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New Escapist Column! On How “The Dark Knight Rises” Abolished Its Billionaire to Build a Better Batman…

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. TENET reviews are dropping in under an hour, and DC Fandome is happening this weekend, so it seemed an appropriate time to take a look back at Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises.

The Dark Knight Rises is a particularly interesting project in the current climate. It’s become common to criticise the idea of Batman as a billionaire who spends his fortune to dress up as a bat instead of actually using it to help the poor and impoverished of Gotham. In that context, The Dark Knight Rises is a work ahead of its time. It’s a story about how Bruce fails Gotham in his role as a billionaire, how maybe Batman shouldn’t be “a man from privilege” and a story in which Bruce donates his family home to the city’s “orphaned and at-risk youth.”

The Dark Knight Rises is the rare superhero story to posit an actual and meaningful ending for its protagonist, and The Dark Knight Rises argues that the only possible happy ending for Batman is for Bruce to lose his fortune and be declared dead, understanding that maybe the mantle of Batman should go to another person who is more keenly aware of what it means to live in Gotham. It’s a very clever and very insightful commentary on the Batman mythos, and one that has aged remarkably well.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: batman, billionaires, capitalism, Christopher Nolan, escapist magazine, inequality, john blake, selina kyle, The Dark Knight Rises, violence, wealth | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Mulan” is Coming to Disney+, and Studios Are Leaving America Behind…

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist earlier today. With the news that Mulan will be streaming on Disney+ – for a hefty $30 fee – it seemed worth discussing the real story.

A lot of the discussion around Mulan releasing on Disney+ has revolved around the studio’s plan to charge an additional fee, on top of the subscription, for it. This is reasonable. It is a big shift in the American cinematic market. However, it is only part of the story. The video-on-demand release of Mulan will not be enough to turn a significant profit of itself, and it’s clear that the decision to release Mulan at all is rooted in the fact that the international theatrical market is coming back to life. Disney are banking big on Chinese box office.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: box office, disney, escapist, escapist magazine, mulan, streaming | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Terminator” as a Slyly Subversive Slasher…

Posted on August 3, 2020 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist earlier today. I rewatched The Terminator recently, and got thinking about the film as a horror movie rather than a science-fiction film.

The Terminator is often considered a landmark science-fiction film, and understandably so. However, The Terminator also works as a horror movie. It’s a slasher movie about a relentless force chasing a young woman through a nightmarish Los Angeles lit in shades of neon blue and green, so as to evoke a sense of insomnia. However, Cameron does more than just embrace the tropes of the slasher movie. He engages with them, and puts a subtly subversive twist on the standard rules of the genre.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist magazine, horror, james cameron, slasher, the terminator | 1 Comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Old Guard” and Offering Easy Answers to Tough Problems…

Posted on July 10, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. The Old Guard was released on Netflix this evening, so it seemed a film that was worth discussing.

The Old Guard is essentially a film that exists half-way between a turn-of-the-millennium high-concept action film and a modern superhero blockbuster, and it doesn’t always split the difference in a particularly elegant way. This is a film that is about the importance of doing good in the world, even when the results aren’t quantifiable or apparent. However, it makes a rather clumsy and facile argument about that, lacking the strength or vision to make its point from first principles.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist magazine, greg rucka, netflix, superhero, the old guard | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How Pixar Reinvented American Theatrical Animation…

Posted on June 22, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. This weekend marked the tenth anniversary of the release of Toy Story 3 and the planned release date of Soul, so I thought it was a good time to take a look back at what made Pixar special.

Everybody talks about how emotive Pixar films are, how much they resonate with audiences on that level. However, what’s most striking and impressive – and perhaps most influential – about Pixar’s output is the way in which the studio draws consciously from a wide variety of influences to tell a wide variety of stories. There’s a lot of variety in the Pixar canon, they films playing with a large number of genres in interesting ways, repurposing classic formulae for a much younger audience than would have been the intended audience for the original films in question.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: animation, escapist magazine, pixar, soul, toy stry 3 | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On Clint Eastwood’s Complex American Masculinity…

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. Clint Eastwood turned ninety years old yesterday, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to write about the American icon.

For decades, Eastwood has embodied a certain ideal of American masculinity. However, he has also used his career to offer a more nuanced and sophisticated exploration of that masculinity than many observers will readily acknowledge. Eastwood is the rare movie star who completely understands his screen persona and the audience’s relationship with it, and uses that to engage in interesting discussions about what that says about American machismo.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: america, Clint Eastwood, escapist magazine, in the frame, masculinity | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Clone Wars” and the “Star Wars” Prequels…

Posted on May 25, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. The Clone Wars wrapped up recently, and so I had occasion to binge the series.

The Clone Wars is an interesting artifact, existing largely space between the prequel and sequel trilogies, although briefly resurrected after the release of the sequels for an abridged final season. Watching the show, what was most striking about it was the way in which it felt true to the prequels, embracing and embodying the myriad complexities and contradictions of that divisive and polarising era of Star Wars output. This was reflected in everything from the kind of stories that The Clone Wars told to the ways in which it opted to tell them.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: escapist magazine, star wars, the clone wars, the prequel trilogy | 2 Comments »

New Escapist Column! On “Avengers: Endgame” as a Shared Cultural Experience…

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine this evening. Given that Avengers: Endgame is one year old, it seemed only fair to mark that anniversary with a reflective piece.

I’m not a huge fan of Endgame. I think it’s a modest movie that works very hard to avoid doing or saying anything substantive, wrapped up in the power fantasies that drive so much of the modern Marvel Cinematic Universe. And yet, in spite of that, I admire Endgame as something that has become increasingly rare in the twenty-first century: a piece of shared cultural experience that ties us all together.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: avengers, endgame, escapist magazine, marvel, mcu, monoculture, shared experience | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Trolls World Tour” Might Be the Most Important Movie of 2020…

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Darren

I published a new piece at Escapist Magazine yesterday evening. It’s 2020, so of course Trolls World Tour might end up being a film that redefines the cinematic experience.

Trolls World Tour was released directly on to digital platforms following the coronavirus pandemic. The movie apparently managed to earn more in three weeks as a digital rental than the original Trolls earned in its entire five-month theatrical run. Naturally, this has made Universal bullish, suggesting that they might look at day-and-date digital releases for films like Jurassic World: Dominion and F9, which would radically change the cinematic landscape. Understandably, cinemas are less than thrilled with this.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: AMC, cinemas, digital, escapist magazine, regal theatres, streaming, trolls world tour, universal pictures | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Last Jedi”, “The Rise of Skywalker” and What Makes a Good Sequel…

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine on Friday.

It seems like the arguments over Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker have at least entered that “justification” stage. This week, editors Maryann Brandon and Mary Jo Markey reopened the conversation by trying to shift the blame on to Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, claiming that it represented a betrayal of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. This is nonsense, of course, but it does invite a larger debate about what exactly makes for a good sequel. What does a follow-up owe to an original?

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