Category Retrospectives & Analysis

Sep 21 2026

The Summer Of Spider-Man As Rumors Of Superhero Fatigue Are Greatly Exaggerated

As amazing as it sounds (pun intended), Spider-Man: Brand New Day has become a phenomenal success in theaters with little signs of slowing down. Just this past week, the film became the highest grossing film in the United States (earning over $93.5 million) and is a genuine contender for overall box office champion as it sits at a gross of over $2.4 billion putting it as the third highest grossing film of all time. It is unlikely that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will beat out Avatar, the current champion, or even Avengers: Endgame since that film is being re-released this coming weekend as Avengers: Endgame Encore and the money it will earn will be added to the total of the film. Still, the box office win for the fourth Spider-Man film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has far exceeded anyone’s expectations. One can only wonder how Avengers: Doomsday will perform.

The fifth Avengers film has already earned over $50 million in pre-sales, which is a terrific sign that the film will do very well. Now the question is will it do better than Spider-Man: Brand New Day or become the all-time box office champion and be the first film to earn over $3 billion? Well, until very recently conventional wisdom had it that we were in the midst of superhero fatigue with films, and for good reason. Ever since the decade began many superhero films had struggled in the box office and/or were not well received by fans. Very few superhero films hit the billion dollar club and even superhero TV shows were not well regarded. It was easy to see why some observers and critics were quick to announce that superhero films and TV shows were in decline as audiences tired of them. The thing is that for a while they had a point given the disappointing box office returns and reception of many films like The Flash, The Marvels, Black Adam, Blue Beetle, Captain America: Brave New World, Kraven the Hunter, Morbius and most recently Supergirl. But, they may have been to quick to jump to conclusions.

While it is easy for critics and snobs to wag their fingers at superhero films and say that audiences grew tired of them. But it is not that simple. What happened was that audiences grew wise to and avoided bad superhero films. What also happened was that the glut of poor and mediocre superhero TV shows and films turned off many and gave them a negative impression about superhero films and TV shows in general. This is why the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) films fell apart in the end and the same thing happened to Marvel films. Sony Pictures released a bunch of bad films like Morbius and Madame Web and while most fans could tell the difference between a Sony film and an MCU film, the average filmgoer does not. It also did not help that in this decade Marvel Studios released many TV shows that were not well done and more than a few films were downright poor. The same thing happened with DC Studios as nearly all of the Arrowverse TV shows degraded into unwatchable crap.

The film studios and executives saw the negative returns for their products and adjusted. The DCEU was dissolved to be replaced with a rebooted DC Universe (DCU); Marvel Studios revamped their plans, pivoting away from their confusing Multiverse Saga and focusing on quality instead of quantity, hence their reduced output. These adjustments had to take time but outsiders expecting immediate results from course corrections still stayed intent with their superhero fatigue mantra. They looked at the less-than-spectacular returns for Superman, Thunderbolts*, and Fantastic Four: First Steps and blamed it on superhero fatigue. But to paraphrase the old saying, rumors of superhero fatigue are greatly exaggerated.

Yes, last year’s superhero films did not perform as well as the executives hoped. However, at that time the superhero film was undergoing a rebuilding process. The genre had to regain the audiences’ trust, build up word of mouth and redeem themselves. Most of the films released in 2025 turned out to be well regarded by fans and critics. People began to see that the films were actually great and this helped spread the word throughout fandom that the films were worth going out to see in theaters much less stream or download. Of course, other circumstances hindered the box office performances. For example, some idiot executive at Warner Bros. thought it was fine to announce that Superman would be streaming barely a month into the film’s theatrical release. This killed off a lot of momentum and desire to head out to theaters to see it. Just look at how Disney took their time to announce streaming releases for their films. To date, there no official streaming dates have been announced for Spider-Man: Brand New Day and it is still doing well. With Marvel, what hampered their films’ performances was the negative reputation the MCU films earned with recent stinkers and this in turn dampened the performances of their 2025 films. It did not help the latter two films released in that year (Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four: First Steps) came after the recent Captain America film which was not well received and reinforced the idea that modern MCU films were not worth watching in cinemas. But as more and more people watched the films at home or devices, they saw for themselves that the MCU and DCU had course corrected, which helped lead to the spectacular (pun intended again) success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day as it ruled the summer box office.

