The Movies

The pinnacle; Whedon meshes all the solo films while lifting them to a higher level.

The penultimate crossover film, a new standard!

The ULTIMATE Crossover Film!

The Once and Future King lets love rule.

One of the most resonant and engaging romance stories that I've ever seen.

A stunner; a solo film on the level of AVENGERS. Character, complexity, commentary.

The only thing that would make this film better is if I knew there was a Captain America IV after it. It's a trilogy anomaly, where the movies get better every time.

Terrific adaption of Gloeckner's edgy and farcical coming-of-age graphic novels.

This film does a great job of tying up multiple timelines and stories, while paying homage to one of the greatest X-men stories of all time.

This classic is what BATMAN ('89) should've been, and had no clue how to do. Thanks, Chris!

An ambitious sequel, Joss pours a ton into it, perhaps a few too many things. It's spectacle is enjoyable but a few plot points aren't as well shaped and it suffers accordingly a touch.

Brie Larson shines, finally bringing a female lead story to the forefront of the MCU - with a subtle, wry wit, in a story with more than a few surprises.

Best comic book costume onscreen since Superman. Entertaining, captures the character perfectly, the passion shows in the production.

Another fine adaption of one of Posy Simmonds' brilliant graphic novels.

The only real Tarzan movie ever made, staying remarkably true to the first books.

This movie had no right to be this good, but Gunn deftly executed a brilliant vision, coupling beautiful art direction, a great sense of humor, and heartfelt emotional resonance with fantastic pacing and a strong cast.

After my third viewing, I didn't think it was possible to create a better comic book film.

A serious art film from a serious art form.

Edgar Wright delivers pure joy in this creative, inspired film that marries 80's video games, great editing, inspired writing in the most fun way possible.

A pioneer film, Donner chose to elevate the story and character of Superman to the highest level, with a great understanding of how to build up a hero and the choices it takes.

The Light arrives to save us from darkness

It gets at the heart of the racial conflict that made the comics so poignant.

An incredibly well constructed and well designed piece of work - bringing new realms to life in a competent, engaging storyline.

This cult favorite is a much better, much more accurate version of Dredd, in a gorgeously shot, violent romp featuring a malevolant Lena Headey as a solid villian.

A fantastic extension of the first movie, this one builds off the last and emotionally creates a great springboard to feel the true weight of being a hero and paying the price.

All the good of RAIDERS and Simon & Kirby. The first hour is golden.

Transforming a career B-lister the main Avenger overnight.

The best interpretation of Alan Moore's work onscreen.

An eye-opener, on every level.

This is the most inclusive and progressive version of the story.

Rioting into the sunset.

Great in every way. Essential.

The excellent sequel. Zod, Non, and Ursa.

Strong, and gets stronger to me with repeat viewings. Another 15 minutes wouldn't have hurt.

Bigger, bolder, better!

The original Captain Marvel lights up the dark.

This movie excels despite it's rocky inception. Rudd is solid in the role and Michael Peña brings a great comedic presence - it surprises and delights.

A cap to an amazing trilogy, Nolan brings to bear many of the same standards of the past two movies - it fails to deliver on a few counts for me - mostly involving a few suspect plot points and some overly convenient plot devices. They did the unthinkable - they let Batman be happy.

Despite some plot oddities, I loved the depth and scope of this film. But don't damsel Jane, please.

A spot-on realization of Tardi's frowning hero and her surreal Victorian pulp adventures.

Zwigoff (CRUMB, GHOST WORLD) scores again with a fine take on Clowes' satirical thriller.

Nothing like the comic but a well done, enjoyable film.

Made me a believer in a character I didn't care about.

One of the most fantastic intros around, the movie is comedic, indie fun.

Visceral, bloody and ambitious in it's choreography, Oldboy is not to be messed with.

Brilliant and timeless satire that magnifies the sources into a cult classic for the ages.

A fine start that captures Spidey and his world perfectly.

A good film of an exemplary graphic novel by Posy Simmonds.

Reverent and generally effective, if a bit stodgy. The alternate ending actually works.

The film gave Hugh Jackman a chance to endear the character to a whole new audience.

A perfect realization of the world Mike Mignola created.

A strong story improved as a fine film. Paul Newman.

This wins over with pure style. A visual feast with just enough edge and humor.

A great film in every right way. Faithful, fun, frenetic, fulfilling.

A lot of things go well for the movie - War Machine, Black Widow intro, Mickey Rourke, great action sequences by Tartakovsky. Some of the drama seems a bit artificial and clunky at times, but is still an enjoyable watch.

A mostly fantastic cast brings the X-Men to life.

I had some pretty low expectations but was pleasantly surprised by the scope and scale of Aquaman, they aimed for epic and mostly got there.

The rare story lends itself better to film than it's comic book origins.

As fun and unexpected as GHOSTBUSTERS. An accidental classic.

