This Ain't Your Grandma's Twilight

Dude, I cannot even being to tell you how relieved I am right now. A little over a month ago, I wrote up a piece detailing my crippling fears that The Hunger Games would squander it's excellent source material in favor of appealing to the twihards. Perfectly legitimate concerns, mind you, as both Twilight and The Hunger Games are geared towards, more or less, the same audience. But where Twilight is boring, overly melodramatic, and soulless, The Hunger Games is tight, intense, and emotional, and it is with great pleasure that I can say that the movie adaptation of it is all those things and more! With unflinching loyalty to the source material, coupled with a practically perfect performance from the lead, The Hunger Games is the first big movie of 2012 that deserves your attention.

This is not a face you wave a flame in front of!

Made in the U.S. of A.

And with that, the longest theatrical trailer of all time comes to an end. After two Iron Man flicks, a Hulk movie, and Thor, only one thing remained before Nick Fury's elusive team assembled. And now there's nothing left. Thankfully, Marvel goes out with a bang. Captain America: The First Avenger, while nowhere near a masterpiece, and certainly far from the best under the Marvel brand, is a much more superior film than you would initially believe. With a healthy amount of well crafted action, strong acting, and the smartest use of Avengers promotion yet, Captain America offers a solid and more than sufficiently entertaining bout of comic book mayhem. It's smarter than it needed to be, and more stylish than was required.

Mission Accomplished! Where's my apple pie?