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    • action
    • superhero
    | May 20, 2018, 9:26 p.m.
    With Ant-Man, Marvel plays it safe. Journeyman Peyton Reed replaced Edgar Wright as director and any hope of edginess or hope of a new style went with him. The finished picture wound up being an especially direct representation of Marvel's favorite hobby horse: daddy issues.
    • superhero
    | Feb. 24, 2018, 12:33 p.m.
    One of the wonderful idiosyncrasies of the US culture is to find a direct ratio between profitability and artistic merit. This very same phenomenon led many to reflexively call Avatar a great work of art once it became the all time box office champ. Its the same impulse that leads to remembering the original Avengers as a great feature. The original Avengers was indeed a good film, but it’s virtues were in its likeability. It is the ultimate exemplar of the Marvel film. I bring this up because the tone of the reviews for Age of Ultron held
    • action
    • crime
    • superhero
    | Aug. 19, 2018, 4:09 p.m.
    Maybe not the strongest of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, Batman Begins is the most carefully crafted. Its distinction as an "origin story" keeps it underrated and pleasant surprise to rediscover
    • action
    • superhero
    | Oct. 10, 2016, 11:02 p.m.
    There were a few vocal members of the audience at my screening that took great umbrage with Robert Redford. To be fair his Secretary Pierce is a plot contraption who only delivers lengthy exposition coded in politician-speak. Nothing tests the patience of an action film’s audience more. If anything though Robert Redford brought this on himself. Like contemporary Warren Beatty, he was much too selective in choosing roles when a certifiable A-Lister. If you’ve spent the past two decades sporadically appearing in safe and forgettable films don’t expect audiences to come you. I’d love to see Redford role the
    • action
    • superhero
    | Aug. 19, 2017, 3:37 p.m.
    At a certain point even formulas for success become just formulaic. Of all the metaphysical worries surrounding the plot of Doctor Strange, the production is clearly concerned with becoming just another Marvel movie. It doesn’t help that Strange the character is noticeably similar to Iron Man, Tony Stark. Both learned to sublimate their egos and work for the greater good only after a life-threatening injury forced them to reevaluate their existence. They are even groomed similarly with matching goatees. The leading portion of Doctor Strange has to be yet another comic book origin story and its treated as almost
    • comedy
    • romance
    • superhero
    | Nov. 25, 2018, 4:20 p.m.
    For one brief sequence My Super Ex Girlfriend is revolutionary. Female puberty has long been the grist of horror films, from the Exorcist and Carrie, to Ginger Snaps. When seen from the gaze of primarily male storytellers, the ordeal is one of unavoidable tragedy. Female puberty in these stories either makes girl undergoing it into a beast or into a target. Superhero films, especially origin films are often metaphors for male puberty. Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, and the Hulk all dealt with young men who became bigger, stronger, and faster. They weighed with the responsibility
    • documentary
    • superhero
    | June 10, 2017, 4:41 p.m.
    I love the new era of micro documentaries. Seemingly everything of any significance gets a feature-length retrospective. My favorite among these act more as self promotion platforms and invitations for audience involvement. Even if they don’t work as films, I still feel invested in the outcome. After watching “Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth” I wished I had a club to book him. “Searching for Sugarman” of course incites a righteous rage to recover Sixto Rodriguez’s royalties. “Starring Adam West” frames its structure around the quest to get West’s career recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk