KNOWLEDGE, MADE USEFUL
Explore practical, editorially structured guides across 11 industries.
1,805 results
Three men in X2 (2003) have remarkably different relationships to control. Scott Summers, played by James Marsden, possesses an ability that must be carefully directed if other people are to remain safe. The President of the United States, played by Cotter Smith, is asked to exercise political autho
8 min read · 1 Nov 2026
In X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), male supporting performers provide some of the clearest answers to the film's central question: when an individual's body is considered abnormal, who gets to decide whether it should be changed? Kelsey Grammer portrays Dr Hank McCoy, or Beast, as a public official an
9 min read · 1 Nov 2026
The first X-Men film has a difficult photographic task: it must make extraordinary abilities visible without letting spectacle overwhelm the emotional lives of their owners. Directed by Bryan Singer and photographed by Newton Thomas Sigel, the 2000 feature shifts between a frightening historical ope
7 min read · 1 Nov 2026
A film about a self-declared ancient god cannot rely on scale alone. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) asks viewers to accept a fictional Egyptian ritual, a young mutant school in 1983, an isolated Polish family, a Weapon X facility and a destroyed modern Cairo within the same narrative. The enormous changes
10 min read · 1 Nov 2026
The emotional centre of X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) is less a conventional fight against an enemy than the attempt to make people believe that their choices still matter. Hugh Jackman's Wolverine arrives in 1973 with memories of the ruined future. James McAvoy's Charles Xavier has withdrawn af
9 min read · 1 Nov 2026
What does an X-Men origin need to explain first: how the team acquires its powers, or why its two future leaders stop trusting one another? Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class (2011) chooses the second problem. The screenplay, credited to Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Vaughn, r
7 min read · 1 Nov 2026
A Spider-Man film can change the meaning of its hero without inventing a more elaborate costume or a louder musical theme. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026) finds Peter Parker working in New York after the memory spell that erased him from the lives of people who knew him. The film's audiovisual chal
9 min read · 1 Nov 2026
The most striking thing about Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) is how many different kinds of visual worlds must coexist. A cramped New York apartment becomes a place of terrifying violence. Doctor Strange's magical spaces abandon familiar physical rules. Three Spider-Men arrive in recognisably differ
8 min read · 1 Nov 2026
Some of the most important people in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) are not those wearing the most elaborate costumes. Peter Parker's schoolmate Ned Leeds, adult ally Happy Hogan, intimidating contact Nick Fury and exhausted teachers Roger Harrington and Julius Dell each pull the story in a differ
7 min read · 1 Nov 2026
A convincing neighbourhood superhero story needs people whose ambitions do not revolve around the hero. In Jon Watts's Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Flash Thompson wants status among schoolmates, Aaron Davis wants to protect the people in his neighbourhood while keeping his own business private, an
7 min read · 1 Nov 2026
Every superhero origin requires a city full of people worth protecting, but an audience needs particular individuals to make that abstract duty emotionally meaningful. In Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Martin Sheen's Uncle Ben, Denis Leary's Captain George Stacy, Sally Field's Aunt May a
7 min read · 1 Nov 2026Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3 (2007) brings three different kinds of male supporting performance into conflict with Peter Parker. James Franco's Harry Osborn wants to avenge his father, Topher Grace's Eddie Brock wants professional recognition, and J. K. Simmons's J. Jonah Jameson wants attention for his
6 min read · 1 Nov 2026