Watchmen

Thanks to a string of successful comic book movie hits, directors are finally showing some respect for their original source material. In the past, it was clear that the director's vision eclipsed any fan interest, which resulted in the Batman series kicked off by Tim Burton eventually circling the toilet bowl before being flushed by Joel Schumacher. The tide has reversed, with fanboys-turned-directors like Peter Jackson, Robert Rodriguez, and Guillermo del Toro showing an almost slavish devotion to the source material. Zack Snyder can now add his name to that list.

Watchmen takes place in an alternate reality where the threat of weapons of mass destruction looms large, thanks in part to superheroes who range in sanction from government agents to violent outlaws. They are gods among men, these superheroes, but they are also deeply flawed human beings. Watchmen is their story.

There's remarkably little superhero-action in Watchmen. When you strip away all the distractions like the altered timeline and the murder mystery, it becomes clear that Watchmen is actually a character study. The film ping-pongs between each character's backstory, slowly peeling back each layer until we get to the conclusion: that people do terrible things for good reasons. Unfortunately, some characters are fleshed out more than others.

Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), the Question-like stand-in, is the most interesting character, an anti-hero filled with the rage of moral absolutism, right at home in a repressive society. He also provides noir-style narrative throughout Watchmen.

Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson), who has an uncanny resemblance to a young Chevy Chase, is basically an alternative Batman in search of a cause. He's largely a cipher here, cast primarily as the potential love interest of Silk Spectre.

Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) provides the emotional center of the film but unfortunately doesn't do much for women's rights – she comes off as emotionally conflicted and petulant.

The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a Punisher analogue whose death at the beginning of the film provides much of the movie's structure, is also a relative unknown. His nickname is derived from his sociopathic detachment, killing with glee. Unfortunately, he just comes off as a murderous thug.

Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) is perfect as a mildly contemptuous superhuman, more alien and powerful than Superman. His mere existence can cause nations to go to war. Unfortunately, the film struggles with defining the limits of his powers – I half expected Manhattan to change time and space (like Superman did in the 1978 film) to "fix" things.

Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), perhaps the most important character in the film, is inexplicably both the most brilliant man on earth and a supreme martial artist. There's nothing in Ozymandias' background to explain why this is. His complete lack of development compared to the other characters is where Watchmen stumbles.

Watchmen is a really interesting take on superheroes. Unfortunately, it is no longer revolutionary as it might have been, because the 80s comic laid the framework for serious superhero comics that came later, which in turn spawned serious superhero movies like The Dark Knight. In other words, Watchmen might have been a genre-shaking film ten years ago. It's less successful as an entertaining film today. It's a museum replica of comic book history, faithful to its medium and appreciated more as a reference than a movie experience.

The Dark Knight

It took a long time for me to get around to seeing Batman, but thanks to the second-run theater near me, I was finally able to see it. It was worth the wait.

This movie has been reviewed enough to make going over the plot pointless, so instead I'll focus this review on The Dark Knight's symbolism. In chess, the Dark Knight (Batman, played by Christian Bale) is opposed by the White Knight (Harvey Dent, played by Aaron Eckhart). They are powerful pieces in chess, capable of skipping over other pieces, striking from behind Pawns to attack opponents and then jumping away. In that sense, Knights are somewhat more chaotic than the other pieces; every other piece moves in a linear fashion, but the Knight moves forward and to the side. Although it may seem to be one of the weaker pieces of chess, when combined with any other piece it is one of the most powerful.

In a similar fashion, Harvey Dent and Batman are more powerful because of their pawns. Dent's pawns include the media, Gordon, and a mostly corrupt police force. For Batman, it's the corporate boards, Gordon, and yes even the police force. Which is the first hint that the simple dichotomy between Batman and Dent isn't quite accurate. Dent isn't the flipside of Batman, he's the same version with different characteristics illuminated. Dent is Batman as a civil servant, minus the angst.

Batman's true nemesis, the real White Knight, is of course the Joker (Heath Ledger). And now we truly see the opposite of what Batman stands for. Where Batman is cold, measured, and consistent the Joker is brutal, offensive, and chaotic. And yet they are two sides of the same coin: "You crossed the line first, sir," says Alfred, referring to the criminal organizations Batman hunts. "You squeezed them, you hammered them to the point of desperation. And in their desperation they turned to a man they didn't fully understand." Just like the police turned to Batman. Joker is a criminal form of vigilante justice.

If there's an overriding message in The Dark Knight, it's that in a war of escalation, everyone loses. The ultimate response to the Joker is a massive show of force, a sacrifice of values, and then ultimately a withdrawal from the public. Superheroes and villains taken to an extreme are basically just terrorists blowing up a neighborhood. The human cost is too steep for anyone to operate like that out in the open, a lesson the Joker teaches Batman the hard way.

Caught in the middle are the victims: Rachel Dawes, Lucius Fox, and Dent's sanity. When Two-Face arrives, it is the cracked mirror of Batman, a hero-turned vigilante who, instead of the Knight that strikes from the shadows, moves in a straight line from one victim to another as judge, jury, and executioner. Two-Face is finally done right in this movie (better than even the cartoon, and that's saying something), and his horrific appearance is so disturbing that my wife felt it pushed the film to an R-rating.

