7 years ago
Iron Man 7
Mousterpiece Cinema, Marvel Bonus Episode One: The “Iron Man” Films
Happy Labor Day, everyone! While you take a load off on this holiday, Josh and Gabe have been hard at work on a new bonus episode of Mousterpiece Cinema. As they pause their exploration of the Lucasfilm canon, Josh and Gabe turn their eye to some of the early ...
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“Jaws” At 40
Few directors have a filmography with as many highlights as Steven Spielberg, and few of his films transfer so cleanly from one decade to the next as his 1975 film Jaws. Spielberg’s first major feature at the helm, which is turning the corner on 40 years since...
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The Marvel-Industrial Complex
"Pity the land without heroes!"
"No, pity the land that needs them." —Bertolt Brecht, Galileo
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As inconceivable as it seems, 2008's Iron Man was, at the time, a mortgage-the-farm gamble for Marvel Comics, who was tired of watching film studios like Fox (Th...
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“Avengers: Age of Ultron”
The Avengers was a full-blooded event -- its sketchy opening aside, the film truly felt like the culmination of five years’ worth of buildup throughout the then-new Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Age of Ultron is the team’s obligatory triennial meetup. I...
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Isolationism and Cinema
What does Obama’s commencement speech at West Point have in common with X-Men: Days of Future Past? More than you think. Despite his protestations, Obama’s speech has been cast by his critics as a push for isolationism. “[A]ccording to self-described realists,...
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After The Credits: How Marvel is Blurring the Line Between Film and Comics
Marvel's approach to franchise-building has irrevocably changed the way blockbuster movies are made.
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Tony Stark Is a Villain: How the ‘Iron Man’ Films Subvert Traditional Views of the War on Terror
It should go without saying that 9/11 didn’t just change the world, it changed the movies. Over the past decade, no other event has seeped into our cinema more thoroughly, from political thrillers that focus directly on the War on Terror to blockbuster escapis...
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