Tagged with comic book films

‘Black Panther,’ ‘Blade,’ and a Rich Creative Legacy

‘Black Panther,’ ‘Blade,’ and a Rich Creative Legacy

Happy Black Panther weekend, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Instead of writing strictly about Ryan Coogler’s immediately successful, instantly groundbreaking movie, I wrote about Ryan Coogler’s immediately successful, instantly groundbreaking movie in context with Stephen Norrington’s Blade, the first Marvel movie shaped around a black protagonist, and how watching Black Panther reminded me of my experience watching Blade for … Continue reading

Spider-Man: Homeroom

Spider-Man: Homeroom

It’s bad enough we have to learn about superheroes in movie theaters all across the world these days, but now our children have to learn about superheroes in the classroom. Someone, please: Think of the children. There’s a lot that happens in <i>Spider-Man: Homecoming</i>, most of it designed to bolster the bonds holding the Marvel … Continue reading

Review: The Lego Batman Movie, 2017 dir. Chris McKay

Review: The Lego Batman Movie, 2017 dir. Chris McKay

I guess I’m not surprised, per se, that I enjoyed The Lego Batman Movie as much as I did; I liked The Lego Movie quite a lot, after all, and found Will Arnett’s Batman riff utterly hilarious. When The Lego Batman Movie was first announced, though, I wondered whether that riff could sustain a whole movie, and there it … Continue reading

Review: Fant4stic, 2015, dir. Josh Trank

Review: Fant4stic, 2015, dir. Josh Trank

“If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” When W.E. Hickson popularized this crusty old Thomas Palmer aphorism back in the 1800’s, he couldn’t have known that one day, one of America’s most high profile movie studios would take the phrase to heart with not one, not two, but three attempts at building a franchise … Continue reading