Scott Harvey

With summer movie season rapidly approaching, it’s time to take a look at some of the big attractions that will hit the cinemas from May-July.

Divergent comes amidst what seems to be a veritable plethora of teenage sci-fi/fantasy films adapted from popular novels, a trend started, of course, by The Hunger Games among others. While Divergent undoubtedly owes much to Suzanne Collins’s incredibly popular tales, it is also original and unique enough to succeed on its own merits.

To the non-initiated, this remark by the titular heroine of Veronica Mars in the film’s opening sequence might seem strange. But to the millions who followed the teenaged sleuth for three years through the perils of Neptune High School and beyond, it’s a long awaited reward.

The outrageously catchy theme song to The Lego Movie is called “Everything Is Awesome,” which is a fitting title, considering that pretty much everything in The Lego Movie is, indeed, awesome.

The nominees are out, so in advance of the 86th Academy Awards on March 2, our film critic is arguing for his picks for who deserves to win in several major categories.