Thwarted by superhero worship...

| Jan 29, 2024

This is a loving tribute to the best known of the comic book creators who helped create so many iconic superheroes and villains.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2023

The well-made documentary hits all the high points and is a ready reckoner for anyone interested in a one-sided telling of comics history.

| Aug 5, 2023

The film is so eager to flatter Lee by presenting him as he saw himself that it misses the distinctly ethnic discomfort and context that birthed the World of Marvel.

| Jul 26, 2023

The new documentary adds nothing to the historical record or collective conversation on Lee, but does work to bolster the man’s mythology.

| Jul 19, 2023

Stan Lee created heroes with monikers like Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four. This documentary doesn’t do enough to achieve a similar superlative, instead playing it safe. One for the true believers.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 9, 2023

While it may be expecting too much for a documentary produced by Disney to go anywhere near the less squeaky-clean side of Lee’s story, it’s nonetheless underwhelming to see an otherwise well-crafted doc so uninterested in examining its subject.

| Jun 29, 2023

The film is good looking and has a surprising amount of archival material.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 28, 2023

An efficient corporate-like documentary.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 28, 2023

It's clearly an infomercial for Stan Lee and Marvel, but he's such an engaging and charming raconteur that you don't mind.

| Jun 28, 2023

I appreciated that the filmmakers allowed [unflattering] information in the film... But this is a film made by people who love Stan Lee.

| Jun 28, 2023

It starts to feel a little "product placement," but if you love Stan Lee you will be ecstatic.

| Jun 28, 2023

Admittedly, "Stan Lee" doesn’t really break much new ground in our understanding of comics history. If you’re a Stan Lee fan, though, you might find it a breezy way to pass an hour and a half.

| Jun 24, 2023

All that to say, as long as you don’t go into David Gelb’s Stan Lee... expecting lots of headline-grabbing information, never-before-known trivia, or different perspectives... the experience of having a familiar story [told] can still be plenty enjoyable.

| Jun 23, 2023

A work of rote and gaudy self-promotion that fails to be effective or interesting even on its own terms.

| Jun 23, 2023

A technically sleek film, David Gelb seamlessly weaves together footage of Lee’s life through interview clips, news reels, and clay models with voice over that allows him to narrate his own story. However, the Stan Lee documentary does play it safe.

| Jun 23, 2023

Glosses over all of the controversy surrounding the leader of Marvel Comics at the expense not just of the other other writers and artists who deserve credit, but of the documentary itself, which is a bland and uninformative work of brand-building.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jun 22, 2023

Stan Lee narrates his own amazing life story in a fun and creatively produced documentary that purposely skirts controversy. Director David Gelb celebrates the 100th anniversary of Lee's birth with a breezy retrospective of an extraordinary man.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 22, 2023

Gelb has crafted an excellent primer on Marvel’s history and its most marvellous pitchman.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 21, 2023

For anyone who only knows Stan Lee from his Marvel Cinematic Universe cameos and his general pop-culture presence, this movie offers a solid introduction to the origins of a whole generation of superheroes.

| Jun 21, 2023