audiences | the m0vie blog

New Irish Independent Column! On “Willow” and Disney’s Fantasy Pitch…

Posted on November 30, 2022 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Irish Independent this evening. With the release of Willow on Disney+ this week, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at what the show means for the Disney brand, and why it is so important to the company going forward.

The past couple of decades have seen an explosion in fantasy film and television: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones. However, studios have quickly discovered that audiences aren’t necessarily enthusiastically engaged with fantasy, struggling to connect with the genres. Studios like Disney have invested millions trying to tap into that audience, with numerous high-profile failures. Willow represents the latest attempt by Disney to craft a live action fantasy universe with a built-in fanbase, and the company is using the same playbook that it did with Star Wars.

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

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: audiences, disney, fantasy, films, george lucas, harry potter, independent, irish independent, lord of the rings, Movies, streaming, willow | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “The Rings of Power” Balances Itself Between “The Lord of the Rings” and “Game of Thrones”…

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Darren

I am doing weekly reviews of The Rings of Power at The Escapist. They’ll be dropping every Friday morning while the show is on, looking at the Lord of the Rings prequel as it progresses from one episode to the next.

The Rings of Power is very obviously a prequel to the events of The Lord of the Rings, and so exists in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s earlier cinematic adaptation. However, it emerges into a very different landscape, twenty years later. Audience expectations have shifted, along with their relationship to the larger fantasy genre. The Rings of Power asks what it means to be a Lord of the Rings prequel in a post-Game of Thrones world, and finds itself navigating the boundaries that have been reset.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Amazon, audiences, elves, fantasy, Game of Thrones, lord of the rings, prime video, rings of power, the lord of the rings, the rings of power | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On The Lingering Ambiguity of “The Sopranos”…

Posted on September 20, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the rapidly approaching premiere of The Many Saints of Newark, it seemed like as good a time as any to take a look back to The Sopranos.

The Sopranos remains a towering accomplishment in modern television. It is a show that ushered in what has been described as “the Golden Age of Television.” It is a show that has endured, recruiting new fans in the years since it went off the air. It is a show that is still hotly contested and debated, with fans still arguing over what particular scenes or episodes mean. This is particularly true of the show’s famous ending scene, but the truth is that The Sopranos was always deliberately ambiguous, trusting its audience to reach their own conclusions about these characters and how they operate.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: ambiguity, audiences, David Chase, ending, questions, ralphie, the sopranos, Tony, whoever did this | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Fan Reaction to the Final Season of “Game of Thrones”…

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. It’s the one year anniversary of the end of Game of Thrones, so it seemed appropriate to look back on the fan reaction to that final season.

The final season is admittedly a flawed season of television. However, that doesn’t quite explain the level of vitriol that it provokes online. After all, the finale was widely enjoyed by general audiences, performed reasonably well at the Emmys and is doing very well for itself in streaming in social isolation. This contrast is interesting, suggesting that there’s something particularly prickly about the final season that alienated its most vocal fans so extremely.

In hindsight, this seems to be the actions of Daenerys Targaryen in the second half of the season. In the home strange, Daenerys ceased to be seen as a “liberator” of the continent, and instead became a conqueror. She did what all conquerors do, raining down death and destruction on those civilisations that do not welcome her. This was all very clearly seeded across the previous seven seasons, but it turned rather sharply against the audience’s sympathy for Daenerys. In doing so, it made the audience complicit in the carnage. One suspects that complicity stings.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Anger, audiences, betrayal, characters, complicity, daenerys, endings, fandom, Game of Thrones, stories | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2018) #24!

Posted on July 4, 2018 by Darren

We should be back to something resembling a weekly release schedule with the Scannain podcast.

This week, it’s a rather intimate affair with myself, Grace Duffy, and Donnacha Coffey from Filmgrabber. However, the conversation is suitably wide-ranging, discussing everything from the audience-versus-critics conflicts over Hereditary and Gotti to the politics of David Lynch to the sad story of Johnny Depp to the latest surreal controversy involving Star Wars fandom. Along the way, we discuss the usual array of subjects, from the week in film news to the top ten to new releases including Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Dublin Oldschool, Tag, Escape Plan 2: Hades and Adrift.

Give it a listen at the link, or check it out below.

