‘How to Train Your Dragon’ burns dimly as a near carbon-copy of the original
By Eva Tweeten
“Was it worth it?”
This question was on many people’s minds when the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon” movie came roaring into theaters. While live-action remakes of popular animated films have been popular since the release of Disney’s “Cinderella” in 2015, the reviews of these movies have steadily plummeted since then. The commercial failure and poor reception of the 2025 release “Snow White” is proof of this. But just as studios seemed to be ...
Summer Heroes: ‘Thunderbolts*’ and ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’
By Danielle Cherry and Katlynn Rossignol
Marvel Studios is back in action! This summer saw the release of “Thunderbolts*” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Both featured a group of heroes as they worked with their team’s dynamics to save the day.
“Thunderbolts*” welcomes fans back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with beautiful team-ups and gut-wrenching emotion. Cinema hardly describes the depth of emotion found within the “Thunderbolts*” movie (and yes, ...
Summer Blockbusters: ‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ and ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’
By Danielle Cherry
This summer brought blockbuster films back into the theaters, filling audiences with excitement to see their favorite characters and stories back on screen. This year, the two returning blockbusters to grace our screens were: “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning” and “Jurassic World: Rebirth.”
Both movies were a continuation of stories and worlds fans love, hitting every plot point that is required to make these movies what they are. For “Mission: ...
Has Modern Hollywood lost its grit?
By Ben Konuch
There’s a fascinating trend sweeping through modern blockbuster films, and if you look hard enough, you may be able to spot it underneath all the action and spectacle. Hollywood is not necessarily in danger of bad writing, bad acting or even anything to do with visual effects, and it’s certainly not the empty accusation that Hollywood is no longer creative.
No, my issue with modern Hollywood is something that I’ve seen grow over the last decade and came into ...
What is woke?
By Janie Walenda
The day before the new Marvel television show “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” debuted, its lead voice actor Hudson Thames sparked controversy in a conversationwith Collider.
“I mean, my biggest fear was that it was gonna be annoying and woke, and it wasn’t, and I was like ‘Yes this is great, it’s so well written.’”
When viewers tuned in the following day, the controversy quickly turned to confusion. Within the first two episodes ...
Haven Sidell: Managing Costume Creation
By Katlynn Rossignol
“You think of the stereotypical costumer; and she’s like, frizzed and frazzled and running around and always has a measuring tape on her neck,” said Haven Sidell, Cedarville University’s costume shop manager. “The number of times I’ve left the shop and forgotten to take my measuring tape off my neck is so many. It’s definitely a stereotype for a reason.”
It’s hard to describe the vast scale of the costume shop storage hidden on the ...
‘The Last of Us’ season two starts quiet but strong
By Ben Konuch
“You can't heal something unless you're brave enough to say it out loud.”
When “The Last of Us” premiered on HBO in 2022, it quickly became one of the most well-received video game adaptations of all time. Following a harrowing journey across a violent post-apocalyptic America, HBO’s “The Last of Us” focused more on the human drama of loss, grief and love than it did on action. Anchored by stellar lead performances by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the series ...
‘Severance’ season two immerses audiences in a split reality
By Teagan Warren
Many people crave to escape the tedious, stressful or confining nature of work. These people live for life’s adventures and pleasantries. Other individuals find their refuge in work from difficult home situations, enjoying the empowerment of doing good work. If these ideas connect with you, perhaps I could interest you in a procedure called “severance.”
In season one of the hit television series “Severance,” Mark Scout received this procedure to escape his ...
‘A Minecraft Movie’ is certainly a movie about Minecraft
By Sophia Monastra
I have one game on my computer, and it’s Minecraft. There’s something about it–the sleepy villages, the ruins left by unknown people, the horrifying mobs that crawl out at night, the strange and unusual biomes and the general vastness of the open world that keeps on calling me back. I don’t play as much as I should, but Minecraft has been a way for me to connect with my younger sister, whether we’re watching an SMP on YouTube or playing side by side on different ...
The princess saves herself in ‘MAYHEM’s’ story
By Justin Kemp
Mother Monster is back with what fans and critics are calling her best album yet. While not the unleashed, grungy, dark-pop sound fans expected from lead single “Disease” and the album’s promo, Lady Gaga’s “MAYHEM” is an immaculately crafted experience through the inner turmoil of an artist who has spent half her life in the limelight. Its bombastic, gothic exterior quickly reveals a beating heart full of pain and ready to embrace its fractured pieces in all their ...
