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Batman Ninja
155 Plays4 years ago
Batman Ninja is an anime take on the Dark Knight in feudal Japan and it was met with near-universal acclaim. We did not feel the same. While there were things we liked about the movie, ultimately it felt like a lot of poor storytelling by people who have never read a Batman comic matched with some pretty visuals.
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Transcript
Introduction and Audible Promotion
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey Derek, guess what? Hit me with it. We just got a promotion with Audible. Audible, fantastic. I love Audible. Do you know what the cool thing about this deal is? What's that? If our listeners go to audibletrial.com slash supercinemapod, they get a free trial with Audible. And do you know what they get with that?
00:00:22
Speaker
What do they get with that? Tell me. They get one free audiobook of their choice and they get two free Audible Originals, which is special content that Audible makes available free for all its subscribers. Are you kidding me? That deal is so good I may go myself and sign them. Do you think they let you keep the books after you're done?
00:00:43
Speaker
No, you're not gonna tell me they let you keep the books after you done it. Yes, in fact, you can go sign up for a trial and you can cancel before the trial ends and you get to keep the books you've already downloaded.
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, I don't see how you can beat that with a stick. Exactly, yeah. And you get lots of great books, especially for fans of the show. You can listen to Super Gods by Grant Morrison, which is all about how the superhero comics have changed and evolved over time. Or you can check out Marvel Comics, The Untold Story. Which is a terrific book. I have that both in hardcover and I listened to that on Audible myself in my car while traveling back and forth.
00:01:21
Speaker
And there's also another similar book that's called Slugfest, which is about like the wars between Marvel and DC Comics. Oh, okay. So that's another one you got to check out too. So yeah, head on over to audibletrial.com slash supercinemapod and start your free trial right now. You got one free audio book and two free audible originals, and you can keep them even if you cancel before it's over.
Gotham's Sengoku Period
00:01:57
Speaker
Like the Joker, they've taken over. They have deceived all the Sengoku daimyos and become lords of their states. Sengoku daimyo? That's right. This period in Japan was a feudal era of warring states. Yes. Each of Gotham's criminals is trying to conquer and unify Japan. The Penguin has seized control of the state of Kai. He skirmishes repeatedly with the neighboring state of Echigo, or poison ivy rules.
00:02:26
Speaker
My fine feathered friends. I'll bury you in the dirt, you old buzzard. In the state of Mutsu, deathstroke reigns supreme. Once my fortress is complete, it'll be my turn to strike. Yeah.
00:02:50
Speaker
Two-Face has taken control in the state of Oomi, near the capital. He has become a vassal of the Joker. Let's see, what will my next move be? But right now, the feudal lord who is closest to unifying Japan is the Joker.
00:03:25
Speaker
So they're all trying to take over this country and rewrite history. We have to find Gorilla Grodd. Have you seen him? Not recently. Why don't you and I join forces, Bruce? Join forces? I want to go home. Two years is a long time to be away. Okay. But no tricks, Selina. Swear. We just have to get into that tower. Joker keeps Grodd's time machine in there.
Meet the Hosts
00:03:58
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Senate Files Podcast. I'm half of your host, Perry Constantine. And as always, I am the other half, Derek Ferguson. How are you doing today, Derek? Oh, pretty good. Like I was saying before we got on, a little bit under the weather, as you can hear folks. So I'm going through a little respiratory thing. Hold on.
00:04:25
Speaker
Don't worry. I'm taking antibiotics for it and resting up. I'm fine. Good. Good. We got to, got to keep you running so that we can keep doing the show. So okay. That's the only reason. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta, I gotta have someone do the show. Okay. Now I know where we stand. I'm cool. Now I know how you feel. Yeah.
00:04:52
Speaker
No, no, I'm glad you're taking care of yourself and everything. Thank you, sir. So I've been watching, I caught up on a bunch of stuff.
Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Review
00:05:00
Speaker
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie with James Marsden and Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, that finally came to Hulu. So I ended up watching that last week. How is that? That was a lot of fun. Really? That was a lot of fun. I mean, I thought Jim Carrey was a little bit too over the top, but overall, it's Jim Carrey, yeah. I mean, yeah.
00:05:21
Speaker
But it was kind of weird because you haven't, we haven't really seen him be that over the top in a long time. So I think it was just kind of jarring for me to see it happen again. Yeah, that's, I haven't seen it. I probably end up watching it because, you know, hey, it's on Hulu. I wouldn't go to theater to see it, but hey, it's on, I'm sitting at home watching, I watch it. And that's what I'm hearing from a lot of people. They said that it was kind of like, actually it was kind of weird to see like old school Jim Carrey again.
00:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Cause I don't think I've seen him like that since me, myself and Irene, I think was probably the last time that he- Oh, I love that movie. Yeah, yeah, that was- Oh man, I could watch that thing every day.
00:06:03
Speaker
I love that movie. I got to rewatch that movie again. I haven't seen it in a long time. And that's a movie. That and Liar Liar. Those are like my two favorite Jim Carrey movies. I could watch those things. But people don't, you know, they never talk about them much. You know, they talk about, you know, Ace Ventura and, you know, The Mask, which I love The Mask too. But I mean, really, I mean, I've seen those movies like at least half a dozen times each. Every time I still laugh my ass off like I've never seen it before.
00:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, I rewatched Ace Ventura, because it was on Netflix, I think, was like several months back. And so I rewatched it for the first time since I was a kid. And it does not hold up. Yeah, yeah. It really doesn't. You know, I watched it. I watched it a while back myself. I was just flipping through the channels. And it was on, I said, let me watch it. And now it's
00:06:59
Speaker
that was definitely a movie that was a product of its time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same thing with the sequel, when nature calls, like when he was in Africa, like that one was really just, oh boy. Yeah. Like I don't even, I haven't even watched it since I was a kid, but just my memories of it, I'm just like, oh, that's bad.
00:07:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're like 10 years old, that's like, I think the right age for you to watch Age of Ventura, you know? But I think that when you go back and you watch it after, you know, you got a little bit older, your humor is a little bit more sophisticated. I think you say, yeah, well, this isn't for me. But then again, who knows? I know people in their 50s that still think Age of Ventura is hilarious. So, you know, what do I watch? Yeah, yeah.
00:07:44
Speaker
Well, I mean, you know, my wife, she likes Adam Sandler movies, so there you go. No, actually, I mean, Adam Sandler has made a couple of good movies. He's made some good movies, yeah. I mean, you know, we reviewed one here. We talked about the cobbler, yeah. The cobbler. I know a lot of people don't like it, but I like A Crazy Night. I remember liking that. I haven't seen it since it was in theaters, but I remember liking that.
00:08:13
Speaker
A lot of people don't like that. What's that one? Don't mess with the Zohan. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I like that one too, which is, I'm going to try to persuade you of us to review that one. Well, in fact, when you said about Ace Ventura superhero movie, I thought that was the one you were talking about at first. Yeah, because the Zohan, that's like a superhero movie. Yeah, yeah. I've actually never seen that, but I just remember
00:08:39
Speaker
hearing about it. I remember a lot of, I think at that, that was the point when like a lot of people were getting kind of tired of him and that, and like it was don't mess with the Zohan and it was Mr. Deeds and all that kind of, like around that time, people started losing their, they're starting to lose their patience with him.
00:08:58
Speaker
But go ahead and check out, you know, the Zohan and see if you agree with me that it's a superhero movie. OK, well, let's see about it. All right.
Superman & Lois Premiere Discussion
00:09:06
Speaker
Also, I watched the Superman and Lois premiere. I watched it right after you told me to watch it. Yeah. W and I checked it out. So what do you think?
00:09:16
Speaker
I think it's so good to have Superman in the hands of people who actually like Superman. That was exactly my reaction. I'm like, oh, wow, this is Superman. It's live action, but it's made by people who actually like the character because for a long time. Exactly. It seemed like Warner Brothers had this mandate that if you like Superman, you can't work on a live action Superman movie or TV show.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that, you know, okay, we've had what, like 80 years of Superman hiding his secret identity from Lois and then Metropolis and they're working at the Daily Planet.
