Latest / Movie Meltdown / Clayface - Kulture Meltdown
Transcript
- 0:44Speaker 1: What do you want, Mr. Hagen? I want my life back.
- 0:48Speaker 1: He stole everything from me. You okay? I stole it.
- 0:55Speaker 1: I have no idea what side effects she'll have or
- 0:58Speaker 1: how to treat them. We're in unknown territory. All you've
- 1:08Speaker 1: done is make me better. Clayface, October 23rd.
- 1:14Speaker 2: Hello everyone and welcome to Culture Meltdown, a crossover show
- 1:16Speaker 2: between my show, The Culture Cast, and Brian Renfro's show,
- 1:19Speaker 2: Movie Meltdown. I am Chris Stasche, one of your hosts,
- 1:22Speaker 2: and I am joined, as always, by Brian Renfro.
- 1:26Speaker 1: I am Vengeance. I am the Knight. Hey, I'm Brian.
- 1:30Speaker 2: And I'm a big puddle of man-meat. On this episode
- 1:34Speaker 2: of Culture Meltdown, we're talking about 2026's body whore dcu
- 1:41Speaker 2: third entry that this one's not supergirl we promise though
- 1:45Speaker 2: if you want to hear my thoughts on that mike
- 1:46Speaker 2: and i covered it on the show that is now
- 1:49Speaker 2: change over a crossover show between his show and my
- 1:51Speaker 2: show where we also talk about new movies uh we
- 1:54Speaker 2: talked about that earlier this year spoilers wasn't good brian
- 1:58Speaker 2: i heard you loved it yeah i was like one
- 2:00Speaker 2: of the first things we talked about when you came
- 2:02Speaker 2: onto the network was like yeah mike and i cover
- 2:04Speaker 2: new movies like supergirl it's not good brian did you
- 2:07Speaker 2: see supergirl No, I.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Knew better than that. Okay, good for you. I was like,
- 2:12Speaker 1: and I'm not even blaming her. Because again, most of
- 2:14Speaker 1: your dorky guys are just like, it becomes a girl thing.
- 2:17Speaker 1: And I'm like, nah, she's fine. Like, for the minute
- 2:20Speaker 1: and a half I saw her in the last movie,
- 2:22Speaker 1: she's fine. But I will say, if anything kind of
- 2:25Speaker 1: took me down in my anticipation of it, I was like, ugh,
- 2:29Speaker 1: why is Aquaman in this movie? I'm just kind of
- 2:32Speaker 1: sick of him in general. I was like, Lobo, Aquaman, whatever.
- 2:36Speaker 1: You're the same dude all the time. And nobody thinks
- 2:39Speaker 1: you're cooler than you do, buddy. So just settle down.
- 2:42Speaker 1: So yeah, that just kind of killed it a little
- 2:45Speaker 1: bit for me. I was just not looking forward to
- 2:47Speaker 1: watching him think he was cool and ride a motorcycle
- 2:50Speaker 1: or whatever the hell he did. I don't know. That's
- 2:52Speaker 1: about it.
- 2:53Speaker 2: But yeah, this movie is technically the third entry into
- 2:58Speaker 2: the burgeoning DCU. I say burgeoning because... Despite their best attempts,
- 3:02Speaker 2: they're doing their best to try and sink it before
- 3:05Speaker 2: it becomes an actual thing. So, yeah, we're going to
- 3:09Speaker 2: be talking about 2026's Clayface. It is a film directed
- 3:15Speaker 2: by James Watkins. Boy, the film is about Matt Hagen,
- 3:21Speaker 2: a rising Gotham actor who sleeps with the girlfriend of
- 3:23Speaker 2: a crime boss, Marcos Zabo. Zabo's men cut up his face,
- 3:28Speaker 2: and his career collapses.
- 3:30Speaker 1: Dr.
- 3:30Speaker 2: Caitlin Kaur's experimental treatment rebuilds his face, but it won't hold,
- 3:34Speaker 2: and Hagen learns he can reshape himself into other people.
- 3:38Speaker 2: Then he takes his revenge, dot, dot, dot. This is
- 3:42Speaker 2: a rated R superhero question mark movie. It did come
- 3:46Speaker 2: out October 23rd, 2026. At a glance, the film is
- 3:50Speaker 2: directed by James Watkins on a screenplay by, yeah, Mike
- 3:54Speaker 2: Flanagan and Hossein Amini, though Mike Flanagan has said he
- 3:58Speaker 2: hasn't seen this movie. He's probably not going to. One
- 4:01Speaker 2: of the other producers is Matt Reeves, James Gunn. Yes,
- 4:04Speaker 2: Matt Reeves, the director of Batman and The film, however,
- 4:07Speaker 2: does star Tom Rhys-Harris.
- 4:09Speaker 1: Yeah, Tom Rhys-Harris.
- 4:10Speaker 2: That is definitely not the name of an American actor,
- 4:13Speaker 2: though he does a great American accent. He plays Matt Hagen, a.k.a. Clayface,
- 4:18Speaker 2: Naomi Ackie, Max Minghella, David Denik, Eddie Marzen. And yeah,
- 4:23Speaker 2: that's right, folks. You saw Aaron Paul in this movie,
- 4:26Speaker 2: even though people initially were like, that's not a thing.
- 4:29Speaker 2: He's not in this movie. No, turns out he is,
- 4:31Speaker 2: in fact, in this movie. We will be spoiling this
- 4:33Speaker 2: film if you can't tell. Brian, before we talk spoilers,
- 4:37Speaker 2: worth going to the theaters and spending your hard-earned money
- 4:40Speaker 2: on Clayface?
- 4:42Speaker 1: Yes. If you are prepared for something that is kind
- 4:48Speaker 1: of different from what you've been getting from, I would say,
- 4:50Speaker 1: just about all of your superhero-type movies in the last
- 4:55Speaker 1: 20 years. It's a very different approach. And I know
- 4:59Speaker 1: they've said many times on both sides of the DC
- 5:02Speaker 1: and Marvel fence there that they're going to this one's different.
- 5:05Speaker 1: This one's going to be a blah, blah, whatever. But
- 5:07Speaker 1: like this time, it's pretty different. I have to say
- 5:11Speaker 1: it still sort of works as a superhero adjacent movie,
- 5:16Speaker 1: but it's doing its own thing and is pretty entertaining
- 5:20Speaker 1: in the process. Yeah, I would say if you're a
- 5:22Speaker 1: fan of.
- 5:24Speaker 2: Superhero movies go check this out but i also think
- 5:26Speaker 2: this is not a movie for all fans of superhero
- 5:29Speaker 2: movies because this is a very like you said it
- 5:31Speaker 2: is very different but i don't think i don't think
- 5:34Speaker 2: the people that went and saw supergirl are going to
- 5:36Speaker 2: be lining up for this movie maybe i'm wrong and
- 5:38Speaker 2: to be fair nobody lined up for supergirl apparently so
- 5:41Speaker 2: no it seems like more people were going to see
- 5:42Speaker 2: this than even the people that went to see supergirl
- 5:44Speaker 2: i will say yes.
- 5:47Speaker 1: Only based on the fact that, like.
- 5:48Speaker 2: You said, it is not your typical thing. If it
- 5:50Speaker 2: were your typical thing, I would be less inclined. But
- 5:54Speaker 2: I enjoyed it for the most part. I think there's
- 5:57Speaker 2: things that we will obviously kind of delve into and
- 5:59Speaker 2: get to. But I think overall, it's a pretty interesting movie.
- 6:04Speaker 2: So from here on out, we're talking spoilers. So first
- 6:07Speaker 2: things first, spoilers out in the open. Brian, what did
- 6:11Speaker 2: you think of Clayface? it was way more body horror
- 6:15Speaker 2: than I expected.
- 6:17Speaker 1: Like I knew that's what they were going for, but
- 6:19Speaker 1: then getting in there, I'm like, Oh no, this, this
- 6:21Speaker 1: is full on body horror. Like this is definitely, and
- 6:24Speaker 1: it's interesting because I just got around to watching the
- 6:28Speaker 1: substance recently, which is so much body horror. So like
- 6:32Speaker 1: watching this, I was like, this is not far behind.
- 6:35Speaker 1: Like it's not quite that crazy and over the top,
- 6:37Speaker 1: but it is definitely in the same ballpark as the substance. So,
- 6:43Speaker 1: That was, I think, my thing that I wasn't quite
- 6:46Speaker 1: prepared for. I knew that's what they were going to do.
- 6:49Speaker 1: But yeah, they full on were just like, well, this
- 6:51Speaker 1: is what we're doing. So let's lean into the body
- 6:54Speaker 1: horror aspect. And that's, I think, definitely what sort of
- 6:58Speaker 1: is the takeaway from it more than anything. It is
- 7:00Speaker 1: definitely kind of horror-esque, but it is, if anything, body
- 7:05Speaker 1: horror more than anything. Would you laugh if I said
- 7:09Speaker 1: it's not body horror enough? I mean, it depends on
- 7:13Speaker 1: what you're looking for.
- 7:14Speaker 2: I don't feel like it really is body horror enough,
- 7:18Speaker 2: and I think that's because it's a superhero movie.
- 7:22Speaker 1: And I think that that's the thing that holds it back, right?
- 7:24Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like it's the thing that holds
- 7:26Speaker 1: it back.
- 7:27Speaker 2: And I would probably have liked this movie more if
- 7:30Speaker 2: it didn't have the superhero part, but then it would just.
- 7:32Speaker 1: Be The Fly. Which is, yeah, it's a lot of that.
- 7:36Speaker 2: Or Videodrome, or any number of body horror movies. And
- 7:41Speaker 2: I don't think it has enough of a hook on
- 7:43Speaker 2: its own. Like I don't tie.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Into what it would become. You just be like, wait,
- 7:48Speaker 1: why am I watching this guy?
- 7:50Speaker 2: Well, and what it has become, because to be fair,
- 7:52Speaker 2: creature commandos is technically set after this in terms of
- 7:55Speaker 2: the chronology. And so it being set after this chronologically
- 7:59Speaker 2: means that, you know, Clayface is already in that series.
- 8:02Speaker 2: And so hold on one second, Brian, I just need
- 8:05Speaker 2: a second. It doesn't have a hook on its own enough.
- 8:08Speaker 1: Not really.
- 8:09Speaker 2: I'm going to say like it's baby's first... Baby's first
- 8:12Speaker 2: body horror. It is baby's first body horror because I
- 8:15Speaker 2: think the superhero of it all just cuts away a
- 8:17Speaker 2: movie that I think is much more interesting, but then
- 8:19Speaker 2: is a movie that has nothing to do with this.
- 8:21Speaker 2: It's just a movie. It's just The Fly. It's just Videodrome.
- 8:25Speaker 2: It's just The Substance. It's any number of great body
- 8:29Speaker 2: horror movies that are just body horror movies. They don't
- 8:32Speaker 2: need anything else, but that's also because the people writing
- 8:34Speaker 2: them I don't know.
- 8:36Speaker 1: Like, I don't want to drag the.
- 8:39Speaker 2: Person who came in to take Flanagan's script because I
- 8:41Speaker 2: think the script for the movie is fine. But Hossein
- 8:44Speaker 2: Amini is not Mike Flanagan.
- 8:47Speaker 1: No.
- 8:47Speaker 2: And I wonder what this film would have been if
- 8:49Speaker 2: it had been a Mike Flanagan thing all the way
- 8:52Speaker 2: through from director to screenplay to casting and everything else.
- 8:57Speaker 2: I don't think the casting is poor. I think the
- 9:00Speaker 2: casting in this movie is great. I think Tom Reese
- 9:02Speaker 2: Harry's is great as a version of Clayface. You know,
- 9:05Speaker 2: I've seen people saying, you know, it's not Clayface like
- 9:08Speaker 2: this or it's not Basil Carlo.
- 9:09Speaker 1: Like, who cares? Like, it's this is a film version
- 9:12Speaker 1: of the character like that. It is what it is.
- 9:15Speaker 2: Like, take it with, you know, it's it's also it's
- 9:17Speaker 2: like this weird nano cell.
- 9:21Speaker 1: I don't. Yes. Science. Science.
- 9:24Speaker 2: Very wonky and dumb science. Like it's not intelligible science
- 9:28Speaker 2: and it doesn't need to be.
- 9:29Speaker 1: I'm not complaining about it not being intelligible. Like that's. No,
- 9:32Speaker 1: it works. It does its job. Like that's what it's
- 9:34Speaker 1: there for is when you have dumb questions about the
- 9:37Speaker 1: biology part of it, you throw in nanobot technology and
- 9:41Speaker 1: then that there, that takes care of your questions because
- 9:44Speaker 1: now none of this makes any sense, but it does
- 9:47Speaker 1: whatever we say that it does. So shut up and
- 9:49Speaker 1: watch this movie. Like that's how it works. And I'm
- 9:51Speaker 1: fine with that. I'm like, good. All right. You came
- 9:53Speaker 1: up with an excuse. That's all I need. Well, and again,
- 9:57Speaker 1: it is a superhero movie.
- 10:00Speaker 2: So I'm not needing it to be Zack Snyder levels like, well, these.
- 10:03Speaker 1: Are metahumans and let me explain it away. And let's
- 10:07Speaker 1: make sure everything makes sense.
- 10:08Speaker 2: And let's make sure everybody understands that we're taking this seriously,
- 10:11Speaker 2: because if we're not taking this seriously, then these movies
- 10:14Speaker 2: can't be serious. It's like, no, these movies can be
- 10:16Speaker 2: serious and fun at the same time. I think my issue,
- 10:19Speaker 2: to speak to the, I don't think this is body
- 10:22Speaker 2: horror enough, most of the kills are not that exciting. Which,
- 10:26Speaker 2: if that's what this movie is then going to kind
- 10:28Speaker 2: of become... the kills at the end of the movie
- 10:31Speaker 2: are interesting. And then there's like one other kill that's
- 10:34Speaker 2: kind of fun, but it doesn't even take advantage of
- 10:36Speaker 2: the body horror. It's just, it's like, it wants to
- 10:38Speaker 2: be an R rated movie, but it doesn't want to
- 10:41Speaker 2: commit to what that means. Because again, it's a superhero thing.
- 10:45Speaker 1: And I just, I don't like that. I just, that's
- 10:47Speaker 1: not fair. Like that's not the, that's not what I
- 10:49Speaker 1: was being sold.
- 10:51Speaker 2: I guess like it, it, it, it ends up selling
- 10:53Speaker 2: itself more as a, superhero movie less a body horror
- 10:57Speaker 2: movie and i feel like that's a missed opportunity at
- 11:00Speaker 2: this point in time.
- 11:01Speaker 1: See it's funny because i didn't really even think of
- 11:04Speaker 1: it as a superhero movie it's definitely an origin story
- 11:09Speaker 1: and it's an again as i said earlier it's superhero
- 11:12Speaker 1: adjacent like it definitely is in gotham you feel the
- 11:15Speaker 1: gotham of it you feel them like really trying to
- 11:17Speaker 1: put together this the city that we haven't seen much
- 11:20Speaker 1: of in this new dcu or at all So like
- 11:23Speaker 1: it's kind of giving us a taste of where they're
- 11:25Speaker 1: probably going to want to go in future movies that
- 11:27Speaker 1: may or may not have some dude in a cow.
- 11:30Speaker 1: But they're building up the overall world. But to me,
- 11:33Speaker 1: it still didn't even feel like a superhero movie the
- 11:36Speaker 1: way that we're used to them anymore. It's just like
- 11:38Speaker 1: a side story that also kind of takes place in
- 11:41Speaker 1: the same universe. But it really doesn't even connect within
- 11:46Speaker 1: this movie. It really doesn't connect to the other stuff
- 11:48Speaker 1: at all. So it's just sort of, again, side story.
- 11:52Speaker 1: superhero adjacent but really didn't even feel like a superhero
- 11:55Speaker 1: movie to me.
- 11:57Speaker 2: It didn't feel like a superhero movie i guess my
- 11:59Speaker 2: concern with the way the movie was written is it
- 12:01Speaker 2: feels like the punches that were pulled was because the
- 12:03Speaker 2: expectation was the people who were going to see it
- 12:06Speaker 2: were expecting a superhero.
- 12:08Speaker 1: Movie even though they said it's not a superhero movie
- 12:11Speaker 1: over and over again part.
- 12:13Speaker 2: Of the movie just doesn't feel like it was able
- 12:15Speaker 2: to pull the trigger hard enough to on the body horror,
- 12:18Speaker 2: because I think they thought maybe the audience would be
- 12:21Speaker 2: a tad too squeamish, uh, which I, you know, the
- 12:24Speaker 2: substance didn't have any of that together. Didn't have any
- 12:27Speaker 2: of that to speak to the last two kind of
- 12:28Speaker 2: big body horror movies that have come out in the
- 12:30Speaker 2: last like couple years.
- 12:32Speaker 1: Yeah, those are definitely not geared towards any crossover audience. No,
- 12:37Speaker 1: they're like, who's that appealing to? Yeah, you've got to
- 12:40Speaker 1: be a grown up to even want to go see
- 12:42Speaker 1: either of those movies versus this definitely could appeal to
- 12:46Speaker 1: a random 13 year old that sneaks into the theater.
- 12:49Speaker 1: But it's still the Friday night crowd, you don't think? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no,
- 12:53Speaker 1: I do. And again, I that's why I'm like, I'm
- 12:55Speaker 1: kind of surprised it did as well as it did.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Like it had a good opening weekend. So I think
- 13:01Speaker 1: it it did manage to pull in, I'm guessing, the
- 13:04Speaker 1: fanboy crowd, because like everybody who is like definitely hardcore
- 13:08Speaker 1: in the Batman world is like they usually are really
- 13:12Speaker 1: into the villains anyway. So I think anybody who's even
- 13:16Speaker 1: kind of curious about that aspect of it must have
- 13:18Speaker 1: shown up because it had good numbers. But I think
- 13:21Speaker 1: it was also enough of a horror movie within the
- 13:25Speaker 1: trailer that it might have won over a few people
- 13:27Speaker 1: that were like, I don't know, maybe we'll go see
- 13:29Speaker 1: that this weekend. So like, I think it had a
- 13:31Speaker 1: little crossover and that's why it ended up having a
- 13:34Speaker 1: really good opening weekend, especially for a lesser known superhero movie,
- 13:38Speaker 1: if we're calling it that. And especially for DCU, which
- 13:41Speaker 1: is very hit and miss, not even just currently. Overall,
- 13:45Speaker 1: DC is very hit and miss. So, yeah, I think
- 13:48Speaker 1: that's probably why is it pulled in the hardcore comic
- 13:51Speaker 1: fans and then it pulled in a decent amount of
- 13:53Speaker 1: crossover with the horror of it all. What is your
- 13:57Speaker 1: read on the DCU as it stands right now? I
- 14:03Speaker 1: think they don't even know what it is because even
- 14:06Speaker 1: within the DC of it, we're still split. Because the
- 14:11Speaker 1: Batman is still its own separate thing. And it's still coming.
- 14:14Speaker 1: We're still waiting for the second part because it keeps
- 14:16Speaker 1: getting pushed back. But it's not at all attached to
- 14:20Speaker 1: anything to do with any of these last three movies.
- 14:23Speaker 1: And even this one kind of doesn't count officially. Before
- 14:29Speaker 1: we got going, I was looking over stuff and there's
- 14:31Speaker 1: a quote from James Gunn that specifically kind of is...
- 14:35Speaker 1: telling people enjoy this for what it is, but at
- 14:38Speaker 1: the same time, giving him a pass to be like this,
- 14:41Speaker 1: this exists in its own universe, essentially. So basically go
- 14:46Speaker 1: enjoy this movie as its own thing. Don't try to
- 14:48Speaker 1: worry about how it ties to other stuff. Just enjoy
- 14:50Speaker 1: this movie for the horror movie that it is. But
- 14:54Speaker 1: I feel like that's also leaving him that back door
- 14:56Speaker 1: there to be like, if we want to, if it,
- 14:59Speaker 1: if it does well and we want to make use
- 15:01Speaker 1: of this Gotham, if we want to make use of
- 15:03Speaker 1: this villain somewhere down the line, then we can, if
- 15:07Speaker 1: this thing tanks, I can be like, Nope, separate universe.
- 15:09Speaker 1: We're good. So I think even built into the DCU
- 15:13Speaker 1: of it all, they're already planning to do whatever they want,
- 15:17Speaker 1: depending on how popular it is. So they've given themselves
- 15:21Speaker 1: an out even within that, not to mention the fact
- 15:24Speaker 1: they're already split within their own world, having a, a
- 15:28Speaker 1: leftover in-between version that still doesn't fit. It's like, we
- 15:31Speaker 1: already killed the old, old version that was like, woo,
- 15:34Speaker 1: back two years ago. And now there's another one kind
- 15:36Speaker 1: of in-between that hit at that same time that's been
- 15:39Speaker 1: on hold for that long. And then there's this new
- 15:42Speaker 1: thing that's kind of a whole new start, except not really,
- 15:45Speaker 1: but kind of. So DC is very confusing. It's a
- 15:49Speaker 1: whole new thing other than Peacemaker only. Yeah, really? How
- 15:53Speaker 1: does that factor in now?
- 15:54Speaker 2: I guess Peacemaker traveled through the multiverse in his show
- 15:58Speaker 2: and ended up, I don't know.
- 16:00Speaker 1: I don't know because I didn't watch it.
- 16:01Speaker 2: And I watched the first season and I watched the
- 16:03Speaker 2: first season because it was something that was very different
- 16:05Speaker 2: from all the Zack Snyder serious nonsense.
- 16:09Speaker 1: And that's the thing for me. It's like, you know,
- 16:10Speaker 1: I know. One of the most.
- 16:12Speaker 2: Negative reviews I have on iTunes is because I didn't
- 16:16Speaker 2: like Zack Snyder's Justice League. Like, I'm sorry I didn't
- 16:19Speaker 2: like a movie that I didn't think was very good.
- 16:22Speaker 2: What do you want me to do? Tell you what
- 16:24Speaker 2: you want to hear just because that's what you want
- 16:25Speaker 2: to hear. Like, I've never understood people getting upset at
- 16:31Speaker 2: someone else's opinion. I'm not trying to say it's fact.
- 16:34Speaker 2: if you're trying to tell me that it's fact that
- 16:36Speaker 2: it's a good movie, that's your opinion.
- 16:38Speaker 1: That's not a fact.
- 16:39Speaker 2: Like you can tell me objectively, there are parts of
- 16:41Speaker 2: the movie that work or certain shots or this, that,
- 16:43Speaker 2: and something else, but like part of like, Oh, well,
- 16:45Speaker 2: this is a, my favorite movie and I love it.
- 16:47Speaker 1: And it's so great. Like, do you know how much
- 16:49Speaker 1: of that is subjective? What you just said? Like, do
- 16:51Speaker 1: you even care?
- 16:52Speaker 2: And it's, it's really irritating for me because stuff like
- 16:58Speaker 2: fanboy is like fanboy fanboying and fanboy isms and and
- 17:04Speaker 2: i would say you know um you know the stan
- 17:06Speaker 2: culture is just it's so exhausting because you know what
- 17:12Speaker 2: like i don't like anything that much anymore because of
- 17:15Speaker 2: this kind of like nonsense and like genuinely it's just nonsense.
- 17:19Speaker 2: It's like really dumb behavior surrounding like things that are
- 17:24Speaker 2: made for kids that adults are taking seriously because if
- 17:28Speaker 2: they just acknowledge it's fun, that somehow diminishes what it is.
- 17:32Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but Batman and Superman, it's like all very silly.
- 17:36Speaker 2: And when they elevate it and make it serious, great.
- 17:38Speaker 2: And when it works, awesome. But it's a guy running
- 17:41Speaker 2: around in a bat costume. It just, it's inherently goofy.
- 17:44Speaker 2: Like it's, And I don't know, like they have such
- 17:47Speaker 2: a hard time with that. You know, it's the idea
- 17:51Speaker 2: of like, you know, what's the, apparently the worst thing
- 17:53Speaker 2: you can do is call Donald Trump gay or make
- 17:56Speaker 2: jokes about him loving other men's asses because all of
- 17:59Speaker 2: a sudden they all start freaking out. It's like the
- 18:01Speaker 2: worst thing you could do is call someone like that
- 18:03Speaker 2: gay because the first thing that they're going to do
- 18:05Speaker 2: is be like, no, no, it's the worst thing.
- 18:07Speaker 1: And it's like, that's the same thing here.
- 18:09Speaker 2: It's like the worst thing you could do for a
- 18:10Speaker 2: DCU movie or a DCEU movie, the.
- 18:13Speaker 1: Stuff that came before this was, say it was bad
- 18:16Speaker 1: or say Zack Snyder didn't know what he was doing.
- 18:18Speaker 1: And it's like, well, you've invalidated your opinion immediately. It's like,
- 18:22Speaker 1: Oh my, whatever. Fine.
- 18:24Speaker 2: It's, there's a level of immaturity surrounding it. That's hard
- 18:28Speaker 2: for me to deal with anymore. And I, you know,
- 18:31Speaker 2: I dealt with it because, you know, we had to
- 18:32Speaker 2: watch that fucking Zack Snyder justice league movie.
- 18:37Speaker 1: And I watched it.
