The Reel World

Ranking the Legion Seasons

Legion was a show that I watched because of X-Men and Noah Hawley. I will probably never watch anything again just because of the presence of either of these components (never mind them combined), but it is notable that even in my late twenties I could be seduced into viewing something because of that. Hawley has proven to be a bag of false goods, but this was probably one of the more consistently strong things he has ever done. Maybe?

Some of the many previous X-Men articles on this site:
Top 10 Performances in the X-Men Films
5 Takeaways from Re-Watching X-Men [2000]
8 Takeaways from the “The X-Men Adventure” in Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
7 Takeaways from the Juggernaut Episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
11 Takeaways from the Pryde of the X-Men Pilot
7 Takeaways from The New Mutants
Top 7 Villainous Sidekicks in the X-Men Cinematic Universe

Continue reading Ranking the Legion Seasons

The Snyder Cut: Revisited – Part 4: Change Machine

The Justice League finally unite to rescue the STAR Labs hostages from Steppenwolf, but decide they’re one member short…

#JamesBondFiles: Dr. No

Director: Terence Young

Year of Release: 1962

Should you watch it? Of course. It is the first James Bond.

Why? Continue reading #JamesBondFiles: Dr. No

The Snyder Cut: Revisited – Part 3: Beloved Mother, Beloved Son

Batman and Wonder Woman go on another recruitment drive, seeking out The Flash and Cyborg, while Aquaman finally heeds the call to action from Atlantis.

The Snyder Cut: Revisited – Part 2: The Age of Heroes

Aquaman is courted yet again to take up arms against an invasion, while Diana learns more about The Mother Boxes, Steppenwolf, and his master, Darkseid.

The Snyder Cut: Revisited – Part 1: “Don’t Count On It, Batman”

In the wake of Superman’s death, Batman tries to put together a team to defend against an impending alien invasion, unaware it has already arrived.

Mike & Matt’s X-Cellent Adventures – Episode 20: Deadpool & Wolverine

Hey remember when we brought our regular podcasting to a close 6 months ago by returning to the original X-Men movie? Well Disney decided to mine nostalgia for engagement too so we felt compelled to review their work.

Wolverine is back! Deadpool is in the MCU now! Cameos galore! A tribute to the Fox Marvel continuity! And yes, FULL SPOILERS on all of it.

Ranking the Deadpool Films

For the first two entries in the series, I am going to track what Matt Waters and I wrote about the films over the year.

Other previous X-Men Articles:
Top 10 Performances in the X-Men Films
5 Takeaways from Re-Watching X-Men [2000]
8 Takeaways from the “The X-Men Adventure” in Spider-man and his Amazing Friends
7 Takeaways from the Juggernaut Episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends
11 Takeaways from the Pryde of the X-Men Pilot
7 Takeaways from The New Mutants
Top 7 Villainous Sidekicks in the X-Men Cinematic Universe

Continue reading Ranking the Deadpool Films

Ranking the Wolverine Films

With a new Wolverine film (a team-up with Deadpool) unexpectedly coming out, it seemed time to properly organize a Wolverine film rankings list. We are going to do something a little different with this list. We are going to include the various write-ups we have written over the years for these films when ranking X-Men films AND include new write-ups. We will update the list as needed

Continue reading Ranking the Wolverine Films

Review: Behind Every Good Man [1967]

Willow Catelyn Maclay and Caden Mark Gardner recently published their book, Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. First of all, it is a fantastic book and you should buy it. Secondly, one of the films that they discussed that stood out to me the most was Nikolai Ursin’s Behind Every Good Man.

Maclay and Gardner explain in their book: “Ursin…shot a hybrid of documentary and scripted fiction to depict the everyday life of a trans woman…[the film] is a stunning eight-minute document focusing on a trans woman of color that, in 2022, was added to the National Film Registry in the United States.”

Reading that, I could not help but feel like this was a truly historic text that needed to be watched as soon as possible. Thankfully, Maclay and Gardner also explained that the film had recently be restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, so it was rather easy to find the film and watch it myself. Continue reading Review: Behind Every Good Man [1967]