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Toys on Film: Superman (2025)
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We're back with another addition of Toys on Film, this time talking about the movie that EVERYONE is talking about... Superman! Look up with us as we discuss what we thought about the film and cover off on the toys that are already out there to support the release of this film. We believed a man (and a dog) could fly, but can you?
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Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
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Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Adventures in Collecting'
00:00:03
Speaker
Are you ready kids? Get your parents permission, check your mailbox and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric.
00:00:15
Speaker
And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting. Where we talk toy news, culture and hauls. Along with our journeys as collectors.
Toys on Film Segment
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Adventures in Collecting and Toys on Film.
00:00:37
Speaker
Two minutes later. Two minutes, two minutes later, was like 13 seconds. No, that's the Duran Duran song. oh Oh, yeah. And i reference every time we do one of these episodes. One of these days we do have to get the like toys on film.
00:00:56
Speaker
toys on film like we gotta we gotta just do the cover and have it like play us in one of these times one of these times i could reach out to somebody and see if they'll do it i mean hey i'm i'm all i'm all about that uh that that ah utilizing connections. Yeah,
Guests and Sponsorships
00:01:16
Speaker
we'll put it that way. So as you can see and hear, we are joined by ah by our own Baby Joey.
00:01:23
Speaker
um We are joined by Candy Pants himself. ah and Is this sponsored? Voice of the pod. Joe. No, Dave is trying to get us sponsored by Liquid Death. He's by murdering his thirst from inside the Fortress of Solitude.
00:01:40
Speaker
Sponsored by Liquid Death. I didn't know that Liquid Death delivered to the Fortress of Solitude. Is that like a... think it's DoorDash deal. Yeah, you can get it on Grubhub.
00:01:50
Speaker
ah Gary? Was Gary responsible for that? ah he He gave the code. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. um So if you haven't figured it out already, we are here with another edition of Toys on Film to talk about 2025's Superman.
Superman 2025 Discussion Begins
00:02:08
Speaker
So ah we're we're going to spend the next ah the next bit looking up at ah what's in the sky. And um if you're a fan of the Snyderverse, I recommend that you still stick around to hate listen.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we so we are going to be brutally honest about our our feelings. Oh, in on the least brutal way possible. Yeah. um But before we do that, before we before we do that, um let's take care of a little bit of housekeeping.
00:02:41
Speaker
For those of you that do like the Snyderverse, I have a contest for you.
Superman Figurine Contest
00:02:45
Speaker
So speaking of the Snyderverse, we are giving away ah this month ah a Platinum Edition. Honestly, really cool figure.
00:02:55
Speaker
um It is the Henry Cavill Superman from the the Snyderverse films. um It is the patina graffitied statue of of Superman. So it's got the the the false god spray paint on it.
00:03:09
Speaker
um You can have a wonderful action figure of a statue with a cloth cap cloth goods cape, which. Is a choice. I mean, we've this figure came out with a rubber cape. I figure figured like this would have been the one to put back out with the rubber cape, but.
00:03:27
Speaker
The soft goods cape is in there. And, you know, it's like when they put like sports jerseys on statues. Yes. During the playoffs. We'll go with that. There we go. um But all seriousness, this figure is really cool looking.
00:03:40
Speaker
um And i have never seen it in in person until Dave found it. ah and And I have not seen it since. So when I ever saw.
Superman 2025 Box Office and DC Films
00:03:51
Speaker
So if you are interested in adding this figure to your collection, we welcome you to join, uh, everyone else who is interested in adding this figure to their collection, uh, at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram.
00:04:05
Speaker
Uh, just look for that pinned post, follow the instructions and, uh, and enter for a chance to win. And, uh, we'll be announcing the winner on August 1st, um, along with the, the August giveaway. So definitely make sure you stick around, um, and see what's up next.
00:04:20
Speaker
Uh, I don't know what we're giving away in August yet. It's still too early in July for me to think about that. But we do have a we have we have them all set up. I just forget what it is. yeah um But yeah assume that it's probably related to an event that's taking place in New Jersey in two weeks.
00:04:38
Speaker
I don't think it is.
00:04:41
Speaker
um i thought it was. That was. No, I don't think we have.
00:04:47
Speaker
wrestling thing next i honestly don't remember what it is i really do i really i like genuinely don't remember what we're giving away next but uh it'll be it'll be something cool we have i know i know what we're giving away the rest of the year i just don't remember what order things are so you'll have to find out in august yeah But yeah, um so with that, that takes care of our... We usually do themes. That is correct. We usually do themes. was a good guess.
00:05:18
Speaker
I guess it was a bad guess. i It was a logical guess. um So, yeah, so we are here to talk about 2025 Superman. um The film, as as of the time of this recording, the film has not yet been out for a week yet.
00:05:35
Speaker
um where it's I think it's, ah what, like five days at this point um that it's been out. Five days, wow. And, um yeah. Absolutely.
00:05:46
Speaker
A little longer if you got the Amazon ah oh advanced screening. So, you some people saw it. Yeah, some people saw it, you know, on on the 8th, like one of my buddies. I was very jealous.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yep, I did. I did not. I saw it. I dont think that counts towards the box office. No. OK, well, then it made even more money than they said And they said it made.
00:06:09
Speaker
um but yeah, so ah Superman, ah the the official official. guess we'll say the official kickoff of James Gunn's DC ah film verse. I mean, we'll get into it, but it definitely I think you could consider Peacemaker. and And those were free tickets. Creature Commandos.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah. Peacemaker and Creature Commando. Yeah. Those were free? no You had to pay. You had to get them through Fandango. You just needed it to use your Amazon account. I think I think the proceeds did go to the Boys Club of America.
00:06:42
Speaker
So I don't think it was a. you know, so it probably
Superman 2025 Statistics
00:06:45
Speaker
doesn't, you know, yeah. Got it. Okay. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Um, but yeah. So, uh, so Superman, um, Dave, do we have any, any stats prepared for, uh, for this? yeah I'm pulling them up now.
00:07:00
Speaker
Okay. I will continue vamping while you do that. Um, joe ah Joey, you have i have something that I saw today that I thought was rather interesting.
00:07:11
Speaker
ah This made more money in 48 hours than the last four DCEU films. Yes, I actually saw that stat as well. Yeah, so yeah that is the last one.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was um ah The Flash, Aquaman 2, and um Blue Beetle. Blue Beetle and ah Shazam 2.
00:07:37
Speaker
two Oh, well. Yeah. And the lowest of that was Shazam. Yeah. Yeah, that movie made no money. Like, huge, huge L. That movie take took took a big L.
Superman's Character Analysis
00:07:50
Speaker
Big L, right? so and you know what? that's It's honestly like... Okay, so without getting into the politics of of Zachary Levy's trash mouth... um I he I thoroughly enjoyed that first Shazam movie like thoroughly enjoyed that movie.
00:08:09
Speaker
So I was super bummed with the trajectory of Black Adam and that like it was just like they had such a good thing going with that first Shazam movie. It's like a fun like Christmas movie to a degree like fun. It is just a fun movie.
00:08:26
Speaker
The dynamic with him and the kids. It's like it's excellent in that regard. The other thing that's wild is, and we know i'm I'm a big fan of Dwayne the Rock Johnson.
00:08:36
Speaker
um If you sign a contract where a you don't want to be a part of the franchise that your character is a part of, and B, your contract states you can't lose. It's really hard to play the villain who's supposed to fight against Shazam and everybody else.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah. But just remember... He wasn't the hero. He said that a hundred times during that movie. Yeah, it was. It was not good.
00:09:10
Speaker
um But yeah, so ah but back to Superman. So, yes, it did. It made a ah yeah creature commandos is the first thing that was part of this new.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, see you. I'm counting James Gunn's Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker TV show. i mean, it's so supposedly. So we find out how in a couple of weeks.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah. Supposedly it is. It is. um he He said that the season two of Peacemaker is going to show kind of the trajectory of where kind of
Lex Luthor Portrayals
00:09:49
Speaker
some things are headed.
00:09:49
Speaker
Yeah. And where things, certain things and people live. and yeah Yeah. Like there's going to be a Waller show, but John Economist is in it. um We got the Lantern show next.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yep. Supergirl. Yep. um And then they are making another Pattinson, Pattinson, Robert Pattinson.
00:10:15
Speaker
yeah Yes. yeah And will be designated as such because As soon as a Brave and the Bold script comes in, yeah that's going to be Batman. I'm so, so excited. All right, Dave. Batman and Damien.
00:10:29
Speaker
hit us Hit us with some stats ah for for this movie. All right. So Superman 2025 released July 11th, 2025. It was 129 minutes long. The budget was $225 million.
