ATTACK OF THE CLONES and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
The fundamental problem with the Star Wars prequels is that they’re a good story poorly told. When you lay out the narrative of the prequels on paper, beat for beat, it’s actually pretty compelling. At a time when galactic civilization had stagnated after a millennia of peace, evil quietly emerges, taking advantage of complacency and … Continue reading ATTACK OF THE CLONES and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 6 – THE AVENGERS
This is it. In terms of timeline, this is the lynchpin of the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it’s the reason why everyone got in a tizzy over the version of the timeline as presented by Spider-Man: Homecoming. The crucial question is when does this movie take place? Is it 2009 or 2012? If it’s 2009, … Continue reading The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 6 – THE AVENGERS
THE PHANTOM MENACE and How STAR WARS Fans Broke Fandom
There’s nothing left to say about The Phantom Menace. When I decided to undertake this project, Episode I is the film I most dreaded. Not because it’s the worst one – on the contrary, I actually think it’s the best of the Star Wars prequels by a pretty wide margin – but because The Discourse … Continue reading THE PHANTOM MENACE and How STAR WARS Fans Broke Fandom
David’s Top 10 Movies of 2018
2017 was a historically good year for movies. It’s the kind of year that film fans twenty years from now will look back at and wonder what it must have been like to have Blade Runner 2049, Alien:Covenant, Wonder Woman, The Shape of Water, Get Out, and The Last Jedi all released within the same year. … Continue reading David’s Top 10 Movies of 2018
STAR WARS: CLONE WARS and the Failure of the Expanded Universe
The Walt Disney company acquired Lucasfilm in December of 2012, but the most controversial move didn’t come until more than a year later. On April 25, 2014, every piece of Star Wars media – books, movies, video games, TV shows, comics, you name it – that was not directly overseen by George Lucas was deemed … Continue reading STAR WARS: CLONE WARS and the Failure of the Expanded Universe
The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 5 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
This whole exercise of trying to establish a firm timeline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is more than a little bit silly because precisely when each of these stories takes place doesn’t really matter. The setting is significant inasmuch as figuring out how each movie relates to one another, but the core story of Iron Man doesn’t … Continue reading The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 5 – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER
EWOKS and DROIDS and the End of STAR WARS
In the year of our lord 2019, there are many, many more hours of Star Wars cartoons than there are stories produced in live action. With a total of 207 episodes between The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Resistance, that’s a little over 100 hours of canonical Star Wars stories before we even touch the ten … Continue reading EWOKS and DROIDS and the End of STAR WARS
The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 4 – THOR
This one was surprisingly easy! After the mess that was Iron Man 2, imagine my delight when Thor contained almost no overt references to specific dates. It doesn’t do much good in the way of reinforcing a clear timeline, but it also doesn’t further muck with what we’ve already established. There will be plenty of muck to … Continue reading The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 4 – THOR
The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 3 – IRON MAN 2
I didn’t expect it to be like this. I came into this project with open eyes, knowing that it would get very stupid very quickly. I didn’t realize it would get quite this stupid quite this quickly. To be fair, Iron Man 2 was a mess of a production (and subsequently a mess of a movie), … Continue reading The Unofficial MCU Timeline, Part 3 – IRON MAN 2
