“Helheimr!”: Tolkien’s Battle Cry for the Living
With a reputation built on works full of staggering narrative detail and deep mythological roots, J.R.R. Tolkien could perhaps be better described as a world builder than as an author. His mythological worlds have mythologies of their own, along with…
Stories and Myths: Fatherhood in The Road (2009) and Life is Beautiful (1997)
It’s hard to be a father. Or so I assume, not being one myself. Though, having been a kid, I can only imagine how awful I was to parent. There are dirty diapers, temper tantrums, scraped knees, and that’s not…
Reel World: Rewind #037 – The Matrix
On this episode of Reel World: Rewind… We know Kung-Fu. Well, not really, unless Gene forgot to tell us he actually DOES know it. However, one thing we do know is The Matrix is a defining movie in the prolific movie year…
Game of Thrones S08E05 – The Bells
With one episode remaining in this crazy epic fantasy tale, we’ve finally gotten a lot of answers this week. The question is, are they the right answers? You know, I can imagine that Daenerys is wondering the same thing. Because…
The Complex Identity and Emotions of Pokémon Detective Pikachu
It would be easy to dismiss Pokémon Detective Pikachu as “just” any number of things: “Just” a kids’ movie. “Just” a video game movie. “Just” a funny-animal movie. “Just” a supernatural mystery. “Just” a live-action spinoff of a long-running anime.…
#201 – Avengers: Endgame and Finishing Well
On this episode of the Reel World Theology Podcast: It’s been a long road to Endgame, but we’re finally here. We have a show that tries to run the length of the actual film as we talk about the movie’s…
Game of Thrones S8E4 – The Last of the Starks
The fight against the dead is over, the living have defeated them, and the realm no longer has to fear slipping into eternal darkness. As we learned in this week’s episode, the implications of this significant victory against evil undead…
Beautiful and Necessary: The Empowerment of “That Scene” at the end of Avengers: Endgame
I am now four days out from my first and, so far, only viewing of Avengers: Endgame and I have thought about it every single day. My mind keeps drifting back to it, mulling it over, remembering moments that moved…
Losing the Endgame: How the Avengers Deal with Failure
Last year’s Avengers: Infinity War was quite a unique film. Part cliffhanger, part villain-as-protagonist character piece; the movie had all the makings of standard superhero epic, and assembled the most powerful characters that really matter to most of the moviegoing…
Game of Thrones S8E3 – The Long Night
Now that we’ve emerged from the darkness (both literally and figuratively) of “The Long Night” and the great Battle for Winterfell, lets collect ourselves and look forward. Because one spin around the internet of opinions and you’ll see reactions to…