the escapist | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On Why Supergirl is the Best Part of “The Flash”…

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist at the weekend. With the release of The Flash, it seemed worth considering the best part of the movie: Sasha Calle’s Supergirl.

For decades, Warner Bros. has struggled with the character of Superman, trying to find a way to make that character relevant for the modern world. What’s interesting about The Flash is that it finds a unique and compelling answer to this question with its take on Supergirl, presenting an immigrant who arrives to a world that is inherently hostile and xenophobic, which treats her as less than a person, and yet somehow finds the strength to fight for that planet anyway. It’s just a shame that she’s ultimately wasted and discarded by the film.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: sasha calle, supergirl, superman, the escapist, the flash | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “The Flash Isn’t a Film, It’s a Corporate Mandate”

Posted on June 16, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. 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 five-minute film review of The Flash, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: continuity, dc, dc comics, Ezra Miller, flash, review, the escapist, the flash | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On How “Secret Invasion” isn’t Marvel’s “Andor”…

Posted on June 15, 2023 by Darren

We’ll be running weekly reviews of Secret Invasion at The Escapist. But first, a review of the episodes that were previewed for press.

For months, the gossip has been that Marvel Studios have seen Secret Invasion as their answer to Andor, a show that could revitalise interest in a franchise that has been in something of a slow and steady decline, with disappointments like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Unfortunately, Secret Invasion really doesn’t live up to that potential. It offers glimpses of a show tht aspires to push the shared universe outside of its comfort zone, but lacks the necessary killer instinct.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: andor, disney, marvel, Marvel Studios, secret invasion, streaming, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On What Makes a Great Series Finale…

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. With the recent wrap-up of shows like Barry and Succession, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look at what makes a great television finale.

Interestingly, from The Sopranos to The Leftovers, one of the hallmarks of a truly impressive television finale is the way that it leaves room for the audiece. After all, television shows involve considerable investment from viewers, and offer a chance for the audience to really get to know and understand the characters and the themes of this world. The best of these finales are clear endings to the story being told, but which leave room for the viewer to reach their own conclusion about these characters and their journey.

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

Filed under: Television | Tagged: arcs, audience, Barry, endings, finale, out of focus, Succession, Television, television show, the escapist, the leftovers | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and Boring Blockbuster Third Acts…

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the release of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, it seemed like as good a time as any to reflect on one of the blights on modern big-budget blockbusters: the bland computer-generated third act throwdown in a big empty space with no sense of geography or texture.

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for these sorts of spectacles to climax with a gigantic final battle in a vast computer-generated wasteland, with no defining features or landmarks, but instead just a big empty space with no sense of where objects are in relationship to one another. Rise of the Beasts is perhaps the most egregious example of the trend, but there are plenty of others: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther. It’s a hollow, empty, cardboard world.

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

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Battle, cgi, civilians, Computer-generated imagery, computer-generated wastelands, death, destruction, finale, in the frame, marvel, mcu, rise of the beasts, scale, spectacle, the escapist, third act, transformers, urban devastation, war on terror | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Review: A New Franchise Low”

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. 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 five-minute film review of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 3mr, review, rise of the beasts, the escapist, three minute review, transformers, transformers: rise of the beasts | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is Sweeping Web-Slinging Wonder”

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. 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 five-minute film review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: animation, comic book, comic book movies, gorgeous, review, spider man, spider-man: across the spider-verse, the escapist, wachowskis | Leave a comment »

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

Posted on June 2, 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 its relationship to other recent superhero movies.

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 Escapist Column! On How “Arkham City” Uses the Language of Video Games to Make the Player Feel Like Batman…

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Darren

I published a new piece at The Escapist earleir this week. As part of a Patreon goal, I will be playing through the video game of The Last of Us for the website, but to warm up, I decided to take up playing some video games that I remember from my own childhood: the Arkham games.

Replaying Batman: Arkham City, I was taken at how well the game uses the narrative structures unique to video games to immerse the player in the world and the psychology of the Caped Crusader, beyond what is possible in comics, film or television. The game places the player in an artifical countdown, and gives them sets of competing objectives, forcing them to decide what to prioritise and how best to respond to the immediate crisis as the situation keeps escalating around them. It’s an approach that manages to make Gotham feel like a real and living place, with the Dark Knight caught in the middle of it.

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

Filed under: Comics | Tagged: arkham city, batman, batman: arkham city, comic books, level design, open world, rocksteady, sandbox, the escapist, video game design, video games | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Recap – “Succession and Barry Are Masterclasses in Series Finales…”

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Darren

We’re thrilled to be launching a weekly multimedia podcast at The Escapist, called The Recap. I’m hoping to be a regular fixture of it, stremaing live every Tuesday evening. This is kinda cool, because we’re helping relaunch the magazine’s film content – so if you can throw a subscription our way, it would mean a lot.

This week, with the ending of Succession, Barry and Ted Lasso, it seemed like a good opportunity to ruminate on what it means to actually end a long-running series. What is is that makes a finale compelling and effective?