- 18:38Speaker 2: I sat and watched the whole three hour thing. Like
- 18:40Speaker 2: I just, I, like, what do you want? Like, if
- 18:42Speaker 2: it's not for me, it's not for me. Like, I just,
- 18:44Speaker 2: I don't, I don't know what you want. And that's
- 18:47Speaker 2: my whole issue with a lot of these things. Like,
- 18:50Speaker 2: I don't know what people want from me as someone
- 18:54Speaker 2: who watches film. I'm not going to lie to you
- 18:56Speaker 2: because you want me to say, I liked this movie.
- 18:59Speaker 2: So I've been called a contrarian in the past about things.
- 19:02Speaker 2: And it's like, I'm not a contrarian. Like I'm not
- 19:04Speaker 2: a contrarian. What I am is honest about my feelings
- 19:07Speaker 2: on movies. And if you want to like something cool, like,
- 19:11Speaker 2: you know, I, I feel so much like the DCEU,
- 19:15Speaker 2: so much of the groundswell and like argument and conversation
- 19:18Speaker 2: about it was about something that was completely unimportant, which
- 19:21Speaker 2: was Zack Snyder's involvement. Those movies weren't good. Zack Snyder's
- 19:25Speaker 2: involvement doesn't matter. Like some of those movies weren't even
- 19:28Speaker 2: directed by him. Like David F Sandberg directed some of
- 19:30Speaker 2: those movies. Like some of those movies were not like direct,
- 19:33Speaker 2: you know, some of those movies directed by James Wan
- 19:35Speaker 2: for fuck's sake. Like not everything was a Zack Snyder thing.
- 19:39Speaker 1: Sure.
- 19:39Speaker 2: They had similar tones, but I appreciate that this movie
- 19:42Speaker 2: doesn't feel like Supergirl. I appreciate that this movie doesn't
- 19:45Speaker 2: feel like Superman. However, that does not excuse it for
- 19:50Speaker 2: not doing more with a, and like you said, a
- 19:54Speaker 2: big budget DC horror movie.
- 19:57Speaker 1: Like that's not a thing. Yeah. I mean, they haven't
- 20:00Speaker 1: done anything like this really. They barely would go into
- 20:04Speaker 1: other areas. Like at least we got a little of
- 20:07Speaker 1: that in the Marvel movie.
- 20:08Speaker 2: Werewolf at night is a fucking black and white thing
- 20:12Speaker 2: on you know on hulu or whatever like it's not
- 20:14Speaker 2: even a movie they it's you know ghettoized and thrown
- 20:17Speaker 2: on dumped on streaming at least this movie came out in.
- 20:20Speaker 1: Theaters and i'm i mean i i definitely have gone
- 20:25Speaker 1: on record on many many occasions if you if you
- 20:28Speaker 1: want to hear people talk smack about zack snyder yeah
- 20:30Speaker 1: you can go back i've got two different episodes of
- 20:33Speaker 1: the rebel moon that i just i have a lot
- 20:37Speaker 1: of problems with them And that's just not, that's him
- 20:41Speaker 1: as a filmmaker. Like, and it's not, I'm not just
- 20:43Speaker 1: trying to trash him for the sake of trashing him.
- 20:45Speaker 1: Like I legitimately have issues with some of the stuff
- 20:48Speaker 1: that he does along the way. And I have no
- 20:50Speaker 1: problem bringing them up as I get into it. But again,
- 20:53Speaker 1: much like you, I don't try to just bad mouth
- 20:56Speaker 1: things for the sake of it. Like kind of the opposite.
- 20:59Speaker 1: I want to go in liking these things. Like I
- 21:01Speaker 1: want to enjoy myself watching movies and Try to as
- 21:05Speaker 1: much as I can. But I also try specifically once
- 21:08Speaker 1: I get here, once I get in the realm where
- 21:11Speaker 1: we sit around and talk about things for hours on
- 21:13Speaker 1: end anyway, it's like, why wouldn't you just address the
- 21:16Speaker 1: things that you want to talk about? So I then
- 21:19Speaker 1: will bring up kind of both sides of it. And
- 21:22Speaker 1: within the episodes, a lot of times I will even.
- 21:25Speaker 1: Throw the other side out there. If I don't feel
- 21:27Speaker 1: that way that much, I'll still be like, well, what
- 21:29Speaker 1: about this side of the argument? You know, it's like
- 21:32Speaker 1: you can play devil's advocate just to have something fun
- 21:34Speaker 1: to talk about. Like, I feel like that's the point
- 21:36Speaker 1: of these. People just don't want to even listen to
- 21:40Speaker 1: a different opinion than theirs is part of the problem,
- 21:43Speaker 1: I feel like. Whereas I enjoy hearing other people's take
- 21:46Speaker 1: on it, even if I disagree with it. As long
- 21:48Speaker 1: as everybody's cool and civil about it, like, it's okay
- 21:51Speaker 1: to have differing opinions. That's fine. Like what you want.
- 21:55Speaker 2: If you want to like those Zack Snyder movies, be
- 21:57Speaker 2: my guest. That is literally your prerogative.
- 21:59Speaker 1: My lacking of liking it should not affect your ability
- 22:04Speaker 1: to like it at all. Period. And you know what?
- 22:07Speaker 1: They're not for me.
- 22:08Speaker 2: I don't need to understand why Superman blew up a
- 22:11Speaker 2: building or didn't or whatever.
- 22:12Speaker 1: I just.
- 22:13Speaker 2: Grimdark and serious and unfun. If that's your thing, cool.
- 22:17Speaker 2: If that's your thing, cool. I.
- 22:19Speaker 1: whatever. You probably don't like the things that I like anyways.
- 22:21Speaker 1: So what does it matter?
- 22:22Speaker 2: Like we, our paths don't really cross in terms of our,
- 22:25Speaker 2: our film likes and dislikes. That's, you know, that tends
- 22:29Speaker 2: to kind of always be the case with stuff like this.
- 22:31Speaker 2: Like this is so distinctly and uniquely its own thing
- 22:34Speaker 2: that I kind of am just fine with it being
- 22:40Speaker 2: a thing. I'm not, I don't vibe with people on,
- 22:41Speaker 2: you know, I don't vibe with it. You don't vibe
- 22:43Speaker 2: with me. whatever, like, you know, they're probably, they probably
- 22:46Speaker 2: gave up on DC other than being absolutely convinced that
- 22:50Speaker 2: Zack Snyder's coming back, which is a thing. I mean, genuinely,
- 22:53Speaker 2: there's still corners of the internet, large corners of Twitter
- 22:55Speaker 2: that still believe Zack Snyder's going to get rehired by
- 22:58Speaker 2: whoever's in charge now. David, I mean, David Ellison, depending
- 23:01Speaker 2: on how things go, he could, like we've seen them
- 23:04Speaker 2: make that kind of desperate move. So like if James
- 23:07Speaker 2: Gunn stuff tanked right out.
- 23:09Speaker 1: Of the gate, which arguably one of them did, like
- 23:11Speaker 1: it wasn't a year or two to be fair it
- 23:14Speaker 1: wasn't james gunn's thing to be fair well no i
- 23:17Speaker 1: was saying him taking over the whole i know which
- 23:19Speaker 1: is why that's fair that's the bigger issue yeah that's
- 23:22Speaker 1: the bigger picture so if like his first two out
- 23:24Speaker 1: of the gate both tanks they'd be like whoa hey
- 23:27Speaker 1: we gotta get tech back you know that would have
- 23:29Speaker 1: definitely been one of it would have been on the
- 23:31Speaker 1: table is he a big enough is is what the
- 23:33Speaker 1: success that he did enough really I mean, I feel
- 23:37Speaker 1: like he brought just as much complaint with him as
- 23:40Speaker 1: he did success. So like it was never an out
- 23:43Speaker 1: and out success because from day one, people were just like, wait,
- 23:46Speaker 1: what is he doing? So I feel like he had
- 23:48Speaker 1: just as many excuses for people that didn't enjoy what
- 23:52Speaker 1: he was doing. So I don't know. Like, again, like
- 23:54Speaker 1: it if you want to like it. I don't care.
- 23:56Speaker 1: But I just thought it was such a weird direction
- 23:59Speaker 1: to take Superman. Like I didn't have a problem with
- 24:02Speaker 1: the Batman version of him being dark and moody because
- 24:05Speaker 1: that is Batman. Like it's weird if you try to,
- 24:09Speaker 1: unless you're doing Adam West, like it's weird to take
- 24:11Speaker 1: Batman anywhere else. So like that worked again, not great,
- 24:15Speaker 1: but like that end of it felt okay-ish in the
- 24:19Speaker 1: Zack Snyder versions. It wasn't that far off from what
- 24:22Speaker 1: we would normally expect from anybody dealing with Batman, but Yeah,
- 24:26Speaker 1: the Superman of it was just always so wrong. Like,
- 24:29Speaker 1: it just felt off in a way that didn't make
- 24:32Speaker 1: sense to me. But I'm not saying it's not open
- 24:35Speaker 1: to other interpretations. I'm fine with that. I just didn't,
- 24:38Speaker 1: you know, gel with that one myself. But, like, I'm
- 24:42Speaker 1: fine with somebody else taking on Superman and trying to
- 24:45Speaker 1: do something interesting with it. It's just that one went
- 24:48Speaker 1: a weird direction that I just didn't click with.
- 24:51Speaker 2: I don't think Zack Snyder understands how to have fun
- 24:54Speaker 2: as a director.
- 24:54Speaker 1: Right. I just don't. I don't get it. I don't
- 24:59Speaker 1: get what his appeal is.
- 25:00Speaker 2: I don't understand what the people who watch him and
- 25:03Speaker 2: defend him are defending other than just grim, dark and
- 25:06Speaker 2: serious and like.
- 25:07Speaker 1: Edgy, like bro films. It's very bro. That's the thing.
- 25:12Speaker 1: It's very bro. And I'm like, does this have a
- 25:14Speaker 1: place in any of this? No, it really doesn't. I
- 25:17Speaker 1: will say as much as I did not I had
- 25:21Speaker 1: so many problems with both of the Rebel Moon. And again,
- 25:25Speaker 1: it's all just clunky storytelling. It's all just almost from
- 25:29Speaker 1: the writing. He has a visual aspect. I think it's
- 25:32Speaker 1: equally as much computer as it is filmmaking now. But whatever,
- 25:36Speaker 1: that's a lot of filmmakers. So I don't throw that
- 25:39Speaker 1: out as a problem, essentially. It's so much of the filmmaking, writing,
- 25:44Speaker 1: storytelling part of it that I have issues with. But
- 25:47Speaker 1: I will say when he does something dumb and it's
- 25:50Speaker 1: supposed to be dumb and you're allowed to enjoy it
- 25:53Speaker 1: and have fun, I'm okay with it because I've watched
- 25:56Speaker 1: that Army of the Dead at least twice now. And
- 25:59Speaker 1: I still have problems with it, but it is way
- 26:02Speaker 1: more fun. And I will probably revisit it at some
- 26:05Speaker 1: point again in the future because it is a dumb movie.
- 26:08Speaker 1: But I feel like it's almost aware of how dumb
- 26:11Speaker 1: it is. And it lets you just sort of sit
- 26:15Speaker 1: back and turn your brain off and enjoy this movie
- 26:17Speaker 1: for an hour and a half or whatever it is. Again,
- 26:21Speaker 1: I don't hate him across the board. I've watched that
- 26:23Speaker 1: one several times now. It's got his moments that are
- 26:27Speaker 1: very entertaining.
- 26:29Speaker 2: When I think of Zack Snyder, I just think of
- 26:31Speaker 2: people that are trying to legitimize his movies.
- 26:34Speaker 1: I'm like, can't they just be fun? Why can't we just,
- 26:37Speaker 1: it's just a fucking stupid movie. Like, why does it
- 26:39Speaker 1: have to be something like, oh, this is a serious thing.
- 26:41Speaker 1: Look at this. Look at the internal struggle of Superman
- 26:44Speaker 1: and his dad. Like, who gives a shit? And you
- 26:47Speaker 1: know what?
- 26:48Speaker 2: No offense, Zack Snyder, but you're not the person I'm
- 26:50Speaker 2: going to to have like a deep emotional conversation.
- 26:52Speaker 1: Like, you're not, you're not the guy.
- 26:55Speaker 2: Like, don't get anything twisted. Like, even if you think
- 26:58Speaker 2: you're the guy, you're not the guy. I promise you're
- 27:01Speaker 2: not the guy. Like you're not that guy and you'll
- 27:05Speaker 2: never be that guy because the other people do that better.
- 27:07Speaker 2: Like you're a director and you, like you said, Brian,
- 27:09Speaker 2: you have an eye for the visuals.
- 27:11Speaker 1: He does. What's wrong with that? Like, what's wrong with that? Like, why,
- 27:14Speaker 1: why can't that be enough? Like you don't need to
- 27:17Speaker 1: keep embarrassing yourself with your photography or something. And like,
- 27:21Speaker 1: just let somebody else definitely be the screenwriter, but maybe
- 27:24Speaker 1: even be the director. And like, you just focus on
- 27:27Speaker 1: making cool visuals and setting stuff up and doing the
- 27:29Speaker 1: lighting or computer versions of the lighting or whatever you do.
- 27:33Speaker 2: Success is diminished because I'm not the one in control
- 27:36Speaker 2: of everything.
- 27:37Speaker 1: And yeah, that's the, I think that's the problem. He
- 27:39Speaker 1: wants it to be Zack Snyder's vision. And like, even
- 27:43Speaker 1: when he's doing stuff that's super unoriginal, again, I'm back
- 27:46Speaker 1: to just talking smack about it. Broadly everything. But I
- 27:49Speaker 1: was just like, but I mean, those Rebel Moon are
- 27:52Speaker 1: just so much Star Wars ripoffs. And like, he knows
- 27:56Speaker 1: it too. Like he pitched it as a Star Wars movie,
- 27:59Speaker 1: but then like it didn't happen. So he did it. Fine.
- 28:02Speaker 1: I'm taking my toys over to Netflix and we're going
- 28:03Speaker 1: to make our own movie. Now I'm just saying everything
- 28:05Speaker 1: I said on that episode. But again, he can do
- 28:09Speaker 1: that stuff. And there are moments of it that are
- 28:11Speaker 1: well done. But there's just so much of it that's
- 28:14Speaker 1: just him just trying to be other things that he
- 28:18Speaker 1: does not as impressive as the originals that he's stealing from. So, again,
- 28:23Speaker 1: a lot of directors do that. I get it. But
- 28:25Speaker 1: it just doesn't make him a visionary director that I
- 28:30Speaker 1: think he feels like he is or wants to be
- 28:32Speaker 1: seen as. I never got the sense that Michael Bay
- 28:35Speaker 1: thought he was a visionary. I think that.
- 28:39Speaker 2: That's my problem with Zack Snyder is he somewhere along
- 28:42Speaker 2: the lines got the sense that he was somehow better
- 28:45Speaker 2: at doing what he did than anybody else was. And
- 28:48Speaker 2: he is not better at using slow-mo than the Wachowskis.
- 28:51Speaker 2: And he's definitely not better than, I would say, the
- 28:53Speaker 2: entire Southeast Asian subcontinent of India when it comes to
- 28:57Speaker 2: making film using slow-mo.
- 28:59Speaker 1: Zack Snyder should watch one Indian film.
- 29:02Speaker 2: And he'd understand how to use slow-mo much more appropriately
- 29:05Speaker 2: than he's ever used it in any of his films.
- 29:08Speaker 2: And I would, you know, for as much issue as
- 29:10Speaker 2: I had with Michael Bay, he is a much more
- 29:11Speaker 2: competent filmmaker than Zack Snyder is. And Michael Bay, I think,
- 29:15Speaker 2: understands his place in the world. Zack Snyder, because of
- 29:19Speaker 2: the incessant fanboyism of those bozos, Zack Snyder, Snyderverse, like
- 29:26Speaker 2: release the Snyder Cut people. They're the ones I ultimately
- 29:29Speaker 2: have the problem with. Like, they're the ones, they're the
- 29:31Speaker 2: vocal demons. dipshits on the internet who took it upon
- 29:34Speaker 2: themselves to get a movie released that was not finished.
- 29:37Speaker 2: 30 million dollars to be paid to finish something does
- 29:41Speaker 2: not mean it's finished does not mean anything like that
- 29:44Speaker 2: means it was an unfinished film that cost the price
- 29:47Speaker 2: of like five other films to finish so you bullied
- 29:50Speaker 2: a studio into giving someone who's a complete clown money
- 29:53Speaker 2: to finish a movie that nobody asked for Does it
- 29:55Speaker 2: make you feel good?
- 29:56Speaker 1: They didn't do anything with it.
- 29:57Speaker 2: And it actually further nailed coffins, nailed nails into the
- 30:01Speaker 2: coffin of DC.
- 30:02Speaker 1: So good. Good. Thank you. Thank you for, frankly, doing
- 30:06Speaker 1: what none of us else could, which is make them...
- 30:10Speaker 1: I do feel like he got caught up in all
- 30:12Speaker 1: of that. Well, it goes to your head. You know
- 30:16Speaker 1: people like this. People like this are fucking let it
- 30:18Speaker 1: go to their head.
- 30:19Speaker 2: And if we're throwing Michael Bay in there, who, again,
- 30:21Speaker 2: I have a lot of issues with what he does
- 30:24Speaker 2: as a filmmaker, but I feel like he also doesn't care.
- 30:27Speaker 1: He could care less. He's like, I'm going to make
- 30:29Speaker 1: my movie the way I want to make it, and
- 30:31Speaker 1: who cares? Exactly. Where I feel like Zach gets all
- 30:34Speaker 1: caught up in the fanboyism about him. Whereas Michael Bay
- 30:37Speaker 1: is like, whatever.
- 30:39Speaker 2: It's that validation. It's those people validating him. And it's like,
- 30:42Speaker 2: you know, it's the same thing with Chris Nolan. Like
- 30:45Speaker 2: he wants to be validated by real film goers who
- 30:48Speaker 2: will go to his movies and IMAX and only in film.
- 30:51Speaker 1: Like, wow. I guarantee you. Eventually he got his. I
- 30:55Speaker 1: hate to tell you. I mean, he got his, but
- 30:57Speaker 1: you know what?
- 30:57Speaker 2: If those are the people that are your fans, trust me,
- 31:00Speaker 2: you can fucking have them. They watch movies that are
- 31:04Speaker 2: very much barely elevated, and boy, they feel like they're
- 31:08Speaker 2: the smartest people in the room because a movie made
- 31:11Speaker 2: them watch a story that's been around since thousands of
- 31:15Speaker 2: years before any of.
- 31:16Speaker 1: Us were fucking born.
- 31:17Speaker 2: Like it's very much like Chris Nolan and Zack Snyder
- 31:21Speaker 2: on this. Like I'm self-important, my fans, not the fans,
- 31:25Speaker 2: but my fans have made me out to be something
- 31:28Speaker 2: better than everybody else. And, and not only that, like
- 31:31Speaker 2: I bought into it and I be careful buying into
- 31:36Speaker 2: your own brand of bullshit because at some point I
- 31:39Speaker 2: There is not going to be anybody left new to
- 31:41Speaker 2: fucking buy in and everybody else is just going to
- 31:44Speaker 2: start dying off. And that's how you get all of
- 31:46Speaker 2: these niche communities that exist. And maybe his community will
- 31:50Speaker 2: start out a little bit bigger, but by the end
- 31:52Speaker 2: of it, it'll.
- 31:52Speaker 1: Be just as small. It'll be zero, just like all
- 31:56Speaker 1: these other communities where the people eventually are all gone.
- 31:58Speaker 1: Because you know what?
- 32:00Speaker 2: Zack Snyder is not someone who I think people are
- 32:05Speaker 2: going to care about 20, 30 years from now. We're
- 32:09Speaker 2: living in it, but we're only seeing this the way
- 32:14Speaker 2: we're seeing it now. We're not seeing it 20 years
- 32:18Speaker 2: from now where I think the world has changed their
- 32:20Speaker 2: opinion on Zack Snyder broadly.
- 32:24Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I'm not trying to be a dick.
- 32:27Speaker 1: I just don't put that much effort into worrying about
- 32:30Speaker 1: him anymore.
- 32:31Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. There was a time where it
- 32:32Speaker 2: really dominated conversations. on like the internet and it's like
- 32:37Speaker 2: so irritating that now he's like a non-issue and like
- 32:41Speaker 2: he should have just been a non-issue the moment they
- 32:43Speaker 2: took the DC away EU away from him the moment
- 32:46Speaker 2: they took Justice League away from him that he should
- 32:49Speaker 2: have been a non-issue because he's been a non-issue since
- 32:51Speaker 2: they took the Justice League away from him that's the
- 32:54Speaker 2: fucking craziest part is he's been a non-issue since like
- 32:57Speaker 2: 2018 And yeah, sure, the blip of the Snyder Cut
- 33:01Speaker 2: getting released exists out there.
- 33:03Speaker 1: But guess what?
- 33:03Speaker 2: It got released and did nothing. It didn't prove anybody anything.
- 33:07Speaker 2: It didn't make anybody anything. It definitely didn't make HBO
- 33:10Speaker 2: any fucking money.
- 33:11Speaker 1: All it did was lose them money. That's the thing.
- 33:14Speaker 2: This movie at least made them money. You know, not
- 33:17Speaker 2: a lot of money, but it did make them money.
- 33:19Speaker 2: We can say that much at least. And compared to
- 33:21Speaker 2: what it was made for.
- 33:22Speaker 1: This is a minimal budget compared to any of those
- 33:24Speaker 1: other superhero movies.
- 33:25Speaker 2: Yeah. I think the minimal budget of this movie factors
- 33:29Speaker 2: into the fact that it didn't have enough money behind
- 33:32Speaker 2: it to really have a practical effect kind of extravaganza
- 33:36Speaker 2: or CGI effect extravaganza that this film genuinely needs. This
- 33:42Speaker 2: film needs that because it... What are we doing here?
- 33:47Speaker 2: I want so badly... a film that does this kind
- 33:53Speaker 2: of story right and this film gets i think like
- 33:54Speaker 2: two-thirds of the way there but you can definitely tell
- 33:58Speaker 2: again to go back to the writing of this you
- 34:00Speaker 2: can tell that this film is written by two different people.
- 34:05Speaker 1: Right it's not it's not.
- 34:06Speaker 2: Just me right it definitely feels like it was written
- 34:08Speaker 2: by two different people there are parts of this movie
- 34:09Speaker 2: that are drastically different from one another And parts of
- 34:12Speaker 2: this movie that feel like tacked on, you know, to
- 34:16Speaker 2: say that this is a superhero movie, the Gotham of
- 34:18Speaker 2: it all feels like lip service.
- 34:20Speaker 1: They're just like, oh, it takes place in Gotham. Like, okay.
- 34:23Speaker 1: I think my issue is more of, and this, I
- 34:27Speaker 1: was going to ask you what your thoughts on this
- 34:30Speaker 1: was in general, but also it probably applies to a
- 34:32Speaker 1: lot of these because we have, in the last several years,
- 34:38Speaker 1: had a lot of these offshoot, villain movies and we
- 34:45Speaker 1: we get these people that are like they keep making them.
- 34:49Speaker 2: How many have there been now what is there a
- 34:52Speaker 2: madam webb morbius craven i mean.
- 34:56Speaker 1: Even it's something as big as joker really i mean
- 34:58Speaker 1: we've had all of these so my question is with
- 35:02Speaker 1: all of them but even with this one which i
- 35:05Speaker 1: actually liked but is it necessary Uh, is it necessary?
- 35:12Speaker 1: Is it necessary for me to drink my own urine? No,
- 35:15Speaker 1: but it's sterile and I like the taste. Uh, I
- 35:18Speaker 1: would say broadly, none.
- 35:20Speaker 2: Of these films have been necessary.
- 35:22Speaker 1: You know, that's, that's the funny part. Like I, I,
- 35:25Speaker 1: I ask about the, uh, those fucking Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man
- 35:30Speaker 1: movies were those necessary. Like it's not for me, but no.
- 35:34Speaker 1: And then, and then, and I would say the same
- 35:35Speaker 1: thing about this movie.
- 35:36Speaker 2: Like the, the, This movie exists for what reason? Was
- 35:40Speaker 2: it to make money? Was it to tell us, tell,
- 35:44Speaker 2: tell a kind of, you know, not every brushstroke painted
- 35:49Speaker 2: on a canvas is going to be a broad one.
- 35:51Speaker 2: Sometimes it's going to be fine in the corner and
- 35:53Speaker 2: you're working on the small details. That's the way I
- 35:55Speaker 2: view this movie. It helps round out the picture of
- 35:58Speaker 2: the world that is the DCU that they're building. And,
- 36:02Speaker 2: you know, the Lanterns TV show, I think, is probably
- 36:04Speaker 2: more in common with this than anything else does that's
- 36:07Speaker 2: come out so far. Maybe Creature Commandos, but that's like
- 36:10Speaker 2: a cartoon. So it's weird in and of itself. Like
- 36:14Speaker 2: the the Lantern TV show is probably the closest because
- 36:17Speaker 2: it's like a true detective adjacent show. This tone of
- 36:21Speaker 2: this movie is so bizarre because again like it it
- 36:27Speaker 2: knows it it's almost like it knows it's a super
- 36:30Speaker 2: it's in a superhero universe because you know at some
- 36:34Speaker 2: point we should have just had him look at the
- 36:35Speaker 2: screen and be like man it's gonna be a real
- 36:37Speaker 2: pain in the ass if i have to fight somebody
- 36:39Speaker 2: with these powers huh because you can see him realizing
- 36:42Speaker 2: in real time that he has this ability all of
- 36:45Speaker 2: a sudden that he can heal like wolverine He can
- 36:48Speaker 2: transform into other people visually like Mystique. You know, it's
- 36:53Speaker 2: like there are things in this movie that I've seen
- 36:55Speaker 2: in other things that I'm like, oh, they're setting this
- 36:58Speaker 2: up for something else.
