Movies

As a critic, I’ve always appreciated how HBO’s miniseries just move. They have a narrative drive that longer shows often lack. Because they’re so concise, every episode feels essential, relentlessly pushing the story forward and keeping you hooked. Honestly, the pacing is consistently excellent, the central conflicts stay focused, and the emotional impact is often much stronger when the whole story unfolds in just a few hours – it’s a really complete, satisfying experience.

With that in mind, here are our picks for the best scenes from each Marvel movie released during Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Every season of Reacher follows a similar formula – Reacher’s bluntness, exciting action, intriguing mysteries, and help from Neagley. But the show also consistently finds fresh directions. The first season involved a conspiracy in a small town, the second focused on taking the law into one’s own hands, and the third had Reacher working undercover. However, season 4 might be the most original yet.

The young actress recently told Entertainment Weekly that she’s good at keeping things confidential, while discussing the upcoming season of Stranger Things.

I consider The Conjuring films to be among the best in the horror genre, so I went into the final movie with high hopes for a memorable conclusion to Ed and Lorraine Warren’s story. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, largely because the movie focused too much on the main characters themselves.

When the Kaiju appeared, it was the first time audiences saw the Justice Gang and Superman fight side-by-side. Together, they defeated the monster and protected people. Superman explained the Kaiju wasn’t truly evil, just a powerful, untamed creature, but early concept art showed a much more menacing design.

The cancellation of Mindhunter highlights a growing issue with how most streaming services operate. Netflix is canceling shows more and more often, even some of its biggest new releases planned for 2024 and 2025. While Netflix gets the most attention, it’s not the only streaming service doing this.

In the town of Blithe Hollow, Norman is unique – he can communicate with the dead. This ability makes him the only one who can stop a witch’s curse in the movie ParaNorman. He discovers he’s part of a long family history of people with this same gift, a lineage that has been keeping the curse at bay for 300 years. Norman initially believes he’s alone in his ability, until he meets his great-uncle, Mr. Prenderghast. Upon a recent rewatch, it became clear that the other people with supernatural abilities were likely Norman’s ancestors, which adds a powerful emotional depth to an already fantastic film.

Just a few days after its release over Thanksgiving weekend, Zootopia 2 quickly became a major hit, surpassing most other films released this year and entering the Top 10 highest-grossing movies. If it continues to perform well and earns more than $521 million – the total of The Fantastic Four: First Steps – it will move into the Top 10. Experts predict Zootopia 2 will continue to climb the charts in the coming weeks and is likely to become the highest-grossing Hollywood movie of the year, exceeding Lilo & Stitch‘s $1.04 billion.

The sequel to the beloved 1995 film, Toy Story 2, released in 1999, was even better than the original. Remarkably, it currently boasts a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes – a rare achievement, even for classic Disney movies, as critics are often hard to please when it comes to animation.