Cinema Issues: Trouble In The DCU

So with Supergirl crashing out in almost comical style at the box office, what’s next for DC. In the immediate term what’s next is a Green Lanterns show that is so embarrassed of its source material it won’t even call itself Green Lanterns and Clayface a film no one was asking for. However in terms of what’s next as a broader more heady topic the idea is likely a movie back towards the hardcore fanbase and masculinity. Superman last year had a soft more feminine form of masculinity and Supergirl this year de-centred men as they are toxic okay. Look at how well it worked out for them Superman didn’t reach the heights they wanted it to and Supergirl will cost them money. You can already see this movie towards the hardcore fans, by the fact they have fast tracked the Deathstroke and Bane film.

The fact is as unpopular as it may be Superhero films are aimed for a male audience, the vast bulk of comic readers and people who attend these films are men, as such making Superhero films for women or for softer men when may like more will result in box office failure. James Gunn seems to like championing this kind of soy boy masculinity, look what he did with Peacemaker over time, however, Gunn’s influence is likely shaky, he’s up for a contract renewal in 2027 as co-head of DC and he doesn’t have a lot to recommend him, particularly if Clayface fails.

What is very curious is the brand damaged control. After Supergirl flopped, the toxic fans of the film screamed everyone who didn’t like it was a misogynist and attacked them. However Gunn, Alcock and the rest of team DC stayed quiet which is odd for this kind of thing. Normally victim narratives are spun up. There was the fan hit piece in the New York Times screaming about “misogyny” whilst ignoring the misandry of Ms Alcock, which could be seen as doing damage control for the studio. However, even in Peter Safran’s statement wherein he acknowledges that Supergirl is a flop he doesn’t say a word about the fans. It’s very curious.

A lot is now on Clayface if that too flops then you would imagine the incoming Paramount takeover will not look favourably on Gunn’s DCU and may wipe the slate clean.

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Minions and Monsters: The True Story Behind Hollywood’s Golden Age

Summary: a minion with a dream sets out to make it big.

In many ways this film is good, it is funny, has heart and does a lot to show the good that can come from chasing your dreams. The monsters have their moments though it may have been more fun to have had the Minions go through a parade of different big bosses only to mess up and have to move on.

Part of where the film struggles is that it tries to juggle too many plots, you have the filmmaking storyline, you have the goal of the monsters, you have Dort and his love interest, and you have the meta narrative in both the sense of the tour guide telling the story as well as meta references to Minions and Monsters as a real film. There is a lot going on and it can sometimes feel like the film is jumping from one thing to the other a bit too much.

Zoey Deutch voices Dorts love interest, who is a suffragette type figure fighting for women to have the vote. When we first saw this we thought here we go, but no that is all quickly left behind as she becomes interested in Dort and instead cheers him on through his journey as he is trying to save all the world. It was a nice subversion of the modern preachy message.

Overall, another good film in the franchise but one that is narratively weak at times.

4/5

Pros.

The subversion

It’s funny

The characters are likeable

It’s well paced in terms of keeping your interest

Cons.

The tries to do too much and is overly complicated at times

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Invincible Season 4 Overview: March To War

Summary, it’s finally here the big war for the Galaxy.

Season 3 spent a lot of time teasing this and season 4 was supposed to be where they delivered. Whilst hopes were for perhaps a full season of war action, we got plot lines about Debbie and her boyfriend moving in together, Eve’s abortion and a long subplot about Mark being sad he killed someone. Can you say filler.

The war stuff we got was good though it didn’t go into it as much as we would have liked and it seemed to be over with much too quickly.

The season ends with the promise of more to come with Rex/Rudy returning from the other dimension even more evil than before, however, we are leaving this season with a sigh.

There was a lot of good here but a lot of filler too.

Overall, goodish

3/5

Pros.

The war

Setting up Rex/Rudy

Less relationship drama

Cons.

Filler

The war is disappointing

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From Season 4 Overview: Slowing Down

Summary: The Man In Yellow now living amongst the residents causes chaos as things escalate.

