Movie Moan - The Plagues Were Good
Sun, December 21, 2014 
Of course we came back!
Join Phil and Jamie, and the regular Movie Moan family of Edward Douglas, Spencer Perry, Matt Thompson, Lou Sytsma, and Randall Maynard as we finish what we started two years ago and complete our own trilogy of reviews for 'The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies: An Alfred Story'.
Trust me folks, once you've seen the film you will be wondering how as seemingly insignificant a character as Stephen Fry's comedy sidekick can become one of the major supporting players in 'the defining chapter of the Middle Earth legend. But it happens.
And while you're wondering that, you may also ponder why the special effects in 'Exodus: Gods & Kings' could be compared to, at best, the crocodile in 'Lake Placid'. Apparently, the plagues are worth watching but not much else is in that film.
We spend a little time talking about the next big budget fantasy film out of the gate; 'Warcraft', and what it's chances are of repeating the same mistakes as the Hobbit trilogy.
We discuss the recent trailers for 'Mad Max: Fury Road', 'Jurassic World', Star Wars: The Force Awakens', 'Inside Out', and 'Terminator: Genysis'. We get a little carried away ranting about that last one.
And then we clean house and confess our sins for reading anything to do with the Sony Hack and helping to do the dirty work of criminals.
But to end the show on a positive note, we do have some exciting news to share with you about our plans for 2015. We hope you will continue to listen and support us.....
....because I SWEAR next year's shows will be a lot better.
Merry Christmas!
Play the podcast via Soundcloud or download the MP3 version right here:
Reader Comments (8)
Okay, I was going to finish commenting till after I'd finished listening (welcome back btw!) but OMG are you kidding me with that horrible description of the Terminator movie? It sounds like some horrible Terminator fanfiction written by a completely no-writing-talent teenybopper who got tired of writing Twilight fiction. I'm sorry Matt, I'm so sorry to be so harsh to your friend who's working on this film but my God man, nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh btw since I'm at it, no one in their right mind should go see the Mockingjay movies. The book was a piece of boring shit. The first half was more boring than watching paint dry and the second half was too frenzied and too rushed with a ridiculous resolution. Avoid avoid avoid!
Welcome Back! Can't wait for the Movie Moan reboot! Always a pleasure listening to you guys!
Welcome back guys, looking forward to it!
Great to have you guys back! I’m so happy about it that I’ll forgive you for being dead-wrong about BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES, which I think is a fine send off to the cinematic Middle-Earth, even despite some massive structural and focus problems (a side effect of splitting the original two-film plan into three). That said, Phil, you’re not the only one whose mind went to DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS with Azog’s near-demise under the ice; knowing Jackson’s horror bonafides, I’d be shocked if that was not an intentional homage.
Great discussion on the entire Sony/INTERVIEW situation, too. Looking forward to Movie Moan 2015 next year! The new format sounds exciting!
Excited for the new 2015 format, and looking forward to it. Quick question: will you continue to upload audio-only versions of the podcast to Soundcloud? Because I'm subscribed to your channel there, and I love it in that format.
@Shelly
I am in a terrible bind as I should have checked with you before I see ANY films, let alone Mockingjay. But I am also now committed to seeing Part 2 for the show. Please don't think less of me.
@A2THEH, PeterZeeke, Brett Blake
Thank you very much. Your support has always meant a lot.
@ Archer
Absolutely; Soundcloud has worked out very well. The full 2 hour shows will be uploaded there as a regular MP3.
My sincere condolences to you then, Phil. But for whatever it's worth, the second half shouldn't be nearly as boring as the first, just more stupid. So less boring, more stupid, that's the trade-off.
I ended up writing chapter and verse on the whole spiderman debacle, I cant remember if you guys went into a ton of detail on it, but I'm really proud of this so I thought I'd hit you with it. Its not really my thing (thats why I listen to you) but if you get through it let me know what you think cheers
My take on Spidey is this (its quite long sorry), Marvel CAN save the whole situation, no doubt 100%, the narrative would work perfectly and if need be Sony CAN keep the franchise. IMO if you intro Spidey to the Marvel universe, (doesnt need to be now, in fact it may work better in the infinity war, more on that later), you effectively reboot the franchise and add momentum, infact you could (if you HAD to) soft reboot it to keep certain elements of the current franchise (I’d advise against that). There are many ways to do it, but they all boil down to a few sure fire moves. Its hard for me to explain so I’ll just give a rundown of what I’d do:
If Marvel are REALLY confident they can start in Civil War by making reference to Spidey, you dont need to show him and acknowledgement that such a guy exists in that universe would be enough, plus realistically its too late to rush him in now, marvel have a commitment that works and allows them to add a long awaited character for phase 4, never mind 3 (Black Panther), it also allows them to use spidey as an ace in the pocket for later.
Later, where it gets interesting…
So phase 3, by the looks of things is heavily influenced by magic and the cosmos, what comes from the cosmos in the spiderman universe? The Symbiote, basically anywhere within that glut of movies is a pefect place to introduce not spidey, but the symbiote, again just adding momentum and anticipation for the inevitable. What happens after that can be straight forward or as twistey as marvel want it to be, due to the options it presents. I’ll go with some obvious one.
Introduce the new spiderman in Infinite War part 1 and Symbiote Spiderman in part 2, he doesnt need a massive part in the movies, but this then acts as a new origin story that sony can run with, where Black suited Spiderman would go on to battle sinister 6 (who would themselves need some kind of introduction medium, I’m not really sold on a spin off movie, nobody cares that much, but a tv show showcasing all the villains is much more realistic) in a stand alone movie that could give us Eddie Brock, which would then lead into a Spidey vs Venom movie! where somehow along the way spidey falls out with and rejects the suit. After which you have now successfully rebooted the Spiderman brand and can start playing around with Venom stand alones, Miles Morales and Carnage.
Also, although they’ve f***** it up, keeping Spiderman at Sony (if they can turn it around) is easily the better option for me, as it mirrors the comics, Spiderman has his own univers and on very special occasions he bumps into the X-men and Avengers, its always worked because Spiderman isnt as powerful or mature as any of those guys.
I dont think Sony can proceed without rebooting Spiderman in reintroducing him around the time of infinity wars gives both Marvel and Sony focus, as the know whats happenning and allows the public to recover from the non-event that was ASM2.
The entire way the ASM situation was handled is annoying and Avi Arad should have the franchise taken off him. It was a poorly thought out cash grab from the word go, with the blatant idea being that ASM1 would replicate the success of the comic Spiderman #1, the only difference being Marvel had Todd Macfarlane, Beast and a very hot Mary Jane (Who should now be played by Molly Quinn in and ideal world or Karen Gillan in a (very) slightly less ideal world).
Anyway thats my two pennith. Nobody cares and they f*** it up again, but if they have a better idea than mine I’d love to see it cos it would be incredible.
Sorry for spamming the board I didnt know where else to take this idea. What do people think?