The Joker is so unnerving, so malevolent in action, and so utterly amoral in his goal of protecting the Batman-ideal, that Ledger and Nolan have made their indelible mark on the character. This is the Joker comic book fans always knew from "The Long Halloween" and "The Killing Joke." And he's nothing to laugh about.

Yes, it's long. Yes, it's violent. But ultimately, Nolan's masterpiece is both a meditation on the comic book genre and modern day society. To stop a terrorist, are we willing to bend every civil liberty, burn down every forest, no matter what the cost? It's a bold, uncompromising vision that will haunt you long after the movie ends.

The Government Manual for New Superheroes

Have you heard? The 1950s are a hilarious means of satirizing popular genres! One of the funniest means of lampooning these genres is to create a survival guide for them, in the style of well, Survival Guides, which are the spawn of Idiot's Guides. We've got books on surviving day-to-day challenges like the office, the workplace, and life in general...why not one on superheroes?

No seriously, why not? It's not like this has ever been done before. This clever 1950s guide, aimed presumably at superhero fans, lampoons precisely these four superheroes: Batman (he's smart and rich but a kook), Superman (he's not a U.S. citizen, he's an alien!), Spider-Man (he's got a very old aunt and a crazy symbiotic suit--comedy gold!), and Thor...who is technically a god and probably could found his own religion. Does anyone who isn't a comic book fan know who Thor is? Anyone?

Are you laughing yet? Come on, superheroes are funny!

How about not one but TWO jokes about how superheroes fighting in a library would be utterly silent (cause libraries are FUNNY)?

Okay, how about this: how about if we come up with some really clever jokes about superheroes by using the superhero's name as a joke. The formula's simple: insert superhero name of topic #1 which ironically describes the exact opposite of what you mean, and then insert supervillain name of topic #2 which also ironically describes the exact opposite of what you mean. For good measure, you can throw in a third super-name, although that would probably be just hitting the reader over the head with your joke and surely you wouldn't want to do that.

Let's try it, shall we?

THE TIRED JOKE and his sidekick MARKETING BOY faces down their arch-nemesis, WIT. During the battle, WIT calls upon his comrades from the LEAGUE OF BETTER READS, including MR. HUMOR, CAPTAIN SUBTLETY, and the ever-popular BOOK THAT'S ACTUALLY FUNNY. Our dynamic duo is well prepared though, because they haven't read this guide and thus have no idea that they're ironically hilarious, reading their 1950s newspapers, smoking their 1950s pipe, and watching their 1950s wives cook them dinner.

If you find recycled 1950s illustrations, large font type, or a huge index (that's more pages than some of the chapters) funny, then this book is for you!

Iron Man

It's been a long time since I've seen a movie in the movie theaters (having a one-year old will do that to you). I've scrupulously avoided any spoilers for just about every summer movie out there, although more than one reviewer has given away quite a few surprises (I'm looking at you, Entertainment Weekly). When we finally got a babysitter willing to take care of our little tyke for a few hours, we decided to given the second-run movie theater nearby a try. And that movie was Iron Man.

By now everyone knows the story of Iron Man: alcoholic weapons-merchant billionaire Tony Stark has a change of heart (literally) when shrapnel penetrates his ribcage and threatens to end his life. Instead of making weapons, Stark vows to make a power suit instead...that is loaded with weapons, but let's not quibble over details.

Iron Man is an adult's movie, which is to say it involves mature subjects like the fact that Stark is an inveterate womanizer, likes his alcohol, kills bad guys, and many of those bad guys look like Middle Eastern terrorists. All this drama is tempered by Robert Downey Jr., who rattles off quips with abandon. His keeper is Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges with suitable cranky menace). Stark's assistant is the alliterative Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), who runs the line between sweetly naïve and sleekly sexy in her five-inch heels and pencil skirt.

At its best, Iron Man features Stark uses his power suit to dodge jet fighters, kill terrorists, and rescue civilians. The theater I was in didn't have very good audio, so the (presumably adlibbed) one-liners that Downey constantly tosses off were often lost in the sounds of explosions and screaming. I imagine in a bigger theater or at home this wouldn't be a problem, but the movie lost some of its charm as a result.

There are plot holes. Vanity Fair reporters show up at important news conferences. Stark seems far more interested in building a power suit than removing the shrapnel from his body. And the entire premise of Iron Man revolves around "repulsor lift" technology, which is an infinite source of energy the size of a hockey puck that defies gravity. But if you didn't buy into the notion of a man in a flying suit, what are you doing watching the movie, right?

Iron Man keeps the plot tight. Unlike Spider-Man, there are no extraneous supervillains. Unlike X-Men, every character is there for a reason. But the big payoff for Iron Man is the ending. Iron Man flips traditional superhero conventions the bird and dares you to guess what happens next. Then it leaves you begging for more.

And there IS more, if you stay for the end of the credits. Unfortunately, I didn't read enough spoilers to realize I should have waited, so we missed it. So for the three of you who haven't seen the movie yet...stick around!

Fantastic Four

As franchises go, Fantastic Four is relatively unexplored territory. There are probably good reasons for this: one of the characters is a cigar-chomping piece of rock, three members of the team are related to each other, and one of character's claim to fame is his amazing intellect combined with...wait for it...the power of STRETCHING. Which was pretty funny in the 70s when it was portrayed in cartoons (I can still hear the "stretching" sound like a vacuum played backwards) and is a little creepy today.