00:09:52
Speaker
I actually think it's an excellent move to just take it to the next logical step and have them as a married couple and dealing with, you know, bring up. And also I think it was genius to bring him back to his roots to do all of this. They brought it back to Smallville. They brought it back to the farm so that he can rediscover, you know, who he is at his core. I thought that was a brilliant move. Get us out of Metropa. You know what? We've already seen all that kind of stuff. You know, we have, you know, I was talking to somebody and they were complaining about like,
00:10:22
Speaker
Oh, because you will always have people that complain. Well, there wasn't enough action in it. I said, but we've already seen Superman in action and other, you know, in Supergirl and, you know. And it's not like this is the one-time thing. It's a continuing series. We're gonna see more action. Yeah, I mean, we don't need a lot of Superman action in this. To me, it was more important that they set up the situation and the characters. Exactly, my feelings exactly.
00:10:50
Speaker
And that retelling of the origin story was, ooh, chef's kiss, brilliant, right? They just go right through it. And they even the classic, you know, flesher costume. Yeah, that was amazing. That was awesome. My mom made it for me. Yeah, I love that. With a genuine smile on his face, a pride. Yeah. Tyler Oakland is he's so good at Superman. He told me that Superman.
00:11:17
Speaker
You know, I mean, he said it with pride. Oh, my mom made it for me, you know? See, this is what I keep telling people. Superman likes being Superman. Exactly. Yeah. It's not this burden. He's, oh, my God, why did I not have these superpowers? And why is the world? No, that's not Superman. He likes being Superman. Yeah. Yeah. And speaking of being, like being Superman, I love that scene where
00:11:46
Speaker
they're in the kitchen and Lois's father, Colonel Lane. And I liked the fact that, yeah, he knows that Clark is Superman. And he comes in, he has a laptop and he says, okay, well, this is the situation at bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. And Lois puts down her foot. Well, no, you can't go and do this because, you know, yeah, your family needs you and Lois gonna need Superman. So her father, don't close it up.
00:12:13
Speaker
walks over to a call on me and says, listen, I told you this shit was going to happen, but you married him, right? I told you the world needs Superman more than you need it. The beautiful thing about that scene is that both of them were right. Yeah. Yeah. And I liked how Clark was just standing on the side, not getting in it because basically this was the two
00:12:35
Speaker
parts of his conscience, talking to each other. And I was surprised how well Dylan Walsh worked as Sam Lane. Wasn't he good? I only really knew the guy from Niptuck. Niptuck, yeah. So when I heard that he was going to play Sam Lane, I'm like, really? That guy? That doesn't really strike me as a Sam Lane type. But no, he really did a good job with that.
00:12:58
Speaker
he pulled it off very well. And I really, you know, and as we've discussed before, when we talk about other movies like that, especially like Black Panther, I always love scenes where it's two characters are in two different points of view and neither one of them are wrong. Right. Yeah. In that scene, Lois was right and Sam was right too. Colonel Lane was right. He both were right.
00:13:22
Speaker
You know, and I think that's why Clark was just standing there and just say, you know what, I'm going to let him fight it out because, you know, because he's torn. And I was I was surprised how much I really actually liked the their sons, you know, Jordan and Jonathan, like, I mean, it's, you know, you get a little bit of the teen angst stuff that always comes baked into a CW drama that you expect that. So that's like people complain about that. It's like, well, it's a CW show. Of course they're going to have that stuff.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, you can't get away from the family drama. And I kind of figured out right from the start that it was going to be Jordan that had superpowers and not, you know, Jonathan. Because Jonathan, he's the golden boy. You know, he's got it all already. You know, I mean, giving him superpowers on top of that would have been, you know, and I actually liked the fact that he was cool with it. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:10
Speaker
Because he said something very telling. He said, you know what? I'm glad Jordan 1 got the powers. And he said, because now I know that my football abilities, it's me. Yeah, yeah. And I said, damn. I said, you know what? That's good. Well, that was the thing I liked about them, is that they feel like real brothers, right? It's not like you got an asshole brother and the, you know, they come from that as like a starting point, but they actually have real personalities. And there are scenes where you can see that they genuinely care about each other.
00:14:38
Speaker
And you know what I was, okay, remember the scene where Jordan persuades Jonathan that they got to figure out what's going on and then they go into the barn and they're investigating in the barn and they go down and they find, you know what I thought of during that scene? I said, Dale, Clark's raising the next Batman and Superman.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, because Jordan was acting like Batman. He's investigating stuff like that. I said he's raising the next Batman and Superman. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. But yeah, I liked their interaction together. I liked them a lot more than I expected to. I thought they would have been a drag on the series, but I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would.
00:15:24
Speaker
On the things I didn't like as much is I don't feel like Tyler Hoechlin has really kind of hit the stride between differentiating Superman and Clark Kent.
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, right now he's basically playing them as the same guy. Clark is dialed down a little bit more, but then again, you know what? I think that since he's married and since he has the kids and stuff like that, he doesn't feel that need as much to play that role as the bumbling stumbling Clark. I understand that. The only thing is like when you're
00:16:02
Speaker
you're trying to keep the secret from the kids like that's when it when the big his big reveal when he told the kids he was really superman that didn't quite I didn't quite buy that just because there's that much differentiation that he does between Clark Kent because even Jordan said oh you're not superman we've seen superman opposing yeah yeah I said oh my god I said well
00:16:25
Speaker
I said, how could you not know it when Superman's got the same three-day stubble as your dad? You know, I mean, okay, take away the glasses, take away the hair. Still, you know, isn't it kind of suspicious that Superman and your dad have the same, you know?
00:16:41
Speaker
And I didn't like Lana's husband. That scene when they were at the at the dinner table, like it I understand what they're trying to do there. It just it felt really forced. And the guy just seems like too much of an asshole and not enough of he doesn't seem as well developed of a character, at least in this episode. I mean, hopefully it'll change as we go on. But so far, it doesn't really he's not it just seems like stereotypical asshole in town type of thing.
00:17:05
Speaker
Well, I did like how when they had the scene with Jordan, he lets loose with the heat vision and there's explosion and stuff like that. And the firemen come and the firemen is telling him, okay, well, here's your son, you know, we found him, he's okay and everything like that. And Clark says to him, yay, man, you know, thanks a lot. And the guy just looks at it. It doesn't say anything smart as in that he just nods and going, I thought that was a nice thing. I was expecting him to say something asshole, but he didn't, he just said,
00:17:33
Speaker
Nah, man, that's all right. It's good. Yeah, there's some moments like that, but I think I would have liked to see more of that from him. The one thing that I think that they did force too much and they were pounding us over the head was the whole thing like small people are small people. Small town people have this resentment against people who live in Metropolis.
00:17:57
Speaker
like like you know oh yeah well you think we're all rubes here you think we're all hicks like everybody in my truck everybody in smallville was like really defensive about that yeah you know and i thought that that was kind i mean in this day and age i mean do we really have that especially when you have so many people from the cities are moving to small towns yeah yeah i thought that came off as a little as pretty forced to me as well um something else but i do like that they're
00:18:23
Speaker
using economic insecurity angles, because that goes right back to Superman's origins, right? Because that's what he was doing. Like, I saw an article on Slade or Salon, one of them saying that, you know, Superman takes on corporate America and it's as boring as it sounds. I'm like, well, no, that's not boring. That's what Superman was created for in the first place. That's when he was...
00:18:47
Speaker
back when he was created. He was fighting the fat cats. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he was basically, you know, he was basically created by two Jewish socialists. Yeah, yeah. So Superman was not fighting super villains. He was fighting social injustice. Yeah, he was fighting, you know, he was going after like Morgan Edge types before he even fought Lex Luthor. Exactly, exactly. Which again, I think that was a smart thing to bring in Morgan Edge. And you know,
00:19:19
Speaker
we've got these clues that he's got some kind of machinations in the background concerning Smallville, which also of course gives Clark another reason to be living there. So he'll be close to there. You say, oh well, if he's doing something in my hometown, I want to be here to see what it is and keep an eye on it. That was another thing. I do like the fact that they're moving back to Smallville, but I felt like they're
00:19:43
Speaker
within the show, like their reasoning for moving back to Smallville, it felt a little bit too quick and it didn't feel like it was really developed enough. Didn't feel organic. Yeah. Yeah. And it feels like, you know, we got to get them to Smallville. So let's just get that out of the way and get them back in Smallville. Yeah. But you know, those are, it's really minor complaints in what was otherwise probably the best of the CW pilots since the flash.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I mean, like I said, I was just happy. Once I saw him in that fly show suit with that grin on his face, and I said, okay, this is in good hands. And the longer the show went on, the more I was convinced. Like I said, this is made by people who actually liked Superman. And thank God for that, you know.
