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Joker: Folie á Deux
Joker: Folie á Deux 2024
This movie falls into a weird space in the DC films continuity. It was released well over a year after James Gunn was hired as the head of the DC films division and a year before the first fully James Gunn produced DC movie Superman, but it’s not a part of either the DCEU or the DCU, instead it’s an Elseworlds movie following the outside of continuity Joker movie from five years earlier. And this movie even goes further from that premise, shifting from inspired by Taxi Driver and the King of Comedy into something that keeps that same tone but throws in a musical reality into the mix. It’s something that’s really bizarre to describe that doesn’t seem to be catering to the fans of either genre. The musical numbers don’t fit very well with fans of the dark and gritty style of movie, and the dark and gritty style of the majority of the film doesn’t mesh well with typically bright and cheery musicals. I found the film rather fascinating, especially with the thought in my mind that it’s pretty much impossible to find the line between what’s actually happening in the world of the movie and what’s happening entirely in Arthur Fleck’s imagination.
Read the rest of this entryShazam! Fury of the Gods
Shazam! Fury of the Gods 2023
While I have already technically watched the other 2 final movies of the DCEU which came out in late summer and December of the same year as this film which was originally released in March. This is MY final DCEU catch up movie and while it had its ups and downs, I don’t think there was ever any movie that I actively disliked. There are many of them that have some serious issues, but also every single one of them had something that I enjoyed in them. This was the follow up to the very fun Shazam! movie that mixed a lot of immature humor that came from having a 14 year old playing an adult superhero mixed with some pretty dark horror-esque monster imagery. This sequel basically copies that same structure despite the fact that it’s been four years and while Billy Batson is nearly 18, he still basically acts like he’s still 14. The villains were trying to be a mix of scary and sympathetic that didn’t fully work, but I do love me some Greek mythology references and the film did make me laugh out loud a fair number of times so it wasn’t a bad film at all in my book.
Read the rest of this entryDC League of Super-Pets
League of Super-Pets 2022
I was all set to continue my DC catch up by watching Shazam: Fury of the Gods on HBO Max that I had saved on my list for the longest time. And yet, when I went to select the movie, the only option was to watch the trailer and it wasn’t available to watch on there anymore. So I decided to go back a little bit further and watch the only other theatrically released DC movie aside from the latest Superman that I hadn’t seen yet which was this animated League of Super-Pets featuring the Rock and Kevin Hart voicing Krypto and Ace. Krypto has been a thing for quite a while as well as Ace, though neither had been heavily featured in many mainstream Superman or Batman projects until the latest Superman movie. I was expecting a rather mediocre made-for-kids-esque movie and for the most part, that’s what I got. It did get a few laughs out of me, but it was way too formulaic to impress me much.
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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom 2023
I’m back catching up with another DC movie in my much smaller backlog, at least if I don’t count all of the animated movies but that’s a topic for another day. I actually remember practically nothing about the advertising for this movie. The only thing I really remember about it was that it was a hero/villain team up a la Blade 2, Thor 2, and plenty of other sequels that I can’t think of right now. I absolutely did not remember anything about Aquaman’s baby which is basically the entire opening. I also remember the walking back of Amber Heard’s role in the movie after the media fallout from her trial, and that was really felt while watching. There was a whole lot of dumb stuff on display, and I thought that Aquaman himself felt a lot more childish than I remembered from the first movie, but what pulled me through was the chemistry between him and Patrick Wilson as his brother slash archnemesis Orm.
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Blue Beetle
Blue Beetle 2023
I’m back to my superhero movie catch up and since I finished the MCU, I decided it was time to move onto DC going back to 2023 which was a busy year for DC and I missed all 3 movies that came out that year which were also the last Zack Snyder era of DC movies before transitioning to the James Gunn era. I decided to start with Blue Beetle which is the only of the three which isn’t really connected at all to the rest of the Snyderverse aside from a single name drop about Superman. Instead, this is a full blown origin story that reminds me a lot of a much better version of Max Steel though I’m also aware that even this version of Blue Beetle pre-dates that character, let alone the Ted Kord version. The overall tone of the movie felt like it was taking a page out of the Marvel playbook with a similar mix of action, comedy, and a bit of drama. But there’s a reason why that works and it works just as well here. They also get a lot of mileage out of this being a primarily Hispanic story with Jaime’s family all being Hispanic as well as Ted Kord’s daughter Jenny and even the henchmen of basically the lone white person in the movie Victoria Kord, played by Susan Sarandon.