Given that comics are the new hot property for movies, it was inevitable that the good 'ole FF have their own film. And thus we have Ioan Gruffud (a less charismatic Jeff Goldblum) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, the delectable Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, gruff Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Chris Evans as the wisecracking pretty boy Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. Our heroic crew assembles in privately funded mission into space to explore...cosmic space gas. Only something goes terribly awry and the mutagenic mist transforms the four astronauts into super powered freaks.

The inherent silliness of the plot and characters has been spoofed so many times that it's difficult for the actual Fantastic Four to keep up. We've all seen the family squabbles of the Incredibles. But perhaps the most caustic send-up is The Venture Bros., who deftly skewers the FF by casting Reed as an outdated 50s stereotype, Sue as a liberated housewife, and The Thing as a mentally deficient monster.

Perhaps FF can be forgiven for its lack of focus as it tries to walk the tightrope between being superhero silly and deadly serious. Reed's romance with Sue is in its early stages here, complicated by a rival, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon)...

You! You in the back with the funny haircut! Stop laughing! That's the man's name, all right? It has nothing to do with his tendency for evil! Or fancy alliteration. Or that he happens to be a native of some country you've never heard of...that happens to send him a mask...that he just happens to wear...

Fine. Fine, yes, this is all a little ridiculous. But there's angst! Poor Grimm suffers as he struggles with his identity and his hot wife dumps him (while wearing a negligee in the middle of the street, of course). Will Reed propose to Sue, or will she stick with Doom? Will Johnny ever stop being such a card? Will Sue ever discover how to turn invisible without taking off her clothes? (!)

And so FF stumbles over itself in an attempt to be both true to the comic book's origins and cram in a plot that's really five stories into one film. Ben Grimm's angst as the unpleasant-looking Thing is diminished by a device that "cures" him. A device that didn't work without Doom's special powers, but mysteriously works in reverse without explanation. Alba is too sexy for the role; it's hard to believe the wooden Richards could romance her or that she'd find the stilted Von Doom any more attractive. And Richards' serious scientific efforts are undermined that he's basically a big inflatable balloon. In fact, much of the fight scenes in this movie involve members of the FF battling each other.

The special effects do a good job of displaying the heroes' powers, but The Thing simply looks like a guy in rubber foam. Chiklis is big, but he's not a huge man, and the film sometimes remember he's heavy and cumbersome (complete with thudding footfalls and exploding chairs) and then forgets when it's inconvenient (because a wooden bench can surely handle his massive weight, right?).

I think a lot of fans are just happy this film isn't the first attempt (that never saw the light of day but lives on in bootlegs). For my FF fix, I prefer the animated version, which manages to be both hilarious and action-packed while poking fun at the utter ridiculousness of a super-science team consisting of a talking rock, a rubber band man, an invisible woman, and a real flamer.

Spider-Man 3

I still nurse a grudge against Joel Silverman for mucking up the Batman series by stuffing it with way too many villains in the belief that it somehow bolsters the franchise. And yet I understand: each supervillain means another toy, another lunchbox, another backpack that gets created. They are literally worth millions, and to justify the budgets of superhero movies, action figures and other returns add up.

But that's a cynical way of looking at it. What happened to just focusing on making a good movie?

Spider-Man 3, as you guessed, fell victim to the same problem. And that's a shame. At one point my wife turned to me and said, "you know, this movie isn't nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be." I agreed with her. It was the scene when Peter was talking to Aunt May about proposing to Mary Jane.

Fifteen minutes later, she changed her mind.

Raimi does an excellent job of taking the superhero foibles and following them to their logical conclusion. In a lot of ways, it's not unlike being a famous actor. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) learns that just because he's Spider-Man doesn't mean he can kiss girls in public while hanging upside from a web, ESPECIALLY if she's a hottie (the delectable Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy). When things are looking great for Parker, Mary Jane Watson's (Kirsten Dunst, seeming a bit deflated in this film) career is tanking. Sounds familiar, like something you'd read in a tabloid...

Raimi and his cast handle all of these issues with grace. And I don't mean Topher Grace, who plays Eddie Brock and later Venom. There are no less than three villains in this film, one being Sandman (Thomas Haden Church playing Flint Marko, and he nails the look), the other being Venom the alien parasite. And we can't forget Harry Osborn (James Franco) as the new Goblin. At various points in the film, it feels like bad guys just get thrown at Parker while he's driving down the street.

Mind you, the special effects are amazing. This is the first true, knockdown, drag out superhero battle that pulls no punches. Between Goblin's aerial antics, Sandman's shapeshifting, and the amazing acrobatics of Spider-Man, this movie is so action packed with amazing feats of strength and agility that it's hard to look away.

There's a convoluted connection to Marko that at least explains why he's in the film. But Venom is another story. He literally drops out of the sky, sneaks into Parker's room, and then takes him over. The concept of Venom is already ludicrous to begin with: an alien parasite that bonds with people but mimics Spider-Man's powers during the Secret Wars on Battleworld, placed there by a being known as the Beyonder. Hey, it was the 80s, give Marvel a break.