- 37:00Speaker 1: Like it's not just this movie.
- 37:02Speaker 2: And there's parts, again, of this movie that are very
- 37:05Speaker 2: clearly like I know that they said like, well, it's
- 37:07Speaker 2: a superhero movie of a different kind, but not really.
- 37:10Speaker 2: Like we haven't really seen Gotham yet in the DCU.
- 37:14Speaker 2: So this is it for like, I mean, like we've
- 37:16Speaker 2: seen Batman, the Batman as in the Robert Pattinson Batman,
- 37:21Speaker 2: but that's not part of this.
- 37:23Speaker 1: Like this is the first we're seeing of Gotham in DCU.
- 37:28Speaker 2: And if this is where they're going with it, I
- 37:31Speaker 2: think that's a shame because they don't capitalize on it
- 37:35Speaker 2: here at all. Almost like this wasn't really a superhero movie. Like, Again,
- 37:40Speaker 2: I come back to it.
- 37:41Speaker 1: That was my takeaway. Right, exactly. I don't feel like
- 37:43Speaker 1: it is. No, it's not.
- 37:44Speaker 2: And I want to talk with you about this before
- 37:47Speaker 2: we kind of continue talking about the movie proper. The
- 37:49Speaker 2: Mike Flanagan of it all. I wish this had just
- 37:52Speaker 2: been a Mike Flanagan thing from the start. It's really
- 37:55Speaker 2: a shame that Mike Flanagan is one of those people
- 37:57Speaker 2: that spread himself way too thin.
- 38:01Speaker 1: Because he does have a ton of stuff in the
- 38:03Speaker 1: works and has already knocked out so much in the
- 38:06Speaker 1: last several years.
- 38:07Speaker 2: And this fell off the wagon. I mean, literally, this
- 38:11Speaker 2: fell off the wagon because it was this and Carrie
- 38:16Speaker 2: and what's... And.
- 38:18Speaker 1: There's one other thing. I mean, it's the Exorcist movie.
- 38:21Speaker 2: It's those three things that literally prevent this movie from
- 38:25Speaker 2: having been a Mike Flanagan thing.
- 38:29Speaker 1: And I think that they should have waited.
- 38:31Speaker 2: They genuinely should have waited for this to just be
- 38:34Speaker 2: a Mike Flanagan thing and have him be involved in
- 38:38Speaker 2: a way that is substantive because the parts of this
- 38:41Speaker 2: movie that work feel like they're Mike Flanagan adjacent. The
- 38:45Speaker 2: parts of this movie that don't work feel like they're
- 38:48Speaker 2: The other writer. And again, I don't want to keep
- 38:49Speaker 2: dragging this other writer, but I know what Mike Flanagan's
- 38:52Speaker 2: level of quality is. And Hossein Amini is just not
- 38:55Speaker 2: bringing that same level of quality at all.
- 38:58Speaker 1: When I wonder if it was just if how much
- 39:01Speaker 1: of that was studio versus Mike Flanagan and how much
- 39:05Speaker 1: was just them. Or him just being like, well, I'm
- 39:08Speaker 1: just tired of waiting because looking back at the history
- 39:11Speaker 1: on this, this started years ago. 2021. And was going
- 39:15Speaker 1: to be part of the Batman world originally and like
- 39:20Speaker 1: got bounced around and pushed back. Would it have been
- 39:23Speaker 1: DCEU at the time? I mean, maybe coming out of that,
- 39:27Speaker 1: maybe they knew that was already coming to an end.
- 39:30Speaker 1: Maybe this was always supposed to be like a standalone thing, right?
- 39:33Speaker 1: Like probably, but I heard they were setting it up
- 39:37Speaker 1: for this to be a villain that showed up in
- 39:40Speaker 1: the second, the Batman movie, which we still haven't gotten yet, but,
- 39:44Speaker 1: and we may never get now because Matt, matt reeves
- 39:47Speaker 1: has stepped away now at this point in time so
- 39:50Speaker 1: that was originally a part of the plan in the
- 39:54Speaker 1: very early gray area of them trying to figure out
- 39:56Speaker 1: what to do with this so i mean you you
- 39:59Speaker 1: can tell right there that like it it's something that
- 40:02Speaker 1: i guess they were sick of waiting like we got
- 40:05Speaker 1: to get this out at some point so when are
- 40:07Speaker 1: we going to do it even to the point of
- 40:09Speaker 1: okay fine we'll just get a different director and like
- 40:11Speaker 1: we'll let somebody else finish the writing and like so
- 40:14Speaker 1: Maybe it was that. Maybe it was just like, we've
- 40:16Speaker 1: got to keep this new DCU going, even if it
- 40:20Speaker 1: means handing this off to somebody else, which again, would
- 40:24Speaker 1: it have been better? We don't really know, but it
- 40:26Speaker 1: seems like it might have had a better shot if
- 40:28Speaker 1: it were one single vision kind of thing from writing
- 40:32Speaker 1: and even more so if you got the director involved, too.
- 40:36Speaker 2: If it were anybody other than Mike Flanagan, the lack
- 40:38Speaker 2: of his involvement would not have been the lack of
- 40:41Speaker 2: their involvement would not have been so problematic, but because
- 40:46Speaker 2: it's Mike Flanagan who I don't love everything he's done,
- 40:49Speaker 2: but I love a lot of the things that he's
- 40:51Speaker 2: done because he's very good at what he does. Like I,
- 40:54Speaker 2: I'm not a Scarlett Johansson fan, but I feel like
- 40:57Speaker 2: that exorcist movie is going.
- 40:59Speaker 1: To be at least interesting. Looks interesting. It's going to
- 41:02Speaker 1: have more going on than the David Gordon green movie.
- 41:06Speaker 2: Which, David Gordon Green's movie is not terrible, but it's
- 41:10Speaker 2: also never getting a follow-up because it didn't succeed the
- 41:15Speaker 2: way they wanted it to financially. And ultimately, when you
- 41:18Speaker 2: pay $ 300 million for the franchise rights to something, you
- 41:21Speaker 2: have to make the money back.
- 41:22Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 41:24Speaker 2: Mike Flanagan's involvement in this movie was to try and
- 41:27Speaker 2: make money with one of these movies. Because like you said,
- 41:29Speaker 2: for the most part, these movies are kind of getting
- 41:31Speaker 2: laughed out of the theaters. Morbius was a joke. Madam
- 41:35Speaker 2: Web was a joke.
- 41:36Speaker 1: Craven.
- 41:37Speaker 2: I don't even know if any people realize that that
- 41:39Speaker 2: movie came out. Like, don't even know if they remember it.
- 41:42Speaker 2: And that movie was directed by the guy who wrote
- 41:44Speaker 2: and directed Margin Call, of all people.
- 41:48Speaker 1: Which is... That's who you go for. Fucking yeah, right?
- 41:50Speaker 1: You're looking for a solid superhero movie.
- 41:52Speaker 2: I just talked about Margin Call a couple weeks ago,
- 41:54Speaker 2: and the episode's not out yet, but when we were
- 41:56Speaker 2: doing the episode, Dr. Perlmutter was like, did you realize
- 41:59Speaker 2: that the guy who wrote and directed this directed Kraven?
- 42:03Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, and it makes no sense
- 42:05Speaker 2: to me. And again, that Kraven movie doesn't even make
- 42:08Speaker 2: sense to me at all. That movie makes no sense
- 42:11Speaker 2: why it exists.
- 42:12Speaker 1: And... Madame Webb, same thing. Morbius, same thing.
- 42:15Speaker 2: All of them exist to try and make money to
- 42:17Speaker 2: cash in on the character of Spider-Man and his cadre
- 42:23Speaker 2: of villains. This is like, we're trying to cash in
- 42:25Speaker 2: on the Batman characters because there's a ton of them.
- 42:28Speaker 2: They saw how Joker worked, and they said, we'll do
- 42:31Speaker 2: that thing too. And look, I think this is much
- 42:34Speaker 2: more successful than any of those Marvel movies.
- 42:37Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely.
- 42:39Speaker 2: Has there been one that's been successful? Because normally these
- 42:41Speaker 2: are all being copied. It feels like the one that
- 42:44Speaker 2: was being copied.
- 42:46Speaker 1: is Joker, which was a DC movie. Joker was the
- 42:49Speaker 1: only one that was really successful. Yeah, even the second
- 42:52Speaker 1: Joker movie wasn't that successful. I'd like to point out.
- 42:54Speaker 1: I mean, no, that one did not. Second Joker movie
- 42:57Speaker 1: is fun. I liked the second Joker movie. I haven't
- 43:00Speaker 1: watched it yet because I didn't like the first one,
- 43:02Speaker 1: but like everybody else liked the first one. So from
- 43:05Speaker 1: what I've heard, the people that didn't like the first
- 43:07Speaker 1: one actually enjoy the second. Correct. Which makes me kind
- 43:10Speaker 1: of want to watch it. So I just haven't gotten
- 43:12Speaker 1: around to it yet, but I know it's a very
- 43:15Speaker 1: different mood.
- 43:16Speaker 2: It's a very different movie. It's very much a, like,
- 43:19Speaker 2: it's a condemnation of the people who liked the first movie.
- 43:22Speaker 2: And we're, like, idolizing the character.
- 43:24Speaker 1: Of the first movie. Yeah, which is kind of funny, actually. Yeah,
- 43:28Speaker 1: I found it very entertaining and amusing.
- 43:30Speaker 2: And I think Todd Phillips, you know, he's not my
- 43:33Speaker 2: favorite director, but he definitely was as, I think, as
- 43:36Speaker 2: irked by the reaction to his first movie as I was,
- 43:39Speaker 2: which is like, look at how.
- 43:40Speaker 1: Much this is so great. It's like, fuck, no, it's not.
- 43:44Speaker 2: It's really not. I, you know, to go in that
- 43:49Speaker 2: timeline of Joker comes out and then those Marvel, those
- 43:52Speaker 2: Sony Spider-Man movies start coming out, which I think it's
- 43:54Speaker 2: very funny, like Spider-Man and Batman, both they're the biggest versions.
- 43:59Speaker 1: Of themselves and their respective Marvel and DC.
- 44:04Speaker 2: Spider-Man's characters are that same, like the villains of Spider-Man
- 44:07Speaker 2: are the best villains, like Green Goblin and, you know,
- 44:09Speaker 2: Sandman and Batman, same. Like Batman has the best villains
- 44:13Speaker 2: in DC, Spider-Man has the best villains in Marvel. And
- 44:16Speaker 2: yet they fucked it up because they made it about
- 44:20Speaker 2: the villains that nobody cares about. Morbius, Madam Web, and Kraven.
- 44:26Speaker 2: And again, what's funny, I guess we're forgetting about Venom.
- 44:32Speaker 2: Venom is the one that kind of superseded it, but
- 44:34Speaker 2: I think it's the Spider-Man stank on Venom that allowed
- 44:38Speaker 2: Venom to kind of exist in its own world. Because
- 44:41Speaker 2: people are going to sit here and roast us for
- 44:43Speaker 2: forgetting Venom. Those Venom movies are fine. They did make
- 44:47Speaker 2: a lot of money. I mean, that is what powered
- 44:49Speaker 2: all of this. That's what powered those Marvel movies. That's
- 44:52Speaker 2: what powered these DC movies is.
- 44:54Speaker 1: They made a lot of money. Like you said, this
- 44:56Speaker 1: movie was in existence before James Gunn took over. James
- 45:00Speaker 1: Gunn's like, ah, but I feel like Venom existed.
- 45:04Speaker 2: He could have canceled this movie, right? Like James Gunn
- 45:07Speaker 2: could have just been like, this is out the door
- 45:09Speaker 2: because I'm in now. Something I want to talk with
- 45:12Speaker 2: you about, and this is something that I kind of
- 45:14Speaker 2: had forgotten about because the movie I think is not great.
- 45:17Speaker 2: The Josh Trank Fantastic Four movie is the last time
- 45:22Speaker 2: someone tried to do this. And I think it works
- 45:25Speaker 2: better here, this being the body horror. I think it
- 45:27Speaker 2: works better here, the body horror does. Because in that movie,
- 45:32Speaker 2: it's like, well, it's the heroes and the powers. The
- 45:34Speaker 2: powers are supposed to be, when you're a hero, the
- 45:37Speaker 2: powers are supposed to be something you as a person
- 45:39Speaker 2: would want. I did not want any of the powers
- 45:42Speaker 2: in that movie the way they presented them.
- 45:45Speaker 1: You don't want to burst into flames at any given moment?
- 45:48Speaker 1: I mean, not the way that that movie had it.
- 45:51Speaker 1: You don't want to be a big orange rock thing?
- 45:53Speaker 1: Not the way that, that's a problem. Like that movie,
- 45:55Speaker 1: I just, I don't know.
- 45:56Speaker 2: I'm, I don't want to drag that movie because I
- 45:59Speaker 2: think that movie has historically been drugged plenty.
- 46:02Speaker 1: It's kind of forgotten at this point.
- 46:05Speaker 2: I know, but it's the last time a superhero movie
- 46:07Speaker 2: or something superhero adjacent did body horror. And this is better,
- 46:12Speaker 2: but I do think that this, once again, makes the
- 46:14Speaker 2: case as to why body horror.
- 46:15Speaker 1: Is just not....
- 46:19Speaker 2: Body horror is never going to really work with superhero
- 46:23Speaker 2: movie stuff because you're not going to do it enough.
- 46:30Speaker 2: This movie just doesn't do it enough. And I want
- 46:33Speaker 2: so much more body horror that this just makes me
- 46:36Speaker 2: want to go watch other body horror movies that are better.
- 46:39Speaker 1: To me, I feel like body horror is, is its
- 46:42Speaker 1: own like sub genre more or less, but it also
- 46:45Speaker 1: like only works when given to the right people. Like
- 46:49Speaker 1: you can't just throw it in every once in a while.
- 46:51Speaker 1: Wander into a body horror movie. Like I never thought
- 46:55Speaker 1: of this. Like, yeah, it's like, and then, you know,
- 46:58Speaker 1: either it's just confusing or you're just grossing out people
- 47:01Speaker 1: that showed up for something else. Or like, I feel
- 47:03Speaker 1: like it, if you give it to the right people
- 47:05Speaker 1: and usually it's top tier that this is what they do.
- 47:09Speaker 1: it works and they have something to say in the process.
- 47:12Speaker 1: And it's, there's a reason for it to be there,
- 47:14Speaker 1: not just for gross out effect versus sometimes, you know,
- 47:19Speaker 1: when you get people just messing around and like, Oh,
- 47:21Speaker 1: we're going to throw this in there too. It's like,
- 47:24Speaker 1: it's not a good idea where at least this, like it,
- 47:27Speaker 1: it kind of comes with the territory. Like it's hard
- 47:29Speaker 1: to have this character without at least part of it
- 47:32Speaker 1: being body or now again, whether or not it's successful
- 47:36Speaker 1: is a different question, but yeah, I don't know. I
- 47:38Speaker 1: feel like, I feel like it's not even that that's
- 47:41Speaker 1: a little off. Like, cause by the end I liked it,
- 47:43Speaker 1: but I still felt like it was missing something. And
- 47:46Speaker 1: I think part of it was more of just the,
- 47:48Speaker 1: the bigger story of like, what are we really here for?
- 47:52Speaker 1: Like I liked the character and I like what we're
- 47:55Speaker 1: doing and I liked setting it up, but at the
- 47:57Speaker 1: same time we're devoting so much time. And this is
- 48:01Speaker 1: what I was saying with the, is it necessary question earlier?
- 48:04Speaker 1: I'm like, Is, is what we get here in like
- 48:07Speaker 1: an hour and 48 minutes or whatever it is, is
- 48:10Speaker 1: any of this. any better or more impressive than if
- 48:15Speaker 1: you just work it in in like 15 minute intro
- 48:19Speaker 1: in the beginning of a batman movie somewhere down the
- 48:21Speaker 1: line well you've done that with many other villains over
- 48:25Speaker 1: the years and like they didn't get their whole separate
- 48:28Speaker 1: movie to set them up we just came in we
- 48:30Speaker 1: give them 15 20 minutes along the way in the
- 48:33Speaker 1: intro and then from that point on they are who
- 48:35Speaker 1: they are we finish the story so it's like sometimes
- 48:39Speaker 1: they do that really well in the right movie and
- 48:42Speaker 1: like some like is this is this all we needed
- 48:45Speaker 1: in a future batman movie was another 15 20 minute
- 48:48Speaker 1: intro setting up his powers giving him a little backstory
- 48:51Speaker 1: and then rolling with it versus this entire movie to
- 48:55Speaker 1: tell the exact same story.
- 48:57Speaker 2: You're asking a question as to whether or not they
- 49:00Speaker 2: should have treated clay face like they did sandman In
- 49:05Speaker 2: Spider-Man 3.
- 49:05Speaker 1: Pretty much. Because, I mean, that's... Or, you know, because that's... Even, like,
- 49:08Speaker 1: huge characters. Like, you look at... You know, I was
- 49:12Speaker 1: impressed how well they worked in Black Panther and Before
- 49:17Speaker 1: they had a Black Panther movie. I agree. For all
- 49:19Speaker 1: the things going on in Civil War, whether you like
- 49:21Speaker 1: it or not, like the most impressive part probably because
- 49:26Speaker 1: Spider-Man they just barely touch on. He has a minimal amount.
- 49:29Speaker 1: But the Black Panther of it all is a full-fledged
- 49:32Speaker 1: introduction of a major character done just kind of in
- 49:36Speaker 1: the intro of the movie and then he becomes a
- 49:38Speaker 1: character in the rest of the movie. And it's done...
- 49:41Speaker 1: pretty impressively so that's the one i always go to
- 49:44Speaker 1: of like they didn't give him a movie first they
- 49:46Speaker 1: didn't let him build up a whole movie they threw
- 49:49Speaker 1: him in as a side character on a movie that
- 49:51Speaker 1: already had 14 other main stars so it's like the
- 49:55Speaker 1: fact that that worked is amazing so you take something
- 49:58Speaker 1: like this i'm like you're telling me you couldn't do
- 50:00Speaker 1: that with this character which is not near as impactful
- 50:03Speaker 1: as black panther i don't know that's my issue Well.
- 50:08Speaker 2: And I guess the other question I have is, is
- 50:10Speaker 2: this more of a thing that we need to be
- 50:12Speaker 2: doing in a movie or should we have just done
- 50:14Speaker 2: this as a show and have it be other? I mean, again,
- 50:17Speaker 2: they've already done a Penguin TV show. Why couldn't they
- 50:20Speaker 2: just done that? And then you would have had again,
- 50:23Speaker 2: it would have had probably more effects. It might have
- 50:27Speaker 2: actually allowed for us to understand the character of Matt
- 50:31Speaker 2: Hagen and his transformation, because that's the that's the problem
- 50:35Speaker 2: I have with this movie. At the beginning of the movie,
- 50:37Speaker 2: he's just seemingly a normal guy. And then by the
- 50:40Speaker 2: end of it, it's like, I know, obviously, by the
- 50:42Speaker 2: end of it, he's this giant kind of human pool of.
- 50:46Speaker 1: Stem cells, I guess. Question mark science.
- 50:50Speaker 2: But he doesn't, his insanity is not very, the turn
- 50:55Speaker 2: is not very well done.
- 50:57Speaker 1: At all.
- 50:58Speaker 2: It's like Daenerys in Game of Thrones. He's very much
- 51:02Speaker 2: a sympathetic and empathetic character to the point of like
- 51:04Speaker 2: a dark man.
- 51:05Speaker 1: And then at the end of it, it's like, well, no,
- 51:07Speaker 1: he's got to be a villain for this to work.
- 51:08Speaker 1: And it's like, but.
- 51:09Speaker 2: what does he like in this universe? Does he have
- 51:12Speaker 2: to be a villain in this version of Clayface? Does
- 51:14Speaker 2: he have to be, maybe he could be an antihero.
- 51:16Speaker 2: Why does it have to be, why does it have
- 51:18Speaker 2: to check a box that nobody went into this, like
- 51:21Speaker 2: expecting to check? Like if someone says, well, why is
- 51:23Speaker 2: it not Basil Carlo instead of Matt Hagan? Like, why
- 51:26Speaker 2: are you asking a fucking dumb question that you know
- 51:28Speaker 2: the answer to already? Because not enough people know who
- 51:31Speaker 2: that is to begin with. And not the people who
- 51:33Speaker 2: are going to see this movie.
- 51:34Speaker 1: On a Friday night.
- 51:34Speaker 2: A lot of them don't fucking care. Sorry to tell you,
- 51:38Speaker 2: but they just don't. They're going to see Clayface. They
- 51:40Speaker 2: don't give a shit if it's whoever, whatever, doing whatever
- 51:44Speaker 2: the fuck. This is going to be the version of
- 51:46Speaker 2: Clayface they know now if they go see this movie.
- 51:49Speaker 1: And this is a way more interesting character. It is
- 51:53Speaker 1: a good story. And that's what I'll say. They did
- 51:56Speaker 1: a good job as far as making him sympathetic in
- 51:59Speaker 1: the first third. He gets screwed. He just.
- 52:07Speaker 1: Literally just set up in the worst possible way. And
- 52:13Speaker 1: by the time you get to like everything falling apart
- 52:17Speaker 1: and his face is carved up, you know, it's like
- 52:19Speaker 1: one or the other would suck. But like the fact
- 52:22Speaker 1: that he looks like he does, he's lost his career.
- 52:25Speaker 1: He's got like legal problems as they're lying and like
- 52:29Speaker 1: blaming him for everything. Like everything just falls into place
- 52:33Speaker 1: from the other side. Everything is against him at that point.
- 52:37Speaker 1: So at that point, you're just like, man, at this point,
- 52:39Speaker 1: whatever he does, I understand. You know, it's like if
- 52:42Speaker 1: he goes crazy and kills people, I get it because
- 52:45Speaker 1: like he was screwed over. And like the more you
- 52:47Speaker 1: get into it, the more you're like, oh, no, everybody
- 52:50Speaker 1: kind of screwed this guy over. So like I understand it,
- 52:54Speaker 1: which does kind of lead to that question of like, well, now,
- 52:57Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sympathizing with him a lot. So at
- 53:01Speaker 1: what point are we? I guess by the end he
- 53:04Speaker 1: is just flat out murdering people right and left. So like,
- 53:06Speaker 1: I guess now he has to be a villain, but
- 53:08Speaker 1: I was just like, but these people also are horrible people.
- 53:12Speaker 1: So if he just didn't murder them, cause I was like,
- 53:15Speaker 1: then you're like, it's a shade away from Batman because
- 53:18Speaker 1: Batman deals with all these horrible people, but he doesn't
- 53:21Speaker 1: murder them. He just beats the hell out of them
- 53:23Speaker 1: first and stop short of killing them. And that makes
- 53:26Speaker 1: him a hero. So it's like, I don't know. Like
- 53:30Speaker 1: these are the same horrible underground underbelly of Gotham characters
- 53:36Speaker 1: that he's dealing with by the end of it. So
- 53:39Speaker 1: it's like, if he just stopped short of murdering them,
- 53:42Speaker 1: he'd still be a hero. He'd be a vigilante hero
- 53:46Speaker 1: like Batman. Well, is Punisher a hero? Like, and that's
- 53:51Speaker 1: what I don't understand. Like it's, he does murder people.
- 53:53Speaker 1: So I don't know.
- 53:54Speaker 2: It's, it's because of the murder of one character in
- 53:57Speaker 2: this movie that he is painted as the villain. And
- 54:00Speaker 2: it's the murder of the, that I guess are, are
- 54:05Speaker 2: because the film needed a female romance. And I guess
- 54:09Speaker 2: it works here in terms of like her being the
- 54:11Speaker 2: kind of woman that he's yearning for Naomi Ackie playing doctor,
- 54:15Speaker 2: who is the one that kind of helps him with
- 54:17Speaker 2: his skin issue with his face being so kind of
- 54:21Speaker 2: mutilated and, He kills her partner, played by Max Minghella, who, okay,
- 54:27Speaker 2: that's the one murder. That's the too far at that point.
- 54:31Speaker 2: That's the too far, but at the same time, it's like, I.
- 54:35Speaker 1: Need more than that. You need to do more than that.
- 54:38Speaker 1: Even Joker did more than that. He's hard to root
- 54:41Speaker 1: for in Joker. It just seems so random at that point.
- 54:43Speaker 1: Like it was such a hard turn all of a sudden.
