March 2, 2023
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Multiverses, Spider-Man & The MCU – Part Four

This is a multi-part series that is a slightly modified version of my MSc Dissertation.

Here is Part One, Part Two & Part Three.

That sounds like a bad comic book plot! - )

‘I Really, Really Hate Clones’ S05 E12 – Spider-Man (1994)

With Spider-Man: No Way Home being the first explicit example within the MCU to incorporate the Multiverse in action, we have to look at what the multiverse is in the context of the Spider-Man IP, specifically an on-screen (brief) history. We will also use a cinematic example outside the MCU to help define the multiverse; and then proceed to explore how the multiverse in this context is an example of transmedia and convergence.

The above quote is taken from the penultimate episode of the animated Spider-Man show that ran on FOX Kids from 1994 to 1998. Running for 5 seasons and 65 episodes, the show dealt with many aspects of the Spider-Man IP, had ‘crossovers’ with the other animated Marvel shows of the era such as Iron Man, Fantastic Four and X-Men, and helped introduce audiences to many other Marvel characters like Doctor Strange, Captain America and The Punisher.

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February 23, 2023
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Multiverses, Spider-Man & The MCU – Part Three

This is a multi-part series that is a slightly modified version of my MSc Dissertation.

Here is Part One & Part Two.

When you watched spider-verse for the 10th time : r/spiderversedailymemes

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018, Rodney Rothman & Peter Ramsey)

In this part there is a breakdown of the success of the Spider-Man IP in the cinema, the purpose of which is to give necessary financial and business context behind the decisions that I will focus on in later parts. Here I give a brief history of the IP, with emphasis on the transition from the solo Sony produced Sam Raimi and Mark Webb directed movies, to the co-produced Disney/Marvel and Sony Jon Watts directed features.

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February 18, 2023
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The Ethical and Moral Universe of IRREVERSIBLE

Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002) is a film which is polarising, difficult, and in my opinion utterly brilliant. One of the many aspects of the film is is shifting moral and ethical viewpoints. So how do I start identifying and describing the universe in which Irreversible resides? To do this first I will need to address the reverse chronological narrative of the film, and then cause and effect in determinism and how this effects the viewers experience. The events in the film then need to be examined in terms of moral responsibility, relating this to hard determinism. The film will then be examined as a ‘whole’ as to what ethical values it has. Then finally the aesthetics of how director Gaspar Noé presents the film, and how this effects the ethical position Irreversible takes. There will be reference to Mary Litch and her work on determinism, Robert Sinnerbrink and his discussion on cinematic ethics, and finally aesthetics and morality posited by Elisabeth Schellekens. Each section will attempt to understand the ethical and moral world of Irreversible, and the acts of the characters therein.

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February 16, 2023
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Multiverses, Spider-Man & The MCU – Part Two

This is a multi-part series that is a slightly modified version of my MSc Dissertation.

Here is Part One.

fast and furious | GIF | PrimoGIF

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006, Justin Lin)

At the end of Iron Man (2008, Jon Favreau), Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) stands in front of a press conference and declares to the world that he is Iron Man, the armour-suited superhero that is rumoured to have existed within the world of the film. Favreau then cuts to credits to the sound of Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’. After the credits have finished, a post-credit sequence plays, a novelty for blockbusters in 2008. Here, Tony Stark walks into his Malibu home, speaks to Jarvis (Paul Bettany) who replies then fades out as if hacked. Out steps Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who repeats the last line of the movie almost mockingly, then says “You think you’re the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe.” Then we cut to black.

The post-credits scene at the end of Iron Man setup a bigger universe. This is one where superheroes interact within each-others stories, where crossovers are commonplace, intertextual references are rewarded, and every story is serialised. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the context of how Marvel created their interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe (hereon referred to as MCU), and how this has been made a success. This is important for the grander discussion on the purpose of multiverses, as this is what I argue to be the starting point of modern superhero movies. This is the foundation that the ‘multiverse’ is being built upon.

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February 12, 2023
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THE TERRORDOME: SPLATTER (2009, Joe Dante)

I have been on a bit of a Joe Dante kick recently.

The director of GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (aka: The Greatest Live-Action Looney Tunes Movie Ever), is someone who I have desperately wanted to make something akin to Scorsese’s THE WOLF OF WALL STREET or Spielberg’s WEST SIDE STORY. A movie which basically shows every current modern filmmaker how it is done.

Because that is who Joe Dante is for me. A filmmaker whose reverence for the classics, the B-Movies, the shlock, has led to some of the most unique Hollywood films since the JAWS ripoff PIRAHNA came out in 1978.

So, when I read that the Roger Corman-produced, SPLATTER was available on Netflix. I had to drop what I was doing and spend 30 minutes with Corey Feldman, Tony Todd and Joe Dante.

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February 10, 2023
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Thirty Years Apart: Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON (1950) & KAGEMUSHA (1980)

[This article is an edited version of an assignment originally written for my MSc.]

Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) and Kagemusha (1980) are separated by thirty years, yet maintain similar themes and stylistic directorial traits. Rashomon is a film framed by a narrative that examines the truth given in a triptych of stories which detail the murder of a Samurai. Kagemusha is about a Feudal Japanese Lord who dies, and leaves his identical impersonator in his place.

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February 9, 2023
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Multiverses, Spider-Man & The MCU – Part One

This is a multi-part series that is a slightly modified version of my MSc Dissertation.

As Doc Ock – or Doctor Otto Octavius – (Alfred Molina) goes to impale Spider-Man (Tom Holland) underneath the freeway in the first action set-piece of Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021, Jon Watts) the nanosuit covering masking his identity shifts to protect his chest. Doc Ock looks at Spider-Man confused and states, “You’re not Peter Parker”. Before this moment in the film, the casting of Alfred Molina to play the character of Doc Ock suggested to those interested in the film, that Marvel and Sony were merely accepting that no one could play the character again in live action better than Molina. This was the same thinking when J.K. Simmons reprised his role as a different J. Jonah Jameson at the ending of Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019, Jon Watts). However, the moment he questions the identity of Peter Parker meant that the previous live-action versions of Peter Parker/Spider-Man were now a possibility in the MCU.

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September 2, 2022
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Does It Ever Rain In A Michael Bay Movie? – AMBULANCE (2022)

This series focuses on the one and only Michael Bay. Attempting to deconstruct his filmography, one film at a time. Usually I would say that the ideas explored here may or may not end up in my Dissertation about Michael Bay and Post-Cinema (if I inevitably decide to do my MSc Dissertation on this topic).

However, I am done with my MSc.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t talk about these movies. And to answer the question: Does it ever rain in a Michael Bay movie?

First off… an apology. This movie has been out for months. I saw it in the cinema. It was my first experience watching a Michael Bay movie on the big screen, yet I was not able to even write 2 words on the film (let alone however many this will end up being) as I was too busy wrapped up in my MSc. Which, as you may have read, is now over.

AMBULANCE is a high-concept low-budget action thriller (seriously, this thing cost $40m). It is basically one of those movies that came out post-DIE HARD. You know, DIE HARD on a [insert producers idea here]. This however, is SPEED in an ambulance. With a huge dose of prime-Bayhem in the mixing pot.

Starring Eiza González, Yaya Abdul-Mateen II and Jake Gyllenhaal… my main thought is: what does a Michael Bay movie in 2022 look like?

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