pop culture
Modern popular culture topics in the geek sphere.
The Non-Fan's Guide to Godzilla Films
This series is the culmination of everything that went before, taking what made each era of Godzilla films great. I've said similar things before, and it was true, but it's also true here. Produced by Hollywood, what we have here is what could have gone right with the 1998 film, finally done right. Excellent effects, an outstanding cast, recurring characters, and locales that aren't just (yawn) Japan or the Pacific.
4 Reasons Why MCU Fans Get So Defensive When their films are criticized.
One of the most recent phenomena is the reaction toward fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or "MCU") for being defensive toward the criticism it has received from directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. It is common for people to lambast these fans for "being dramatic" or "taking things too personally." However when we look at things from an empathic lens, its easy to understand where this resentment comes from. Here are 4 (possible) reasons why MCU fans become so defensive when their films are criticized.
Humphrey KayePublished 2 years ago in GeeksDoctor Who: Tension, Stakes and Bad Aim
In the most recent episode of Doctor Who, Eve of the Daleks, it would be an understatement to say that the Daleks were not shooting straight, and fans across the internet definitely noticed. However, this was met with pushback with others claiming that this criticism of the episode was just nitpicking. While this may seem to be an aesthetic or surface level criticism it actually has significant impact on the enjoyment of the story for a very fundemental story telling reason - the establishment of stakes and tension.
Oliver JamesPublished 2 years ago in GeeksI’ve Watched Over 200 Movies This Year: Here’s How They’ve Rewired My Brain
It all started when I realized how despite calling myself an avid movie watcher, I haven’t come close to sniffing the glorious number of 1,000 films to my viewing credit. I know more about movies as a concept than as an experience. Most of my knowledge comes from books and the goddamn internet. A similar realization about music last year resulted on an exploration of the many music genres I listened to. The results were a newfound appreciation on the art and its history, and it was with the success of this in mind that I decided to embark on this visual journey of what the auteurs call cinema. The goal is to watch 1,000 films by the end of the year; with 200 already on the board, I can either continue this aggressive focus or mellow down a little for what will amount to a big push come Summer. Can’t say I’ve decided what to do yet, but the clock is always ticking. I figured that in the meantime I can take a moment to reflect on the endeavor.
Ezra I. JamesPublished 2 years ago in GeeksJar Jar Binks Is Responsible for the Creation of Darth Vader
Jar Jar Binks was supposed to be for The Phantom Menace what C-3PO and R2-D2 were for A New Hope: a comedic side character who could deliver exposition to the audience or fill in plot holes.
Marisa BradleyPublished 2 years ago in GeeksHow HBO's Euphoria Refine The Genre of 'Teen Drama'
HBO's new series, Euphoria, has me feeling a lot of things. The show is centered around a group of teenagers who live in an affluent suburb, and I'm guessing you can imagine the crazy adventures they get into. What you might not expect, though, is that the drama is centered around Rue Bennett (played by Zendaya), who is navigating relationships, friendships, love, sex… and death from a drug overdose—all while trying to find her way and survive high school.
Why Harry Potter is my Favorite Harry Potter Character
Let me preface this by saying that I am talking about the books and the books only. As an OG (and pretty hardcore) fan of the books, the movies have never been my favorite. After the first four, watching any of the movies with me is basically a test of my friends’ patience as I systematically and passionately critique every inconsistency and change in detail when compared to the flawless brilliance of the books (in my opinion of course, and keeping any JK Rowling controversies aside). But I digress; my love for the series is a whole other article, maybe even multiple ones. This one is all about the most underrated protagonist, and why he will always remain my favorite character from the books.
Maahi TrivediPublished 2 years ago in Geeks- Top Story - February 2022
Dance with the Devil: The Joker in Cinema
Every few decades, something very unique happens: An audience sits down in a movie theater, the movie screen illuminates and the audience is swept away. The energy of the auditorium changes and everyone realizes they are watching something special. This happened when audiences were introduced to Darth Vader. It happened again two decades later when Clarice Starling walked into that dungeon, down the corridor, and was greeted by Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And it happened in 2008 when this masked figure robbed a bank in Gotham City. The Joker arrived. He’d been in live-action movies before but this time something was different; something we could not articulate. Cinema had changed.
George A. VelezPublished 2 years ago in Geeks Eternals vs GotG 2
So I watched and was disappointed by the Eternals and to be quite honest all I was thinking about through a good portion of that movie was “Guardians of the galaxy did this so much better” because like it or not we’ve already been introduced to the concept of eternals and we’ve already seen a family like dynamic when they all have different motivations and moral compasses. We’ve already seen relationships within a family like a unit develop and play out and we’ve seen it sone so much better then the underdeveloped mess that the eternals gave us.
Alexandrea CallaghanPublished 2 years ago in GeeksHow a Girl Growing up in Mississippi in the 1980’s Became a Nerd
A radioactive spider bit Peter Parker. Melvin Junko fell into a barrel of toxic waste. Gollum found a ring. All great stories start with the origin of the hero, villain, or anti-hero. So how does a girl growing up in Mississippi during the 1980s become a nerd? I will revisit the things I enjoyed in the past to try to answer that question. Spoiler alert: there is no radioactivity involved, though my cousin and I did try to dig a hole in a hill for shelter to protect us from the Cold War.
The Nerd HabitPublished 2 years ago in GeeksOCSC
SPOILER ALERT! There, you’ve been warned with the all caps. For the past twenty years, there has been a dominant trend in American cinema that has gradually moved into Europe and farther east into Asia (although S. Korea and Japan are a beast of their own) that has dominated the screen. The need for blood...and more blood. More killing, more slaughter. More murder and death and calamity and chaos. Yeah, you get the point. I call this trend, the blood sacrifice effect. The saying “if it doesn’t bleed, it doesn’t lead,” comes to mind as we could see in Dan Gilroy’s 2014 L.A. crime drama, Nightcrawler. One almost senses that the filmmakers of today have become as desperate as Jake Gyllenhal’s, Louis Bloom, making a killing by exploiting his fellow man’s agony and death; showcasing an often excruciating exposé of the fatality on screen. Horror has always been a mainstay in cinema, yet the true essence the horror genre carries has rarely been showcased, save for a few films. Now, it is also subjective, as art is, in considering what is horror to someone and what is not. But maybe this is what I’m getting at; that through this dominant trend of the blood sacrifice effect, it has slowly, steadily, but surely sterilized it’s audience to anything that would of been truly horrific to watch on the screen in our grandparent’s era, to what the current and modern audience has grown immune to.
Matthew WardPublished 2 years ago in Geeks#1Fan
If anyone has ever watched this movie Named Misery Which is a 1990 American psychological thriller film directed by Rob Reiner , based on Stephen King 's 1987 novel of the same name, starring James Caan , Kathy Bates , Lauren Bacall , Richard Farnsworth , and Frances Sternhagen about an obsessive fan who holds an author captive and forces him to write a story, I believe everyday we have these type of fans, whether on Instagram, Facebook or twitter. Sometimes on these websites we want a normal person to follow us, some just pretend to be a singer , or even a actor, and tell you that you are there number one fan. I don't know about anyone else but I just want a normal fan.
Chantell hayesPublished 2 years ago in Geeks