Popularity Contest: Should The Oscars Honour Blockbusters?

The Oscars used to shower popular films with the praise they deserved. But this has petered out in recent times, and I think it's high time we bring it back.

Prequels and Hollywood's Lack of Imagination

With Solo hitting cinemas later this week, I take a look at the deluge of prequels that we've seen in recent years.

Are Video Game Movies Doomed To Fail? (VOR)

With Warcraft charging into cinemas this week, we decided to look back at the history of video game movies and assess why Hollywood has such a hard time translating them onto the big screen.

11 Perfect Cinematic Moments

It's been a while since I've participated in any blogathons, but when Fisti put forward this one - well, it was a no-brainer. 

Titled 'A Fistful of Moments', the premise is simple - to compile together and showcase a collection of our personal favourite cinematic moments in film and cinema. You know, the kind of scenes that capture our collective imagination and are showered in love and adulation for encapsulating the very essence of cinema. Not an easy ask, but here's what I put together...

Rank the Films: Tolkien's Middle Earth

As any regular reader of this blog will know, lists are pretty darn nifty. I have a profound appreciation for straight-up lists. This is the thinking behind Rank the Films, a regular feature that pulls apart the pros and cons of a series of films, ranking them in order from bad to good.

Across six movies, Peter Jackson has redefined fantasy story-telling through the Middle Earth saga, and this month I'm ranking them from worst to best - starting with 2001's Fellowship of the Ring to the recent finale The Battle of the Five Armies, Jackson's Middle Earth saga is one of the most popular and successful franchises in movie history - but which entry tops my list?

So, without further ado, let's dive straight in - where did your favourite Middle-Earth film come? Read on to find out...

Meddling with Middle-Earth (VOR)

The release date for Peter Jackson’s final foray into Middle-Earth is fast approaching with the highly anticipated film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, premiering this December. 

With that in mind, my personal friend (and first-time guest blogger) - Daniel Jauk - decided it was time to look back at previous instalments in The Hobbit trilogy and weigh up what worked, as well as what didn't and why.

Even though Dan's a big fan of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (particularly the extended editions), he does have something of an axe to grind when it comes to The Hobbit trilogy (we're looking at you, character development).

So, without further ado, let's delve once more into the depths of Middle-Earth. Take it away, Daniel!

Feature: Best Movie Trilogies

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy

Watching the epic conclusion to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises (see my review here) got me thinking; could this be the greatest movie trilogy ever? How many other trilogy's can attest to being as consistently brilliant as The Dark Knight Trilogy?