A lot of the back-story is jettisoned in exchange for...no back-story at all. The parasite just shows up in an asteroid. It bonds with Spider-Man's suit. It turns him evil. For no reason.

Other stuff like this happens. At one point, Osborn threatens Mary Jane, forcing her to break it off with Peter or he'll kill him. And she does. When Spider-Man defeats Goblin (and, near as I can tell, killed him), nothing further is mentioned. Doesn't Mary Jane want to explain what she did and why? How come the police weren't called, when the first near-death experience with Goblin ends up (realistically) in an emergency room? Don't even get me started on the amnesia that strikes Osborn at a convenient moment...

And so it goes. Sandman is practically invincible, so fights with him are pointless. We get an interesting back-story about his drive to save his daughter from illness, but then the film does nothing with it. And since Sandman can fly (news to me), he's like a ghost. You can't beat him. Which makes one wonder...why fight Spider-Man at all? And certainly, why would a powerful immortal-level being like Sandman team up with Venom, a crazy alien nutjob?

We don't get our answers. Spider-Man has an overarching theme of forgiveness, but I found it difficult to forgive the obvious cramming of too many ideas. I suspect this is the installment where principal actors bow out. I can't blame them.

Superman: Doomsday

I wasn't paying much attention when Superman died. It passed without fanfare in my geekiverse because I knew that Superman would come back, the same way I keep expecting Captain America to pop up any day now.

Amazon Unbox downloaded this movie to my Tivo right after it taped the introduction of Superman to The Batman cartoon series, the current anime-inspired version of Batman. And to my surprise, all of the voice actors from the Justice League cartoon series were back in the Batman cartoon: George Newbern as the serious Superman, Dana Delaney as the sarcastic Lois Lane, and Clancy Brown as the debonair and devious Lex Luthor. With both on my Tivo, it was easy to make a comparison between the two animated depictions of Superman.

Warning: This review contains spoilers. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

The character designs have been altered a bit from the Superman animated series. Superman (voiced by Adam Baldwin) has bizarrely drawn cheekbones in this movie. Everyone else more or less looks the same, although Lex Luthor (voiced by James Marsters) is a "white guy" again; the Superman cartoon cast him as a Kojak-like darker skinned man who became progressively lighter skinned in each incarnation. Lois (voiced by Anne Heche, of all people) still looks like Lois, wearing impossibly short skirts and yet achieving an amazing range of athletic moves. Three cheers for animated physics!

Superman: Doomsday really enjoys its PG-13-ness. People say funny cuss words like "freaking," have relations, and die -- bloodlessly, but they still die. This is an animation for grown-ups, folks!

The voice actors do a suitable job. Heche is actually the best of the bunch, providing a full range of emotions to Lois. Adam Wylie is great as Jimmy Olsen, but I don't give him quite as much props as he's not exactly new to the DC animation universe (he's the voice of Brainiac 5 in Legion of Super-Heroes). The most egregious loss is Brown as Lex Luthor. Clancy Brown's gravelly baritone has always given the character a subtle menace. In Superman: Doomsday, Lex is just a bald guy with an attitude.

And thus we have the first of several problems with this movie. Lex is a one-dimensional villain bent on destroying Superman. You know you're in trouble when you can make "he's so evil..." jokes. For example:

• Lex is so evil, he has the cure for cancer but doesn't share it with the world!
• He's so evil, he has a special room created just for beating up Superman!
• He's so evil, he shoots his own henchmen to cover up his operations!

Lex practically cackles his way through the entire series and is so patently unlikable that he hardly seems like an actual foil for Superman. In fact, the only noteworthy contribution Lex contributes is his gripe that Superman was killed by an "intergalactic soccer hooligan!" I have to agree with him.

After a long, protracted fight with a goofy-looking muscle-bound gargoyle named Doomsday, Superman dies.

What made the death of Superman so important was the way the writers dealt with his death. Superman is as much a divine being and an iconic symbol as he is an alien who protects Earth; his death had emotional repercussions on the level of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, and the comics made a point of showing what a world without Superman was like. His death helped create Steel and Superboy and other heroes I didn't keep track of because I wasn't reading the comics at the time.

You won't find any of that here. We have a few minutes of mourning, a few minutes of revelations (Lois knew Superman's identity, Lois meets Martha Kent, Lois and Superman were getting it on), and then Superman returns. Only he's mean.

And so, Superman: Doomsday isn't just about Superman dying at the hands of a super villain - it's about Superman being the not-so-noble guy we always knew he could be. This new, resurrected version acts with brutal efficiency. That's most epitomized by his murder of the Toyman after Superman 2.0 discovers that Toyman escape from prison and killed a little girl in a hostage crisis.

There's a reckoning, of course: two Supermen battling it out, comparable to the Doomsday fight only with more blood and clever asides. And like the end of the movie, punch for punch, the old Superman (Animated Series) beats the new Superman (Doomsday), hands down.

Superman Returns

In an era of Batman Begins, Sin City, Spiderman, and 300, it's easy to forget that there was a time when a movie based on a comic book wasn't a sure thing. For an example of a spectacular misfire, Spawn comes to mind; the movie was so obsessed with making the film look like a comic book that it actually FELT like you were watching a comic book, complete with isolated panels, minimal movement, and jarring transitions between scenes. One moment Spawn's threatening some guy and the next he's standing on some building with his really fabulous cloak whipping in the wind.