WandaVision Recap and Theories
00:20:33
Speaker
And going on from there, we had a bunch of Wanda, we got two episodes of WandaVision since last time we talked actually. Oh, wow. WandaVision.
00:20:43
Speaker
White vision. White vision. That's all everybody on the internet was screaming. White vision. What the hell is that? And then I saw the episodes. Oh, okay. Now I know what you're talking about. And also we got, you know, you know, I called it Agatha Harkness. Yeah, you sure did. You called it. I mean, that was, but you know something? Okay, here's the thing.
00:21:08
Speaker
I'm watching the episode and we see that Agatha has taken Wanda on this psychological journey back through the trauma of her past. And I say, you know what? It's coming off to me more like she is in the mentor role, trying to, instead of, you know, she's trying to help her find out something about herself, which she did as we saw when she had that vision of herself as the Scarlet Witch, you know.
00:21:34
Speaker
we don't my theory is because you know she said she brings up the fact that you're because agatha is the one who says you're the scarlet witch right yeah now she says that name as if that name has some kind of meaning so um a few years back james robinson did a solo scarlet witch series and in the series he established that because you know after they
00:21:57
Speaker
you know, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, their parentage has been retconned time and time again. And they'd retcon it again a few years back by saying that Magneto was not actually their father.
00:22:09
Speaker
Right. And then so James Robinson did this story in the Solo Scarlet Witch series, where he established that his mother, that their mother was actually also a chaos magician, who also called herself the Scarlet Witch. And it's like a title that's been passed down from generations. Right. Well, yeah, well, the way, yeah, well, the way that Agatha said it, she said, like, it's a title. Yes. That, you know, that's being passed on. So I would guess that's where they go. But let me ask you a question.
00:22:38
Speaker
I've been dying to ask you this. Would you ever in your wildest dreams
00:22:44
Speaker
and you've seen all of the MCU movies, like I have then. Would you have ever guessed that it would be the Vision and the Scarlet Witch that would be the linchpin of the new era that we get? Hell no, hell no. In fact- Because apparently that's what, with all of the concepts and characters that we're getting thrown into here, this is a launch pad for a lot of stuff that we're gonna- Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, if you told me, and you know,
00:23:10
Speaker
You know me, you've known me for a long time. You know that Vision's always been one of my favorite Avengers. And if you asked me, like when they said that they were gonna introduce Vision in Age of Ultron, I'm like, oh, great, he's gonna be an Age of Ultron. I'm like, he's gonna be a minor character. He probably is not gonna play a big role in the MCU. And then after he died in Infinity War, I'm like, that's it, we're probably never gonna see any Vision again after this.
00:23:33
Speaker
And I say this as a Vision fan, I am so happy to be proven wrong about that. And I said, oh shit, because they powered him using the chaos magic from the drone. I said, that is genius. Because I was saying, well, OK, well, they can't bring him back because he doesn't have the stuff. Right, yeah.
00:23:57
Speaker
However, that doesn't mean he can't be powered by something else. So in a way, Wanda has brought him back to life.
00:24:08
Speaker
I didn't expect to see the white vision. So like, I freaked out when that happened. And my wife was in the other room, right? We were getting ready to go over to her friend's house to have dinner. And so she was in the other room getting ready. And I'm trying to watch as much of this episode as I can before we got to go, because it dropped right an hour before we're supposed to leave. So I'm watching, I'm like, come on, I got to finish this episode. And then it gets the white vision part and I freak out. And my wife comes up, she's like, what is it? What is it? What is it?
00:24:34
Speaker
I don't even know how to explain it. It's just amazing. And then after we got back from her friend's house, she's like, well, I want to see the episode. I'm like, okay. And we hit the white vision part and she's like, I don't get it. I'm like, yeah, you're going to get it. It's a comic book. When I saw it, I screamed, oh shit, white vision. And Patricia said, are you all right? I said, white vision. And she was talking on the phone with somebody and somebody said, what is that? She said, don't worry about it.
00:25:01
Speaker
It won't be, but you know, and then later on when I was telling my wife about it and she was just sitting there and she said, yeah, she said, because she had been seeing so much about WandaVision and she wanted to start watching it. And I said, nah, you can't start watching, honey. Well, why not? What do you think? I'm dumb. I said, okay, well, let me just give you a little bit of the backstory. After about 15, 20 minutes, she said, I surrender. I surrender.
00:25:27
Speaker
Nevermind. I don't want to see it. Yeah. She said, if I need all the know all of that to watch it, she says too much work. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, well, I mean, and like you said, I know how much of a vision failure. I said, I know he freaked out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I flipped out when I saw a white fit. And we got Monica with her powers now.
00:25:49
Speaker
That was a- We've got sword. We got sword, yeah. We got Jimmy Woo. We've got Darcy. See, they passed up a great community.
00:26:00
Speaker
bit that they could have kept cutting back to her and the intersection with these different eruptions going. I mean, I understand they didn't want to break the tension of what they were doing, you know, but I was also thinking, I said, you know Darcy is sitting at that damn intersection still waiting. Yeah, yeah. And how about the revelation of where the sitcom ideas come from?
00:26:24
Speaker
Right. Yeah. That was just heartbreaking. Oh, man. Well, there was a lot that was hard. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, the whole thing with the parents and, you know, because, you know what, until it was all put together like that, I said, you know what? I had always thought that Thor suffered the most traumatic loss out of all the characters in MCU. One is like this close second, you know. Yeah.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yeah. And that line he says about, you know, grief is like evidence of love or something like that. Like he says to her, that was just so powerful. Pure poetry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it was a very emotional episode. And all I can say is for the people who insisted that, well, this is a nothing series and it's not going anywhere. And you know what?
00:27:22
Speaker
Those of us who had the patience to stick with it and see where it's going, it paid off for us big time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm getting my, I'm starting to choreograph my, I told you so dance. I hear you, I hear you. But yeah, I mean, but I know some people that have said, well, they'd rather wait until the whole thing is done and then they can sit and watch. Which is valid, I understand. But you know, some, I think that I got more out of it
00:27:50
Speaker
digesting the emotional beats that happened, especially after this one. You have time to digest it. All right, so my big theory is that because we got the Chaos Magic, they name dropped, you got Agatha's whole thing in her past with her coven. My theory is that the big villain behind this, the big bad, it's not Mephisto. I think that all the stuff in Mephisto is a total red herring. My theory is it's K'Thon.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah. Because K'Than's all about the chaos magic, which is used to manipulate realities. And I think like maybe Agatha had been a pawn of K'Than in the past. And that's when she like attacked her coven. And now, you know, maybe she broke away or something. And now she's trying to, either she's working for K'Than and K'Than's going to be like the main bad guy in multiverse of madness, you know, kind of like they did with, um,
00:28:49
Speaker
Kaecilius and Loki were pawns of, you know, Dormammu and Thanos and all that. So that's, or it could be that she was working with, she was a pawn of K'Than back in the day. She eventually broke away. And now she's trying to, when she sends the Chaos Magic, she's trying to figure out if Wanda is working with K'Than.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that works for me too. Because I'm not convinced that Agatha is, you know, the big bad. Yeah, me neither. Like I said, she was going through a lot of trouble too.
00:29:25
Speaker
bring her through her past and help her work through her trauma. Yeah. And I also love the whole things where she's like, you know what, wait, look at all this stuff. You don't know, you don't recognize any of these symbols. You're pretty powerful witch. You should know this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. She said, you should know that. That's okay. That's a clue, right? And also the whole thing that the retcon about how Wanda is the reason why that bomb didn't go off when they were kids. That also lends credence to my theory that
00:29:56
Speaker
this is how they're gonna bring in mutants, that she's always been a mutant. It's just, it was, because Agatha says that whole thing, you know, this is something that should have died on the vine. Like your power should have remained dormant your entire life, but because you came into contact with an infinity stone, it unlocked the power. So that lends more credence to my theory that it's gonna be the fact that, you know, they used all this, I mean, they had three snaps using all the power of the infinity zone gems, you know, and all on earth.
