The Tale of the Children of Húrin has, rather fairly, earned a reputation as being the grimmest and saddest of all Tolkien’s stories. Indeed, its presence in a mythological world permeated by the eucatastrophe may seem incongruous to first-time readers, used to the inherent hope and joy of Arda (and perhaps not yet cognizant of just how deeply tragic and bittersweet it often proves). The implications of its unyielding tragedy, of Túrin and the potentiality of his free will, and the justifiability of the various choices he makes along his long and destructive road are all themes that have been…
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Ever since I saw Across the Spider-Verse, I’ve been really interested in the journey that Gwen Stacy undergoes in the film. I’ve already talked about the hubris of Miles, Miguel, and even the Spot, and how this is a core thematic element of the story – but Gwen’s very much got her own thing going on. So I figured I’d try and break it down a little here, with the help of one Joseph Campbell and a certain infamous narrative template – but I’m getting ahead of myself. A central plot point of Across the Spider-Verse is the idea of…
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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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It is a strange and (to the best of my knowledge) unobserved tragedy that one of the greatest failures of the Lord of the Rings is on the part of Sam. Did I…
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