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Reposted by Darren Mooney

Alpha Aquilae @thealphaaquilae.bsky.social · 7h

Really loved this video!

There's a lot discussed here that tugs at the main thing that I did like about the current season of Peacemaker.

But also a whole lot more! Watching Gunn's work through those lenses is very interesting.

Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 2d

With #Peacemaker wrapping this week, it's a good time to look at what makes James Gunn such a distinctive superhero filmmaker.

How Gunn puts himself in his work, how "Superman" & "Peacemaker" are about the internet, and what Gunn gets about superheroes as a genre.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DieY...

How Peacemaker (and Superman) Are About the Internet | The Backdrop

YouTube video by Second Wind

www.youtube.com

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 7h

He caught *all* the Pokémen.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 8h

Really enjoyed #Roofman.

Helped by charismatic lead performances from Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, “Roofman” strikes an impressive tonal balance between absurdist comedy and earnest character drama.

A sweet and sincere look at the art of trying to survive in the gaps in the system.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 11h

#NowWatching #Roofman

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Reposted by Darren Mooney

Chris 🎃 DevPods.gg gamedev community @chrisdeleon.bsky.social · 1d

Portland protestor frog costume: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge pepper balls?

Morpheus from Matrix movie: No, Frog. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

There is no similar throughline to “Ares.”

Five minutes in: “oh, a woman named Eve has made a fruit tree as a symbol of new knowledge, very curious how this plays out.”

One hundred minutes later: *never touched on again*

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

Well, I think the Nuremberg stuff is very clearly intentional, down to how the scene is shot.

As is Flynn’s use of the word “genocide.” It’s possible to argue whether it’s successful or in good taste, but it’s there.

There is stuff that *can* be read into it. Quite coherently, I think.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

The thing about CLU is that he *is* Flynn. He’s not a child, he’s a copy. He carries all of Flynn’s flaws, just as the virtual world copies all the flaws the real world it was intended to supersede.

Because it’s not actual growth or progress or perpetuation. It’s just… more.

Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t think it’s a “Frankenstein” narrative. “Ares” is doing “Frankenstein” badly.

It’s doing “end of history” manifest destiny, the idea that even this attempt to create a “perfect system” for continued expansion in a virtual world will just perpetuate atrocity.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I’m remind of Steve Reich’s “Different Trains”, which makes a similar connection between the role of trains in these narratives of “industrialisation.”

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

It’s done via trains, which is a clever idea of itself. “You ever hop a train?”

The train, the symbol of encroaching civilisation in the western, but which transforms into something more unsettling once it becomes clear what it’s carrying and where it’s carrying them to.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

Even something as simple as the film’s transition from western iconography - the “digital frontier”, the post-Civil War setting - to more overtly fascistic imagery - Zuse’s bar as both western saloon and Rick’s from “Casablanca” - to the idea of expansion into the real world is thoughtful.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I think the idea that you create a frontier that has an indigenous population, and that the construction of a recognisably capitalist system requires at best the displacement and at worst the destruction of that population to make room for it.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I would disagree with that. I think “Legacy” has a bunch of stuff happening in it, from digital genocide on the latest frontier to virtual Nuremberg to digital trains filled with people.

It’s quite cold and austere, but it has coherent characters and themes, rather than just existing as “noise.”

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I did not care for #TronAres.

A lot of nothing happening very loud and very quickly, unfolding in a human world that somehow feels more like a digital wasteland than the Grid. A frustrating waste of a pretty great premise.

Pretty good score, though.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

a man with glasses and a suit says what did you do

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

#NowWatching #TronAres

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

I got several jobs writing about film and television.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

Cillian Murphy IN GLASSES!

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

It is. Very much a Kosinski movie. It opens with architecture and engineering blueprints!

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

DISNEY EXECUTIVE: “We cast that new TRON movie, just like you said, boss.”

BOB IGER: “*That’s* not what I meant when I said find me a cult actor!”

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

On my way to #TronAres, and idly thinking about how the entire point of the ending of “TRON: Legacy” was that the older generation needs to let their children have the future, rather than allowing those kids to be haunted by their monstrous computer-generated digital ghosts.

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Reposted by Darren Mooney

Malcolm Rambert (Looking for Work!) @malcmanishere.bsky.social · 1d

Watched this yesterday. Great 34-minute video that analyzes a fav show of mine and shows why you should be watching it yesterday.

Someone I follow said earlier this year that no new mangaka is gonna be “the next Osamu Tezuka” because all these new mangaka are beefing with people on Twitter. 1/2

Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 2d

With #Peacemaker wrapping this week, it's a good time to look at what makes James Gunn such a distinctive superhero filmmaker.

How Gunn puts himself in his work, how "Superman" & "Peacemaker" are about the internet, and what Gunn gets about superheroes as a genre.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DieY...

How Peacemaker (and Superman) Are About the Internet | The Backdrop

YouTube video by Second Wind

www.youtube.com

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

One day, I hope to enjoy something half as much as Michael Sheen enjoys his five minutes of screentime in “TRON: Legacy.”

Where he does David Bowie by way of Charlie Chaplin, while ejaculating lasers to a DJ set from Daft Punk.

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Darren Mooney @darrenmooney.bsky.social · 1d

It is worth noting that on top of the support of the team, it's the support of our Patrons that makes these sorts of deep-dives possible.

So thank you very much to everybody who does support us, we really appreciate you guys.

www.patreon.com/c/SecondWind...

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