On the cinematic Venn diagram, there can be an awful lot of overlap between a great movie and an awesome movie. Before we go too much further, let me stake out what I mean by that. A great movie is one with impressive production design, acting, screenwriting, and direction — essentially all the ingredients have been baked in to give us a film of quality. Apollo 13 is a great movie, as is Monster and Deliverance. An awesome movie, on the other hand? That’s a movie that directly tickles our reptile brain, delivering a thrill, a joke, something purely designed to elicit an immediate response.... Read More

The superhero genre is usually designed to be a perpetual motion machine. Characters keep going through movies, comics, video games, every medium you can think of. They live through decades, change with them, reflect their values and priorities. As a result, smart writers like Grant Morrison, Gail Simone, and Mark Waid have been able to see the potential inherent in the genre and tell a wide variety of stories involving superpowered folks that are complex, challenging, and human. A superhero movie doesn’t have to be a dull origin, a cackling villain, and a swirling portal of death in the... Read More