• Inside Entertainment,  Media Rants

    A Pop Culture Rant

    As if it isn’t obvious, I’m a pop culture nerd. Or was. I think I’m just about done. I don’t have a lot of confidence in today’s industry to make good adaptations of those characters I love. In fact, most of the time I feel insulted. What’s happened? Why has it changed so drastically? Why are these blockbusters so often style without substance? It wasn’t always this way. Superman’s a good example. The original two Richard Donner movies – Superman (1978) and Superman II (2006: this is the year the official Richard Donner version was released) –  are classics. Donner knew Superman. He loved Superman. He created a vision of…

  • Inside Entertainment,  Media Rants

    Catching Up on the MCU

    I’m finally caught up on the Marvel universe – well, the cinematic universe, at least. Marvel has concluded Phase Three of their cinematic universe, and now prepare to embark on Phase Four. I would yay if yaying was a thing one done. Instead, here are some short reviews.   Captain Marvel Jumping into the story when it’s already well underway doesn’t allow us to develop a bond or grow to empathise with the protagonist, Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). By the time a series of improbable flashbacks begin to catch us up, we just don’t care (well, I didn’t). There’s a twist that doesn’t work because the story is one-dimensional…