00:30:26
Speaker
So, like, all that energy being released out all over the planet, because, you know, rockets at an endgame, right? Earth was ground zero for an explosion of energy that has never been seen before. Right, exactly. So, I'm thinking that's going to be how they introduce mutants. Well, we will listen. I've known you long enough to know that I'm not going to bet against you.
00:30:49
Speaker
you know so but we will see but yeah but for those of you who are watching this and I can't imagine anybody's watching this hasn't seen WandaVision you need to start watching WandaVision because what there's only what uh one more episode yeah one more episode to go so
00:31:04
Speaker
Listen, start watching it, you know? Yeah, we got the last episode this week. Next week is going to be like, they got like a documentary thing, I think next week, like a behind the scenes type of thing next week. Yeah, behind the mask or something like that. Well, behind the mask is already out. I watched that a few days ago. It was pretty good. And then after in two weeks, we got Falcon and Winter Soldier, and that's going to be six one-hour episodes. Cool.
00:31:31
Speaker
So yeah, Disney Plus, they're doing a good job of keeping my subscription money. Listen, they're getting my money with no problem. Yeah, yeah. All right. Now, one other thing I want to talk about before we jump into today's movie is because this is something that you had some feelings on, I noticed.
New Superman Movie Speculation
00:31:49
Speaker
And this is the fact that we've got a Superman film, a new Superman movie. Now, some of the news have been calling it a reboot, but
00:31:58
Speaker
Nothing in the actual press release says anything about a reboot, right? So that's just interpretation by the article writers that, but so it's JJ Abrams and Ta-Nehisi Coates are teaming up to do a Superman movie. And the news report suggests that it'll be a black Superman. So I'm gonna let you go off and then I'm gonna tell you what my idea behind it is. I'm not gonna go off at all because listen,
00:32:29
Speaker
People know how I feel about this type of stuff. I don't believe that just by giving Superman a deep, dark tan, you know, makes him a black character, you know, that's it. I'm not, I am, I'm, you know, I understand why it's done. I understand why people, you know, like to see it, but I myself, I'm not a fan of it. To me, it's the equivalent of
00:32:58
Speaker
Stealing a car, putting on a new coat of paint, putting on a new license plate, and then claiming that's a brand new car. That's not a brand new car. It's not.
00:33:09
Speaker
You know, listen, I'm a little, I'm a little man. Nobody cares about my opinion. People are going to go see it. And, you know, they're going to put the movie out and we will just take it on its own merits. Now, here's my, here's my theory, because, and this kind of goes back to something you said before, where you said like, there can be a black Batman, there can't be a black Bruce Wayne.
00:33:32
Speaker
So a black Superman doesn't mean we're getting a black Kal-El Clark Kent. My theory, and Michael B. Jordan was involved in this at some point too, right? Since 2018, there were reports about Michael B. Jordan being in consideration and Jordan had fueled rumors. He said he was interested in it, but he didn't say he was interested in doing Clark Kent. He said he was interested in playing Calvin Ellis.
00:33:57
Speaker
the Superman from one of the alternate Earths that was introduced by Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones in Final Crisis. Now, okay, now, hold on a second. Going back to Superman and Lois, we saw at the end of the episode, the mysterious guy that he was fighting was a black guy. We saw the back of his head, we saw he was black. And he was referred to as Captain Luthor. Now, from things that he said and everything like that, now we know he comes from alternate.
00:34:26
Speaker
Earth. Right. So the John Cryer Lex Luthor is still there. Yes. Right. Okay. See, I'm happy with that. You, you didn't take, you know, the Lex Luthor that we've seen and all of a sudden now he shows up. He's black. This is a different. Now, if you're doing a Superman from alternate universe or okay, fine. I got no problem with that. Yeah. I mean, you know, why not? And I think that's what they might be doing. Like that's my theory because we've already got a great Clark Kent and Tyler Oakland right now.
00:34:56
Speaker
Right. So, and you know, Superman and Lois just debuted. They're introducing a new Supergirl now that Melissa Benoist is hanging up the cape in the movies. She's gonna appear in Flash, and the Flash movie is going to be involving like alternate universes, all this. They're really exploring the idea of expanding the multiverse.
00:35:15
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's why I think we're leaning towards either Calvin Ellis or Val Zod, who appeared in the the Earth Two series by creative, because apparently DC is kind of happy with the way that
00:35:29
Speaker
they are able to present multiple incarnations and nobody's raising a fuss about it. I mean, we had the Joker movie that was as far from the traditional Joker as you can get because it actually wasn't about the Joker, it was about mental illness.
00:35:45
Speaker
But, you know, and like I said, we've already had, you know, two different flashes. We've had the TV flash and we've had the flash from Justice League who actually met each other. Exactly. You know, so I think that DC is saying, well, you know what? Nobody's talking about it and nobody's making it. So let's double down on this and let's keep giving them multiple versions of our characters. And especially because the Calvin Ella Superman is president in his, in his unit. Right. So that's what,
00:36:13
Speaker
Right, based on Barack Obama, yeah. Right, Barack Obama. So that makes it a really interesting take too. Besides him just being a black guy who has superpowers, now you've got him a black guy who's the most powerful man in the world in two different ways. And I think that's a really interesting idea to explore. Yeah, I mean, listen, if it's executed well, people will respond to it and they'll enjoy it. And you know what?
00:36:42
Speaker
The bottom line, that's the main thing. It really is. I mean, you know, as long as people are enjoying it, I got no problem with it. Now, the creative people that they pick behind this, eh, well, I don't know. JJ Abrams, I think, you know, and mind you, I like JJ Abrams, but I just think that he's like,
00:37:07
Speaker
You know, he's too much like the go-to guy when people want to reboot and, you know, revamp or, you know, rework series and stuff like that. You know, they just, oh, well, just go get JJ Abrams. And I think he's fallen into that kind of trap where, you know, whereas I'd like to see another name, you know, every time I hear about a reboot or revamp of a character or a series or movies, I hear JJ Abrams. And I'd like to see some other names, that's all.
00:37:34
Speaker
Yeah, JJ Abrams, when they first talked about him possibly being involved, I didn't really because he wrote a Superman script, you know, years back, back before Superman returns, and it was terrible, right, just utterly awful take on Superman. But now they got Ta-Nehisi Coates involved and
00:37:51
Speaker
that has me a lot more interested because he's been doing a really good job on Black Panther and on Captain America and the comics. So I'm looking forward to seeing what he does, especially if it's the Calvin Ellis Superman, because he's got, you know, he's shown that he's got this, he can handle the whole idea of like, of the, of the superhero running a country, right? He's able to do really well in Black Panther. And, and he's done a really good job of
00:38:17
Speaker
using current events and the current political climate to very good effect in Captain America as well. So this kind of seems like it would be a combination of those two talents that he has. And I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does with it.
00:38:34
Speaker
And for better or for worse, he brings what I call a kind of literary quality to any project that he's with. So, you know, you get a lot of people that are now looking at it that wouldn't look at it before. Like a lot of people would never dream to pick up a Black Panther comic book before he wrote it. They did it because he was writing it.
00:38:57
Speaker
Yeah, so is that. I mean, but yeah, but JJ, and mind you, I'm talking about, I'm talking to somebody that like, I wanted a few to actually like to Star Trek movies. Oh, same here. You know, but I, you know, it's just every time I turn around and they're rebooting something. Oh, well, you know, JJ, there's other talented people out there.
00:39:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, personally, I would say James Gunn. Yeah. But I would say my top two picks would be either Brad Bird or Matthew Vaughn. Brad Bird is not doing more live action superhero movies. I have no idea. No idea. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
no idea because he did what all incredible after that mission of possible yeah and he did the mission of possible yeah that's right i said holy shit why is this guy not doing more stuff like this you know if you would i mean i knew he i mean i see the incredible so i knew in animation he could do but you know a lot of times people do animation doesn't translate
00:39:55
Speaker
Over the live action right now. Yes, yeah, I love that. Yeah, I mean that whole that whole scene at the at the tower. Oh, that was heart stopping.
