“X2″, the sequel to 2000’s “X-Men”, is a better movie than the original, but not by much. Considering that director Bryan Singer and his screenwriters were burdened with having to introduce the world of the X-Men, the original lacked what I called the “Wow Factor”....

Continuing the seemingly unstoppable streak of Comic Book Superhero movies, 2003’s first entry is “Daredevil”, a mid-level character from Marvel Comics, which also put out “X-Men”, “Spiderman”, the “Blade” franchise, and the upcoming “Hulk”...

“Batman Forever,” the third installment in the live-action “Batman” franchise, is generally considered (and quite rightly so) as the beginning of the end of “Batman” as a viable superhero franchise. Not content to doom Batman and Bruce Wayne’s fate with this...

The following review refers to the workprint version, which is not the final print, meaning there is a very good chance the final print — that is, the print that appears on TV — will be (in varying degrees) different from the version reviewed below. The new upcoming WB TV show “Birds...

In one particularly telling scene in Guillermo del Toro’s “Blade 2,” a vampire is nailed to the wall by another character’s sword, but instead of pulling the sword out and escaping that way, the vampire scurries up the wall thus slicing open his pelvis area! That scene epitomizes...

The major treat of all “Golden Age” comic book characters is the simplicity of their Origin Story. Superman is an alien who came to Earth as a child and was raised by a kind Kansas couple, and he fights evil because he’s been raised to stand up for the little guy. Batman’s parents...

Infamous film producer Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four is the movie that shouldn’t have been, but since it has found a way to become despite the odds, has been hidden so far in the Earth core that only those wholly devoted to the comic book of which the movie is based would take the time to...

It’s amazing how a movie with the pedigree of The Crow: Salvation (or Crow 3) could fall so low. The entire franchise (there has been 3 in the series) is based on a comic book by James O’Barr, who drew the series in the ’80s. The first movie, starring the late Brandon Lee (who died...

Not many people know this, but the hit-movie Men in Black with Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith actually started life as a comic book, published by an underground comic house. Men in Black had it easy because its characters didn’t wear brightly colored tights, but sported black suits, shades, and...

Early in Brian Yuzna’s Faust: Love of the Damned, a doctor experimenting in what she calls “music therapy” to cure psychotic patients goes into the room of one of her patients, a mass murderer who she has only met a few minutes ago, and hands him a pen with which to write with. Now...

I must admit to being extremely frustrated with director Christophe Gans’ French version of the popular manga comic book. My frustration is part annoyance and part sadness. The annoyance comes from the fact that the movie is almost a scene-by-scene copy of the Crying Freeman anime (the Japanese...