arts | the m0vie blog

Astonishing X-Men Omnibus by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Darren

Why did I have to follow Grant Morrison?

– Joss Whedon’s email correspondence with Marvel

What with all that talk of Whedon directing The Avengers on the big screen, I decided it was worth checking out his run on one of the most enduring superhero teams of all time.

Is this a breakout hit?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, astonishing x-men, astonishing x-men omnibus, avengers, breakworld, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Cassandra Nova, comic books, Comics, cyclops, emma frost, Genosha, grant morrison, graphic novel, john cassaday, john cassidy, joss whedon, kitty pride, marvel, marvel comics, Mutants, new x-men, nick fury, review, scott summers, x-men | 2 Comments »

Swan Lake at the Grand Canal Theatre

Posted on March 20, 2010 by Darren

Yes, we occasionally do high-brow stuff here as well. I had the great joy of taking the better half to a performance of Swan Lake by the Russian State Ballet at the Grand Canal Theatre last night. It’s the first show to perform at Dublin’s newest and largest theatre venue and it was a great opening for the 2,100-capacity location. I’m still more than a little skeptical about the venue’s longterm prospects – is Dublin large enough to sustain a theatre of that size? – but there’s no denying it is simply jaw-dropping.

Just Swanning Around...

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Filed under: Theatre | Tagged: arts, ballet, dublin, grand canal dock, grand canal theatre, Ireland, national theatre, russian state ballet, swan lake, tchaikovsky, Theatre | Leave a comment »

Alan Moore’s Run on Swamp Thing – Saga of the Swamp Thing (Books #1-2)

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Darren

Before Alan Moore was the superstar writer of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V For Vendetta, Watchmen or even From Hell, he was a writer at DC Comics. While he wrote some truly fantastic Superman stories (collected in the well recommended deluxe edition of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?), he was most famously associated with a run on Swamp Thing. When he took over writing duties on the title, Swamp Thing was a series on the verge of cancellation. Which meant that he had a huge amount of freedom to work on the title, with the capacity to do just about anything he wanted.

It isn't swamped with continuity...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: alan moore, alec holland, arts, comic books, Comics, dc comics, John Constantine, john tottleben, league of extraordinary gentlemen, review, swamp thing, Swamp Thing: Earth to Earth (Vertigo), the anatomy lesson, the monkey king, the saga of the swamp thing, vertigo | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Watchmen (The Ultimate Cut)

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Darren

It arrived two weeks ago, but I only found the time to sit down and watch it over two nights last week. So, what do I make of Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut?

Cue immature jokes about how they earned the name...

Note: My review of the theatrical edition can be read here. Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, Characters of Watchmen, directors cut, dr. manhatten, fiction, gerard butler, jackie earle haley, non-review review, Online Writing, review, rorschach, Shopping, tales of the black freighter, watchmen, watchmen dvd, watchmen: director's cut, watchmen: the complete story, watchmen: ultimate edition, zach snyder | 4 Comments »

The Starman Omnibus, Vol. 2

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Darren

Now we’re getting into it. It seems that Robinson has got all the setup necessary to move the story forward out of the way (or at least the bulk of it) and that Tony Harris has finally found his feet on the series. This collection moves a lot more fluidly than the last one – partially due to the fact that it closes as many threads as it opens, but also because Robinson is no free of having to establish the series’ premise and can now focus on the stories that he wants to tell (almost, we’ll come to the exceptions). Those stories are – by and large – reflective studies of what is known as “The Golden Age” of comic books: the 1930s and 1940s. What happened to the world between then and now? What happened to the heroes? Was it ever really the kinder gentler place we recall?

And it's our first Chrismas-themed image... Earlier every year...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arts, comic books, Comics, Comics Code Authority, crossovers, dc comics, Eisner Award, jack knight, james robinson, review, sandman, Silver Age of Comic Books, starman, starman omnibus, ted knight, the shade, tony harris, underworld unleashed, wesley dodds, zero hour | Leave a comment »

Absolute Batman: The Dark Knight (Returns) (Review/Retrospective)

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Darren

The Absolute Edition also collects The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Miller’s belated sequel is worthy of discussion on its own terms, and I plan to revisit it at some point. For the moment, however, here is the review of the original Dark Knight Returns.

