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From the genetic mutation of the X-Men, to the radioactive spider-bite of Spider-Man, to the cosmic blast absorbed by the Fantastic Four, the moment superheroes receive their powers on page or screen tends to be an irrevocable, life-altering event that forever changes their very DNA. Not so in Project Power. Netflix's action-thriller offers an intriguing tweak to the superhero mythos - here, those who take a 'Power' pill are gifted supernatural abilities for just five minutes per hit and they don't know what hidden ability they hold until they take one.

Despite finding a fresh angle on one of cinema's most oversaturated genres, Project Power never fully capitalises on that potential. Like the streaming service's other summer genre exercise The Old Guard, its hooky premise is trapped in a generic plot involving a shadowy organisation led by a cabal of boring baddies.

Project Power has considerable style yet a disappointing lack of substance - but an attention-grabbing performance from Dominique Fishback and an intriguing twist on superpowers give it just enough juice.

There's always something exciting (and more than a little nerve-racking) about a director with a distinctive voice taking on a new film genre. Think Robert Altman doing noir with The Long Goodbye, or Terrence Malick making a war movie with The Thin Red Line. Or, more recently, Taika Waititi tackling a superhero flick with Thor: Ragnarok. So while Gina Prince-Bythewood, previously best known for the sublimely romantic Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights, might not seem like the first choice for a comic-book movie about a group of immortal superheroes who've been fighting evil for centuries, just a few minutes into The Old Guard you realize what an inspired choice she turns out to be.

And the scene that initially does it - I am not making this up - involves Charlize Theron guessing the provenance of a mysterious piece of baklava. Her character, Andy, once better known as Andromache of Scythia, has been around for about 6,000 years, having fought (and died, and come back) in hundreds and probably thousands of battles all over the world. Along the way, she has been worshipped as a god, burned as a witch, and hung out with Auguste Rodin. But right now, she sits with her small team of fellow ancient warriors (the other three have been around for merely hundreds of years) and plays a parlor game: They give her a piece of baklava; she has to use her eternity of experience to figure out where it's from. It's the kind of scene that would be an offhand moment in any other film or played for laughs. (Think the Avengers and their shawarma.) As directed by Prince-Bythewood, however, it's warm, observant, quiet - and hence immersive. For a minute or so, nothing else matters in the world other than Charlize Theron and that piece of baklava.

Adapted by Greg Rucka, who created the original 2017 comic along with illustrator Leandro Fernández, The Old Guard is filled with such human moments, both frivolous and profound - quiet reveries, declarations of love, dreams about eternity, regrets over families and loves left behind and lost forever - and in the balance of the film, they hold equal weight with the action scenes, because ultimately everything feels connected.

Everybody feels connected too. Unlike the standard superhero team, the Old Guard themselves seem less like a collection of traits and more like real people. There's a shared despair, largely unspoken, between Theron's Andy and Matthias Schoenaerts's Booker, a former Napoleonic army officer: Andy has seen so much loss in her many millennia, while Booker, relatively new to the immortality thing, is still working out his grief; somehow her numbness and his rawness land them both in the same uncomfortable place of wanting out of this life. Meanwhile, Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicolo (Luca Marinelli) are former combatants from the Crusades who are now lovers as well as brothers-in-arms, two men whose passion is fueled partly by the fact that, before they fell for each other, they killed each other over and over again. What an interesting idea that is! And how refreshing that the movie knows it and leans into it. All these characters really do feel as if they've known one another for centuries, with all the complexity - the bitterness and sacrifice and loyalty - that suggests. Into this team comes Nile (KiKi Layne), a young Marine who discovers her own immortality in Afghanistan and whose response to her strange new power is, at least at first, a combination of loneliness, confusion, and shame.

When I profiled Prince-Bythewood recently, it became clear that the quality of being present in a scene lies at the heart of all her work. What makes Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights so special isn't just their romanticism but their patience. The director's camera diligently observes her characters without rushing them along to the next big narrative or emotional climax. That kind of intimacy obviously comes in handy when you're telling a love story, but when it's transferred to the realm of comic books and superheroes, a different kind of alchemy occurs: A supernatural action fantasy starts to feel heartbreakingly real. So even though the plot of The Old Guard isn't particularly novel - a sociopathic young pharma bro (Harry Melling) with a small private army attempts to harvest our heroes' powers - we find ourselves deeply invested in their predicament, however by-the-numbers it may look on paper.

