See Wanted, Enjoy the Ride

James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender star in Matthew Vaughn's film

(NEWSER) - Critics are largely impressed with the latest installment in the X-Men series: X-Men: First Class is certainly an improvement over the last few. A sampling of reviews:

• “After a close call with franchise death, the X-Men film series has bounced back to life with its fifth installment, rescued with a straight injection of pop,” writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . The film “indulges in period nostalgia as it gazes into the future, using the backdrop of the cold war to explore how the past informs the present (while also blowing stuff up).”

But check out the perks: 3-D, mo-cap, and an essentially naked Angelina Jolie

(NEWSER) - Reviewers of the new animated Beowulf generally agree the tech—including 3-D and motion-captured performances—is awesome, while the rest of the movie is just "pretty good." The film "springs so many pow 3-D surprises you'll think Beowulf is your own private fun house," writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. But "as far as cinematic mythology goes, this film flies only so high," Michael Phillips cautions in the Chicago Tribune. More»

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

• The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."