00:10:41
Speaker
um it was a hundred and twenty nine minutes long the budget was two hundred and twenty five million dollars ah It was written by and directed by James Gunn based on characters from DC in case you weren't sure.
00:11:00
Speaker
um And of course the stars, David Corn Sweat, um Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Holt, um Edie, I always forget, mispronounce the last name.
00:11:14
Speaker
um Gathigi? I don't know whether it's Gathigi or Gathagi, but yeah. um Anthony Kerrigan, Nathan Fillion, Isabella Merced. You've got... um
00:11:29
Speaker
Sean Gunn makes a cameo. John Cena. This is spoiler alert, folks. Oh, yeah, we should we should say that. So we are going to talk about the movie in in in its entirety here and talk about things that we liked, with things that we want to call out.
00:11:44
Speaker
y'all Y'all couldn't keep stuff off Instagram... ah For a day, so... Yeah, spoil but spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, for for sure.
00:11:55
Speaker
ah Maria Gabriela Deferria um was in it. Skylar Jacondo.
Superman's Cinematic Evolution
00:12:03
Speaker
i said Nathan Fillion. Yep. I think you got you got all you got all the key players there, Dave. Yeah. um So what did you say the budget was? Did they list the budget there?
00:12:15
Speaker
Yeah, Frank Grillo as ah Rick Flagg Sr.,
00:12:19
Speaker
ah The budget was $225 million. dollars And what was the ah what was the opening box office? So opening box office, as um all those, that information, by the way, was as per Wikipedia.
00:12:33
Speaker
This information as per box office mojo. As of um the day of recording, which is Tuesday, July 15th, 2025, we have four days worth of box office right um record.
00:12:48
Speaker
So domestically, um Superman has made a hundred and almost $138 million. dollars ah Internationally, what is known thus far is $95 million dollars for a take of just shy $233 million dollars over four days.
00:13:06
Speaker
Awesome. And, ah you know, I think... ah And tracking to do very well this coming weekend with only I Know What You Did Last Summer...
00:13:18
Speaker
as its uh competition which i will be going to see and which i would i actually really want to see yeah yeah it's going to be interesting right this is a this is a very it's been a while since we've had like a summer like this i feel like where you know you had jurassic world rebirth um and then like seemingly on the heels of that you have superman and then on the heels of that you have fantastic four so i mean it's two marvel movies this summer two marvel movies this summer what's the other thunder thunderbolts oh yeah yeah i guess so yeah yeah um it now all of may counts so yeah yeah that's fair um but yeah so crazy just july though you know remember when june july remember when like memorial day started to count as the summer movie season yeah yeah it's true like die hard with a vengeance was the first big one um
00:14:14
Speaker
but Yeah, so i I saw this on ah on Sunday. So just a couple days ago, I think Dave, you saw the same day as me as well. I did as well. Joey, you had a day ah on us, right? I was Saturday. um So I think, you know.
00:14:29
Speaker
I think we can all, you know, confidently say and as as we kind of get into the movie here and talk a little bit more, but I think our our main takeaway was we the three of us kind of unanimously enjoyed the ever loving shit out of this movie.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yeah, I like when Superman's like a dorky boy scout who punches things. and He literally says golly at one point. And gosh. yeah And gosh. Yeah. He goes, golly.
00:14:52
Speaker
And you're like... Golly. Yeah. I mean, this was ah so, you know, admittedly, i will say going into this, and admittedly, I'm not the biggest Superman guy.
00:15:05
Speaker
Like I never like Superman was never like my my favorite hero. you know, I kind of always thought of him as as kind of, um you know, OP and boring.
00:15:16
Speaker
You know, like he he can't he can't lose. Like even like. you know growing up as as a kid in the 90s with that amazing animated series, the bru the Bruce Timm Superman series you know that led into like the Justice League and stuff like that, it was still just Batman was always so much more interesting to me.
00:15:36
Speaker
um I thought Batman had the better villains. I thought Batman had you know the better story, the better character development, the better motivation. like He was just so much more interesting. Batman's rogues gallery is definitely...
00:15:50
Speaker
I think. Deeper has a deeper bench than Superman's does. I mean, you can make the argument that it might be one of the best in comics. I think Spider-Man probably, you know, or X-Men, probably the only thing that really rival Batman's Rose Gallery.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, but in theory, like a lot of those villains are everybody's villains. Well, especially Spider-Man. He likes he likes to share um and or steal from other people's universes. But i the thing with i with Superman as that i that I've realized as I've gotten older,
00:16:25
Speaker
um I've developed an appreciation for some of the subtleties of Superman. And i think part of my appreciation that I've developed over the years is because cinematically he's been kind of dreadful um for a long time.
00:16:46
Speaker
And it's made me appreciate like the complexity is the entirety of your lifetime. Cause there was, you went from like, I, I, I liked Brandon Ralph, Superman.
00:16:58
Speaker
He did. He portrayed Superman very well. I thought he did a very good job at taking over for Christopher because it was a sequel to yeah the Christopher Reeve universe. So it was like he did a fantastic job. at Yeah, I think it's actually technically Superman takes over for Superman, too.
00:17:15
Speaker
is it yeah Is it two or three? I forget. I forget. I feel like three and four kind of get retcon there. Maybe. Yeah. I think it's technically. He doesn't mention Richard Pryor at all. No. And returns. No.
00:17:27
Speaker
It's shame. um but But to the point of using the score and everything. like Yeah.
Comic Influences on Superman
00:17:33
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And I, you know and he returned to the role to is kind of like the kingdom come Superman in the, in some of the CW stuff.
00:17:41
Speaker
And yeah. In crisis. Right. Yeah. i But yeah, To that point, um I've developed this kind of appreciation for Superman. So I went into this kind of like very open minded, like hoping to kind of experience some things cinematically really for the first time in in a movie theater. Right. Because like by the time i by the time I was watching, you know, um the eat all of us, I mean, Christopher Reeve, Superman, those those first two came out before we were all of us were born.
00:18:12
Speaker
um Right. And I think even the second one was you were, if anything, you were like one I was. Yeah. If anything, I was a baby. I know Superman three and four. Yeah. But like, you know, we all kind of experienced those like what i saw Superman four in the movies.
00:18:27
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Quest for Peace was 87. Yeah. yeah So I was not born yet. um So ah so yeah, so I went into this with kind of like an open mind. I love James Gunn's work.
00:18:40
Speaker
you know, his, you know, the other movies and TV shows that he's done have all been phenomenal. um I hear great things about creature commandos. I have to go back and watch it now. I have, i haven't seen it. It was one of the better, I mean, next to my adventures with Superman, which I heard richard your commandos. Yeah.
00:18:56
Speaker
My adventures with Superman is right next to the animated series. And just like, it, it really, it blows things away. Or it's not. heard of the No, that's an else world.
00:19:08
Speaker
That's like an anime Superman, right? Anime style. He also has like a Sailor Moon transformation sequence. It's great. Fantastic. That sounds amazing. um But yeah, so I mean, this was... i let let look Let's kind of start at the beginning here, right? So you...
00:19:25
Speaker
what's really cool about this movie is you get dropped right into the story. um No pun intended. We do. Yeah, we we do not have to do. We do not get the the typical origin story that we would get with a Superman movie. So it it felt very much like panels of and of a comic book, you know, at that point, you know with the whole like, what was it, like 33 years 33 or 33 years, three months or three years, three months, three days, three hours. Right.
00:19:53
Speaker
um Yeah. That was the first time Superman has ever lost. Yeah, it was. It was really like a jarring intro. um and And, you know, it's that that what we saw in the trailer, right? The the him laying in the ah the Arctic, which is going to be like second act.
00:20:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was kind of shocking to see that first. Yeah. But yeah, right off the bat, I mean, you're introduced to Superman. He's, you know, he just got the shit kicked out of him. So um I thought that that was really kind of clever.
00:20:25
Speaker
ah Playing up the humanity of the role, like the man part of the Superman, like right out of the gate. um I mean, some of the most interesting Superman stuff is Clark, like.
00:20:40
Speaker
that That is some of the most interesting storytelling. I'm like you where I was not the biggest Superman, but it took me getting a little older and just like continuously like ingesting the the media of Superman to be like, okay.
00:20:53
Speaker
I get it. Superman like on and off. um
00:20:59
Speaker
I never hated Superman. I just was like, know, Batman does stuff. i feel I mean, Superman always does stuff, too, but you always feel like, like,
00:21:14
Speaker
you know, Superman is is, you know, all fighting aliens, whereas like, or like punching robbers, whereas like Batman's like in the middle of some like insane crap.
