I’ve got “Riding With Death” as the fifth-best MST3K episode ever, but it’s probably the one I most often show to newbies. Something about it is just so accessible. 

Yes, thank you! It some ways it’s a very basic hero thing - risking your life to save the bad guy is sort of Heroism 101. But maybe that’s why that moment works so well - Spider-Man rushing into the flames to save the life of someone who was trying to kill him is a very earnest, unapologetically pure moment of…

Most dead Ravagers didn’t die saving the universe.

GOTG2 has the rare distinction of possessing both a mediocre ending and a great one. The big action climax ending is your classic shrug-inducing superhero movie fight, a couple of CGI beings weightlessly punching each other for what seems to be an eternity. You can see Gunn trying his damndest to turn it into…

You make a good case for it!

Swinton’s reading of the line “It’s not about you” is so full of gentle, loving reproach - it’s beautiful. 

Doctor Strange is lesser MCU, which is appropriate, since Doctor Strange is lesser Stark.

Luis’ riff about Hope’s hair in the first movie is the highlight of the sequel’s “babbling Luis” sequence.

Yeah, exactly. I spent the first several seasons dreading every Bran scene (just as I did his book chapters), but the weird, creepy asshole version of Bran is by far the best possible version of the character. 

Oh, god, that Valkyrie shot. I find a use for that GIF seemingly every day. 

The highlight of the dance off is either Lee Pace’s reaction or Gamora’s horrified shake of her head when Peter tries to get her to dance.

I don’t want to overstate this, because Ronan isn’t a particularly interesting villain, but I do think the “Ronan is boring and awful” line with regards to this movie is a bit much. I think he more or less works within the context of Guardians of Galaxy - he’s a humorless fanatic with a very clear, understandable…

I do think a lot of the Marvel action sequences are more or less uninspired (with some notable exceptions), but they’re usually quite coherent.

He even gets a joke in Age of Ultron, which I thought was a nice little touch.

The elevator fight is absolutely the right choice here, but I often go back to that moment when Rogers has taken to the PA system to reveal the existence of Hydra and a nameless SHIELD operative refuses to launch the helicarriers, even when Rumbelow puts a gun to his head. He’s a total nobody who you can tell doesn’t…

Yeah, the easy line is always to praise the down to earth, brutal action while shaking one’s head at the the CGI punch ups, but there’s really something to be said for the mythic grandeur of Ragnarok’s final action sequence.

I try to bring people out of the grays when I can, so here’s a star. Hopefully that sticks.

And here’s my ridiculous accumulation of fur, Scotty.

Chotiner is an outstanding interviewer. He’s been doing these Q&As for a few years, going back to his time at Slate. He has a real knack for handing his subjects a rope, sitting back and watching them expertly tie it into a noose and place it around their own necks. 

I’ve said this before (sorry), but the entire Battle of New York is really a master class in CGI-heavy action filmmaking. The whole thing is totally coherent, it’s funny, there’s time for character work, it furthers a larger theme and there’s one or two truly extraordinary moments - the long take highlighted here and…