00:40:06
Speaker
Amazing. And to this day, I said, why is this guy not doing more stuff like that? I know. Yeah. It's a total mystery to me. I mean, it's not only that movie did bad at the box office, right? I think it was a huge success. I had no idea. I mean, if I were running Marvel or DC, first thing I'd do is be like, you know, get me Brad Bird's agent because we got to get him directing something. And I'd just be like, look, how many dump trucks of money do we have to back up on your front lawn before you agree to sign on to something?
00:40:35
Speaker
You know what I would have a bad bird do, right? What's that? Fantastic work? Warlock. Oh, Warlock, okay. I'd give Warlock, yeah. Go out and out of space, man. Go ahead and just go nuts. That'd be interesting. Yeah. Warlock, Silver Surfer. I'd give one of the cosmic characters. That'd be cool. I would definitely give him Superman. Superman would be more. Oh, yeah, yeah. He'd do Superman with his eyes closed. Yeah, yeah.
Batman Ninja Critique
00:41:02
Speaker
All right. So anyway, now let's move into today's pick, which was a movie you suggested and that is Batman Ninja. It's a 2018 Japanese anime worked in part with Warner Brothers, right? And so it was directed by Junpei Mizusaki.
00:41:22
Speaker
And the character designs- I will let you handle all the Japanese. The character designs were by Takashi Okazaki, who created Afro Samurai. And okay, so now this is something interesting. And I didn't realize it, because I've seen both versions, but I saw the Japanese version like last year or something. So it's been a while since I've seen it. So I don't really quite remember so well. But apparently the American version,
00:41:50
Speaker
It was written by, the script was written by Leo Chu and Eric Garcia, and they completely rewrote the script from the Japanese, the translation of the Japanese script, which was written by Kazuki Nakashima. So it's basically two entirely different scripts using the same, the same video, basically.
00:42:08
Speaker
Okay. So I got to rewatch the Japanese version to kind of see the details, kind of see the different, where the differences were. But anyway, this is your, so this time I actually watched it with the English dub and because it was on HBO Max. And I know, I assume you did too, because I don't think, I think I checked the audio and I think it was only English audio was available. So what were your thoughts watching this movie? I hate it. Okay.
00:42:35
Speaker
No, okay. I didn't hate it, but I did not like this one. I didn't like this at all for a number of reasons. First reason. I saw absolutely, okay. I was under the impression that this was going to be a movie about
00:42:55
Speaker
Okay. What if Batman was in feudal Japan? That's what I thought it was going to be. That's what I was hoping for as well. Let's say this was an Elks world thing. And instead of in Gotham city, Batman was operating in feudal Japan. That's what I actually thought I was going to see. That's what I was hoping for too. That whole framing business with Gorilla Grob and the time machine. Okay. Why would the time machine send Batman and all of his villains back to feudal Japan? Why wouldn't they send it back to like,
00:43:24
Speaker
I don't know, 18th century Gotham City. Yeah, it's just, it's really bizarre. And it's like, for the life of me, I can't understand who watched
00:43:35
Speaker
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 and said, this plot for the worst Ninja Turtles movie of the original series, let's put that plot in a Batman movie. It just, it doesn't, I don't get it. Why wouldn't Guerrilla Garage's time machine have sent everybody Gotham City back? Why did they just send Batman in? This is a very selective time machine because it only sent Batman, his villains and his allies back to feudal Japan.
00:44:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean the whole comp can see is that supposed because they were all in Arkham at the time, but like there's a lot more people in Arkham than just those guys. I mean, I mean that made no sense to me. Like I said.
00:44:15
Speaker
Right from the start, I would have liked it much better if they had just had a little thing started with the premise, well, this is the else world thing. What if Batman was in Japan? Yes, just like Gotham by Gaslight. Right. But then again, I guess, and I'm not trying to say anybody's racist here, so don't get upset, folks. Or I'm just saying that, well, then maybe then we would have had to have Asian Batman and Asian Catwoman and maybe somebody was
00:44:42
Speaker
that somebody wasn't cool with that, which I would have liked to see myself, an Asian Batman and, you know. But I mean, okay, Alfred. Alfred wasn't in Arkham or something. Why was Alfred sitting back in time? Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, I had no idea. Alfred was sitting back in time. Why? He wasn't knowing.
00:45:02
Speaker
You know, that whole framing sequence to me made absolutely no sense. It was a clunky way to get into the story when you could have just said, you know, Batman is a character that can exist in many times, in many realms. Well, I mean, especially because the whole conceit behind this movie is that it's all about the different villains have taken over different areas of Japan.
00:45:29
Speaker
and they're basically reenacting the Sengoku Wars. And that premise, you can do that perfectly fine without bringing in time travel into it.
00:45:45
Speaker
And I'm trying to figure out, you know, they seem to have acclimated to feudal Japan very well. They didn't seem to have any problem with it. Whereas Batman, who actually has been to Japan and he studied ninjutsu and stuff like that, he's fumbling around like he doesn't know the neighborhood or where to go or what to do or anything like that. If anybody should be familiar with that period of time, it should be Batman. Yeah, yeah.
00:46:09
Speaker
you know, but Gorilla Grodd and and the Penguin and the Joker, you know, they just like fit in like, you know, like a hand in a glove. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, damn, they're, you know, building Shogun Warriors, for God's sake.
00:46:25
Speaker
Yeah, I had the same feeling. Like I didn't, I don't, I don't think, I think maybe hate is too strong a word, but I did not like it. Oh, I don't hate it. Yeah. Okay. And I'm going to tell you why I don't hate it. And this is the one thing that I can recommend this movie for. The visual spectacle. Yeah, yeah. If you just want a movie just for the visuals, you can watch this with the sound off that because- I mean, yeah, exactly.
00:46:50
Speaker
You know what I would recommend, you know what I would recommend doing is if you can, cause I know when I hit film X doesn't have this, but if, you know, watch the original Japanese audio, but don't use the subtitles. Cause you really don't need them and just kind of like immerse yourself. Yeah, you really don't. I mean, and, and to me, this is okay. This is a movie that to me points up one of my problems I have with anime because
00:47:16
Speaker
Yes, there is some anime I love, Cowboy Bebop. In fact, the voice of the Japanese actor, the Japanese voice actor of Batman, and he also did the voice of Spike in the original Cowboy Bebop. Oh really? Yeah.
00:47:31
Speaker
Okay, I mean, there is some anime I like. A lot of anime, to me, I find is that that's what it is. It's visual over story. Story doesn't necessarily have to make a lick of sense. As long, you know, they're more concerned about the visuals. And to me, that's one of the problems with anime, because I watch some anime movies and I'm engrossed in what I'm watching.
00:47:56
Speaker
Gorgeous, but I have no idea what this story is about. And this is one of those movies. I mean, visually is spectacular. But yeah, that story, I'm sorry. It doesn't work for me. Now, you know what I thought about the visually, because I love the designs, but the way the shading is done and everything like that, it doesn't quite work so well when it's animated. And it feels almost at times like you're watching a motion comic.
00:48:26
Speaker
It doesn't feel like really fluid animation. So when I'm watching this, the whole time I'm thinking is like, this would have looked a lot better as a comic book, where the images are static. Because I think the way the shading is and everything and the kind of detail, it doesn't, it feels very static when you put it to animation. Yeah, I see what you mean because
00:48:50
Speaker
I noticed that sometimes it seemed like the background and the characters weren't sinking. Yeah. So they were moving kind of funny. Yeah. Okay. Well, now you don't explain what, cause I'm watching, I'm saying something is off about this, but I couldn't identify what it was. You just identify. Yeah. It's like a motion capture. Right. Exactly. Thank you. Also now. So I also didn't like the guy who did the, the English voice for, for Batman, Roger Craig Smith. He did not sound like Batman to me.
