x-men: dark phoenix | the m0vie blog

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #25!

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Graham Day and Jay Coyle to discuss what we watched, the week in film news, the top ten and the new releases. Graham has rewatched The Shining. Jay has watched Cléo from 5 to 7: Remembrances and Anecdotes, Cabaret and Victor/Victoria. I have watched What We Left Behind. There is also a lively discussion of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

In terms of film news, the Galway Film Fleadh has announced its full line-up. The makers of the documentary Gaza have donated their prize money to the Gaza Red Carpet Festival Appeal. The Gaze LGBT film festival also unveiled its line-up. The SXSW hit Extra Ordinary was purchased by Cranked Up Films. Donal Foreman’s The Image You Missed is now available on Vimeo on Demand. Also, Hollywood is having (another) existential crisis this summer.

The top ten:

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Child’s Play
Diego Maradona
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Brightburn
Rocketman
The Secret Lives of Pets II
Men in Black International
Aladdin
Toy Story 4

New releases:

Yesterday
Drive
Support the Girls
Apollo 11
Metal Heart

You can listen to the podcast directly here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: aladdin, Apollo 11, batman vs. superman, brightburn, child's play, Diego Maradona, Drive, godzilla: king of the monsters, men in black international, metal heart, rocketman, Support the Girls, the shining, toy story 4, what we left behind, x-men: dark phoenix, Yesterday | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Scannain Podcast (2019) #24!

Posted on June 21, 2019 by Darren

It’s time for the Scannain podcast!

This week, I join Jay Coyle and Grace Duffy to discuss what we watched, the week in film news, the top ten and the new releases. Grace has watched Thieves, Missing and My Own Private Idaho. Jay has watched A Day in the Country, Without Name, Craig’s Wife, The Loved Ones and One Sings, The Other Doesn’t. I have watched The Dark Knight Rises, Sanjuro and Lone Wolf and Cub in Sword of Vengeance. There is also an extended discussion on the merits (or lack thereof) of Batman Forever.

In terms of film news, the Galway Film Fleadh continues to roll out announcements – including its slate of masterclasses and an unexpected Cagney and Lacey celebration with Tyne Daly. The IFI is hosting a number of seasons in July – one celebrating the work of Robert Bresson and also the annual Family Festival. Meanwhile, the Lighthouse and Palais Galway are hosting a season of coming of age favourites.

The top ten:

Late Night
John Wick: Chapter III – Parabellum
Detective Pikachu
Diego Maradona
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Rocketman
The Secret Lives of Pets II
Men in Black International
Aladdin

New releases:

Brightburn
Child’s Play
Toy Story 4

You can listen to the podcast directly here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: A Day in the Country, aladdin, batman forever, brightburn, child's play, comcis, Craig's Wife, detective pikachu, Diego Maradona, films, galway film fleadh, godzilla: king of the monsters, IFI, John Wick: Chapter III - Parabellum, late night, lighthouse, Lone Wolf and Cub in Sword of Vengeance, men in black international, Missing, Movies, My Own Private Idaho, One Sings The Other Doesn't., sanjuro, The Dark Knight Rises, The Loved Ones, Thieves, tommy lee jones, toy story 4, without name, x-men: dark phoenix | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: X-Men – Dark Phoenix

Posted on June 5, 2019 by Darren

It reflects the strange state of the modern multimedia landscape that X-Men: Dark Phoenix feels almost like a plucky underdog.

This is a major studio summer blockbuster with a budget of well over one hundred million dollars. More than that, it is the twelfth film in a series that has historically been both critically and commercially successful; the films have earned over $5.7bn dollars worldwide, eight of the twelve films have positive scores on Rotten Tomatoes, seven of those twelve have been popular enough to end on the Internet Movie Database‘s top 250 films of all-time. The current franchise stars a two-time Oscar winner. The last film in the series earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay.

A hot property.

Dark Phoenix should be an event. Instead, it arrives with a relative whimper. The release date was pushed back repeatedly, first from November 2018 to February 2019, and then to June 2019. It has been hounded by largely unfounded industry gossip about terrible test screenings. It is tracking for the lowest opening weekend in the franchise. In the time between the film entering production and its eventual release, it has been somewhat overshadowed by news that Disney are to buy 20th Century Fox, and that this franchise will be rebooted.

“I am inevitable,” Thanos famously boasted in Avengers: Endgame, the literal manifestation of death and time who existed to be vanquished by the assembled heroes. He might have been speaking of the influence of Disney. Dark Phoenix crashes against that inevitability, shattering and snapping against those immovable objects. Dark Phoenix is a mess, a disorganised husk of a movie carved out in an editing booth and built from last-minute reshoots. However, it is not quite the disaster that it should be. Instead, it seems almost endearingly defiant, a blockbuster flavoured with passive aggression.