School of Movies

Spider-Man: No Way Home

[School of Movies 2021]

A lively and enthusiastic end of one trilogy and setup for a different flavour of future web-slinging, this thing drew gasps, cheers and applause, even from my British audience, and we don't cheer for anything except football.

This is a really special and important Spider-Man movie. Beyond all hyperbole and landmark moments in comic-book style crossovers it is a story about the serious toll that being Spidey extracts from everyone under that signature mask.

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

Mackenzie Eastram  @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod

Nathan Eastram @bertnerdtram These two also of Video Game: The Movie: The Podcast  @VGTMPodcast

Austin Wilden @WC_WIT of Wits-Writing 

Nama Chibitty of our Discord @NamaTheNerd 

The Eternals

[School of Movies 2021]

This one came out surprisingly contentious. What was originally, seemingly set to be Marvel powering back into Phase 4 with a new group of superbeings now that The Avengers are on garden leave, actually turned out to be quite a risky endeavour. It's a Space-Odyssey-scaled combination of metaphysical rumination, mature interpersonal relationships, deliberately diverse casting and a hot property award-winning Chinese, female director with a very personal pitch. It's also got epic fights, giant monster greeblies and laser eyes.

And at least in terms of box office and critical praise it seems right now like this gamble hasn't worked. A lot of folks bounced right off Eternals. We ourselves were thrown by many elements, but ultimately warmed to it, and we suspect this one might grow in appreciation over time. Find out possible reasons why, right here. 

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

What If? (Season 1)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

For the first time ever, a direct MCU production really threw me. We've had underachieving films in the past, like the listless Thor: The Dark World, the dramatically unexplorative Ant-Man and The Wasp and starting out with a really serious challenge for our flawed hero before dropping the PTSD ball in the third act with Iron Man 3.

Thanos was troublingly handled in Infinity War and a year of imbecilic agreement in the myopic viewpoints of a sympathetically-cast abuser only made that worse. WandaVision, Falcon and Loki all had their missed marks in otherwise solid packages.

But this one was wildly uneven. It had two episodes I actively despise, a couple I absolutely adore and a bunch of fluff in the middle. And so that we end on a high note we will be scaling the Marvel mountain in that order.

Guests:

Greg Downing of Through the Wind Door @MightyGregDoge

Austin Wilden from our Discord @WC_WIT

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[School of Movies 2021]

One of the first huge blockbuster movies made by a western studio with a largely eastern cast, this one really underlines my abiding contention that "Superhero" is not a genre, and neither, as it turns out is "Martial Arts". Would we say Boogie Nights was a "Sex Movie?". Genre is an increasingly blurry construct to help marketers and those who want to know what to watch. 

Luckily for us all though this particular Martial Arts Superhero movie is fantastic. Once again, we urge everyone to be as safe as possible and not take risks. But even if you aren't able to see this in the cinema, you have something special to look forward to on your TV screen in the near future, and while we discuss what happens we can't really spoil the movie for you. It's too rich and nourishing for that. 

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Loki (Season 1)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

A time-bending, space-bending, reality-bending miniseries about an unrepentant villain who did a colonialism on account of his upbringing in a society that was founded on precisely this principle.

And an introduction to yet another Marvel leading lady who has been kidnapped, gaslit and abused for most of her existence and definitely deserves better. 

Loki has been a frustrating watch for many and a source of relentless joy for others. The slew of fan art that has dotted our Twitter feeds suggest people are getting a great deal of spicy satisfaction from the chemistry. But the slew of hot negative takes, also suggests it once again disappointed fans. 

Our show on what we found out at the end was the first season is quite special for a number of reasons, so listen closely.

Guests:

Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch 

Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Black Widow

[School of Movies 2021]

Two years have passed since we were last in the cinema watching a Marvel movie. It feels like an astonishing amount of time, and a lot of you folks will have watched on Disney+ 

This one has been a long time coming, kicking off Phase 4, despite the core concept of Natasha Romanoff's solo outing being ideally placed in Phase 1, prior to Avengers (perhaps instead of Iron Man 2), or Phase 2 when Avengers proved she was big-screen dynamite (perhaps instead of Thor 2) or Phase 3 where after all the years of lollygagging DC beat Marvel to the leading lady post by almost two years (even though this could have been ideally placed instead of Ant-Man 2: Featuring The Wasp).

