Noah Berlatsky, Author at The Escapist

The New Mythology

Money Kept the MCU from Giving the Hulk the Story He Deserves

“Dr. Banner. Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.” “That’s my secret, Captain. I’m always angry.” That dialogue ...

By Noah BerlatskySeptember 14, 2019

Rutger Hauer Roy Batty Blade Runner Android

Movies & TV

Rutger Hauer Brought Glorious Life to Blade Runner’s Android Villain

“If only you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes,” the murderous android replicant Roy Batty declares in the 1982 film Blade ...

By Noah BerlatskyJuly 27, 2019

Dark Phoenix Proves the Weakness of Charles Xavier Respectability Politics

Art Must Be Ruined

Dark Phoenix Proves the Weakness of Charles Xavier’s Respectability Politics

The X-Men have often been seen as an analogy for racist injustice. In the X-Men universe, mutants are hated and feared, just as ...

By Noah BerlatskyJuly 2, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

The Dead Don’t Die Murders Zombie Movies, So They Can Rise Again

Over the last 20 years, a viral plague of zombie fiction has spread across the land. From just a handful of zombie films ...

By Noah BerlatskyJune 25, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

The Fantasy Rom-Com Yesterday Retcons John Lennon

In Danny Boyle’s fantasy romcom Yesterday, failed singer/songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wakes up one day to discover that he is the only ...

By Noah BerlatskyJune 18, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Black Mirror’s ‘Striking Vipers’ Exploits Fears of Tech and Queerness

“Striking Vipers,” the first episode of Black Mirror season 5, is exploitation trash. That’s not entirely an insult. It’s a genre designation. Exploitation ...

By Noah BerlatskyJune 12, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Chewbacca Is the Soul of Star Wars

When I was seven years old, I wanted to be Chewbacca. Friends and I would pretend to be different Star Wars characters, and ...

By Noah BerlatskyJune 4, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Rorschach Is Watchmen’s Unlikely Moral Center

The trailer for HBO’s upcoming Watchmen TV series shows a bunch of vigilante’s with Rorschach-inspired masks chanting ominously. The teaser doesn’t provide much ...

By Noah BerlatskyMay 28, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

William Shatner Will Save Us All

“I became as a pure crystal submerged in a translucent sea, and I knew I had been awakened; I had TOUCHED the FACE ...

By Noah BerlatskyMay 21, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Teens Are Only as Monstrous as Adults in The Society

Adults often talk about young people as if they’re a different, distasteful species. College students are overly sheltered, afraid of new ideas, and ...

By Noah BerlatskyMay 14, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Avengers: Endgame Proves the MCU Matters More than Its Characters

This article contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. Last Monday I was at the movie theater to see a preview screening. The parking lot ...

By Noah BerlatskyMay 7, 2019

Art Must Be Ruined

Barry Shows Sitcom Man and Action Hero Man Are One and the Same

In action narratives, men are heroic, super-competent badasses who save their families and the world. In sitcoms, men are emotionally hamstrung Homer Simpson-esque ...

By Noah BerlatskyApril 30, 2019

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