I’m thrilled to be launching 3-Minute Reviews on Escapist Movies. 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 three-minute feature film review to the channel, discussing Godzilla vs. Kong.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: escapist, godzilla vs. kong, the escapist | Leave a comment »
Godzilla vs. Kong is in some ways an anticlimax, and not just because it’s arriving on HBO Max rather than as a cinematic blockbuster.
Clocking in at under two hours, Godzilla vs. Kong is technically the shortest entry in the Warner Brothers “Monsterverse” series. It comes in a few minutes shy of Kong: Skull Island and well short of both Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. This is strange, given that Godzilla vs. Kong is nominally supposed to be the triumphant climax of this shared universe, the event towards which everything has been building. It’s strange that this clash of titans should up feeling so small.
That sinking feeling.
To be fair, there is a strong sense of an attempted course correction about Godzilla vs. Kong, especially in response to the overcrowded cacophony of King of the Monsters. In many ways, Godzilla vs. Kong is a smaller and more contained movie than King of the Monsters, notably hinging on three core monsters rather than an entire menagerie. It’s also to the credit of director Adam Wingard that Godzilla vs. Kong is a tighter, more contained and more focused film with a greater sense of internal coherence.
Unfortunately, though, there’s very littler surprise or wonder to be found in this titanic throwdown.
Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: awe, film, Godzilla, godzilla vs. kong, king kong, monsterverse, Movie, non-review review, review, wonder | Leave a comment »
So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with every second Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.
This week, following the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the theatrical release of Justice League. In particular, the differences between the two cuts and the way in which the theatrical cut was a cynical plot to erase any distinct identity from the film and reduce it to empty superhero “content.”
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: art, Content, film, in the frame, justice league, Movie, Television, the escapist, zack snyder's justice league | Leave a comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of the first three episodes of Invincible on Amazon Prime on Friday, I thought it was worth taking a look at what the new show means.
Invincible makes a big step forward for Amazon. As Warners and Disney continue consolidating their superhero content under their established brands, other studios are going to have to find ways to compete in the superhero content wars. Invincible is a fascinating testcase: a lavish adult-skewing hour-long animated series that aims to deliver superhero spectacle with a character largely unknown to the larger public. If the chow can make an impact, it bodes well for studios without their in-house intellectual property farms.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below. 
Filed under: Television | Tagged: Amazon, comic books, escapist, in the frame, invincible, the escapist | Leave a comment »
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Aoife Martin, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
Alex is a teenager growing up in a dystopian Britain with a taste for “the old ultraviolence.” However, when things go very wrong for the young delinquent, he finds himself offered an unlikely opportunity for redemption. He just has to volunteer for a highly controversial new therapy.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 104th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: a clockwork orange, aoife martin, censorship, controversy, Malcolm McDowell, nadsat, stanley kubrick, The 250, ultraviolence, violence, Warner Brothers | 3 Comments »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League last week, it seemed like a good opportunity to dig into the movie’s portrayal of Superman.
One of the more interesting aspects of Snyder’s work on Man of Steel, Batman v.s Superman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League is the sense in which it offers a capsule account of a certain stretch of comic book history, effectively dramatising the characters’ journey from the “dark ‘n’ gritty” comics inspired by Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns to the more aggressively and pointedly reconstructionist work of Grant Morrison on stories like Justice League or Final Crisis.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: alan moore, comic books, continuity, dave gibbons, escapist, final crisis, frank miller, grant morrison, Howard Porter, in the frame, justice league, the dark age of comic books, the dark knight returns, watchmen | Leave a comment »
So, as I have mentioned before, I am launching a new video series as a companion piece to In the Frame at The Escapist. The video will typically launch with every second Monday article, and be released on the magazine’s YouTube channel the following week. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film channel – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.
This week, following the end of WandaVision, it seemed like an appropriate time to take a look at what the show said about contemporary pop culture, in particular the show’s approach to its “mystery box” format and its insistence on explaining every ambiguity without any willingness to leave space for interpretation. It’s a big, ambitious video essay that looks at everything from Lost to Twin Peaks to The X-Files to Doctor Who, and I hope you enjoy.
Filed under: Television | Tagged: ambiguity, Christopher Nolan, doctor who, film, Inception, lost, meaning, Movies, steven moffat, Television, the x-files, twin peaks, wandavision | 1 Comment »
The Escapist have launched a movie podcast, and I was thrilled to join Jack Packard for the tenth episode of the year, with a special guest Lee Murkey, to talk about Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
You can listen to back episodes of the podcast here, click the link below or even listen directly.
Filed under: Podcasts! | Tagged: jack packard, justice league, lee murkey, podcast, zack snyder's justice league | Leave a comment »
I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League last week, it seemed like a good opportunity to dig into the movie’s portrayal of Superman.
Snyder’s portrayal of Superman has always been controversial among more hardcore fans of the character, particularly in Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. There are those who claim that Snyder misunderstands the Man of Steel, and that his films fail to grasp the most compelling aspect of his character. Instead, Zack Snyder’s Justice League offers a fascinating and rounded view of the superhero, one not defined by nostalgia for past iterations – but instead by hope for the generations inspired by him.
You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.
Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: aquaman, Cyborg, flash, hope, immigrant, justice league, nostalgia, potential, superman, the flash, the future, zack snyder, zack snyder's justice league | 4 Comments »
Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guest Graham Day, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, Zack Snyder’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
Following the death of Superman, Batman sets about putting together a team of superheroes to fight a threat that is charging at Earth from across the cosmos.
At time of recording, it was ranked the 86th best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Filed under: This Just In | Tagged: aquaman, art, batman, brutality, comic books, Content, Cyborg, darkseid, deconstruction, directors cut, fascism, frank miller, Freud, graham day, joss whedon, justice league, martin scorsese, masculinity, mother boxes, ray fisher, reconstruction, superman, symbolism, The 250, the flash, unity, violence, wonder woman, zack snyder | Leave a comment »
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