This does not mean that the box office returns of Spider-Man: Brand New Day automatically dispels the idea of superhero fatigue. Remember that Supergirl came out a month before and flopped hard and put pressure on the next DCU film, Clayface, to succeed. There has to be more film successes and the pressure has increased not just for Clayface but for Avengers: Doomsday and next year’s Man of Tomorrow (the sequel to Superman), Avengers: Secret Wars and Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. If any of those films falter we’re right back to where we started with the doom and gloom about superhero fatigue, but again it is not so simple. On the other hand, being that the films released are about A-list characters they are expected to do well. In that case, the next bar they have to overcome will be in 2028. With the DCU we have no concrete word on what will be released after Man of Tomorrow, but it in DC Studios’ case it cannot be a film based on obscure characters, though the latest rumor is that a Green Lantern film will follow Man of Tomorrow given the critical and streaming success of Lanterns. For Marvel, although their reboot of the X-Men will undoubtedly do well, we have to see how Ghost Rider and the third Black Panther film perform. It’s important to emphasize that the next few films have to be well made to continue the positive word of mouth. There cannot be another Supergirl, but more Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

A major reason why Spider-Man has done so well has to do with its emphasis on characters and story rather than fisticuffs, although those fight scenes were the icing on the cake. What people come away with from Spider-Man: Brand New Day was its heartfelt story about Peter Parker’s emotional isolation and pain and this was echoed with many of the other characters in the film as well. People could relate to Peter’s loneliness and awkwardness as he tries to fit into society, that is why the film resonated with filmgoers and will continue to do so long after the film leaves theaters. As long as future superhero films continue to focus on quality and characters, the audiences will continue to come and dispel or at least dampen the notion that there is superhero fatigue.

Sep 7 2026

Star Trek Turns 60

“Damn it Jim, what the hell is the matter with you? Other people have birthdays, why are we treating yours like a funeral?”

-Dr. McCoy, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

This week marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most renowned and beloved sci-fi franchises, Star Trek, which aired its first episode “The Man Trap” 60 years ago on September 8, 1966. That is quite an accomplishment and it’s wonderful that 60 years later the TV show is still relevant and launched a universe that was so rich and full of imagination which spawned more TV shows, films, books and other medium. Also, let’s not forget the endless merchandise that helped fans relive their favorite moments from the TV shows and films which are still sought out and created.

These are the Voyages…

original Star Trek cast

For anyone who has been in cryosleep for the past 30 years, Star Trek, chronicled the adventures of space-faring explorers onboard the starship Enterprise led by Captain James T. Kirk (portrayed with a roguish relish by William Shatner) and his command crew which included the half-alien First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who was coldly logical and the ship’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), the emotional opposite of Spock. Each week the Enterprise crew explored Earth-like planets and encountered human-like aliens (give thanks to the show’s budget and available effects technology in the 1960s) and dealt with the pitfalls of their explorations. Given its now-quaint production values and presentation, Star Trek may come off as dated to modern audiences, but the essence of the scripts with their timely messages still resonate with us.

Throughout the decades, long after the original TV show was canceled, Star Trek grew as a franchise through syndicated reruns, merchandise, fan conventions, and later reunion films and finally TV spinoffs that focused on new crews in different time periods in the future. These shows, such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and StarTrek: Enterprise, eventually became as beloved, if not more than, the original Star Trek as they introduced rich characters and stories that captivated fans over and over again.

Trepidations

While this is an occasion to celebrate, especially for fans of the TV series and its numerous spinoffs, there is a general feeling of trepidation with Star Trek and its future. Why is that? Well, it is because of the dismal reception to the most recent Star Trek TV shows and the lack of clear plans for the future aside from yet another film in development. This seems odd given that in the past nine years we have gotten numerous TV shows but for the most part they failed to capture fandom’s imaginations or received the reverance the older TV shows had. Meanwhile on the film front, the last Star Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, was released ten years ago and was a box office disappointment, and led to an unintentional film hiatus. There have been endless pitches from writers and directors, even acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino proposed his own Star Trek film. But unfortunately none of the proposed films made it out of development hell as the franchise shifted its focus on TV productions.

