Superman

Posted on July 8, 2025 at 3:23 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for for violence, action and language
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended comic book-style peril and violence, cruel murder, monster, characters injured and killed, disturbing images
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	July 11, 2025

James Gunn’s new “Superman” movie does not waste any time. We are quickly updated to learn that Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman arrived from Krypton 30 years ago, he first appeared as Superman 3 years ago, he stopped an invasion 3 weeks ago, and he lost a battle for the first time 3 minutes ago.

And then we see Superman ( gallant, tender-hearted David Corenswet), bruised and bleeding. Superman comics are where I first learned the word “invulnerable,” conjuring up infinitely wondrous possibilities. But this Superman is hurt. Badly. He can barely summon the breath to whistle for Krypto.

That is not the only change that is going to rattle some of the fans. And I admit there was one change from the canon I consider unforgivable. Overall, however, I liked this version. In it, Superman is still feeling his way to who he is and what he has to give to the world. While it is (thankfully) not an origin story in the traditional sense, it is a story about a man from another place whose sense of himself is tied to his ideas about his origin, and the ideas of those around him as well. Is it right for him to interfere in world affairs? From his perspective, by stopping Boravia’s invasion of Jurhanpur he saved lives. But the invaders thought of themselves as rescuers, Can we turn over that decision to someone who has not been elected by anyone?

After Krypto gets Superman back to the Fortress of Solitude, he is healed with the help of some friendly robots and the power of the sun (fans will remember that Krypton has a red sun and it is the yellow sun that is the source of some of Superman’s powers). He watches the glitchy recording of his biological parents, Jor-El (Bradley Cooper!) and Lara (Angela Sarafyan), tenderly telling him how much they love him and urging him to do good for his new world.

Gunn wisely bypasses the whole “keeping the secret from Lois” storyline. Lois (Rachel Brosnahan) and Clark Kent are dating, and she knows he is Superman. They have a lovely chemistry, even when they are struggling with the challenges of the relationship. This gives rise to more interesting issues about their relationship but Gunn never forgets that this movie knows we’re here to see a superhero movie.

So there is a lot of action including a massive fault line headed toward a city, a gigantic dinosaur-ish monster, a guy who can turn himself into kryptonite, a mysterious adversary who can predict and thus block or outmaneuver every one of Superman’s moves. Superman is so tender-hearted he wants to save the monster’s life so it can go to some sort of zoo or be studied by scientists. There are soldiers attacking civilians, plus the equally pernicious social media misinformation and fake news.

There are also some other metahumans, people with superpowers who have formed something they are at least temporarily calling the Justice Gang (what is it with temporary names for superhero teams this year?). Nathan Fillion in a truly dreadful haircut plays Guy Gardner, not THE Green Lantern but A Green Lantern. Isabela Merced is Hawkgirl, and Edi Gathegi lives up to his title as Mr. Terrific, a super-genius who uses small, drone-like floating spheres that include holographic projection, hacking into other machines, and generating energy bursts. Anthony Carrigan appears as Metamorpho, who can transform his body into any element. We do not get to spend a lot of time with these, or with Perry White (Wendell Pierce), Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisando), or Ma and Pa Kent (Neva Howell and Pruitt Taylor Vince), but each makes a strong impression and lays the foundation for more in sequels and spin-offs.

Gunn, who wrote and directed as the kick-off to the new DC Studios, is not shy about who the bad guys are. Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is a selfish, bitter, bigoted billionaire who wants to control everything and hates immigrants, including those from other planets. He operates a brutal private prison in a “pocket universe” not subject to Constitutional protections from cruel and unusual punishment and due process. The vital importance of independent, fact-checked journalism is a core element of the storyline.

So is optimism, honor, and what we owe to each other. At one point, Lois tells Clark/Superman that they are very different. She says she is punk rock. “I question everything and everyone. you trust everyone you’ve ever met.” He says, “Maybe that’s the real punk rock.” He’s clearly speaking for Gunn, and for some of us as well.