00:21:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and it's like, that was always the thing. I mean, that there's a reason why the term kryptonite, you know, has become a household term for things outside of a green rock that kills Superman, right? Yeah, and Superman barely lost.
Challenges in Depicting Superman
00:21:41
Speaker
Like, Superman, a lot of Superman of my youth, I'll say, had felt more in line to me with, like, Batman 66 like...
00:21:52
Speaker
then like
00:21:56
Speaker
anything else because it's like, well, everybody knows the movies and the movies are kind of have that camp factor to them as well. So it's just like, well, how's he going to get out of it this time? Like type of deal.
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, the the whole kind of adventure of the week premise with Superman, I think that works very well for his character. I mean, I talked about it on on the show during our our top ten of the first half of the year. But like Fleischer, Superman prior to anything else was like that was my top tier version of Superman. Like when I close my eyes, I think of him punching that mummy in a museum and like giant robots and stuff like like Superman.
00:22:34
Speaker
adventure of the week, pulpy Superman, like low character development, like very one dimensional short bursts. Like for me, that's that was how Superman worked best. The moment you put him in a situation like the Justice League or, you know, on his own show where he had like an arc and a narrative, it just didn't never really worked for me because and with the exception of Christopher Reeve, because I do like those those first two films.
00:23:03
Speaker
um I like Superman three, and but i not even going to touch that. It's ridiculous. That's why I like it. the Richard Pryor is the best scientific mind of our generation.
00:23:19
Speaker
um It did something different. It did. it It sure did. it wasn't it wasn't Gene Hackman trying to get Australia. Australia. Well, I mean, even in this it's funny, right? Like that's one of the things that it ends up being Lutherland or whatever you called it. lu Luther, Lutheran, Lutheranian Lutheran. Yeah, the land isn't the goal.
00:23:45
Speaker
No, it's no. Yeah. Control. But still, all it all boils down and comes back to real estate. It's so it's always about that. really That real is even Kevin Spacey's character and returns the same thing. It as land.
00:23:58
Speaker
He needs land. But in this case, I'm going to create land. Yeah. yeah All right. um Yes.
Lex Luthor's Complexity
00:24:05
Speaker
You know what? Let's let's talk about Lex for a minute here, because I think Chris. Nicholas Nicholas. Nicholas. Wow.
00:24:14
Speaker
on unbelievable. Like, I mean, he's two for two on playing comic book characters, isn't he? i I was worried that I was not because the beast is one of my favorite X-Men. So I was worried that I was not going to be able to, like, separate the two, you know, because one's the man from Beast.
00:24:34
Speaker
you know, sometimes when I when an actor plays a character, that's that's it sticks in your head and it can get in the way. From the moment the first moment he was on screen, i was like blown away by how how good he was. He was a bastard. He was he was an evil, evil man.
00:24:54
Speaker
And as the second like because I read the story that like the Luther part was based off of, which is Lex Luthor Man of Steel with the um Brian Azzarello. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:09
Speaker
Miniseries. which ah you can get now in a graphic novel called Luther. um It is one of my favorite,
00:25:23
Speaker
um and not in like a red flag sort of way, but it's one of my favorite written miniseries probably ever um because, you know, ah the one of the things that I think makes a great villain ah real a great villain is the fact that like the no matter what you do, no matter what you say, what that person thinks is what they think is correct.
00:25:55
Speaker
like You're not changing their mind. um And you know he is nice the prototypical like xenophobic um
00:26:13
Speaker
we'll we'll just say Metropolis first. yeah um like And this is, we're not talking about this is a story that was written eight years ago. Like this is from a while ago. I wanna say this book is like 20 years old.
00:26:27
Speaker
um yeah It's just perfect because it's really a ah character study on 2015, it looks like.
00:26:42
Speaker
At least when this was collected. I'm trying to see if when it was... um Yeah, if you look up Lex Luthor Man of Steel, you'll find it.
00:26:51
Speaker
um But it's like ah it's a cat character study on like why Lex Luthor is. And he's not like the charming Gene Hackman.
00:27:03
Speaker
You know, um or even... Kevin Spacey, like, haha, I'm nice, but I'm like a sociopath. Like, I mean, like, real... 2005, sorry. Yeah. I misread. Like, real, just,
Lex Luthor's Portrayal by Nicholas Holt
00:27:17
Speaker
you know, horrible person who thinks that Superman is here to destroy us.
00:27:23
Speaker
And... And not only that, I mean, he says it so poignantly towards the you know end of the movie, right? When he says, you know, you make me feel inferior. Like your greatness is jealousy is a reminder of how weak i we are as humans, right? Like that's how he sees Superman. And Lee Bermejo's art is incredible. They went on to do a Joker movie.
00:27:49
Speaker
Oh, look that later on, that Joker one shot is amazing. The one where he gets out of jail and well, this is better. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. i've I've read some of this. I haven't read the whole thing. I need to go back and do that. But um but it's it's probably I think.
00:28:08
Speaker
I'd be hard pressed to say there's a better Lex Luthor story. Yeah. And I mean, Nicholas Holt does such a good job of bringing that to life, like every part of that. So like that. And i I think the part that makes it better, too, is that, you know, we always see comic book Lex is like this kind of more broad dude, like he's physically broad.
00:28:29
Speaker
I'm glad the fact that he's slighter. Yeah, he makes it better. They always like try to make him mimic Superman in the comics, like where he's like like visually he's a he's a much larger dude. and And there was even a couple of like of the animated stuff that had come out where they were. They actually kind of highlight him like working out as much as Superman. And then it's like his power suits and all. Yeah. yeah Yeah. and I mean, I could see Nicholas Holt totally rocking the power suit at some point in this, like like without a doubt, this universe lends itself to power suits. Oh, he has to down the road. I would. Yeah, I would be shocked if he doesn't.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, i I think we're definitely headed in that direction with him. becomes president power suit. But like. Yeah, I ah so like when I always think of Lex Luthor, right, like I think of two versions, I i tend to Well, now I'm going to think of Nicholas Holt kind of, I think, first and foremost. But like Gene Hackman is like the funny side of things. Right. And then um and and Kevin Spacey to that to that to that degree, too.
00:29:31
Speaker
But, you know the animated series, like you said, like the, you know broad shouldered, you know, kind of. Clancy, Clancy Brown voiced. Yeah. Yep. yeahp um One of the goats. But yeah, I loved that about this character because this version of the character, he was a regular dude that was terrifying.
00:29:53
Speaker
He's like a tech bro like yeah and and like what was his what was always his um his kind of like tagline when when he was described in like super like the world's smartest criminal mind or something like like the greatest criminal mind of our generation yeah and i mean the plan that he put together the multi-layered plan know shouting out those movesets to like beat beat superman and stuff it was just Yeah, the gamification of it, too, because like, yeah, know, I know we're good at that.
00:30:25
Speaker
We're jump like we're in a we're jumping. I'm jumping a little forward, but when they're in his pocket universe and he has the like the the cart vendor from Metropolis um mom, well, can't remember his name now. Was it like Malik or something or Mala Mala?
00:30:40
Speaker
Yeah, something like that. Or Malai. That scene. I'm like, OK, so he's he's playing Russian roulette with this man. Yeah. And like nobody, no matter how smart you are, you can't calculate when that bullet's going to happen.
00:30:55
Speaker
Yep. I mean, that like that's the point of it. Like, you know, just him doing it. He gets two in. Yeah. Two asks twice. guy died. I'm like, he just killed that guy.
00:31:08
Speaker
yeah And he even says, oh, that didn't last as long as I thought it was going to. I'm going to go get another person now. Yeah. But I like that that even him, like he's like, going to get Clark Kent. And you're like, even he was fooled. Hypno glasses, baby.
00:31:25
Speaker
But here's the thing. lex is so so Lex is smart enough to figure it out. yes oh yeah He's just so blind with like rage and jealousy that And this is another thing that's from the comics where there's like an old issue where they tell him like he develops this computer and these programmers to like find out who Superman is.
00:31:48
Speaker
And they tell him it's Clark Kent and he fires them because there's no way that could be right.
Superman and Clark Kent Duality
00:31:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Which is actually a great transition because I think one of the things that's not being talked about enough is how good so like corn sweat was great as superman like he was a great superman you brought a lot of like dimension to the character and everything his clark kent we don't get to see it very much in the movie actually like he doesn't play clark
00:32:20
Speaker
like in maybe maybe more than like two or three scenes ultimately but like even just seeing him walk into the the daily planet and kind of have that uh know the the the banter with like perry and and with jimmy olsen and jimmy olsen we got to get into that we definitely got a sex machine jimmy olsen is one of the best decisions i think james gunn has ever made but um As the kids would say, he has Riz.
