Marvelous! or The Death of Cinema
A critical and comedic look at the bleak landscape of the modern IP-driven Hollywood franchise blockbuster. Hosted by Tyrell "Discourse Stu" James, Nicole Veneto, and Cole Netscape. Audio production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Kly, Zoey Woolley and Johanna Hermeer. Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/7vRmbRJDgs Support us on Patreon for biweekly bonus episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/marvelousdeath
Episodes
A sample from our discussion of Gore Verbinski's The Ring, the American remake of the 1998 Japanese film 'Ring', the first of a wave of such remakes and the only one that's any good. Click here to support us on Patreon and listen to the full episode!
Atomic Horror month concludes on Marvelous! with the most recent and so-far most lucrative Godzilla movie of all time: Godzilla Minus One. Champion fourth mic Seqarts joins us to discuss the reasons for the films massive success, its flaws and virtues, where it fits into the wider canon, discuss its political themes and to explore the the prismatic ways in which it reflects the various concerns, anxieties and narratives of Japanese...
A sample from our newly released Patreon episode on Ishiro Honda's original 1954 film "Godzilla". Listen to the full episode and more by supporting us on Patreon!
For our movie and MCU news catch-up bonus episode, Cole reads out the leaked Avengers: Doomsday plot synopsis to Nicole and Stu. Nicole reacts very, very badly.
This week on Marvelous!, the second and inarguably superior half of the monocultural fugue state that was Barbenheimer summer: a three hour biopic-cum-courtroom drama that's partly in black and white about the world's most consequential product launch. And it had (almost) as much pull as girl toy IP. In the long awaited return of Christopher Nolan to the podcast, Nicole, Stu, and Cole dissect the figurative box office bomb that is ...
Fun fact: not only was the 1987 He-Man movie Masters of the Universe largely responsible for bankrupting the already flailing Israeli cultural institution that was Cannon Films, but it was also directed by an (alleged) serial gay pedophile.
Support us on Patreon if you'd like to hear the rest of
"It’s about a fucking doll!" - Amy Taubin
This week, the Marvelous! crew sets their sights on the hot pink pop cultural phenomenon that is Barbie, a billion-plus dollar (post-)feminist object/Mattel rebrand strategy grappling with the fraught, symbolic legacy of the world's most famous doll by giving her a kitschy existentialist crisis. We talk about how the film's priorities as an officially licensed commercial product limit...
The flailing DCEU runs at light-speed into a brick wall with this misbegotten penultimate pre-reboot entry. Ugly and unfunny, even the film's sole interesting element - Ezra Miller's weird and hysterical performance - is ultimately abandoned for Batman nostalgia and a failed, flat attempt to launch an (immediately recast) Supergirl. It's a bad, bad movie, but at least we had a lot of fun talking about it. Plus: Cole's pot-history o...
A sample from our latest patrons-exclusive TVChat, wherein Cole and our long time friend and recurring guest Seqarts continue their retrospective on the 2000s superhero-monster-of-the-week-teen-melodrama Smallville. Support us on Patreon if you'd like to hear the rest and other exclusive episodes!
... according to Letterboxd, anyway, but your pals at Marvelous! aren't quite so sanguine. From Phil Lord's tyrannical rule of production to the tedium of infinite Spiders-Men and the so-facile-it-might-be-accidental queer representation — we dig into all the things that keep this (sometimes good) film from achieving the greatness its reputation implies. For this episode we relied especially on the following articles:
...After concluding our long patreon-exclusive retrospective on the series, we arrive at last back in 2023 with Fast X, the bloated, messy, chaotic beginning of the end for the 'Fast Family'. Along the way we discuss Justin Lin's sudden exit, too much bluescreen, Vatican pinball, Jason Momoa as an evil gay guy, sticking Michelle Rodriguez in a concrete room for most of the movie, alternate storylines, Vin Diesel's social media carniva...
Cole's back and they've learned the secret of the orient: not being that mad anymore.
An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
Fellow Canucks Remember Shuffle join Stu and a hopelessly outnumbered Nicole for a lively and in-depth discussion about Blackberry, and the seething neurotic resentment that comes from living in the Great White North. Subscribe to the Patreon to hear the full episode and more! And while your at it, please support the Shuffle Bois.
Cole was too busy watching actual basketball, so Nicole and Stu are left to fend for themselves in alien territory as we enter the worlds of shoes and sports with the Affleck/Damon brand-biopic. Is it a fleeting microgenre, or are products the new comic books? We discuss what makes the film hollow and irritating, the limits of slipping 'subversive' messages into hyper-corporate movies, the odd way it handles Michael Jordan as a fig...
Before we (Nicole and Cole) fulfill their contractually obligated second Patreon Raffle pick on Trần Anh Hùng's under-appreciated neo-noir I Come With the Rain, we pay our respect to Stu, who at the time caught the hantavirus from that cruise. Remember when that happened?
Support us on Patreon to hear the full episode and much more!
An excerpt from our conversation with Jane Altoids about Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin, adapted from the novel by Scott Heims. Support us on Patreon to hear the full episode and much more!
Boston Hassle film critic, animation enthusiast, and co-host of Hawke Cast Kyle Amato joins Stu, Nicole, and Cole to dissect the second highest grossing toy commercial of 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It's your stock standard low-effort kiddie fodder reskinned for Nintendo IP and jam packed with as many Easter eggs and Top 40 needledops as algorithmically possible. If animation actually wants to be cinema the...
As of 2025, Warner Brothers officially lost the rights to make a live action feature film adaptation of Akira, ending over 20 years of a development hell for something nobody wanted or asked for. But god, did they try. Nicole takes Stu on a deep dive through each and every painfully misguided iteration of what thankfully will never be.
Support us on Patreon to hear the full episode, biweekly bonuses, extra bonus content, and m...
On the eve of having to review The Super Mario Brothers Movie, the gang decides to find reprieve in what is possibly the greatest technical and craft achievement in the history of animation: Akira. Support us on Patreon to hear the full episode and much more!
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