So I’ve actually just come home from rewatching Across the Spider-Verse – partly because damn, I really really like it, and actually also partly because I’ve had a follow-up blog post in mind for some time concerning Gwen and her character’s arc and development throughout the film…and I am impatient and didn’t want to wait for the film’s wide release. That post will hopefully follow in the next few days, but there was one little detail that struck me on this viewing that’s also completely irrelevant, and that struck me as being interesting enough to warrant a short post (especially…
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Anyone who has ever tried to write has likely encountered “blank page syndrome”. The fear, the paralysing uncertainty that accompanies setting that single and dreadful initial word on a page. The first word is always the most time consuming, whether it’s a work email, a poem, a novel, or yes, even that noblest form of the written word – a blog post. There is a wealth of advice online and in self-help books concerning this phenomenon, and how to best it, ranging from the maddeningly simple – “Just write something, and the rest will follow” – to the still simple,…
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This isn’t really a blog for reviews – and I’m not about to break form here by even trying to review Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Apart from anything else, it’s been just over a week since I saw it and I’m still trying to digest it all. So, if you want my review, here it is: go and watch the damn film. Or better, watch Into the Spider-Verse first, and then go out and immediately watch Across. I really enjoyed Into, and Across outdoes it in nearly every aspect. The animation is stunning. The soundtrack is perfect. The script is…
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There are few more infamous passages in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy than when Faramir, Captain of Gondor, elects to take Frodo, Sam and Gollum into his custody, and to bring them and the Ring to Minas Tirith. For movie fans, it is a slightly baffling diversion – Faramir’s change of heart and release of the hobbits comes swiftly, and the episode results in few consequences to him or to Frodo and Sam. To lovers of the book, though, it is an outrageous change, a sign of everything wrong with the films, a complete bastardisation of one of…
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Of Aulë and Yavanna: Tolkien’s Odd Couple ‘Nonetheless they will have need of wood.’ With that brilliantly offhand one-liner, Aulë and Yavanna cemented their status in the minds of many Tolkien lovers as being Eä’s first and best odd couple. He, a rash craftsman, master of forge and hammer, lover of stone and gem and that which is imperishable and unchanging. She, a lover of beasts and plants, the bringer of growth and giver of sustenance, who cherishes all that sprouts and blooms and flowers, all that lives. Given Tolkien’s interest in the themes of nature and industry, it might…
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