'The Fall Guy' lands on its feet but breaks its legs

Image: Universal Pictures. Cinema is an illusion. All of it. In fact, stepping back, all art, from drawing and painting to any form of narrative fiction to video games to music to every film ever made, is an illusion. At no time does the audience, whether staring at a painting, reading a text, or sitting in front of a screen, believe that what they are seeing actually is the thing that they…

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'Dune: Part Two' is an outstanding interpretation of a classic

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures. One of the greatest elements of literature is its openness to interpretation. With the writer only specifying details which they consider most important, readers get to imagine everything which is not written. This feature of the art form allows people to read and understand the same text and yet come away with completely different interpretations, experiences, and…

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Pop Mythology’s 10 Best Films of 2023

  “Post-pandemic” is a very interesting term. Not only is it deceiving in that covid is still prevalent and threatening, but it also implies that we as people living during this time have reached a new era. Sadly, this doesn’t entirely seem to be the case as the few positive aspects of limited social interaction and activity; namely reductions in air pollution, fossil fuel consumption, and…

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'The Marvels' won't save the MCU; it won't ruin it either

Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Tell me if you heard this: The MCU has been trash ever since Spider-Man: Far From Home. The Disney+ shows are horrible. There are no good characters anymore. The visual effects are bad. WandaVision was good but no one cared about Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye. She-Hulk twerking was a disgrace. They should bring back to the original Avengers. Or this one:…

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"Killers of the Flower Moon" makes the past impossible to ignore

Image: Apple Original Films / Paramount Pictures. Few people in human history have loved cinema as much as Martin Scorsese does. This is evident not only through his dedication and many contributions to the development of the artform – spawning his very public lament about the state of blockbuster filmmaking in the era of superhero movies – but also through his unparalleled work as a film…

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The Creator: (Almost) everything in its right place

Image: 20th Century Studios When British art-rock band Radiohead first released their album OK Computer in 1997, record label EMI estimated that the lack of commercial and easily enjoyable songs would cause the record to sell poorly. The band’s American distributor, Capitol Records, considered the album “commercial suicide.” Touching on themes including alienation, consumerism, and dependency on…

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REVIEW: 'Oppenheimer' is a strong message told in a flawed way

(Image: Universal Pictures) Author’s note: Oppenheimer opened in South Korea on Aug. 15th. Additionally, this review discusses historical events which could be seen as spoilers for those of the film. This is the end of all spoiler warnings. Beyond the untouched Genbaku Dome, the only building left standing after the bomb, you’d never guess that Hiroshima was once a wasteland. From Shukkei-en…

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'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' is an experience unlike any other

(Image: Sony Pictures Releasing) Let’s do it differently this time. Hi, I’m Jess. For a few years now I have been Pop Mythology’s one and only film reviewer. In fact, I’m the only contributor remaining, the only voice left for anyone who comes to this site. It can be lonely sometimes feeling like I’m writing into the void, but more than that, it means that the every opinion expressed here is…

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'The Flash' is an unearned victory lap

(Image: Warner Bros. Pictures) The idea of the multiverse isn’t new to film, with movies such as Source Code, 2009’s Star Trek, and The One (not to be confused with the YA fiction series which I wrote) all dealing with what was at the time “alternate timelines.” It’s even less new to fiction in general with decades of alternate historical fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, including my YA…

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'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,' a glorious farewell to Gunn and his Guardians

(Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) From the start, Guardians of the Galaxy, more than any other MCU property, has been entirely shaped by the filmmaker. Clearly the last two Thor entries have been influenced by Taika Waititi’s offbeat humor, and Ryan Coogler’s sensibilities are instrumental to Black Panther, but writer/director James Gunn’s control over the Guardians franchise has been…

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'Tetris' doesn't put all its pieces together

Image: Apple TV+. Reviewer’s note: I know this is late. Not easy to get Apple+ where I live. In 1989, Tetris debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System and, later in the same year, was bundled with the Nintendo Gameboy. If you were alive at the time, and had access to a Nintendo gaming system, you probably played one of these two versions. What most people forget is that there was actually a…

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'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' and the curse of franchise art

(Image: Paramount Pictures) Before we begin, a little story about why this review is so late. I typically watch the films I review in the afternoon on Wednesdays, which is when movies open in the country where I live, and write until my overhead light starts flickering or I need to shower and sleep for classes at my day job the next day in order to have the piece ready while interest in that film…

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REVIEW: Bigger isn't better in 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania'

(Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) Since debuting in 2015, Ant-Man and his titular film franchise have occupied an interesting space within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though towered over (so to speak) by tech moguls, super soldiers, aliens, and literal gods, Scott Lang has played a pivotal role in most of the Avengers’ memorable moments; excluding Infinity War but participating in…

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Pop Mythology's 10 Best Films of 2022

Pop Mythology’s 10 Best Films of 2022

Let’s face it, 2022 felt loooooong. In fact, the last three years, ever since the world shut down, have felt more like thirty. Sure, when it comes to large scale issues, like finally returning to normal from the aforementioned shutdown, world leaders addressing or even acknowledging climate change, slowing society’s slide into authoritarianism, or combating other factors ushering in global…

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"Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" is another great time with more horrible people

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is another great time with more horrible people

(Image: Netflix) Upon release in 2019 the greatest asset Rain Johnson’s Knives Out had was surprise. Sure, it had a stellar cast, but at the time no one knew what to expect from a murder mystery written and directed by someone whom many people had (and still do) derided (wrongly) for his entry in the Star Wars franchise. No one knew to expect a tightly written mystery, precise direction,…

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REVIEW: 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' a five buck story with billion dollar effects

REVIEW: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ a five buck story with billion dollar effects

(image: 20th Century Studios) In 2009, spectacle filmmaking reached a new high with James Cameron’s Avatar. The same filmmaker who’d previously dominated the all-time box office with Titanic returned to the science-fiction/action genre he’d previous found success in with both Aliens and Terminator 2 (a film which had a profound effect on me personally). While far from novel at the time, Avatar…

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REVIEW: 'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story' would be funny if it weren't true

REVIEW: ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story’ would be funny if it weren’t true

For those of us who grew up in the 1980’s Weird Al Yankovic was this wacky looking mustachioed man with long, loopy hair wearing an aloha shirt playing an accordion and singing funny song parodies about food. On television, he’d appear in silly music videos that spoofed the often overwrought and over-serious “mini-movies” made to accompany whatever song he’d added bologna or rocky road or Oreos…

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