the m0vie blog

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.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinemas, in the frame, netflix, streaming, the escapist | Leave a comment »

316. Solo: A Star Wars Story (#—)

Posted on December 11, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Luke Dunne, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This week, we’re continuing a seasonal tradition of talking about Star Wars movies: Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Growing up on the rough streets of Corellia, young and reckless orphan Han learned the hard way that he has to fend for himself. Escaping to a life in the Imperial Navy, Han stumbles into a daring heist. Joining a team of galactic outlaws, the young man finally finds his place in the universe. Crossing paths with new friends and old lovers, the dashing young rogue finds himself on course to become the man that he must be.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: brand, christopher miller, Content, disney, franchise phil lord, kathleen kennedy, Lucasfilm, luke dunne, management, reshoots, ron howard, solo, star wars, The 250 | 1 Comment »

New Irish Independent Column! On James Cameron’s Big Bet on “Avatar: The Way of the Water”…

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Irish Independent this evening. With the looming release of Avatar: The Way of Water, it seemed worth taking a look at James Cameron’s approach to the sequel.

Over the past few years, it has become quite common for critics to argue that Avatar has no cultural footprint, that nobody can remember the names of its leads or it villains. This is interesting, because it offers a very modern conception of a “cultural footprint”, one that makes sense after decades of comic book movies have imprinted characters like Thanos and Doctor Strange on the public consciousness. Cameron isn’t releasing a blockbuster to compete with these films. Instead, he’s hoping that his sequel can make money by appealing to an older ideal of the cinematic experience.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar: the way of water, irish independent, james cameron, the independent | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On Modern Hollywood’s Daliance with Decadence…

Posted on December 9, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. The year’s awards season has a whiff of decadence about it. Movies seem to be getting longer. Directors are making autobiographical movies about their own childhoods. There’s a fascination with tearing down old Hollywood myths.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the re-emergence of water tank movies, of expensive blockbusters set in and around water. After all, water is expensive and dangerous. More than that, there’s no real evidence that audiences are particularly enthused or excited by water, it’s simply something that costs a lot of money to do. Throughout Hollywood’s history, whenever the blockbuster industry drives itself into a heated frenzy, movies embrace the water. James Cameron has always been riding te crest of that particular wave.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avatar, avatar: the way of water, black panther: wakande forever, escapist, in the frame, james cameron, speed 2: cruise control, splash, the abyss, titanic, water | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Spookies Podcast – “Fanboy Industrial Complex II: With Darren Mooney”

Posted on December 8, 2022 by Darren

I was thrilled to be invited to join the wonderful Michael and Stephanie Little for an episode of their new podcast, The Spookies Podcast.

It was a fun conversation, if a little bit chaotic. We got to talk about everything from Aquaman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: Way of Water, through to the state of the Star Wars brand, and even to the differences between Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

You can listen directly to the episode below or by clicking here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: aquaman, avatar: the way of water, better call saul, Breaking Bad, james cameron, saul goodman, star wars, vince gilligan | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Willow” as a Show About Divorce…

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Darren

Willow is very obviously a show steeped in the fantasy and the blockbusters of the eighties, reflecting the originl film on which it is based. However, the show is rooted much more film in that era than it might appear. As the show approaches its middle point, it becomes clear that showrunner Jonathan Kasdan has built Willow as an extended metaphor for familial dissolution, tapping into the themes of divorce and separation that permeated so much pop culture during the decade.

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