Polls »

When it comes to making movies, few things are more subjective than horror. There's nothing that scares everyone, and even if your movie is about something that most people find frightening, that's no guarantee you'll depict it in a way that earns goosebumps. Meanwhile, plenty of good filmmakers have produced terror with things that audiences wouldn't have thought would scare them. (Before Psycho, was anyone ever afraid of showers?) So it's a crapshoot, basically.

Still, some horror films have had villains that they must have known -- or should have known -- wouldn't be scary, no matter how skilled the execution. (And the lousy execution of some of these didn't help.) The Child's Play films got intentionally goofy later in the series, but in the beginning Chucky the murderous doll was actually supposed to be scary, despite being 18 inches tall and weighing only a few pounds. Then there was the title character of Leprechaun, also diminutive and silly, AND he didn't even speak with an Irish accent! If I'm going to watch a movie about a leprechaun, that leprechaun had damn well better sound Irish. I'm just sayin'.

Or remember Darkness Falls, where the supernatural villain was the tooth fairy? Or the evil genie in the Wishmaster films, putting ironic, malevolent twists on people's wishes? Or Julian Sands' time-traveling he-witch in Warlock? The killer snowman in Jack Frost? What's your vote for the silliest horror villain? One of these, or someone else? Let us know in the comments.

I grew up loving all things Superman, but even as a lad of 13 I could tell that the villain in Superman IV -- Nuclear Man, created when Supes threw all the world's nuclear weapons into the sun -- was dumb. He had no personality. He didn't even have a name. "Nuclear Man" is what the closing credits called him, but no one in the film ever calls him anything. Rule No. 1 of being a supervillain: You must have a name. I cannot imagine any exceptions to that rule.

So Nuclear Man is probably my vote for the lamest villain in a superhero movie, but it's hardly a slam-dunk. He has a lot of competition. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campy Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin is legendary. At the opposite end of the muscles scale, there's whiny Venom (Topher Grace) in Spider-Man 3 and emo-goth Blackheart (Wes Bentley) in Ghost Rider. And don't forget Faye Dunaway in Supergirl, Sharon Stone in Catwoman, and the completely useless Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) in the completely useless X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Or the ineffectual but well dressed Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) in Daredevil.

We could go on forever, but we had to narrow it down for the poll. Now we seek your input. Who's the worst villain in a superhero movie? One of the choices below, or someone else? Feel free to explain your choices in the comments.

We know she has breasts, though the unveiling of their full bared glory remains, teasingly, for the future. We know she likes to kiss boys and girls. We know she has a face to die for, as several unlucky victims discovered this weekend in Jennifer's Body. But can Megan Fox act?

Cast in her first lead role as iconic small-town cheerleader Jennifer, Fox certainly sashays well. As directed by Karyn Kusama, Fox looks terrific in slow motion, walking down a high school hallway like it was a catwalk, or emerging from a refreshing skinny dip, smiling secretly because she knows all eyes are upon her. Her lips and tongue look very kissable in extreme close-up. Even when she looks "bad," it's still better than most could hope for, as her ostensible BFF Needy (Amanda Seyfried) observes. When called upon to emote, however, Fox says lines -- scripted by Oscar-winner Diablo Cody -- without any deep conviction or sincerity, as though she were a TV spokesperson introducing a commercial break: "We'll be right back after these important messages!" Even when her character is involved in life-and-death struggles, she comes across as breathy and vapid, drawing less upon her soul and more upon presenting her best angle to the camera. I think her co-star Amanda Seyfried blows her off the screen.

But that's just my opinion. (Cinematical's Jenni Miller has a different opinion of the movie, while our reviewer Todd Gilchrist called her "fanboy catnip," which seems about right.) What do you think? Can Megan Fox act her way out of a paper bag? Or has she just gotten an unfair rap because of her beauty and outspoken behavior? Vote in our poll and sound off in the comments!

The Dark Knight demolished Superman! Iron Man beat up Batman Begins!

Well, we made it. Oh sure we had a slight glitch in Round 5 and we've withstood all sorts of angry movie-fan banter in the comments sections ... but overall I'd call our first Cinematical Tournament a big success. Our readers had fun, the Twitter movie freaks were very supportive, and I even learned a little something about tolerance and love along the way. So without further delay (oh, except to say that we'll have a nice handy recap sometime soon) I offer to you the final match-up of The Best Superhero Movie of ALL TIME tournament. (Or at least until another good superhero movie comes out, whichever comes first.)



The Dark Knight (2008) vs. Iron Man (2008)



To track back how and see how we got here, click right here and go brew some coffee. Oh, and let it be known that we're certainly not done hosting tournaments. In fact, we're putting together our next one now, and may even ask for a little input from you first. Stay tuned!