- 54:45Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, it was leading up to something, but
- 54:47Speaker 1: he didn't seem like he was losing enough to do
- 54:51Speaker 1: with that. It's just like, well, I guess now he's
- 54:54Speaker 1: a bad guy. Because I did, I will say I
- 54:58Speaker 1: did like her and I did like their relationship. I
- 55:01Speaker 1: did kind of buy like at first she was just
- 55:03Speaker 1: helping him, but you do see it builds a decent
- 55:07Speaker 1: relationship with how much time they're spending together. So you
- 55:10Speaker 1: start to see, especially somebody as vulnerable and in bad
- 55:14Speaker 1: shape as he is like he would be attaching himself
- 55:17Speaker 1: to anyone but specifically you know we get just enough
- 55:20Speaker 1: of her that i'm like all right no i like
- 55:22Speaker 1: her as a character so like i can see him
- 55:25Speaker 1: becoming interested in her and like so i i buy
- 55:28Speaker 1: into that that relationship as it begins again i just
- 55:33Speaker 1: feel like we never really got a chance for it
- 55:34Speaker 1: to do anything else because it takes that hard turn
- 55:37Speaker 1: all of a sudden and now it's like well now
- 55:38Speaker 1: she can't be interested in you anymore you just murdered
- 55:42Speaker 1: her fiance. It's like, I don't know. It's a weird
- 55:44Speaker 1: turn for that to take. They wanted that twist ending.
- 55:47Speaker 1: That's what it is. They wanted the twist and that's fine.
- 55:50Speaker 1: It didn't need it. Like, why did he not just need,
- 55:54Speaker 1: why could he not just be a sympathetic anti-hero? Like
- 55:57Speaker 1: if you're going to do your own thing.
- 55:59Speaker 2: Just do your own thing. Just continue to do your
- 56:02Speaker 2: own thing. He doesn't have to be this kind of
- 56:05Speaker 2: giant hulking villain. You spent this entire movie doing all this,
- 56:09Speaker 2: and this is where you want to end up anyways?
- 56:11Speaker 2: That's the part that I genuinely don't understand. You spend
- 56:13Speaker 2: an hour and a half movie with this character, and
- 56:16Speaker 2: by the end of it, it's like, well, he's a
- 56:17Speaker 2: villain now. I'm not saying we can't spend an hour
- 56:19Speaker 2: and a half with a villain, but to your question before,
- 56:22Speaker 2: what is the point then?
- 56:23Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 56:26Speaker 2: That is a story better suited for television. If you
- 56:29Speaker 2: want to tell a story that has a, a rise
- 56:33Speaker 2: and a fall, like a pronounced rise in a pronounced fall.
- 56:36Speaker 2: Like I think about star Wars and how much better
- 56:38Speaker 2: they would have done with those prequel movies. If it
- 56:41Speaker 2: had been a TV show where Anakin actually, like we
- 56:44Speaker 2: see him turn to the dark side. Oh wait, that's
- 56:46Speaker 2: clone Wars. I mean like they actually, when given time,
- 56:49Speaker 2: they can actually show you the depths and kind of,
- 56:53Speaker 2: complexities and nuance of the characters. And this movie doesn't
- 56:55Speaker 2: want to do any of that. It just wants to
- 56:57Speaker 2: rush to the end, even though there is a character
- 57:00Speaker 2: in this film who is a villain more so than
- 57:03Speaker 2: Matt Hagen is at any point. Like, and that's the
- 57:06Speaker 2: character played by David Denik, who I think the last
- 57:08Speaker 2: time I saw him was in no time to die,
- 57:12Speaker 2: which is fine, but he's, he's fine here, but his
- 57:18Speaker 2: character is such a villain. He's painted so villainously.
- 57:22Speaker 1: He's a full-on gangster, and he knows it, and he
- 57:24Speaker 1: doesn't care. Right. Why does Matt Hagen have to be
- 57:27Speaker 1: a villain here? It doesn't even.
- 57:29Speaker 2: It's like the film is at odds with itself. We
- 57:31Speaker 2: know he's willing to do morally reprehensible stuff, but it
- 57:36Speaker 2: is to people that are deserving of it. When I
- 57:39Speaker 2: was watching it... my girlfriend's son was like, oh, it's
- 57:42Speaker 2: like Dexter. And it's like, it is like Dexter, but
- 57:45Speaker 2: Dexter's better written. Like Dexter's a better thing because Dexter
- 57:49Speaker 2: understands that we still have to find him as a
- 57:52Speaker 2: somewhat relatable character like because again like if you're not
- 57:56Speaker 2: doing that for that reason why are you doing this
- 57:59Speaker 2: at all like i just don't understand like even morbius
- 58:01Speaker 2: is an anti-hero like he doesn't you know crave insane
- 58:04Speaker 2: like they're not ending the films like these like oh
- 58:06Speaker 2: i'm a villain now can't you see me fighting spider-man
- 58:08Speaker 2: like i can't see clayface fighting batman whatever version of
- 58:12Speaker 2: batman we're getting i can't see him fighting him and
- 58:15Speaker 2: that is probably why james gunn is saying what he's
- 58:17Speaker 2: saying because it's like i want impunity to introduce batman
- 58:20Speaker 2: the way that i want And I don't want the
- 58:22Speaker 2: tone of Batman to be At all influenced by the
- 58:26Speaker 2: tone of Clayface.
- 58:28Speaker 1: Because this movie is very light in terms of the horror.
- 58:34Speaker 1: Even for horror movies.
- 58:35Speaker 2: That are coming out that are mainstream horror movies, this
- 58:38Speaker 2: movie is like two scenes, three scenes, and they show
- 58:40Speaker 2: two of them in the trailer.
- 58:42Speaker 1: Genuinely.
- 58:43Speaker 2: They cut away in the trailer, but you do see
- 58:45Speaker 2: one of the big gross-out moments.
- 58:47Speaker 1: Of the movie. And there's only a handful. It's not
- 58:51Speaker 1: even a horror movie. It is....
- 58:54Speaker 2: It is a comic book movie with some horror beats,
- 58:59Speaker 2: but the character of Clayface doesn't.
- 59:01Speaker 1: Even have to be body horror.
- 59:03Speaker 2: He could have been something else entirely and they still
- 59:05Speaker 2: could have gotten away with it.
- 59:07Speaker 1: This version is body horror. I mean, they could have
- 59:09Speaker 1: done Killer Croc as well. body horror for fuck's sake
- 59:11Speaker 1: like yeah that's the one i was thinking of that's
- 59:13Speaker 1: that's close to this because i was thinking of all
- 59:16Speaker 1: these other villains that they have to work with and
- 59:18Speaker 1: like killer croc is maybe the closest to this man
- 59:21Speaker 1: bat same thing yeah if we ever get the man
- 59:24Speaker 1: bat but right.
- 59:25Speaker 2: Which is like fucking way the fuck down there on
- 59:27Speaker 2: the list yeah or not again, I would love to
- 59:30Speaker 2: see it, but that's, to me, that's a lot more
- 59:33Speaker 2: like you really have to.
- 59:34Speaker 1: Figure out how to approach that. Whereas some of the others,
- 59:37Speaker 1: you know, even like killer croc, we can piece together.
- 59:40Speaker 1: It's similar story to many other things out there, both
- 59:44Speaker 1: in comics and just mythologically. It's just, it's a werewolf story,
- 59:47Speaker 1: except he's a croc, you know, it's like, it's barely
- 59:50Speaker 1: any different or it's just like the lizard done on
- 59:54Speaker 1: the other side of the fence there. So it's like, it's, it's,
- 59:57Speaker 1: different versions of the same thing but i think that's
- 1:00:01Speaker 1: as far as the it ending as as he is
- 1:00:04Speaker 1: a villain now i think that's part of the problem
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: too is watching it i'm like i think they had
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: that end and had to work backwards they were like
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: we know we want to make a clip you know
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: we want to go with this guy so he's going
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: to start off at the beginning and he'll be do
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: you think that's where flanagan took it do you think
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: that's where he would have taken it because that's where
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: i feel like this is a.
- 1:00:25Speaker 2: It's like, that's where like, it's like the George RR
- 1:00:27Speaker 2: Martin of it all. Like that's where Flanagan's notes ran out.
- 1:00:29Speaker 1: That's where the script was like, well, we don't, we
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: don't like, we did this needs to like sort of
- 1:00:33Speaker 1: tie in.
- 1:00:34Speaker 2: So he's gotta be a villain now. Like we can't,
- 1:00:36Speaker 2: can't have two vigilantes running around in Gotham, right?
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: Like, Okay. That's why we've got to make him just
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: randomly kill some people and then he's a bad guy
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: all of a sudden. But none of the people he
- 1:00:47Speaker 1: kills are bad people until Max Minghella. And like, you know,
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: I'm not defending him. I mean, you want him to
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: kill all the rest of them. I mean, even his
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: friend totally sold him out and stabbed him in the
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: back and you're just like, well, I don't know if
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: you needed to murder him, but at the same time,
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: he screwed you over. Like, he is kind of a
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: villain in and of him. You know, he's the reason
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: that all of this happened to you. So it's like,
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: you at least get a pass as to him being
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: mad at him and going to take out some sort
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: of revenge. Whether or not it needed to be full
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: on murder is a different story. But there's no good
- 1:01:23Speaker 1: characters otherwise, other than the doctor. It's like nobody else
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: is a good character, I guess, except the cop who
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: gets taken out. So it's like, everybody else is just
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: kind of a horrible human being. And like, you don't
- 1:01:34Speaker 1: mind that he murders them.
- 1:01:36Speaker 2: I think it's maybe defensible that he kills the cop.
- 1:01:38Speaker 2: If you look at it from a, he's the cops
- 1:01:40Speaker 2: after him and trying to catch him.
- 1:01:42Speaker 1: And that's it. I mean, he just barely like we
- 1:01:46Speaker 1: had that scene before. It just seems so abrupt because
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: it's like he just got to that point of like, oh,
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: I think maybe he's part of this and he's maybe
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: killing me. And he showed up at his place and
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: started asking those questions. And then like if it would
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: have been like a half hour later when he seemed
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: like he was right on, you know, catching up to him,
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: figuring out the mystery, then he killed him like. in
- 1:02:10Speaker 1: a desperate move, but like it's off screen and like
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: a scene later, you know, just like, well, that was
- 1:02:17Speaker 1: out of nowhere. You know, it seemed like if we
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: built more to that, it would have felt right possibly.
- 1:02:22Speaker 1: But like, it just seems so abrupt all of a
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: sudden he's, he's dead now. Oh, well, you're a bad guy. Okay. Whatever.
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: Like that was a weird choice. It's just lazy.
- 1:02:34Speaker 2: I think it's lazy. It's a different kind of movie.
- 1:02:38Speaker 2: It is a movie that is not as well written
- 1:02:40Speaker 2: as the first two thirds. And I think it does
- 1:02:44Speaker 2: come from a genuine lack of understanding of what we
- 1:02:50Speaker 2: need from DCU in terms of how it treats the characters.
- 1:02:53Speaker 2: I don't care at this point what they do with
- 1:02:56Speaker 2: any of this because it's been shown that if you
- 1:02:58Speaker 2: want to like Cue close to what it is that
- 1:03:01Speaker 2: you're inspired by. It's going to be very different from
- 1:03:03Speaker 2: what the rest of us have seen. Like, you know,
- 1:03:05Speaker 2: we're all coming at Batman and Superman from a different direction.
- 1:03:09Speaker 2: Like genuinely, we all are like, we all want and
- 1:03:11Speaker 2: have needs.
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: For different things.
- 1:03:13Speaker 2: So, you know, Tim Burton doing his thing or Chris
- 1:03:16Speaker 2: Nolan doing his thing or who, you know, Zack Snyder
- 1:03:19Speaker 2: or Joss Whedon doing his thing. Like they're all perfectly
- 1:03:22Speaker 2: valid interpretations of Batman because those are their own versions.
- 1:03:26Speaker 2: I don't see how Batman works with this character.
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: As it is. And I don't see.
- 1:03:31Speaker 2: How DCU moves forward with this character in there, which
- 1:03:35Speaker 2: is why, like I said, James Gunn is just so.
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: This isn't part of anything.
- 1:03:39Speaker 2: Like, yeah, because this is also, like you said, kind
- 1:03:42Speaker 2: of a hanger-on of the olden times. This would have
- 1:03:45Speaker 2: been perfectly in place in a Zack Snyder universe.
- 1:03:48Speaker 1: Genuinely. Like....
- 1:03:51Speaker 2: You put this in with those Ben Affleck movies or
- 1:03:54Speaker 2: the James Wan stuff or any of the Joss Whedon
- 1:03:57Speaker 2: stuff or the Zack Snyder justice.
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: Like, you know what? This works. This is exactly that because.
- 1:04:02Speaker 2: This is not pulling the trigger even as much as
- 1:04:05Speaker 2: Supergirl and Superman have or, or lanterns like lanterns pulls
- 1:04:09Speaker 2: the trigger on true detective.
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: It does it like this.
- 1:04:13Speaker 2: This doesn't want to commit because just like those Snyder
- 1:04:15Speaker 2: DC movies, there was nothing to commit to.
- 1:04:17Speaker 1: It's ultimately nothing to say. They robbed this movie of
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: everything to say by making him a villain. There's nothing
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: for this movie to say. He definitely can work in
- 1:04:27Speaker 1: a Batman world. And I think it's just got to
- 1:04:30Speaker 1: be consistent and work. Because what it's mostly trying to
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: do and what it definitely feels like it's drawing from
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: is Batman the Animated Series. Which is, again, arguably the
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: best version of Batman that's ever happened. Like, it is...
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: so well done when you find the right episodes and overall,
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: it's just really impressive. So I actually did go back
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: and was, and was watching some, cause this one, I
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: think the most of what they're pulling from, especially in
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: the beginning, there is the feet of clay episodes, which
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: are the introduction of, of clay face in Batman, the
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: animated series. And it definitely is a basic overall version
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: of the actor turning into clay face story. it makes him,
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: he's not sympathetic at all as the actor though, in
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: the animated version, he's just kind of a jackass from
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: the get go. Like, but he's already like, he already
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: has the problem. It's not like we watch it happen
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: by the time we meet him in these, again, they're
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: super short episodes. So it's like you, by the time
- 1:05:35Speaker 1: we're introduced to him, he already has the issue. He's
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: already falling apart. He's already using the chemicals to fix
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: his face. And then that starts to just make him hostile.
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: And he, He just abuses his friend from the get
- 1:05:47Speaker 1: go there. Like even the one guy who stands by
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: him in the animated show, he's just terrible to him
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: the whole time. So like, he's not much of a
- 1:05:55Speaker 1: sympathetic character there, but it definitely fits in that version
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: of Gotham, that version of the Batman that's been introduced
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: in the animated series. They're just right there with each other.
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: It really does kind of work. So I think there
- 1:06:11Speaker 1: is a way to make that work, but, This is
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: just not this is not that same tone of what
- 1:06:18Speaker 1: you're getting out of the animated series in this movie.
- 1:06:22Speaker 1: And you're definitely like at this point, we haven't even
- 1:06:24Speaker 1: seen the Batman that would have to match with this.
- 1:06:27Speaker 1: So like that makes it harder for us to even
- 1:06:29Speaker 1: be like, well, wait, so what are we doing with
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: this guy now that we've gotten to the end? Which, again,
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: that end was sort of set up in one of
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: the episodes as well, the way that it ends there.
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: it's pretty much straight up how I think it's supposed
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: to go in one of the episodes further down the
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: line when they keep going with, with Clayface. And I
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: don't know, like, again, I think it, that villain works
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: really well in that animated series. So there is a
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: way to do it. I just don't know that this
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: was the way. And again, I feel like it starts okay.
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: And it does make him a, a, sympathetic character and
- 1:07:06Speaker 1: you like what he's trying to do as it starts
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: to be him just sort of getting revenge but it
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: again it is like that last third or so where
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: you're just like well wait now who is he what
- 1:07:17Speaker 1: is he and so i don't know i i think
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: that's part of the issue is like we don't have
- 1:07:22Speaker 1: our pre-established batman and batman world to see how he
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: fits into it and see how he matches up with
- 1:07:31Speaker 1: the other half of what should be this story which
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: is batman who isn't here Or if.
- 1:07:36Speaker 2: It even has, you know, what is it tonally like
- 1:07:39Speaker 2: with the other villains? I mean, not even to speak
- 1:07:44Speaker 2: to Batman, but what are the other villains like in
- 1:07:46Speaker 2: this world that, you know.
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: Two-Face or Joker? Like, are they going to interact with Clayface?
- 1:07:52Speaker 1: Is that a thing? Like, will they be as aghast
- 1:07:56Speaker 1: at dealing with him as, like, the people that we've
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: seen now? It just feels like something that's not going
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: to ever be answered. genuinely.
- 1:08:05Speaker 2: And I don't think that anyone, and I don't think
- 1:08:07Speaker 2: anyone making this movie wanted to answer that question or
- 1:08:10Speaker 2: made this movie to answer any of it. And it's
- 1:08:14Speaker 2: at the end of the movie where it feels like
- 1:08:15Speaker 2: it's trying to tie back into that sentiment that this.
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: Movie was not being made with.
- 1:08:20Speaker 2: The two thirds of this movie are a very different
- 1:08:23Speaker 2: movie because they feel like a Mike Flanagan movie. That's
- 1:08:25Speaker 2: just trying to be its own thing, which is perfectly fine. Um,
- 1:08:30Speaker 2: It literally just being a standalone Clayface movie or series
- 1:08:34Speaker 2: of movies, those Venom movies may never have anything to
- 1:08:37Speaker 2: do with the MCU.
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: Best we can tell, they won't, which is good.
- 1:08:45Speaker 2: Why not just give us three Clayface movies and have
- 1:08:49Speaker 2: them just be like those Venom movies? Have them be
- 1:08:52Speaker 2: this universe's version of Venom because there's versions of Venom
- 1:08:55Speaker 2: where he's a villain and Venom.
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: Also could be a body horror character. Venom is kind
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: of a body horror character as it is. It probably
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: should have been more in those other movies. I mean,
- 1:09:05Speaker 1: it kind of was, right? I feel like that was
- 1:09:07Speaker 1: my issue. I had little to do with those Venom movies,
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: but I feel like that was my issue. They took
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: what I felt was such a cool... villain or anti-hero
- 1:09:19Speaker 1: depending on who you ask in the comic book world
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: i mean.
- 1:09:21Speaker 2: There's multiple versions you know yeah he definitely starts off
- 1:09:26Speaker 2: like he's a villain and and certainly looks like he
- 1:09:29Speaker 2: should be a villain so you could do something really
- 1:09:32Speaker 2: cool and dark and like i feel like then they.
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: Got this movie and we're like oh what if we
- 1:09:36Speaker 1: made it a funny buddy movie like like I just,
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: that rubbed me the wrong way because of that. I
- 1:09:43Speaker 1: don't know. What, that it was a buddy, like buddy comedy?
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: That it just made Venom a joke. Like it just like,
- 1:09:50Speaker 1: it defanged him so much that like, nope, you can't
- 1:09:53Speaker 1: murder that lady.
- 1:09:54Speaker 2: Was it any better or any worse than what they
- 1:09:56Speaker 2: did in Spider-Man 3?
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: Well, again, that's not the place to say.
- 1:10:02Speaker 2: It's not the bar to say. It is the bar
- 1:10:05Speaker 2: because that's the only other time we've gotten Venom. No,
- 1:10:07Speaker 2: and they fumbled the ball there too. I think that
- 1:10:11Speaker 2: the Venom movies are better than Venom and Spider-Man 3
- 1:10:13Speaker 2: because at least the Venom movies.
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: Are like a unified idea. I get it.
- 1:10:18Speaker 2: Like you're not the first person or the last person
- 1:10:20Speaker 2: or the only person to say like, I don't like
- 1:10:22Speaker 2: what they did with Venom because it's a little jokey
- 1:10:24Speaker 2: and it's a little- It's very jokey.
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: I get it.
- 1:10:27Speaker 2: I don't disagree. But at the same time, you know what?
- 1:10:31Speaker 2: Like they're not like.
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: Any of those other movies.
- 1:10:35Speaker 2: Like at least they're fucking weird and jokey and like
- 1:10:38Speaker 2: strange and they have woody harrelson in that horrible red
- 1:10:41Speaker 2: wig and at the end of the first one like
- 1:10:44Speaker 2: they're they're making choices maybe they're not always the best
- 1:10:47Speaker 2: ones but at least they're not bound by what would
- 1:10:49Speaker 2: have been at the time that mcu tone that was
- 1:10:52Speaker 2: just so overwhelmingly like part of the like marvel what
- 1:10:58Speaker 2: was it like phase three was that what it was
- 1:11:01Speaker 2: where it was like everything had the same like tone
- 1:11:05Speaker 2: it was like oh we're gonna have this like serious
- 1:11:06Speaker 2: moment undercut by a joke i would rather have a
- 1:11:09Speaker 2: movie that's just jokey throughout than a movie that's like
- 1:11:11Speaker 2: trying to be serious but then utter undercutting every serious
- 1:11:14Speaker 2: moment with a joke because that's all those joss whedon
- 1:11:17Speaker 2: movies were And it set the tone for Marvel so
- 1:11:21Speaker 2: hard for pretty much up until now. Like, I mean,
- 1:11:24Speaker 2: like I would say that Spider-Man movie is like the
- 1:11:27Speaker 2: first time and same with Thunderbolts where it's like, Oh,
- 1:11:29Speaker 2: you mean we can like have a serious conversation here
- 1:11:31Speaker 2: and it doesn't have to be undercut by like dick.
- 1:11:33Speaker 1: And fart jokes. The Marvel equivalent of dick and fart jokes. Like,
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: I will throw in the Guardians 2. I feel like Guardians,
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: especially Guardians 3, got pretty dark. I haven't seen it.
- 1:11:45Speaker 2: I haven't seen it because I've heard it's very emotionally
- 1:11:47Speaker 2: manipulative and not necessarily in a fun way.
- 1:11:50Speaker 1: It is, but it's also like you're just watching. We already...
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: they're already weird, screwed up characters in the first two,
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: but like, we're just watching them. Almost everybody in the
- 1:12:01Speaker 1: cast that we love is just broken at this point.
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: Like they've been through so much shit that they're just
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: like such a mess. They're like, I actually just rewatched
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: it recently just cause I hadn't seen it in a while.
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: And I was just like, I really like a lot
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: of what they're doing. And they really, they take what
- 1:12:20Speaker 1: they're doing with rocket and make it in a important
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: story for this for this character but everybody not just
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: him not just star lord like everybody is just such
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: a mess by the end of that movie that it's
- 1:12:35Speaker 1: it is a lot to take so it's like i
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: i will say there's there's some fun moments here and
- 1:12:39Speaker 1: there but not near as much like they definitely went
- 1:12:42Speaker 1: full-on lean into the darkness on that one so i
- 1:12:45Speaker 1: i Again, that's further into the run. So by that
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: time we were getting the third Spider-Man and the third
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: Guardians and they were allowing them to do a little.
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: I think those are the ones that hold up a
- 1:12:56Speaker 1: little better for me.
- 1:12:58Speaker 2: They were so interested in like doing a certain thing
- 1:13:01Speaker 2: for so long that it's nice that they finally kind
- 1:13:04Speaker 2: of have seemingly stopped. But this I would say that
- 1:13:07Speaker 2: this movie really belongs in those Snyder DCEU movies. They
- 1:13:13Speaker 2: have that same tone. I could see Ben Affleck's Batman
- 1:13:16Speaker 2: fighting this version of Clayface.
- 1:13:19Speaker 1: See, I don't see as much of the Justice League
- 1:13:21Speaker 1: version of it. What I do see is this would
- 1:13:24Speaker 1: fit in just fine with Suicide Squad. The first. Or
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: Batman v Superman? The one everyone hates, Suicide Squad. I mean,
- 1:13:32Speaker 1: it's still technically part of the same world and they
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: have their little cameos or whatever. But I feel like
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: that is another one of those that's not a good movie.
- 1:13:41Speaker 1: But I have rewatched it a couple of times now
- 1:13:43Speaker 1: because there's such good elements in it. Are you talking
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: about the one with Will Smith? Yeah. And again, people
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: hate that movie. But I'm like, there's definitely great moments
- 1:13:53Speaker 1: in it. I saw that thing in theaters. I feel
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: like I have a reason to hate it. Oh, yeah.
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: I mean, it is not good. I don't pretend like
- 1:14:00Speaker 1: it is. But there's moments along the way that I'm like,
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: this is what you could have done.
- 1:14:04Speaker 2: Like, you see moments of like, if you... took this
- 1:14:08Speaker 2: and put it in another movie that wasn't a train wreck.