Definitely more Ultimate Spiderman than the first trilogy, the movie captures a lot of the spirit of the same series and carries through with a lot of serviceable action but is ultimately 'meh'

A much better follow up with a clear direction towards the cartoon universe.

I didn't expect to enjoy this, but it is a great exploration of the origins of the team and succeeds in providing a fantastic vehicle for Fassbender to shine as a focal point. Some of the other characters seem superfluous (white queen, Angel) but still well crafted.

The movie does an admirable job of capturing the spirit and suspense of Hellblazer's worlds and Reeves inhabits the role well, even if it's not quite the version we would have wanted (see the TV series for that version).

Brandon Lee's best performance in a gorgeous, gothic revenge tale.

A well crafted, well art directed film, this film is a great story, but very far removed from the original material.

The beginning story of Norton's Banner is by far the most interesting part of the story, devolving into a final punch up that carries no real weight or emotion

One of the best adaptions one could hope for, on-target in every way.

Ambitious and sprawling in it's purview, this film suffers from too many elements all vying for a connection while missing the most critical one.

A mixed bag. The sexiness, design, and weirdess flow; the pacing, angles, and dialogue ebb.

The best, truest Batman film of the 1960s.

Brutal, foul-mouthed and comical, this movie honors the work it came from: brutal, foul-mouthed and comical.

An enjoyable film that captures the essence of the source material.

Same deal as the first movie. I'd see Red 3 under this formula.

Would have loved to see the actual director's cut to get the movie we were promised.

Low energy, and some serious theft in the villain backstory, though Jones is great.

Slightly more engaging or at least memorable than the last, plus the addition of young Tommy Lee in the form of Josh Brolin is a fun exercise, like an old Star Trek episode.

A surprising treat, this movie is a lot of fun.

Singer is very reverential to Donner's vision, serving up a modern sequel to Superman 1 and 2. It suffers for the very same reason and lacks enough conflict or emotion to make it truly meaningful, as much as we would like it to.

A patchwork medley that’s still pretty catchy.

Underrated. I admire its surrealistic craft and odd risks.

Muddled; strong action, but should've focused on Pepper over the stray kid.

A fantastic light hearted version of an otherwise dark character.

A fun, pulpy romp that honors the work before it, while attempting to modernize it for this age. It succeeds more than it fails.

AMAZING 1 redid SPIDEY 1 and 2 better. And AMAZING 2 did SPIDEY 3 right. I cried.

Del Toro brings a nightmare creature to life - a monster that eats monsters - in a fun piece that enhances the Blade mythos, and brings more of what was built in Blade 1 to fruition.

Beautiful to look at but hated the Penguin and it was a waste of Christopher Walken.

Schumacher brings the camp back with a scene chewing Tommy Lee, and Jim Carrey doing his usual thing. Val is serviceable as Bruce and has the right jawline for Batman - but the movie is a convoluted mess.

Thomas Jane does his best in the serviceable but predictable movie, which does bring some of Ennis' spirit to it but not enough to gain an edge.

This movie had the impossible task of bringing my number 1 crush to life.

A product of it's times, it succeed on entertaining young children of the 80s but not much more.

Well shot, and terrifying in its aspects, the film delivers a solid adrenaline rush in a desolate situation

Snyder captures the material directly, bringing together frame for frame a film version of the graphic novel, a classic Grecian tale brought to brutal, bloody life. That being said, not much new is brought to this.

Surprising faithful translation of Crepax's erotic adventure hero, Valentina, even duping his famed panel montages.

On paper, this movie sounds fantastic - James Bond and Han Solo take on the alien hordes - but the result is a mediocre story with cardboard characters and a thin plotline. I wanted to like it!

A pretty faithful and entertaining frolic.

A decent take on the character for basic fun.

Mis-cast and again played by actors who show no real interest in the roles (except the excellent Mark Strong as Sinestro) this movie squanders the opportunity to bring GL to life with a ridiculous enemy and a terrible costume design.

An interesting and rare experience of the creator translating their own graphix to the screen.

This movie lacks the central heart of the first film, driving to an obvious conclusion, in a brutal mess.

I feel like I should have cared more about the character than I did. It lacks an emotional connection.

An entertaining, if somewhat predictable film with some great fight sequences and all star cast.

Somewhat forgettable, and expected.

It's a shambling mess, not Altman at his height, but surprisingly faithful and devious underneath.

The opening evolution of young Logan, tracking him and Sabretooth through the ages is a highlight and unfortunately the only one of the movie.

General fun for kids, with a good-hearted message for all.

An underrated and superior film version with a good heart and sly fun.

One of the best most accurate adaptations of the source material.

A disappointing follow up, it misses key material from the source material, with a needless re-invention of the wheel.

Way better than I feared, thank god they weren't aliens.

Snyder again relies on his visual style to carry the movie, borrows heavily from some great material, but in the end it's hollow and soulless.

A failed attempt at bringing a cult hero to life.

