In a sea of sloppy sequels (Pirates of the Caribbean 4) and rote remakes (The Hangover Part 2), X-men: First Class immediately stands out for simply being something different — good.

Taking a leaf out of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot, First Class goes back to the beginning [...]

All that hard work Christopher Nolan put into making the superhero genre serious again with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight is given a swift boot from behind in Kick-Ass. This ballsy genre hybrid from director Matthew Vaughn (Stardust, Layer Cake) does for comic book adaptations what last year’s Zombieland did for horror: it pays homage to the genre by fondly lampooning it, not critiquing it (ala Watchmen), similarly going overboard on the violence and profanity. It’s destined to explode at the box office, probably going down in the history books as a culture-defining movie, as it’s exactly the kind of thing the Facebook and Youtube generation of today will Re-Tweet by the masses.