But that doesn't mean Journey doesn't do their thing well, as inconsequential as that thing might be.
But contemporary Superhero films do not do their thing well. I don't even know if this would be possible given the circumstances. I can name only ONE post-2000 American superhero film that was very good, and that's Watchmen. There's a certain level of honesty, and legitness in filmmaking that has a big say in how good a film is. Sometimes I don't think a film great but can recognize some truth or sincerity behind it that makes me like it. There is absolutely none of that in Superhero films. And less and less in mainstream American cinema every year. Actually, I don't think that cinema is dying, or anything, but American cinema is in BIG trouble. It's been for years now. Its only saving grace is the quantity. Given how many films are released every year, there's always a fair chunk of solid-to-great stuff. It's not only the Americans who have that problem. French and Italian cinema is long gone, too. And before you say it's always been like that, sure there's always been bad films and even bad films many people loved, but every year of yore had incredible, eye-opening, blasting masterpieces and now we have one or zero of those a year in American cinema, and that's very sad.
I agree with the idea of 'let people watch whatever they like'. Hey, maybe they only watch crap when it comes to films but have excellent music or literature tastes. Or maybe their taste in art is awful altogether, but they excel at other things in life, which is great and acceptable, too. But then you have the so-called cinephiles or critics (either self-proclaimed or otherwise) who appear as knowledgeable to the rest, and then present their TOP 10 of the decade and include films like Hereditary, Sicario, Promising Young Woman, or The Conjuring. You really gotta be a cinematic newbie to still think them valuable cinephiles afterwards. They can't fall any lower, can they? Wait for the time when one of them includes a Superhero film. They really appear like people who only ever watched 300 films this decade and picked films they moderately liked because they were paid to do so.
I haven't encountered any reviews claiming that these superhero films belong with the Ozus and Bergmans of the world. That would be nonsense.
They do not belong with the Fassbinders and Fellinis either. Not even with the Truffauts and Lumets. They do not offer anything new either. Or even anything entertaining. They do not amaze. They have no aesthetics but the aesthetics of dirt. They are disgusting CGI from start to finish. They are manufactured and not made. I still have some superhero films to watch, and I'm not eager to given how bad they are, but, hell, if this isn't the worst genre there is.
Regardless of if they do a great job of explaining why they love those directors/movies? Because that wouldn't make any sense...
It's one thing to be a good writer and have the skill to turn your opinions into words and a whole lotta different thing to have even an iota of a good taste and a broader understanding of cinema & more adventurous film-watching policies. You can think a demagogue is a great poet of speech, rhetorically, but at the same time think their political views are hideous. I can appreciate a critic if their reviews are well-written (hint: more often than not a bad taste equals bad reviews) but still think them normie-pleasing hacks or better writers than cinephiles. There really is no excuse for a critic who loves, say, Avengers and ranks it higher than most other movies, except for:
1. They simply enjoyed it = guilty pleasure. This is fine in and of itself but if they watched more films they would have found much worthier guilty pleasures. I find that most of the time people who love crap are simply ignorant of better stuff. If they took time to get to know the better stuff, they'd start hating the crap, too. If they're just average people, that's fine, but I demand my critics to be knowledgeable about cinema - more than I am. Or at least to know more films than those from the TOP 101 Films You Have to See list and the latest, hottest Top 10 Screening Now.
2. They found something personal about the film that made them illogically love the film more on an emotional level. This often happens with anime, dramas, and romances. For example, if you are a widower and your wife died in a car accident, chances are you will be way more lenient on a drama film whose main hero has lived through exactly the same thing. It's hard to say if anybody ever had to fight with Thanos irl, but who knows...
Regarding what Minio has posted. Remember that this is a guy who put Starcrash as one of his top 300 films recently, so take his opinions with a grain of salt.
There is absolutely no comparison between the masterpiece Starcrash is and some Superhero crap. If you took a piece of paper and drew a finite parabola-like curve, then at one high point you have films like Sansho the Bailiff, The Turin Horse, or Rashomon and at the other high point, you have films like Starcrash. Both are masterpieces. Something like Avengers lies at the bottom, next to the vertex. This is something you just get or do not get, there is no point in putting it into words. Starcrash induces the feeling of child-like wonder and makes you wish you watched it as a little kid and that it changed your life back then. But it didn't. Instead, it changed your adult life. It's not a guilty pleasure. It's a legit pleasure. Sometimes appreciating films like Starcrash or Order 027 required a more refined taste than appreciating a Stalker or a Mirror. But this is all pointless. Most people will never get it. You either have it in you or you don't. You might have it hidden deep inside of you and have to discover it.
Incidentally, I don't read books, but I already have a list of 100 or so books that, in case I ever wanted to pick up reading, would make me a much more legit book reader than most. Hell, just read anything that isn't the "how to live your life" coach type of stuff to be a more legit book buff than people who find Stephen King the best writer ever.