into the spider-verse | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On “Across the Spider-Verse” as a Superhero Story About Parenting…

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it seemed like a good opportunity to delve into what the movie is about, particularly what it has to say about parenting.

Perhaps reflecting the aging demographic of superhero movie fans, a lot of recent superhero films – from Thor: Love and Thunder to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – have been about parenting. However, Across the Spider-Verse stands out from the crowd because it’s a film that is rooted in the question of what it means to be a good parent, particularly to an exceptional child. It’s a warm and humanist fairytale that argues that the best thing parents can do for their children is to prepare them for the outside world and to listen to them when they speak.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: across the spider-verse, Adulthood, children, coming of age, fatherhood, growing up, Gwen Stacy, into the spider-verse, miles morales, motherhood, parenting, spider man, superhero movies, superheroes | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Across the Spider-Verse” as a Superhero Empowerment Fantasy…

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Darren

After all, what is the point of superhero movies? What are they about? What purpose do they serve? In recent years, the superhero genre has come to be shaped by the language of militarism and law enforcement, treating superheroes as cops and soldiers who just happen to wear masks. Across the Spider-Verse is a film largely about grappling with the legacy of that trend, in which the central villains are “an elite strike team” of “all the best Spider-People” whose job it is to maintain the status quo, no matter how many innocent people suffer to maintain the established order.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: canon, continuity, cops, in the frame, into the spider-verse, law enforcement, miles morales, militarism, policing, spider-man: across the spider-verse, status quo, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Your Feature Presentation – “Ranking the Spider-Man Films From Worst to Best”

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Darren

The Escapist have launched a new pop culture podcast, and I was thrilled to join Jack Packard and Marty Sliva for the first episode. With the upcoming release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a look back at the cinematic adventures of the webslinger, and discuss how they rank.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: into the spider-verse, jack packard, marvel, mcu, sam raimi, Spidey, the amazing spider-man, the escapist, your feature presentation | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Multiverse as the Future of Franchising…

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. The past few months have seen a lot of attention directed at the multiverse, with a suggestion that both Warner Bros. and Disney would be embracing it as a storytelling model going forward.

This shift is interesting, given how much effort these companies have build into fashioning internally consistent shared universes, singular narratives unfolding across dozens of films building inexorably towards a climactic pay-off. However, this shift towards the multiverse feels like a logical response to any number of market forces: the shattering of the idea of the monoculture in the midst of the streaming wars, the pull of nostalgia, and the demands of the actors making these movies. It’s a new world. Actually, it’s several new worlds.

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

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: canon, comic book movies, comic books, continuity, infinite crisis, into the spider-verse, mcu, mulitverse of madness, multiverse, shared universe, wandavision | 1 Comment »

155. The 250 Anniversary Special 2019

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This week, to mark the podcast’s three-year anniversary and passing the one-hundred-and-fifty-episode threshold, we decided to bring back as many of the guests from the third year as possible. So, joining Andrew and Darren on this podcast are:

Andy Hazell, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return and Mary and Max
Tony Black, who recorded Avengers: Endgame
Carl Sweeney, who recorded Double Indemnity
Brian Lloyd, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Alex Towers, who recorded Room, The Matrix and Fight Club
Doctor Bernice Murphy, who recorded The Exorcist and Exorcist II: The Heretic
Jess Dunne, who recorded Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation
Luke Dunne, who recorded Bohemian Rhapsody, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation and Baby Geniuses
Phil Bagnall, who recorded L.A. Confidential, The Avengers, Three Colours: Red, The Lion King, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and Exorcist II: The Heretic
Richard Drumm, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Niall Glynn, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return
Chris Lavery, who recorded Sanjuro
Jay Coyle, who recorded Twin Peaks: The Return and Capernaum
Ronan Doyle, who recorded Capernaum
Grace Duffy, who recorded Fifty Shades of Grey, Star Wars, Spice World, Rush and The Matrix
Babu Patel, who recorded Race 3, Andhadhun, Escape Plan 2: Hades and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Doctor Giovanna Rampazzo, who recorded Race 3, Andhadhun and Escape Plan 2: Hades
Joe Griffin, who recorded The Sixth Sense

We thought we’d take the opportunity to have a talk about the best and worst of this list, both in general and over the past year, and also take a nostalgic look back at the year 1999.