NOTE: Stay through the credits for a mid-credit scene and another brief one ALL the way at the end

Parents should know that this is a comic book movie with extended peril and violence including torture and murder of an innocent man and a military attack on a civilian population. There are some disturbing images. Characters use strong language (s-word), and there is some kissing and a sexual reference.

Family discussion: Can you both question and trust at the same time? How do we decide what is trustworthy on social media and the news? Was Superman right to intervene in other countries?

If you like this, try: the Superman movies with Christopher Reeves and the comic books, and read up on the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the teenagers who invented Superman in 1938.

Thunderbolts*

Posted on May 1, 2025 at 2:06 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for strong violence, language, thematic elements, and some suggestive and drug references
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drug references
Violence/ Scariness:	Non-stop action-style peril and violence, child is killed, automatic weapons, military weapons, chases, explosions, characters injured and killed
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters, mental illness sympathetically portrayed
Date Released to Theaters:	May 2, 2025

I liked “Thunderbolts* (note the asterisk) a lot, but it will be divisive. Some people don’t want to delve into the mental health struggles of anyone, including a superhero or supervillain. They’re just there for the punches, powers, explosions, and special effects. But as I watched the film, I thought about how many superheroes experienced devastating trauma before gaining their powers and/or dedication to saving the world. Bruce Wayne saw his parents killed by a mugger when he was a child. Superman lost his family and his whole planet. Spidey was living with his aunt and uncle, so had already lost his parents before Uncle Ben was killed. Tony Stark had dad issues. Black Widow was trained to be a child assassin.

“Thunderbolts*” is a “Suicide Squad”/”Guardians of the Galaxy”-style superhero story about a group of damaged, distrustful loners with superpowers who have to do more than just band together for all the punching and explosions. They have to begin to heal themselves. And I am completely here for it, plus for finding out the meaning of the asterisk, which I enjoyed very much. And yes, you do need to stay all the way through the credits for a final scene that teases what’s coming next.

Before I get to the superheroes, I want to talk about the villain(s). I always say that it is the villains more than the heroes that matter most in a comic book movie (and in some other places as well, as Milton showed us in Paradise Lost). Julia Louis-Dreyfus is one of the all-time great villains as Valentina, the ultra-wealthy corporate CEO turned Director of the CIA (though with current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s streak of silver hair, just a coincidence, I’m sure). Some villains have great evil smiles. Louis-Dreyfus has a great social smile exuding the supreme confidence and power of the .001% while all-but-hiding the voracious all-consuming drive for power and utter disregard of the rights or value of anyone in her way.

We first see Yelena (Florence Pugh), still in mourning for her sister, Natasha (The Black Widow) and almost by rote working as an operative for Valentina. She is numb and lonely and lacks purpose. She tells Valentina she wants out, but agrees to one last job, in a remote lab where Valentina’s company once performed experiments, trying to find a formula to give superpowers to her subjects.

She ends up fighting Captain America (Wyatt Russell as John Walker), Ava Starr/Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and another super-character who doesn’t last long, before they figure out that they are all there for the same reason, to die, because they have become problems for Valentina. At this point, a guy who seems to be the opposite of super in any way wanders in wearing pajamas, with no memory of pretty much anything except his name. He is Bob (Lewis Pullman, in his second “just Bob” role after “Top Gun: Maverick”).

Yelena, John, and Ava do not trust each other, but the only way to stay alive is to work together. The escape works well in moving the plot and character development forward as well as being fun to watch. And that’s pretty much the vibe for the rest of the film.

Valentina thought her program to turn humans into supers failed, meaning they all died. But somehow Bob survived and that changes her plan. And the people she describes as “defective losers, anti-social tragedy in human form” may not have the cool powers and (mostly) good manners of the Avengers, but they are all struggling toward being something better. That means dealing with sad and scary feelings like loss and trauma, with the characters catapulted into immersive re-creations of their most painful moments. Will they finally find a way to become, a, what’s the word, team? The good news is that by the end of the film, we hope so.

NOTE: Stay through the credits for a mid-credit scene and a teaser at the end for what’s coming next.

