A film critic who watches all the movies can only see the surface:
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I think you are seeing profundities, where none exist.
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That article could spawn a whole other article about how film critics need to a) read and b) learn a thing or two about mythology.
Yeah, superhero movies aren’t really about the little guy, no matter how much Spider-Man has to worry about next month’s rent. But Hercules never had to worth about next month’s rent either.
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Go on.
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so this sort of analysis doesn’t cut the mustard?
They rival Mormonism for chutzpah, wading in fearlessly to revise the canon of ancient stories and beliefs. But they are nowhere near as much fun.
The characters of myth illustrate very human appetites, weaknesses and strengths. They represent love and beauty (Aphrodite); fertility and bounty (Demeter); or wine and ecstatic madness (Dionysus). Superheroes just have one or more extraordinary physical traits. And comic book villains lack the dark distinctions in Milton, whose devils personified specific sins — Satan (pride), Mammon (greed), Belial (wickedness), Moloch (child sacrifice). In comic book movies, villains just want to conquer and kill. They are not looking to slake their lust, amass great riches, build monuments to themselves, create utopian societies or engage in sadistic torments. They just want to win…
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It doesn’t count if it’s past the part where it says no-one over 12 can take films seriously.
Some longform works. Some doesn’t.
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[citation needed] ?
citations are rarely explicit in the new york times.
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Seriously, I’m trying to figure out what you mean. Rip that shit off. I’ll manage my reaction, if that’s what you’re worried about.
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I’m saying that he’s saying that the films really aren’t that deep. Light entertainment, at best.
Yeah, I got that. Nothing beneath the surface was seen.
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OK, of all the superhero films you’ve seen, which one affected you deeply, on an emotional level?
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So was Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, and I and other people love the hell out of those. So is Star Wars really. I will say it again the Marvel movies are a modern day version of the old movie serials. Fun fluffy popcorn escapism with larger than life heroes and there is nothing wrong with that.
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Black Panther is an obvious one.
(Also Infinity War, which I saw at pretty much the peak of a period of elevated anxiety, managed to show me a scene directly out of one my most haunting childhood nightmares AND also pissed me off because the whole thing was bullshit, but I won’t count that as a positive 
)
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I’ll turn that around. What non-superhero films affected you deeply on an emotional level?
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Big Fish… which was largely fantasy.
Scanner Darkly… fantastical SF.
The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio… which was told in a magic realist sort of way, and was about a woman who beat absolutely extraordinary odds.
The Cohen Bros’ version of True Grit is the most “realist” one I can think of, and it’s a costume drama.
ETA: and shout out to Wonder Woman! Superhero for sure, but the author of the article seems to be trying to think himself out of liking it.
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Far more faithful to the original Charles Portis novel than the original
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Dancer in the Dark. God, that was depressing.
Spirited Away and Wall-E for quite the opposite reason…
Guess I’m a simple man…
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Lars von Trier delights in inducing emotional trauma in his audience. He’s really not a nice person.
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I assume you mean other than the frisson from action sequences or other novelties? Just with the Marvel stuff that I’m willing to discuss: Cap 1 and 3, Guardians 2, Thor 3.
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