Similarly, Superman is a visually beautiful movie that has nowhere to go. The iconic scenes of Superman basking in the sun's rays, or hovering about the Earth listening for crime, or when he's actually doing something heroic (which happens far too infrequently) fail to cover up the complete lack of a coherent plot. For example:

Superman's been gone for years...one assumes that whatever he discovered on his long journey would have something to do with the plot. Nope.

Lex Luthor has discovered Superman's Fortress of Solitude and plans to create an entire continent out of a hybridized Kryptonite. Surely that means Superman won't even be able to get NEAR the place, right? Nope.

Once said "continent" shows up, it's clear that the whole thing is patently uninhabitable. This is Lex's big plan, to create a rock formation and play cards while he waits for...people to call him and offer him money or something? Surely he must have more up his sleeve? Nope.

Heck, the world's changed a lot since Superman's been gone, right? Wouldn't it make sense to really pound home how different Earth is, with it's global warming, crazy politics, and pop starlets? Nope. Instead, the crazy new world is supposed to be summed up with a kid taking a picture of Superman with his cell phone--that's right, the kid scooped the Daily Planet with just his camera phone! ISN'T THAT WACKY?

Superman Returns is very much a movie in love with the original and, while visually faithful, it's a very poor imitation. Yes, Brandon Routh looks like a spitting image of Christopher Reeves, but he has no real acting chops to display since he barely speaks. Kate Bosworth is far too young and whiny as Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen (Sam Huntington) still wears a bowtie for some reason, and the rest of the cast is too caught up in being iconic comic book characters to be memorable. Even the amazing Kevin Spacey can only be a marginally cartoonish Lex Luthor, jarringly transforming into a murderous thug at the movie's climax.

The pacing is all wrong. Superman saving Lois from a plane crash is great. Superman fighting criminals with belt-fed chain guns is excellent. Superman drowning, Superman moping, Superman frustrated over Lois Lane, Superman convalescing in a friggin' hospital? NOT GREAT.

Superman Returns has its moments, and if you squint your eyes it almost feels like the magic from the first movie has been captured. But then it's gone and the movie drags, and drags, and drags. Superman has been co-opted to be a Christ-like father-son parable and on the way Bryan Singer forgot what made the first Superman movie so great: it was FUN!

I could have made a better movie with my camera phone.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

I played X-men: Legends for the Playstation 2 and, although I liked the idea of playing with four players at once, the actual game play left a lot to be desired. There were a couple of problems, not the least of which was that four characters on the screen were difficult to keep track of or even see. When the camera was hovering a thousand feet up, attractive graphics became irrelevant--everybody looked like ants. Also, you couldn't play the cool characters right away but had to earn them, which made the game frustrating.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance (MUA) fixes all those problems. You start out playing the characters you WANT to play: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Deadpool, the works. The cooler characters you have to earn, but they're worth earning: Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Blade, Daredevil, Black Panther and even Nick Fury. My team of choice was Doctor Strange, Blade, Ghost Rider, and Deadpool. Pick your team of four heroes and you're off!

Your team is assembled to beat bad guys at the behest of SHIELD Agent Nick Fury, he of the eye patch and white gloves. Then you proceed to battle an array of villains led by Doctor Doom, from Mephisto to Loki, Galactus to esoteric bad guys like Dragonman. Just about everyone in the Marvel universe is in this game.

The game play is standard: shoot things, slash things, and blow things up. In turn, various minions will do their best to knock you out, leaving the hero unconscious for a period of time until he recovers. There were a few times I ran through the game with just one hero left, like when Ghost Rider took on an entire legion of Skrull warriors and Galactus droids, tossing them off cliffs with his chains. Man, that was fun...but I digress.

Although most of the time you can't zoom in on the characters, you get a much better perspective of them when you handle the upgrades. The upgrade system is intricate, detailing everything from the powers the heroes use to the gadgets they pick up to the outfits they wear. This is especially good, because folks accustomed to the movie version of Blade will be horrified to see what his original costumes looked like in the comic (hint: think green). That said, the costumes actually matter, and you slowly unlock costumes throughout the game that will appeal to fans that know the characters from the comics (Doctor Strange's alternate costumes are friggin' weird).

MUA gets a lot of things right. The powers are evocative of the comic, from Ghost Rider's vengeance stare to Doctor Strange's magical bolts, to Blade's shotgun, katana, and pistol. The hero voices perfectly match their characters. Blade SOUNDS like Wesley Snipes. Doctor Strange sounds like the way I've always imagined him. Ghost Rider is suitably gravelly. And Deadpool...well I've never imagined Deadpool speaking but it fits.

The boards are interesting and interactive. Most fun is Arcade, sort of a Joker for the Marvel universe, complete with funhouse and old-style games like Pong and Pitfall that you have to play (I imagine kids are scratching their heads...). The boss fights show off the detail of the characters, as they involve button-mashing sequences as opposed to straightforward combat. This makes for a cinematic climax to every end battle.

