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The Flash (2023)
304 Plays9 months ago
Isaac Walker of the Bright Brainz podcast races in to discuss what was called "the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight." And The Flash is many things, but it's definitely not that. We're coming in hot to tear apart DC's latest attempt to capitalize on Flashpoint.
Listen to Isaac on the Bright Brainz podcast or watch it on YouTube.
Want to tell us what you think? Have any questions or comments for Perry about superheroes in media or comics? Leave a voice message to play on the show. You can also apply to be a guest on the show.
PARAGONS OF EARTH is a comic book project I’m developing with Thomas Deja and Eric Johns. You can support the project by visiting crowdfundr.com/paragonscomic.
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Transcript
Introduction to Paragons of Earth Comic
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, before we get into the episode, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Paragons of Earth, the exciting new superhero comic I'm working on with Thomas DJ and Eric Johns. For this comic, we've unearthed a number of obscure and forgotten Golden Age superheroes, plucked them from the depths of the public domain, and completely redesigned and reinvented them for the modern day. It's an exciting cast of characters, and we're throwing them up against the threat of a Lovecraftian apocalypse.
00:00:24
Speaker
It's got action, it's got drama, it's got alternate dimensions and alien worlds, and it's even got a giant shark and Hawaiian shirt. What else could you want? But in order to make this comic a reality, we need your help. The comic is crowdfunding now, and you can help support it by going to crowdfunder.com slash paragonscomic.
00:00:42
Speaker
That's Crowdfunder Without the E dot com slash Paragons Comic. You'll be able to find that link in the show notes, so please double check if you didn't quite get it. Please help make this comic a reality. We are counting on your support. And now, on with the show.
Exploring Alternate Timelines and Time Concepts
00:01:11
Speaker
You're the same person as him, but from an alternate timeline. Yes. In which you and I are friends? Yeah, you're like probably my best friend. Yeah. Well, but you're a bit, you're chronologically different. Older. Well, and that's what I can't understand. I traveled back in time from here to here, yet somehow everything's all changed back here, or like when you were born.
00:01:40
Speaker
Well, time isn't linear, right? Right. At some point, we probably saw a movie that told you that if you went back and changed the past, you'd create a kind of a branched timeline, right? Look. New present and new future. Yeah. Well, time doesn't work like that.
00:02:09
Speaker
That's not how time works. When you go back and change the past, you create a full grow. You put yourself on a whole nother strand of spaghetti. No future, no past. It's retrocausal. It goes both ways. Actually, it goes many ways. Maybe some other time. Okay, but in an ontological paradox model, there's not...
00:02:34
Speaker
What you did was you changed the future and you changed the past. If a person is stupid enough to mess with time, what you eventually end up with is this. The multi-verse. Some strands run almost parallel. There will be inevitable intersections and others that are just wildly divergent. But it is. It's a hot mess.
00:03:05
Speaker
The crab shoot. It's all just the crab shoot. What does the parmesan mean? The metaphor's over. It's just a garnish. I'll tell you something. A person would have to be an idiot to play crabs with a space-time continuum. Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast.
Guest Introduction: Isaac Walker and Bright Brains Podcast
00:03:25
Speaker
I'm your host, Perry Constantine, and welcoming a new guest today, and that is Isaac Walker. Isaac, how you doing today?
00:03:31
Speaker
I'm doing great, man. I'm really excited to chop it up with you about comics and this crazy movie. I'm really excited to give my two cents on it. Yeah, I've got some thoughts about this movie. I'm probably going to be coming in a little bit hot.
00:03:48
Speaker
because my opinion does not, usually when it comes to a lot of these movies, my opinion over time kind of mellows a little bit, but in the months since I first saw this movie, that has definitely not happened. But we'll get to that. Before we get to that, why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself?
00:04:12
Speaker
All right, so my name, as you just said before, is Isaac Walker. I'm a new podcaster. I'm the host of the Bright Brains podcast. That's Brains with a Z on the end. We're available on all major podcast platforms. And it's new. I just started about a month ago. We have about 24 episodes and we update every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:04:35
Speaker
So basically a podcast is about anything and everything. We like to talk about a lot of social issues, what's going on in the world. I like to talk to people who have expertise on the issue. For example, I got an episode coming up about the environmental issue in East Palestine, Ohio. We talked in a couple of episodes about AI.
00:05:02
Speaker
which is something that is going to be affecting everybody's life. No matter what kind of job you work in, no matter what you do, AI is changing everything. I mean, I've been doing this podcasting for about a month and I feel like AI has radically changed the social media landscape.
00:05:22
Speaker
So, yeah, we talk about it. Anything that's major is happening in the news. We talk about, we also talk about paranormal things. Like, for example, I have an episode coming out Monday. We're talking about these mummies that were found in the Nasca caves.
00:05:40
Speaker
that are supposedly aliens so we get into that and you know i interviewed a guy who lived in a haunted apartment that's probably my most popular episode so again we're on all podcast platforms and we're also on youtube so just go over to youtube type in bright brains with a z and give us a listen
00:06:02
Speaker
Awesome, and we'll have that link in the show notes as well for people to check out. They can just click on that easily.
Impact of AI on Writing and Teaching
00:06:09
Speaker
Three times a week, man. Where do you find the time?
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's not easy, man. But before I started, I built up a nice little buffer of episodes. So when I'm not working, I just meet up with people. I send them an email. And I tend to make my episodes about 45 minutes or so. So they're not like massive affairs. But yeah, I'm just trying to get the content out there, trying to build a brand.
00:06:39
Speaker
You're listening right now and you're interested in what I'm talking about, just give us a listen. Get in on the ground floor. We also have a Facebook page where you can get updates and interact with me. Just be sure and check it out.
00:06:54
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. I listened a little bit to one of the AI episodes because AI is something that's definitely of interest to me. And it's helped my workflow actually a lot being a writer. It's helped me organize stuff for my books, helped out with marketing stuff. And as a teacher, it's even helped out with
00:07:14
Speaker
generating things like vocabulary lists and stuff like that. So it's definitely changing a lot of things and it'll be very interesting to see where things go from here. Yeah, definitely.
Motivation Behind Podcasting
00:07:30
Speaker
So what made you want to start the podcast in the first place?
00:07:34
Speaker
You know, I just wanted to get firsthand experience, you know, I feel like so much of the media isn't giving you the full story. And sometimes there will be a story that will pop up in the media. And I would want more information about it, you know, I would like I want to know
00:07:55
Speaker
more about what's going on. A lot of times news story will be in the media on social media for about a week and then they'll disappear. And I'm still wondering like what's happening to these people that were affected by, you know, say something that's happening in the Middle East or something that's happening here in our own backyard. And I just wanted to connect with people, get the story out, get a human element to it.
00:08:22
Speaker
You know, and like, for
Media Glorification of Controversial Figures
00:08:24
Speaker
example, I did a couple episodes about AI. And, you know, the way the media talks about this, I feel they don't really come from a common man perspective, right? You know, they don't talk about how this is going to affect us. And I just want to kind of break it down into a way that ordinary people can understand. And so I figured, you know, if
00:08:47
Speaker
I need to create my own space where people can go and get more information about stories during the media. Yeah. I mean, perfect example. We're recording this in early December, just a few days after Henry Kissinger died and talking about the way media covers things. There's all these fawning articles about him and none of it talking about all the war crimes he was responsible for.
00:09:14
Speaker
So yeah, yeah, and I that's something I encountered myself when I started to probably when I was University age because I was you know, I entered university right before the Iraq war and Seeing all the all the media spin about the Iraq war and just being like something doesn't feel right about this and then having to seek out other sources of information so yeah, I definitely agree with you on that there's a there's a lot of stuff that the
00:09:39
Speaker
And I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but there's definitely certain perspectives that the media doesn't always cover. Things like things are a little bit better. There are a lot more options these days. I think 10 years ago, you wouldn't have gotten some of the articles about Kissinger that you're getting today or about what's happening with Israel and Palestine. I don't think 10 years ago, you would not have seen any negative coverage of that at all.
00:10:07
Speaker
So some stuff is starting to break through little by little. But anyway, we're not here to talk too much about current events or politics.
Mainstream Appeal of Superhero Culture
00:10:17
Speaker
We're here to talk about superheroes. So what is your history with superheroes?
00:10:23
Speaker
I have been a huge comic book nerd pretty much since the day I was born. My father is a massive comic book nerd and he shared his love with me. I've been reading mainly Marvel comics since I was a child.
00:10:39
Speaker
You know, every Sunday after church, me and my dad would go to a comic book store and get the newest issues, you know, like Spider-Man. I grew up reading Ultimate Spider-Man. You know, I love that. That's probably my main go-to comic.
