I grappled for some time with whether my review of the latest Avengers offering should be spoiler-free or not. Ultimately I decided that those who really wanted to see the movie probably did so already this weekend, and there are plenty of spoiler-free reviews out in the world if you for some reason are still reading them. There’s a lot to unpack from the film, so I WILL be discussing spoilers today. You have been warned.
Continue reading ““Avengers: Infinity War” Review & Analysis”
Nowadays, the benchmark for a film’s word-of-mouth success seems to lie in its Rotten Tomatoes score. A high rating can propel a film to new heights, while a low one can sink its chances before it even arrives in theaters. How has the “Tomatometer” changed the film industry, for better or for worse?
If you’re a fan of the DC Extended Universe, look away now! It’s Marvel Appreciation Week as Avengers: Infinity War looms large just over the horizon. The MCU has clearly found the formula for success as year after year they are able to crank out high-quality films with mass appeal, earning high ratings and massive box office draws. Meanwhile the DCEU has floundered, struggling to keep pace with a cinematic universe of their own and generating drab, lackluster fare that doesn’t poll well with critics or audiences. Sure, they’ve made a couple…er, one good film, but by-and-large they have been an afterthought to the Marvel darlings. What went so wrong for DC, and what has Marvel gotten right about the superhero genre?
*Author’s Note: This entry was originally published as a standalone script analysis, but has since been rebranded as part of the Five Faves series. Enjoy!*
This weekend brings Avengers: Infinity War to theaters, a much-anticipated superhero extravaganza sure to rake in an embarrassing amount of money. I’ve never really bought into the superhero movies craze, finding most of them bloated and unnecessary, but I can appreciate when the good ones come around (usually once a year or so). This year’s Black Panther and last year’s Logan, for instance, are both excellent standalone films with strong screenplays that could exist separate from their larger universes and still be worthy of merit. In honor of comic book movies’ big weekend, I want to dig deeper into the greatest superhero film ever made, Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece The Dark Knight (2008), and examine why it works so well.
Chappaquiddick chronicles the rise and fall of Ted Kennedy, younger brother of prominent politicians John and Robert Kennedy, after an automobile accident kills a young woman travelling in Ted’s car. Truthfully, I knew nothing about this incident or the ensuing scandal before walking into the theater, which was likely a plus as I was able to become fully engrossed in the story without any of the baggage that comes attached with 50 years of public hindsight. Does the film play it safe like every other political biopic ever made, or does it manage to explore the darkness behind the incident and tell a complex tale about a man torn between his dark past and his lofty ambitions?
It’s been a few weeks now since Spielberg’s latest offering Ready Player One was released. I did not review the movie for my blog, because a) I saw it two weeks after release and figured a delayed review would be pointless, and b) it’s not necessarily a film that warrants a script analysis. It’s a film that butters its bread with visual effects, so it could get away with a more cliched and predictable script.
With that being said, I was intrigued enough by the story to want to read the novel the film was based on, 2011’s Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. While the novel shares the nostalgia-chic themes and general plotline of the film, many things were altered in pursuit of adapting the story for a visual medium. The surprising difference between novel and film was pronounced enough to prompt an examination.
Continue reading “Ready Player One: Anatomy of an Adaptation”
Since this is a screenwriting blog and I am constantly in the process refining my craft, on occasion I’d like to jot down my thoughts about a certain aspect or concept of writing that I’m working on. One of the notes I frequently get back when I ask people for feedback on my work is that my protagonists are too unlikable. Which got me thinking: what makes a morally-questionable protagonist sympathetic to the audience? We’ve seen plenty of detestable characters on-screen in the past: cold-blooded murderers, rapists, greedy opportunists…some real salt-of-the-earth folks. And yet, we often sympathize with their characters and even come to agree with (or at least accept) their actions. What factors and techniques lead to creating this bond between audience and psychopath?
Continue reading “Some Thoughts on the Unlikable Protagonist”
We need to talk about the Cloverfield franchise.
For this review I’m doing things a little bit differently. John Krasinski’s new horror flick A Quiet Place has been garnering rave reviews, and I planned to see it on opening weekend even though I am not a horror fan. I’ll admit it, I’m a scaredy-cat who hates jump scares and uncomfortable on-screen situations. When I do end up watching a horror film I tend to prefer knowing more or less what’s going to happen to defuse the tension a little bit and lessen the blow of the jump scares. Luckily there was a perfect way to do this…read the screenplay ahead of time!
The original spec script for A Quiet Place was sold in early 2017 by writers Bryan Wood and Scott Beck. After the studio got a hold of it, they hired John Krasinski to do a rewrite and then direct the film, which opened this past Friday. I did not read the final shooting script ahead of time, but I did get a chance to read the original spec script (which you can read for yourself HERE!), which has been floating around the Internet for a while. I don’t usually read screenplays before watching the film myself, but it seemed appropriate this time for a couple reasons. One, as mentioned earlier, I can get the nasty business out of the way up front so I don’t shit my pants in the theater. And two, it would be a perfect opportunity to analyze the changes that the film underwent from original script to final product. As an aspiring screenwriter myself, it was an eye-opening experience to see: a) what sold to the studio, and b) what things were added or done away with.
Continue reading ““A Quiet Place” Review & Analysis: From Script to Screen”
Scriptophile 