Green Lantern

[Chris Knipp]

As I've pointed out earlier citing, and agreeing with, the Metacritic relative ratings, Green Lantern (39) ranks well below Thor (58) in quality, and Thor well below X-Men: First Class (65). Super 8 (72) was rated far above them all, for a human quality which, however, in my view fails to be sustained throughout the film, which gives in to the familiar CGI overkill when it degenerates (for all its many borrowings, some of which you cite) into an alien-monster-wrecks-the-town finale much like Thor's, but Thor's is clearer and more satisfying. In that sense Super 8 is the greatest disappointment of all, and X-Men provides more unalloyed fun, though it is surely flawed, feeding its franchise as a prequel/reboot and marked by some tasty acting turns and mutant coming of age sequences. Compare these to Iron Man (79), though Iron Man 2 (57) was much less well received. Or consider The Dark Knight (82) and Inception (74) and you'll see that critically speaking, the summer hasn't given us a comic book blockbuster to write home about. I'm determined to catch all the blockbusters this summer so I'm looking forward with hope to Captain America.

Meanwhile, tonight Harry Potter, whose fan base wipes away all the others, blew all these away with a complicated, grand piece of popular moviemaking (Harry Pottter the Last: Metacritic 87). And I was there, in the Loews Metreon iMax theater in San Francisco, with a packed house applauding the more epic sequences. Truly, an audience can make a show. You should listen to a live Umm Kalsoum performance.