00:10:58
Speaker
from there i just fell in love like pretty much every superhero cartoon in existence the or i remember the og 1990 spider-man cartoon on fox kids you know that's my favorite i still watch that to this day and of course you have the original batman uh that was on uh was it uh one or that was that was also on fox yeah it was yeah it started off on fox and then the last season is when they switched over to kids wb
00:11:28
Speaker
And this person who grew up on comics, you know, it's amazing to see how mainstream superhero culture has become. You know, it used to be you would go to see a comic book movie and there might be like five people in the audience. And now you're going to see Avengers, Infinity War, Endgame.
00:11:47
Speaker
and you can barely get a ticket. It's wild and everybody is totally into this now. It used to be if you talked about this stuff, you were like a nerd and now it's mainstream. It's amazing to see how big it's gotten. Absolutely. I love it. Yes, same here. I am definitely not one of those people who bemoans all the new people who are getting into superheroes. For me, I love it. I love that my kids are going to be able to grow up in a world where
00:12:16
Speaker
if they get into superheroes, they don't have to, you know, they don't have to hide it like a lot of people felt like they had to. Because I remember, you know, when I was in high school, it felt like I was the only one who was reading comics. And then, you know, nowadays, I see all all the people I went to high school with post about this comic book and that comic book, like, where the hell were you guys, you know, 20 years ago when I wanted to talk about this stuff?
00:12:37
Speaker
Exactly. Here's a perfect example of that is the comic, Invincible.
Mark Millar's Comic Works and Adaptations
00:12:42
Speaker
You know, I remember reading that when it was just, you know, a comic and now it's a hit show on Amazon and everybody's talking about it. And I'm like, you know, you guys relate to the show. I mean, I'm glad you guys enjoy this. But like, it's crazy hearing people talk about their theories about what they think is going to happen next. And I'm like, I already know what's going to happen next. I read the comic.
00:13:04
Speaker
But I'm glad to see the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman. He's a great writer. He's also the creator of The Walking Dead. I'm really excited to see him get his shine. I'm also excited to see what he's going to cook up next. Kirkman, I've only read some of his comics. I've read the first Invincible Trade. I haven't read any of The Walking Dead
Critique of The Flash Movie and DC Extended Universe
00:13:25
Speaker
yet, but that is on my list along with 50,000 other books.
00:13:29
Speaker
I haven't had a chance to read yet. But that's definitely on my list as well. But I did read some of his Marvel stuff when he was working for Marvel, like some of his work on, I think it was Ultimate X-Men he did for a bit. Yeah. Also Marvel Zombies. Marvel Zombies, yes. He did the first book.
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, you know, good stuff there. Um, so, and it seems like with, uh, with invincible and walking dead and didn't he do, um, was it astounding Wolfman too, I think is the name of it. Yes, that, that's a, that's a good one as well. You know, um, the thing about walking dead, the comic is great. Walking dead, the TV show, I kind of stopped like after the third season, you know, it was like, yeah, I'm not into this, but.
00:14:16
Speaker
Invincible the cartoon is a perfect adaptation. It's the points where they did change. It's made the show a little bit better. I don't know if you've planned to talk about that. Not yet. I've only seen with TV shows. It's kind of it depends on kind of the nature because just because it's such a big time commitment. So
00:14:37
Speaker
We do occasional episodes on TV show. We usually try to focus on stuff that's a little bit shorter or more compact. We've got an episode on WandaVision that by the time people listened to this, they would have already heard the WandaVision episode.
00:14:54
Speaker
Um, but at the time of this recording, it's not been released yet. Um, but yeah, we've done stuff like that. We did, uh, we did a massive deep dive into HBO's Watchmen, um, back with my, my late co-host. And we had, we covered that with like, we covered that over the three episodes, just cause there was so much to talk about with that show. Um, so we do occasional TV shows, but it's just, it's, it's such a big time commitment that it's, um, it's something I try to move the focus more to movies. Um, but we might get to invincible, uh, at one point.
00:15:24
Speaker
I have seen I've only seen the first episode of the first season I haven't seen anything else of it yet, but that first episode was pretty cool and I could tell just from after reading that first invincible volume and Just how how how they made changes just with that from that first episode compared to that first whole volume. So yeah Definite some changes there
00:15:47
Speaker
But today we are going to be talking about well before we get into the into the flash What what kind of stuff are you interested in lately? What's kind of grabbing your interest these days?
00:15:57
Speaker
So right now, I'm just about done with the new Spider-Man game on PS5. I don't know if you've played that. Spider-Man 2? Yeah, Spider-Man 2. So I think I'm close to the end. Not yet. I don't know if you've played it. If so, no spoilers. So it's a great game. It's good, but it also kind of feels like DLC. It feels kind of like it
00:16:25
Speaker
It feels like it's not its own original game. I mean, don't get me wrong. It is great. I say I give it a nine, but it also just kind of feels like it's just sort of a rehash of the first game. You know, I'm probably going to might.
00:16:41
Speaker
talk about a little bit on the Facebook page of my Bright Brains podcast. But it's definitely a great game. I really like how they tell the story of Venom. I like how they have Kraven the Hunter in the game. And it is fun. It's definitely great to play as Miles Morales. And I love what PlayStation is doing with the Spider-Man brand.
00:17:04
Speaker
What about you, man? What do you want to write, ladies? So first off, I am envious that you're able to play Spider-Man 2. I don't have a PS5 yet. Oh, yeah. But it's something that's definitely on my list because we've got Spider-Man 2 out on there. They got Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is coming out next year. What else? There's that Wolverine game that's going to be coming out for it. I think they also announced an Iron Man game coming out as well.
00:17:33
Speaker
There's the the Suicide Squad game, which I know it's been getting it's got a lot of negative color, but I'm still but I love the Suicide Squad. So I'm still curious to check it out. Same here. Yeah. So I'm going to check it out. One thing, though, is I don't know if you've played the Gotham Knights game. I have not, but I heard that it was not good. But I'm so that's also what I'm curious. I'm also curious to play that, though, too.
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah, I played it for like maybe like three days and I was just like, yeah, I can't get into this. It had a lot of potential and I'm hoping that the Suicide Squad game doesn't turn out like that way either, you know? Yeah. Because I like Rocksteady, they're the creator of the Arkham games, which have been phenomenal. All three, well, technically it's four, but I think they... Yeah, but although they didn't do the, they didn't do Origins. That was, that was WWE Montreal. Yeah.
00:18:24
Speaker
Yeah, the three games they've done have been amazing. Yes, agreed. And now they've got now that they released Arkham Knight on Switch, they released a new Batman skin from the Robert Pattinson version.
00:18:38
Speaker
So and they said they're gonna be doing, they're gonna also gonna be releasing that on the PlayStation versions. I think this month is when they're gonna be releasing that. So another excuse to go back into Arkham Knight for like the fifth time instead of playing all the other games that I have not played yet. But yeah, I am looking forward to getting the PS5. I was watching like a one-two punch of like a Spider-Man 2 trailer and then a Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth trailer. And I just told my wife, I'm like, next year I gotta get a PS5.
00:19:07
Speaker
I hope there's too much stuff coming out that I have to play. Yeah, it's definitely awesome system. Yeah. But but for my part, what I've been into lately is I've been watching the fall of the House of Usher on Netflix, just watching it like in bits and pieces here. And man, that shows pretty good. It's pretty compelling. It's
00:19:30
Speaker
It's very creepy. I'm not a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, so I don't get all the references that other people have mentioned, but I do catch some here and there. So it's been really cool to see how they've managed to work in all the, how it's basically, you know, it's based on this one short story, but they're working in all these other elements from Poe's body of work and setting it in the modern day and reflecting on things like, you know,
00:19:54
Speaker
the pharmaceutical industry and just like the way that they do business and all this kind of stuff that's really interesting to watch. It's a really, really compelling show. So if anyone hasn't checked that out, I definitely recommend that. I'm only a few episodes in, but it's good stuff.
00:20:14
Speaker
have to check that out. Another thing I've been into is Mark Millar. He's a comic book writer and he recently had a mini series that Image called Big Game, which has tied in all of his work into one story. I don't know if you're familiar with the book Wanted,
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Let's just say I am not a fan of Mark Miller. I've got a lot of issues with him.
00:20:46
Speaker
Yeah, I know a lot of people do. I like his work, like I said earlier, the Ultimate Comics, like Ultimate Spider-Man, which was by Bendis. But at that time, they had the line, they had Ultimates, which was a retelling of The Avengers. Right. That whole series, Ultimates 1, 2, and 3. Man, that's him. Well, 3 was Jeff Loeb. He did 1 and 2, though.
00:21:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're right. All right. So yeah, one and two. If you have to check out any of Mark Millar's work, I would definitely read those two volumes. That's him firing on all cylinders. That's perfect. Wanted is kind of icky, kind of sticky, especially in today's current zeitgeist. But I feel like
00:21:36
Speaker
this book, Big Game, is kind of a course correction. I don't want to spoil it, but if once it left a nasty taste in your mouth, Big Game corrects it. It's a palate cleanser. So I would tell people to check that out as well. I mean, I thought, I really liked Red Son, the Superman book he did. Oh, yeah. After reading that, it
Media Manipulation and Misinformation
00:22:02
Speaker
it made me wanna smack him and just say like, why can't you write like that all the time? Because it was such a mature book. It was so well-written and just a lot of his other stuff.