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The Flash
The Flash 2023
It has been increasingly difficult to keep up with this site lately. I still have a love of superhero movies but somehow it’s been easier to stay on track with my podcasts looking at movies and shows in minute detail rather than making it out to the theater or watch a full length movie with a one year old running the household. I did even manage to watch the Super Mario Bros. Movie with the intention of writing a review for it, and I still might manage to plumb the depths of my memory to write one after this review but it’s been hard to just sit down and write. The renewal for the domain name just recently came up so the site will remain for another year at least and I have hopes that I haven’t given up on this site completely so be on the lookout for more reviews to come before the year is out, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for them. Anyway, as for the Flash; I watched in instead of Spider-Verse or Guardians 3 for a few different reasons. The main two were that I happened to sign up for the Lambcast covering this movie and that it came out during my birthday weekend which I saw as a sign that I should watch it. It’s had some middling reviews, fan complaints, behind the scenes struggles, and a low box office. But honestly, this movie was right up my alley and I loved everything it threw at me. And there are plenty of little Easter eggs that I will be discussing, so if you haven’t seen it and are avoiding spoilers, here’s your warning.
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Black Adam
Black Adam 2022
This is the first new set of DCEU movies even though they’re still connected to the first set of DCEU movies with a couple of the characters introduced in cameos. While the term “Phase One” has been thrown around here and there, it would make more sense if this would be considered the phase two of the DCEU or go with some terminology that’s not obviously derivative of Marvel’s release strategy. The early reviews for this movie were slightly below mediocre but I still had high hopes that I would enjoy the film. I had very little knowledge about Black Adam as a character outside of a brief appearance “Superman/Shazam the Return of Black Adam” where he was very clearly a villain and as it was a short film he was a villain with no real motivation or back story outside of someone who is a match for Superman and Shazam. The same was true for the Justice Society and the characters used in this version of the Justice Society outside of a few vague appearances of Hawkman. But besides all of that, I did quite enjoy this introduction of Black Adam as this non-heroic character who makes the decision to become a reluctant hero. And as with all recent releases here, there will be spoilers ahead so be warned.
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The Batman
The Batman 2022
It hasn’t been easy trying to resume a normal schedule here. With a ten month old daughter at home and two podcasts that I’m actually keeping on schedule (for the most part) it’s been a lot harder to find time to watch a 3 hour movie. But several months after it coming to HBO Max I managed to watch it over the course of two evenings. I had already heard a lot of mixed-but-mostly-positive things about this film so I was ready to enjoy it. And for the most part, it was quite enjoyable. I’m not fully on board with the emo teenager vibe to Bruce Wayne when he has to be in his late twenties minimum if not mid thirties like Robert Pattinson who is playing him. The rest of the cast is fantastic, the decision to make this more like a detective story rather than an origin or straight up action film is a good one. There’s really a lot to love in this film and while there are plenty of nits to pick, they don’t detract from the overall enjoyment of the film.
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Batman: Soul of the Dragon
Batman: Soul of the Dragon 2021
It’s been a couple months since I subscribed to HBO Max with the intention of catching up on several of the animated DC movies that I’ve missed out on these past couple years but I only just now got around to watching the first one. There wasn’t any specific reason why I picked this one out of the others that were on there, it just stood out as being a little bit different than what I’ve come to expect in these animated movies and in that respect, it very much was. This was done in the style of the 70’s with a bit of classic Bond mixed with Bruce Lee and some exploitation cinema all mixed together. Not only that, but despite the fact that this is labelled as a Batman movie, ninety percent of the film is all about Bruce Wayne and Batman only shows up for one scene near the beginning, then for the climactic end battle. The story beats were a little on the cliched side, but it was cliches done with love and it was a lot of fun overall. This is still a relatively recent release so there will be spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
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Wonder Woman 1984
Wonder Woman 1984 2020
Even though not a whole lot of films came out last year, this was the biggest one that I overlooked. The reception was very mixed, with some people enjoying the new take on Wonder Woman, but many people weren’t very fond of this movie which is a very different version of Wonder Woman as her first movie. And this is despite having practically the same creative team behind both movies. Instead of taking place in World War I, it’s taking place in the 1980’s and all the kitsch and nostalgia associated with it. The tone is much lighter and there is a stronger undertone of magical reality than what was present in the first film. And even though I watched it several days ago, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the film as a whole. I generally enjoyed many parts of it, but I severely questioned several decisions throughout the film.
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Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 