There are some things that are still a little silly. While it's great that you can bash and smash nearly everything, from walls to sculptures to machinery, sometimes that simply doesn't make sense. Our heroes begin on a SHIELD helicarrier that's about to crash, and they gain coinage by...smashing everything on the ship. Isn't that exactly the opposite of what they're supposed to be doing?

But that's a minor quibble. The game has oodles of replayability, as you search for collectible action figures (I found all of the Daredevil ones, but not the Black Panther), find special mission discs that let you play out scenes from each heroes past, and even develop your team's powers. GO TEAM VENTURE!

I haven't played multiplayer, but you can play against an opponent or with up to four of your buddies. That just sounds like a lot of fun. Even the computer-controlled characters are not complete morons, which is a refreshing change for this sort of game.

Everything that makes the Marvel comics universe great is here in obsessive levels of detail. I enjoyed the game so much that I played it to completion and then some. I can only hope that the next game will allow you to carry over your saved characters. It's enough to make a Marvel fanboy weep with joy.

The Incredibles

In the vein of Mystery Men and Unbreakable, the Incredibles is about modern sensibilities applied to standard superhero tropes. In this case, it's the golden age of superheroes in the 1950s. The timing is critical, because the government informally backs the superheroes and attitudes shifted in the 60s to skepticism and outright distrust of Big Brother. Several things happen at once as the plot is set up: Mr. Incredible (voice with kindness and strength by Craig T. Nelson) repeatedly rebuffs the preteen president of his fan club (Buddy Pine, voiced to perfection by Jason Lee), makes a date with his wife-to-be (Elastigirl, voiced by Holly Hunter's soft Midwestern purr), and saves a man who was trying to commit suicide.

All in a day's work, right?

Well, times change on the superheroes, but they don't change with them. The person he saved sues Mr. Incredible. The insanity of a man trying to commit suicide by plunging to his death and then suing a person who saved him from himself is an apt parallel for the madness of frivolous lawsuits. Soon, every superhero is being sued and the general populace doesn't WANT to be saved anymore.

So the government packs them all off to relocation programs, and suddenly the superhero personas are inversed. Their daily personalities are the masks they wear at work, while their superhero personalities are unspoken, dark secrets.

Fast forward to years later (late 60s maybe?). Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl now have three children: Violet (Sarah Vowell), a teen with the power of invisibility and force fields, Dash (Spencer Fox), a precocious preteen who can run at lightning speed, and the baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile) who...doesn't have any powers.

The family exhibits all the behavior of a normal American family - or at least, the normal family we wish we all had. Mr. Incredible, as Bob Parr, is frustrated by his insurance job and the inability to actually help people. As a superhero he seemed larger than life; as a working slob, he literally bursts from his tiny cube and can barely fit in his stuttering car. And of course, he has an irritating speck of a boss named Gilbert Huph (a character Wallace Shawn voices to irritating perfection) who harasses Bob at every turn for helping customers, not shareholders.

Bob's wife, Helen Parr/Elastigirl, has a different set of problems. She struggles to help her incredible children blend in a mediocre world. Dash acts out because he can't join any sports. Violet struggles to be noticed but hides in plain sight behind her hair. And of course, the two of them fight like crazy.

And thus Pixar has perfectly captured the American family tropes. How many parents have boys who they just wish would tire out? How many teenage girls wish they were invisible? What mother hasn't felt stretched in all directions? And every cubicle dweller (guilty as charged!) finds a Matrix-like connection with Bob, trapped by the most diabolical villain of all: real life.

Bob hangs out with his buddy, the very cool Lucius Best, AKA Frozone (Samuel Jackson) in a role as an African-American hero who has also been retired. The contrast between this role and Jackson as villain in Untouchables should amuse fans of both films. In the evenings, these two guys lie to their wives and go fight crime. It's the only thing that makes them feel alive.

Eventually, Bob's flirt with the dangerous life comes to a climax when he's finally had enough of his job. He takes on freelance work and finds a new zest for life. He loses weight, he starts wearing suits to work, he buys a new car, and he keeps Ms. Parr very happy. In other words, Bob acts like he's having an affair.

And in some sense he is. Mr. Incredible is doing what makes him feel young again. That there does happen to be a beautiful woman (Mirage, voiced by Elizabeth Pena) who lures him into that lifestyle only makes the indiscretion all the more riveting. When Bob disappears on one of his missions, it's up to the family to rescue him.

Throughout, there are a variety of threads that tweak the superhero genre. Edna Mode, voiced by Brad Bird, is the Dr. Ruth of superhero fashion designers. She repeatedly demonstrates the liabilities of wearing a cloak and opines about the challenges of crafting a superhero's costume. Superheroes are disappearing, literally, for reasons that become apparent later. And the government gets tired of keeping their heroes quiet. Indeed, there's a hint of Vietnam in the ambivalent relationship between the former superheroes and their keepers.

What's amazing about this film is the depth of the characters. By now it's expected that each animated personality will perfectly embody the mannerisms of the actors who play them. Syndrome is a masterful interpretation of the actor who voices him, with every mannerism and sideways glance. Only James Woods' Hades in Disney's Hercules comes close. Elastigirl manages to come across as strong, vulnerable, protective, fiery, and even playfully kittenish - Hunter has her down pat. Elastigirl, a stay at home mom mind you, has made such an impression that there are several threads discussing her on the Internet. No seriously, go check and you'll see what I mean.

