There was only one thing about this movie that I really, really didn't like, and it only lasted about 3 seconds. Literally. It was a shot that went on just a few seconds too long, and left a spoken line in that I really, really hated on a visceral level. That, and this movie's MacGuffin, are why this isn't an 8 or a 9 on the T-ometer.
I loved the actors in this movie. It cast is completely made up of "Oh, THAT guy!"s, the ones that you see in other stuff, on TV maybe, and they act the crap out of each of their roles. The two famoustest people in this movie were Zoe Saldana of Star Trek and Avatar fame (so she's doing okay for herself, I suppose) and Chris Evans, who was the Human Torch and will be Captain America. I think we'll be seeing more of these kids in the future. Just a hunch.
I love ensemble movies when they're done right, and done right this is. The characters back each other up, they make fun of and support each other, and as a team are greater than the sum of their parts. Awesome.
Then there's the bad guy, Max, played by Jason Patric. He was the main character in the Lost Boys about a bajillion years ago, and played Jim Bowie in The Alamo back in ought-four. He's awesome. He's quirky, evil, and the best part is, he doesn't think he's evil. Or, if he does, he doesn't care: he has a goal, a plan for what he thinks the world should be, and he doesn't give two craps what he has to do, or who he has to kill, to make it that way. ("That wasn't a 'toss him off the building'-nod; that was a 'break a few of his fingers'-nod, at most!" Great line.)
On the downside, the scene I hate is one of his: he gives an order, an underling asks for clarification, and he repeats the order verbatim. That was fine. Up til there, I got it: "This is what I want you to do; don't ask questions, just do it." I can dig that. Then (and this is so... infinitesimally small that I'm surprised it affected me this much) he repeats it again. That third time, it just felt like too much, and my loathing for this character multiplied a thousandfold. If that bit would just go away, if they'd left it at 2, I would have been very happy with this obviously evil but still tons-of-fun villain, but now I just don't like him. That has never happened to me before.
And, of course, the MacGuffin: a crate full of *ahem* Snukes. They're Sonic Nuclear Destabilizers, and when we see one go off, it annihilates an entire island, which is swallowed by the sea. The upside to this weapon is massive, nuke-level destruction, but no nasty radiation to deal with. I understand the appeal. And Max wants to set one off in San Francisco, then blame it on some of America's enemies.
The snuke demonstration, and just the stupid name, took me out of the film. It stopped being plausible, and I was reminded every time they said that stupid, stupid name. After the demonstration, I could get back into the plot, okay, the good guys need to stop the bad guy, awesome, let's do this, and then someone mentions them, aaaand it's dumb again.
Stupid snukes.
Anyway, these are minor things. Seriously. This was a great movie, the characters were awesome, the comedy worked, the plot was good, excellent film. I'm probably gonna buy this. You should check it out.
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