There are many reasons why the modern Trek did not resonate with fans who themselves have splintered into various camps that automatically condemned anything new as “woke” or were convinced that modern Trek was too preachy thanks to scripts that failed to capture the magic of the older series. To be fair, a lot of the criticisms were valid but there were genuinely great Star Trek moments in the modern era, the best being the third season of Star Trek: Picard, followed by Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Lower Decks and on occasion Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

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Nov 22 2025

Toy Story: The Animated Masterpiece That Changed Animated Films

Thirty years ago, Toy Story was released in theaters by Pixar, which at that time was its own independent company owned by Steve Jobs. The animated masterpiece instantly caught everyone’s attention with its revolutionary 3D animation that changed animated films forever.

3D or computer animation existed before Toy Story, of course, but the film about toys that come to life whenever their owners are not around, was the first feature-length film to exclusively use this kind of animation. The use of computers in animated films had been going on for years since the 1980s and 1990s. Disney used computers on a wider scale with its traditional animated classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, but those films were still two-dimensional and by the mid-90s that kind of animation had reached its peak in what could be done with it as an art form. The world of animation was ripe for new approaches.

Enter John Lasseter, the creative genius behind Pixar. Working with a team of innovative artists and computer technicians, Lasseter experimented with 3D animated film shorts that caught the eyes of many film studios, especially Disney. Some of the films like Tin Toy, Knick Knack and Luxo, Jr. stood out with the pioneering use of 3D animation. In fact, Tin Toy won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first 3D-animated film to do so. As Pixar created and released these shorts, they prepared themselves to produce a full-length animated film, which turned out to be Toy Story. At this time, Disney was eager to work with Lasseter and proposed that he create a feature-length film that Disney would distribute, to which Pixar agreed.

At first, Pixar’s first animated film was supposed to be a sequel to Tin Toy and would have featured the title character and his dummy companiion trying to find their way into the hands of children. But Disney was not happy with the script and after much retooling, the Tin Toy characters were replaced with the original creations Woody the cowboy doll and Buzz Lightyear the high-tech electronic doll. They had clashing personalities which generated genuine laughs, but had to work together to find their way to their child owner.

Turning Toy Story into an animated buddy film with two completely different characters sparring with each other then becoming great friends was an inspired decision. This development injected a lot of heart and humor into the script and gave the two lead characters distinct personalities that most viewers could relate to. For instance, Woody was the leader of the toys owned by the child, Andy. His status is threatened with the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, the new hot toy on the block that quickly becomes Andy’s favorite toy. Woody is jealous and resentful towards Buzz as he lost his status and his actions cause both he and Buzz to be lost and the two have to find a way back to Andy’s home. What also helped tremendously was the casting of vocal actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen to play Woody and Buzz. Both actors had great vocal chemistry with each other and comedic timing that rivaled many classic comedy duos.

The film featured many other memorable characters voiced by great actors that embedded the toys with a lot of personalities. Take for instance the legendary comedian Don Rickles who played Mr. Potato Head or R. Lee Ermey as Sargeant, the no-nonsense military leader of the tiny green plastic army men. Seeing many classic and real-world toys appearing in the film was a hysterical and brought back many memories for adults and joy to children. A large part of the film’s appeal was that both adults and children could equally enjoy it, and this became one of Pixar’s strongest selling points with their future films.

Toy Story was an instant hit and a bonafide classic when it was released in theaters on November 22, 1995 as it caught the imagination of viewers. While the computer animation was a distinct selling point, what made the film so beloved was its script, direction and characters who are still relevant to this day. There is even a Toy Story 5 that will be released next year. That is fortunate because while the 3D animation was revolutionary for its time, some of the animation does look a bit dated, especially when it came to depictions of humans.

Of course, the success of Toy Story inspired many film studios to rush out with their own computer animated films to varying degrees of success. Some like Dreamworks and Illumination produced their own classic films but few could capture the magic and whimsy of Toy Story. Still, regardless of quality, the early computer animated films crowded out traditional 2D-animated films and even Disney jumped on the bandwagon with their own 3D-animated films. But it would take Disney some time to create their own films that rivaled Pixar’s in terms of quality. Unfortunately, the success of Toy Story spelled the end of traditional 2D-animated films, at least with American films. The last traditional animated film that Disney released was The Princes and the Frog in 2009. It’s true that there are many advantages with 3D animation, but it is a mistake to completely discard two-dimensional animation. What these studios have failed to realized is that the success of Toy Story and other quality Pixar films, including the Toy Story sequels, was not solely due to its animated technique but because of the story and characters. Hopefully one day, a visionary creator at a major studio will be able to produce a quality two-dimensional animated feature length film that will be successful.