The issue with this season are two fold, firstly as has been documented in other seasons there was a lot of filler. Secondly, the stakes just weren’t that high the finale didn’t see any major character deaths and it just felt a bit disappointing.

In terms of the search for answers and events advancing the wider plot there was more this season than there had been in previous seasons so that’s good. However, even here it isn’t as much as you’d like to be.

Things are starting to ramp up for the final season which really can’t afford any filler, but there is a worry there will be more of it.

Overall, the filler and bloat is really starting to harm the wider positive aspects of the show.

3/5

Pros.

Some answers

The monster scenes

Sophia makes things more interesting

Cons.

The filler/bloat

It feels a bit disappointing

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Jackass Best And Last: Getting Tired

Summary: The Jackass crew get together one last time for a few more stunts.

Whilst being a fan of Jackass for the entirety of the time it’s being around and watching the series as a child as it aired, on the opposite side of the US to me,there is a certain sense of morbidity to watching this. Whilst most of the cast are still there, you can feel the time creeping up to everyone involved. There is a question being raised about whether this needed to exist, the answer would be no.

The stunts feel less extreme and more juvenile, the juvenile nature of it you could get away with as they were younger but as they have aged it has become less and less so.

There is a sense of finality to the film though the use of archived footage, which works well if you’re a fan of the franchise.

Overall, some funny moments and good Stunts but that’s met with a sense of needlessness, and morbidity.

2.5/5

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The Last Viking: John Lennon Lives Again

Summary: a man fresh out of prison needs the help of his mentally unwell brother in order to help him find money he buried long ago.

It was during our time at the Mediterrane Film Festival that we saw this and, it was a deeply mixed film. One the one hand it was heart warming in places and had a number of funny jokes, the comedy mostly landed. However, on the other the central character is deeply unlikeable and the film tends to stray too far into the abyss sometimes. One understands it’s a dark comedy film however it must be stated that when this film gets dark it gets really dark.

Mads Mikkelsen shines as Manfred or John Lennon a man with DID, and is the emotional soul of the film you do empathise with him and believe the characters struggle.

Overall, a funny if depressing film.

3.5/5

Pros.

It’s funny

There are heartwarming moments

It is well paced

Mikkelsen

Cons

It is depressing

There are tonal inconsistencies

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Clarkson’s Farm Season 5: Bittersweet

Summary: Jeremy and co are back to show you the highs and lows of farming.

This was a surprisingly emotional season of what is normally easy comfort viewing, from the TB stuff to the news of Jeremy Clarkson’s continued ill health the last few episodes of the season pack a hell of a gut punch.

However, the season as a whole isn’t depressing even in moments of deep distress there is still a joke a few minutes away that can restore people’s spirits. This is not done in a way that stops there from being tensions or emotion but in a way that tries to cheer you up after giving bad news.

The wider focus of the season is on the changing world for farmers and the need to become more tech savvy in order to stay alive in an economic world that increasingly seems hostile to them. You do feel for the farmers and see the interesting things the new tech can do.

Of course the jokes are still there as ever and are always good to brighten up your day. They mostly land which is a rare thing to say for a comedy show these days.

Overall, a bittersweet season of TV

4/5

Pros.

It’s funny

It shows you the real world issues effecting farmers

The farming tech

The people and their bonds

Cons.

It is quite sad towards the end so get ready for that

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Enola Holmes 3: The Filler/Botox Queen Returns

Summary: Because Sherlock Holmes is a silly man rather than a genius detective he goes missing and it’s down to Enola to find him.

Right from the off you have the cheapening of male characters to try and raise up the female ones. Moriarty Sherlock’s legendary foe doesn’t even care about Sherlock the whole point of capturing him was to lure out Enola. They couldn’t have given her, her own nemesis they had to take Sherlock’s, they also had to gender flip him. The question remains if you were going to gender flip the character why not just have a new character.

Then you have the fact that Milly Bobby Brown’s face is noticeably off, there has been much made of her acting in the last season Stranger Things when she could barely move her face. Here it is less severe however, they really need to cast someone else. It is a shame someone so young felt the need to do that to themselves.

