"the zero-sum, high-stakes, über-masculine gloom of The Dark Knight and the sunny, goofy gynotopia of Mamma Mia!"

I know I'm boring to bring this up, but this sentence bugs me. I'm irritated that these movies have to be divided by gender at all. So many of the so-called chick flicks this summer are goofy, brainless fantasies (Sex and the City, for example). There's nothing wrong with that, but you can go overboard with the labels. Dark Knight's themes of nihilism, murder, psychosis, and heroic sacrifice are not "uber-masculine," and song and dance numbers and shallow romance are not inherently gynotopic - thank God.

I'm going to add that I think Dark Knight is a far more challenging and rewarding movie than Mamma Mia - for both men and women (I could say the same about Iron Man, and other apparently fluffy superhero movies, but I'll leave it). To my mind, there is simply no basis of comparison, certainly not along the lines of gender.

I've been seeing a lot of this kind of thing since Sex and the City and comic book movies have been coming out, and I had to say it.