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: Like this moment works, and this moment works, and this
- 1:14:14Speaker 1: character's good here. And like, if you see the pieces
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: of what could have been a really good superhero movie,
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: and it's just such a mess. But I feel like
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: this Clayface would fit in with that just fine. Like
- 1:14:28Speaker 1: he would hang out with With any of those characters,
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: he is definitely like the stand in for any of
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: that other stuff along the way. And that tone of
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: what's going on in this movie, I think would have
- 1:14:39Speaker 1: played just fine in that world. So I think it's
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: closer to that for me than even like the Justice
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: League Superman of it all. what is the tone of
- 1:14:48Speaker 1: this movie? Is this movie super serious? No, because I
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: think it knows, I think it, it's trying to lean
- 1:14:55Speaker 1: into more of a horror movie. I think there's a
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: lot of aspects of it that work too. Like the,
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: the stuff that is just tension, like, and, and knowingly
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: like messing with you in the audience. Like it's when
- 1:15:08Speaker 1: you've got him in the bathroom of the plane and,
- 1:15:12Speaker 1: with scissors inches away from his eyeball. Like that's just
- 1:15:16Speaker 1: messing with the audience. Like they know exactly what they're
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: doing at that point and whether or not it's necessary
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: for this movie or this character, that moment is effective
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: because you're going, Oh God. Oh yeah. Like it's constantly
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: just pushing to see how far it can, it can
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: make people squirm in their seats. And I feel like
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: there's several times in this movie that it does that,
- 1:15:37Speaker 1: that even if it doesn't work well, full-on body horror
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: there are several times when it's just messing with him
- 1:15:44Speaker 1: injuring himself and making people watch it because there were
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: times when i feel like people were like audibly weirded
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: out by some of the stuff going on in the
- 1:15:54Speaker 1: theater that like you can see that's the kind of
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: stuff that i think they're they're trying to lean into
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: the the horror end of it more than the super
- 1:16:03Speaker 1: serious superhero-ness of it all i again i didn't get
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: near as much superhero from this But I do feel
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: them trying to be a tense movie, trying to be
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: a horrific movie, even if it doesn't always work. I
- 1:16:17Speaker 1: feel like that's going on from the filmmaking aspect of it.
- 1:16:21Speaker 2: Those are the more interesting parts of the movie is
- 1:16:23Speaker 2: when it wants to do a horror movie thing.
- 1:16:27Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:16:30Speaker 2: I kind of don't need any more superhero movies. Like I'm, I'm,
- 1:16:34Speaker 2: I know that, you know, I don't know if we've
- 1:16:36Speaker 2: talked about this, but I know I've talked about this
- 1:16:37Speaker 2: with Mike. Like I'm really good. Like I, I'm not
- 1:16:42Speaker 2: in need any more of any more superhero movies. Like we've,
- 1:16:46Speaker 2: we've gotten peak saturation at this point to the point
- 1:16:49Speaker 2: where Marvel is struggling to make a comic book.
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: It has been for a while.
- 1:16:54Speaker 2: I'm not sure who really even cares about the Marvel
- 1:16:56Speaker 2: movies anymore. And I think that that's on Marvel. That's
- 1:16:59Speaker 2: on them. They haven't really been engaged in making quality movies.
- 1:17:03Speaker 2: And I kind of checked out after Endgame, understandably and
- 1:17:07Speaker 2: rightfully so. Like, it was really a struggle to get
- 1:17:11Speaker 2: me to care about even that Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield,
- 1:17:14Speaker 2: Spider-Man movie.
- 1:17:15Speaker 1: It was fine. And they spread themselves so thin because
- 1:17:19Speaker 1: then not only were they cranking out, you know, five
- 1:17:21Speaker 1: movies a year, but then they kept putting out series too.
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: And even the series weren't that good. Like they started solid,
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: but as time went on, it was one year, one
- 1:17:32Speaker 1: year had like eight releases or some shit. Like, well,
- 1:17:36Speaker 1: I mean, as time went on, like I got to
- 1:17:38Speaker 1: the point, I'm like, I don't even want to watch
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: this series. And you're like, I would see it and
- 1:17:42Speaker 1: be like it. Okay. This could, I really am not
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: even engaged in the idea here, but I like Marvel
- 1:17:48Speaker 1: in general. I'll try to watch it. And then like,
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: I'm just like, I don't care about what's going on
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: in this whole series right now. And then, I mean, that's,
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: you know, investing six and eight hours at a time
- 1:18:00Speaker 1: in those just to come back to a movie that
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: also wasn't working too. So it's like, they are a
- 1:18:06Speaker 1: hundred percent to blame. And I think there are some
- 1:18:08Speaker 1: high points along the way. I'm not throwing everything out,
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: but I'm just like, they did not put the effort
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: in to keep up what they were doing. And you
- 1:18:17Speaker 1: see audiences eventually were just like, yeah, Maybe we're ready
- 1:18:21Speaker 1: for something else too. It cracks me up that at
- 1:18:27Speaker 1: one point Marvel released like eight things in one year.
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: It was a lot.
- 1:18:33Speaker 2: Guys, we don't need four TV shows and four movies
- 1:18:36Speaker 2: in one year. Your creativity, I appreciate that you are
- 1:18:41Speaker 2: unbounded by financials, but you should be bounded by the
- 1:18:44Speaker 2: needs of the creative because you are overdoing it by
- 1:18:48Speaker 2: a size.
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: Margin. Riding high when you've got that much power and
- 1:18:54Speaker 1: that much success is like, it's never going to go away.
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: I'm like, well, I don't know that that's true. In fact,
- 1:19:01Speaker 1: now I do know that's not true.
- 1:19:02Speaker 2: No, they've had to resort to every trick known to
- 1:19:05Speaker 2: man to try to get people interested in Doomsday.
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: And You know, that's that's the thing. I wish Marvel
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: would make something like this. I guess.
- 1:19:15Speaker 2: I mean, they try to, you know, so I would
- 1:19:17Speaker 2: say like this, but like something where it's like not
- 1:19:19Speaker 2: something I would expect of them. And I guess Spider-Man
- 1:19:22Speaker 2: is kind of like that. And Thunderbolts is kind.
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: Of like that. But still, it's like it's still.
- 1:19:28Speaker 2: Kind of even this is still kind of just a
- 1:19:31Speaker 2: superhero thing. Like I know you you're saying like, well,
- 1:19:33Speaker 2: it's not that much of a superhero thing, but the
- 1:19:35Speaker 2: worst parts of this movie are because it is a
- 1:19:38Speaker 2: superhero thing.
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: Well, I mean, they were leading towards what I feel
- 1:19:42Speaker 1: is way closer to this with man thing. Then again,
- 1:19:46Speaker 1: I think they just got distracted or handed it off
- 1:19:50Speaker 1: to somebody else and it didn't happen. But they definitely like,
- 1:19:53Speaker 1: because werewolf by night is probably as close as you're
- 1:19:57Speaker 1: going to get. You know, we mentioned it earlier, but
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: it's definitely like what they were trying to do in
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: this world on that side of the fence. And like,
- 1:20:05Speaker 1: so we get to the end of that and the
- 1:20:07Speaker 1: man thing of it all feels very close to like,
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: the clay face tone. So it's like, it definitely seems
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: like that could have been something on it and it
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: worked fine for streaming. So that could have just been
- 1:20:20Speaker 1: an interesting show and maybe not a lengthy show. Again,
- 1:20:23Speaker 1: sometimes I think they overextend themselves with these super long.
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: I liked the one hour one off, you know, werewolf
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: by night because it didn't make you like all right,
- 1:20:33Speaker 1: here's seven more hours of this after this episode's done.
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: And we got to come up with something to fill
- 1:20:38Speaker 1: all this time. Like I think that's what we talked
- 1:20:40Speaker 1: about last time. Yeah.
- 1:20:42Speaker 2: We talked about that last time with the, you know,
- 1:20:44Speaker 2: like at this point, how much do you have to
- 1:20:45Speaker 2: even watch to be able to watch any of this?
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: Like you can't enjoy any of this.
- 1:20:49Speaker 2: Like, You know, I don't even think you could watch
- 1:20:52Speaker 2: Doomsday without having seen at least something else before. And,
- 1:20:56Speaker 2: you know, we were joking last time we recorded because
- 1:20:58Speaker 2: we talked about Crystal Lake. Like, how refreshing it was
- 1:21:02Speaker 2: to be able to watch a TV show that I
- 1:21:03Speaker 2: didn't have to appreciate anything ahead of time to appreciate it.
- 1:21:07Speaker 2: And with anything Marvel now, it's like, how many rabbit
- 1:21:10Speaker 2: holes do I have to go down to be able
- 1:21:12Speaker 2: to understand this one thing? Like, Vision Quest... is the
- 1:21:15Speaker 2: worst best example of that. I'm not deriding the show's
- 1:21:18Speaker 2: quality or anything else. It's just it is very indicative
- 1:21:21Speaker 2: of where we are with things, which is to say
- 1:21:23Speaker 2: where we are is so far in the weeds that
- 1:21:27Speaker 2: all we have at this point is all of this
- 1:21:29Speaker 2: mythology we've just created and built.
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: On top of and built on top of.
- 1:21:33Speaker 2: It's like, yeah, no, there's... no chance anymore that you
- 1:21:38Speaker 2: could just watch these movies like and that they don't
- 1:21:42Speaker 2: they i guess don't know or understand or care about
- 1:21:46Speaker 2: that i just like and it's like oh no it's
- 1:21:48Speaker 2: the audience that doesn't get it it's like you've alienated
- 1:21:50Speaker 2: the audience by making these movies so involved that you
- 1:21:54Speaker 2: can't just watch the movie you have to do your
- 1:21:56Speaker 2: homework first it's like who wants to do that even
- 1:21:59Speaker 2: the most like you know cynical amongst us who will
- 1:22:02Speaker 2: do it for a movie even we don't want.
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: To do But some of it's just too much time
- 1:22:08Speaker 1: to fill, too. And that's why I think even this,
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: because you suggested earlier that maybe this need to be
- 1:22:13Speaker 1: a streaming series. I don't want that. Four episodes max.
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: Four episodes. Maybe.
- 1:22:18Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 1:22:19Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. I don't want to have to, like,
- 1:22:21Speaker 1: I feel like even at the end of this, I
- 1:22:23Speaker 1: was like, they're running out of stuff. Like, like I said,
- 1:22:26Speaker 1: it could be a 20 minute segment. It's, it's completely
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: just like limp dicking on a lot of the stuff.
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: Like we have, Oh, we have a guy get, uh,
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: you know, he holds his head against his body and
- 1:22:36Speaker 1: he suffocates him. Like there's stuff going on in this movie.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: And we're like, where's the.
- 1:22:40Speaker 2: Body horror of him? falling apart and becoming Clayface. Like it's,
- 1:22:45Speaker 2: it's not here. It's not here in the way that
- 1:22:47Speaker 2: it needs to be here. And you have a guy
- 1:22:49Speaker 2: who's injected himself with nanite stem cells. And this is
- 1:22:55Speaker 2: what we're getting. Like it's, it's not enough. It's, it's
- 1:22:59Speaker 2: not enough.
- 1:23:00Speaker 1: It needed to be more.
- 1:23:01Speaker 2: And it's not because it is again, like you said,
- 1:23:04Speaker 2: reluctantly a superhero movie, genuinely reluctantly, like whether or not
- 1:23:08Speaker 2: it wants to be part of anything that James Gunn
- 1:23:10Speaker 2: is doing. is besides the fact it is and whether
- 1:23:13Speaker 2: or not James Gunn wants it to be part of
- 1:23:15Speaker 2: what he's doing.
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: It is like, you know, I just don't know that
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: I would be on board with more of the story
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: at this point. Like if they do something else with
- 1:23:25Speaker 1: it down the line, I would be interested to see
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: maybe if they find some good way to work it in. I, again,
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: I like Clayface as a, as the monstrous character he
- 1:23:35Speaker 1: is like in the animated series. So that would be
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: cool to see if they do it right. But again,
- 1:23:40Speaker 1: like I said, even a four hour series, I'm like,
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: that's just a lot of time to fill for something
- 1:23:46Speaker 1: that again, still seems like it's just setting up the
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: first part of a thing that needs the other part
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: of the thing to make it work at all. Like,
- 1:23:54Speaker 1: I feel like it's still so much set up here
- 1:23:56Speaker 1: that like, he can't be a final character by himself.
- 1:24:00Speaker 1: He still has to be half of what's going to
- 1:24:03Speaker 1: happen when the other half comes along to fight with him.
- 1:24:06Speaker 1: Everything else just seems like set up at this point.
- 1:24:08Speaker 2: I guess the question I have for you is, can
- 1:24:11Speaker 2: Clayface exist without Batman? Because that's kind of what you
- 1:24:14Speaker 2: were asking before about the Morbius and the Madame Web
- 1:24:17Speaker 2: of it all.
- 1:24:19Speaker 1: What is the point of any of this if you
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: don't even have Spider-Man? That's the bigger question here. By
- 1:24:24Speaker 1: your approximation, what is the point of any of this
- 1:24:27Speaker 1: if they're not going to put Batman in these movies?
- 1:24:29Speaker 1: I was shocked that we did not get a single
- 1:24:33Speaker 1: Batman anything. Not even a cameo at the end as
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: he's standing on a building watching him or something. That
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: would be where you would end.
- 1:24:43Speaker 2: Joker had more than this movie did. And like, I'm
- 1:24:45Speaker 2: not saying Joker is a great way of doing it,
- 1:24:47Speaker 2: but it's a better way of doing it than this
- 1:24:51Speaker 2: where it's like, what is, what, where does it, what,
- 1:24:53Speaker 2: what's going on? Like, I'm not asking to have it explained,
- 1:24:56Speaker 2: but like you need to do some explaining because you're
- 1:24:59Speaker 2: the movie, not me.
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: Even Suicide Squad had a full on cameo from Batman
- 1:25:05Speaker 1: and it is not a good movie. But they worked
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: him in so that you knew, oh, well, eventually that's
- 1:25:11Speaker 1: where they're leading to. We just have to sit through
- 1:25:13Speaker 1: the rest of this dumb movie to get there. But yeah,
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: it's like with this, it's like I wish it worked better. Like, again,
- 1:25:21Speaker 1: I don't think the character as a human is a
- 1:25:24Speaker 1: bad character. Like I said, that first third is pretty
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: interesting watching him just get set up and sold down
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: the river. And then, like I said, I like him
- 1:25:34Speaker 1: as a big monstrous character at the end. I just
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: feel like it's a weird trip that takes us there.
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: And I don't feel like it has any direction. Like
- 1:25:44Speaker 1: it knows where it wants to go. It doesn't know
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: how to get there exactly. And even then, once it
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: gets there, it doesn't know what to do without the
- 1:25:51Speaker 1: other part of the equation, which is Batman. So these
- 1:25:54Speaker 1: are the issues I'm still kind of dealing with.
- 1:25:57Speaker 2: I think, to your point, I'm not sure how much
- 1:25:59Speaker 2: I care about this character without Batman. Because Batman sets
- 1:26:03Speaker 2: the tone of what this character is. I mean, imagine
- 1:26:06Speaker 2: if this character came out honking his nose like a
- 1:26:08Speaker 2: fucking clown. You'd be like, what is Batman? Is Batman
- 1:26:12Speaker 2: going to be this jokey character? Is Batman going to
- 1:26:16Speaker 2: be the super serious character that lives in the same
- 1:26:19Speaker 2: universe where a guy has a knife jammed into his
- 1:26:21Speaker 2: mouth and cuts up half of his face?
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: Is that Batman's universe? I mean, that sounds like Batman, really. Right, yeah.
- 1:26:28Speaker 2: Like every Batman I've ever heard. Is Batman dark? Like
- 1:26:34Speaker 2: he is, certain interpretations, but not every single one. You know,
- 1:26:38Speaker 2: I think of Tim Burton's Batman, not dark at all.
- 1:26:42Speaker 1: I mean, the universe is very dark. The character, not
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: as much. He's definitely, he's messed up, but he's not
- 1:26:49Speaker 1: like dark and takes himself super serious. He's just sort
- 1:26:53Speaker 1: of dealing with things as best he can in a
- 1:26:56Speaker 1: very dark world. But yeah, by the time you get
- 1:26:59Speaker 1: to the, the next two, it's not really dark from
- 1:27:04Speaker 1: any perspective. There's, there's, there's a lot of crazy fun
- 1:27:08Speaker 1: things going on in those, uh, Those next two. Well,
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: maybe that's the thing.
- 1:27:14Speaker 2: Maybe Metropolis is just this really upbeat and fun place
- 1:27:17Speaker 2: and Gotham is just this real bummer. Maybe Gotham is
- 1:27:20Speaker 2: just this real bummer of a place and Metropolis is
- 1:27:24Speaker 2: so much better. Again, why not say that? Give us
- 1:27:27Speaker 2: an idea of what's going on in this universe. I'm
- 1:27:30Speaker 2: not saying explain things, but give us a broader sense
- 1:27:33Speaker 2: of the universe that this character occupies because I am
- 1:27:37Speaker 2: generally unclear as to... Yeah, he's nominated for an Oscar
- 1:27:42Speaker 2: of sorts. Like, what does that even mean?
- 1:27:44Speaker 1: Like nothing. Don't introduce things like this if you're not
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: even going to explain them a little bit, like a
- 1:27:50Speaker 1: little bit.
- 1:27:51Speaker 2: Just don't don't be doing this lip service thing when
- 1:27:52Speaker 2: we know this isn't like the first movie in a
- 1:27:55Speaker 2: thing where it's like, well, we're revealing that this is
- 1:27:57Speaker 2: Clayface in the third act and you didn't know it
- 1:27:59Speaker 2: was part of the Batman universe and we're establishing it now.
- 1:28:01Speaker 1: Like. Nope. They didn't even do that. Imagine if they
- 1:28:05Speaker 1: had done that. Imagine if that had been this.
- 1:28:07Speaker 2: Imagine if this had been split and all of a
- 1:28:10Speaker 2: sudden it's like, oh my God, this is the James
- 1:28:12Speaker 2: Gunn DCU. Wouldn't that be crazy that that's what we're
- 1:28:15Speaker 2: getting and it started with Clayface? Maybe if this movie
- 1:28:19Speaker 2: were better.
- 1:28:20Speaker 1: But you know what?
- 1:28:21Speaker 2: I would be able to probably give it a pass
- 1:28:23Speaker 2: if it did that more than doing... Just the very
- 1:28:29Speaker 2: basic and obvious, which I feel like this movie does.
- 1:28:31Speaker 2: It has those moments, but those moments that it has,
- 1:28:35Speaker 2: those kind of like body horror moment moments are not
- 1:28:39Speaker 2: even for the movies.
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: Like, like we mentioned the substance and together.
- 1:28:42Speaker 2: Like those are bigger in their kind of reach than
- 1:28:46Speaker 2: this movie and kind of the expectations of this movie.
- 1:28:49Speaker 2: And those movies do the body horror better than this
- 1:28:52Speaker 2: movie does.
- 1:28:53Speaker 1: And I don't know why.
- 1:28:55Speaker 2: Like you said, if you're going to do Clayface this way,
- 1:28:58Speaker 2: he's got to be a body horror character.
- 1:29:00Speaker 1: That's the only way you can do it.
- 1:29:01Speaker 2: You can do it any other way, but if you're
- 1:29:03Speaker 2: going to do it this way, he's a body horror character.
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: Yeah, unless we're not doing the origin story of him
- 1:29:09Speaker 1: as a human. If it's just he is that monstrous thing,
- 1:29:14Speaker 1: he's born of clay, and that's all he is is
- 1:29:16Speaker 1: a big monster. That's how he started, and that's what
- 1:29:19Speaker 1: he is. That's fine. You can introduce him that way
- 1:29:22Speaker 1: and just not give him a weird– super sad human
- 1:29:26Speaker 1: story to start things off. But like, if you're going
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: to do him as human, I don't know how you
- 1:29:31Speaker 1: do it. That's not body horror. Like how could you
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: have this tap into you and not be horrified by it?
- 1:29:37Speaker 2: So, and I think of the other character that this
- 1:29:40Speaker 2: reminded me of that again, feels like, Oh.
- 1:29:42Speaker 1: We don't want, he's an antihero. He's a really sympathetic character.
- 1:29:46Speaker 1: Did they not watch dark man before they made this movie?
- 1:29:50Speaker 1: It definitely has a lot of that to it. Again,
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: it's not here as well done. But then it strays
- 1:29:55Speaker 1: away from it.
- 1:29:56Speaker 2: It like runs at high speed away from like this
- 1:29:58Speaker 2: being a sympathetic character. And again, it doesn't work because
- 1:30:02Speaker 2: it feels like it was trying to meet another expectation,
- 1:30:06Speaker 2: not the expectation of the narrative.
- 1:30:09Speaker 1: I think there's so many good villains in that world,
- 1:30:13Speaker 1: specifically if we start pulling from like the animated series,
- 1:30:17Speaker 1: like that's where people learned about all these lesser villains.
- 1:30:21Speaker 1: It's like everybody knew, you know, your big four because
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: they used to be on the live action show, you know,
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: years and years ago. But like outside of that, normal
- 1:30:31Speaker 1: people that weren't like hardcore comic fans didn't know about
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: most of these villains. So you get, I mean, that's
- 1:30:37Speaker 1: not only did they create Harley Quinn, but like, like Mr.
- 1:30:40Speaker 1: Freeze wasn't really a character that anybody else knew about
- 1:30:45Speaker 1: until the animated series. So that's one of those that
- 1:30:48Speaker 1: like you, you can watch even in that, like, you know,
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: 22 minute episode is presented as such a tragic figure.
- 1:30:56Speaker 1: And you could see how you could do like all
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: of these villains and like focus on their, their tragic
- 1:31:04Speaker 1: origin story and make it work. But I don't know
- 1:31:07Speaker 1: that that translates into each one gets a movie, you know,
- 1:31:10Speaker 1: it's like if we're, There's some great ones that, you know,
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: the ventriloquist that people are really like creeped out by
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: that guy. But do I need an hour and 48
- 1:31:18Speaker 1: minute ventriloquist movie? Like, probably not. Do we need a
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: whole baby doll and like Clock King? People like that guy.
- 1:31:28Speaker 1: But do I need a whole movie setting up him
- 1:31:30Speaker 1: as a villain? I don't think so. So I think
- 1:31:34Speaker 1: there's a way to do that and there's a way
- 1:31:35Speaker 1: to dig into the dark side. super sad stories that
- 1:31:39Speaker 1: lead to all these characters. That's definitely like in penguin
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: and Joker. And like, we get that with a lot
- 1:31:45Speaker 1: of the, the big names and it's in all of
- 1:31:49Speaker 1: this rogues gallery, but I just don't know that you
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: can do it full fledged, full movie and not have
- 1:31:56Speaker 1: it start to suffer without also having Batman there to
- 1:32:00Speaker 1: fight at the end of it. You know, it's like,
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: it's got to counterbalance it with Batman or something else.
- 1:32:05Speaker 1: That's not just this guy. going through this story for
- 1:32:09Speaker 1: the whole movie, because it, again, it just feels uneven. Well,
- 1:32:13Speaker 1: you said Mr. Freeze.
- 1:32:14Speaker 2: I mean, that, that is how you should have made
- 1:32:17Speaker 2: this movie. You make Clay face the guy who is
- 1:32:20Speaker 2: like the lizard experimenting on himself becomes the monster or whatever.
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: And there you go. Bob's your uncle.
- 1:32:27Speaker 2: Like I don't, why he needed to be a villain
- 1:32:30Speaker 2: feels more like an expectation of someone else, not an
- 1:32:32Speaker 2: expectation of the narrative. Like he should have just, he
- 1:32:35Speaker 2: should have just been, a sympathetic anti-hero who, yeah, he
- 1:32:41Speaker 2: does some things that maybe I wouldn't do, but I
- 1:32:43Speaker 2: also haven't had my face cut up by the mob.
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: So there you go.
- 1:32:47Speaker 2: Like it, and I guess it's like, why, why are we,
- 1:32:50Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure you've heard the term like over-engineered,
- 1:32:53Speaker 2: like why are we over-complicating things? Like this is a
- 1:32:56Speaker 2: over-engineering problem. Like you over-engineered your movie and then you
- 1:32:59Speaker 2: added things in there to, to have a twist happen that, oh,
- 1:33:03Speaker 2: by the way, and this is something, you know, we
- 1:33:05Speaker 2: didn't mention about the twist.
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: The twist pays off in the same fucking scene you
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: do it. You didn't even like wait five minutes.
- 1:33:12Speaker 2: You didn't have it be like, well, Matt Hagen has
- 1:33:15Speaker 2: been walking around as Max Minghella for a while, getting
- 1:33:17Speaker 2: up to no good.
- 1:33:18Speaker 1: Like, nope. She finds him in the next, like lit
- 1:33:22Speaker 1: at the same scene in the next room. Like, was
- 1:33:25Speaker 1: there a scene in between here? Like what was I,
- 1:33:27Speaker 1: did I, what? I mean, I'm not even, I'm not,
- 1:33:29Speaker 1: I'm not exaggerating. Am I like, it's literally the same scene. No,
- 1:33:32Speaker 1: she opens the door and it's like, oh, I was
- 1:33:35Speaker 1: just talking to you, but you're dead on the floor
- 1:33:37Speaker 1: in the next room. So that's probably not you, huh?
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: Like it, it's just, like I said, it's just out
- 1:33:44Speaker 1: of nowhere. Just like, okay. I mean, yeah, we set
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: up the he knows he's kind of piecing it together,
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: but that needed to be an extra 20 minutes or
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: so of like leading to this point and showing him
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: get to the point of like, well, this feels like,
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: you know, my only way out is to, I have
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: to do this now if I'm going to survive. And
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: even more so if it was like setting up, because
- 1:34:04Speaker 1: like I said, I like their heading toward a romance
- 1:34:08Speaker 1: type of angle, but like, it seems like that sort
- 1:34:10Speaker 1: of skips a step too, where it's like, it's just
- 1:34:13Speaker 1: at the point where they're starting to like each other,
- 1:34:15Speaker 1: like halfway into this movie. And then it jumps to
- 1:34:18Speaker 1: him murdering her fiance so they can be together. And like,
- 1:34:21Speaker 1: it jumps to the end where he's already like delusionally
- 1:34:25Speaker 1: wanting to be with her, like obsessively wanting to be
- 1:34:27Speaker 1: with her. And it's like, again, did we skip a step?
