the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “The Last Jedi” as a Movie About Optimism in a Cynical Time…

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist over the weekend. Given that Star Wars: The Last Jedi just turned five years old, it seemed like a good opportunity to reflect on one of the most ambitious franchise films of the twenty-first century.

In the years since its release, a certain narrative has settled around The Last Jedi, arguing that the film is a subversion or deconstruction of the larger franchise. However, this seems unfair. At its core, The Last Jedi is a fundamentally optimistic movie, a celebration of the importance of standing against tyranny and a rejection of moral relativism in the face of oppression. It is an unabashedly earnest and sincere movie that believes that some things are worth fighting for, even when the situation seems grim and odds are stacked in opposition. It is an unapologetic love letter to the romance of Star Wars.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2017, america, baby boomers, belief, faith, fate, galaxy, generation, hope, optimism, Rian Johnson, romance, star wars, star wars: the last jedi, the last jedi, trump | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Avatar: The Way of Water is Visually Stunning, Narratively Fine”

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar: the way of water, escapist, jake sully, james cameron, neytiri, review, the escapist, the way of water, titanic, water | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the Failed 3D Revolution…

Posted on December 19, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, which is being rightly praised for its use of 3D, it seemed like a good opportunity to discuss the failed 3D revolution sparked (in part) by the original Avatar.

The standard narrative is that 3D was never going to work as a format, and that its death was inevitable. However, there were quite a few successful and well-received 3D movies released around the time of the original Avatar: Coraline, Gravity, The Adventures of Tintin, Hugo, The Life of Pi, The Great Gatsby, Holes. These were all movies with directors willing to play with the format in fun and creative ways, that leaned into the technical possibilities. The problem that arose was similar to a wider problem in the industry at that time, the rejection of filmmaking at that scale as a craft that relied on strong creative vision.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3d, avatar, avatar: the way of water, cgi, coraline, Gravity, hollywood, Hugo, in the frame, the adventures of tintin, the escapist, the great gatsby, the life of pi | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Column! On How Henry Cavill Became the Internet’s Fave…

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist over the weekend. With the recent reaction to the news that Henry Cavill was no longer the DCEU’s Superman, there was public outpouring support for the actor. This is interesting, particularly given the contested nature of those films among online fandom.

It’s an interesting thing to contemplate, how Cavill has cultivated such popularity, despite never really breaking out as an actor. People seem to genuinely and unequivocally love Cavill, and the news of his departure generate a very public display of sympathy that is not always extended to creative talent in that position. So why does the internet love Henry Cavill? What is about Cavill that makes him more deserving of empathy than many of his colleagues and collaborators?

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: celebrity, compassion, empathy, Henry Cavill, internet, superman, sympathy, the escapist | Leave a comment »

317. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (#13)

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Grace Duffy and Charlene Lydon, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, to mark the 20th anniversary of its release, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The Fellowship of the Ring has been shattered. Its membership has fragmented into three smaller groups. Each of these parties – and many more beside – will find themselves playing a major role in the War of the Ring. The battle for Middle Earth has truly begun, and flames threaten to consume the continent, and any innocent caught in their path.

At time of recording, it was ranked 13th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: aragorn, conflict, Darkness, elves, environmentalism, epic, frodo, Gandalf, gollum, horror, humanity, industry, jrr tolkien, legolis, orcs, podcast, ptsd, rohan, Sam, The 250, the lord of the rings, the lord of the rings: the tower towers, the two towers, tolkien, violence, war, wormtongue | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Avatar: The Way of Water” is an Archetypal James Cameron Movie…

Posted on December 16, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the looming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed like a good time to take a look at Cameron’s aquatic, which might be his most personal and intimate movie ever.

Cameron’s filmography is interesting and varied, working in a number of genres and registers across his career. However, he has a set of familiar preoccupations: water, industrialisation, militarism, environmentalist, parenthood, feminism and so on. However, it’s fascinating that one of the most consistent threads across Cameron’s filmography is an evolving idea of family. Cameron’s epics are often stories of families pulling themselves together in the face of crisis. The Way of Water is no different.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: aliens, aquatic, avatar, avatar: the way of water, family, fatherhood, filmography, found family, james cameron, Movies, the terminator, themes, True Lies | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Review! On “The Witcher: Blood Origin” as a Bloody Mess…

Posted on December 15, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist earlier in the week, a review of the upcoming Netflix show, The Witcher: Blood Origin. It is a live action four-episode miniseries spinning directly out from the streaming service’s fantasy hit, The Witcher.

Blood Origin has had a famously troubled production, with the show being cut down from six episodes to four in the editing bay, and undergoing fairly involved reshoots to work around this truncation. The results are as muddling and disheartening as this back story suggests. Blood Origin is a show that is filled with lore and backstory, but with no interest in its characters or their motivations. It’s a frustrating mess, a show that has clearly been hacked apart and reconstructed to hit a pre-determined runtime.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: blood origin, editting, escapist, meddling, netflix, streaming, studio, the escapist, the witcher, the witcher: blood origin, witcher | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Willow” Gently Plays with Fantasy Tropes…

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of Willow at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Wednesday evening while the show is on, looking at the legacy sequel as it progresses from one episode to the next.

It is too much to call Willow a deconstruction or a subversion of classic fantasy tropes. Certainly, the show is often a celebration of the trappings of high fantasy, and a much more old-fashioned take on the genre than contemporary shows like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power or House of the Dragon. At the same time, the series is written with an understanding of the tropes and conventions of the genre, and a willingness to play with those ideas in a way that deepens and explores its own themes. Given that this is a show about divorce, Willow eagerly dives into familiar fantasy tropes about blood and lineage.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Blood, escapist, fantasy, lineage, magic, purity, streaming, Television, the escapist, tropes, willow | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Fabelmans” as a Horror Story About Filmmaking…

Posted on December 13, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist yesterday evening. With the release of The Fabelmans on streaming today, it seemed like a good opportunity to explore Steven Spielberg’s loosely autobiographical family drama.

Spielberg’s recent films are preoccupied with his legacy, and the way in which his work has altered the cultural landscape. The Fabelmans is a much more personal movie, one that is more preoccupied with the art of filmmaking. The Fabelmans is a story about the power of the camera, and its ability to see things that are hidden from the human eye. The camera captures dreams, but it also reveals truths. The Fabelmans doesn’t romanticise this, but approaches with a palpable fear and dread.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Camera, divorce, escapist, family, Filmmaking, in the frame, space, steven spielberg, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! On How Streaming Relies on Theatrical Release…

Posted on December 12, 2022 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a fortnightly video companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch every second Monday, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel. And the video will typically be separate from the written content. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with cinemas in something of a fallow period between with releases of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed like a good time to take a look at the complicated relationship within Hollywood, between streaming and theatrical releases. It has become increasing clear in recent years that streaming is not a viable replacement for the theatrical release model, but is instead largely dependent on it.