The ingredients are on the table, they just weren't cooked right. (Kaluta's comic adaption improves it.)

This is a hot mess. While some elements probably sounded like a great idea, the end product is a stilted, cardboard cutout mess.

A neglected star that can't find a stage.

Nothing says 80s like Erin Grey in a satin pantsuit!

An impossible movie to follow up on, even thought the mythos allows for it.

A good attempt to bring the man without fear to the screen, the film suffers primarily from trying to do too much. Too many core characters, the film squanders any emotional resonance in sacrifice to the abbreviated timeline. Affleck does an admirable attempt at the character but the film never gels.

Corny and forced, the movie is fun at times but is over-ridden by some bad writing and a clunky construction.

The main action is average, but the funky frills along the way make it fun.

A decent antic that works well for young folks.

They spent a lot of money on effects, and Jeff Bridges is fun to watch, but Reynolds is the same character again, and the movie is ultimately forgettable.

Van Damme is Van Damme in this scifi movie of the week

A pretty good graphic novel turned into an okay film.

Cartoony and forgettable

The 14 year old me gave it a 10, until he killed the criminal in the belltower. Batman is not a killer.

The textbook case of the inferior sequel; three villains, no sense.

Sigh. Takes the two most important story arcs and does neither well. (Spidey 3 disease.)

I love Jennifer Garner, and the character, but this movie strays far from the source material to deliver an uninspired, bland romp.

A pop culture mashup with an Queen powered soundtrack, this is more of a garish stage play than movie. It kind of defines over the top.

A substantial step up from the last film but the damage had already been done.

Points for taking a ridiculous story and trying to give a new life in the form of a bombastic Hollywood Gun-Fu movie.

Plagued by many problems - commitment to the roles, this movie squanders the chance to use some of the greatest storylines in FF history - the surfer and the world-eater. The surfer is better handled but the character interplay is unbelievable and goofy.

The script captures the right beats of the character.

Visually interesting and Eva Green gives a great performance, but the overall structure of the movie isn't compelling. It pales in comparison to the first.

Read the book instead.

The happy ghost gets a haunted take.

An embarrassment of riches of stories you can tell about this character and this is the best you can do?

Some good Mod craft amid random chaos.

Well designed, but a predictable, ridiculous mess.

Formulaic, amiable fluff.

Image Comics birth was as bad for films as it (initially) was for comics.

High marks for craft, but the film plays like an also-ran of 'Princess Bride', with an overly-camp DeNiro.

The idea is better than the execution, which is oddly mediocre.

I liked it better when I came in late and didn't see the gratuitous introductory stripper scene. Pam tries to play as tough as she can in this ridiculous T/A action flick.

As disappointing as it was, it's still a Ghost Rider movie.

For a film that started with such a promise, they completely missed on the integrity of the characters.

A valiant attempt at trying to bring the piece to life, it fails on quite a few fronts, including the idiotic need to bring in an American character - tom sawyer - as an insult to American viewing audiences. It does capture Nemo, Jekyll and other in a good depiction but ultimately feels forced.

The over the top violence takes away from the very idea of the character, into a more sadistic place.

A strangely dead film, and deeply unfortunate in a genre that needs more strong female leads.

Predictable fare, somewhat entertaining, Stallone is Stallone.

Watching Snyder work is like watching a 12 year old boy direct Citizen Kane. Stylistically, he still has some great visual highlights - Krypton, an powerful foe, a new way to find purpose - but he fouls a lot of it up, breaking a cardinal rule with no real sense of consequence - an unfortunate kickoff to a new DCU.

Forgettable, poorly acted and directed, this a sad homage to the character but at least she didn't run around in a chain mail bikini. Perhaps it should have been a comedy.

What idiot suits think a cartoon-based film should be. Shrill, camp, embarassing.

Hey, they can't make a worse Superman movie than this, right?

Aside from good period detail, the film is a camp disaster that insults the original superhero.

Couldn't finish it, too difficult to buy Seth as Britt Reid.

I'd give this movie a 6 or 7 based on the fact I got a ton of Swamp Thing toys as a result.

It suffers from shoe horning too much marketing into the character's success.

Brolin is enjoyable to watch and on point, even if the rest of the movie is not.

How to reduce Wein & Wrightson to formula junk.

This is the one movie I went to see in the theatre, that I came very close to walking out on. It dishonors so much of the work before it, that I wish I had not paid a cent for it. Clooney's smirky Batman is ridiculous, O'Donnell's Robin inane and the confluence of exaggerated performances belonged in '66 not '97.

What a train wreck of a movie.

Catwoman, female leads, and Halle Berry are all great essentials. But this film demeans all three.

An infamous disaster. Bad costume, lousy craft, no more sociopolitical edge.

Run away or get burned.

And they did. See Superman III.

Impossible to comprehend how Frank Miller could get Eisner so wrong. It's like the most respected musician in the world recording lost Beatles songs and making them unlistenable.