00:22:13
Speaker
Yeah, I was into his Ultimate stuff back in the day when it was being published. But then a few years back, I did a reread through all the Ultimate books. And Ultimate Spider-Man still slaps. Talk about firing on all cylinders. That was Bendis firing on all cylinders. That and his Daredevil stuff was just amazing work. But Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate, the Miller stuff, I just couldn't.
00:22:41
Speaker
It does not appeal to me in the way it appealed to me back then. And I find myself, after rereading the Ultimate, it made me want to go back and read the music, Perez Avengers instead, as Mike Howard pointed out. I need to go back and do a reread as well. It's been such a long time. There is, we had a
00:23:05
Speaker
a previous guest on this show who hosts a podcast called The 1610 Incursion and they're doing like a complete reread of all the ultimate books. So that's also a pretty good podcast if you're interested in checking that out because they go through like all the ultimate books in chronological order. So they're going from like the start and just kind of going through the whole thing in each episode. So that's been an interesting way to
00:23:30
Speaker
to kind of re-experience the Ultimate Books as well. But anyway, as we mentioned before, we're talking about the Flash, the supposedly the end of the DC Extended Universe, although we had Blue Beetle, which is kind of like partly DCEU, partly the gunverse that's being set up, and then we still have Aquaman the Lost Kingdom, but
00:23:59
Speaker
This is, but the Flash was really kind of supposed to be, it was intended to be a lot of different things, a lot of different points. Like this movie has had a- I don't think they knew what it was supposed to be. Yeah, yeah. And that definitely shows in the finished product. Before we dive into the Flash too much, what was your, how did you feel about the DC Extended Universe and the Snyderverse and all that kind of stuff?
00:24:28
Speaker
A missed opportunity, a massive, massive missed opportunity. I don't know who was in the boardroom, you know, I don't know
00:24:38
Speaker
Like who was making decisions? I don't know if it was Zack Snyder. I don't know who it was, but I don't understand how Warner Brothers fumbled the ball like this so badly. I mean, they own DC Comics, which has Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. These are all household names.
Desire for Genuine Superhero Films
00:25:01
Speaker
The biggest superheroes there are.
00:25:05
Speaker
Why is it so hard to make good movies? I mean, they had a couple of good ones. Man of Steel, I have issues about, I like Man of Steel up until he kills General Zod. I don't wanna get too into that. And then Wonder Woman, the first one was good. But everything else, yeah. Batman versus Superman, my God. What were they thinking? That was just a horrendous movie. Lex Luthor was miscast.
00:25:35
Speaker
And of all the things you can have Batman and Superman do, and this is what they did. And then you got Wonder Woman 1984, which was just us. That one hurts. That one hurt. I was so excited about that movie after, like you said, the first Wonder Woman was amazing. And then to go from that into 1984 was just, it was a real letdown. Aquaman though, I dug Aquaman a lot.
Future of DC Movies and Creative Direction
00:26:01
Speaker
That was a lot of fun.
00:26:02
Speaker
I did not. Aquaman was way too bloated. I mean, hey, if you like it, that's awesome. To me, I felt Aquaman was way too bloated. It felt like they tried to do way too much. They did put a lot of, there was a lot in that movie, yeah. Yeah, there was a lot. It did kind of feel like James Wan felt, this is the only chance we're gonna get to make an Aquaman movie, so let's put everything in the Aquaman movie. Yeah, that, and this is gonna be controversial. I do not think that Jason Momoa is a good actor.
00:26:32
Speaker
Really? I don't know how you feel about, no. There's a sameness to his performance. He's got a stick and he leans into the stick. So very similar to like Dwayne Johnson or Ryan Reynolds. He knows what his fans like and he kind of leans into that.
00:26:48
Speaker
I can agree with that.
Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Acting Comparisons
00:26:50
Speaker
I'm interested to see what the next Aquaman movie is, how it's going to be, and what's interesting is they're not advertising it at all. Yeah. It supposedly comes out this month. That's right. Supposedly comes out December.
00:27:03
Speaker
yeah i have i've only seen one trailer i've seen no ads nothing nobody's speaking about this and i'm wondering if they're just gonna they know it's a stinker and they're just trying to quietly get it out there and just
00:27:19
Speaker
get it done with, just rip the bandaid off. I think that's what they're doing. But I don't know. I don't know if you've heard anything about the sequel. I mean, there's so much swirling around out there. And one of the big problems is, going back to our earlier discussion about the media these days, there's so much clickbait out there. So it's so hard to know what is true and what's not.
00:27:45
Speaker
I mean I saw the trailers and it looks the trailers look good I enjoy what I see in the trailer so I'm curious to see what happens with it. But but yeah I mean that man of steel I feel like is half a great Superman movie in the other half is just.
00:28:03
Speaker
not not bad not a bad movie but not Superman like I for me when yeah when I checked out of it was when Jonathan dies like at that point the tornado scene that that's when I check out of it but like that first half of it you know when he's going around the world he's going around saving people
00:28:23
Speaker
All of that and you've got, you know, you've got Lois like investigating him and figuring out who he is. All of that I thought was great. I thought that was a great twist on the mythos and, you know, great performances. Henry Cavill got, you know, frickin' robbed. You know, he deserved such a better movie.
00:28:38
Speaker
And it's so much better treatment than just to be used as a pawn in, you know, Dwayne Johnson's power play.
Ezra Miller's Controversies and The Flash Reception
00:28:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah. That Black Adam movie. My God, that was bad. Yeah, that was definitely like the end of the DCEU right there. You know.
00:28:56
Speaker
You know what's crazy is I heard I don't know if this is true or not But I heard that Dwayne Johnson has his claws in his movies where he cannot lose a fight at all So really the thing yeah, that's what I've heard I don't know if it's true or not And basically the whole black Adam movie is just him beating up Hawkman No, and I'm like if you go back and watch that I think Hawkman only at one time He had like maybe one hit but the whole movie is just Hawkman getting beat up. Yeah, I'm like
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah, what is this? And then at the end, they kind of little rush, they have a rushed conclusion and they throw in like this sort of bad guy. And they're like, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I'm not a I'm not a big Black Adam fan in the comics. So I'm not as familiar with him as others are. But you know, my biggest exposure to him was in the in the 52 comic book series. But yeah, it just feels like this is a case of because when
00:29:52
Speaker
You know, he'd been fan cast as Black Adam for so long because and back when it just because back then he had like the same hairstyle as him. And it just felt like that was the only reason why. Otherwise, like you look at his performances, you look at Black Adam and in, again, limited exposure to him, the comics, but doesn't seem like a Dwayne Johnson type at all. So I don't know when they I mean, I thought Pierce Brosnan was great as Dr. Fade. That was the best thing. Yeah, he was.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, I liked him. Even though he got beat up all the time, I like Pop Man. I like that they had Adam Smasher in there. I don't forget the girl's name. I think her name was Twister. Twister or something like that. I can't remember exactly. Yeah. I wish I had saw more of them in there.
00:30:38
Speaker
I think they had an inkling of potential. They had an inkling of like a good idea with the movie. But then it's just, you know, it just became Dwayne Johnson's vehicle. And then what gets me is that at the end, you see Henry Cavell's Superman show up. And I'm like, it would have been more interesting to have Shazam. Zachary Levy, I forget his name. Zachary Levy. Yeah, Zachary Levy. They should have had him show up.
00:31:08
Speaker
that would have been phenomenal. Like, I mean, after all, Black Adam is Shazam's arch villain. Right. But yeah, I don't know what they're doing. You know, I think Dwayne, he just has an ego and hey, he's the biggest man in Hollywood. If I was him, I'd have an ego too. So
00:31:26
Speaker
But it's interesting. I wonder if they're going to bring him back in Tim Gunn's universe. I don't think so. I feel like he's
Detailed Criticism of The Flash Movie
00:31:34
Speaker
burned a lot of bridges with the antics he played with Black Adam. So I doubt he'll be coming back. So yeah. So when it comes to the Flash, though, specifically, what did you think of Ezra Miller when you saw him in Justice League?
00:31:51
Speaker
So here's the thing. I think Ezra Miller has been totally miscast as the Flash. You know, he's supposed to be playing Barry Allen, but they turned him. I don't even want to say he's playing Wally West because Wally West likes to joke around. But this character, he's like a nerdy. He's like, I don't even annoying. He's not even fun. He's just annoying. You know, he's just.