Parents should know that this is a superhero movie with non-stop peril and action-style violence including automatic weapons and fantasy powers. Characters are injured and killed, including a child. Mental health and trauma are themes of the film. Characters use some strong language and there are drug references and alcohol.

Family discussion: What is the best way to discover your purpose? How did the childhood experiences of Yelena and Bob affect the way they saw themselves? How is Valentina different from other villains in superhero movies?

If you like this, try: “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the Avengers movies

Kraven the Hunter

Posted on December 12, 2024 at 5:41 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for strong bloody violence and language
Profanity:	Some strong language, f-words
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, potions
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended and graphic action and comic book style violence with disturbing and bloody images, knives, poison darts, bombs, fire, guns, bear traps, spears
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	December 13, 2024

Another day, another second or third-level Marvel character “from the Spider-Man universe” given main character energy as Sony makes sure it takes every possible advantage of the contractual carve-out that gives it a small piece of the Marvel universe that isn’t run by Kevin Feige and Disney. The best I can say is that “Kraven the Hunter” is a bit better than the dismal “Madame Web” and less goofy than Tom Hardy’s “Venom: The Last Dance.”

This is the sixth of the Sony films about ancillary Spider-Man characters, the longest (2 hours, 7 minutes), and the first to be rated R.

The rating is primarily for extended bloody violence, as indicated by the poster showing Kraven’s face with specks of blood (not his) and the sobriquet “Hunter.” In the comics, he hunts Spidey because he wants to test himself against the most challenging prey. That character is inspired by Richard Connell’s short story about hunting humans, “The Most Dangerous Game.” But this movie is an origin story, and Kraven hunts bad guys.

It opens in present day, where a bus is taking men in chains to a remote Russian prison. We see the man we will come to know as Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) holding his meager bedding as he enters his cell. An extremely tough-looking guy watches him enter, then says, “I do not like roommates.” Kraven tells him that he will be gone within three days; if not, his cellmate can hit him. Kraven stays long enough to kill another prisoner, one of those still-running-the-crime-syndicate-from-prison kingpins. And then he escapes, automatic weapon bullets all around him as he races to catch the plane that was sent for him.

Flashback to 16 years earlier. Teenage Sergei Kravinoff (Levi Miller) and his half-brother Dimitri (Billy Barrett) are attending a posh boarding school in upstate New York when they are told their father has come to pick them up. He is Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), a powerful crime boss and the embodiment of toxic masculinity. He abruptly tells the boys that Sergei’s mother has committed suicide because she was “weak” and disturbed. There will be no funeral; instead he is taking his sons on a safari, so they can prove their manhood by killing dangerous animals.

Nikolai teaches his sons that the only things that matter are strength and power; they must never show weakness or fear. Sergei, who is brave and thoughtful, tries to protect his sensitive and vulnerable younger brother. When a legendary lion many hunters have failed to kill approaches them, Sergei puts himself in danger and is fatally mauled. But he is found by Calypso, a young girl on a photo safari with her parents. Her grandmother, a tarot card reader with some mystical power, had just given Calypso a vial with a potion that can “heal someone in undreamed ways.” She pours it into Sergei’s mouth and later, at the hospital, after he is pronounced dead he suddenly recovers. Between the potion and the lion’s blood that dripped into his wound, Sergei now has the powers of the world’s apex predators.

Yes, this is a superhero story about daddy issues. Nickolai is a narcissist who belittles everyone around him, including his sons and also some random guy named Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) who tagged along on the safari in hopes of persuading Nickolai to allow him to be a part of all the criming. We will see him again later. When Nickolai tells Sergei he is taking him into the family business, Sergei runs away, leaving his brother behind.

Sergei becomes Kraven, living in a remote Russian forest on property once owned by his mother’s family. And he becomes a hunter, trying to balance his father’s ruthless brutality by taking out bad guys. He tracks down Calypso (Ariana DeBose), now an American lawyer working in London to thank her for saving his life and ask for her help in locating some bad guys. And then Dimitri is kidnapped, and Nickolai refuses to pay the ransom, because it will make him look weak.

