Captain America: The First Avenger

Finally, the long awaited Captain America movie has arrived and to my delight not only does this movie deliver a spectacular performance by the whole cast, it also finally does justice to one my favorite superheroes of all time. I do have to say, that the previous attempts at making Captain America movies have been terrible and were so campy and poorly written that they did not give proper homage to a superhero who is the symbol of America. I am very pleased to say that the latest attempt of Captain America as a movie does not disappoint.

Set in post Pearl Harbor United States, the movie follows a scrawny boy from Brooklyn who has a penchant for getting into fights with people bigger and stronger than himself named Steve Rogers. He attempts to join the military 5 times and each time he is rejected. This, however, doesn't stop Rogers as he finds his way into the military through the Super Soldier Project. From there, fate takes rogers for the ride of his life.

This movie is very patriotic and poetic at the same time. Steve Rogers is the epitome of a selfless hero, willing to sacrifice his own life so that others may live. On top of that, Rogers is constantly trying to do what is right, standing up to bullies no matter what odds are stacked against him. These are all values that run very deeply in the traditions of American society, as much as the rest of the world may not like to think so. However, the movie doesn't just make it seem that this creedo of standing up and doing what's right is only American as shown when Captain America puts together his team of elite soldier to help him take out Hydra.

Without trying to spoil too much of the movie, Captain America: The First Avenger is wonderful movie capturing not only what it means to be an American hero but, a hero that any man of any faith or any creed can adopt. The idea of selflessness, protecting others, and standing up for what a person believes is right runs deeply through this movie. It is a must see movie for everyone. This movie is very violent, the characters are fighting a war and it is shown in very high detail that they are in a warzone. However, looking past the violence, it all has a poetic purpose and ties everything together into a movie that I consider better than Iron Man.

The Green Lantern

So in my pre-July 4th boredom I decided to go hang out with some friends and then see the ever so hyped, Green Lantern movie. To say the least, this was everything I could have expected from a movie based on a character who is about as overpowered as a god and who really has no where to go in terms of character development.

The movie is essentially the back story for the Green Lantern named Hal Jordan. Namely, his rise to being supposedly the most famous and powerful of all the Green Lanterns in the Green Lantern Corp. Obviously, this age of writing superhero movies for the people of the age of five. The movie has very little plot and was obviously targeted at a crowd that can't watch big scary monsters without giving their parental units a loving cuddle.

The acting in this movie is mediocre at best. Now that I think of it there was only one memorable performance in this entire movie and that was Blake Lively's, and only because she was the only one that put any kind of a performance on the screen. Through granted, when she was on the screen she was the only thing I was paying attention to. I'm sure it was her blue eyes.

Anyways this movie is definitely something for the kids. Past that don't expect much...

Oh yeah there are some post credit things that also don't make any sense either!

Thor

So this summer's comic book movies started out with the Avenger Thor. I took it upon myself to see this movie on principle that I was going to see the Captain America movie. I'll be honest I have never had an interest in Thor mainly because he falls under the "overpowered superhero" category. Now before you fan boys star pouting and trolling me like I know you will allow me to preemptively strike away at your cold dark non-social skilled hearts.

First of all, Thor is a god of Norse mythology to which even the comics written by Jack Kirby and released by Stan Lee's Marvel Comics are loosely based upon. Now because he is a god, his power level, no matter how specialized it may be, will go as high as the imagination can carry it! It is here where the inherent flaw of the god character comes in. There is now nothing that can be done with this character to challenge him. Now people might point out, "Wait Redux! Thor is fighting other gods and Norse gods can be mortally wounded!" To which I reply, "Yes, but even then there is still really no way of challenging the character to the degree that would actually be a threat to him!"

I digress, Thor as a movie can be best described as mediocre at best. Even with the big star support of Natalie Portman, there was still not enough well-paced action to keep my scatter-brained psyche engaged long enough to want to care about the character. It felt more that marvel spent too much time telling Natalie Portman and cast to act confused then rather movin along to any action that was meaningful to he main plot. To be to the point, this movie was just plain boring! Nothing really stood out a out it. It was just average.

This movie did not get me to actually want to read the comics. My recommendations are to rent this movie there are a million things better to spend your mobey on than to see this in the theatre.

The Battle for Los Angeles

Wow. Talk about not reviewing anything for a while... real life tends to get in the way. I know it's been a while but let's see if I still have it in me to write some reviews. In this case it will be the movie Battle: Los Angeles.

Battle: Los Angeles, is what happens when an alien race decides to invade the earth today. The movie is shot from the point of view of a person that is following a United States Marine Corp. platoon as they are deployed to the coastal areas of Los Angeles. The movie's first fifteen minutes set up the story, and gives a short look at each of the Marines' lives, the movie takes the viewers on an hour and forty-five minute gunfight.

The best way to view this movie is view it as a war movie. The action ramps up with just enough cool down to develop story just enough so that you are itching for more. Though filmed with a very shaky camera the movie does a superb job of submersing the viewer in the middle of an alien assault on Earth. The action is intense with bullets and plasma bolts flying by the viewer's ears at every moment.

