"Lucy," directed by Luc Besson

Movie, 2014

Science fiction superhero gangster film with too many ideas to sustain and a generally cold outlook and a few less than savoury undertones. The basic idea of a innocent superhero inflicted with powers through to the footage of wild game being hunted by big cats are as tried and tired as they come. While the action scences and the pacing are fine, the disparate parts and their clunky coming together are distracting.  Entertaining, for sure, though this feels like a weird cross between a nerdy school project and a star vehicle for Scarlett Johansson.

"Watchmen", directed Zack Snyder

Movie, 2009

Clever but disjointed alternative history film, which probably needs some previous knowledge of the characters to appreciate exactly what's going on. This is a super hero film where the superheroes are anything but, and are being picked off by forces unknown. This pathos and the lack of over-CGI'd sequences and crashing soundtrack work in the film's favour, although the muttered dialogue (especially from Rorschach) and the cod-spiritual transportation scenes in Mars don't do as much for the movie as they do, presumably, for the comic series.