00:49:18
Speaker
I didn't like any of the voice working. No, I liked, we had some pretty good ones because they had Tara Strong was reprising her Harley Quinn role. Will Friedl, who, you know, he did Terry McGinnis. He did. He also did Tim Drake, Red Robin.
00:49:36
Speaker
And who else was it? Tony Hale, you know, of Arrested Development and VP did the Joker. And I thought he actually did a pretty decent job as the Joker. Really? Yeah, I liked his joke. Oh, I hated listening to his voice. Okay. I did, I could, you know, I said, damn. I found myself, yeah, how much longer do I got to listen to him screech and scream? Like, you know, I really, the voice work in this to me was not memorable.
00:50:04
Speaker
at all. I don't know. Maybe I've gotten spoiled by, you know, Kevin Conroy. Yeah. You know what? Even if they got somebody like, what's his name? He did Batman and Dark Knight Returns. Oh, that was Peter Weller. Yeah, Peter Weller. Yeah. If they got somebody like Peter Weller, you know, maybe that's what it is. Maybe I needed somebody a little bit more familiar, but
00:50:31
Speaker
Again, going along with the characterization of Batman in this, like, he was totally lost in Japan. He didn't know where to go, what to do, and then... Well, he also doesn't seem... This is one of the problems I had with this movie, is it feels like a movie made by people who have never read a Batman comic book.
00:50:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Because like he does that whole thing where he's like, well, what's Batman without his tech? I'm like, what are you talking about? Batman doesn't need his tech. Batman doesn't need his tech. Exactly. If, if anybody, like I said before, if anybody would have been at home in feudal Japan, it would have been Batman. Yeah. No problem. Yeah. I mean, all the tech and all the toys, you know, yeah, that's, those are tools he used. That's not who he is. Right. Um, I also didn't buy, cause see Batman would have never been fooled by the Joker.
00:51:19
Speaker
Yeah. Bullshit on that. That old sequence, that old sequence when they're like farming and everything, like that just felt so tacked on and useless. I said, where did this come from? And then it's done in a completely different animation style from the rest of the movies. It's so weird. I don't know what they were thinking. Whatever reason, I cannot fathom at all.
00:51:41
Speaker
And another thing too is like, I don't understand why this movie has gotten such a good reception. Cause it's got like an 80%, 82% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And I have no idea. Like I don't understand. I was wondering when I was watching this, I'm like,
00:52:00
Speaker
Am I missing something? Is there something I'm not getting here? So I was really curious to hear what that's what I want to ask you what you thought of it first. So when you said you didn't like it, I'm like, OK, good, it's not just me. No, no, no, no, it's not just you. I haven't been disappointed in a Batman movie since I saw what was the one, the one about the Red Hood. Oh, under the Red Hood.
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't like that one either. But most of the time, a Batman animated movie, I find that I fall in love with Batman. I even like, a lot of people don't like Gotham Knight. I like Gotham Knight. Yeah, Gotham Knight's the one I did not like. Okay, see? That's okay, most people still like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, The Dark Knight, you know, I like that. Oh, The Dark Knight Returns? Huh? The Dark Knight Returns? Yeah, The Dark Knight Returns. Oh, I love that one, yeah.
00:52:48
Speaker
Oh, what's the other one? Gotham by Gaslight. Gotham by Gaslight was good. Yeah. Now, this had been done like Gotham by Gaslight. I probably would have liked this. Yeah, it should have been done that way. Yeah, it should have been done that way.
00:53:03
Speaker
It should have been, but this one, like you said, this was done by people that actually have never read a Batman comic. And you know, it feels like they were given a list of characters and they said, look, these are the characters that have to be in the movie. Cause you got that whole thing where you've got the Penguin, Poison Ivy, Deathstroke, Two-Face, they all have their own territories, but they're totally incidental to the plot. You could cut out everything with those guys and you would not be missing anything from the story.
00:53:29
Speaker
Really, the only villain that's necessary for the plot is Gorilla Grodd. Well, and the Joker, because he works. And the Joker, yeah. Yeah. Those are the only two that you would really need. Yeah. The rest of them could have been, you know, right? Because, OK, here's the thing. Later on in the movie, we find out that everybody's built their own Shogun Warriors. Then Grodd, he pulls out his master plan. Oh, I've been mind controlling them all along to build these gigantic robots.
00:53:58
Speaker
So which means they could have been full of Shogun, you know, what do you call it? They could have been feudal lords that already lived in Japan, that he could have mind controlled. They didn't have to be, you know, Batman villains. Yeah, but there's also the whole thing with,
00:54:17
Speaker
And I understand it's fantasy sci-fi and everything and I get that, but still you're going back to feudal Japan and you're building giant robots that don't even exist in 2020. Thank you. See, that's another thing. Yeah. Okay. I understand. And people would say, well, it's suspension of disbelief. There's no way you're going to tell me that the penguin of all people is in feudal Japan. He decides to just hang out there.
00:54:47
Speaker
and build a 20-story tall Shogun warrior. Well, there's that whole thing where Catwoman says that, oh, well, now the Joker has sped up the Industrial Revolution. I'm like, how the fuck would the Joker even know where to start with that?
00:55:00
Speaker
I mean, this is the joker we're talking about. We're not talking about, you know, Lex Luthor. If you told me that Lex Luthor went back in time and he jump started the industrial level, okay, he's Lex Luthor. Right. I mean, just because you come from the future and you get dropped in the past, doesn't mean you'd know everything about scientific advance in the future. If you drop me at NASA in the 1960s, yeah, I know we put a man on the moon, but I could not tell you how to build a rocket ship in 1960. Thank you.
00:55:30
Speaker
I mean, yeah, okay. You hit it right on the head. Yeah, okay. This is a sci-fi fantasy movie and, you know, it's got time travel and all that. But you know what? There's just some things I'm not going to go of in the context of certain characters and what I know about those characters. Two-Face does not have that technical background. Right. The thing with does not have that tech. Poison Ivy. Why is Poison Ivy building the sheet?
00:55:55
Speaker
My whole thing is plants. Yeah, yeah. And also, you know, this is even a stronger argument for keep for putting it in an Elseworld setting because then you can set it in like a steampunk feudal Japan. And then that would work. And then all of this, all of these arguments would be moot.
00:56:12
Speaker
I mean, it's, like I said, for one thing, these characters just acclimated themselves way too quickly to, you know, feudal Japan. It was like, yeah, I understand they put in that thing that Batman got there two years after the rest of them did. But still, like... Yeah, but still, I mean, come on.
00:56:31
Speaker
You know, I've been in modern Japan for over 10 years and I have not acclimated as well as these guys acclimated in two years. This is what I'm saying. You know, yeah. I mean, you know, these guys are hanging out having the time of their life.
00:56:45
Speaker
You know, no, matter of fact, nobody really seems interested in going home except for Catwoman. Yeah, yeah. She's really the only character that said, damn, I got to listen. Because she says it over and over. Listen, I've been here long enough. I've been here two years. It's been fun, but I got to get back to Gotham City. There's also no need to have all of Batman's allies here, right? Like Nightwing's really the only one you really need. Yeah, yeah. But Red Hood is only there just for that really bizarre Joker sequence, which is useless anyway.
00:57:15
Speaker
And you've got Red Robin, who is basically just saying these exact same stuff that Nightwing is saying. And then you've got Damien Wayne, who is not acting like Damien Wayne at all, and has a pet monkey, and is just... Where the hell did you get a munching chief from? And the whole thing with all the monkeys being commanded to... It was like sick. And since you already know that Gorilla Grodd,
00:57:46
Speaker
is behind you being sent back in time. Would you be kind of leery of having a monkey sidekick? Yeah, yeah. I mean, duh, this is not, this shit ain't that hard to, folks, despite what anybody tell you, this shit really isn't that hard to write. No, it's not.
00:58:06
Speaker
You know, but, but somebody thought it would be cute for Robin to have a little cute monkey sidekick of his own. So, Hey. So we, and then it sets it up for at the end when they had the monkey army attack. So, you know, which actually I will admit was a pretty cool thing. Yeah, but it was just so bizarre though.
