The View From The Mountain

This weekend, Netflix debuts Marvel's The Defender s, which unites the heroes from the superhero series Daredevil , Jessica Jones , Luke Cage , and Iron Fist into one action-packed adventure. I've already seen The Defenders and it's immensely enjoyable and comes highly recommended. In honor of the Defenders debut, here's a list of my top ten superhero films (subject to change if or when new superhero movies come out, or if I change my mind--which is often). Let's start the countdown. 10: Ant Man -- Paul Rudd as a superhero? Oh yes, please. More of a comedic heist flick than a straight up superhero film, Ant Man is a great deal of fun. And any superhero movie that’s got the divine Evangeline Lilly in its cast can’t be all bad. 9: Iron Man -- the film that launched the present cinematic Marvel superhero universe still stands as a great flick in its own right. Superhero tropes are challenged here while Robert Downey Jr.’s considerable charm is allowed to run ...

I’ve been waiting for a Wonder Woman movie all my life. Now that may sound strange for me, a fifty-something year old man, to say about a female superhero. But Wonder Woman has been one of my favorite superheroes since when I was a kid back in the 1970s, when I first saw the Lynda Carter TV series. For me, and many in my generation, Lynda Carter *was* Wonder Woman, a force for light and all things good. I knew that when the inevitable Wonder Woman remake came, whoever took over for Carter would have some pretty big red boots to fill. I never had any idea that it would take so long before a new live action Wonder Woman arrived. But return she did, in the more than capable form of Gal Godot, who both looked beautiful and tough at the same time. She first made her debut as the Amazonian Princess in Batman Vs. Superman , and very quickly became one of the best things about that movie, practically stealing it from her co-stars. But that wasn’t enough. This new Wonder Woman needed to soa...