00:32:19
Speaker
Like he has Asperger's or something. I was gonna say it's like yeah, it's like he's it's like he's autistic Peter Parker or something like that Yeah, yeah, and you know, I don't that's the thing about the DC EU is they just took so many wild changes to the characters, you know, like Aquaman is this biker dude who likes to get drunk all the time and
00:32:44
Speaker
You know, the Flash, the whole concept that they took with this character is just the Flash deserve better. You know, he's one of DC's most iconic characters and they could have done so much with this. The fact that we had a Flash movie and none of the rogues show up. We don't get Captain Code. We don't get
00:33:07
Speaker
Captain boomerang we don't get a mirror master our gorilla Grodd all those great villains He has probably the second best rogues gallery after spider-man We have all these great characters and instead we get this I don't even think it's supposed to be reverse flash. I don't want to jump too far ahead but The movie had no villain really it. Yeah, that's my
00:33:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's my main gripe with it. There was no villain. That's like 12 seconds in the end. You're right. Yeah, it's just like this. I mean, first off, the Ezra Miller part of it. I mean, yet they were completely miscast. You know, as many problems as I have with the Snyder films and there and there's a laundry list of problems I have with them. But two things that I cannot fault them for.
00:34:01
Speaker
And what, two things that I think Snyder did very well was one, the casting was almost always on point. And two, the costumes were almost always on point. You know, both of those things, I think he had done a really good job with, like Henry Cavill, like we were talking about Ben Affleck, who was, you know, the internet exploded when he got cast, but I'm, but I thought he'd be a pretty good, do a pretty, pretty good Batman. And I think based on what we've seen of him in Batman V Superman and both versions of Justice League, and then, and then here in this movie,
00:34:32
Speaker
You know, talk about Henry Cavill being robbed. I think Ben Affleck also got robbed. I think he could have been. Yeah, I agree. I mean, if he had gotten his own solo Batman movie, I think we'd be talking about him in the same breath as we talk about like Michael Keaton or Christian Bale. I think he would have been probably the best Batman we've ever gotten. You know, Gal Gadot with casting.
00:34:54
Speaker
I just want to say, speaking of casting choices, I'm going to say something that's probably going to shock you. I'm having a brain fart right now and I can't remember this actor's name, but I liked his Joker.
00:35:08
Speaker
Oh. All right, and Suicide Squad. Jared Leto? Jared Leto, that's it. I was drawing a blank. I actually liked this Joker, and I wish we could have saw more of it. I liked a different take. Yeah, you are definitely in the minority there, my friend. Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. But I actually liked it. I liked his gangster, crazy guy. And I wish we could have had him really face off with Batman in a proper movie. Yeah.
00:35:38
Speaker
Definitely to disagree on that. I hate that. That was one of the kinds of choices I did not like. Like, you know, the ones that I didn't like were Jared Leto, obviously, who's Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was another miscast. Oh, yeah, that was horrendous. I mean, I think he could have if he had done it more like he did Zuckerberg in The Social Network. I think he would have had an interesting take on Lex Luthor, but instead it's like,
00:36:08
Speaker
It's like somebody watched Jim Carrey in Batman Forever and said, we need this, but with like a truckload of more cocaine.
00:36:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly what I thought about when I was watching that movie. It's like, who is he supposed to be? Like, did somebody get the Riddler and Lex Luthor mixed up? Yeah, because Lex Luthor has never been this sort of like, animaniac hyper character. No, I mean, even when he was calculating. Yeah, even when you had like the campier version in Gene Hackman, he still was not like this over the top. It was it was unbelievable.
00:36:43
Speaker
But, um, and then the, and then the third one that I had really big problems with the casting choice was Ezra Miller, because, you know, in both versions of justice league, both the, the Whedon version and the Snyder cut, it's just, he was.
00:36:57
Speaker
Easily the worst part of both of those movies and and there's a lot to not like about both those versions of the movie But like it's he was just terrible and I just don't know I mean, here's here's one of things I don't get and this is a similar complaint I have with like Jared Leto is the Joker. I mean you have
00:37:15
Speaker
You have Jared Leto playing the Joker. If you're going to have the Joker, you need to have someone who can actually laugh. Jared Leto, I don't know what his laugh was, but it did not sound like it. It's just like this weird. It sounded like he was having he had like throat problems or something. And then and then with Ezra Miller, if you're going to cast someone as the Flash,
00:37:34
Speaker
They should know how to run. He does this weird swimming thing every time he runs. And even here in the beginning when he puts on the when he changed the costume and he does this weird like flamingo pose before he I'm like, that's not how anybody ever starts to run.
00:37:50
Speaker
Well, I think I can't remember where I heard this, but he was doing an interview and he was talking about the running and he was saying the reason he did it like that is because the flash is supposed to be like moving through the speed force. He's not really running. He's sort of like.
00:38:08
Speaker
pushing time aside or something like that. And when I heard him explain it, it still looks goofy. But after hearing him explain it, I'm like, okay, I kind of get it, you know? But yeah, just and then with the whole casting of Ezra Miller, we have to bring up the fact that they're associated. Yeah.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I mean, my God, it was like, he just, I don't know what it is. He sees a woman, he has to hit him. I don't know what it is, man. But yeah, and I was actually surprised that they actually let this movie come out. You know, I think it was some cost fallacy. They spent so much time and money in it that it had to, you know,
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah, in fact, one of the things I put in my notes here was,
Multiverse Cameos and Flash's Comic History
00:38:58
Speaker
you'd think a guy who spent so much time running from the law would actually know how to run. Yeah, yeah. That is true, Brad. That is true. And the crazy thing is that they have a whole movie that's finished, a Batgirl movie. Exactly. Yeah.
00:39:16
Speaker
and they won't even put it on HBO Max. They must have been really bad. I don't even know if it was bad. I think it was just the, it's just, Zazlove is just a pure numbers guy. He's just purely based on the money. And so they saw that, okay, Batgirl only costs X amount to make. We made it just for streaming. So what we can do instead is we can just write it off as a loss and get a tax break. So he probably figured it'd be more profitable that as opposed to
00:39:43
Speaker
it'd be more profitable as a tax break than it would be to try to release it or to license it out to other platforms or anything like that. And same thing he did like he, I mean, he tried to, to shit can that John Cena ACME movie as well. And now, you know, Oh, yeah. But, you know, it's and you know, it drives me nuts when I think about the Batgirl situation, because
00:40:06
Speaker
You have both these movies, you have Batgirl, you have The Flash and they decide we're going to release The Flash and we're going to shit can Batgirl. And it's just, I mean, I think I would have much rather seen Batgirl as opposed to whatever the hell this movie was. And I don't think it's about Batgirl being bad or anything like that. I don't think Zazlov even knows, I don't think Zazlov likes movies at all. Like he's just this numbers guy, he's responsible for
00:40:33
Speaker
reality tv crap like you know honey booboo and all that kind and the toddlers and tiaras and all this kind of like you know really revolting lowest common denominator shit so he's not so i hate reality tv yeah i mean he is not someone who
00:40:50
Speaker
seems to know anything about storytelling or craft. He's not someone who likes movies. I don't think he likes movies at all. He does not strike me as someone who actually enjoys watching movies. And it shows with the way he's making these decisions. And I'm pretty sure that his calculus was we dropped all this money into the flesh.
00:41:11
Speaker
So even though our star is a sociopath who is running from the fucking law right now, it's still so much money we invested in that a tax break is not gonna give us even a fraction of that back. So we have to try to break even on it. Whereas Batgirl, it's like, eh, it only costs X amount of money so we can just write this off and it won't be that big of a loss. And I'm really sure, I'm positive that's what it was because this is just,
00:41:39
Speaker
I mean, this movie had so many problems. It's gone through director after director after director. And for the life of me, you know, one of the things that drives me nuts about The Flash is the fact that Flashpoint has become like this definitive story for him because we've now had, this is now the third freaking version of Flashpoint we've had. We got it, you know, we got the Flashpoint Paradox
Potential Future Directions for DC Movies
00:42:04
Speaker
animated movie. We got, you know,
00:42:06
Speaker
you know this was it season season three of the flash they did they opened up with a with a flashpoint their version of flashpoint then we get this movie and I'm just like guys there are other flash stories besides flashpoint
00:42:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of like Flashpoint is to the flash what Dark Knight Returns is to Batman. It feels like people who are new to comics, they read like Dark Knight Returns and they're like, oh yeah, this is the greatest Batman comic of all time. And it is good, don't get me wrong.
00:42:42
Speaker
But I think that like Flashpoint has become sort of the mainstream Flash story, which is kind of sad because there are so many great Flash stories out there. Like I was saying at the beginning, like why we didn't just have a movie with the rogues in it, you know, and have him fight all of them. That would have been fantastic, you know. I actually like the Jai Courtney's boomerang.
