Category: Someone Has to Say It

We Were So Wrong: Prometheus is a Modern Sci-Fi Classic

We Were So Wrong: Prometheus is a Modern Sci-Fi Classic

Posted by | Nov 30, 2017 |

Originally published on May 17, 2017; republished in celebration of Director Ridley Scott’s 80th birthday. Even in space, everyone can hear the screams of discord brought about by Prometheus. Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe in 2012 wasn’t met with the critical accolades many were hoping for, nor did it meet many of the expectations that fans of the franchise had been waiting for since the property had gone off the rails in 1997. But Ridley Scott has never been a stranger to divisive films, with a number of his greatest, or at least most interesting, works failing...

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Why The World Needs A Miles Morales Spider-Man Movie

Why The World Needs A Miles Morales Spider-Man Movie

Posted by | Oct 10, 2017 | |

Despite the critical and box office success surrounding Spider-Man: Homecoming, many have expressed dissatisfaction at being presented another Peter Parker outing. Origin story or not, there isn’t much that can be done with Parker’s story that we haven’t already seen. We’ve experienced the trauma of losing Uncle Ben and the burden of the mask. So, whichever way any future Peter Parker Spider-Man films are packaged, it’s likely going to tread on familiar tropes and themes. This is to be expected from a character that’s consistently spent time slinging from screen to screen since 2002. But what if there was...

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Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy is Still the Best

Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy is Still the Best

Posted by | Jul 6, 2017 | ,

This week sees the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the sixteenth film in Marvel’s multi-billion dollar Cinematic Universe and the third modern iteration of the Spider-Man character. Undeniably, the era in which Director Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film was released is completely different from the comic book film landscape we have today, as there were only a handful of identifiable comic book film franchises in theaters at the time, while now we have 11 different inter-connected film series (and that’s not even counting 20th Century Fox’s and DC Comics’ superhero properties). The ever-increasing production of comic book films has dominated Hollywood....

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The Pirates’ Life For Me: Pirates of the Caribbean & Character-Centric Narratives

The Pirates’ Life For Me: Pirates of the Caribbean & Character-Centric Narratives

Posted by | May 25, 2017 |

Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy could be celebrated as one of the best trilogies of all-time. Okay, arguably. Everything from Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer’s epic score, to Dariusz Wolski’s stunning cinematography, to Verbinski’s fantastic direction, all these elements cement this trilogy as a breathtaking fantasy adventure. However, most don’t see it this way. Often, the most well-thought criticisms towards the trilogy usually fall along the lines of pacing issues, the “overstuffing” of characters, and identical plot devices used repeatedly. All this comes off as neglectful of what the trilogy is trying to be: a swashbuckling adventure...

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‘Wonder Woman’ Doesn’t Need Help With Advertising Because She’s Wonder Woman

‘Wonder Woman’ Doesn’t Need Help With Advertising Because She’s Wonder Woman

Posted by | Apr 28, 2017 | ,

Wonder Woman should already be everyone’s most anticipated movie. Sure, Justice League is going to be epic in scope, but the smaller scale period piece Wonder Woman is going to be a game changer. Because finally we have a female-lead, female-directed superhero film in a superhero franchise with ambitions of creating a universe. And even before this focused film, Wonder Woman was featured prominently in the marketing for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. To be straight, Diana has never been sidelined. She’s been front and center for everything after Man of Steel. Her appearance in Batman v Superman...

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How the Hell Is This Kong Vs. Godzilla Movie Going to Work?

How the Hell Is This Kong Vs. Godzilla Movie Going to Work?

Posted by | Mar 30, 2017 |

Monsterverse: The characters of Godzilla and King Kong have long been cultural touchstones for moviegoers the world over. Kong debuted in 1933’s King Kong and has been sequel-ed, remade, parodied, and referenced over and over again in cinema and on TV. Godzilla first appeared in Japan in Ishirō Honda’s Godzilla (1954) and has since appeared in more than 30 movies. Like Kong, Godzilla is a character who one doesn’t have to see in a film to recognize or reference. In the nearly 60 years since his creation, he has become iconic. Because shared universes are the “in” thing right now,...

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Logan Director James Mangold is Taking Fansites to Task. Good. They’re Toxic.

Logan Director James Mangold is Taking Fansites to Task. Good. They’re Toxic.

Posted by | Mar 6, 2017 | |

Sometimes, a movie grows to be about something else after it is released. Culture shifts, perspective moves, the audience grows to learn the intent of the artist more with future work, or hindsight vision reveals a new narrative or unseen or maybe even somehow added details. As showcased by Birth of a Nation to Wet Hot American Summer, this discovered value can make a film better or worse. Movies grow. They evolve. Usually this evolution, like any other, takes time. But this weekend, we saw one mutate. James Mangold’s Logan is straight killing it right now, by all logical...