All of this is just a light framework for a lot of impressive stunts. Kraven is old-school, so while people are shooting at him, he is using spears, knives, poison darts, and bear traps. At least the action scenes relieve us from the clunky dialogue and bad accents.

Parents should know that this is a very violent movie with constant action and comic-book-style chases and fight scenes and many graphic and disturbing images. A teenager gets mauled by a lion. There is a very unsympathetic discussion of suicide. Weapons include machine guns and rifles, spears, knives, poison darts, bear traps, and bombs. Characters drink alcohol and use some strong language.

Family discussion: Why did Sergei and Dimitri respond so differently to their father? What were Kraven’s strengths as a hunter? What mistakes did he make?

If you like this, try; “The Most Dangerous Game” and Taylor-Johnson’s “Bullet Train” and “Kick-Ass”

Here

Posted on October 31, 2024 at 12:33 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	ated PG-13 for thematic material, some suggestive material, brief strong language and smoking
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and alcohol abuse
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad deaths and medical problems, references to wartime injuries and deaths
Diversity Issues:	Treatment of BIOPC characters superficial
Date Released to Theaters:	November 1, 2024

Near the end of the multi-generational saga “Here,” a character mentions that the time he spent caring for his difficult father in his last years helped them have a better, more understanding relationship. This is tell, not show, the opposite of what a movie is supposed to do. In this case, that really important part, the show part, is a lower priority than the movie’s conceptual and technology gimmicks.

“Here” is based on a graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Its conceit (in both senses of the word) is that the whole story takes place on one spot, going back millions of years, before there was any life on Earth, then with plants, then dinosaurs trampling across, then people, an indigenous couple, a Colonial era man (the royalist son of Ben Franklin) and the enslaved people who resignedly salute him as his carriage passes. A house in what will be the suburbs is built in 1911. Its first owners are a Victorian couple, then an inventor and his devoted wife, much later a Black family in contemporary times, and, in between the central focus, a WWII veteran and his wife, and their three children, one who grows up to be played by Tom Hanks, de-aged by CGI, then looking like he lives now, then aged to show how he may/will look in 20 years. The content of these stories is designed to trigger reactions more based on our own experiences of the big life moments — love, loss, job woes, marriage, family conflict, Thanksgiving, babies, aging parents, more Thanksgivings, a wedding, a funeral — than on any connection to these characters. Our hearts may be tugged at because we are humans who cannot help identifying with these touchstones, but it’s all as synthetic as astroturf.

This film reunites the “Forrest Gump” team, Hanks as Richard and Robin Wright as his wife, Margaret, along with composer Alan Silvestri, cinematographer Don Burgess, screenwriter Eric Roth, and director Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay. Zemeckis, as he does too often, seems far more interested here in the technology than the storyline. The camera placement is static, always the same location in the house’s living room, facing the bay window across from what was once the Colonial plantation. Unlike the images in a graphic novel, movies have to have movement; it;’s in the name. So what we have is a lot of boxes coming in and out of the screen with glimpses of what is happening or did happen that may be contrast or commentary on the cyclicality of events or may just be there to remind us what time we’re in: the Beatles on Ed Sullivan! Jane Fonda’s exercise tapes! And then there are the technology touchstones. Radio, then television. The first cordless phone.

It reminded me of the Carousel of Progress at Disney World, and to be honest, the animatronic characters in that revolving audience show created for the New York World’s Fair in 1964, have more personality than most of the one-attribute characters in “Here.” That is unfortunately even more true of the characters of color in the film. The Black family seems to be there only to show us The Talk with their teenage son about how to behave if he gets pulled over by the police for a traffic violation. Their Latina housekeeper exists only to show us the pandemic. The indigenous people are like the dinosaurs — they exist only to disappear.

Parents should know that this film includes many family ups and downs including conflicts, divorce, serious illness, and death. There is a teenage pregnancy. A WWII veteran with injuries and PTSD self-medicates with alcohol. A young husband and father dies. There are sexual references, scanty attire, references to racism, and some strong language.

