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Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jul 24

Since the big Marvel Studios announcements yesterday, I’ve been thinking about a very niche and very nerdy thing that bothers me about the MCU compared to the comics from which it is drawing.

Head’s up, it is very nerdy and very niche, but it still bugs me just a little bit.

So, obviously the movies theoretically draw from across the length and breadth of the source comics.

However, in reality, they are largely driven by the mainstream continuity since around 2005.

That’s where you get events like “Civil War”, “Secret Invasion”, “Dark Reign”, etc.

And you see a lot of character beats drawn from that era as well.

Spider-Man as Stark’s apprentice. Bucky as the Winter Soldier. Sam Wilson as Captain America. Jane Foster as Thor.

These are all post-2005 developments.

Read 16 tweets

Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jul 22

I feel like nobody has really commented on the fact that Warner Bros. marked the streaming release of a fairly major film with an overt hit piece on that film that was very clearly sourced within the studio.

And not the sort of “gossip” pieces you saw with “Fant4stic”, etc.

That’s not conspiracy theory stuff, to be clear. It’s why that story was timed to drop when it did - to coincide with the film’s availability for digital purchase.

It’s a remarkable piece of messaging *from* (not *about*, but *from*) a major studio about one of their own films.

That piece of studio messaging neatly coincides with the upcoming San Diego Comic Con this weekend as well.

It’s fascinating how the story here is just repeating the studio’s talking points, not the studio’s efforts to construct a narrative of failure around its own film.

Read 12 tweets

Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jul 22

https://twitter.com/_ChristopherM/status/1550363400802377728

I empathize with this, truly.

But given that “Prey” is easily the best franchise film Disney have produced this year, unless you consider “Pixar” to be a franchise, and given that so few theatrical franchise films allow just basic storytelling, it’s maybe not the worst thing.

https://twitter.com/_ChristopherM/status/1550363400802377728

Like, a theatrical “Predator” movie probably has to look like “The Predator”, in that it has to serve larger long-term franchising goals more than just being a film.

Similarly, “Alien: Covenant” is what a theatrical “Alien” film has to look like, serving those same demands.

(Incidentally, the most interesting thing about “Covenant” is the way that it feels like Ridley Scott basically grousing that his “Prometheus” sequel has been reshaped into a more “brand-friendly” prequel to “Alien” that he has no interest in making.

escapistmagazine.com/alien-covenant…)

Read 5 tweets

Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jul 21

#NowWatching “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

“The Wrath of Khan” is one of those great movies that has somewhat been flattened in the memory of it. It’s brilliant, and epic, and propulsive.

But it is also elegiac and mournful, the story of old men who lead the young to slaughter while chasing phantoms of glories long past.

It’s no small irony that “The Wrath of Khan” became a past glory that the “Star Trek” franchise would spend decades pursuing.

Like Kirk chases the memory of command, and like Khan chases his vendetta against Kirk.

“The Wrath of Khan” understands the futility of this.

Read 22 tweets

Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jul 20

https://twitter.com/saintwalker98/status/1549604658234138624

I actually quite like that there are certain recurring settings/characters in #DoctorWho largely tied to a particular version of the show.

"Peladon" (and arguably the "... Space" stories) for the Third Doctor, Sil for the Sixth Doctor, "the Other" for the Seventh and so on.

https://twitter.com/saintwalker98/status/1549604658234138624

In the Moffat era, you have characters like the Paternoster Gang and Rivier Song largely tied to the Eleventh Doctor.

In the Chibnall era, you obviously have the whole "Timeless Child" mythology. All of which, within the show, remains largely tied to a particular era.

I like that, unlike so many major franchises, you can kinda just bite off chunks of "Doctor Who" and treat them as self-contained shows.

So, you don't need to watch (or wiki) forty-odd years of continuity to watch the Davies era, or you can jump on fresh with Moffat or Chibnall.

Read 4 tweets

Darren Mooney

@Darren_Mooney

Jun 17

We have reached the point in the "Top Gun" discourse where the "Top Gun" discourse consists of debates over whether there should be "Top Gun" discourse.

To be fair, "Maverick" gets away with what it does by (a.) being less jingoistic than "Top Gun" and (b.) being more open in its jingoism than most of its competitors.

You go into "Maverick" knowing you're getting a recruitment film. That's not true of "Captain Marvel", say.

I will say the biggest barrier for "Maverick" for me, that wasn't there with the "Mission: Impossible" films, is that it does really try to sell me on Tom Cruise is "a nice guy."

I don't necessarily buy that. I do buy that he is "the living manifestation of destiny", though.