There are irritating modern dayisms a-plenty they have the film set during the British “occupation of Malta” and show Maltese freedom fighters as the good guys. In historical reality Malta liked the UK and wanted to become a formal part of it like Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and voted for it in a referendum. When this became too costly Malta set out for independence, this was not at armed struggle but rather a fairly bureaucratic process. The film goes oh colonialism bad, whilst getting most of the history wrong. Of course they say that Britain stole a bunch of antiques from Afghanistan of all places, and of course Enola and co make sure Afghanistan gets it’s antiques back and the evil British go to prison. It’s so whiny and on the nose that it makes you think the film thinks you have a mental age of 2. The love interest character is so upset by the stealing of these artefacts done by his father, not him, that he renounces his landed title and seat in the House of Lords, a not at all hysterical reaction and one you could imagine from the short of folks to lie down in roads and block the streets.

Of course Sherlock is against Enola’s marriage as it will reduce her “independence”, what year is it, is this the 1990s. Even within feminist circles views on marriage have softened, a woman can get married and still be independent the idea it removes all independent hasn’t been seriously considered in decades, it’s 2026. Sherlock is forced to apologise for his anti marriage views, and Enola of course refuses to take her husband’s last name although it would have been standard practice in that time period.

Netflix is one again forcing it’s anti-traditionist, critical race theory, alternative history down the audience through in order to appease a small group of people online.

Overall, cancel your Netflix subscription.

0.5/5

Pros.

Some unintentional humour

Cons.

Milly can’t act

The message is hamfisted and incredibly on the nose

It reduces Sherlock as a character

It doesn’t need to exist

It’s badly paced

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The Boroughs Season Overview: Old Person Stranger Things

Summary: the Duffers let someone else take over Chat GPT prompts and make something derivative of Stranger Things/

So this is Stranger Things for octogenarians, a group of misfit old people team up to fight aliens, sound familiar, it should, simply remove the world old and it’s the same thing as Stranger Things. The only difference being the monsters in Stranger Things come from another dimension not space, yet it could easily be seen as otherworldly.

Whilst Gina Davis praised this show for its Golden Girls’ esque collection of oldies for leading roles, the series doesn’t do much new with them. We’ve seen countless stories about evil old folks homes, and we’ve also had many stories with old people in main roles, sorry Gina.

The mystery aspects of the show are once again hard not to compare to Stranger Things as it looks incredibly familiar in terms of how they build tension and set things up for later. The writers of this show really thought the Duffers diseased franchise was a good one to copy from. No accounting for taste we guess.

Overall, Netflix needs to get better and learning what not to greenlite

1.5/5

Pros.

The performances are good

There aren’t pacing issues

Cons.

It feels familiar

The mystery isn’t very good

The evil care home idea is done to death

It’s dull

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Maul Shadow Lord Season Overview: The Right Direction For Star Wars?

Summary: Darth Maul continues his gangland story set under the reign of the Empire.

If you enjoyed Clone Wars and Rebels you will likely enjoy this, we did for the most part. It is nice to see Star Wars be dark and gritty and the gangland focus was a great way to do that. The action in the series hit where it needs to and seeing the fights with the inquisitors was cool. The only issue with this side of things is that due to plot armour you know neither Maul nor the particular inquisitors could die here as that would break canon.

Maul is a great character to explore the moral nuances within the force and to look at the idea of Sith not being aligned and instead being very hostile towards each other. There were a number of shots that referenced Dracula, or Nosferatu which gave the series a very cool vibe, particularly when Maul is calling to his apprentice as she sleeps.

The stuff with the apprentice and the cop was where things started to fall apart, that is not to say it was all bad. There were some great scenes, however, these stop and let’s talk about our feelings scenes slowed the plot down a lot, particularly when it was the cop and his son. Maul’s escape and the beginning of Devon’s training should have happened midseason not at the end of 10 episodes. There was too much filler.

Overall, a good Star Wars TV show with a lot of promise.

3/5

Pros.

Maul

The homages to horror

The inquisitor fights

Cons.

Filler

Yet more Jedi escaped Order 66

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