00:43:07
Speaker
i want to see i actually you know i don't like jai kourtney but he was he was fun i i gotta i gotta give him props like i i don't like him in generally but he was he was uh he was fun in in both suicide squads like his very brief appearance the beginning of of james gunne's version but also in the and he was one of david ayer's version he was one of the the few bright spots of that movie
00:43:31
Speaker
Yeah, same. And I would love to see Captain Code, Heatwave, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard. Imagine going to the movies and seeing all of that. That would have been an action movie extravaganza. And instead, we just get this film that only has maybe three fight scenes in it.
00:43:53
Speaker
If I'm thinking maybe three, and then most of it is just Ezra Miller talking to himself. Yeah. If you thought Ezra Miller as Flash is annoying, they introduced a younger one who's even more annoying. Exactly. And it was just like, oh, my God. But I will say this. That is something else I wrote in my notes. Who the fuck thought two Ezra Millers would be a good idea?
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah, let's say let's give them a double dose on it, but I will say this if I have to do give Ezra Miller any credit I think he did a good job acting in this he made the the present
00:44:37
Speaker
uh berry and the past berry seem different you know they they seem like two distinct berries if that makes sense no no it i i don't like either performance but but i will give you that he did do a good job differentiating the two besides just having different hairstyles so so yeah i will give you that um but god in both cases
00:45:01
Speaker
Like this is just, like you said, this is not Barry Allen. This is not Wally West. This isn't, I don't know. I mean, one of the, one of the criticisms I remember, uh, flash hat fans having about Grant Gustin is that he seems maybe a little bit more Wally West than Barry. Um, uh, which is, you know, understandable, but, but I still thought Gustin did a pretty decent job. And even though the last, the last like three seasons of the show were borderline unwatchable.
00:45:28
Speaker
But the but Dustin did a pretty good job. Also, you know, talking about the Rose, like Leonard, what's his name? Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold was amazing. I love I wish I was
Disconnect from The Flash's Traditional Characteristics
00:45:41
Speaker
so disappointed when he died because he was such a great addition to that to that universe. And yeah, and, you know, just just so happens I am reading Josh Williamson's flash run now and I've just got to the trade about
00:45:58
Speaker
I think it's Rogue's reign is what it's called when, you know, Captain Cold, like, you know.
00:46:02
Speaker
powers up all the rogues and they like take over central. Yeah. And that's and it's really good stuff. And I'm really curious to read that there is that rogues series that DC did under their black label. Black label. Yeah. And that looks really cool. I'm like, I'm not a huge flash man. So I'm not super familiar with the rogues. But I know enough to know that that looks like something interesting. But this it does feel like this movie was written and directed by people who
00:46:33
Speaker
don't have never read any flash comics because it just doesn't like even me not being a not being super well versed in the flash like but knowing enough I can I know at least that I'm like okay this does not seem like any version of the flash I have ever read it seems like somebody just read a Wikipedia summary of flashpoint exactly and just took like the main idea of that and not that's not necessarily a bad idea because Marvel does that a lot with their movies they take like these
00:47:00
Speaker
basic concepts from the comic books and then they weave new stories all around them. I thought Marvel's movie version of Civil War was far superior to the comic. Infinity War, as they just took the title of Infinity War, but the main story was basically
00:47:21
Speaker
the Infinity Gauntlet, but even still, they just took that basic idea of Thanos getting the Infinity Stones, and then they built this whole different story around it, and it worked out, and it worked out excellently. So they can do that, and they can work out good, but this is just, it doesn't feel like anybody had any love for this character.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't even a good flashpoint story. For example, in the comics, when he went back in time and he messed up the timeline, you know, he came back to a world where Aquaman and Wonder Woman were fighting each other, like Atlantis and Themyscira were at war. Superman had been captured and locked up for his whole life. Batman
00:48:05
Speaker
Batman's father was, or Bruce Wayne's father was Batman. He used his guns and he's a lot more deadly. It's like all of these cool concepts. Why didn't we see that on screen? Well, I mean, especially because, you know, going back to Batman B Superman, they had Jeffrey Dean Morgan playing Thomas Wayne in that movie. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan would make an amazing Flashpoint Batman. He would have been great in that.
00:48:32
Speaker
And that's not to diss Michael Keaton at all because I think Michael Keaton is one of the very few bright spots in this movie. He
Alternate Universe Cameos and Missed Opportunities
00:48:38
Speaker
is completely, he has not missed a beat at all. He slips right back into that character and from the start that he comes on screen, he just takes over this movie. Like the first, up until you see Michael Keaton,
00:48:55
Speaker
the first portion of this movie is borderline unwatchable. It's just terrible. Yeah, it's a slog. It's so bad. And we have to go through all this stuff with Barry talking to himself and it's just, and he's, you know, the weird roommate conversation about, you know, about how Back to the Future now stars Eric Stoltz and all these weird things like Kevin Bacon is now in Top Gun and all these, I'm like, okay, the Eric Stoltz thing, that's funny, but you guys are just beating that joke to death now.
00:49:27
Speaker
Let me talk about the first half. We have to talk about that horrible CGI where he's saving the babies at the hospital. I don't know who came up with that. That is came up with that. That is just it. Yeah, it is because. OK, so here's what happened when I because I was going to see this movie in the theater. But the day before I was going to go see it in the movie, I got Covid. So I couldn't go see it. And so instead I ended up watching a
00:49:47
Speaker
Exactly, yeah, yeah.
00:49:57
Speaker
a version that I obtained through, let's say other means, because I couldn't leave it out. And when I saw that scene, I thought, oh my God, this version is just a terrible quality, right? But then I saw it last night and I'm watching, you know, the regular high def version. I'm just like, no, that wasn't a problem with the version of the movie I watched. That's just incredibly ugly CGI.
00:50:27
Speaker
putting a baby in a fucking microwave. Who thought that? Yeah. When I saw that in the theater, I'm like, hold on. What, what, what, what did he just do? And those babies were just nightmare fuel. I'm just like, what are we doing here? It's just, it was probably a little bit better if they had went to Walmart and just bought some baby dolls. Honestly. Yeah. Yeah. Bad.
00:50:51
Speaker
I don't know who came up with that idea, but whoever it was, they need to be fired and just kicked out of the movie industry entirely. Find a whole other career path. When that nurse screams, I'm just like, yeah, that nurses me because this is just so creepy. My thing is this, you're introducing the flash in this movie and you want to show us powers, okay?
00:51:15
Speaker
I understand that they have to set the story up, but why not just have them fight some throwaway villain? Maybe it was Captain Code who was robbing the bank. Why have these nameless bank robbers who... No, they weren't bank robbers. They were stealing some kind of chemical or something. Right. Yeah. It was Falcone. Falcone's son that Bruce says.
00:51:38
Speaker
Oh, I didn't even catch that. But yeah, they stole some chemical that they said, if it gets out, it'll destroy Gotham. I don't know.
Michael Keaton as Batman and Narrative Critique
00:51:46
Speaker
But why have these nameless villains? And then my thing is, too, is, you got Ben Affleck as Batman, which was cool to see. But what's up with that suit he was wearing?
00:51:57
Speaker
You know what? When we when we first saw the trailers at first, I was excited. So I'm like, oh, we get to see a blue suit Batman finally. And then and then we see the full suit and it's got this weird like armor plate. I'm just like what? Because here's the thing I get the the Snyder suits were very well done. You've got that Zack Snyder Dark Knight Returns esque suit.
00:52:20
Speaker
paint the black stuff blue and then take the oval from the 89 back suit that you've already got in this movie and just slap that on the chest and that's all you need it. And it's like it's there. There's no reason for these weird armor plates that looks almost like
00:52:35
Speaker
I don't even know what it is. It's got these tiny little holes in it. It's so bizarre. You know what I think happened? I think after Batman v Superman flopped, they were like, oh, we're done with this. And they just threw out the costume department.
00:52:51
Speaker
They just threw everything away. And then when they realized like, oh wait, we're going to have Batman come back in the Flash movie, they were like, oh man, go climb to that dumpster out back and see if we can cobble together a Batman costume. That's literally what it looks like. It just looks slab dash put together.
00:53:15
Speaker
Like you said, Ben Affleck, he didn't really get a chance to shine in the DCEU and to see him go out this way. It was just sad. He deserved better. He could have done so much. And then Gal Gadot, she has a little five second cameo in here, which was totally pointless. If they're going to have her in there, have her
00:53:38
Speaker
do something, you know, fight. But well, I mean, especially that's the weird thing, because you have all the points for almost all the points. The only thing you're really missing here is Cyborg, you know, having, you know, having Supergirl, the one who ends up on Earth instead of Superman. That's an interesting twist on that, too. Yeah. I liked her, actually. Yeah. She again, another one of the bright spots in this movie is her. But
00:54:05
Speaker
Yeah, everything else. And even just like the the whole idea of having going back to the Zod invasion, the Kryptonian invasion, kind of. But I think they realize really early on that there's a problem here when we've got all these Kryptonians who can't be killed. And we're just going to have these these characters go up against them. Obviously, something's not going to work here. So and exactly. I think they would have been much.