Equally as important is the relationship between the characters. Elastigirl inadvertently flies her children into danger and then desperately struggles to keep them alive and calm. Violet worries about being grown up enough while Dash freaks out over - and then just as quickly embraces - fighting bad guys who want to kill them. Mr. Incredible's mettle is repeatedly tested and by overcoming each challenge we understand that he is a genuinely good, if frustrated, father and husband.

All throughout, the movie never stops taking itself seriously. Elastigirl tells her children to use their powers to save themselves and that the bad guys WILL kill them. Bad guys do not conveniently hop out of their aircraft, but rather go up in flames. That's right, they die. And there is a lot of tension (the good kind) between Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, early in their relationship and even years later. They love each other, like each other, and sometimes piss each other off, just like a married couple.

The part that made me laugh out loud the most involved Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl, arguing over directions as they drive a battered RV through city streets on the way to battle a super menace. The kids whine "are we there yet?" Elastigirl shouts, "take the exit!" Mr. Incredible shouts that he thinks he knows a faster way. And for a brief second, despite the fact that the entire family is wearing bright red costumes and possesses superpowers, we understand that this is YOUR family, shouting, arguing, and loving each other.

With the advent of The Incredibles, it has become apparent that the last haven of quality filmmaking is to be found not in cable television, but in animation. Pixar consistently creates compelling stories that teach as well as entertain. Whether it's the joys and fears of fatherhood ("Finding Nemo"), the fear of children outgrowing their parents ("Toy Story"), or the pressures of being a creative person in a regimented world ("A Bug's Life"), Pixar has consistently demonstrated that they understand our greatest hopes and our worst fears. The Incredibles is Pixar at the top of their game and should not be missed by anyone who loves superheroes...or has a family.

Spider-Man 2

The first Spider-Man movie was a careful, appropriate, and sincere retelling of the Spider-Man mythology. In essence, the mythology of Spider-Man carried the movie, not the movie itself. In contrast, Tim Burton's Batman was extremely...Burtonesque. It's a tribute to Raimi's directorial skill that he was able to put his ego aside and get the heck out of the way of a great story.

Spider-Man 2, on the other hand, has Raimi written all over it. Spider-Man 2 isn't just Raimi's magnum opus--it's bigger, better, more stylized, and ultimately, a different kind of movie altogether.

In Spider-Man 2, we pick up two years later and yet, things are still pretty much the same. Peter's (Tobey Maquire) living week-to-week on jobs he can't keep due to his nighttime superhero antics. His grades suffer. He never gets a date. Peter is a big loser...smart, but unlucky in just about everything.

Conversely, things are going swimmingly well for Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst). She's marrying J. Jonah Jameson's (J.K. Simmons) son (Danielle Gillies, who eventually becomes Man-Wolf after finding a weird space rock on the moon). She models for billboards. She gets great acting gigs.

In the background, Harry Osborn (James Franco), is now the CEO of Oscorp after his father died in a battle with Spider-Man. Harry is gambling on a dangerous perpetual fusion project, led by the inimitable Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina).

Comic book fans know the drill: Otto creates mechanical tentacles, attached at his waist, to act as his hands when performing experiments of extreme heat and radiation. That's why Dr. Octavius stands behind a reinforced wall and inserts his tentacles in a fashion similar to modern scientists manipulating dangerous chemicals today.

Oh wait. No that was the comic. In the movie, against all reason, Otto uses the tentacles without any protective gear whatsoever. Since Otto's conducting an open room demonstration with the people funding the project in a warehouse, mere feet away from a pulsating globe of energy, one must wonder if the tentacles have any use at all.

In the comic, Doctor Octopus had six tentacles. Here has only four, but they're plenty. It also becomes immediately evident why Alfred Molina had to play the part - wearing tentacles and not looking like an idiot requires a BIG man, and Molina is huge. Unlike the comic, where the tentacles bond with Doc Ock as a result of the explosion, giving him "telepathic control over them," these tentacles are artificially intelligent. Each tentacle snaps and hisses like a snake, with a glaring red eye in its palm. And oh yeah, the tentacles work based off of Doc Ock's neuro-transmissions, so the suit that controls the tentacles digs directly into his spinal column.

My wife turned to me at this point and said, "Why didn't they just sell the tentacles to make a profit?" She's right - in the rush to get on with the rest of the plot, the weirdly plausible tentacles didn't need much explaining. And since when are scientists both mechanical engineers AND brilliant physicists?

The word "tentacles" should have perked up the ears of Raimi fans. Raimi is fond of tentacles, as evidenced by the Evil Dead movies (which in turn, was taken from Chinese Ghost Story). Doc Ock's tentacles attack with a mind of their own, flailing surgeons in a surrealistic scene that could only be described as Raimi's brand of horror. There's even a surgeon who grabs a medical chainsaw and tries to cut one of the tentacles. It doesn't save him.

I won't dwell on the unnecessary Mrs. Octavius (Rosalie) or some of the other minor quibbles about the Doc Ock character. However, once Doc Ock's rushed origin is over, all is forgiven. His tentacles have a personality of their own and they undulate and twist in the background as Doc Ock gestures. He has the round glasses, the trench coat, and all the moves that make Doc Ock Doc Ock. Visually, anyway, Raimi got it right. Certainly, he still makes more sense than the painfully strained justifications created for the Green Goblin (a surfboard AND a green suit AND little bombs that happen to look like pumpkins? What an amazing coincidence!).