As it stands, Black Widow serves many masters, and is about more than simply Natasha herself. It's a fitting send-off and a welcome introduction all at once. 

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

Mackenzie Eastram @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

[School of Everything Else 2021]

Marvel's second TV show directly tying in with the MCU. What are we calling this now? As I write these words cinema is in a chrysalis, having gone to hide in there the moment James Bond looked like he might get another mission. And yet Falcon as a TV show is legitimately "Cinematic" in its presentation. I mean the dictionary definition of the word.  

But then, so is a lot of TV now. And WandaVision was the most Televisual a show could get, by design. And there's something frustrating for everyone who invested in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Defenders shows, or those three who liked the way Inhumans was done. All this TV that purported to be part of this universe but was in fact filmed in a sealed pocket, unable to have any ramifications upon the wider saga. 

Whatever name gets conjured (still waiting on what that Lion King remake can be defined as) Falcon is an incredibly gripping six episode miniseries that retains the feel of the latter Captaon America films. But there's new ingredients now, and highs and lows exhibit themselves as it becomes apparent that some elements of this story of carrying the shield in a troubled world play better than others.

Guests:

Alasdair Stuart of Escape Artists Inc. @AlasdairStuart 

Greg Downing of Through the Wind Door @MightyGregDoge 

Austin Wilden from our Discord @WC_WIT 

WandaVision

[School of Everything Else 2021]

This one gets HEAVY. But what did you expect from a podcast which has examined every one of the MCU movies and found the hurt and pain at the core of the characters, being presented with a show that is absolutely about that principle?

Now all the rampant speculation has passed, we can sweep aside our assumptions regarding what this *might* have been about and focus on the melancholy story of its lonely antagonist.

One of the core themes explored is that everyone's line for forgiveness falls in a different place. We hope that two hours of delving into how it handles grief, bringing along some deeply personal accounts of loss, might lend some perspective on the MTVU's first big show.

Guests:

Victoria Luna B. Grieve: @VixenVVitch 

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300

Taylor Nova of GameBurst @TaylorNova6 

Mike Hearn @MikePHearn 

Spider-Man: Far from Home

[School of Movies 2019]

The seventh live-action Spider-Man movie, but the eleventh big-screen outing for the wall-crawler. Following on from the creative magnificence of Spider-Verse was going to be a tough gig, but this movie seemed to please a lot of people. 

This show is about how planet Earth is bouncing back from cataclysmic disaster, the key reasons Marvel villains differ from its heroes, how Peter Parker is not Iron Man, and how deception is a key enemy of our age.  

Guests:

Theo Leigh of The New Century Multiverse  

Maya Santandrea @mayasantandrea

Brenden Agnew of Cinapse 

Avengers: Endgame

[School of Movies 2019]

How could we possibly sum up this immensely important, densely packed three-hour odyssey that closes out eleven years and 22 movies worth of continuity?

The solution we came up with was a feat of organisation, collaboration and editing elegance that focuses on character arcs resolving and continuing with viewpoints from the biggest assembly of guests we have ever had in a single sitting.  Appropriate, wouldn't you say?

Plus a wildly speculative Patreon bonus show all about the plot mechanics and the future of the MCU. This is one of our very best. 

Guests

Brenden Agnew of Cinapse  @BLCAgnew 

Maya Santandrea of Hollywoo  @mayasantandrea 

Jesse Ferguson of Recorded Tomorrow @TheDapperDM 

Neil Taylor of TheKidDogg @KidDogg 

Jerome McIntosh of GameBurst @JeromeMci

Mackenzie Easton  @KenziePhoenix of Rainbow Connection @MuppetsPod  

From Sequentially Yours  Kaoru Negisa  @Moonpanther22 

and Debbie Morse  @bastet8300 

"The Men by the Lake" written and read by Alasdair Stuart of Escapeartists.net @AlasdairStuart  

And we are @SchoolOfMovies 

Find our Patreon here:  https://www.patreon.com/alexandershaw where you can support our weekly shows and get access to all sorts of bonus goodies including an hour-long bonus episode on Endgame wherein we talk about time travel and where Marvel go from here. 

The New Century Multiverse podcast can be found here: http://newcenturyshow.podbean.com/