00:54:32
Speaker
And they just completely ignore the whole thing about the. Sorry, I just got a message to come through, so it threw off my thought, but. You know, they completely get rid of the reverse flash aspect of it, so we don't have thought in here at all. And instead we get the two berries, which like we mentioned is just.
00:54:55
Speaker
Bizarre and overkill and and and then we get and is and again great scene Michael Keaton here, but it's just I don't feel like the the time travel aspect and the Stuff even makes a lot of sense. Like I don't understand how Barry changing the past suddenly transforms Ben Affleck into Michael Keaton
00:55:22
Speaker
It just doesn't make sense. It does not make sense at all. It's great to see. Again, great to see Michael Keaton in this. I love seeing him, but I would much rather have seen him in Batgirl where that would have made much more sense of him being like an older hero. And then this younger hero comes
Hopes for Future DC Films and Source Material Fidelity
00:55:38
Speaker
in and picks up the mantle or, you know,
00:55:42
Speaker
a Batman Beyond movie, which he looks freaking perfect for. Another guest I had on recently mentioned that if you get the guy from Cobra Kai, who plays Johnny's son, I'm blanking on the actor's name, but if you get him to play- I haven't seen Cobra Kai, but I think I know what you're talking about. Cobra Kai's amazing. But you get the guy who plays Johnny Lawrence's son in that, who is Tanner Buchanan is his name, and he would
00:56:12
Speaker
He'd make a great Terry McGinnis. My buddy was saying, I'm just like, oh my god, I had never thought about that. But yeah, he is perfect for Terry McGinnis. And you do a Batman Beyond movie, I guarantee you, it would have blown this out of the water. Oh, yeah, yeah. That would be a billion dollar movie right there. That would sell tickets like crazy, you know? Yeah.
00:56:35
Speaker
Actually, you know what would have been crazy, man, if they had just did Batman, put Batman Beyond in there, you know, if they're going to change the timeline.
00:56:43
Speaker
You know, maybe Batman Beyond shows up and if they had did that and like say they didn't put that in the trailer or anything and to make that like an actual surprise, that would have been fantastic. You know, people would have been talking about that on social media. Like this movie came out and it had no real social media presence. I feel like it was at theaters for like a week.
00:57:06
Speaker
Well, I think it's because it bombed so bad because everybody at Warner Brothers, it felt like Warner Brothers, I feel like Zazlov issued a memo to everybody at Warner Brothers and says, like, listen, we got to try and break even on this piece of shit. So everybody say it's like the best superhero movie since the Dark Knight. And and then, you know, every and that's why, you know, they're all saying, like, even James Gunn is like, oh, it's the best superhero movie since the Dark Knight. I'm like. What? I'm watching this and I'm just like and I
00:57:36
Speaker
I can understand Gunn's position, right? He's in charge of the movie division now. He wants to write the ship with the DC characters. And he knows what a fucking asshole Zazlov is. And he's like, all right, I'll just play the game. I'll be the company man for now. So just like, yeah, yeah, The Flash is great. It's the best superhero movie since The Dark Knight. Yeah. And I get why he's doing that. I don't begrudge him that.
00:58:01
Speaker
I wish he would have been a little bit more honest about it, but, cause I don't think anybody can say this is a good movie. It's just, and even, we're talking to all this stuff about Batman, Batman Beyond and Michael Keaton and all that. And I think that just goes to show that nobody wanted this movie. The only reason that this movie got any sort of press to begin with is because you had Michael Keaton coming back as Batman. The only reason people went to see this movie was because of Michael Keaton.
00:58:30
Speaker
Exactly. Michael Keaton, but I was going to say another reason people went to see it is because of Ezra Miller's crazy self. They wanted to see what the heck was going to happen with this guy. I think a lot of people also got turned off by that. Oh, I think so. Exactly. All the positive spin
00:58:52
Speaker
You can put on this movie would not undo the what like year worth years worth of coverage of Ezra Miller's criminal antics. I mean guy went dude when I. On a crime spree that spanned continents, I mean, come on. He was an he was literally an international criminal.
00:59:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Like, oh boy. And that turned people off. And then I think I mainly saw this movie in theaters just because I knew it was going to be a train wreck. And I think most of the people who did go just wanted to see a train wreck. And we ended up being right. It was a train wreck. But like I said, there were so many things that they could have done differently. What did you think about this costume?
00:59:38
Speaker
So I mean, the first glimpses we got, I thought, oh, cool, they're going with the red suit. But then I watched it here in motion and the the mask, or it's like this weird helmet thing, it feels way too bulky. And then it feels like a Power Rangers helmet. Yeah, yeah, it's very bulky. And then the rest of the suit, it's
00:59:57
Speaker
And I know it's going to sound weird saying this because it's a, you know, it's a flash costume, but there's there is too much red. I mean, there's no like, yeah, the the lightning bolts. There's not enough of a break in the midsection. The the boots don't feel right. And it's just like it just. Yeah, I wanted to like it based on what we saw in the in the first glimpses of it, but it's just and I'm glad they're not using that.
01:00:20
Speaker
again, you know, the most of the costumes in the Snyder films were great. The exception was the flash costume. That thing was always an ugly piece of shit. And yeah, yeah, this one is better, but not by much. Exactly. Yeah. And you know, and I think it was primarily CGI to kind of reminded me of
01:00:41
Speaker
the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie. You know how you had that green CGI and it just doesn't really seem like it was there. It didn't seem real. And it just, yeah, it was...
01:00:55
Speaker
Oh boy, I don't even know where to begin. I'll tell you what, we've been dogging this movie out. I want to touch on something else I did like. And I think I said this before, and that was Supergirl. I thought her character was cool. And I liked seeing that. I liked the little twist that they made.
01:01:17
Speaker
I like the fight scenes in the desert with the Kryptonians. What I didn't like was that she and Michael Keaton both died. It kind of feels like what was the point. That's the thing about this movie. When you see a superhero movie, you want to see the hero triumph. I feel like nobody really triumphed in this movie.
01:01:44
Speaker
You know, he did get his dad out of prison. But my thing is this. Who killed his mom? Yeah, they never you figure you'd think that you've got all this stuff going on. You should at least find out who killed your mom. Right. You can find out without altering the time. That's going to just going to find out is going to cause less damage than, you know,
01:02:09
Speaker
moving the tomato sauce or whatever. Exactly. And that's then it gets me.
Optimism for Batman and DC Universe's Future
01:02:14
Speaker
Why didn't you just go back and see who did it? Yes. And then once you saw who did it, you could figure out how to prove that in court. And then, you know, why didn't he do that?
01:02:25
Speaker
Which is exactly what, and you know it's weird, they stole the wrong lesson from the Flash TV show because instead of doing what they did in the Flash TV show where Barry does go and finds out and then he's able to clear his father after that, instead we get the one they take is the Savitar storyline where you've got the dark Barry thing.
01:02:46
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And my thing is this, so he puts the can of tomatoes in the cart, all right? But still, that doesn't mean that the mom wasn't going to die. I mean, if she was home, what, the father protected her or something? Yeah. They didn't explain what changed that day. Did the person just not invade the home? You know, what happened? That's the story right there. So like I said, nobody triumphed.
01:03:12
Speaker
he got his dad out of prison but his mom is still dead and I guess the story is he can't change the past whatever but then they bring back Michael Keaton okay only for us to see him die and then this death it wasn't really like a massively heroic death right just I think he got stabbed
01:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, you know, yeah, it was just like, okay, that's it. And then we see Supergirl die multiple times over and over, you know, and then at the end, we find out that his alternate self, I guess, who was trying to actually save the day got twisted up.
01:03:58
Speaker
and became evil. Right, because he kept trying to go back and change things, and he couldn't, so it just drove him crazy, basically. Yeah, and. And the weird makeshift flash suit he whips up out of the old Batman costume was just so ugly. It's just like, I mean, I get it's like a makeshift costume, but still, I mean, we can do something a little bit better than this. Yeah, yeah, oh my God, and like,
01:04:25
Speaker
And then like I said earlier, like in the beginning, there was no villain. The dark flash, he was in there for like 12 seconds. He shows up and then I can't even remember how they beat the guy. I think, did he beat him or did he just like go back in time and just
01:04:43
Speaker
He basically just goes back in time. Yeah. Yeah. So they didn't really fight. No, no, it was. Yeah, it was just I mean, like the CGI in this thing is just not awful from start to finish. Like this whole way that they're trying to visualize the speed force and the time travel with this weird bubble thing and like everything. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, even, you know, you know, people, people joke about, you know, the
01:05:11
Speaker
the Richard Donner Superman movie and how he travels through time and that. I'm like, honestly, that's a much better visualization than this is. Like this is just ugly. And it's just, and so I will say though, one thing I will say is the Michael Keaton's explanation about how time travel works and the multiverse theory, I thought that was actually a pretty effective explanation when he says like, you know, you take a dry strand of spaghetti and it's like a fulcrum, right? If you change one thing here,
01:05:39
Speaker
it breaks the other thing here. But if you do it too much, then you get the multiverse, where some strands, and it's like all the cooked spaghetti, where some strands are running along each other, some strands get tangled up, they move all throughout, and I thought, oh my god, that actually is a pretty good metaphor for the multiverse. Yeah, I thought that was clever.