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Why Did We Let Mel Gibson Come Back?

Why Did We Let Mel Gibson Come Back?

Posted by | Feb 23, 2017 | |

Growing up Jewish in New England during the 2000s, your life is punctuated at regular intervals by these little surprises. There’s the first time you learn what the Holocaust was, and you ask your mom why they hated Jews so much, and she doesn’t have an answer. There are uncomfortable afternoons you spend at your friend’s youth group, which he didn’t tell you was a Christian youth group beforehand. Maybe you get to school one day in December and there’s a little manger on your desk, and a patronizing card about “faith” from your classmate’s mom. One year, your...

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The Next Doctor Should Be A Woman

The Next Doctor Should Be A Woman

Posted by | Jan 12, 2017 | |

2017 will see the tenth season of the rebooted Doctor Who (the 39th season overall), and also the final season for showrunner Steven Moffatt, who took the reins in 2010 with the introduction of Matt Smith as The Doctor. Moffatt, much like his predecessor Russell T. Davies, was at the helm for two Doctors: Smith and the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi. It is assumed that when Chris Chibnall takes over the show in 2018 he will want to do so with his own Doctor much like the two previous show runners did. The BBC have yet to make the...

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Amy Schumer’s “Formation” Parody Highlights A Much Bigger Problem in Entertainment

Amy Schumer’s “Formation” Parody Highlights A Much Bigger Problem in Entertainment

Posted by | Oct 25, 2016 |

Filming on Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn’s action comedy Mother/Daughter wrapped in August, and to generate press for the film, Schumer and Hawn released a video last week where they lip-synced to their own interpretation of Beyoncé’s black female empowerment anthem, “Formation.” Actress Wanda Sykes also makes an appearance in the parody, which features Schumer and Hawn dancing in the tropics of Hawaii, where much of their film was shot. Of course, anyone who’s ever heard “Formation” knows that having two white, affluent actresses twerk to lyrics such as “I like my negro nose and Jackson 5 nostrils” would elicit some...

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Why I Think Ghostbusters Is 2016’s Most Important Film

Why I Think Ghostbusters Is 2016’s Most Important Film

Posted by | Jul 26, 2016 | |

Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters finally hit theaters, and the reaction has been, well, mixed… to say the least. A wave of criticism of the all female reboot has clouded discussion in the months leading up to the film’s release, allowing a slew of sexist insults targeted at the cast and creators, the most racist and vile of which temporarily chased Leslie Jones off Twitter last week after the movie’s debut. Although Ghostbusters has been faced with an uphill battle for inane reasons, we can’t afford to allow the hate to have a louder voice than the love for the release of a film...

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Why The Last of Us Movie Needs to Happen

Why The Last of Us Movie Needs to Happen

Posted by | Jul 14, 2016 | |

Video game movies are almost universally poorly-received. The critics don’t like them, they don’t resonate with general audiences, and they frequently have too little confidence in the source material to satisfy the fans. This was a similar place the superhero movie was in at the turn of the century. While films like Warcraft have their defenders, a lot of studios and moviegoers aren’t sold on the concept of a video game movie in the same way they are with superheroes -a genre that only grew to its current status after its success was proven in a number of different ways. Superman and...

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Warcraft Wasn’t Made For You: Alienated Viewers and Disengaged Critics

Warcraft Wasn’t Made For You: Alienated Viewers and Disengaged Critics

Posted by | Jun 15, 2016 |

In terms of film-going, alienation can be a pleasurable experience. Admittedly, when it comes to genre properties I am rarely out of my depth. Like many filmgoers, I live and breathe nerd culture and thus feel comfortably immersed within the adaptations of these properties. Last week I attended a pre-screening of Duncan Jones’s Warcraft, and twenty minutes in I came to an awesome realization: I am fucking out of my depth. Sure I knew the fantasy genre, but Warcraft, with its hundreds of names, cities, creatures, and backstories, was a mystery to me. In those first 20 minutes, I...

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What If the Ghostbusters Reboot Is Bad?

What If the Ghostbusters Reboot Is Bad?

Posted by | Jun 7, 2016 | |

As we approach the theatrical release of writer/director Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot later this July, many fans of the seminal paranormal-comedy of 1984 (and its immediate sequel from 1989) are still scratching their heads as to how to feel about the new film. Feig’s new movie will appropriate the name of the original film co-created by original Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis, while transporting the original movie’s central roles onto the shoulders of four new leads. With Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones filling out the newly established and eponymous team of paranormal...

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