00:32:46
Speaker
Yes, he's dripping with Riz. um Yeah, the ah his his portrayal of of Clark Kent, like I thought was excellent. Like, excellent.
00:32:58
Speaker
I love how like, Cornswit's a big dude. Yeah, he's six four. He's he's a a tall, big dude. And he just as he's wearing his Clark Kent, you know, persona, it's just like he's big and awkward.
00:33:13
Speaker
He doesn't look like he belongs with everybody in that room either, um which is fantastic. Like, that's what you want to see. You want to see that coming out of Clark where it's just like he's a big, awkward goof.
00:33:25
Speaker
Yep. Yep. Like he doesn't look like comfortable in his own skin. Right. Zero chill. What's. Oh, yeah. Interviewing himself. Yeah. Thinking it's a good idea. think It's a good idea that for him to interview himself. Yeah. Ethically, just so wrong.
00:33:45
Speaker
And I love that Lois calls him out on that. And and I mean, she was just. Wasn't it nice to have like the greatest reporter on the face of the earth? be like also smart.
00:33:56
Speaker
Again. yeah Yeah. And the fact that like, again, like there were certain forever about that, about her portrayals, Lois, it was so certain, certain tropes are like overdone, right? Like we didn't need to see her not know who he was and like go through that whole thing again. Like it was just, or it was just kidnapped by some guy she saw yesterday. Yeah.
00:34:19
Speaker
It was just nice to see ah so like a strong portrayal of her. And I love the whole like punk rock, thing that was woven through it you know um basically i mean effectively like treating uh metropolis like new york city it was she was basically like oh a punk rocker from brooklyn you know it was effectively what what she said um And he's a punk rocker from Kansas. Yeah. Listening to Christian rock.
00:34:48
Speaker
Yeah. The crab, the crab joys or whatever it was. that I forget what they're like. Yeah. Pop. Basically the pop punk band. He was basically a Blink-A-D-2
Lois Lane and Supporting Characters
00:34:55
Speaker
fan. Yeah. Or good Charlotte. It was more more what they looked like. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:59
Speaker
yeah Or simple plan. pi Take your pick. yeah But ah people like them. I will not allow simple plan slander here. No splendor. I love them all. But yeah, it it was. um Yeah, he he was just.
00:35:12
Speaker
But she's like, all right, dude, come get me when you hear, know, rocket to Russia. All right. Yeah. Yep. Yep. um I mean, that that portrayal was also right up there with the version from the animated series. like Or Margot Kidder. Yeah, or Margot Kidder. But like to go with that modern style, like James Gunn said it.
00:35:32
Speaker
This was heavily influenced also by the animated series, and as well as a bunch of the comics that he read. All-Star. Big All-Star. All-Star, Birthright. it had all those notes. All-Star is a great arc, too. It's like, I think...
00:35:49
Speaker
Of that era, probably the best Grant Morrison thing. Because it ain't Final Crisis, that's for sure. I mean, just all those notes, though. It had everything that you could want.
00:36:01
Speaker
um I will say that, you know, you mentioned the gamification of what Lex was doing. My brain instantly went to Guardians when they were all using their... The ships were by the hive mind.
00:36:15
Speaker
yeah i was like, oh, this is like... That's that scene, but with Superman... ah Yeah, I mean, there's there's one thing, too. Like, you you know, you you mentioned you mentioned Guardians.
00:36:26
Speaker
And I think one of the things that James Gunn has proven in this in this movie that he is not like a flash in the pan regarding is his ability to develop ancillary characters to almost the point of scene stealers.
00:36:43
Speaker
in And in some case, for sure, scene stealers. And all three of them were. Yeah. Yeah. I personally like i so and i know who Guy Gardner is. I know who Hawkgirl is. And by the way, do Dora the Explorer is Hawkgirl. Just perfect.
00:36:58
Speaker
Well, i always think of it because as she did that first. She was the first live action Dora the Explorer. And she's fantastic in The Last of Us season two, by the way, as well. If anyone's not watching that, she hasn't seen it, haven't watched it yet. I have to watch it. She's fantastic in that.
00:37:10
Speaker
um My dad, by far my favorite character. um But I. Mr. Terrific. Like, I knew I knew nothing about that hair. I mean, and I knew generally that he existed, that he had a T on his face and that he was like a tech guy.
00:37:26
Speaker
But like, I didn't really know much about the character. and I mean that and he ended up being is part of how he controls the he he ended up yeah being probably my favorite part of the movie, to be to be perfectly honest. Like,
00:37:43
Speaker
every every time he was on the scene, you know, and ah we'll we'll talk about the toys at the end here. But like like I made a ah ah post on Instagram where I said, like, I went from knowing nothing about the character to wanting to know what he eats for dinner every night.
Justice League Setup
00:37:57
Speaker
Like, I just I found him so interesting and it was like, give me more like in those little glimpses of like them putting the Justice League together and seeing the classic Justice Hall of Justice.
00:38:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's like straight out of superpowers or superfriends, whatever you want to and Seconds later. i was going to say, Joe, hit us with a meanwhile. Meanwhile. That's the Hall of Justice.
00:38:22
Speaker
Seconds later, at the Hall of Justice. the ah Seeing like a Honda parked out front of it and like just like like dudes on scaffolds like working on it. like it It just... there and And that was kind of one of the things tonally that I loved about this was almost like the non-sequitur nature of some of the things that happened. right like like No one thinks it's weird that there's a giant... like you know, floating eyeball eyeball in the sky or like this exists.
00:38:54
Speaker
Exactly. but But like, think about like, like the way that I looked at it. i i had like a little chuckle to myself as I'm sitting there because there's one scene when he's fighting the kaiju that galactic imp. They'll take care Yeah, I was dying. They got this.
00:39:11
Speaker
When he's fighting the kaiju, right? did Lots to unpack in this scene because it was it was just awesome. But there's they keep cutting to this one guy who's just casually watching Superman fight this literal, like... This is everyday life for these people. Eating a hot dog, right? like It's just like watching Superman fight this thing, but like ah yards away from the the front of his floor-to-ceiling glass window, right?
00:39:37
Speaker
Like these people have adjusted to the the world around them in a way that like we as like people who grew up in New York, New Jersey, like when you see weird stuff in New York, you just are just like, like you
Superman's Heroic Actions
00:39:52
Speaker
don't even react to it. You just keep walking or like you're like, oh, you know, i mean I want to talk about this. kind and And these people are in Delaware. Eric, you've been to Delaware.
00:40:06
Speaker
Well done, Dave. Well done. And now a word from our sponsors.
00:40:17
Speaker
This segment is brought to you by our friends at Chubsy Wubsy Toys, a traditional mom and pop toy store in Little Falls, New Jersey. Chubsy Wubsy Toys brings you the best new toys from the brands you love without the hassle of pounding the pavement, searching for them at larger retail stores.
00:40:33
Speaker
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00:40:46
Speaker
That's
00:40:52
Speaker
And tell them Adventures in Collecting sent you.
00:40:58
Speaker
And now, back to the show. So, yes, the kaiju scene, Joe. I want to talk about this kaiju scene. And we're now we're going to start getting into ah some bashing territory.
00:41:09
Speaker
um The over the the not overcorrection, but the correction that was made here was Superman stops the kaiju from crashing into a building.
00:41:20
Speaker
He looks back at the people and says, is everybody OK? Well, the kaiju is still there. But that's what he would do. Right, right. It's fantastic. Also, I want to save the kaiju.
00:41:33
Speaker
I don't want to kill the kaiju. Well, Superman doesn't kill things. Guess what? I love that you... Zack! I love that he's on the ground. That was one of the moments where he we we got the first like gosh or like or like golly. Because, you know, they're like, go he he tells... He's like, oh, gosh.
00:41:51
Speaker
He tells Mr. Terrific, right? Like, Mr. Terrific is like, what's you know what's going on? And he's like, his skin's really hard and then tries to make like, i'm but I'm just trying to get him out of the city. And Mr. Terrific rolls his eyes and is like, go for the eyes. Yeah, go for the eyes. And he's like, oh,
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah. And then, you know, a guy Gardner produces one of the best constructs I think I've ever seen. And just that piston that's just poking him in the eye The one that would just like repeatedly. And this monster is just getting pissed and he puts oven mitts on it. And Hawker's like, what are you? Can you help?
00:42:23
Speaker
Like Superman saves a squirrel. That was the best. He squirrel. So, you know, we see that again, like, you know from the trailers and where we always when we see trailers, we're always trying to guess like where a scene fits into like the larger thing.