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: Because I feel like that would be fine if we
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: got to that point, but I'd feel like we didn't
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: get to that way. Honestly, we just jumped to it.
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: And like, it feels like, We're missing a big portion
- 1:34:41Speaker 1: of that middle part where he becomes the crazy full-on
- 1:34:44Speaker 1: villain at the end versus where he was at even
- 1:34:47Speaker 1: at the halfway point of this movie. I think if
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: you talk about DC doing things rushing and jumping to
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: conclusions and jumping ahead is something DC loves to do.
- 1:34:59Speaker 2: Because if you talk about Justice League or anything of
- 1:35:02Speaker 2: kind of those things in terms of like why is
- 1:35:05Speaker 2: it the way it was or what's the sentiment surrounding it?
- 1:35:07Speaker 2: It's because they couldn't be bothered to wait. It's because
- 1:35:11Speaker 2: they couldn't be bothered to actually let it build and
- 1:35:13Speaker 2: give it a moment to breathe and like, oh, here
- 1:35:15Speaker 2: we go. We actually have something going on.
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: It's like, nope. We're just trying to get to it
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: because we saw that they got to it already and
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: they were successful when they got there.
- 1:35:24Speaker 2: And it's like, you know what? Sometimes you don't always
- 1:35:27Speaker 2: have to make your bones or pay your dues. But
- 1:35:30Speaker 2: in In film, with audiences, you have to kind of
- 1:35:33Speaker 2: build up their trust, and DC's not interested in doing that,
- 1:35:37Speaker 2: and they still aren't interested in doing that. And this film,
- 1:35:40Speaker 2: I think, proves out, because this film needed at least
- 1:35:44Speaker 2: another 20 minutes. Genuinely, this film needed more time, because
- 1:35:48Speaker 2: it is an incomplete narrative as it stands. It just
- 1:35:55Speaker 2: jumps ahead, and DC is known for jumping ahead.
- 1:35:59Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I feel like it's because they felt like
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: they were so far behind from the beginning. Like, Marvel
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: had already logged in so many movies by the time
- 1:36:09Speaker 1: they got rolling on their projects that they were just like, oh, God,
- 1:36:12Speaker 1: we got to catch up with them. I'm like, no,
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: you can't. Like, you can't jump ahead six or eight
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: movies from where they've built up all this time. Again,
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: not that they did it perfect. They dropped the ball
- 1:36:24Speaker 1: a few times in the beginning, too. But it's like eventually...
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: they figured it out and they got to where they
- 1:36:30Speaker 1: needed to be, obviously, because they became super successful then.
- 1:36:33Speaker 1: But it's like by that time, they were way more
- 1:36:36Speaker 1: interested in playing catch up than they were with trying
- 1:36:39Speaker 1: to tell a good story or trying to set up
- 1:36:41Speaker 1: this universe so that it works in the long run.
- 1:36:44Speaker 1: They were just busy trying to be like, hurry up,
- 1:36:46Speaker 1: we got to get to where they are. And it's like, no,
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: that's not going to work. Like, obviously it didn't. So
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: I don't And there's space enough for two in all
- 1:36:55Speaker 1: of this. Like, yeah, again, there's, there's two very distinctly
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: different worlds out there in, in the comic book world
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: and the, you know, stuff that's been on TV. Like
- 1:37:06Speaker 1: there's very different fan bases. There's a lot of crossover
- 1:37:10Speaker 1: even in fans, but like they know how to separate
- 1:37:12Speaker 1: them and they know how to appreciate different things from different,
- 1:37:17Speaker 1: you know, Marvel, DC, different heroes, whatever. Like, the fans
- 1:37:21Speaker 1: understand what it is more than the people making all
- 1:37:24Speaker 1: those it seems to be because they feel like they
- 1:37:27Speaker 1: have to compete and it has to be a one-to-one
- 1:37:29Speaker 1: comparison it's like no you can do a different thing
- 1:37:32Speaker 1: over here and the fans that like that will show
- 1:37:35Speaker 1: up for it you just have to do it well
- 1:37:37Speaker 1: not fast like they're just so busy with trying to
- 1:37:40Speaker 1: keep up with the other one yeah you see what happens.
- 1:37:45Speaker 2: It's the downhilling of it all for me i'm just
- 1:37:47Speaker 2: like we gotta get We had to get to the
- 1:37:48Speaker 2: point that they were at where we have the crossover movie.
- 1:37:50Speaker 2: And it's like, nobody gives a shit if you haven't
- 1:37:53Speaker 2: set your characters up like that justice league sucked because
- 1:37:55Speaker 2: those characters were, were ill defined. And that has nothing
- 1:38:00Speaker 2: to do with Joss Whedon or Zack Snyder or anyone
- 1:38:02Speaker 2: else directing the movie. Like, why do I care about
- 1:38:05Speaker 2: any of these characters? Like, why should I care about
- 1:38:07Speaker 2: any of them?
- 1:38:08Speaker 1: Oh, I shouldn't. Okay. Got it.
- 1:38:10Speaker 2: Like, you've not given me a reason to care. You
- 1:38:12Speaker 2: haven't given me a reason. Why is it my job
- 1:38:15Speaker 2: to care about these characters? Like you need to work.
- 1:38:18Speaker 2: And like, give me a reason to care. It's such
- 1:38:21Speaker 2: a shame because I think they spent most of this
- 1:38:25Speaker 2: movie setting up a reason to care about Matt Hagen
- 1:38:29Speaker 2: as a character. But they also, again, they don't give
- 1:38:33Speaker 2: us any... complexity to his character. Like I never see
- 1:38:36Speaker 2: the character that they're claiming is like, Oh, you know,
- 1:38:39Speaker 2: all these people were coming forward that had like stories
- 1:38:41Speaker 2: about him. Like we're assuming that those are all lies,
- 1:38:44Speaker 2: but they could be true. If they wanted to give
- 1:38:46Speaker 2: us a version of the character that we're not supposed
- 1:38:48Speaker 2: to like, that we kind of see getting is just
- 1:38:50Speaker 2: desserts becoming clay. He's like, that was also a direction
- 1:38:52Speaker 2: you could have gone instead. They just kind of, chose
- 1:38:56Speaker 2: nothing which i find to be the most reprehensible option
- 1:38:59Speaker 2: like you have all this time and energy and money
- 1:39:02Speaker 2: and a mike flanagan script and instead of like making
- 1:39:04Speaker 2: a concerted decision on any of this you're just like
- 1:39:07Speaker 2: man just kind of do all of it because we
- 1:39:09Speaker 2: don't know what the audience likes if.
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: If they're going to make him a full-on villain by
- 1:39:14Speaker 1: the end they probably should have kind of done that
- 1:39:18Speaker 1: they should have made him like a little more in
- 1:39:21Speaker 1: the in the in the dirt have him kill naomi
- 1:39:25Speaker 1: aki like have him kill her by accident like or
- 1:39:28Speaker 1: on purpose even like why what does it matter or
- 1:39:31Speaker 1: just make him like a questionable character like everybody else
- 1:39:35Speaker 1: in this story is like grimy and villainous and like
- 1:39:40Speaker 1: everybody is involved in the underworld and like everybody is
- 1:39:44Speaker 1: dirty in this so it's like if he was also
- 1:39:47Speaker 1: one of those guys, cause I mean, they sell him
- 1:39:49Speaker 1: as this kid from, you know, the projects, you know,
- 1:39:51Speaker 1: and he was this kid that came from nowhere. So
- 1:39:54Speaker 1: like maybe he did some stuff to try to get
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: successful that he's not proud of. So it's like, if
- 1:39:59Speaker 1: we lean into that a little, it might not be
- 1:40:02Speaker 1: so crazy once he ends up where he does versus
- 1:40:06Speaker 1: he is like so squeaky clean at the beginning. Like
- 1:40:09Speaker 1: he is this perfect dude in this up and coming
- 1:40:12Speaker 1: superstar and like everything in his life is, is great.
- 1:40:16Speaker 1: But that's– if you're not like giving him a reason
- 1:40:20Speaker 1: to become dark, it's like while– yes, they set him
- 1:40:24Speaker 1: up and like he has reason because everybody screws him over.
- 1:40:27Speaker 1: But like as a character, it's just so out of
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: nowhere to go from like this perfect squeaky clean character
- 1:40:34Speaker 1: that he starts off to just murdering people that get
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: in his way down the line. It's like that's a
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: weird slide to end up on in– hour and 46
- 1:40:45Speaker 1: minutes or 48 minutes or i don't know it's a
- 1:40:50Speaker 1: quick turnaround for something that's that drastically different from one
- 1:40:53Speaker 1: end of the movie to the next is.
- 1:40:55Speaker 2: It better or worse than nolan's usage of two-face because
- 1:40:58Speaker 2: i guess that's the other body horror thing we could
- 1:41:00Speaker 2: talk about and probably should talk about because.
- 1:41:02Speaker 1: I think i think in that movie it actually works
- 1:41:05Speaker 1: pretty well I think like, you know, I don't like
- 1:41:09Speaker 1: that movie. It does. It's just not enough time. No,
- 1:41:13Speaker 1: it's not. But that movie's three hours long. We don't
- 1:41:16Speaker 1: need more movie, but we needed more time with him
- 1:41:19Speaker 1: as Two-Face. Like we get plenty of time with him
- 1:41:21Speaker 1: as Harvey, but like it's so quick that he gets
- 1:41:24Speaker 1: to be, you know, Two-Face and then it's over with already.
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: It's like, oh, and then we killed off the character
- 1:41:31Speaker 1: we could have made a whole nother movie with. instead
- 1:41:34Speaker 1: to keep alive the character that in the real world
- 1:41:36Speaker 1: we don't get to make another movie with so it's
- 1:41:38Speaker 1: like again that's just real world problems that like oops
- 1:41:41Speaker 1: guess we wouldn't have killed off harvey if we knew
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: we could have made another movie with him versus where
- 1:41:46Speaker 1: we wanted to go with joker and that's never going
- 1:41:49Speaker 1: to happen so i feel like that's also part of
- 1:41:52Speaker 1: it too is they didn't know what was coming they
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: really should have kept harvey alive so we could have
- 1:41:57Speaker 1: had a really cool third act in the third movie
- 1:42:01Speaker 1: where he shows up and is the real villain but
- 1:42:03Speaker 1: like no again you just you make a call and
- 1:42:07Speaker 1: you don't know how life's gonna turn out so.
- 1:42:11Speaker 2: And Harvey Dent doesn't die in such a definitive way
- 1:42:14Speaker 2: in that second movie that you couldn't have just had
- 1:42:16Speaker 2: him come back to life anyways.
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: I mean, in a comic book movie, certainly. No, we
- 1:42:21Speaker 1: were we were just messing around. He's fine. He's fine.
- 1:42:24Speaker 2: People fall off of high ledges all the time and
- 1:42:26Speaker 2: survive for fuck's sake.
- 1:42:27Speaker 1: He's got he's got like a he's got a scar. See,
- 1:42:30Speaker 1: look at that. Look at his face. Exactly. He survived
- 1:42:32Speaker 1: because of the magical thingy majiggy wound. his coin saved him.
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: I don't know. Batman's back. It's broken in the next movie.
- 1:42:39Speaker 2: And he, he literally survives and fixes it in like
- 1:42:44Speaker 2: two months, two months, guys. It's I I'm really irritated
- 1:42:49Speaker 2: by body horror being used by superhero movies in the
- 1:42:54Speaker 2: same way that they use other genres because they, I,
- 1:42:58Speaker 2: they haven't done anything. You know, Tetsuo the Iron Man
- 1:43:01Speaker 2: is probably the closest we've ever gotten to like an
- 1:43:03Speaker 2: actual body horror superhero movie that does the body horror
- 1:43:08Speaker 2: right and the superhero right. And that's I mean, again,
- 1:43:11Speaker 2: like it shows like the actual horrifying nature of like
- 1:43:14Speaker 2: what would happen if your body was becoming that. And,
- 1:43:17Speaker 2: you know, I do think that as much as Josh Trank,
- 1:43:20Speaker 2: you know, completely pooched it with Fantastic Four. the thing
- 1:43:23Speaker 2: is a good example of how to do body horror
- 1:43:26Speaker 2: right if you wanted to do it like that is
- 1:43:28Speaker 2: horrifying to like start turning into a rock man like
- 1:43:32Speaker 2: it's not particularly pleasant I mean there is part of
- 1:43:34Speaker 2: the character of the thing that's about you know like
- 1:43:36Speaker 2: the ostracization of the character because he looks the way
- 1:43:38Speaker 2: that he does and you know I'm so glad that
- 1:43:41Speaker 2: the new movie doesn't lean into that because it's like
- 1:43:45Speaker 2: there's also part of it where it's like that's also
- 1:43:46Speaker 2: very passe and doesn't need to like exist anymore like
- 1:43:50Speaker 2: We don't need to have like the whole city's ostracizing
- 1:43:53Speaker 2: him because he looks different. Like what are we teaching kids?
- 1:43:55Speaker 2: If that's like a problem, like fucking just like be like, no,
- 1:43:58Speaker 2: it's like we love him because he's literally saving our
- 1:44:01Speaker 2: city and he doesn't have to be a Teenage Mutant
- 1:44:03Speaker 2: Ninja Turtle. Like even now, like with the Teenage Ninja Turtles,
- 1:44:06Speaker 2: like why are they hiding in the dark? The city
- 1:44:09Speaker 2: would love them. Like, you know, if they need secret identities,
- 1:44:12Speaker 2: it's kind of hard to have one when you're a
- 1:44:13Speaker 2: seven foot tall turtle, right?
- 1:44:15Speaker 1: Like, no, they have a, the trench coat. It's fine. Yeah.
- 1:44:19Speaker 1: It's a hat and a trench coat. You're good.
- 1:44:21Speaker 2: It's just, it's so silly. Like all of this superhero
- 1:44:24Speaker 2: stuff is so silly. And that's, it's like, I'm not
- 1:44:27Speaker 2: saying you can't take it seriously, but if you're going
- 1:44:30Speaker 2: to take it seriously, you gotta have us understanding what
- 1:44:34Speaker 2: about this needs to be taken seriously. And that's what
- 1:44:36Speaker 2: this movie doesn't do. Like it doesn't, it doesn't make
- 1:44:39Speaker 2: it clear what of this is serious and what of
- 1:44:41Speaker 2: this is, is kind of like supposed to be like
- 1:44:43Speaker 2: a joke or fun. And, I'm so kind of, I'm
- 1:44:48Speaker 2: so put off by sub genre kind of like just,
- 1:44:54Speaker 2: I don't know, co-opting in superhero movies because it's like,
- 1:44:59Speaker 2: are you doing this from a place of love? Are
- 1:45:01Speaker 2: you doing this because you saw something else do it
- 1:45:03Speaker 2: somewhat successfully? And that's what I can't figure out. Cause like,
- 1:45:06Speaker 2: there's never been like a body horror movie. That's like
- 1:45:08Speaker 2: a multi-billion dollar movie. Maybe the substance.
- 1:45:11Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 1:45:12Speaker 2: It's like, why, why would you be like a DC
- 1:45:15Speaker 2: movie needs to be body horror? Like I would think
- 1:45:17Speaker 2: if you're making Clayface, you'd want to stay away from
- 1:45:19Speaker 2: it in this day and age.
- 1:45:20Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I mean, again, it does
- 1:45:24Speaker 1: kind of put you in a certain spot.
- 1:45:26Speaker 2: Like it forces you to make a certain kind of movie.
- 1:45:29Speaker 2: I mean, there's a point in this movie that you
- 1:45:31Speaker 2: can't tell me it's not echoing the fly. When he's like,
- 1:45:34Speaker 2: kill me, kill me now.
- 1:45:36Speaker 1: Like, that is literally the fly. Like, one for one. Well,
- 1:45:39Speaker 1: there's aspects that are the Invisible Man. It's got a
- 1:45:43Speaker 1: little Frankenstein. You know, it's all of the monsters kind
- 1:45:47Speaker 1: of rolled up into one, which could be good if
- 1:45:50Speaker 1: done right. But, again, it just doesn't totally hammer it
- 1:45:54Speaker 1: home the way it needs to for something that's that
- 1:45:58Speaker 1: big and that much to tackle. It just, again, it
- 1:46:01Speaker 1: skips steps that it doesn't need to.
- 1:46:04Speaker 2: Would it have been better if Batman had been introduced
- 1:46:07Speaker 2: before this movie?
- 1:46:11Speaker 1: Unless he was also going to be in this? Because
- 1:46:14Speaker 1: that's the thing. Had he shown up in the third
- 1:46:16Speaker 1: act and they fight? it might've saved this movie. Like
- 1:46:19Speaker 1: if that point, if by the third act, he's a
- 1:46:21Speaker 1: full on villain, like he is here, he's already murdered
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: the cop at that point. So if he's just full
- 1:46:25Speaker 1: on villain and then out of nowhere, bam, Batman walks
- 1:46:29Speaker 1: in the door and we're like, Oh, the audience loses
- 1:46:32Speaker 1: its mind. And like, we didn't know this was going
- 1:46:34Speaker 1: to have Batman. And then there's just a full on
- 1:46:36Speaker 1: fight of them at the end. I don't know. That
- 1:46:38Speaker 1: sounds kind of awesome. So like, if you do that
- 1:46:42Speaker 1: with it, I think it could have, you know, definitely
- 1:46:44Speaker 1: made it a much bigger deal, uh, then just sort
- 1:46:47Speaker 1: of leaving it and being like, well, and now he's
- 1:46:50Speaker 1: a villain. I hope something comes of that instead of...
- 1:46:54Speaker 1: We don't know.
- 1:46:55Speaker 2: That is what it feels like at the end of
- 1:46:56Speaker 2: the movie. It's like, well, I hope we come back
- 1:46:58Speaker 2: to this at some point in the future.
- 1:47:00Speaker 1: But you know what they say? We certainly could. Still
- 1:47:02Speaker 1: waiting on that Blade movie. Question mark.
- 1:47:05Speaker 2: Still waiting on Harry Styles to show up in the MCU.
- 1:47:09Speaker 2: Still waiting on Brett Goldstein from Ted Lasso to show
- 1:47:11Speaker 2: up in the MCU.
- 1:47:12Speaker 1: And you know what?
- 1:47:13Speaker 2: Probably like Clayface in the DCU, we're gonna keep having
- 1:47:17Speaker 2: to wait.
- 1:47:18Speaker 1: Like, I just... I, you know, and that's the thing that,
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: you know, like to talk, let's talk business here for
- 1:47:23Speaker 1: a moment.
- 1:47:23Speaker 2: Let's talk the money of it all. Movie was a
- 1:47:26Speaker 2: rather small budget budget movie. Didn't make its budget back. Like,
- 1:47:30Speaker 2: and I don't know, it had a good rating. Like
- 1:47:34Speaker 2: people who went and saw it seemed to enjoy it.
- 1:47:36Speaker 2: It got pretty well reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes. Definitely more
- 1:47:39Speaker 2: well reviewed than Supergirl did. And I, like you said,
- 1:47:44Speaker 2: to what end, like what, what, what, What do we
- 1:47:48Speaker 2: do with any of this? Where does it go from here?
- 1:47:50Speaker 1: I think it broke even, at least, if you do worldwide.
- 1:47:54Speaker 1: So it's at least made back its budget. So I
- 1:47:57Speaker 1: don't think it's going to be a flop, but I
- 1:47:59Speaker 1: don't know that it's going to go much further. I
- 1:48:01Speaker 1: don't think there's anything big coming out this next weekend,
- 1:48:04Speaker 1: so it still could maybe coast on another number one weekend.
- 1:48:09Speaker 1: I'd say after that, it's done, because it's just not
- 1:48:11Speaker 1: going to pull in any more new viewers. But... don't
- 1:48:16Speaker 1: know like again where they're going with it I think
- 1:48:18Speaker 1: unless you're leading to something else which to me has
- 1:48:21Speaker 1: to be batman then like i don't know that you
- 1:48:24Speaker 1: can do anything else with it do we do more
- 1:48:27Speaker 1: of these villain movies and then just have the villains
- 1:48:29Speaker 1: team up and then i mean we're starting to do
- 1:48:32Speaker 1: that with venom i guess by the third one there
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: we're pulling in other weird offshoot villains that were you
- 1:48:39Speaker 1: know fighting with Spider-Man, but Spider-Man wasn't there. So I
- 1:48:43Speaker 1: guess we could try to do that with ease and
- 1:48:45Speaker 1: just start teaming up our bad guys. But does anybody
- 1:48:49Speaker 1: want that? I don't know that they do. I think
- 1:48:51Speaker 1: without Batman, it does seem like you're, you're going nowhere.
- 1:48:55Speaker 1: You know, it's got to lead to something. If it's
- 1:48:58Speaker 1: going to full on decide that it's a comic book movie,
- 1:49:00Speaker 1: it's going to have to end up in a comic book.
- 1:49:02Speaker 1: You know, it needs to have your big comic book
- 1:49:04Speaker 1: fight at the end or what are we doing? And
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: I think that's kind of where we end here. It's
- 1:49:08Speaker 1: just like, That was, you know, that was cool. I
- 1:49:12Speaker 1: liked it. What are we doing? Like, it still kind
- 1:49:14Speaker 1: of ends that way, so.
- 1:49:17Speaker 2: They co-opted a little bit of John Wick at the
- 1:49:19Speaker 2: end of the movie. They're like, we're going to have
- 1:49:20Speaker 2: him kill people at the end of the movie in
- 1:49:22Speaker 2: a club.
- 1:49:23Speaker 1: Which, I mean, is fine.
- 1:49:24Speaker 2: Like, I like the idea of what this movie is.
- 1:49:28Speaker 2: I don't like what this movie ends up being and
- 1:49:30Speaker 2: where it ends. And I'm all for having a discussion about, oh,
- 1:49:36Speaker 2: you know, the disfigurement in Hollywood and how does that
- 1:49:38Speaker 2: affect your career? Like you, you, you want to have
- 1:49:41Speaker 2: that conversation too.
- 1:49:42Speaker 1: And I just don't like, what are we doing here?
- 1:49:43Speaker 2: Like this, I think this movie just needed to understand
- 1:49:47Speaker 2: from itself what it wanted to be first and go
- 1:49:51Speaker 2: down a path that it chooses and not expect the
- 1:49:53Speaker 2: audience to kind of just sit here and go, well,
- 1:49:56Speaker 2: you're kind of doing a bunch of different things. So
- 1:49:58Speaker 2: I'm a, I'm a, I'm along the ride for that.
- 1:50:00Speaker 2: Cause there's a little bit of Joker and a little
- 1:50:01Speaker 2: bit of this, a little bit like that. Mashing those
- 1:50:04Speaker 2: things up and expecting it to work. Sometimes it does,
- 1:50:08Speaker 2: but this time I'm just, I enjoyed it. It is different,
- 1:50:12Speaker 2: but you know, different doesn't always mean good. Different just
- 1:50:16Speaker 2: means different. And this is different, but I don't think it,
- 1:50:20Speaker 2: I don't think it gets ahead of, if I was living,
- 1:50:23Speaker 2: if I was living in a time where Thunderbolts and
- 1:50:26Speaker 2: Spider-Man hadn't come out. I think I might have a
- 1:50:29Speaker 2: different opinion, but as much as Spider-Man is a big
- 1:50:33Speaker 2: triple a piece of.
- 1:50:35Speaker 1: Pop culture, it at least had a heart like that.
- 1:50:39Speaker 2: It actually like kind of like dug into and same
- 1:50:41Speaker 2: with Thunderbolts. Like it had its problems, but at the
- 1:50:44Speaker 2: end of the movie, it wasn't just like a big
- 1:50:46Speaker 2: CGI fuck fest. Like they did something else. And this
- 1:50:49Speaker 2: movie doesn't have it at the end. It doesn't have
- 1:50:51Speaker 2: a big CGI kind of fuck fest, thankfully, but I
- 1:50:54Speaker 2: kind of, if, they had shown Clayface and not done
- 1:50:58Speaker 2: the jaws thing where apparently they couldn't show him until
- 1:51:00Speaker 2: the end.
- 1:51:01Speaker 1: Of the movie.
- 1:51:01Speaker 2: Like what, what fucking does is the Clayface origin story
- 1:51:05Speaker 2: so important? We couldn't have just skipped it altogether and
- 1:51:08Speaker 2: had a movie about him being Clayface. Like, and also
- 1:51:11Speaker 2: by the way, for me, yes, I appreciate that Clayface,
- 1:51:15Speaker 2: one of his abilities is like, he's able to turn
- 1:51:17Speaker 2: into other people, but that has a very short, span
- 1:51:22Speaker 2: of time that that's interesting because after a while people
- 1:51:25Speaker 2: are just going to figure out well anybody could be
- 1:51:27Speaker 2: Clayface and what fun is that like I much more
- 1:51:29Speaker 2: like the idea of Clayface being this giant monster that
- 1:51:33Speaker 2: he has to contend with less like oh well he
- 1:51:36Speaker 2: can be anybody like.
