is most important. The internship come out a few years ago this may have been the break out hit of the summer, however now it is simply a fun movie to see during a matinee.