Cautionary Women

One of the biggest faults of this publication is inordinately fawning too much on villains, too little on the antiheroes. Well, well, the biggest opportunity to right that has arrived in, of all movies,  Maleficent , whose titular character first gained notoriety for an evil so prime that it thrives on hypersensitivity.  Angelina Jolie's take on Maleficent rectifies the black-and-white morality play of Disney's 1959 Technicolor spectacle. This Maleficent can't be made pink or blue, and she's more ambivalent than the inveterate dragon lady of old, taking pleasure in avenging bungled invitations. Yes, she's as imperious as ever, but she need not breathe fire or give colder speeches than the one at the christening to come across as divine. In one scene, she takes the throne rather wordlessly; verbosity will not prove transcendence as efficiently. Visually, Maleficent is more nuanced than Flora and Merryweather would have it. The film benefits enormously ...

'X-Men: Days of Future Past' spoilers ahead Those who held out for an after-credits scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past were not disappointed. There he was, En Sabah Nur in all his ancient-alien glory, setting the scene for the Darwinian doomsday of the sequel, due 2016. At this point, Bryan Singer et al. may feel very tempted to perpetuate the lore that Apocalypse is the world's first mutant. No. He. Is. Not. Lest we forget, this woman is older than ancient Egypt : Impregnable and godlike , Selene should be on the table of black hats for future installments of the  X-Men franchise. An alliance between the one-time Black Queen and Apocalypse would certainly blow us away. Selene best exemplifies Apocalypse's ideal of the fittest mutant, a true survivor who has not only witnessed the evolution of her species but also personally saw it through its ascension to godhood. Apocalypse would probably prostrate himself.  Can you imagine, Apocalypse and Selen...