01:06:01
Speaker
I forgot what I was about to say. Yeah, that part was clever. You know, like I said, the whole Michael Keaton thing was the high point of the movie. Although I don't know how I don't know when Bruce Wayne became an expert on, you know, quantum physics, but
01:06:19
Speaker
exactly exactly like how does he know that but oh here's what here's what i was going to say so you say you didn't like how they visualized the time i thought that it was creative but they had bit off more they could choose it was apparent that you know they didn't have the budget for cgi that they thought they were going to have and everything just appears unfinished all of the cgi in this movie
01:06:45
Speaker
It feels like people online were saying it feels like PS2 graphics. That's exactly what I was going to say, yes.
01:06:52
Speaker
I wouldn't say it was that bad, but I would say it was like Xbox 360 graphics, you know? Yeah, it wasn't quite PS2. I mean, you didn't have people like blocky polygons, but at the end where they show all these alternate universes, like they show Nicolas Cage, Superman, they show Christopher Reeve. And how much later?
01:07:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's just so like washed out. Yeah. Yeah. It just, yeah, it feels amateur. It's like I've seen YouTube fan movies with better CGI than this, you know? And it's just, you know, what's interesting when I was in theater watching this and they showed Nicholas Cage, Superman, they were like, why is Nicholas Cage Superman? You know? And I think that, you know, like us comic nerds, we know the story about how there was
01:07:48
Speaker
almost Nicholas Cage Superman movie directed by Kevin Smith. A lot of people don't know that. Kevin Smith wrote the screenplay for it, but Tim Burton was going to direct it. That's right. That's right, Tim Burton. And, you know, I think us comic nerds, we know that, but everybody else who isn't a comic nerd, they were like kind of scratching their head, like, why is this Nicholas Cage in this movie? Well, I mean, here's the weird thing. It's like they wanted to have
01:08:16
Speaker
that was like their attempt to do this fan servicey thing. But I mean, there's, there's something very creepy when you're resurrecting these dead actors for like bringing bringing in Helen Slater, a supergirl. That's fine. She's still alive. You know, D.H. or that's fine. But you know,
01:08:33
Speaker
going back and having Christopher Reeve pop up in there, having George Reeves pop up, pop up is very disrespectful considering why he killed himself is because of he was so depressed over the fact that he was, you know, cause he was playing Superman. And he had such that weird relationship with that character. That feels very disrespectful to his memory. Having Adam West pop up in there too, again, you know, dude's gone. You know, it feels very icky, especially when
01:09:03
Speaker
Like having Nicholas Cajun there, I think that's fine. I mean, I get your point about that being a weird choice to focus on so heavily because so many people don't know that.
01:09:15
Speaker
But he's at least still alive. You can at least call him up and say, like, hey, would you like to cameo in this movie? Having George Clooney pop up at the end, I thought that was fun. I love to see George Clooney pop up at the end. But you've got all these different actors from these multiple live action DC properties who are still alive, like they did in Crisis. Crisis, I thought, was an excellent job of working this in. You had Tom Welling and Erika Durant pop up.
01:09:42
Speaker
You had Bert Ward pop up. You had Michael Knox from the first Batman movie pop up in it. You have all these little tiny references to these others. You had a brief scene of the Titans. And we still have this.
01:10:01
Speaker
I don't know if you watched the last season of Titans, but there's this one episode where Beast Boy goes through the multiverse and he encounters different versions. He even talks to Grant Morrison for a few moments. I thought that was a much better use of the multiverse concept than this was. Just tossing in a bunch of dead actors and then an extended sequence of Nicolas Cage's Superman. And again, you've got
01:10:29
Speaker
you've got other flashes. It's supposed to be a flash movie. I think they keep forgetting that this is supposed to be a movie about the flash. They're focusing so much on, let's see different versions of Batman and Superman. I'm like, what about different versions of the flash? Why don't we have Grant Gustin pop up in here? Why don't we have John Wesley's ship pop up in here or something? Yeah, that would have been interesting. Yeah. Like if- Or what's his name? The guy who played Impulse on Smallville. Have him pop up as well. Those would make so much more sense.
01:10:59
Speaker
that would have actually been really cool if Grant Gustin and the flash TV show I believe was from the 80s early 90s John Wesley ship early 90s yeah if they had showed up that would have been cool you know see that happen and maybe even I don't know how they would have done it but maybe you could have had like a little
01:11:19
Speaker
glimpse of the Justice League animated flash. Oh, yeah. I was actually I was thinking that, too, even if you just have like, you know, or just if you just put Michael Rosenbaum in a flash costume for a brief few minutes and have him do the same voice. That would have been interesting. Yeah. Yeah, it would have like it's crazy. You know, me and you, we don't have jobs in Hollywood. So, you know, we can't sit with the producers and directors and give them all these ideas. My thing is just like, don't they have like
01:11:49
Speaker
like people at DC who can talk to them, like the writers and the artists, do they ever sit down with them and say, hey, what are some ideas I can do with this? Do they not reach out to the companies? I just don't understand in this day and age how you can just turn out something that's so crappy. Yeah, yeah. It definitely feels like this was a movie made by committee.
01:12:19
Speaker
Yeah, most definitely, most definitely. And if we want to talk about a cameo that totally fell flat, we have to throw in Jason Momoa's little post-credits scene, which should have been left on the cutting room floor. I don't know what they were doing. It wasn't even funny. It was just, oh, Jason Momoa's drunk. Like, oh, he fell in a puddle of water. Yeah. Oh, he just seems a bummy. You know, he seems like a bum. Yeah. You know, like,
01:12:49
Speaker
I didn't know what to make of that little post-credits scene, but yeah, that disastrous movie, man. Yeah. I mean, I remember people were complaining about his cameo at the end of Peacemaker, but I thought that was funny. This just felt like you were taking things way too far with the... And I love Surfer Bro Aquaman. I love Jason Momoa's Surfer Bro Aquaman, but this pushed it way too far. Yeah, yeah. And it's just like...
01:13:18
Speaker
Like I said, the Flash is a great character, you know, and I'm hoping that Tim Gunn in the future. I don't know if he plans to reboot the character again. I think they do. Like, I think his his his vague answer on Ezra Miller coming back, I think was just intended. Because you notice he hasn't he hasn't said anything about Ezra Miller since that movie bombs. I think yeah, I think that was just the case of like, they're just you know, let's just
01:13:45
Speaker
talk this movie up so that hopefully we can get up, we can, you know, get some money back and then afterwards we'll just quietly move on. Yeah, move away from Ezra Miller, you know, just recast them if they do do another Justice League. My thing is, you know, I think people might be wanting to see something different. So my guess is if they do do another Justice League, people probably don't want to see
01:14:14
Speaker
The Flash. So I don't know. I think they'd probably want to see The Flash, but not this Flash, because, you know, so I don't know. I'm pretty sure because we've already got, you know, David Cornswat has been cast as Superman. So we've gotten some Justice League characters popping up in Superman Legacy, like they've got Nathan Fillion playing Guy Gardner.
01:14:34
Speaker
There are a few other ones who have been cast as well, but no big names so far. We don't know who's gonna be playing Batman in this universe. We don't know who's gonna be playing Wonder Woman or Hal Jordan for that matter. I don't think they've mentioned The Flash at all. I think part of it is because they wanted to get this movie out and then they were gonna probably, because there's nothing about The Flash mentioned in this first wave of projects that's been announced. So I think they're probably just wanting to put some distance before they bring back
01:15:04
Speaker
They dip back into the flash. But speaking of what James Gunn is doing, now the director of this, Andy Machete, he is lined up now to direct the Batman movie, The Brave and the Bold, which is gonna introduce Damian Wayne as Robin. What do you think of that decision to have him direct Brave and the Bold?
01:15:27
Speaker
So, you know, this movie, the Flash movie, had a lot of problems. But as far as direction, I don't have a problem with the direction. It was just the story and the CGI. I could see him doing a great job with a Batman movie. And I like the fact that there's gonna be Batman and Robin. I've been wanting him to do a serious Batman and Robin movie for a while now.
01:15:54
Speaker
and I'm interested to see who they're gonna cast as Damien because you know child actors can be really hit or miss. So I'm really curious to see what they're gonna do but I think this director I think he can do it and I'm glad he's getting another chance you know because
01:16:13
Speaker
He was given a turd and I think he polished up that turd as much as he could. So I think he deserves a chance to do a Batman movie. So I'm excited to see what he can do. Yeah, I think the Batman stuff. I mean, all the Batman stuff here is the best part of the movie. Like you could just, you know, the stuff with Ben Affleck, you know, the bad costume aside, like Ben Affleck's performance, the action is is great. The Michael Keaton's fight scenes are amazing. Like they they really lean into him.