00:42:37
Speaker
you would think that like Superman saving that girl from all of those, um, like but the, the, the debris, right? Like you'd think like that was like some big, like epic, um, third act, maybe even final acts like moment. Nope. It was a borderline throwaway during the Kaiju scene because the justice gang come in and they're a little light, little looser on the like protect everybody rules.
00:43:02
Speaker
So he then goes on to basically like, you know, crowd detail, right? And as and Superman's running around saving and little girls, saves a woman, saves ah a squirrel. Saves a dog. about it Saves the yeah. The Justice Gang are corporate-funded, like, subcontractors, effectively. Yep, yep, because the Justice League is not a thing yet.
00:43:24
Speaker
um Guy Gardner's oven mitts were fantastic, too. Love those. I made oven mitts! Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like And and to your to your point, Joe, like tonally, this was such a shift from everything, like even just from the color palette to the lighting and to the underwear on the outside again.
00:43:46
Speaker
um so and that that was even the comics. Like Superman was always, know, daytime and bright colors. Yeah. Flash are very similar. Because he had nothing to hide. You know, like that was. Batman works at night. Like.
00:44:00
Speaker
Yep. Yep. And, you know Batman plays a little like he's got his roles, but like he's not he's willing to break some legs and arms and bones and, you know, to get some information. Superman actually has to actively think about put pulling his punches.
00:44:14
Speaker
It's like a the Spider-Man scenario. You have to he has to actively super think about pulling those punches. The monster that killed him into outer space. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:27
Speaker
Yep. Yep. It's just it's it's wild ah that that correction. And it's the best correction anybody could have ever asked. for And and the whole movie, the premise of the whole movie, right, is set up effectively playing on that.
00:44:44
Speaker
like weakness to a fault, right? Like he gets into that argument with Lois in the very beginning of the movie and where he he's like, you could interview Superman. And she asks him hard journalism, like real journalism questions. or Who said you could?
Superman's Personal Crisis
00:44:59
Speaker
Yeah. Like that was outside of it for me. That's what I do like. And he keeps repeating to the point where he gets like enraged with her. And he's like he he screams at the top of his lungs. People were going to die.
00:45:14
Speaker
ah his His delivery of those type of things, just like... You felt that in your... Yeah. like In your soul. yeah like Everyone's made that argument with somebody.
00:45:24
Speaker
Yeah, and and it's it's like He he is um not courageous. He is he's, uh, um, righteous to a fall.
00:45:36
Speaker
And sometimes that is Superman's biggest hubris is the fact that like, he can't see, he can't see past the, I'm here to save people.
00:45:47
Speaker
And like, whatever happens next, we'll deal with that when we have to deal with it. But like right now, like people were going to die and I, and I stopped that from happening. Now it turns out that like,
00:46:00
Speaker
in the grand scheme of things, he was right. Like Superman was totally right. He, he did what he, he, what he should have done. he did. He ended up just didn't know that he was like, yeah, you, you find out at the end that it's like, okay, you know, yes, he did sort of step into Lex's trap because Lex knew that he was going to do that and knew that all of these other events were going to be set off from that, um you know, from that one singular action. And that's part of Lex's brilliance is is genius, right? Is that,
00:46:28
Speaker
you know he knew that that was going to happen but like it was just so refreshing to see a superman that was instead of being like embroiled in his emotions was dedicated to like he knew what he was dedicated to even when he superman always has a crisis of confidence like that just right yeah happens Yeah.
00:46:52
Speaker
And I and I loved I loved the spin on that in this movie, too. Like the fact that the message was damaged. Right. And we hear from his parents and it's that, you know, the he only knows the first half of it, which is like go to Earth, you know, their closet imperialists. like Yeah.
00:47:10
Speaker
And then when he hears that that's and then that's when his crisis occurs. Right. Like he hears the rest of the message and the whole time he's like, Like even like the the Superman robots, right? Like they play that first part of the message to like soothe him. You know, he gets to hear his his his parents voice. Right.
00:47:26
Speaker
um And then the spin on that. Right. Here's the second half of the message for the first time. It has this crisis of like, oh, my God, they sent me here to rule. I made the wrong assumption.
00:47:37
Speaker
um my God. Like, what do I do now? Like, what who who am I even? And then and then, know, we were talking about ah talking this, talking about this a little bit before we started recording. But both of you, I think, Joe, you actually started to make the point that this is the best, if if not the best, one of the best mom pot kents.
00:47:54
Speaker
Oh, God. And yes and they they come in clutch to pull him out of that crisis and and really kind of. show him who he is.
00:48:05
Speaker
That scene with Pa Kent outside of the house when Superman's eating his cereal or whatever he's doing, or Superman, Clark. Clark is eating his cereal.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yeah, we're back in Smallville. Yeah, we're back in Smallville. That ah legitimately brought a tear to my eye. Yeah. I'm like, he delivered it perfectly, and it's like, you're not who your parents are. We can help. We can give you tools.
00:48:31
Speaker
It's up to you how you use those tools. Yeah. You know, we're here to embarrass you. We're here to but we're here to to help you make try to help you make right the right choices. But it's up to you at the end of the day.
Crypto's Debut and Supergirl
00:48:42
Speaker
Only use speakerphone on our smartphone, which people are like that. They're dumb. No, they're not. That's what people do. Which what parent doesn't do that?
00:48:53
Speaker
Yeah, the only reason our mother doesn't do that is because we've yelled at her enough to not do it No, she doesn't. Speakerphone? I've never, not in front of me. Not in front, never. She knows better. i just, like, I love, i love the phone is on the table. Both of her hands are on the table and she's fucking the phone.
00:49:11
Speaker
Yep. We've all seen it. ah Like, i mean, just based on the the the the jobs we've currently we've held, And the dad's tinkering Pac-Hent's tinkering with stuff. Like, right it was perfect.
00:49:24
Speaker
Yeah. yeah i did I did have a ah ah moment, though, when with the message being... They were funny. Like, yeah everything was funny. the ah The message that, you know, Jor-El had left, I'm like, oh, Superman's Goku.
00:49:39
Speaker
Yeah, pretty pretty much. fresh Dragon Ball, Goku hits his head, comes down to Earth, meets meets Gohan, and yeah he becomes a good man. we We've come full circle, right? I mean, I think that... you know Even that, that's something that's been told in you comics and yeah, like James Gunn definitely pulled from source.
00:50:00
Speaker
Oh, it's not like he like was like, you know what? Let me make them this. Yep. Um, and speaking of pulling from source, something else that we've seen for the first time now and in movies back here on our screen here is a crypto.
00:50:12
Speaker
Yeah. Oh my way ever the The bestest boy. Um, yeah. James Gunn's dog. I, so I was reading a, a stat, uh, today I saw, I saw an ex that, um,
00:50:26
Speaker
following the opening weekend of this film, dog adoptions nationwide are up like, yes, like a noticeable percentage. Um, Google searches for like, where can I adopt dog?
00:50:39
Speaker
um you know, pet which I love. I'm I'm super allergic to dogs, which sucks, but I love everyone else's dogs. I like to say I'm I'm the my I'm the best dog uncle. Callie adopted a crypto toy.
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Callie. We found a little spin master crypto toy on a on a little jaunt to Walmart after the movie, because I I needed to to look for that.
00:51:04
Speaker
well We'll get into it, but i'm I'm still missing the Superman robot. So I was like, I i need to go find it um but yeah i i uh i loved crypto and i loved the twist that crypto is not actually superman's dog that it's uh that it's supergirls if if you think that yep if you think that superman was mad that lex took crypto oh my goodness imagine what cara would have done When he comes in, where's the dog? Oh, when busts through that door and fli throws that desk.
00:51:39
Speaker
And that whole thing, too, like the the timing of like him picking them, like ah Lex picking the mug up just in time. to So that way the mug doesn't get flipped at the table. And as he's drinking, he's like, this is a stupid white dog in a red cape. Yeah.
00:51:55
Speaker
Once again, ah my wife leans into me and she goes, if he does anything to this dog. so i don't know if it's still I don't know if it still exists, but there used to be this website called like, does the dog die? oh yeah. No, that's that's the thing. OK, it's they've added a lot to it. Like, OK. All right. Dogs, cats. Like, there's a lot. so I did not look beforehand. I kind of figured that crypto would be okay. I did. I didn't think James Gunn would do that, at least in the, at least in the first movie.
