Spotlight

A Message from the Film Club President

Welcome back, Panthers! We, the Film Initiative: Underground, are excited to begin this new year and continue to grow on the success that last year’s student filmmaking community saw.

For those who’re interested in learning more about us and what we do, the Film Initiative is FIU’s premier film club and the hub for FIU’s student filmmakers. The Film Initiative coordinates film centered-activities for both movie lovers and filmmakers alike.

This year we’re back with a fresh new line-up of films. As always, our screenings are free and open to all FIU students, with free snacks and post-film discussions. They will be held Thursdays on the MMC campus (Room and Time TBA), but we are always looking to make our screenings more dynamic and exciting! This year we will introduce a new aspect to our weekly meetings that may have you go home with a new Blu-Ray copy of the movie presented that night. So tighten up those Joker impressions and get those Halloween costumes ready! This semester, you can expect the following films at our screenings:

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Features, Review

2001: A Space Odyssey Journies Back to the Big Screen

On April 3, 1968, the enduring classic 2001: A Space Odyssey was released and now, fifty years later, film enthusiasts will have an extraordinary opportunity to see the picture in all of its brilliance.

Nolan inspects the reprinted reel of 2001.

Almost a year ago, filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception, Interstellar) released his war drama Dunkirk in 70mm around the country to critical acclaim and commercial success. It was around this time that he learned of a film reel of 2001 that had been made from the original camera negative but couldn’t be reprinted due to lack of funding. Nolan, empowered by the success of his 70mm screenings, went to Warner Bros. with his idea of making new prints of A Space Odyssey and releasing them, in the same way that Dunkirk was exhibited. This year at Cannes, Nolan debuted the new print of the film, which he makes clear is not a restoration — no digital work has been done — but rather a reprint  created through an entirely photochemical process from reels that Warner Bros. developed in the late 90s.

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Review

Solo A Solid Entry Into Star Wars Canon

The Star Wars universe is immense. Following Disney’s acquisition of the property some years ago, there was a hard reboot on the expanded universe which saw much of what was once considered canon being rebranded as “Legends”. Since then, there have been several Disney-sanctioned pieces of media which repaint the history and future of the main Skywalker storyline. Ron Howard’s Solo, which was plagued by reshoots and bad word-of-mouth, is the newest installment in the Disney-era of Star Wars, shedding some light on the backstory of a certain scruffy-looking nerfherder.

Ron Howard was brought on board to direct Solo after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were let go from the project.

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Review

Hot Fuzz: A Scorching Good Time

The tragedy of comedy films is that very few hold up over the years. In many cases, a comedy can fall into the abyss of awkward silences, and stilted, forced laughs. Thankfully, such a fate hasn’t come over Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz (2007). With Coral Gables Art Cinema screening the film later this month, now was a good time for me to experience the film. I can comfortably say that as the second entry in Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy, Hot Fuzz sits comfortably between Shaun of the Dead (2004) and The World’s End (2013) as one of the great comedy films produced in the last few years.

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Review

MCU Culmination Avengers: Infinity War Delivers On Promise

“I’m here to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative.”

Ten years have passed since Nick Fury uttered those words to Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man, the film that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What felt like nothing more than a tease of an unlikely promise eventually came to fruition four years later in what was, at that point, one of the most daring ensemble features: The Avengers. Since then, Marvel Studios never looked back, expanding the world that once featured a mere six heroes to a galaxy that features over 30. With Avengers: Infinity War being pegged as the final chapter in the MCU as fans currently know it, audiences knew that the first of this two-parter, one which sees the long-anticipated Thanos (Josh Brolin) finally make his way to earth, would come at a high cost.

(Light spoilers ahead)

Avengers: Infinity War is an ambitious crossover that sees dozens of Marvel heroes come together to fight Thanos.

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