Thirty Seconds Or Less- Captain America:The First Avenger and Friends With Benefits

Well, it's still summer and the blockbusters are still trying to make their way to the top. This week I saw Captain America:The First Avenger and Friends With Benefits. Not to bad of a week considering the crap I've been seeing lately. Let's get to it.

Captain America:The First Avenger

This was a really god super hero movie. It sort of reminded me of X-Men: First Class in the sense that it was a good movie with super hero characters, instead of a super hero movie with super hero characters and a crap story line.

Cinematography 5/5

It felt real to me. Instead of CGI that looks unrealistic or unpolished, it was good looking and mostly real objects on screen. The sets were great to look at, and the colors were bright and vibrant. The lighting was usually spot on and made everything feel warm. Captain America is a bright character and to dampen his light in the attempt to make him seem darker would have been a big mistake.

Acting 4/5

Chris Evans isn't one of my favorite actors, but he isn't bad at all. In this movie he actually did quite well playing the runt at first. Very cool attitude and it felt real to me. To be honest, the character that stole the show was Hugo Weaving's character Red Skull. He is, not only, a great actor overall, but plays this part very well. He just feels creepy.

Writing 3/5

This aspect of the movie felt forced at times, but very real overall. Some lines seemed generic and that's something I frown upon. I still think they did a great job in the flow of the lines, just not the vocabulary itself.

Editing 4/5

This film did suffer the slightest from Shaky Camera Syndrome, but stayed well choreographed for most of the film. It was not rushed and it took it's time. It was well paced overall, even at the end. Don't worry, no spoilers.

Story 5/5

Fantastic! I think that they did a marvelous job conveying such a deep story that comes from a comic that has been around since 1941 when the Captain made his first appearance. Such a good story to enjoy.

Sound 5/5

Another aspect of the movie that I loved. The music matched the tone and the speed of the movie. Mismatching tempo with a movie is something I've always found irritating and Captain America did not disappoint.

Closing Comments 26/30

This is a great movie and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking to see a good movie. If you happen to be a comic book fan who enjoys Captain America, then I am sure you won't be disappointed. Go see it soon if you can.

Friends With Benefits

A romantic comedy. Hooray! That was sarcasm. I usually like romantic comedies if they can offer something new. This one...doesn't

Cinematography 3/5

I gave this category a 3 because it really had some gorgeous shots of Los Angeles and New York. But that was it. The other shots were plain and simple, and really did nothing to wow me. But I really loved those wide shots of the cities.

Acting 3/5

Honestly, it wasn't half bad. Some of the characters seemed cliche, but weren't bad. Kunis and Timberlake are pretty good actors overall. Timberlake tried to play the damaged by his childhood at times and something completely different at times, so that threw me off a bit. Kunis really is a good actress.

Writing 4/5

I rated this so highly because I've always felt that a natural feeling dialogue is very important to a film and this movie nails it. When I say "writing" I am talking about the way it was written. The dialogue feels natural and real in this movie and I loved it for that. I really enjoyed the on screen chemistry between the main characters.

Editing 2/5

Felt rushed and didn't really emphasize the main points. It was as though one second we were in New York, then L.A., then New York, etc. It was a jumble, but not too horrible, I did notice it though. Also, certain characters felt like they were just there to be filler, and I thought that was cheap.

Story 1/5

This movie was about as predictable as any other romantic comedy these days. It was just like a remake of No Strings Attached or Love and Other Drugs, but with different character background and jobs. It was not something that stood out to me.

Sound 3/5

Very basic. Nothing really made me listen to it, it just fit the movie to the best of it's ability. I didn't really notice it at all. At least it didn't ruin it for me.

Closing Comments 16/30

Well, it's summer romantic comedy that will provide for a few laughs and entertainment. It wasn't terrible, but really wasn't that good either. Just an average, run of the mill romantic comedy.