00:52:23
Speaker
Um, but I will say one of the few moments in the movie that did give me sort of like pause was when we get the cameo for super girl. Um, I'm curious to see if that's like a this is Supergirl on like PTO slash vacation. I know they make the call out to like, you know, Kryptonians like to go places with the red suns because they can get drunk. I thought that that was hilarious. Like the whole scene played out perfectly to me. Like I didn't it didn't bother me in the moment.
00:52:53
Speaker
It was one of those things that just gave me a little bit of pause because like. Well, Joey held up the books. Yeah. So a recommendation that was made to me was Superman, Woman of Tomorrow, Tom King, Supergirl, yeah, Supergirl, Woman, we're talking so much about Superman, Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow by, written by Tom King, it was a recommendation made to me way before this movie was even, you know, even really announced, and, by the way is the story that the, her movie is based on, her movie is going to be based on this, so I need to go through, read this, and, and check it out, let's just say it's not out of character,
00:53:31
Speaker
Okay. Apparently she's a ah big time mess. So, okay. So we are getting hot mess. Supergirl. Okay. We're going to get hot mess. Supergirl. Not mad about it. I'm okay with it.
00:53:42
Speaker
Again. It was just one of those things where it was like, huh? Like it gave me like a moment of, of like pause. I'm just curious. Cause I don't know if they're going like do anything with the, um, Kara's parents never really agreed with,
00:54:00
Speaker
um superman's parents i mean they could they could be like look we're not conquerors and go that route a lot of and there's like a whole know there was a whole sub story at some point where like i believe they sent her in order to make sure he doesn't didn't do that hmm yeah i mean lot of people there was a couple theories of things going on too millie alcock is the yeah yeah A lot of theories that were going around that like, oh, Brainiac altered the message.
Superman's Vulnerabilities and Justice League
00:54:34
Speaker
Zod altered the message. No, I don't think anybody did.
00:54:37
Speaker
But that was a theory that people were having. I mean, maybe just because they didn't want that. You know, don't want that. sort There's been a lot of discourse for certain things. One of my buddies told me yesterday even that people were upset about that floating eye scene.
00:54:50
Speaker
And I thought it was a perfect comic book panel. and That's exactly what it is. And I mean, it like it wasn't a dereliction of duty yeah know on Superman's part. That is a comic book panel in a half. what yeah yeah and the And the first thing he said, like Lois was even like, were you out there helping them? And he was like, now they have it like yeah they have it handled.
00:55:09
Speaker
I mean, um that the discourse against him, even one of my really good friends is anything. I don't like how we get it. Was it? Yeah. Right. Yeah. yeah and And that's the thing. He wasn't he wasn't weak.
00:55:22
Speaker
Right. I made that whole I did a whole entire dissertation for my buddy. If you read the thing at the beginning, this is the first time he's ever lost. Yeah. He lost because he's fighting a clone of himself. He when he fights Kryptonians.
00:55:35
Speaker
he gets fucked up. Yeah. One of them kills him. Yeah. One of them kills him. Like he gets messed up when he fights other Kryptonians or something. That's basically just as strong as him.
00:55:47
Speaker
And he only, he went out at 80% strength. yeah Then he gets crypto kryptonite poisoning and then still goes out to go fight. yeah Like he's not at full power.
00:55:57
Speaker
Yeah, he he he falls into this like proton lake or whatever in the hell they called it. haven't even talked about Metamorpho yet. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Metamorpho has to make stuff up in order to like power him up a little.
00:56:11
Speaker
yeah um Yeah, basically makes ah fuuse fus and fusion. like basically makes us i make i can kind of make a son. um he was great, too. We also haven't talked about Eve. I mean, listen, we're we're not going to be able to... And and and sex machine Jimmy Olsen. Eve, the low-key smartest person in the movie. Yeah, that... Eve Tesmacher.
00:56:32
Speaker
Yeah, so good. Otis Berg.
00:56:36
Speaker
okay there was there was bur There wasn't a bad... That's Otis' last name is Berg. I love it, Otis Berg. There wasn't a bad... um piece of casting in the entire movie i mean every everybody everybody did what they had to do um in terms like lex's like chuds that are like oh yay we'll help you kill superman like yeah yeah just i mean everybody everybody everybody was excellent um in terms of the story and yeah and yeah metamorpho what ah what an underutilized character
00:57:08
Speaker
That again, like that those are the types of things that James Gunn succeeds at. Right. Right into Justice Gang. like And DC, like Marvel has a lot of weird characters, like, you know, people with like wacky superpowers and stuff like that. Like Marvel marvel is like, like, you know filthy with those.
00:57:26
Speaker
But DC's got some like real weirdos, like some like some like serious weirdo characters. So I think he's going to really soar here, especially. He's going to have a good time.
00:57:37
Speaker
Dude, Peacemaker is like a big deal now. Yeah. Yeah. And he had a great cameo as like as basically like like MAGA Peacemaker, which was hilarious um on Michael Michael Ian Black's conservative conservative show.
00:57:54
Speaker
um is tucker Tucker Carlson show. Yeah, I'm going to be more of like a gut field. Fair. I'm going to be so curious, like when they because they're going to bring in Martian Manhunter. Like we did. We got no Martian Manhunter. Well, they got they did mention Mars at one point. And he said, I'm not a Martian. I'm Kryptonian.
00:58:14
Speaker
Right. That was. Yeah. But they, they you know, like got that. What is it? Man of Steel, I think, or one of those one of those Snyder movies had a cameo by Martian Manhunter and it was like, that was it. and No, it didn't.
00:58:27
Speaker
It had a guy who everybody thought should play Martian Manhunter. for the Snyder cut, he was like, you know what? you Everybody's got a good idea. I'm not going to lie. That wasn't a bad idea.
00:58:39
Speaker
Like it honestly wasn't, but it was the perfect example of why that stuff was so
Superman's Timelessness and Merchandise
00:58:45
Speaker
broken. Crowd source stuff for this. Yeah. Let's make this happen. It was like two seconds though. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:51
Speaker
Nothing. ah it was, I think before we head into toys, cause I can't believe we've already been talking about just the the movie for an hour here. Let's let's, um, before we shift into toys, um, tonally like,
00:59:06
Speaker
I think we can all comfortably say like DC is back with this. Like we're, this is back on track. It is a great, um, you know glimpse into what we're going to be seeing with, with the DC universe under James Gunn. And,
00:59:21
Speaker
you know, I think we have a lot of we really good stuff to look, look toward, look forward to. So, I mean, Lex using monkeys to be rage baiting online trolls was just, yep.
00:59:33
Speaker
You know who he's talking about. Yep. We know. Yep. Yep. Yep. Hashtag super shit. Oh man. You know, you know, I don't like that one. Yeah.
00:59:44
Speaker
It's a bad word. That's why. yeah yeah And also that word. And also Superman just not being on social media like him. little bit. he A little bit. I read it a little bit. This is so funny.
00:59:55
Speaker
um All right. So would like any good superhero movie, we've got, you know, the little bit, by the way, is guy busting his chops. Yeah. And sending it to him. Yeah. One last thing before we get into the toys, because I think this is an important part of the movie.
01:00:10
Speaker
um And it does have to do with Justice Gang, but it I think it's like a super important thing going forward. Yeah. People know who he is.
01:00:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, like like a multiple ven you oh yes yeah. think know who Superman is. Yes. I love Guy Gardner for that. That was... yeah Well, it makes sense that they know. if They am kind of have to.
01:00:34
Speaker
That whole scene where Lois yells at him like, well, what if I didn't know? Like, why would you tell me? What if I didn't know? about the hip It's the hypnoglasses. You know about the hypnoglasses. And then he goes he goes, well, you're one of the cloth.
01:00:45
Speaker
i i One of the cloth. I almost pissed my pants. I was laughing so hard. And middle finger constructs. He's so good. Yeah. Jimmy and Jimmy and Perry White 100% no.
01:00:58
Speaker
No, no, no, they don't. They just they just know that Lois is with Superman.
01:01:05
Speaker
I think they know. Actually, no. You know what? I take that back. You're right. Because how would they? Lois has never interviewed Superman before. So when they walk away at the end together to to go on their interview, they they both know.
01:01:20
Speaker
Yeah, 100 percent. Yeah. Yeah, they know. They definitely know. That's funny. I didn't really think about that until right now. They definitely know. Yeah. I mean, the people at the Daily Planet are not dumb. Maybe Cat Grant doesn't know.
01:01:33
Speaker
well i and And Lombard definitely doesn't know. Lombard is dumb. Yeah, lumbar hat Lombard is dumb. Cat Grant was so good. um' So good. But yeah, i i I think this is just going to be one of those instances where Clark Kent like quietly goes away.