The rest of the movie is Peter navigating the wrecked shambles of his life (and peripherally, that of his Aunt May). Spider-Man 2 stays firmly focused on the dizzying highs and piteous lows of a kid trying to make it on his own, including family squabbles, failed romance, and strained friendships. We are led to believe that Peter begins to lose his powers because he no longer believes in himself. Can't climb? Sure. Can't shoot webbing? Okay. Is physically weaker? Gimme a break. Spider-Man's muscles didn't deflate, so there's no reason for Parker to limp after a fall...except to make an in-joke about Tobey Maquire's back problem.

The first movie had a lot of CGI effects that just weren't up to par. Yes, Spider-Man needs to move like a superhero, but often times he looked like some kind of weird robot with extra joints, flipping around in ways that didn't feel like it could be a man in a suit. In Spider-Man 2, Raimi is cognizant of the limitations of CGI. We never see Spider-Man up close when the special effects are required, just like every director's been doing for years with good old fashioned make-up and animatronics.

Despite the change in pace, the fight scenes are filled with amazing feats of agility. Spider-Man's not just acrobatic, he THINKS fast and the contortions he resorts to display that magnificent superhuman speed. He has to move fast too, because Doc Ock's got six limbs to Spider-Man's four.

Props to Raimi for making a movie that doesn't flinch in dealing with its subject. Heck, the ending puts a stake in the ground that puts to rest the "who will be the next villain?" game. Barring some plot flaws that can be chalked up to a comic book style, Spider-Man 2 is a real treat.

Batman Vengeance

Batman: Vengeance looks just like the cartoon, including the voice actors and designs. This game takes place after the cancellation of the Batman cartoon series. That's the latest incarnation -- not the original series, but the slimmer, darker version of Batman that incorporated designs from the movie. For those of you who didn't follow along, Batman lost Robin and only had Batgirl as a sidekick.

Batman: Vengeance, starts out right. You are immediately thrust into play as Batman slides down a slippery slope with an explosion behind him. The player doesn't have a whole lot to do -- for the most part, Batman's going to make it regarless if Batsy slides to the left or right -- but it got me excited about the game.

Batman's got a compelling plot, including Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, led by the Joker (voiced by "I used to be Luke Skywalker" Mark Hamil). The Joker maneuvers Batman into release the right combination of chemicals in an effort to stop other villains. By manipulating Batman into these situations, he inadvertently mixes a dangerous concoction that threatens Gotham.

Things look a bit different because the characters are rendered in three dimensions, which is different from Superman: Shadow of Apocalips. So the characters look similar, but they're not quite right.

Batman has a multitude of tools at his disposal, including the Batmobile and the Batjet. Batman vaults around the city with his batgrapple, throws batarangs, and uses his cloak as a defense as well as a means of gliding from place to place. Which is important, because Batman fights on a lot of rooftops and ledges -- death from falling happened a lot.

The game takes itself seriously. Joker, Harley, and their cronies play for keeps. They shoot machineguns, try to push you off ledges, and otherwise kill you. True to the cartoon, the bad guys fight dirty and it's up to Batman to use his formidable abilities to overcome his disadvantage -- ya know, not having a gun.

Batman is well-rendered, but there were some graphic flaws. There is a "snap to" function that allows you to recenter the camera, facing the way Batman's facing. This is less of a good use of the camera as it is a lazy fix to a problem that is problematic for too many games. Unfortunately, it snaps so quickly that sometimes I became disoriented by the new angle. Additionally, the camera is an object and will bounce off walls, forcing itself literally inside Bat's head. Which looks weird and doesn't help the perspective if Batman is against a wall.

Batman also has some clipping bugs. In at least two different cases, Batman froze in space after getting trapped on the corner of a three-dimensional object. Then he couldn't leave it and I had to start over. Batman: Vengeance only saves when you IT wants you to. You have to finish the board to get to that point, which makes for an either frustrating or easy experience, depending on your level of skill.

By far the best part of the game is fighting my favorite villain, Mr. Freeze. Sure enough, Freeze cannot be fought in hand-to-hand combat (if you've ever seen Batman try, you'll understand) and it requires some crafty maneuvering. There are a multitude of mini-games that test your skill and your brains. Although none are particularly hard, they help break up the gameplay. There are puzzle games, the aforementioned Batmobile and Batjet games, and some other puzzles.

This is good, because barring the unique villains (including Mr. Freeze's Eskimo chickies, Poison Ivy's root-men, and the Joker's mimes), there isn't too many bad guy types. The villains do, in typical movie fashion, stop shooting once Batman engages one of their comrades in melee, politely waiting until he goes down to resume firing. They also react to their surroundings, listening to noises, reacting to their allies socking one to Bats (they cheer), and falling off ledges. Yes, you can actually knock someone off a building and watch them plunge to their death. Now THAT'S Batman!

Overall, Batman: Vengeance is an excellent balance of puzzles, action, and style. It was a great opportunity to return to the cartoon I enjoyed so much.