It’s really quite difficult to discuss The Dark Knight Returns today. Part of the reason is because of the massive influence that Frank Miller’s Batman epilogue had on the medium, and part of it is because Miller himself has done a fairly efficient job at deconstructing his own definitive Batman work in stories like The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. It’s impossible to approach Miller’s work here entirely divorced from either reality, and the result is a rather strange and dramatic legacy for one of the most iconic Batman stories ever told. It remains fairly essential reading for anybody even remotely interested in the Caped Crusader, the superhero genre or even the medium as a whole. It’s a classic, albeit one that is sometimes quite difficult to pin down.

Lightning strikes…

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: absolute dark knight, absolute edition, alan moore, All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder, arts, batman, bruce wayne, Christopher Nolan, comic books, dark knight returns, dark knight strikes again, dc comics, dkr, dksa, frank miller, gotham, graphic novel, neil gaiman, review, the absolute dark knight, The Dark Knight, the dark knight returns, the dark knight strikes again, watchmen | 7 Comments »

Science Fiction by any other name…

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Darren

I’m genuinely excited about The Road, the adaptation of the novel from Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy. despite a shakey production history, it looks like the Weinstein might be able to mount a successful Oscar campaign for this science-fiction tale. Oops. I shouldn’t have mentioned that hyphenated word. Pretend you didn’t hear it – maybe the Academy hasn’t heard it either. In fact, given the way that people talk about the book and the film, you’d be lucky to hear that ‘tag’ even within the same paragraph. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.

A nice father-son day out...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, charlize theron, classification, cormac mccarthy, critics, films, genre, labels, Movies, novel, oscar campaigns, Oscars, prejudice, sci-fi, science fiction, snobbishness, tags, the road, viggo mortensen | Leave a comment »

Absolute Sandman: Volume IV

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Darren

It’s over. Wow. It has been a long haul, but an impressive and richly rewarding one. Having read the entire collection again over the space of about a month, I have even more appreciation for the wonder of Neil Gaiman’s writing. The volume is pretty much perfect, featuring (in my opinion) the most consistently brilliant artwork of the four volumes and a fitting conclusion to a saga that has run for 1,500 pages already. It’s hard enough to write a fitting conclusion to a two-hour movie or a novella. How does Gaiman manage to tie up everything so ridiculously well?

An empty throne? Foreshadowing, you say?

Warning: This review contains spoilers (as any review of the collection will). They’re minor, they’ve been foreshadowed throughout the collection and pretty much made explicit at the climax of the Volume 3. Still, consider yourself appropriately warned.

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: absolute death, absolute sandman, absolute sandman: volume 4, absolute sandman: volume iv, arts, comic books, dc comics, dream, dreams, Endless, exiles, graphic novels, loki, morpheus, mythology, neil gaiman, Online Writing, Rose Walker, sandman, shakespeare, stories, the absolute sandman, the kindly ones, the sandman, the tempest, the wake | 3 Comments »

Absolute Sandman: Volume III

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Darren

All things must end. I have to admit appreciating this volume a lot more reading through it again. It’s odd that the penultimate volume in a collection should reward repeated reading more than the early editions, but so it is. All-in-all, the collection is possibly the weakest of the four, but only barely. It’s still a damn good read and an excellent chapter in a compelling saga.

Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: absolute sandman, absolute sandman: volume 3, absolute sandman: volume iii, arts, brief lives, Cain and Abel, comic books, Comics, dc comics, Destruction (DC Comics), dreams, Endless, Gaiman Chubut, graphic novels, morpheus, neil gaiman, orpheus, review, Rowan Atkinson, sandman, worlds end | Leave a comment »

Absolute Sandman: Volume II

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Darren

I finished the second Absolutevolume last night at about 1am. It’s a little disappointing to think I’m already halfway through the epic, but that’s life. I can always read it again. And – for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on – I think that the second collection might be my favourite of the four. I don’t know what makes it slightly better and more compelling than the other three, but I can hazard some guesses.