prhilmes-1

I saw Superman in IMAX 3D this past weekend. It was a lot of fun with great action, visuals and sound, and some good moments with the characters. But by and large, it felt like the storytellers (Mr. Gunn, et al) sort of decided we already knew all of these characters well enough and therefore didn't need time getting to know them to develop a connection. The intro to the film more or less captures this by explaining all that has happened up to the point in the movie where the action kicks off. I certainly didn't need another origin story for Superman, but I would have liked to have gotten to know the characters better. Otherwise, the bad guys come off as too one-dimensional and the good guys I'm just not that invested in even if I do know their back stories. The movie wasn't overly long coming in at just over 2 hours, but it could have spent another 20-30 minutes building up the characters more and a little less time on gratuitous action. That could have taken the movie from good to amazing.

I have to say that while I have liked a lot of the Marvel Comic Universe movies that have come out over the past 16+ years now, they have gotten tiring, with so many end of the world type stories and the huge mess that is the multiverse. This is in part why I really enjoyed Captain America: Brave New World - it takes a break from all of that to focus on more human elements. You've got Sam Wilson's personal journey to still carry the weight of being Captain America to keep getting back up after being knocked down. You've got President Ross who is try to make good by his daughter (though this could have been done more strongly in the movie IMO), and you've got the villain who wants his independence and some of his old life back (though that is a tired trope). In any case, the writers, director, and Anthony Mackie do best with his part, and it makes for a great movie. The movie also starts off strong where it's not clear who, what, or why is behind some of the bad events unfolding. Some of the fights are great. Action is overall good. I saw it in IMAX, which was spectacular. The movie dragged a little bit in a few places, but was overall well paced. I really enjoyed it.

I have read a couple of the Alex Cross books, and I found them to be too gruesome for my taste even though I thought they were well-written with good stories and characters. Somehow, I've found the show more palatable with just as good writing and characters. But the picture is just so dark. I have to switch all the lights off in my room and turn the TV to bright mode (I have an LG OLED). It's like the people responsible for picture quality were out to lunch. The cinematography is great in one respect, but in terms of picture brightness it is so far off from all other shows, it just throws me. If they fixed this, it would be great.