Moderate Fantasy Violence

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  • Alastair JR Ball

Alastair JR Ball is a London based science fiction and politics writer. When not writing he can usually be found in a pub, art gallery or a lecture

  • Articles

His House uses horror tropes to help us empathies with refugees

  • 1st March 2021
His House

His House is that rare thing: a horror movie that takes a well-worn trope and does something original with it. In this case, it’s the trope of the haunted house, updated for our modern age…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Year In Review

2020: A year in film

  • 31st December 2020
Parasite Bong Joon-ho 2020 film

For the last few years, whilst superhero franchise blockbusters have been the undisputed dominant force in mainstream cinema, I have been saying that a change will eventually happen because nothing lasts forever. What I meant…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

The TV show of Brave New World doesn’t capture our fear of the future like the book did

  • 30th November 2020
Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a seminal science fiction novel. It’s one of the go-to texts of the dystopian sci-fi sub-genre and is often reached for as a metaphor for totalitarian societies that…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

Better Than Us finds originality in the Androids Are People, Too trope

  • 14th October 2020
Better Than US Arisa

On the surface it looks like a person, but underneath it’s a robot. Then via a shocking twist, it is revealed that the robot is actually a person. It may physically be a machine, but…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

The biospherians of Spaceship Earth tried to live in space so we don’t have to

  • 29th August 2020
Spaceship Earth film

A bizarre and largely forgotten piece of history occurred in the Arizona desert in the early 1990s. At the time, it was international news, but the memories of this event haven’t lasted along with Tamagotchis,…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

Dark is a complicated show, but sticking with it pays off

  • 26th July 2020
Dark TV show

Dark is not an easy show to follow. It doesn’t go out of its way to be deliberately confusing, like some shows, but the scope and complexity of its plot makes it a challenge to…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

Does Doctor Who have an optimistic vision of the future?

  • 9th April 2020
The Doctor and companions

Are you feeling worried about the present? It’s rubbish right now, isn’t it? We can’t go outside because a killer virus is on the loose. We’re trapped and powerless to do anything about it. This…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Year In Review

2019: A year in film

  • 31st December 2019

A year ago, I finished my summary of film in 2018 by saying that I had a feeling that the cinematic landscape will change because it has been the same for a while and nothing…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

The film Alien shows that in the future there will be shit jobs

  • 4th December 2019

Alien is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It slowly and suspensefully builds to moments of sheer terror. The first act of the film is an uneventful character study of people working in…

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Alastair JR Ball
  • Articles

Are we tired of clever takes on existing tropes?

  • 23rd October 2019

We all know what tropes are and we all know one when we see it. It could be a vampire being destroyed by sunlight, a dragon hoarding gold or a militaristic alien race with an…

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Alastair JR Ball
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MFV #63 – A Plea To Guy Ritchie

24th May 2018

MFV #52 – Shoot That Egg Nog Into My Veins!

21st December 2017

MFV #56 – Homebaked Spider-Man Slashfiction

14th February 2018

MFV #67 – Mid Year Review

16th July 2018

MFV #134 – HI ROBERT!

15th April 2021

Ohtis

Ten new songs to get through lockdown

12th April 2021

The Strokes Is This It?

Teenage Music Revisited: ‘Is This It’ by The Strokes (2001)

5th April 2021

MFV #133 – If you’re nasty online

1st April 2021

MFV #134 – HI ROBERT!

15th April 2021

Guardians of the Galaxy

2014: A year in film

31st December 2014

2015: A year in film

31st December 2015

MFV #1 – Red Hot Content In The Soul Of The City

18th February 2016

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