There is very little gore in this movie but it can still be classified as very violent. Many of the scenes are not gruesome but they do involve watching as soldiers either are shot or fall to their deaths.

The story is very well put together. There is a lot of thought put into the story and very little is left out. The moments of pure and utter hopelessness are filled very well in the moments where the soldiers are not fighting. This movie seriously felt like playing Modern Warfare with an alien invasion at its backdrop.

With everything said, this is a movie to definitely see. It is better than Independence Day and way better than Skyline. This is not a movie to take the kids to see but definitely one that people will enjoy.

Iron Man 2

So other than my professional life as being a first year high school science teacher, nothing really has been able to catch my interest in books and movies. Actually, that's a half lie. I have really just been very busy with school stuff to bother with other things. Fear not loyal followers! I HAVE RETURNED to give you the snarky reviews that I usually give for epic nerdiness!

If you haven't figured out what this review is about, read the title again! I will say this movie was made of pure awesome... and then some. Good cinematography, great delivery of well placed sarcasm, and all-star cast, and excellent choreography make this movie BETTER THAN THE LAST! Sorry Dark Knight and Iron Man, you just got replaced by the new kid on the block.

Iron Man 2 starts about where the first one leaves off. Though, the previews literally stole scenes from the first 20-30 minutes of the movie the other two hours of the movie make up for this Hollywood teaser mishap. Don't worry the previews actually don't show you the whole story! I know! It's a first! Anyways, Tony Stark, the man in the iron suit, assures Congress and the public that no one is going have the armored suit to the point that he has developed it himself. Unfortunately for Mr. Stark, he's not the only one that knows how to build his precious arc reactor!

I can't really write this interview without spoiling the movie. There is a lot that goes on in it. All the characters are brilliantly presented in most of their comic book glory! Scarlet Johannson NAILS Black Widow with the exception of the lack of a Russian accent. Robert Downing Jr., as always give a brilliant performance as Tony Stark, being the playboy and a rich bastard. OH how we love and hate you! Mickey Rourke, brings another wonderful performance as a psychopathic villain on a vendetta. The dialogue was superbly written! Sarcasm and sexual tension performed by very talented actors and actresses. I seriously could not stop laughing at the wittiness of Stark, the nervousness of Pepper, and the references to the other characters in the Marvel universe.

I recommend watching this movie! THIS MOVIE IS A MUST SEE! It exceeds my expectations for a second superhero movie being bad and it continues to feed my fanboy fire for the Iron Man series. There is quite a bit of strong language however, so just be forewarned parents when you take your kids to see this movie. Other than that this movie is worth EVERY PENNY SPENT for a ticket! Cars, girls, guns, and superheroes... I don't think it could get any better!

I Have Only Begun to Fight!

Well it has definitely been an interesting first three days of school. I will have to say, this is not easy and teachers sure make it look like it. However, I'm hanging in there. Keeping a journal and writing in this blog is helping me unwind and keep my sanity. Within the past few days I have been able to determine what caused the last teacher to leave. I won't go into the details but I intend on following through with what I tell them I'm going to do.

So many things can make a person jaded at this job. I will admit, when I get to the end of the day, I am physically exhausted and ready to go home. But all it takes is about an hour to unwind and reflect in my journal and blog and I feel okay again. I am learning a lot about dealing with students of different attitudes, some who WANT to learn, some who don't want to do anything, and some who just don't care about what happens to them. I am coming to the realization that I have came in on some of the worst conditions an educator can possibly enter into. My job has become a salvage operation.

I am pleasantly reminded, however, of all the inspirational teacher movies I've seen. Even the ones that make fun of teaching. The one thing that made all those teachers work was that they didn't give up on their students no matter what! I have to follow in their footsteps. I have to be the students' teacher first and not worry if I'm going to be liked by the students. The ones that will like me will like me, the ones that will hate me will hate me no matter what I do. This is a fight for the future of the world... and yes the future of the world is at stake!

Day 1: Getting the Ground Rules

Okay so I started my teaching job today. To be 100% honest... I have a long way to go with these students. The students are so used to inconsistency that I have to maintain and retrain all of the bad stuff out of them while at the same time teaching them the material they need to know for the state mandated test and teach them how to make observations scientifically and think critically.

Luckily for me, the administration and my fellow colleagues have been very supportive and helpful in giving advice in trying to maintain the classes that I teach. I let the students know that I hold them all to high standards and that if they wanted to do anything fun, they were going to have to prove to me they have the discipline to do the more hands-on types of science.

The students are everyday high school students from a smaller town. They all have their likes, dislikes, and I even share a lot of the similar interests with my students in gaming, movies, and reading. Though I am usually concerned more with the ones I can't relate to. Those are the ones that are going to find me boring in class and will probably act up. But I firmly believe I can still help these students get the skills they need to reach the goals they gave me. They are all genuinely good students that have SO much untapped potential. I get the feeling I'm going to have to egg them on and push them to do better. Most of those students earnestly felt like they had been cheated and given up on. I can't do that. Not now or ever.