01:01:50
Speaker
ah And it's just he's just Superman. like i No, I think at some point they're going to be like Clark and he's going to be like, Who's Clark? And they're going to be like, come on, dude. play rolls Roll their eye.
01:02:01
Speaker
Like in the Justice League movie or something. Like, they're going like, come on, dude. so Batman's going to know as soon as he shows up. So let's talk about toys. so that man won't Batman will know because he has to. do Because he detectives his way He's world's greatest detective.
01:02:16
Speaker
um So there, there have already been a ton of toys for this, this movie, which is amazing to see. You love to see it. um Everything from, from kid related stuff all the way up to like adult collector and, and, and beyond. Right.
01:02:30
Speaker
um So we got a chance to see a preview of some of these at New York toy fair, which was awesome. um We have actually a review up of this, ah this two pack up on our YouTube channel right now. So, um, the the superman and kaiju slime battle um takes some some kenner-esque liberties in terms of what what actually you get in terms of play features which i absolutely love um but you do get to liquefy his guts so you do get to liquefy his guts if you have a little mr terrific he can do his thing
01:03:02
Speaker
So ah this is also the first and so far only Hammer of Baravia figure, which is super cool because, of course, this is a character within a character, right? um And then, you know, this is neat, right? Because we were sweet we get the Luthor Corp ah pack.
01:03:19
Speaker
um I will say it's Luthor Corp, much more of a mouthful than Lex Corp, but... Maybe he'll change it after he gets out of prison. Maybe. um Rebranding. But you get ah you get a couple of the six-inch heroes here. You get our our very own little baby Joey.
01:03:34
Speaker
um ah and And what's really neat is you get a ah ah what if Lex had a power suit. Yeah. So maybe at some point, ah you know, we know that, you know, the toys are are made, you know, off of concept art a lot of times. So maybe at some point Lex was supposed to wear the power suit.
01:03:53
Speaker
possible. But yeah, there's there's a whole whole range of of really cool... wouldn't surprised if it was like a surviving the pocket universe thing. or Yeah. Yeah, there's there's a whole lot of really cool... Controlling Ultraman, something along those lines. spin master stuff out there.
01:04:08
Speaker
um And then moving on from spin master. NECA's got this amazing quarter scale. ah this So it's like 12, 13, 14 inches, something like that. um Quarter scale action figure.
01:04:19
Speaker
um What's really cool is a friend of the pod, Blaine, posted some awesome behind the scenes. I don't know if you guys had a chance to see this. He actually got to go on set to the Fortress of Solitude. Oh, that's awesome.
01:04:31
Speaker
um I didn't see him here. So he... he He was there while you were in. he You were out for lunch. um I was seeing the movie and that's what. bla up So he ah he took some photos on set.
01:04:44
Speaker
ah He brought a sketchbook with him. They weren't allowed. So they they went as part of like a ah merchandising thing. They got to actually talk to James Gunn. They got to see the caught the real costume up up close. They got to see the the super bot, the Superman bots up close.
01:05:00
Speaker
They they learned about how you know the Fortress of Solitude was going to work and everything. But they weren't allowed to take any photos or um the photos that they did take, they couldn't access them until after they basically had to like give them over to Warner Brothers and Warner the Brothers was like, after the movies come out, we'll give you your photos back. Oh, wow. um But what he was allowed to do was for the purposes of the toy was sketch.
01:05:25
Speaker
So he posted pictures of his sketches of the suit and a lot of the things that James Gunn was saying about the suit, like it's not supposed to be skin tight or like tactical. It's supposed to fit like a like a tailored suit so like it has give it has wrinkles it has you know textures and things and different fabrics and like his mom helped make it so yeah um so this is the result of what you're seeing from neka is based on blaine's sketches which is i think is really neat um
01:05:57
Speaker
So then we have SH Figure Arts, ah Bondi and Tamashii Nations entering the fray here with their their version of ah of Superman. um By the way, a lot of ah what you're seeing is available for pre-order on Big Bad Toy Store and other retailers. So AICpodcast.com forward slash links and you can find all this stuff.
01:06:18
Speaker
But the SH Figure Arts Superman. ah Then you've got the Beast Kingdom. So this is the... I never saw that. one um this is their eight inch superman so it's part of their eight inch action line uh you know you get uh superman and and crypto there uh the of course the the hot toys um deluxe uh one-sixth scale superman and crypto so this is your your you know your 12 inch figure there um
01:06:50
Speaker
but uh yeah again with like the the the cloth goods and then we get into mcfarlane so for a company that is potentially moving out of the dc world they have over or one could say they've they've delivered heavily for this movie so um there are two store exclusives so one uh being this uh there's actually a few more than two store exclusives there's three, four, there's four store exclusives.
01:07:18
Speaker
So um one is the Superman robot. Number four, Gary. This is Gary voiced by Alan Tudyk. um So you can find this at Walmart.
01:07:30
Speaker
I'm going to move myself over here. um The other ah two exclusives um are Mr. Terrific. such a good likeness so mr terrific uh and this is again walmart uh walmart exclusive um this is part of the deluxe line so it's the they're the it's the 35 figure so it's got the um the interchangeable he doesn't also have a face hole he also has a face hole dave and yes i'm gonna show it
01:08:02
Speaker
So he's got this is a family show. Oh, oh, God. He's got the interchangeable face plates. So, um yeah, but they look they they look really they look really great. This is an awesome figure. So how dare you show his face hole?
01:08:16
Speaker
Awesome figure. um The other oh, wait, the other exclusive is the battle damage, which I didn't realize until I opened it. The battle damaged Ultraman. So um much like the regular Ultraman, he's got some crap, but he just has some cracked glasses and some like dirty deco. The dirty figures are Target, correct?
01:08:36
Speaker
um Walmart. For this one. So the the other dirty figure, we'll we'll get to that in a moment. um We've got Nicholas Holtz, ah Lex Luthor, and in hand looks incredible. Baby Kaiju. I'll have I'll have this tomorrow. on no No face hole on this one. It's full heads.
01:08:55
Speaker
Yes. ah We've got Metamorpho. Metamorpho. love Metamorpho. Dude, everyone who passed on that Metamorpho early is like. Yeah. Kicking themselves. Now me included.
01:09:08
Speaker
So you got the regular version of Superman here. So this is the the standard twenty five dollar Superman. This has a dirty variant which you can find a target. So a battle damaged ah dirty variant.
01:09:19
Speaker
um And then you've got the deluxe which I have here. This figure is amazing. I have him as well. You've got the soft goods wired cape. This is a this is a fantastic fantastic figure. Really, really good figure.
01:09:34
Speaker
um And then this is the regular Ultraman there. As you can see, it's just without the without the battle damage. um McFarlane also has... an entire wave of superpowers. um So great.
01:09:49
Speaker
the The main players here, the Fortress of Solitude and then the T-Craft. um Yeah, whole whole lot of whole lot of Superman.
01:10:00
Speaker
um They've got one-sixth scale i PVC statue. And then they also have, i thought they have...
01:10:11
Speaker
I must not have a picture of it here. Sorry. There's also a one six scale resin statue. That's like a $300 like like big statue. um And then you've got these sort of Todd's mods. They're not labeled Todd's mods, but the metamorphosis certainly looks like one.
01:10:30
Speaker
um We have vinyl there and they're big. Yeah, big um vinyl figures. Bobblehead size. Yeah. So you got the Kaiju. You got baby Joey.
01:10:41
Speaker
Oh, baby Joey. ah And and and the Kaiju. um And Metamorpho. Yeah. And Metamorpho. So it's a wild Metamorpho.
01:10:52
Speaker
So really, really cool um offering out there for toys. And then i would be I would be remiss um if we didn't also mention.
01:11:05
Speaker
Popcorn buckets. Hold on. So Joey's going to get the one that he got from ah from AMC. um But I'll talk about the Cinemark one real quick. It's Crypto's Dog Bowl.
01:11:18
Speaker
So um if you go see it at Cinemark, for $20 human U.S. s dollars, you can ah you can eat your popcorn out of a dog bowl like a like ah Kryptonian dog.
01:11:30
Speaker
like I like how you said human dollars, like Dan Houser said the presidency. And then Joey, what do you got there? yeah I've got this popcorn bucket, which is your Daily Planet newspaper holder, which is pretty awesome. This thing opens up right in the front here. Popcorn will be in there. But the other fun thing is you can swap the article on the front. Very cool. People have been storing comic books in there, I've heard.
01:11:57
Speaker
Interesting. Really? I mean, the whole, I guess it could work. do you have can Does it open anywhere else? Does it open at the bottom or anything? No.
