We already know how the Comic-Con set feels about The Avengers: They’re having a total fangasm. (Sample comment on imdb.com: “An Unstoppable Force of Awesomeness! All Hail The New King!”)

But what about the rest of us? You know, those of us who don’t think that “who would win in a fight between Spider Man and Batman?” is one of the great barroom debates of our time?  (It’s obviously Spider Man, though. I mean, duh.) Those of us who don’t get a giddy jolt of adrenaline every time we lay eyes on Thor’s hammer, Iron Man’s power source, or Captain America’s shield.

Will we like The Avengers, too?

Short answer: Hell yeah.

The key, the rub, the secret sauce if you will, is Joss Whedon, a man so good he got me hooked on a TV show about vampires and demons called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (For more on my Whedon love, check out my review of The Cabin in the Woods).

Whedon’s genius is this: He, himself, is a fanboy, in the truest sense of the word. But he’s also an ironist—so he brings a wink and a sharply honed wit to the...

At no point during The Raven does Edgar Allan Poe turn to the camera and says, “Poe ahead. Make my day”—but he might as well have.

This movie, set in Baltimore (but filmed, oddly enough, in Budapest and Serbia) is a colossal waste of the inspired casting of John Cusack as Poe and of an intriguing film premise: What were the actual events surrounding Poe’s mysterious final days? (He was found delirious on the streets of Baltimore and died shortly thereafter).

A straight-up biopic, with a little conspiracy-theory mumbo jumbo thrown in, would’ve been grand (and we have a tiny glimpse at what might’ve been, early in the film, when a broke Poe tries smooth talk his way into a free drink at a bar).

Instead, we have that tired chestnut: Serial killer recreates ghoulish scenes from horror writer’s works.

At first, Poe is a suspect, but eventually he’s enlisted to aid the detective (Luke Evans) who is investigating the case. Then, the killer kidnaps Poe’s fiancée—and it’s a battle against the clock for her survival! (Really.)

At one point, Poe actually hops on a horse and gallops after a suspect. (Really, again.) Also, there’s that gun thing. (See above.)

It’s a shame,...

Much like the film itself, I feel like this review should exist on two levels. If you’re someone who doesn’t keep up with the critical zeitgeist, who doesn’t obsessively check out Rotten Tomatoes or follow, say, @Scott_Tobias on Twitter, I need to make this perfectly clear: The Cabin in the Woods—co-written by Joss Whedon and directed by his longtime collaborator Drew Goddard—is not your run of the mill slasher film. It is exceedingly clever, witty, and self-assured, and I recommend it quite highly.

On the other hand, if you’re a movie geek like me, you’ve probably been reading all the hype about how The Cabin in the Woods is a game-changer, a deconstructionist masterpiece of the highest order, a film that renders all other horror films obsolete. To that I say, check yourself before you wreck yourself.

I should probably make a confession here: I am a serious Joss Whedon fangirl. For those who don’t know, he’s the genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and the upcoming The Avengers. And when I say fangirl, I’m not exaggerating. My Buffy DVDs are worn out from overuse and I often quote the joke: "Angel was like methadone for the...

I suppose it’s unfair to compare The Hunger Games’s Katniss Everdeen to Twilight’s Bella Swan, but it’s also inevitable. Both are the heroine narrators of a wildly popular teen trilogy. Both are introduced to sinister worlds far away from their families and forced to grow up quickly. Both are involved in a love triangle of sorts. But the similarities end there.

While Bella is awkward and accident prone (vampire Edward is positively charmed by her clumsiness), Katniss is strong of body and mind. While Bella is obsessed with a boy and willing to abandon her family (and her very humanity) to be with him, Katniss is obsessed with taking care of her own family and staying alive.

I’ve complained many times that Bella is not a character I want young girls looking up to. Katniss, on the other hand, is a heroine I would like to babysit America’s collective tween daughter.

The book The Hunger Games—about a ruling class (“the Capitol”) that keeps its commoners in line by mounting an elaborate yearly competition that pits teens against each other in a battle to the death—has become a world-wide phenomenon. I just started reading it a few days ago myself and I can already see...