Tag: Film Trilogy
This tag gathers reviews of trilogies and multi-film series — work judged as a complete arc rather than one picture at a time. It spans franchises across genre and era, with the reviews asking what the films build together that none could alone, and whether the later entries earn their place. The collection grows as more series are reviewed.
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The Emasculation Of The MCU
An essay on the systematic diminishment of established male characters across Phase Four and Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. -
Iron Man 3 (2013) — Review
Shane Black's buddy-comedy direction, Downey's strongest character work, and the Mandarin twist Marvel spent eight years correcting. At 5/10. -
Pretty Woman (1990) — Review
Beautifully crafted, morally indefensible. Roberts and Gere at their peak, the original dark $3,000 script Disney bought to invert, and the documented real-world Pretty Woman myth. Reviewed at 7/10. -
The Andromeda Strain (1971) — Review
Crichton's first major bestseller, Robert Wise's procedural patience, and Kate Reid's underrated Dr. Leavitt. The Andromeda Strain reviewed at 6.5/10. -
The Italian Job (2003) — Review
"Twelve viewings of the best heist film of the 2000s. F. Gary Gray's ensemble, Wally Pfister's eye, and the Hollywood and Highland sequence earned in full. -
Movies Rotten Tomatoes Got Dead Wrong
Twenty films that Rotten Tomatoes scored wrong — from Blade Runner's lukewarm 1982 reception to Soldier's inexplicable 10%. Why critics get films wrong, what the aggregator actually measures, and the political bias that explains why Disney's worst remakes score 90% while audiences rate them 40%. -
Films That Needed Someone to Say No
Twenty films damaged not by studio interference but by its absence — from The Phantom Menace's unchecked Lucas to The Hobbit's nine hours of one children's book. The right No at the right moment is as valuable as any creative freedom. The directors on this list didn't have one. -
Greatest Serial Killer Films and TV Episodes
Twenty films and TV episodes that use the serial killer as a lens for examining the world rather than as spectacle — from Silence of the Lambs to Mindhunter. What separates the serious from the exploitative, and what fiction writers can learn from both. -
Films That Ruined the Book
Twenty adaptations that lost what made the source worth adapting — from I Am Legend's inverted ending to The Hobbit's inflated scale to The Golden Compass's defanged argument. What went wrong in each case, and the one question every adapter must answer before they begin. -
Modern Movie Slop
Twenty-one films that demonstrate every way contemporary Hollywood goes wrong — franchise necromancy, prestige self-indulgence, IP strip-mining, and the Disney live action remake program that has been telling audiences their money is welcome and their taste is not. With craft notes on what fiction writers can learn from each failure.