01:12:07
Speaker
No. That's weird. Whoever started doing this whole like yeah popcorn bucket thing at movie theaters, I hope i hope there they're making a lot of
Superman's Cultural Impact
01:12:17
Speaker
money. was going to say Disney and the theme parks. That's why I specifically said at the movie theaters. Whoever went to Disneyland or Disney World and was like, we should do this for movies.
01:12:29
Speaker
And then they decided to do that one with Dune. But you know what? Well, said it earlier when you talk about face holes. I'm not going to I'm not going to, you know, sully the the family nature of the show. Hugh Jackman's mouth.
01:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, the Wolverine mouth one, I think, is probably there is that too. That was probably the best one for that whole thing. The fantastic there's two for Fantastic Four.
01:12:54
Speaker
yeah I saw the the the Reed The one where he's the he's the handle. His body is the handle and his arms are like grasping the popcorn bucket. There's that one, but did you see Galactus? Oh, yeah.
01:13:06
Speaker
But there's also Herbie. Did you see the Herbie one? The Herbie one has like sound effects and light effects. It's got sound effects, lights. You can hold the drink in his head. yeah And then there's like the the storage for the popcorn.
01:13:18
Speaker
And he also has storage for candy. Yeah. um are they are this Is the storage for candy in his legs?
01:13:26
Speaker
Might be in... They're making a separate one and of the thing and it's going to be in his pants. It's going to be the things candy pants. It's candy time.
01:13:38
Speaker
There it is. There it is. Say that. Say the thing, Joey. Say the thing. oh man. I wore this shirt two weeks early. Damn. ah Where's the you the original berth? need to get one of those. All right. But yeah, so I think the last thing that we need to say before we before we um we depart here and and end this is, ah would you, out of um out of five Archies, how do you rate Superman?
01:14:04
Speaker
and And would you recommend somebody to go see it? I mean, what's the scale based on? Every movie or Superman movies?
01:14:17
Speaker
did you Did you enjoy your level of enjoyment of the movie? Five out of five, Archie's. I would recommend anybody. my My wife is not a Superman fan, and she actually enjoyed this movie.
01:14:30
Speaker
My four-year-old loved it. I loved it. I left the movie theater and bought a Superman shirt. So, I mean, like, I but i would give it... i would give it I would give it five out of five Archie's, too, for enjoyment. Yeah, it's right up there with 78. Like, who are we getting?
01:14:46
Speaker
Yeah, and and then that was the other question I was going to ask. where do you Where do you rank this in the pantheon of of Superman movies? because They're one in one a Yeah, I mean, my favorite Superman movie before seeing this was probably part two.
01:15:01
Speaker
Donner Cut, yeah. The Donner Cut um was was probably my favorite. The Donner Cut is good for... historical purposes i i i just said that the donner cut like repeating joe the original the original superman 2 i like the doner is my was my favorite i i have a i wish i wish they put the money and effort into the donner cut that they put into the snyder cut i i have i have also like the three hour superman one cut too but
01:15:35
Speaker
I am very heavily influenced by recency bias. Like i and I know that. So I I'm afraid to put it as my favorite, but my gut is telling me that this is
Future Superman Storylines and DC Projects
01:15:46
Speaker
my favorite. I think it'll hold up.
01:15:48
Speaker
So. I think the reasoning behind it being the favorite is, you know, we all know the story of Superman, right? We know his planet explodes. We know his is dad, you know, we, we know the whole, the whole thing.
01:16:02
Speaker
And the fact that it skips over just like Spider-Man did for Marvel as well. Like we didn't need to see Spider-Man getting bit, you know, by the spider. Um, same thing with, you know, we know what's going to happen with Batman. They're not going to show his parents dying and the pearls hitting the, yeah, I was going to say, I'm, I don't need, I never need pearls landing in a puddle in an alleyway ever again. Right. We don't need that. We're skipping to Damien.
01:16:26
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, they're, they're going, sure. You know, they're going right to Damien in this. Um, I ah the thing I'm excited for is now that he's done this, my and I think a lot of people feel this way, too, especially like, you know, people of a certain age, right?
01:16:43
Speaker
Like the death of Superman. Is that like moment in comic history was so like red hot.
01:16:55
Speaker
I would love to see him tackle this. I would like to see him tackle it much farther down the line. like Not like next, but like... Because we we got to we did we did get that.
01:17:09
Speaker
And it was bad. No, but I want like Steel and Superboy and like the... The Eradicator. The Eradicator. Cyborg, yeah. I think would do... How do you know that name? Mullet Superman, you know.
01:17:20
Speaker
I think he would do so well with that. Oh, 100%. It can't be movie, No, no. I think that's going to be something that he builds. Actually, you know what I would do?
01:17:32
Speaker
i would do death. Death is a movie. Reign of the Superman as shows. And then return to Superman as a movie. The other thing that I would love to see him do as well as like Darkest Night.
01:17:44
Speaker
Like, I think that would be really, really cool, you know, in this universe. Yeah. you know, and obviously I'm just excited to see the Justice League come together. I'm excited to see what he's going to do with Batman. I'm excited to see what the future holds for the Flash and for Wonder a Woman and Aquaman. And, you know, like, well, we're we're getting Lobo.
01:18:03
Speaker
And yeah, we're getting Lobo. We're getting Booster Gold. Yeah. as it Like to come we're getting Booster Gold. Booster Gold is going to be a sitcom. Yes. HBO sitcom.
01:18:14
Speaker
like Which is awesome. hopeful like Hopefully Kite Man shows up in it. Hell yeah. By the way, if you're not watching that har if you if you are not watching that very much so for adults Harley Quinn animated series, please yeah get adjust your schedule and and get that in. du We're getting a Clayface horror movie.
01:18:33
Speaker
That's insane, right? Animated horror movie, right? Is it animated? i thought it was animated. It's Mike Flanagan. It's as it's it's real is a theatrical film. yeah Perfect. Love it. James Gunn is an amazing horror storyteller. Animated, I think we're getting a Robin animated thing. That's what I was thinking. Yes. Yeah. Robin and Nightwing.
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah. It's Robin and Nightwing. Something else coming up is... ah Hold on. But um there's just so much like stuff. And, you know, James Gunn can lead into into all. And you said it earlier. He can lead into so much of the weird.
01:19:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I just honestly, I hope that the studio sees what he did here and they get out of his way and they. be Blue Beetle is going to be animated and they let him and they let him do his thing because, you know, you look at his track record at this point.
01:19:27
Speaker
you know suicide squad was fantastic peace made the season one peacemaker fantastic again creature commandos i haven't watched but have not heard anybody say anything bad about it um in fact and you're gonna get a uh a political drama in themiscaria Amazing. Interesting.
01:19:47
Speaker
Okay. I mean, i'm like west wing I'm here for it. you You guys know very much, you know, my love for Keanu movies and and for all things Keanu. If they were to not make Constantine like two, which I know that they were thinking about, you know, working on doing Constantine two with Keanu, even as an elsewhere, even if they decide to be like, you know what, we're not going to Constantine two, but they're going to let James Gunn and crew tackle a accurate Constantine.
01:20:19
Speaker
Yeah. This new world with Swamp Thing. Put the both of them together in a movie. Yeah. We're getting Swamp Thing to Swamp Thing is i James Mangold. So that's awesome. Great. Give me Swamp Thing and Constantine together in a team up.
01:20:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. What's that? Justice League Dark. so Yeah. but Start to put that stuff together. ily that get together Oh, man. That was going to be Del Toro's DCEU. That would have been so good.
01:20:44
Speaker
Hey, bring bring them back. frank Maybe maybe they can bring them back. But listen, I think, ah you know, there's a lot to look forward to. There's a lot of really good stuff um in the pipeline. And it's just nice to be able to talk about D.C. with a smile again when it comes to the
Closing Remarks
01:21:00
Speaker
movies. It's it's been a good.
01:21:02
Speaker
Peacemaker season two. It's it's nice to watch a movie where the hero smiles, too. And Supergirl's next year. Yep. And maybe and, you know, and I and i think that's it. That's a good closing sentiment. You know, I think ah maybe the new punk rock is kindness.
01:21:17
Speaker
Right. Yes, sir. So be good to each other. And ah and hey, guys, ah look up.
01:21:26
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both in our show notes.
01:21:42
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
01:21:58
Speaker
Don't try this at home. Voidware prohibited and some assembly required. Each sold separately, not a flying toy. Consult a physician if your toy run exceeds more than four hours.
01:22:06
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Frank Hablaui. This program and many others like it on the Non-Productive Network is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.
01:22:28
Speaker
my