Filed under: Podcasts! | Tagged: audiences, critics, david lynch, dublin oldschool, escape plan, gotti, hereditary, johnny depp, soldado, star wars, tag | Leave a comment »

Same Movie, Different Audience & The Variables of the Movie-Going Experience…

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Darren

I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes again. I was with a relative who hadn’t seen it, and I thought I’d tag along. Part of it was to determine whether the fact that I so thoroughly enjoyed the film had been a fluke, perhaps due to relatively low levels of anticipation going in, but also because it was a good movie, and one I thought might be worth watching again. Truth be told, I enjoyed the film as much the second time, perhaps even more. However, something occurred to me while I was watching it – the audience I was with reacted quite differently to one or two key moments, which (to be honest) also impacted how I looked at those scenes. I don’t think it radically altered my opinion of the film, but I found it interesting to note how watching the film with a different group of people could lead to a slightly distinct viewing experience.

Paws for thought?

Note: This article, by its nature, will include spoilers for two key moments in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I suspect, if you’ve seen the film, you know which ones I am talking about. If you haven’t seen the film, I recommend you do before reading the article.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: andy serkis, audiences, film, film criticism, James Franco, Movie, planet of the apes, rise of the planet of the apes, Rupert Wyatt, Thought, Tom Felton, viewing experiences | 4 Comments »

In Search of the Average Movie-Goer…

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Darren

You know, I wonder from time-to-time how close I am to the experience of a regular movie-goer. Sure, I blog and I write, but I don’t get scoops and I don’t do exclusives. I essentially keep myself as up-to-date on the latest Hollywood happenings as any avid film fan. So, I wonder how close the avid film fan is to the typical movie-goer. I mean, how many people who wouldn’t consider themselves “movie nerds” or “film geeks” check out film sites regularly? How many of those actually seek out (or randomly stumble across) spoilers for films that are still in pre-production? What is the average film fan’s experience with movie news? How do they decide what to see?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: arts, audiences, Cultures and Groups, film, films, hollywood, Movie, Movie theater, movie-goers, Movies, review, They (2002 film) | 11 Comments »

Trailer Talk: Views on Previews…

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Darren

I love a good film story. Not necessarily a story about the inner workings of Hollywood or who is starring in what, more a story about how the film industry is working, relating to regular folks, engaging with audiences and about how the experience of going to the cinema may or may not change. So things like complaints about popcorn or iPhone movie apps excite me as much as pondering the true meaning of Inception or discussing the ending of Shutter Island. So, a particular story grabbed my attention over the weekend. Apparently a woman in China is suing cinemas for wasting her time with pointless advertisements. It’s certainly a story which grabbed my attention:

Chen Xiaomei, a lawyer in Shaanxi Province, filed the lawsuit arguing that audiences were given no warning or indication on the ticket that ads before the film would run on for 20 minutes. That’s like almost an entire sitcom episode… of ads. Not only did this waste movie goers’ time, it also “violated their right to know and to choose.”

I can certainly sympathise.

Some of these ads can be quite (pop)corn-y...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: ads, advertisements, advertising, arts, audiences, Chen Xiaomei, China, cinema advertisements, cinemas, film, Film trailer, hollywood, Ireland, Movie, movie theatres, Television advertisement, trailer | 4 Comments »

Why Inception Matters…

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Darren

I spent a great deal of last weekend heavily anticipating the box office figures for Inception. Of money it makes won’t change the fact that I think it’s an amazing film, but it will affect the impact that Christopher Nolan’s latest will have on the movie industry. And that, my friends, is very important. In fact, I’d go out on a limb and suggest that Inception might be the most important summer blockbuster of the decade, and possibly longer.

More movies like Inception? Hopefully not just in my dreams...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: audiences, big budget, blockbusters, box office, challenges, Christopher Nolan, dumbing down, films, hollywood, ideas, Inception, Movies, smart, studios, Warner Brothers, why inception matters | 6 Comments »

Sequel Query: Hollywood’s Fascination With Sequels…

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Darren

Can you remember a year when the summer wasn’t dominated by sequels or spin-offs or reboots or prequels? If you can, most of them were probably adaptations. There’s been a lot of back-and-forth recently about the abundance of such films in the summer lineups, so I thought it might be worth a little exploration into the history of the sequel and of Hollywood blockbusters, and also worth considering the suggestion that has been mooted a lot recently: are movie-goers tiring of sequels?