00:58:23
Speaker
Listen, everything about this movie is bizarre. This is a movie that I tell people. It doesn't make a lick of sense if you stop to think about it. That's why I say watch it strictly for the pure visual eye candy. Because if you stop and think about the plot for five minutes, it makes no sense at all. At least not to me. No, no. It doesn't make a lick of sense whatsoever. But then again, like I said, I have found that
00:58:53
Speaker
anime fans, they really, I mean, yeah, as long as everything that looks good and, you know, the visuals are there.
00:59:01
Speaker
they really, you know, the story. Well, I will say it, because anime is hugely broad. So like, I will say, like, if you're talking more, you know, kids, anime, that kind of stuff, then yeah, you're right. But when you get, they are, there are a lot more serious, immature stuff. Like, and some, like, if you look at something like your name, which has amazing visuals and an incredibly well done story, like amazingly well written story that's like,
00:59:31
Speaker
really moving and really creative in terms of like how they use time travel and stuff like that in there, or Ghost in the Shell is another example too. So there is a lot of Perfect Blue, which is basically like if Hitchcock had made an animated movie, it would be Perfect Blue.
00:59:46
Speaker
Okay. And so there's a lot of really good anime stuff out there. It's just when you're, I think what your conception of anime is, is mostly like along the lines of what ends up on TV a lot of the time, which is a lot of like the kids TV show. So like, you know, Dragon Ball or Pokemon or that kind of stuff. Well, I never watched Dragon Ball. So, but, but you are right about one thing. I will admit that my knowledge of anime is kind of, you know, it is, it is as broad
01:00:18
Speaker
as it could be, let me put it that way. Like I said, I've seen stuff like, of course, Speed Racer, Astro Boy, I grew up on stuff like that. And then when I got older, Ghost in the Shell, I watched that because everybody was talking about that. Akira, Cowboy Be Pop, Samurai Champloo, stuff like that.
01:00:45
Speaker
What's on the other was, what was the one with the kid with the golden bat that was going around beating people in the head? Oh, I had no idea. Okay. That was a pretty good one. That was a lot of that stuff I would watch like a Saturday night. They would have like their anime block.
01:01:01
Speaker
Oh, Adult Swim? Yeah, Adult Swim. And I would watch a lot of that. And, you know, and I would watch the occasional Tank Police. I like Tank Police. Robot Carnival. That's one of my favorite movies. And of course, you know, the Lupin movies. Lupin the Third, yeah. That's exactly Ostro. Yeah. You know, but I do admit that my knowledge of anime is not as wide as it could be, which is probably why this movie
01:01:31
Speaker
doesn't have the same appeal for me as someone who is deeper into it. Yeah. Let me say that. Yeah. Well, this is definitely like, there is a lot of anime out there that's incredibly well written, very thought provoking, and it does combine with really good visuals.
01:01:48
Speaker
This is not one of those movies. No, this is just there for the visuals. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And like I said, it should be taken over. I mean, it's got great. I loved it when Batman showed up in his Bat Samurai armor. I said, oh, shit, it's about to get real now. You know, I thought that would.
01:02:05
Speaker
But again, then we get a scene after that where him and the Joker are going toe to toe. I said, when did the Joker learn to become a master martial artist? Yeah, yeah. Because they have that fight earlier on where he's got the fans and he's throwing the fans and he's leaping around like Bruce Lee and stuff like that. And one of the things, one of the trademarks about the Joker is that he's a physical coward.
01:02:28
Speaker
Right, yeah. Joker can't fight for shit, you know. That's the, you know. But, but in this one, yeah, he's like a man. In two years he learned how to be a master martial artist as well as building giant robots. Okay. I also didn't like how they did the same thing that, you know, so many people have done where they made Bane, you know, just basically a big dumb henchman. He was in here for one scene. One scene, yeah. And
01:02:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was kind of cool to see Bane as a Sumo wrestler, but really like Bane is the most intelligent one out of the bunch, except for Gorilla Grodd, and they play him like an idiot. And to me, if you're going to have Bane in there, have him in there, like you said, for more than one scene. Matter of fact, Bane is probably the other character besides Batman that would be more at home if you were in Japan. Yeah, yeah.
01:03:18
Speaker
And another thing, what was it? I don't like the design they did for Batman's modern day costume, because this is one of the things I hate. When I see this is, because Batman's a character that's supposed to be in shadow, right? He's supposed to work really well in shadow. That kind of gets undermined when you got bright glowing lights all over your costume. It was too busy. Yeah, yeah. It was too busy. And then there's the part. I said, wait a minute. How is he powering all of this shit?
01:03:46
Speaker
When he takes off his cow, and he's got like a projector in there, and he's projecting images on the wall. I said, really? Do you really need that, Bruce? I mean, how often would you come in a situation where you have to take off your cows? But again, this is the thing where the visual is more important than the story making sense.
01:04:07
Speaker
Yeah, my phone runs out of battery power in like five hours. And it's not doing any holographic projections or anything like that. Yeah, I mean, and like you said, okay, what is the point of having those blue lights? That costume was just way too busy. Yeah, yeah. It was. And he's got LED lights on, you know, the, you know, the belt. It's just way too much. And it's like, he's not Iron Man.
01:04:36
Speaker
No. Yeah. And just way too, like the whole point is like Batman, I understand, you know, given him like modern day, like an armored costume, lightweight armored costume. I understand that, but it should not be like a low rent Iron Man suit. No, no. I mean, I can see Batman putting on a costume like that when he knows he's going to go into
01:05:01
Speaker
a situation where there's going to be a large amount of gunfire. Because he's not stupid. And I don't have a problem with Batman armoring up when the occasion calls for it. But he doesn't walk around like that all the time. Right, yeah. Now I did like how they use the Batmobile in those scenes. Like when it breaks apart and it's the Bat Cycle, just like in The Dark Knight.
01:05:22
Speaker
yeah that was cool and then and then when he faces Bane and it turns into a suit of armor i did like how versatile it was in those types of scenes yeah yeah because it because the bat mobile gets crushed then he comes out and it's the bat plane and then that gets crushed and down the bat i said i want to see how far they take
01:05:44
Speaker
and then the bat cycle turns in the bat arm. I was like, okay, I'm done now. Now, you know, if they made, if they made a, they should make like a trans, I don't know if they did, if they have, I know they had some toy tie-ins that they should make like a batmobile that transforms into all these different things. I would totally buy that for myself. I would buy that, yeah. That would be cool as shit. I love to see that. Because I did like that whole sequence.
01:06:06
Speaker
In fact, you know, this is a kind of unrelated, but the other day I was in, I was in a used store and in the toy section, they had like this massive Batmobile from the Dark Knight. And this thing is like, you know, huge, right? It's like, it's like the size of an ottoman or something, right? Guess how much they were asking for it? How much? Thousand bucks. Wow. And I'm just like,
01:06:36
Speaker
Yo, that is really cool, but first A, I don't think I got the room for it, and B, I'm not spending a thousand bucks on something like that. Yeah, yeah. But you know, some of this stuff, like I see it at like, when I was at Comic-Con a few years back, and they had like all the, I can't remember the name of the designer, but they do these like really super detailed, you know, huge figures. These things are so freaking expensive. Like, you know, one of them could pay my rent for a month. I remember one time I went,
01:07:07
Speaker
I was hanging out with Tommy Hancock. I went to some kind of comic thing. And there was a guy, he had a Godzilla and this is like the most detailed Godzilla I ever seen. And that thing was like six feet tall. And the guy was asking something like 1800, 2000 dollars. And one guy kept coming back all weekend long because
01:07:33
Speaker
somebody else had overheard the guy that owned it saying that he was going to bring the price down because he didn't want to tote it back home. He was tired of toting it back down. And this guy kept coming back to check to see if the price it went down and they went and negotiated. I don't know what he paid. I know he didn't pay full price, but he went home with that Godzilla. Yeah. But yeah, I mean,
01:07:54
Speaker
The asking price for some of this stuff is like after a while. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I wish I had the money to afford some of that stuff, but... And you know what? If I had the money and the room for it, how about you do it? Because if I did... But I do know guys, I have friends, you know, like they have room, they built rooms on their house. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, to house all of this shit, you know.
01:08:19
Speaker
And they're wise to say, listen, keep it out of my house. I don't care what you do with it, just keep it out of my house. And they go and they build another room and add it on. When the kids move out, they take over the room.
01:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, all right. So there's not really much else to say about this movie because there's not a whole lot of, despite it being an hour and a half or whatever, there's not a whole lot of content in this. Yeah, folks, this is an hour and a half, which is one of the good things I like about the animated movies is that you don't have to devote a whole lot of time.
01:09:01
Speaker
To watching you know you can write the down why you know you're doing the dishes or doing the laundry and you can watch this and get it over with and go watch something else, you know. it's not a completely worthless movie. No, like I said, you know, but.
01:09:20
Speaker
there are other Batman animated movies that I could recommend. I mean, look, if you're going, if you're looking through the list of animated stuff, the DC animated stuff on HBO Max, this one should be at the bottom of the stuff that you want to watch, that you're going to be going to make time to watch. Like there's tons of other stuff that is much, well, for instance, they got the Batman Master of Phantasm on there, which is far and away the best Batman movie that's ever been made.
01:09:47
Speaker
hands down you get no argument from me on now. Yeah, never people ask me, Oh, what's the best Batman movie Batman mask and fantastic. Oh, well, what about but shut up, you just heard him. No.
01:10:02
Speaker
Don't get me, Buck. You know how people do when you say, yeah, but what about, listen, you asked me, I told you. Yeah, yeah. I saw that, I would like to see that three times in the theater. That was such a good, I do, I think I'd watch that in the theater as well, if I'm remembering correctly. I took my nephew to see it.
01:10:23
Speaker
And then I went back two more times to see it. Cause it was only playing like in like that one theater. And it was only going to be playing, you know, cause I spoke to the manager, well, how long are you going to have it here? He said, not long. I said, Oh, okay. Well, yeah, I didn't do well at the box office at all. No, it
Justice League War and Other Animated Movies
01:10:40
Speaker
didn't. It only became like for a cope thing when it went to home video. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.
01:10:48
Speaker
But yeah, Justice League War. Justice League War, it's not that great, but it is better than this. It's better than this. Yeah. Well, that same set in that same continuity, right? They had like the New 52 type style animated movies they did. So they had a bunch of Batman ones in those with Damien. Like they had Son of Batman, Batman versus Robin, Batman Bad Blood,
01:11:18
Speaker
All of those are better than this. Yeah, yeah. And even though you didn't like it too much, Under the Red Hood is decent enough. And my biggest thing with Under the Red Hood is I hate the guy who did the voice of the Joker in that. Yeah, me too. I don't like the voice of the Joker. That was my biggest problem. But I did like, what's his name? Jensen Ackles from Supernatural as Red Hood. I thought he did a really good job. OK, fair enough. And also Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing in that one.
01:11:47
Speaker
He did a good job too. I have to watch that again because it's been a couple of years since I've seen it and usually I do like going back and watching movies that I didn't like at first and say well let me see if you know my opinion has changed. Yeah, yeah.
01:12:02
Speaker
But yeah, as you said, there's a bunch of other good.
DC Content on HBO Max
01:12:06
Speaker
And folks, if you have not been there yet and seen it, again, as Perry and I keep telling you, there's a whole ton of DC stuff that they got HBO Max. You can sit there and just, you gourd yourself. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's mostly what I watch on HBO Max is I've just, it's just been watching DC stuff. I mean, they got the whole, now they got the whole DCAU stuff, right? So Batman, the ad, well, except for Superman, Superman's not up on there yet.
01:12:32
Speaker
They got Batman in the animated series. They got Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League. Brave in the Bold. Brave in the Bold is on there too, yeah. Yeah. They got the Young Justice series is all on there. Yeah, so I mean. A lot of great, if you love animation, a lot of great animation stuff, a lot of good live action stuff too. They got the Burton movies on there. They've got the Donner Superman movies on there. The Donner Superman movies. They got the Wonder Woman Aquamans on there. Wow.
01:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, Titans in Doom Patrol, which I just finished, those I mentioned before, and I enjoyed both of those a lot. So if you haven't been watching, so if you have not subscribed yet to HBO Max, I would, me speaking for me personally, is worth the money. Yeah, if you're a DC fan, especially, it's worth the money. Yeah, just for the DC stuff alone, really. And I mean, really since, boom,
01:13:26
Speaker
they are consolidating all of the DC stuff on HBO Max. It would behoove you to just go ahead and just say, if you can afford it, now I understand, times is tough. But if you can afford it, and if you're a DC fan,
01:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. Absolutely. As my esteemed partner and co-host said, Batman Ninja, put that at the bottom of your list. Yeah, not a very good movie. So I wish I could give it a higher recommendation. Because like I said, I was looking forward to seeing it. Because like you said, I heard a lot of good things about it from people whose opinion I know and trust. And they were, oh, man, that's a fantastic movie. It's great.
01:14:08
Speaker
But like I said, I thought it was actually Batman set back in, you know, Feudal. I did not know I was going to get this whole time traveling with Suga. Yeah, that's what I was hoping for, too, which would have been a much better idea. I don't know. Yeah. All right. OK, so. We've done a disappointing Batman movie and
01:14:31
Speaker
you'd think my pick would be something a little bit more interesting, a little bit something a little bit more entertaining, but I'm not going there because we got, I already see the look on your face, you're not looking.
Review Plans for Batman v Superman
01:14:46
Speaker
So we got, because we got the Zack Snyder cut coming out later this month. So I figured let's peel the band-aid off. Let's watch Batman be Superman. Okay.
01:15:01
Speaker
Cool because after that don't we have uh After that don't we have what you're calling coming up Justice league. Yeah, exactly. That's why I thought this would be like the perfect time to do it. Right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so Matter of fact that makes perfect sense to me that'd be the perfect lead-in too because after that we got that master for our yeah, yeah, so This will get us ready for it. So exactly
01:15:26
Speaker
Okay, so that- Okay, so wait a minute. So, okay, Batman V Superman. So, because HBO Max has got the extended- Yeah, that's what I'm asking. Yes. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah, the ultimate edition. Cause everybody says it's, oh, it's such a better movie and it's not really. So that's what I want to talk about. Oh, you've seen it already? Oh, I've seen it before. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. See, I've never seen it. Okay. You know, I've seen the regular one.
01:15:54
Speaker
I've seen that a couple of times, but I've never seen the extended. But yeah, everybody said the same thing to me. Oh, you got to see the extended one. This is much better. I said, yeah, I've heard that one before. Yeah. This is not like Daredevil where the extra time actually made a better movie. In fact, I think it makes the story makes more sense, but it amplifies all the worst parts of Batman.
01:16:19
Speaker
So yeah, so join
Podcast Community Engagement
01:16:21
Speaker
us next time. We'll be talking about the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman. Until then, SuperheroCinephiles.com is our website, SuperCinemapod on Twitter and Instagram. Go there, follow us, and join our Facebook group on, just look for SuperheroCinephiles on Facebook. Sign up, join in, and join in the discussion. And that about does it for now.
01:16:47
Speaker
If you have an anime movie that you think I should watch to help with my education in anime, please feel free to send them along. Go to the Superhero Center files. He just told you where to find that. And leave me a recommendation. I've already seen Ghost in the Shell. I've already seen Akira. So you don't have to recommend those, but anything else you think that I should watch that would help in my education of anime, please let me know. So I'm gonna throw in your name right there at the start then.
01:17:15
Speaker
OK. I'm curious what you think of that. But yeah, so give Derek any enemy recommendations you have over at the Facebook group. And then we'll see you next time when we do Batman v Superman. Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride. Oh, yeah. The next two weeks between this and the Snyder Cut of Justice League, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Yeah. Yeah. But it's going to be a lot of fun. It'll be a lot of fun, yeah.
01:17:45
Speaker
OK, we'll see you next time. Good night. God bless. You have been listening to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at SuperCinemapod. Join our Facebook group by searching for Superhero Cinephiles where you can interact with us and other superhero fans. If you'd like to support the show, you can become a regular supporter at Patreon.
01:18:05
Speaker
or make a one-time donation through PayPal, both of which can be found at our website, SuperheroCinephiles.com. If you buy or rent any movies through the Amazon links at our site, it helps support the show. Please be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.