- 1:51:37Speaker 1: Okay That aspect is there, but I feel like even
- 1:51:41Speaker 1: in this movie, we don't make enough use of it
- 1:51:44Speaker 1: to make it the thing. Like if that's the thing, again,
- 1:51:47Speaker 1: it's kind of the dark man of it all. It's
- 1:51:49Speaker 1: like that was kind of his move and like he
- 1:51:52Speaker 1: used that to his advantage to do what he needed
- 1:51:54Speaker 1: to do and used it like a lot that it
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: made it work in that movie. Whereas here we do
- 1:51:59Speaker 1: a little of it. We do enough to make these
- 1:52:01Speaker 1: specific parts of the scenes work. But it's not really
- 1:52:04Speaker 1: his thing because he's also doing the crazy body aspect
- 1:52:08Speaker 1: and still having issues that are kind of Clayface like,
- 1:52:13Speaker 1: but we don't fully go there till the very end. So, yeah,
- 1:52:16Speaker 1: it's like it didn't commit to one or the other
- 1:52:18Speaker 1: of those either, which I feel like that that is
- 1:52:21Speaker 1: a cool aspect. You could have in a different type
- 1:52:24Speaker 1: of story made use of that more, but it doesn't
- 1:52:27Speaker 1: really fully make use of it in this one.
- 1:52:29Speaker 2: And I don't know if it's because it just doesn't
- 1:52:31Speaker 2: think the audience would go along with it. where the
- 1:52:34Speaker 2: audience isn't, you know, along for the ride for a
- 1:52:36Speaker 2: character that's just kind of nasty the whole way, it
- 1:52:39Speaker 2: would have been much more interesting for him to just
- 1:52:40Speaker 2: be nasty the whole way through. And just, you know,
- 1:52:44Speaker 2: his exterior begins to reflect his kind of corrupted interior.
- 1:52:48Speaker 1: Like, what the fuck? And I just wrote that movie
- 1:52:50Speaker 1: for you, guys. That's not even original for fuck's sake.
- 1:52:55Speaker 1: In the animated series. Like, that guy sucks. Like, from
- 1:52:58Speaker 1: the time we meet him, he's already an asshole. So
- 1:53:00Speaker 1: it's just like, and he's, again, it's more like, Jekyll
- 1:53:05Speaker 1: and Hyde or Invisible Man because he's using that like
- 1:53:08Speaker 1: a weird face cream that makes his face like that
- 1:53:11Speaker 1: so he can manipulate it and go back to being
- 1:53:12Speaker 1: pretty or look like other people so he's addicted to
- 1:53:16Speaker 1: that almost and that's what he's using he needs to
- 1:53:19Speaker 1: get his fix and like so he can continue on
- 1:53:21Speaker 1: being a normal person but again he's a horrible human
- 1:53:24Speaker 1: being by the time we meet him so that is
- 1:53:28Speaker 1: already a more interesting aspect there of him not being
- 1:53:31Speaker 1: a good person and addicted to this thing that is
- 1:53:34Speaker 1: the only way he can get by in regular life.
- 1:53:37Speaker 1: And then that leads to a, again, a more interesting
- 1:53:40Speaker 1: story where we don't have any of that really with
- 1:53:43Speaker 1: this guy. He already starts off pretty imperfect and we
- 1:53:47Speaker 1: watch him go completely to the other end, but there's
- 1:53:52Speaker 1: no real connection between the two. There's no real journey.
- 1:53:56Speaker 1: It just sort of, he just gets screwed over for
- 1:53:58Speaker 1: the first third and then it jumps to him being
- 1:54:00Speaker 1: a villain. So that's, I don't know.
- 1:54:02Speaker 2: It's a weird, it's a weird journey. I think it's
- 1:54:05Speaker 2: one of those things where you, you know, they were
- 1:54:07Speaker 2: sitting with the notes. They're like, he has to start
- 1:54:09Speaker 2: off as more sympathetic. He has to be a really
- 1:54:12Speaker 2: good guy to start the movie. Like no one's going
- 1:54:14Speaker 2: to get on board if he's a villain to start with. Like,
- 1:54:17Speaker 2: did you fucking see Joker? It's, I guess my.
- 1:54:21Speaker 1: Ultimate problem with this movie.
- 1:54:23Speaker 2: And I think it, you know, we've, we could say
- 1:54:24Speaker 2: this about Morbius or Madame Webb or, or Craven even
- 1:54:28Speaker 2: like these movies feel like they were made 20 fucking
- 1:54:31Speaker 2: years ago. And I'm saying that in terms of like
- 1:54:34Speaker 2: the way the storytelling conventions exist in, let's call it
- 1:54:39Speaker 2: conventional big budget, but not MCU movies, the MCU movies.
- 1:54:44Speaker 2: I don't think anyone would ever say an MCU movie
- 1:54:47Speaker 2: feels like a Sony movie or it feels like a, um,
- 1:54:52Speaker 2: I mean, you know, Sony as in X-Men or those
- 1:54:55Speaker 2: Spider-Man movies.
- 1:54:57Speaker 1: The offshoot Spider-Man. Right.
- 1:54:58Speaker 2: And they would never level that against Marvel. Like even
- 1:55:01Speaker 2: at Marvel's worst, they're still better than those movies are
- 1:55:04Speaker 2: at their best.
- 1:55:05Speaker 1: My God.
- 1:55:05Speaker 2: Like, and that's the thing. Like this movie is at
- 1:55:09Speaker 2: times at its best, it is interesting, but at its worst,
- 1:55:14Speaker 2: it is no good. it's, it's not as entertaining as Morbius.
- 1:55:18Speaker 2: Cause at least Morbius is fun. At least Morbius is
- 1:55:20Speaker 2: fucking stupid. Like it is just dumb. Like I think
- 1:55:24Speaker 2: Morbius knew what it was, you know, I'm not a
- 1:55:27Speaker 2: Jared Leto fan.
- 1:55:29Speaker 1: I think that's the problem is the Jared Leto. Well, sure.
- 1:55:31Speaker 2: But at the same time, like the movie doesn't take
- 1:55:33Speaker 2: itself seriously. Like this movie, by the end of it,
- 1:55:36Speaker 2: it's taken itself pretty seriously. Like, and that's, there's nothing
- 1:55:39Speaker 2: wrong with that, but But like you said, to what end?
- 1:55:42Speaker 2: I don't think this guy and Batman are going to
- 1:55:44Speaker 2: have a back and forth monologue about their feelings.
- 1:55:47Speaker 1: That's not ever going to happen.
- 1:55:50Speaker 2: Even when you had Thomas Hayden Church in those Spider-Man
- 1:55:53Speaker 2: movies as Sandman, because he did come back in that
- 1:55:56Speaker 2: other one. They didn't even know what to do with him.
- 1:55:59Speaker 2: They cast him because he looked kind of like the
- 1:56:01Speaker 2: character in the comic book. That's the only reason they
- 1:56:03Speaker 2: cast him.
- 1:56:04Speaker 1: And even then, they didn't really.
- 1:56:07Speaker 2: That character should have been body horror. He turns into sand.
- 1:56:11Speaker 2: That's pretty awful.
- 1:56:13Speaker 1: Seems like he would be, yeah. It's the same thing here.
- 1:56:17Speaker 2: It's like this guy is a big pile of sentient
- 1:56:21Speaker 2: clay or goo or mud.
- 1:56:24Speaker 1: What else does that need? Why couldn't it just be.
- 1:56:28Speaker 2: What sentience a puddle of clay is given by accident
- 1:56:31Speaker 2: by some sort of science? Why does it have to
- 1:56:34Speaker 2: be a human? I mean, yeah, I get the human
- 1:56:37Speaker 2: being of it all, but the human being of it all.
- 1:56:39Speaker 1: Is not interesting. I've seen this before. Like you said, Dr.
- 1:56:43Speaker 1: Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein, all these other things.
- 1:56:46Speaker 1: It's just not.
- 1:56:48Speaker 2: I don't know. I've seen this before, done other ways,
- 1:56:51Speaker 2: done more interesting. And yes, this is interesting mildly because
- 1:56:55Speaker 2: it's a dc thing but i i think broadly you'd
- 1:56:59Speaker 2: be better off watching the fly because it pretty much
- 1:57:02Speaker 2: tells the same story like that's i think for it
- 1:57:06Speaker 2: it's that's the bar that's set very very high and
- 1:57:10Speaker 2: the fly is such an amazing like genuinely amazing film
- 1:57:15Speaker 2: that there's no reason and i'm not saying like there's
- 1:57:18Speaker 2: no reason to make this movie But you notice there
- 1:57:20Speaker 2: haven't been a lot of mobster TV shows since The
- 1:57:23Speaker 2: Sopranos came out.
- 1:57:24Speaker 1: You know why? Because I'm not sure there's much else
- 1:57:27Speaker 1: to say.
- 1:57:28Speaker 2: And The Fly, I think, said about as much as
- 1:57:30Speaker 2: any film is ever going to say about a certain
- 1:57:33Speaker 2: kind of body horror experience. And this movie never gets
- 1:57:37Speaker 2: any further than the kind of the initial conversations had
- 1:57:42Speaker 2: in the fly. Like, this movie never gets any further
- 1:57:44Speaker 2: than that. Is it the superhero movie of it all?
- 1:57:48Speaker 1: Maybe.
- 1:57:48Speaker 2: Is it the, we're just not interested in telling that
- 1:57:51Speaker 2: kind of story of it all?
- 1:57:52Speaker 1: Probably.
- 1:57:53Speaker 2: Is it drag an otherwise interesting, possibly Mike Flanagan script down? Yes, 100%.
- 1:58:00Speaker 2: It drags this movie down. Because this movie, I think,
- 1:58:03Speaker 2: if Mike Flanagan had followed through and gone all the
- 1:58:06Speaker 2: way with this and not left for Carrie or for
- 1:58:09Speaker 2: other things, I think this movie may have been something
- 1:58:12Speaker 2: where it's like, wow, can you imagine what DC is
- 1:58:15Speaker 2: willing to let a director with a vision do? As
- 1:58:18Speaker 2: opposed to, wow, this isn't shitty. Like, that's, I mean, like,
- 1:58:23Speaker 2: is that not what essentially people are saying? Like, this
- 1:58:25Speaker 2: is the third thing that's come out, and the first
- 1:58:27Speaker 2: thing was good. Most people thought.
- 1:58:29Speaker 1: It was good, though I have plenty of friends who
- 1:58:31Speaker 1: love Superman that didn't like that version of Superman. Whatever.
- 1:58:33Speaker 1: Their choice. Supergirl, I don't think anyone's going to defend
- 1:58:37Speaker 1: that movie. It's not great.
- 1:58:39Speaker 2: And then this movie, yes, it's fine, but a lot
- 1:58:42Speaker 2: of the kind of praise on the internet, not so
- 1:58:45Speaker 2: much the critics, but the praise on the internet is like, oh,
- 1:58:46Speaker 2: this is different and interesting and not like the other things, like, okay,
- 1:58:51Speaker 2: but like like you said, to what end you can't
- 1:58:54Speaker 2: get by on that alone. And like, that is kind
- 1:58:57Speaker 2: of where seemingly a lot of the conversation on the
- 1:59:00Speaker 2: internet is like, that is enough.
- 1:59:01Speaker 1: And like, that is not enough. Like that's where I
- 1:59:04Speaker 1: ended on was where is again, where are we going
- 1:59:08Speaker 1: with this? Cause I, I enjoyed what I started off with.
- 1:59:13Speaker 1: And I, like I said, I think it does an interesting,
- 1:59:16Speaker 1: if you're going to take this shiny, perfect character and
- 1:59:19Speaker 1: just beat the hell out of him. Like it starts
- 1:59:22Speaker 1: off doing that pretty well. I think then it just
- 1:59:24Speaker 1: doesn't know what to do with him, but knows where
- 1:59:27Speaker 1: it has to be by the end and just jumps
- 1:59:29Speaker 1: to that when it needs to.
- 1:59:32Speaker 2: And I, I'm not, I'm not here for that anymore.
- 1:59:34Speaker 2: Like I, I much would prefer you just commit fully.
- 1:59:38Speaker 2: And don't kind of half-ass it because half-assing it is
- 1:59:41Speaker 2: an old way of doing things. It's, oh, well, comic
- 1:59:44Speaker 2: books aren't allowed to be serious because they're comic books.
- 1:59:47Speaker 2: It's like, I mean, if you want to do a
- 1:59:48Speaker 2: serious thing, do a serious thing, but don't half-ass it.
- 1:59:52Speaker 2: Don't half-foot in, half-foot out. And that's what this movie is.
- 1:59:55Speaker 1: That's... It worked for a while until the audiences got
- 1:59:59Speaker 1: sick of it and decided that they wanted you to
- 2:00:01Speaker 1: make a decision. And you can't try to sneak one
- 2:00:04Speaker 1: under the wire now. So it doesn't have what it
- 2:00:07Speaker 1: kind of feels like when you see a movie like this.
- 2:00:09Speaker 2: It's like, are you trying to sneak one out on
- 2:00:11Speaker 2: the audience? Like, you think people still want to see this?
- 2:00:15Speaker 2: People don't want to see we're watching it and somewhat
- 2:00:18Speaker 2: enjoying it only because there's so much of a glut
- 2:00:20Speaker 2: of something else that this is kind of a different taste.
- 2:00:24Speaker 2: But this is still undercooked. It's not by any stretch
- 2:00:27Speaker 2: of the imagination, like a fully formed idea. It may
- 2:00:31Speaker 2: have even been like you added salt to something when
- 2:00:34Speaker 2: we were asking for sugar like you didn't even fucking
- 2:00:36Speaker 2: understand even.
- 2:00:37Speaker 1: I'm just back to my original question, which is by
- 2:00:40Speaker 1: the end, I was just like, well, where are we going? Like,
- 2:00:43Speaker 1: why did we set this up? They don't know. That
- 2:00:48Speaker 1: was my initial take on it. It is trying to
- 2:00:51Speaker 1: do something else, but then it's not along the way.
- 2:00:55Speaker 1: So where are we going? I don't know. As much
- 2:01:00Speaker 1: as we've had a lot of issues with it, and
- 2:01:02Speaker 1: a lot of it I feel like is mostly story-based.
- 2:01:05Speaker 1: But as far as the like James Watkins of it,
- 2:01:09Speaker 1: I think it looked pretty good. Like other, I'm not
- 2:01:12Speaker 1: taking into account the effects end of it, not the
- 2:01:14Speaker 1: weird shots of body horror. I'm just talking about normal
- 2:01:17Speaker 1: shots of what we're trying to build up into Gotham,
- 2:01:21Speaker 1: what we're doing with a lot of this, a lot
- 2:01:23Speaker 1: of the stuff in the club scenes and a lot
- 2:01:25Speaker 1: of them out on the street. And he's, he's using
- 2:01:28Speaker 1: and looking, it's Rob Hardy's, the cinematographer. So I think
- 2:01:32Speaker 1: there's a lot of times when they're really heavily using
- 2:01:35Speaker 1: color and they're doing pretty decent stuff with, with like
- 2:01:39Speaker 1: lighting the scene. So I think it looked pretty good for,
- 2:01:42Speaker 1: for a movie of this type. They don't have to
- 2:01:44Speaker 1: do that again. I think it loses a little sometimes
- 2:01:48Speaker 1: when we focus more on what's going on with the
- 2:01:50Speaker 1: body or that it's arguable whether you enjoyed the way
- 2:01:54Speaker 1: that looked, but Some of it looked pretty good, but
- 2:01:56Speaker 1: the other stuff, I think I was more impressed with
- 2:01:59Speaker 1: just some of the basic shots of it. I think
- 2:02:01Speaker 1: it did look pretty good. No, I agree. I think
- 2:02:04Speaker 1: it looked better than Stargirl, Supergirl, which came out earlier
- 2:02:10Speaker 1: this year. I think it looked better than that, a
- 2:02:11Speaker 1: film that had a much bigger budget.
- 2:02:13Speaker 2: It is a stylistically interesting film. And to speak to
- 2:02:17Speaker 2: the body horror, what they did with the body horror
- 2:02:20Speaker 2: is kind of novel.
- 2:02:21Speaker 1: We've never... really well.
- 2:02:23Speaker 2: And it kind of looks like Neo and the Matrix
- 2:02:25Speaker 2: at times, which, you know, Mr. Anderson, you can't say anything, Mr. Hagen,
- 2:02:31Speaker 2: you can't say anything. Like we have seen something like
- 2:02:34Speaker 2: that before, but I do like that again, because it's Clayface,
- 2:02:37Speaker 2: we do kind of see this somewhat different look of things.
- 2:02:42Speaker 2: I mean, there's a moment in the film where Naomi
- 2:02:44Speaker 2: Aki comes around a corner and he looks fucked up. Like, and,
- 2:02:48Speaker 2: and it's, it's a scene where I'm like, what is
- 2:02:50Speaker 2: this hell razor all of a sudden? Like it's, It's
- 2:02:52Speaker 2: a shame because it knows how to do interesting body horror.
- 2:02:56Speaker 2: It just doesn't want to do it all the time.
- 2:02:58Speaker 2: But it is interesting to look at.
- 2:03:02Speaker 1: I will give it that.
- 2:03:03Speaker 2: It is well done in a technical sense. I think
- 2:03:08Speaker 2: the only thing that the film doesn't rise to is
- 2:03:11Speaker 2: the script. I think in terms of, like you said,
- 2:03:13Speaker 2: the look of the film, well done. And I think
- 2:03:15Speaker 2: it lives in a different world than Supergirl and Superman.
- 2:03:19Speaker 2: And that's important if you're trying to bolster the world
- 2:03:23Speaker 2: building through film form as opposed to other ways. Because,
- 2:03:28Speaker 2: you know, again, you want people, you want the most
- 2:03:29Speaker 2: people to interact with it in the biggest way possible.
- 2:03:31Speaker 2: And that's going to be a movie released in theaters. And,
- 2:03:34Speaker 2: you know, why not build some, some world? I don't
- 2:03:37Speaker 2: think they do a lot of it. I mean, they
- 2:03:39Speaker 2: kind of seemingly aren't interested in some cases, but the
- 2:03:43Speaker 2: amount that they do, you know, again, like this is
- 2:03:45Speaker 2: a world that's interesting enough.
- 2:03:47Speaker 1: I don't know. Like you said, I don't know to
- 2:03:50Speaker 1: what end, but... they do at least have something to
- 2:03:53Speaker 1: be going on in this world that they're building. And
- 2:03:55Speaker 1: it didn't always have that. Right.
- 2:03:57Speaker 2: It's too much like the world of our own. And like,
- 2:04:00Speaker 2: that's what Superman and Supergirl, at least they were not
- 2:04:04Speaker 2: just like our own world. Like the world of Clayface
- 2:04:07Speaker 2: just kind of seems like our world, like maybe a
- 2:04:10Speaker 2: little bit more like, well.
- 2:04:11Speaker 1: It was a little bit more grimy. Yeah. But again,
- 2:04:14Speaker 1: like there are places on your neighborhood. Exactly.
- 2:04:16Speaker 2: There are places that are grimy here in this country.
- 2:04:18Speaker 2: Like it's not, yeah. So I don't know. Like it's, it,
- 2:04:23Speaker 2: it occupies a weird space for me because I do
- 2:04:25Speaker 2: appreciate where this movie is coming from, but I do
- 2:04:28Speaker 2: think that there are parts of it where I'm just like, I,
- 2:04:31Speaker 2: I think we resonate with different things in the kind
- 2:04:34Speaker 2: of movies that we are watching that are like this movie.
- 2:04:36Speaker 2: And I'm saying we, as in me and the filmmakers
- 2:04:39Speaker 2: of this movie, because I just body horror movies are
- 2:04:43Speaker 2: not conventional. And to say that this movie is conventional
- 2:04:47Speaker 2: as a body horror movie is kind of the most
- 2:04:49Speaker 2: insane thing you can say about it.
- 2:04:51Speaker 1: Genuinely. It's again, it's just such a mixed bag. And
- 2:04:58Speaker 1: I think that may be part of the problem. I
- 2:05:00Speaker 1: think we don't get enough body horror movies for this
- 2:05:03Speaker 1: to be phoning it in. Well, I know like where,
- 2:05:07Speaker 1: where do you think you're going with it when you
- 2:05:09Speaker 1: don't know what it is that it's going to be?
- 2:05:12Speaker 2: Like I said, if we show up for terrifier, like
- 2:05:15Speaker 2: people show up for people being dismembered with chainsaws and
- 2:05:18Speaker 2: it made more money than this movie did. Like, what
- 2:05:21Speaker 2: are we doing here? Like audiences will show up. For weird, perverse, subversive.
- 2:05:27Speaker 1: Shit, stop being afraid.
- 2:05:29Speaker 2: I genuinely feel like if they had made Clayface, if
- 2:05:32Speaker 2: someone had said, okay, James Gunn, make your version of Clayface,
- 2:05:36Speaker 2: it would not have looked anything like this movie. I
- 2:05:38Speaker 2: genuinely don't think this movie would look anything like this.
- 2:05:41Speaker 2: I don't even think this movie would have been made, frankly.
- 2:05:43Speaker 1: Well, it would have had a very different tone because, again,
- 2:05:47Speaker 1: I think he would have leaned into any of the
- 2:05:50Speaker 1: other aspects heavier than Like if it was going to
- 2:05:53Speaker 1: be dark, it would be dark. If it was going
- 2:05:56Speaker 1: to be a funnier take on it, he would do that.
- 2:06:00Speaker 1: Like he usually knows where he's going with this stuff.
- 2:06:03Speaker 1: And I think that's that's the thing. He's like he's
- 2:06:06Speaker 1: busy running the big picture now. So he's got to
- 2:06:08Speaker 1: hand it off to other people when he's getting to
- 2:06:10Speaker 1: the other non main movies that are getting made. And
- 2:06:13Speaker 1: like he that he just doesn't get to make that
- 2:06:16Speaker 1: call anymore. And by the time it gets there, it's
- 2:06:19Speaker 1: somebody else is just sort of thrown some other stuff together.
- 2:06:22Speaker 1: And it's again, at times it comes together pretty well,
- 2:06:26Speaker 1: but overall it's still kind of leaves a little to
- 2:06:30Speaker 1: be desired.
- 2:06:33Speaker 2: I think if James Gunn, like you said, had done
- 2:06:35Speaker 2: this now, it would have been something else entirely in
- 2:06:39Speaker 2: a different kind of film.
- 2:06:40Speaker 1: And it's very funny to me.
- 2:06:43Speaker 2: The thing that genuinely cracks me up is this movie
- 2:06:45Speaker 2: gets made because of Mike Flanagan. And Mike Flanagan's success
- 2:06:50Speaker 2: and like genuine, like think about Mike Flanagan 2021 versus
- 2:06:53Speaker 2: Mike Flanagan now.
- 2:06:55Speaker 1: Like he's drastically in a different world now, like in
- 2:06:59Speaker 1: terms of his visibility, in terms of his success, in
- 2:07:01Speaker 1: terms of his like viability as a director. Recognizability. Like
- 2:07:06Speaker 1: he is a name even to people who didn't know
- 2:07:09Speaker 1: who he was then, you know, he has become such
- 2:07:12Speaker 1: a name in like horror and specifically streaming horror now
- 2:07:16Speaker 1: that like, regular people know that name now and will
- 2:07:20Speaker 1: seek out whatever he's working on. So yeah, he's definitely
- 2:07:23Speaker 1: like the reason this got made.
- 2:07:25Speaker 2: Horror maestro Mike Flanagan is how they should have sold
- 2:07:28Speaker 2: this movie. And I would have been even more disappointed
- 2:07:30Speaker 2: watching this movie. It's like that Jordan.
- 2:07:34Speaker 1: Peele Twilight Zone.
- 2:07:35Speaker 2: It's like, it's a little bit of a bait and switch. Like, yeah,
- 2:07:37Speaker 2: I can see the Mike Flanagan here, but I can
- 2:07:39Speaker 2: also see the like, overwhelmingly shitty DC stuff that I
- 2:07:44Speaker 2: really don't like about DC, like that I've never liked
- 2:07:47Speaker 2: about DC. But what's funny is the things I didn't
- 2:07:50Speaker 2: like in Superman and Supergirl are not the things I
- 2:07:53Speaker 2: didn't like in this movie. The things I didn't like
- 2:07:55Speaker 2: in this movie are just indicative of five years ago,
- 2:07:58Speaker 2: like genuinely like five. years ago might not seem like
- 2:08:01Speaker 2: a long time, but in terms of the taste of
- 2:08:03Speaker 2: filmgoers and the way films are being made, if you
- 2:08:05Speaker 2: go from five years before 2021, you're talking really fucking.
- 2:08:11Speaker 1: Different expectations of people. Yeah.
- 2:08:14Speaker 2: And that's the thing. Like, it's not that long ago
- 2:08:16Speaker 2: that we... we're watching a film like Avengers age of Ultron.
- 2:08:20Speaker 2: Like that's how, you know, that was, that's been in
- 2:08:22Speaker 2: the last like 10, 11 years that we've been watching
- 2:08:24Speaker 2: something like that in terms of like the most traditional,
- 2:08:29Speaker 2: like forward thinking fucking having to be beholden to some bullshit.