01:16:43
Speaker
They really do a good job showcasing what Batman can do in a way that None of the Tim Burton movies ever did because Tim Burton is not an action director at all So yeah, I think this guy's got it. I think machete's got a good eye for action I think he's got a good handle on who Batman is so I know a lot of people were down on that after that decision after seeing this movie but I think he might be a pretty he might do a pretty good job directing brave and the bold and Yeah, and like you I am plus I'm also someone who is
01:17:13
Speaker
kind of done with the let's do a grounded realistic Batman take. We had three Nolan movies. We've got, you know,
01:17:21
Speaker
Then we had, then Matt Reeves says, oh, we're gonna do a grounded year one Batman movie. I'm like, well, didn't we just have that? Exactly, exactly.
Desired Batman Portrayal and Rumors
01:17:29
Speaker
Yeah, I'm tired of grounded gritty Batman as well. I would like to see a Batman similar to like the animated series or like the recent new 52 run, which I think was written by Scott Snyder. I think that was his name. Yeah, something like that.
01:17:48
Speaker
i want to see a more comic bookie batman yeah yeah when i say comic bookie i don't mean i don't want to see something like adam west i don't want to see something like uh was it the joe schumacher films yeah yeah i don't want to see anything like that no camp still be serious a good movie but still have those comic book elements i think yeah i want to see batman i'll say this i want to see batman fight clay face
01:18:16
Speaker
Well, I think that's the rumor about the second Batman movie that Matt Reeves is directing, that he's got Clayface in it. I'm not sure how they're going to do that, but that's been the rumor so far.
Anticipation for James Gunn's Influence
01:18:29
Speaker
But I think that James Gunn has said that Grant Morrison's Batman run is a big inspiration, is like a big source of influence for The Brave and the Bold is a very good sign because that Grant Morrison Batman is what you're talking about. That's like more in the
01:18:44
Speaker
Denny O'Neill, Neil Adams, Vane, as opposed to the more Frank Miller type of thing. So I think we're gonna be getting that, is something more like the more comic booky Grant Morrison, you know, what Grant Morrison called, he called it the hairy chested love God Batman.
01:18:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to, I think DC Universe is in good hands with Tim Gunn. James Gunn. Yeah, James Gunn, sorry. I say Tim. James Gunn. I think it's in good hands and I'm curious to see what he's going to do. I think he's going to knock the Superman out the park. I think that we're finally going to get
01:19:20
Speaker
I want to say finally because the Christopher Reeve Superman was good but it's been a while since we had a really good Superman movie that didn't really have any flaws and I think he's going to knock that out the park. There's a couple other things that he's coming up with a
01:19:38
Speaker
I don't want to say howling commandos because that's some kind of creature commandos. I'm curious to see what that's going to be about. I like that sci-fi World War II. I think that's a hit in the making right there.
01:19:56
Speaker
He has some other ideas in the works. I think Nathan, I can never pronounce his last name, but being cast as Guy Gardner for Green Lantern, that is a perfect casting choice. I want to see what they're going to do with that. And Green Lantern, that whole concept in general is something that DC could be tapping into.
01:20:22
Speaker
And the fact that they haven't like that, you know it goes without saying that ryan reynolds green lantern movie was You know an abomination, right? Yeah, um probably even worse than this flash movie. I mean, I don't know because this It's hard to say because I did enjoy we we'd recently covered, uh green lantern and I did enjoy ryan reynolds in it. I enjoyed most of the casting in it I thought the stuff on ola was pretty good. Um But again, this one also has
01:20:50
Speaker
So Green Lantern had a better lead actor, and I think it had a better script overall than this movie. But this movie did have Michael Keaton and Sasha Kale, which elevated a lot of it.
01:21:04
Speaker
But we are running short on time, so I wanted to kind of wrap this up. But one final thing I wanted to say is we briefly mentioned the George Clooney cameo. What did you think of that, having George Clooney pop up as well? I liked it. Yeah, I liked it. I was kind of hoping that with this flash point, I was hoping we were going to get more of a glimpse of the gun
01:21:26
Speaker
Verse, you know, I thought there was gonna be like a bunch of cameos, right? I thought was gonna be more of a teaser of what's to come and I was kind of let down by that But I like the George Clooney cameo, you know was cool to see him you know back at it, but I kind of was just wondering like
01:21:48
Speaker
you know i went in thinking that it was going
Promotion of Podcasts and Paragons Comic
01:21:50
Speaker
to be more yeah like reading that flashpoint comic with the um introduced the new 52 right you know i thought it was going to be as dramatic as that i thought we were going to like see something like really be bold and have people talking and so
01:22:07
Speaker
You know, I'm not going to say I was let down, but, you know, I just expected more. I'm kind of glad that we didn't because I think then we would have been saddled with Ezra Miller still as The Flash. So the fact that we didn't show any. But I am curious to see because they apparently filmed other endings. They apparently had an ending film with with with Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot being around. But they apparently also had another one filmed where Michael Keaton and Sasha Kael were taking the place of
01:22:37
Speaker
Affleck and Cavill, basically. So they had had these different endings filmed. So I am curious if they're ever going to release those, because I would be curious to see what those were like. But I didn't like the George Clooney cameo. I thought that was fun. It was that was one of the few things that I that I got really kind of jazzed about watching this movie. I'm like, oh, it's George Clooney. Yeah, I thought it was cool.
01:23:01
Speaker
You know, it's just be honest with yourself. Do you ever see yourself watching this movie again? No, you know, I watched it last Friday just to get prepared for this, you know, podcast. But I don't think even if I was just home alone and sick and this movie happened to be on, you know, unless I could have found a remote or I could have turned the TV off, you know, I don't think, you know, I would ever watch this again.
01:23:28
Speaker
No, I'm in the same camp. Like I am probably not going to be watching this again. At most, I might fast forward to like the Michael Keaton scenes. That's probably the closest I'll come to watching this again. But other than the Michael Keaton and Sasha Kale stuff or the Ben Affleck stuff, I don't see myself going back to this movie because I mean, also, I didn't mention this, but before this, another note I had was just that Barry is just such a whiny little bitch in this movie.
01:23:53
Speaker
I mean, you're the Flash, you're a freaking superhero and you're complaining about saving people. I mean, come on, dude, what the hell are you doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He just whines nonstop. In the movie, when they first introduced him, he's trying to order a sandwich and he's whining because it's taken too long. And then he's getting picked on by his coworkers.
01:24:17
Speaker
at the job, you know, and then he says he's a virgin. And then it's just like, dude, like none of this wasn't like this guy in real life. Yeah, none of this is necessary. And yeah, it's just there's just so much bad in this movie. And just like to like the whole point of the story, like he doesn't even learn his freaking lesson because he still screws with time in just a different way. So it's just everything about this movie is just so many bad things about this.
01:24:48
Speaker
But yeah, I think that's all we have to say about The Flash. So Isaac, thanks so much for coming on. Why don't you tell the people again where they can find you?
01:24:57
Speaker
It's bright brains pod and that's with a Z on the end just typing bright brains on any podcast platform Spotify Google whatever we're on every platform YouTube as well and this check us out new episodes Monday Wednesday Friday and Yeah, that's pretty much it. Okay great Alright, so and we'll have links to that in the show notes. So please make sure to check out the bright brain brains podcast
01:25:25
Speaker
As for us, Superherocinephiles.com is the website, SuperCinemapod on Instagram and threads and blue sky.
01:25:34
Speaker
Not on X anymore. The profile is still there, but I am not gonna be posting there anymore because Elon Musk is a Nazi, so we're done with that. Yeah, yeah, he's a strange person. Yeah. But also, please make sure to check out Paragons of Earth. That's the comic book I've worked on with Thomas DJ and Eric Johns. Crowdfunder.com slash ParagonsComic. That's crowdfundernoe.com slash ParagonsComic. You can find the link to that in the show notes as well. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
01:26:06
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. Superhero Cinephiles is produced by me, Percival Constantine, with the support of Zencaster. The show is created by myself and the late, great Derek Ferguson, our host, Emeritus. Visit us on the web at superheroescinephiles.com to listen to past episodes or find out how you can be a guest yourself. Support the show by visiting our advertiser links or click the Buy Me a Coffee link on the website to make a one-time donation.
01:26:29
Speaker
You can also support us by visiting crowdfunder.com slash ParagonsComic. That's crowdfunder with no e dot com slash ParagonsComic and help support my superhero comic book, Paragons of Earth. We are Super Cinema Pod on both Instagram and Blue Sky, so please be sure to follow us. We'd also appreciate if you could rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and share us with your friends.
01:27:09
Speaker
Thank you for listening and as always good night. Good evening. God bless.