Before I begin, this article is purely subjective. I understand that the characters I use as examples have a wide fan base, but this is purely a personal stance. The point I am trying to convey is that the films have saved Marvel by bringing it into the cinema and […]

‘Original material is a topic that concerns all aspects of the arts.’ Ideas, concepts, styles and genres are so quickly taken-up, run-ragged and exhausted in the high-tech age. It’s depressing to think that whatever you’re doing, someone has probably already done it better. But such a defeatist viewpoint isn’t helpful. […]

Having just turned nineteen and waiting for the beginning of my second term at university, I was initially looking forward to what the new year had to offer: settling into university, enjoying a long summer holiday, then moving in with new people at the beginning of the next academic year. Then […]

It all started when I heard a knock at the door. It was just after 6.30pm and it was a cold, rainy night. Some young guy in sportswear stood there; neat hair, ready smile and an ID tag around his neck. “I’m not trying to sell you anything,” he said, “but, if […]

It’s New Year’s Day and the start of 2013. 2012 produced a lot of memorable moments in American politics, so let’s take a moment to look back on them. 2012 was election year, so it was guaranteed to produce some sad, idiotic, and down-right barmy moments; and it didn’t fail in producing […]

Often in films we are given characters that the writers make out to be ‘cool’. They are often given a typical ‘cool’ career (cop, ninja) and we are left expecting them to evolve into a tough hero or villain. Sometimes, they never do. Here are three examples of characters who […]

This year’s Oxford and Cambridge interviews are going on as we speak. Thousands of nervous teenagers will be chatting away, hundreds of dons will be nodding sagely. And guess what? Most of those kids will be rejected. It’s simple maths. There are far more applicants than there are places. This […]

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. The opening passages of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit introduced us to Bilbo Baggins, a middle-aged hobbit from the Shire. Most people watching Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey have probably seen the Lord of the Rings films, and so […]