Much like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was revolutionary in its day and changed films by introducing the concept of full-length animated films, so did Toy Story. It is not an exaggeration to say that Toy Story revolutionized animated films when it premiered 30 years ago as we are still feeling the impact of the classic film that is just as enjoyable as when it was released 30 years ago.

Aug 30 2025

Jaws: Still Terrified Of The Water 50 Years Later

One of the things this summer movie season will be remembered for is for being the 50th anniversary of the first blockbuster summer movie, Jaws. It’s not an exaggeration to say this movie changed the film industry forever.

The 50th anniversary of Jaws was this past June, but the film is having special screenings in theaters this Labor Day weekend to celebrate the event. If you’re lucky, your local theater will have the film in 3D or some other upscale format like IMAX. What is surprising is that the upscale of the film actually holds up and the genius of the filmmakers, including its director, is the reason why with the way the scenes were filmed.

Everyone knows Jaws was one of master director Steven Spielberg’s earliest works and is still considered one of his finest films. Thanks to his brilliant directing skills, Jaws was elevated from a standard thriller into a masterpiece of adventure and horror. Plus, it made many viewers afraid or at least wary about going into the water during beach visits.

Jaws excelled at creating a sense of dread and unease with the way the ominous ocean was filmed as it hid the terror of the great white shark that feasted on the hapless citizens of Amity. This uneasiness with the mysterious ocean hit us right at the start of the film when a drunk young woman foolishly went for an evening swim; something you must never do, sharks and other water predators are at their most active at this time. She was attacked by an unknown, unseen force that turned out to be an unusually large great white shark that would go on to terrorize the town of Amity. The scene where she was attacked was punctuated with unsettling dark imagery, John Williams’ iconic score and the fact we never saw the shark. Not revealing the shark until later exploited our fear of the unknown, and increased our anticipation of finally seeing it when the film’s heroes, Amity Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and the salty shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), confronted the great white terror.

An important reason why Jaws worked so well was that Steven Spielberg was forced to keep the shark offscreen for most of the film. That was because the mechanical shark built for the film rarely worked and Spielberg had to work around this by implying the shark’s presence. You would hear the haunting bars of John Williams’ Jaws theme to announce the shark’s presence, just offscreen. You would see quick shots of the shark’s fin or a blurry image of the shark just underneath the surface or later in the film when the shark was speared with lines attached to barrels. These were supposed to keep the shark close to the surface as the film’s heroes hunted it. However, it wasn’t too long before the film’s heroes realized the barrels not only were not effective, but whenever the barrels bopped up to the surface, their presence signaled the approach of the invisible enemy and added to the scenes’ tension and suspense.

Spielberg’s challenge with creating suspense and keeping the shark hidden until the pivotal final act helped forge his directing skills early in his career. Of course, he had a miserable experience directing the film and avoided directing films set in the open ocean afterwards. In fact, he was so bothered by his experience that it was only recently that he was able to bring himself to watch the film. He admitted to liking the film. Who knows what he could do with the film if he made it today?

What is incredible about Jaws and one reason why it is held in such high esteem today was that after a few inferior sequels, there have not been any attempts to remake or reboot it. Yes, there are other skilled directors that could film a theoretical Jaws remake today, but they would have to compete with the mystique of the original film. How could a remake distinguish itself and improve upon perfection?

As mentioned above, a major reason why the 1975 film still terrifies us today is because it exploited our collective fear of the unseen. Most directors today would be too tempted to have a CG shark popping out of the water every five minutes. Sure, today’s special effects could easily have the shark out in the open in nearly every scene, but it would not work. We’ve seen this with films like The Meg, the Sharknado films, and Deep Blue Sea, though the latter film has its merits. So, while it is tempting to pine for a Jaws remake it is best for now to leave that idea alone and enjoy the original classic…even though it will leave you too afraid to go into the water 50 years after its release.

Apr 27 2025

Commemorating Star Wars Episode III 20 Years Later

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, arguably the best of the Star Wars prequels and the culmination of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side of the Force.