Family discussion: What would you want to say to the families who live in this house? Why didn’t Richard want to move? How did the characters decide to compromise on their dreams?

If you like this, try: the book by Richard McGuire, the Thornton Wilder play “The Long Christmas Dinner,” and the 1961 short film “The House”

Venom: The Last Dance

Posted on October 24, 2024 at 2:00 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images and strong language
Profanity:	Very strong language for a PG-13
Violence/ Scariness:	Extended comic-book action-style peril and violence, characters injured and killed, some disturbing and graphic images, sad death
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	October 25, 2024

Now that Tom Hardy has taken over Venom the way the comic-book outer-space symbiote took over journalist Eddie Brock, the one-time Spider-Man universe super-villain is now…the good guy? Hardy co-wrote and co-produced this final (maybe final-ish?) chapter, its foundation is still comic-book, but its heart is a goofy buddy-movie, with Eddie (Hardy) happy to call on his wisecracking “friend” Venom to kick bad-guy butt and just to keep him company.

If the toothy Venom is going to be a good guy, we need a new bad guy. On wherever Venom came from, he/they/it was one of many whatever-they-ares that managed to imprison a super-evil, super-powerful something called Knull that can only be freed with a MacGuffin unimaginatively named the codex. And so the mysterious villain deploys some flying scorpions through various portals that take them throughout the universe to find this codex, which can only be found guess where.

We first see Eddie drinking sullenly at a bar in Mexico (look for “Ted Lasso’s” Dani Rojas, Cristo Fernández, as the bartender). He and the co-inhabitant of his body, the toothy Venom, have a companionable relationship, as we see when Eddie calls on his inner Venom to take care of some scary animal-abusing bad guys. As we also see when a convenient newscast comes on a nearby television screen, Eddie is the target of law enforcement and needs a place to hide. Venom wants to see the Statue of Liberty. He/they/it is, after all, a huddled mass yearning to breathe free, tempest-tossed, and, yes, something of a wretched refuse, and grateful for being welcomed to a new home.

And so we’re off to a buddy road trip, as our single body/dual-personality heroes set off for the east coast. They don’t get very far in terms of miles, but they meet up with some interesting characters along the way, including Rhys Ifans as a hippie, alien-seeking dad named Martin, traveling in a van with his wife, daughter, and young son. As the government announces the shut-down of the notorious Area 51, it secretly opens an underground real alien study lab nearby called, unimaginatively, Area 55. It is presided over by unimaginatively named Dr. Payne (“Ted Lasso’s” Juno Temple), who finds the pulsating plasma they have collected fascinating and is unscientifically optimistic about its dangers. And it is fumed over by General Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who considers whatever they are studying to be an extinction-level threat until proven otherwise. “Something terrible is always imminent,” he intones.

But we’re not here to debate policy; we’re here to see creatures fighting creatures, punctuated with over-the-top, wackiness, and that this movie delivers. “I got stuck with a superhero who can’t fly,” says Eddie, and next thing we know, Venom, who seems to be made of a substance that is part Silly Putty, in part rubber cement, has him glued to the side of an airplane, and later, thankfully, into a parachute. Then there is the Cinderella-like series of lost shoes Eddie has to cope with. And the many familiar needle drop songs, from Cat Stevens to, I’m not kidding, a dance number to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”

The action scenes are okay. The human characters are so thin that one’s decision to wear a Christmas tree brooch in summer is considered a trait worth commenting on (it also helps to identify post-transformation). The world-building is near-non-existent. But the film’s commitment to its off-beat goofiness makes it kinda fun.

NOTE: There is an early-credit extra scene and, for those who wait ALL the way to the end, one more scene after the credits.

Parents should know that this film is a close-to-R PG-13, with very strong language and extensive comic book/action-style peril and violence. Characters are injured and killed, with a sad death, and there are some graphic and disturbing images.

Family discussion: Why did Eddie come to think of Venom as friendly? Who should oversee science, scientists, politicians, or the military?

If you like this, try: the comic books, the other “Venom” movies and “Transformers One”