just The Right Amount of "Rah-Rah": Captain America

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You could consider this plucky little superhero story Hollywood's "Plan With A Man", the man in this case being Chris Evans, who's done the superhero bit before, in "fantastic Four."

The plan? Put a few A and B- lusters (Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci, Hugo Weaving, Derek Luke) with some relative unknowns and obscures and let director Joe Johnston(The Rocketeer) polish them up with his usual can-do spirit and good-natured wit.

For the most part, it works. While there is certainly the usual raft of explosions, gunfights and visual efx, this is one superhero that gets by essentially on his own wits and - admittedly juiced-up - power. There's also, in the typical Johnston style, some gentle yet effective satire. Right after he first discovers his new altered body, our hero becomes a Gov't pawn for the war effort, doing hokey road shows touting war bonds, in which he knocks an even more caricatured Hitler. The sequence ends when "Capo's" schtick falls flat before a troop of real GIs in Italy.

But fear not, the action (slow, we admit) jumps back into the comic book realm. The enemy here is not even the Nazis, but a megalomaniac called Red Skull who's harnessed new weapons technology that can vaporize mere mortals, along with an android (not the phone) army of his own, all of which he is ready to unleash on an unsuspecting world ( Germany included) unless...

Well, you know the rest. Evans is no Christian Bale (who will again have his turn as the Caped Crusader next summer), but he's commanding enough and he has just the right mix of awe and assurance to make the character likeable. Indeed, striking the right tone is the core of the movie's charm. Yes, there's "rah-rah" Americana, but it never overwhelms the story (thin though it may be), nor the viewer.

Taking the Fight to Fear: Green Lantern Movie Trailer

I'm a little bit baffled by the rush to condemn this, the latest entrant in the superhero movie sweepstakes. Sure, the dialogue and acting are pretty much serviceable, if forgettable (except for Blake Lively as Carol Ferris and Peter Sarsgaard as the horribly disfigured Hector Hammond).

But director Martin Campbell (whose "Casino Royale" breathed new life into an otherwise moribund James Bond franchise), moves things along at a very engaging pace and while I'm no champion for efx-driven vehicles, it has to be said, the effects here are pretty damn good, especially the opening sequence.

For comic book laggards, the Green Lantern is based on the DC Comics title (now owned, I believe, by Disney, so its unlikely that Warner Bros will be behind the inevitable sequel) created by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Hal Jordan, a "flyboy" test piloty along the lines of Tom Cruise in Top Gun (but taller, of course) is mysteriously chosen to join an elite group of intergalactic "peacekeepers. Their powers come from a light source fed by willpower (it'sa comic, lighten up) and their great enemy - in this case anyway - is Parallax, a former intergalactic councilman who went over to the dark side and now feeds on fear.

Parallax, recently escaped from solitary confinement in a God-forsaken corner of the Universe, is now hungry for revenge, not only on the Green Lantern who initially subdued him, but simply, against everybody.  The ring seeks out Hla, who of course, has issues of commitment and living up to responsibility (he watched his dad, also a test pilot, die horribly, but then, you could figure that out, couldn't you?).

Now summoned, Hal has to reckon with his new powers, with the overbearing air of Green Lantern commander Sinestro (Mark Strong, the villain from "Sherlock Holmes") with the affections of Carol and with the increasing psychopathic weirdness of Hector. All comes to a head as Parallax, smelling a heaping helping of fear, gets set to suck up humankind into his hydra-like body.

After X-Men:First Class, with its Cold War setting and its "embrace different" earnestness, and ahead of the rah-rah jingoism of the upcoming Captain America, Green Lantern is a light but not frothy, refreshing little snack of a movie - the kind I used to enjoy as part of a Saturday afternoon triple-bill. Though there's no discernible chemistry between them (probably toned down to get a PG-13 rating), Reynolds is just the right mix of cocky and noble and Lively, whose shown considerable versatility over the last couple years, simply burns up the screen, even though there's no sex scene and barely a kiss exchanged between them.

Green lantern then, is the superhero movie for those who claim not to like superhero movies. Notwithstanding my own position, I'd say forget the negative criticism and give it a shot.

Nothing to do but wait for the summer (2011)

The above line is from a Leif Garrett song (remember him?), but slogging through this Christmas, and taking note of the gigantic slate of sequels and other massive movies due next year, it could sum up the Hollywood mood right now

Among the expected box-office heavy hitters for 2K11 are:

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On stranger Tides;
The Hangover 2;
Kung Fu Panda 2
Thor

X-Men: First Class;
Cars 2
Green Lantern

Transformers 3;
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II (series finale ?)
Captain America

looks to be an epic summer