That's not to suggest that The Old Guard doesn't also kick all sorts of ass in the ways it's supposed to. The combat has been creatively choreographed, and these men and women really do fight with the kind of speed, fluidity, and inventiveness you might expect from people who've been doing so for a long, long time, using cool weapons and cool martial-arts moves you shouldn't try at home but will probably want to. That the film never has to rely on choppy editing to cover up for bad action is an additional blessing. (It helps, of course, to have Theron, who has already proved herself an elegant cinematic bruiser with roles in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde.) For all the film's brooding, it goes down easy. It's enormously fun, but it won't give you the kind of candy headache so many other superhero movies do nowadays.

Speaking of which: In ordinary times, The Old Guard (which is produced by Netflix, though a theatrical release was always planned) would have opened in a crowded marketplace that had already seen titles like Wonder Woman 1984, Black Widow, a ninth Fast & Furious entry (also co-starring Theron), and The New Mutants. There are still plenty of pictures coming out, but since those big comic-book and comic-book-adjacent films have moved off the release schedule, The Old Guard now has an important corner of the market all to itself. Watching it, I don't miss those other movies with their shared universes and painstakingly built, vigilantly managed worlds. I watch The Old Guard and try to imagine a new world, one where other comic-book movies are this well made and breathtaking.

Creed was a major surprise. Seriously. As much as I love the Rocky franchise, was there any reason to assume that what was essentially Rocky VII, just without a focus on the character we know and love, would be a success? Sure, it had an exciting young actor at the center and an up and coming filmmaker in Ryan Coogler at the helm. But still, how good could it be? Well, the answer was that it turned out to be an Oscar nominee, a Golden Globe winning film, and one of the year's best. Now, Creed II hits this week and, defying all odds, is nearly as good. This flick will also end up on a top ten list for me. It more than delivers, it flies high. What easily could have tarnished what's come before instead movingly builds on it. This is one of the ten best films of 2018, unlikely as that may seem.

The movie is a sequel to Creed, continuing the Rocky series by focusing on the late Apollo Creed's son Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). First the number one contender for the heavyweight championship of the world, Adonis soon becomes champ. It's a wonderful night for him, his girlfriend Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and his trainer, former champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), A challenge unlike any other is coming though, in Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the imposing son of former Balboa/Creed rival Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren). Everyone knows that Ivan killed Apollo in the ring, so Adonis feels like he has no choice but to fight him. Rocky warns him of the danger, but it's no use. Thus begins a true Rocky sequel, just told with all of the additional emotion that Creed brought to bear. Steven Caple Jr. directs a script that Stallone co-wrote with Juel Taylor (Cheo Hodari Coker and Sascha Penn also worked on drafts at one point), while supporting players include Wood Harris, Russell Hornsby, Phylicia Rashad, Andre Ward, and more. Ludwig Göransson composed the score, while cinematography is by Kramer Morgenthau.

I'm not kidding. Creed II is phenomenal. Joke that it's Rocky VIII if you must, but there's way more to it than that. The emotional stakes that both Adonis and Rocky face, not to mention both Drago men, are effective and impactful. That's a true testament to Michael B. Jordan and Sylvester Stallone for sure, though also for returning player Dolph Lundgren, plus Florian Munteanu. Tessa Thompson again is fantastic, while Phylicia Rashad lends some gravitas in her few scenes. Again though, this is about Jordan, and whether he's with Stallone or Thompson, he has electric chemistry with both. The fight scenes don't have the style that the aforementioned Ryan Coogler brought last time, but they're still among the franchise's best. Very little here will surprise you, but damn if it isn't incredibly moving to watch. Don't expect Creed II to contend for Academy Award love like Creed did, but I will say that Jordan and Stallone are just as good this time out (the same goes for Thompson as well). The former is even more front and center, while the latter truly becomes a supporting character, though one with literally decades of history that both the actor and the audience is pulling from. This is an example of how amazing studio films can be when they actually care. This may have been made in part because of money, but the powers that be also made sure that everyone involved was invested. The end result is a brilliantly entertaining movie with tons of heart.

Fans of this franchise are in for a real treat, as Creed II hits all the notes you want from both a Creed sequel as well as a new Rocky installment. It's hard to imagine anyone who's a fan not falling in love with this one too. You'll literally stand up and cheer. The confidence with which the filmmakers and stars work within the expected realm of the series is really something to behold. The way this is going, I'd watch Jordan and Stallone make another half dozen of these. Together, they've truly given you reason to care about this franchise. Once you see it, you'll understand why...