The film starts with a bang as we see Anakin and his mentor, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi rushing to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, the leader of the Galactic Republic who was kidnapped by Separatist forces in the skies above the Republic’s capital world of Coruscant. The opening space battle is a spectacular highlight as we see the Jedi duo flying among enormous capital ships wrecking havoc on one another. This scene is one I’ve rewatched countless times and is a great way to set up the rest of the film. When the Jedi finally reach the Separatist flagship and find the Chancellor, Anakin’s descent to evil is hinted at as he brutally executes Count Dooku at the urging of Palpatine, after an intense lightsaber duel.

His future as a Sith Lord is further orchestrated by Palpatine as he convinces Anakin that his wife, Padme, will die unless he learns the secrets of the Dark Side, and he turns on his fellow Jedi. The final confrontation with his friend Obi-Wan on the lava world of Mustafar is both exhilarating and emotional as a heartbroken Obi-Wan is forced to mortally wound Anakin and leave him to die while castigating him for turning on everything they fought for. Palpatine eventually arrives and finds Anakin on the brink of death and, using medical droids and surgical procedures, turns him into the fearsome and legendary Darth Vader, who is now trapped in a prison of body armor that keeps him alive. Padme’s death due to Anakin’s force choke, her trauma at giving birth to their twins Luke and Leia, and Vader’s reaction to the news of this event, is the emotional high point of the film and sets up the classic original Star Wars trilogy as Obi-Wan and his ally Bail Organa takes the twins to safety on the planets Alderaan and Tatooine.

One of the many strengths of the film is the foreboding tone that is set when we see the manipulation that Anakin is subjected to from Palpatine, as well as the Jedi being set up for their downfall which is shown when Anakin marches on the Jedi temple flanked by Clone Troopers who then kill all the Jedi there, including young Jedi students. The many battlefields of the Clone Wars is another great thing we witness in this movie, such as the clone army battling the separatist droids on the Wookie home world Kashyyyk, re-introducing fan favorite Chewbacca to the Star Wars universe in this era. As well as the conflict on the arid planet Utapau, where Obi-Wan finally eliminates Separatist droid General Grievous. This happened after a thrilling chase scene that has Obi-Wan riding on a gigantic lizard named Boga in pursuit of Grievous who is riding on his personal wheel bike. This is something that Star Wars excels at, blending different genres and circumstances, fantasy and science fiction that somehow works. This imaginative vision of director George Lucas comes to fruition the most in this film as this is the last movie he directed, and it seems he finally was able to shake off the issues that surrounded the first two prequel films. The Phantom Menace when it was released was criticized for what some saw as a childish tone with Jar Jar Binks flailing around. This is completely absent in Revenge of the Sith. The feeling of impending doom for the Republic and the Jedi is palpable as we finally see the events hinted at in the original trilogy: Anakin’s fall, his final duel with Obi-Wan, the extermination of the Jedi Order, and Palpatine’s rise to be the evil Emperor that we first saw in Return of the Jedi. Attack of the Clones was seen as an improvement but still had issues with the somewhat clumsy romantic subplot between Anankin and Padme. Again, this is not the case in Revenge of the Sith, as the focus is on the cruel fate that awaits Padme at the hands of her husband, which is haunting to witness.

The reputation of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith has only improved in the years since its release on May 19, 2005. It has the reputation of being the best prequel film, which is well deserved and it also led to later Star Wars releases such as the highly regarded Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV show and Star Wars: Rebels. I think it is right up there with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back when rating the various Star Wars movies. It has the right balance of being a more sophisticated story while still having the excitement and adventure a Star Wars movie needs to have. The special effects were top notch as always, and we see new ships and vehicles introduced such as ARC-170 starfighters, V-Wing starfighters, Droid Tri-fighters and Clone Turbo tanks. This is something that was missing from the sequel trilogy which basically just had X-Wings and TIE fighters from the original films with new paint jobs. The lightsaber duels were also the best of any of the movies, with Anakin vs. Dooku, Obi-Wan vs. Grievous, and finally the long-awaited duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, which did not disappoint. It was a furious and intense battle with a backdrop of searing lava that is fantastic to witness. The inevitable outcome of it brings the prequel saga to a close and guaranteed that the film earned its place in Star Wars lore as an epic finish to the story that Lucas started so many years ago.

The celebration and acclaim that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is receiving on its 20th anniversary is well deserved, and it will be no surprise to see it get the same kind of praise and acknowledgment on its 30th anniversary and well beyond.

C.S. Link