- 2:08:34Speaker 1: Nobody wants.
- 2:08:35Speaker 2: And like, we're not, it's not like that anymore. Like
- 2:08:38Speaker 2: a superhero movie can be self contained even.
- 2:08:41Speaker 1: And, It's yeah. I really wish we could see what
- 2:08:45Speaker 1: this movie looked like in a 2026 version.
- 2:08:47Speaker 2: And it's, I think a shame that this movie doesn't
- 2:08:51Speaker 2: exist in that format, but at the same time, like
- 2:08:53Speaker 2: the version we got.
- 2:08:54Speaker 1: Yeah. It's interesting. And that's entertaining. Yeah.
- 2:08:57Speaker 2: It's interesting and entertaining, but it could have been so
- 2:09:00Speaker 2: much more and it's not. And I think, you know,
- 2:09:03Speaker 2: it's missed opportunity, but yeah. Is it better than the
- 2:09:06Speaker 2: last DC thing I saw for sure. Supergirl is just
- 2:09:12Speaker 2: going to be part of one of those things that
- 2:09:13Speaker 2: gets dragged a lot, right? Like it's, you know, it's,
- 2:09:17Speaker 2: I'm not saying it doesn't or does deserve it, but
- 2:09:19Speaker 2: it's just, it was that kind of all over the place.
- 2:09:24Speaker 2: And at least this movie is not that all over
- 2:09:27Speaker 2: the place. Like, yeah, I didn't vibe with it as
- 2:09:29Speaker 2: much as I wanted to, as much as a body
- 2:09:32Speaker 2: horror movie coming out in theaters should be, because again,
- 2:09:35Speaker 2: that's not a thing.
- 2:09:36Speaker 1: It's just not like, I don't get to go see
- 2:09:38Speaker 1: the new body horror movie every year in theaters. Like
- 2:09:41Speaker 1: it is a real rarity, but you know what?
- 2:09:44Speaker 2: Like if maybe there's another clay face movie and it
- 2:09:47Speaker 2: comes on theaters, I might line up as well. Cause
- 2:09:51Speaker 2: body horror movies don't come around all that often.
- 2:09:54Speaker 1: And again, I like the character as he is in
- 2:09:57Speaker 1: the end of this movie. So it's like, if, if
- 2:09:59Speaker 1: all we get is just a big clay monster from
- 2:10:01Speaker 1: this point on, I'm fine with that. Cause I like
- 2:10:03Speaker 1: that character in the animated version. So like, if you can,
- 2:10:07Speaker 1: translate that and make it as entertaining as he is
- 2:10:10Speaker 1: in that form in a movie where he also fights Batman. Like, yeah,
- 2:10:14Speaker 1: I'm on board with that. Like, that sounds awesome. So
- 2:10:17Speaker 1: it's definitely got potential in another version of it. It
- 2:10:22Speaker 1: just doesn't need to be more of this. Like we've
- 2:10:24Speaker 1: seen this, it's done all it can do with this.
- 2:10:27Speaker 1: I think it needs to just be something different when
- 2:10:30Speaker 1: it moves forward. And I'm fine with him just being
- 2:10:32Speaker 1: a big clay monster at this point.
- 2:10:35Speaker 2: I know that we all think that like, well, nobody
- 2:10:37Speaker 2: knows this character. So we need his origin story. Have
- 2:10:39Speaker 2: we ever thought nobody knows his character? So what the
- 2:10:41Speaker 2: fuck's the point.
- 2:10:42Speaker 1: Of an origin story? Just give us Clayface. Just give
- 2:10:45Speaker 1: us Clayface as like a giant monster. Like I don't
- 2:10:47Speaker 1: really give a shit about him as a human.
- 2:10:49Speaker 2: And maybe it's cause you know, Thomas Reese Harry's doesn't
- 2:10:53Speaker 2: want to play a giant dude in a fucking monster
- 2:10:56Speaker 2: practical or CGI suit.
- 2:10:59Speaker 1: But, um, okay. Then this role ain't for you, man. Like,
- 2:11:02Speaker 1: I don't know. It's very funny.
- 2:11:04Speaker 2: Um, he's not that disfigured in this movie. Like even
- 2:11:08Speaker 2: when he's disfigured, he's not really that disfigured. Like it's just,
- 2:11:13Speaker 2: you know, he's ugly.
- 2:11:15Speaker 1: Sure.
- 2:11:15Speaker 2: But Jesus Christ, like he's fucking dark man's uglier. Dark
- 2:11:19Speaker 2: man's like a mummy, like a skeleton man. Like this is,
- 2:11:23Speaker 2: you know, he's just, you know, I've had my fuck
- 2:11:25Speaker 2: fucking face fucked up.
- 2:11:26Speaker 1: Okay. Sure. Happens to more people than I think you
- 2:11:29Speaker 1: would think Matt Hagen. Yeah. Yeah. It's a sad story
- 2:11:33Speaker 1: at that point, but, At a, again, I don't know
- 2:11:36Speaker 1: that it, it just doesn't know where to go unless
- 2:11:41Speaker 1: it heads down the road that it does, which leads
- 2:11:43Speaker 1: to problems. Yeah.
- 2:11:45Speaker 2: And yeah, I, uh, I'm glad we watched it and
- 2:11:48Speaker 2: it's been an interesting year for mainstream horror, but.
- 2:11:52Speaker 1: What a fucking, you know, at least there was no
- 2:11:53Speaker 1: popcorn bucket, I guess. Are you sure? I don't know.
- 2:11:58Speaker 1: I feel like there's a popcorn bucket for everything. That's true. Actually, no,
- 2:12:01Speaker 1: there is because it's, I was talking about it the
- 2:12:04Speaker 1: other day. It is a, it's shaped like a regular
- 2:12:07Speaker 1: popcorn bucket, but there is a hand coming up out
- 2:12:10Speaker 1: of the bucket. That's right. There is. Is one, because
- 2:12:15Speaker 1: I saw a picture of it. God damn it. They
- 2:12:16Speaker 1: didn't have it at the theater when I went, but no,
- 2:12:18Speaker 1: I saw a picture of it. Oh, there are several
- 2:12:21Speaker 1: popcorn buckets. I take that. Of course there is. God
- 2:12:24Speaker 1: damn it. You know what? I just, you know what?
- 2:12:27Speaker 2: Here, make me a promise that we will at least
- 2:12:30Speaker 2: keep getting popcorn buckets until The Mummy 4 comes out,
- 2:12:33Speaker 2: and I'll be able to buy a popcorn bucket for.
- 2:12:35Speaker 1: The Mummy 4, and then you can stop making them.
- 2:12:37Speaker 1: Then I don't care anymore. I don't know that they're
- 2:12:39Speaker 1: stopping anytime soon because each movie coming out has a
- 2:12:43Speaker 1: more elaborate, crazy bucket. Like I said, they didn't have
- 2:12:50Speaker 1: that bucket for Clayface when I went. But as I
- 2:12:53Speaker 1: walked past, the only thing I saw was a giant,
- 2:12:57Speaker 1: I'm talking like 16-inch version of Ghostface. Yeah. And I'm like,
- 2:13:04Speaker 1: there isn't even a Ghostface movie out right now.
- 2:13:08Speaker 2: I think Scream is back in theaters for like a
- 2:13:10Speaker 2: Halloween run.
- 2:13:12Speaker 1: It must be. So all the nerds can have a
- 2:13:14Speaker 1: giant Ghostface. I'm not saying I didn't buy one the
- 2:13:17Speaker 1: first time I did this, because I did. I have
- 2:13:20Speaker 1: the Ghostface one, the original Ghostface one. I did too.
- 2:13:25Speaker 1: Because I thought it was going to be the only one.
- 2:13:28Speaker 2: Me too.
- 2:13:28Speaker 1: That's the first time I saw one of those like that.
- 2:13:30Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, that's cool. I want a
- 2:13:32Speaker 1: Ghostface one. bust, which is essentially what it is. So yeah,
- 2:13:37Speaker 1: it's like, I get it. I'm enough of a geek
- 2:13:39Speaker 1: that I want to run out and get that stuff.
- 2:13:40Speaker 1: But I'm just like, then they got so out of
- 2:13:42Speaker 1: control that I'm just like, I can't keep up anymore.
- 2:13:45Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm not going down that road. Just stop.
- 2:13:47Speaker 1: Just stop making them. Or at least stop expecting me
- 2:13:50Speaker 1: to buy them. I watched a.
- 2:13:52Speaker 2: Guy ranking them on YouTube and there were 85 that
- 2:13:56Speaker 2: came out last year.
- 2:13:57Speaker 1: 85. five fucking crazy. Jesus Christ.
- 2:14:01Speaker 2: You know, there's a factory in China somewhere that is
- 2:14:03Speaker 2: just fucking just, they're like, we are so glad that
- 2:14:07Speaker 2: people in the United States want a piece of fucking
- 2:14:09Speaker 2: plastic that will just sit in a closet somewhere.
- 2:14:12Speaker 1: Soon we will just be a mountain of plastic popcorn
- 2:14:15Speaker 1: buckets as we disintegrate into the pile. That's right. That
- 2:14:19Speaker 1: will be the world that we live in.
- 2:14:21Speaker 2: I just want a popcorn bucket for the upcoming film, Ass.
- 2:14:25Speaker 2: And that's all it was for an hour and 45
- 2:14:27Speaker 2: minutes was just an ass on screen with an ass
- 2:14:30Speaker 2: popcorn bucket.
- 2:14:31Speaker 1: I mean, is this directed by Yoko Ono? Wait a minute.
- 2:14:35Speaker 1: I think this exists.
- 2:14:39Speaker 2: I guess I'm not surprised that there's a Clayface popcorn bucket.
- 2:14:41Speaker 2: But my point is a different one about popcorn buckets
- 2:14:44Speaker 2: and movies in general. We live in a time now
- 2:14:47Speaker 2: where it's like, you gotta have an angle. You gotta
- 2:14:50Speaker 2: have a reason. You gotta have a thing. And this
- 2:14:53Speaker 2: movie thing was body horror.
- 2:14:56Speaker 1: And I think it's broadly.
- 2:14:58Speaker 2: Successful for the mainstream body horror crowd, but it's not
- 2:15:02Speaker 2: made for people like yourself and myself who have seen
- 2:15:05Speaker 2: all of the movies that this movie is very clearly
- 2:15:07Speaker 2: inspired by. My hope, hope against hope, is that if
- 2:15:11Speaker 2: you watch this movie, you go watch The Fly, or
- 2:15:14Speaker 2: you go watch The Thing, or you go watch a whole, or,
- 2:15:17Speaker 2: you know, any number of body horror movies.
- 2:15:19Speaker 1: Because those are the movies that this movie.
- 2:15:21Speaker 2: Is inspired by that are so much better than this movie.
- 2:15:24Speaker 2: And if this is your gateway to that, awesome. But this,
- 2:15:27Speaker 2: for me, is like a I've said this before about things.
- 2:15:30Speaker 2: This is a cul-de-sac in terms of where do you
- 2:15:32Speaker 2: go from here? To answer your question, Brian, nowhere.
- 2:15:36Speaker 1: Genuinely. Right back the way we came in. Right back
- 2:15:40Speaker 1: at the way we came in. Up to Videodrome. And
- 2:15:43Speaker 1: when you get there, you'll be like, oh, this is
- 2:15:45Speaker 1: what I was looking for. Too heady. It's too heady.
- 2:15:48Speaker 2: I feel like you watch Videodrome and you're like, where's
- 2:15:50Speaker 2: the dumb shit? And it's like, well, this is not
- 2:15:52Speaker 2: that kind of- That's why.
- 2:15:52Speaker 1: You gotta graduate up there. You take your substance and
- 2:15:55Speaker 1: you get your steps till you get to that. And
- 2:15:57Speaker 1: then you get all the way up to Videodrome and
- 2:15:59Speaker 1: you're just like, all right, I'm here. Is Videodrome the top?
- 2:16:02Speaker 1: I mean, is that like the top of the mountain?
- 2:16:04Speaker 1: When I saw it, yeah. I was just kind of,
- 2:16:06Speaker 1: this is what I want. Like, this is, if I
- 2:16:09Speaker 1: want weird- top tier body horror that's my go-to so
- 2:16:14Speaker 1: yeah for me i think it was yeah i.
- 2:16:16Speaker 2: Mean cronenberg you know you can't dethrone the king and
- 2:16:19Speaker 2: cronenberg i think look body horror and you know you
- 2:16:24Speaker 2: you tell me if i'm wrong here and i think
- 2:16:25Speaker 2: this is probably as we kind of bring this episode
- 2:16:27Speaker 2: to a close i think as a body horror fan
- 2:16:29Speaker 2: as i don't want to assume you are but i've
- 2:16:31Speaker 2: seen a lot of them and i consider myself a
- 2:16:32Speaker 2: body horror fan the best ones are done practically You
- 2:16:37Speaker 2: can't really do this shit in CGI. And like, you know,
- 2:16:40Speaker 2: that's great. I do think there was probably some practical
- 2:16:43Speaker 2: effects in this movie, but a lot of it seems
- 2:16:45Speaker 2: like CGI. And, you know, I get it. Michael Rooker
- 2:16:48Speaker 2: in a giant tentacle suit in Slither looked kind of goofy,
- 2:16:51Speaker 2: but it is still good.
- 2:16:52Speaker 1: But it was real. And it's real. It was tactical.
- 2:16:56Speaker 2: And this movie didn't have that. And I think that that's,
- 2:17:00Speaker 2: for me, what this movie needed.
- 2:17:04Speaker 1: You know what?
- 2:17:05Speaker 2: I know that this has been really popular. Why not
- 2:17:07Speaker 2: do a 90s, like liminal horror movie with Clayface and
- 2:17:11Speaker 2: have it be, you know, I don't know, like Mimic,
- 2:17:15Speaker 2: like the film Mimic, but with Clayface in it where
- 2:17:17Speaker 2: it's like, we don't know what the villain is and
- 2:17:19Speaker 2: have the villain be removed from everything and have Clayface
- 2:17:23Speaker 2: just be the villain of the movie. Even go one
- 2:17:25Speaker 2: step further. Maybe you remember this movie. I mean, I
- 2:17:28Speaker 2: know some people do, but... The film The Watcher with
- 2:17:30Speaker 2: Keanu Reeves, make it like that, but with Clayface as
- 2:17:34Speaker 2: a serial killer who can just live forever like tombs
- 2:17:36Speaker 2: from the X-Files.
- 2:17:38Speaker 1: Make it a period piece in the 90s. Make it
- 2:17:40Speaker 1: a period piece in the 70s or 80s.
- 2:17:42Speaker 2: Why are you taking what is obviously the most obvious
- 2:17:45Speaker 2: way to do this so obvious that.
- 2:17:47Speaker 1: They already did it in the comic book that way?
- 2:17:49Speaker 2: Yeah. And like you said, they did it in the
- 2:17:52Speaker 2: TV show way better because, yeah, they were given plenty
- 2:17:55Speaker 2: of time, even if it was.
- 2:17:56Speaker 1: Just like the animated version. So that's that's the way
- 2:17:59Speaker 1: to go. If you want to see this, just go
- 2:18:00Speaker 1: watch those episodes. You're all set.
- 2:18:03Speaker 2: You will always be competing with the animated version of Batman,
- 2:18:06Speaker 2: as far as I'm concerned, in terms of actually doing
- 2:18:09Speaker 2: the characters right. Sure, there are good Batman movies, but
- 2:18:12Speaker 2: the TV show is the quintessential and I think definitive
- 2:18:17Speaker 2: version of Batman, as most people know it, myself included,
- 2:18:20Speaker 2: because I grew up on it, genuinely grew up on it.
- 2:18:24Speaker 1: And it gets every aspect of it. It gets the
- 2:18:27Speaker 1: tone and it gets the city, like the Gotham of
- 2:18:32Speaker 1: it all is like perfect and universal and like everything
- 2:18:37Speaker 1: fits in that world and it just makes sense. but
- 2:18:40Speaker 1: only in that world. Like it exists in its own
- 2:18:43Speaker 1: weird Batman world. And like, that's what you want from
- 2:18:46Speaker 1: a Batman movie. And like, it gets that perfectly on
- 2:18:49Speaker 1: the animated series. Like nothing really gets to that point.
- 2:18:53Speaker 1: You get probably pretty close with the Tim Burton, which again,
- 2:18:56Speaker 1: it it's inspired by the Tim Burton movie. So it's like,
- 2:18:59Speaker 1: it's what led to that series. But I think it
- 2:19:01Speaker 1: even took it up a notch from the, the Tim Burton.
- 2:19:04Speaker 1: Cause the Tim Burton would, you know, have moments that
- 2:19:06Speaker 1: don't work, but like, think it comes together so perfectly
- 2:19:10Speaker 1: in that animated series and like so many of the
- 2:19:13Speaker 1: villains are such great sympathetic characters but it again it
- 2:19:18Speaker 1: does it in 22 minutes where they're not the focus
- 2:19:21Speaker 1: of even that entire 22 minutes so like it just
- 2:19:23Speaker 1: gives you the important part of that story that makes
- 2:19:26Speaker 1: them a sympathetic character and And then Batman shows up
- 2:19:30Speaker 1: and they fight at the end, which is what you want.
- 2:19:32Speaker 1: So it's like, these are the things that are kind
- 2:19:35Speaker 1: of missing from this. This is a very long version
- 2:19:37Speaker 1: of that story. And at the end, Batman doesn't show
- 2:19:40Speaker 1: up and punch him in the face. So like, we're
- 2:19:43Speaker 1: still kind of left longing for these things when we
- 2:19:46Speaker 1: get to the end of this movie.
- 2:19:48Speaker 2: I am a board game guy. And do you know
- 2:19:50Speaker 2: how many fucking versions there are of Batman board games
- 2:19:54Speaker 2: that are based on the Batman animated series?
- 2:19:57Speaker 1: Damn near all of them are based on... Rightfully so.
- 2:20:00Speaker 1: And yeah, exactly.
- 2:20:01Speaker 2: It's like, you know what that animated series was? It
- 2:20:03Speaker 2: was a vehicle to tell villain stories with Batman in them.
- 2:20:06Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know what? I don't think.
- 2:20:10Speaker 2: I don't think there is a better character's villains than Batman. Like, yeah,
- 2:20:14Speaker 2: Spider-Mans are fine, but Batman is the mountaintop of villain characters.
- 2:20:19Speaker 1: Like, period.
- 2:20:19Speaker 2: Like, Batman has the best villains. Marvel has the best heroes. Batman,
- 2:20:23Speaker 2: and Batman specifically, has the best villains of any character.
- 2:20:27Speaker 2: superhero character, period. His are so well-known, so ubiquitous that
- 2:20:33Speaker 2: everybody knows the Joker. I say the Joker, and you
- 2:20:36Speaker 2: have eight different people vying for that role, and two
- 2:20:39Speaker 2: or three of them are genuinely performances that cement themselves
- 2:20:43Speaker 2: as ones that are worth talking about in a long
- 2:20:47Speaker 2: kind of format, but that's all a Batman thing.
- 2:20:50Speaker 1: That's I don't know.
- 2:20:52Speaker 2: I think about so many board games that have come
- 2:20:53Speaker 2: out in the last couple of years that are Batman
- 2:20:56Speaker 2: animated series or things that have come out that are
- 2:20:58Speaker 2: Batman animated series.
- 2:20:59Speaker 1: They continue.
- 2:21:00Speaker 2: I want to say they continue the Batman animated series
- 2:21:03Speaker 2: story in a comic book, even like that sounds about right.
- 2:21:07Speaker 2: Like it's just, it has a lot of love because
- 2:21:09Speaker 2: it is literally an anthology series with Batman villains that
- 2:21:14Speaker 2: Batman just happens.
- 2:21:15Speaker 1: To be in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- 2:21:18Speaker 2: And just because it's a cartoon does not draw away
- 2:21:20Speaker 2: from the level of writing and the quality.
- 2:21:23Speaker 1: Of the acting. Like, it doesn't. Like, it holds up
- 2:21:26Speaker 1: better than anything else. It does.
- 2:21:30Speaker 2: It almost makes me sad, like, and, you know, not to, again,
- 2:21:33Speaker 2: drag James Gunn any further than we have, but I
- 2:21:36Speaker 2: don't even know if DC really needs live action movies
- 2:21:38Speaker 2: when their cartoon movies are so good.
- 2:21:40Speaker 1: Like, I mean, it's the one thing they consistently did well, yeah.
- 2:21:44Speaker 2: They've been pumping out these cartoon movies like forever now,
- 2:21:48Speaker 2: and they're consistently really well done, and they have really
- 2:21:51Speaker 2: great voice actors, both for the heroes.
- 2:21:53Speaker 1: And the villains.
- 2:21:54Speaker 2: Like, not saying don't do live action movies, but they
- 2:21:56Speaker 2: haven't really been working out for you in a connected capacity.
- 2:22:00Speaker 2: Maybe just do standalone. Does DC have to be connected?
- 2:22:03Speaker 1: No.
- 2:22:04Speaker 2: You can actually just be the ones that are doing
- 2:22:06Speaker 2: standalone stuff, which is fine. And, yeah, that's I think
- 2:22:11Speaker 2: if this were a standalone thing, I would be much
- 2:22:14Speaker 2: more interested in seeing where it goes from here. But
- 2:22:17Speaker 2: like you said, given what this is and what's coming, hopefully,
- 2:22:21Speaker 2: maybe theoretically next, I'm not sure I really care because
- 2:22:25Speaker 2: I don't think this has any, like this feels more
- 2:22:28Speaker 2: at odds with what's been established before than Deadpool is
- 2:22:32Speaker 2: with what he is expected to be in, in the MCU.
- 2:22:34Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. And at least his movie told its own
- 2:22:39Speaker 1: story where this feels like it's just set up for
- 2:22:41Speaker 1: somebody else's story that he can then come back and
- 2:22:45Speaker 1: be involved in because now we know the backstory. Whereas
- 2:22:48Speaker 1: Deadpool was his own movie. Like he fully had his
- 2:22:51Speaker 1: own story throughout it. And then you can throw him
- 2:22:56Speaker 1: in wherever you want, but like, it doesn't feel like
- 2:22:58Speaker 1: it's a missing piece of a puzzle. Whereas this is
- 2:23:00Speaker 1: just part of the puzzle that, But it's not the
- 2:23:05Speaker 1: whole thing. It still needs other aspects for it to
- 2:23:07Speaker 1: work right. Yeah. No, I totally agree.
- 2:23:11Speaker 2: And I wish this movie was more, but I get
- 2:23:17Speaker 2: why it's not. Because at the end of the day,
- 2:23:20Speaker 2: it is a superhero movie. And you are going to
- 2:23:23Speaker 2: have people that are showing up that have expectations that
- 2:23:26Speaker 2: are not real. going to leave happy if you don't
- 2:23:30Speaker 2: at least somewhat meet those expectations, no matter how kind
- 2:23:33Speaker 2: of pedantic and really unnecessary those expectations are. So, so
- 2:23:41Speaker 2: if you want to hear Brian and I talk about
- 2:23:43Speaker 2: things that we liked, you can listen to us covering
- 2:23:46Speaker 2: the first four episodes of camp crystal Lake, or I
- 2:23:49Speaker 2: guess it's called crystal Lake over at a weirdingwaymedia.com where
- 2:23:52Speaker 2: this show Culture Meltdown, Brian's show, Movie Meltdown, and my show,
- 2:23:57Speaker 2: The Culture Cast, can be found. You're listening to this
- 2:23:59Speaker 2: show either on his feed or on my feed. And
- 2:24:02Speaker 2: there's plenty of shows on his feed that don't have
- 2:24:04Speaker 2: me and plenty of shows on my feed that don't
- 2:24:06Speaker 2: have him, and you know where to find them. So yeah, weirdingwaymedia.com
- 2:24:09Speaker 2: is where you can go. Don't go to Spreaker. They
- 2:24:11Speaker 2: don't give us enough money for me to pimp them anymore,
- 2:24:13Speaker 2: so I'm not going to. We are hosted on their website,
- 2:24:16Speaker 2: but we don't even have... a need to go to
- 2:24:19Speaker 2: their website anymore. You can go to our website, weirdingwaymedia.com.
- 2:24:23Speaker 2: Mike made it.
- 2:24:23Speaker 1: It looks great.
- 2:24:24Speaker 2: Listen to our podcast there. If you want to listen
- 2:24:27Speaker 2: on iTunes and Spotify, do it in that order. Like, rate,
- 2:24:29Speaker 2: and review the show on iTunes and Spotify because there's
- 2:24:33Speaker 2: no way to do it on our website. Just come
- 2:24:34Speaker 2: to our website. That's good enough for us. And yeah,
- 2:24:37Speaker 2: come on back when Brian and I talk about more
- 2:24:39Speaker 2: Crystal Lake because we've got to finish that show.
- 2:24:42Speaker 1: And then beyond that, No more superhero movies before the
- 2:24:46Speaker 1: end of the year, thankfully.
- 2:24:47Speaker 2: So we're kind of done with being in superhero purgatory,
- 2:24:51Speaker 2: which I felt like some years I was in a
- 2:24:53Speaker 2: lot longer than others.
- 2:24:55Speaker 1: So I'll take it. So, yeah. And as always, we'll
- 2:25:00Speaker 1: catch you on the next episode.