After leaving my screening for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and processing my thoughts on the film, the subtitle First Steps kept circling in my brain. With this being the first time we have seen the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film very easily could have just been titled Fantastic Four, much like how almost every other superhero’s first film is just titled…

  Is it too soon to make a COVID-19 movie? While the virus that overtook the world back in 2020 has been featured in a few films over the last five years, whether directly like in Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi or Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which found our characters working from home, isolating, and wearing masks, or allegorically like in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, where the characters are quarantined after coming into…

  Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh entry in the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise, is almost a great film. Following Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film, the franchise hasn’t come close to sniffing the quality of that masterpiece, with each entry seemingly getting worse. With Jurassic World Rebirth, it starts with a great idea and interesting characters. It even features moments that reminded me of Spielberg’s first film, which makes the “almost” even more heartbreaking. Jurassic World Rebirth…

  James Gunn’s Superman is an important movie. Not only is Gunn rebooting the iconic superhero for the fourth time, but he has also been appointed to launch a new DC cinematic universe, following the failed attempt in the 2010s by Zack Snyder. Starting with Superman to kick off a cinematic universe of this magnitude is a good idea. The Man of Steel is arguably the most famous superhero and has been for decades. Everyone…

  F1® The Movie establishes its personality right from the opening scene. Taking place at the 24 Hours at Daytona, an endurance race where race teams race for 24 hours, we are introduced to Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who is preparing to take over the driving from his teammate. When Hayes gets behind the wheel, we immediately learn how great a driver he is. He’s aggressive and smart, seamlessly moving past other drivers. Director Joseph…

  28 Years Later is one of the most frustrating watches I have had in 2025. The third entry in the 28 Days franchise brought back director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland, the team from the first film, 28 Days Later, to show us what the world is like following the outbreak of the Rage Virus. It is made with the skill and kinetic energy we have come to expect from a Danny Boyle…

  We’ve heard the term “elevated horror”, which describes a horror film that is both scary but also features social commentary of some kind and is made with a different level of artistry from the standard horror movie. But the term “elevated romantic comedy” isn’t nearly as popular a phrase in the cinematic lexicon. Much like an elevated horror movie, elevated romantic comedies have plots and characters that feel like they are from a typical…