While it captivity, his captors demand Tony use his technical prowess to build them a Jericho missile. Rather than aid his terrorist captors, Tony builds the means for his escape; the Mark I. Upon his return home, Stark vows to reform Stark Industries for good. During his captivity, his self-discovery showed him that weapons of war are not the means to riches; they are the means to death and destruction. While Tony is busy reorganizing Stark Industries, those closest to him have other plans for his company.

Hollywood has lined up a new film for every superhero that has ever seed the inside of a comic book. Obviously, some will fail, while others thrive. Thankfully, Iron Man was one that seemed to thrive. While not perfect in every aspect, what it managed to do well, it did really well.

First the bad. For the first half of the film, the bad guys were a group of terrorists ambiguously named The Ten Rings. The film does a wonderful job of making them out to be the most evil beings on the planet. You are over joyed when Stark gets his revenge. The only problem was, his revenge comes about an hour into the film. After killing off the main bad guys, a new baddie must be identified. Sadly, there is next to no back-story on the new bad guy, so you don’t feel that it was out of Tony’s element when he eliminates him. Next time, we’ll only need one reason for our protagonist to fight, not eleven.

Now the good. What Iron Man did well was make Iron Man really seem like a super hero. Robert Downey Jr. played the most lovable, piece of elitist scum possible. You loved every minute of seeing him get torn down from his high horse, but you also felt bad for him when he hit rock bottom. This was mostly due to Downey Jr.’s impeccable acting in the role. Even after coming home you could see he was still an asshole, but one who had a little more love in his heart.

Aside from the acting, the special effects really portrayed a level of technology that is only present in comic books. Automated systems rebuilding suits of armor in 8 hours is only the stuff of computer-generated trickery; but that didn’t stop it from being totally awesome. Thankfully, the technology didn’t try to be ‘real’, which left it open to rather ridiculous concepts, but that’s fine. Viewers know it’s a superhero movie and expect a certain level of unbelievability.

Beowulf lures Grendel into the great hall of Heorot to do battle with him, man against beast. Knowing that weapons will not kill Grendel, Beowulf fights him with his wits and brawn. After besting his foe, Beowulf is made king of Heorot in return for freeing Hrothgar from the curse of his illegitimate son.

Enraged at Beowulf, Grendel’s mother kills his army while he sleeps, attempting to lure him into her lair to exact revenge. When Beowulf arrives, she is impressed with his courage and asks him to give her another son for taking hers. She promises him all the wealth and power he could ever desire in return. Consenting, Beowulf returns to Heorot, not knowing that his choice will come back to haunt him.

When a movie is based off of an epic tale, you expect it to be epic itself. There is a certain badassness that you envision in the film adaptation that you imagined while reading the story it was derived from. Sometimes expecting a film to live up to your own hype is a bad idea. This was a perfect example of that. What started as an epic tale of heroism and pride, ended up as a cartoonish farce of machoness and a-list actors.

What film Beowulf lacked in respect to the original story, it more than made up for using ghastly CGI and laughable story jumps. The whole time I was watching the movie I was distracted by the computer generated actors. It all looks like it should be included in the 4th Shrek movie. The only redeeming part of the CG was the battle sequences and the landscape shots. The CGI really worked well for the dragon battle at the end of the film, other than that, the characters seemed cartoonish and distracting. Beowulf is simply a mediocre movie based off an amazing story which was tarnished by a creative director with too much zeal for wanting to be different. Epic films are supposed to look real, fairy tales are supposed to look fake. Keep those two genres separate because that’s when they work the best.

As Barry and Vanessa’s relationship blossoms, Barry discovers that humans actually eat honey. Outraged at the exploitation of honey bees for the pleasure of humans leaves Barry with only one option; sue the human race and return the honey to the bees.

To be succinct, Bee Movie is exploding with cuteness and family-friendly fun. One of the best animated films I’ve seen, it ranks up there with Toy Story and Shrek. Shows, that Dreamworks can come up with high-quality films with the best of them.

What pleased me the most about this film, as with all family-friendly animated films, is the adult humor that is snuck in for the portion of the audience over the age of 12. For example, Mooseblood(Rock), a mosquito, explains how he became a lawyer,

Ma’am, I was already a bloodsucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase!

It is quotes like that, which make these films so enjoyable for everyone.

One pitfall of the film was the imbalance in the story. It seemed that the film didn’t flow smoothly from start to finish. There was a huge build-up of Barry’s character and his life and purpose, but soon after the trial, the film speeds up and plot points are piled on, one after another. The ending of the film seems rushed. Maybe it was the studio shortening the script, maybe Seinfeld got tired of writing. Whatever the cause, the film ended rather abruptly and left me wanting more.