With the summer crashing in a fiery heap this weekend, burning away all memories of blockbusters like leaves curling in a bonfire, it's time to bid adieu to the most popular season of the movie year and turn our attention to the fall, the season of festivals and award-worthy cinema. It's already begun, of course. Eugene Novikov has been sending in fine reports from the Telluride Film Festival, which is the unofficial starting point of the race for next year's Oscars, the Venice Film Festival is in full swing, and the Toronto International Film Festival kicks off on Thursday.

Before we get out a tissue, we ask that you share with us how you spent your Labor Day weekend. Via Twitter, I know many film fans were celebrating the start of the college football season (Texas and USC romped, Oklahoma got upset, and Ohio State narrowly escaped), and some people were rooting for their division-leading baseball teams, while "family" types were spending time with their loved ones, playing and basking in the warm sun, grilling burgers, or building a closet bookcase to house hundreds of DVDs and finally get them out of moving boxes (which is what I did).

What about the movies, though? Did you bravely venture into Gamer (William Goss had a mixed reaction) or All About Steve (Jeffrey M. Anderson was disappointed)? Or did you try Extract (Jette Kernion didn't love it as unreservedly as I did, but still thought it was "much funnier and more fearless" than other grown-up comedies she's seen this year)? Or catch up with one or two indie or other limited releases? Or watch DVDs? Take our poll and let us know!

Yep, you read that right! Only four films left! Round 9 saw the original Superman feature baaaarely squeaking past the very excellent Spider-Man 2, and then The Dark Knight pretty much obliterated The Incredibles, Batman Begins did the same to Unbreakable, and Iron Man beat the first Spider-Man by a rather surprising margin. Which means our next two match-ups are.......



Superman (1978) vs. The Dark Knight (2008)





Batman Begins (2005) vs. Iron Man (2008)



Have a great holiday weekend! The final battle will start on Monday night!

Round 8 was NOT a good one for the X-Men! A reluctant superhero defeats an enthusiastic one! And ... OK, enough silly exuberance. Here are last round's results: Batman Begins beat down on X-Men, Unbreakable exsanguinated Blade, Spider-Man showed off all of Superman 2's bizarre tonal inconsistencies, and Iron Man smacked the holy snot out of X-Men 2. Which means we have only eight movies remaining! If you were going to invite your grandmother to vote in only ONE round of the tournment, this is the one!



Superman (1978) vs. Spider-Man 2 (2002)

If the unofficial end of summer arrives with Labor Day Weekend, then all we've got left are a few more days to discuss the summer that was before she rides off into the sunset with her billions in box office dollars and a few more sequels already green-lit. But how does she compare to the summers of the past? A quick glance shows us that, unlike 2008, this summer we didn't get a Dark Knight or an Iron Man ... though we did get a Star Trek and a Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We didn't get a Wanted, a Hellboy 2 or an Incredible Hulk, but we did get some smaller, smarter sci-fi films like Moon and District 9.

Pixar came through yet again, but the rest of this summer's animation slate seemed pretty weak. Same goes for comedies, with the exception of The Hangover, which kinda made up for the disappointing Land of the Lost, Funny People, I Love You, Beth Cooper, I Hate Valentine's Day, The Ugly Truth and The Goods. Sam Raimi returned with a pretty awesome horror flick in Drag Me to Hell, though, and Harry Potter rolled in with what was perhaps his most entertaining installment of the franchise. G.I.: The Rise of Cobra surprised some with its fun, cheesy vibe, and Wolverine did just enough to score himself another go-round in Japan.

The first big battles are done! Here's how the last round went down: Richard Donner's Superman smacked down Tim Burton's Batman Returns! Spider-Man 2 made easy work of Hellboy 2! The Dark Knight obliterated the 1989 Batman! (I'll say.) And in a wonderfully strange semi-upset, Pixar's The Incredibles finished off those angst-ridden Watchmen! Congrats to those winners, and let's move on...



Batman Begins (2005) vs. X-Men (2000)

As we crawl toward Labor Day Weekend, you may have noticed that news has slowed down considerably while Hollywood skips town for the last two weeks of August before dusting themselves off for the upcoming film festivals and awards season. So when it's a slow news time, you should expect some folks to take chances on a few crazy movie rumors in order to give them some nice traffic during an otherwise uneventful period. And what a better way to get traffic than to make up ridiculous rumors about the next Batman movie.

The latest rumors? Well, Britain's The Sun claims Megan Fox has been cast as Catwoman in the film. Yup ... and as I was writing that a pig flew past my window! Also, AICN (who, I'll admit, are definitely more legitimate than The Sun) claim there's a chance Christopher Nolan may shoot the next Batman flick using just IMAX cameras -- making it so the entire movie is in IMAX, instead of just a few key scenes like with The Dark Knight. Then again, there's also a chance Nolan will off a guy in the street with a machine gun while singing The Star Spangled Banner with two Twinkies hanging out his mouth ... but that doesn't mean it's actually going to happen.

These rumors, however, aren't much fun unless you collect them all together and vote on which one you'd actually like to see come true. So, because it's slow and because we love time-wasters, sound off below on which of the many Batman 3 rumors floating around online you'd like to see come true.