Monthly Archives: August 2024

Movie Previews

The Movies of Fall 2024

The Summer of 2024 proved to be an unexpected couple of months at the box office.  The month of May, which typically kicks of the Summer with a bang ended up being more of a whimper.  With no Marvel film in it’s first week, Hollywood had to rely on the Ryan Gosling/ Emily Blunt vehicle The Fall Guy (2024) to open up the season; a feat that it sadly didn’t have the muscle to pull off.  But what really got Hollywood sweating was the surprisingly weak Memorial Day weekend box office.  The highly anticipated prequel film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) not only under-performed on the usually big ticket weekend, but it ended up becoming a massive flop, even despite glowing reviews from both critics and audiences.  This began to spread talk around the industry that the theatrical market was in trouble and that Hollywood was in for a massive downturn in box office in what looked to be a very weak summer.  But, perhaps all of us were too quick to give up on the box office for Summer 2024, because once we entered June, things actually took a turn for the positive.  There was surprisingly strong box office results for the sequels Kingdom of the Planet of Apes (2024) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) that helps to buoy the box office for a few weeks more.  And then came the box office savior that Hollywood needed.  Inside Out 2 (2024) not only exceeded expectations, it has broken down every conceivable record there is for an animated movie at the box office.  This is an inspiring story on it’s own, as Pixar needed a win after seeing it’s brand take a hit post-pandemic after the misguided decision to send their films straight to streaming for two years.  This summer proved that the Pixar brand is still strong and they weren’t the only battered brand to see a comeback.  Marvel had it’s biggest hit in years with the record-setting release of Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), giving parent company Disney the two undisputed champions at the Summer box office by a mile with it and Inside Out 2.  That’s a relief to the Mouse House after the tough year they had in 2023.  There were also several surprisingly strong box office returns for movies like Twisters (2024), It Ends With Us (2024), A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) and Longlegs (2024), and what looked initially like a bleak Summer season in the end became a bright moment for movies in general.

So, with a Summer season that proved to be better than expected now behind us, it’s time to take a look at what’s ahead for us in the Fall.  Like in past years, I will be looking at select movies that I think are the ones that are Must Sees, the ones that have me worried, and the ones that I think you should skip.  Keep in mind my track record is not perfect, so some movies may end up being better than I expected or be less than I expected.  My choices here are based on my own expectations from what I have gathered from the hype surrounding these movies as well as the effectiveness of the marketing.  So with all that said, let’s take a look at the Movies of Fall 2024.

MUST SEES:

MEGALOPOLIS (SEPTEMBER 27)

This movie has me intrigued more than any other coming out in the months ahead.  It goes without saying that Francis Ford Coppola is one of the greatest film directors of all time.  I’m sure that any list made of the greatest movies of all time will have at least 3 Coppola movies on it.  But, in recent years, Francis has stepped away from Hollywood, choosing instead to make small art films like Tetro (2009) and Twixt (2011).  While it is sad that one of the greats of Hollywood has been left behind by the industry due to his purity of vision, he has nevertheless revered by the industry, so whenever he makes something new people still take notice.  This year, we are finally getting able to see what is undoubtedly his most ambitious film in years.  Megalopolis has been a passion project of his that he’s been persistently bouncing around for 20 years.  When you look at the very out there premise, you can see why Coppola struggled to get the financing for the film.  In the end, he put his own money into the project, making this one of the biggest self-financed films in history.  The fact that this movie exists at all in a final form is a miracle in itself.  But, is it a miracle that may have consequences for it’s creator.  The movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a mostly mixed reception.  Some critics loved it while others found it to be a baffling mess.  Given it’s nature, I can easily see this movie dividing audiences once it makes it’s way to theaters; which even there became a struggle as it took a while to find a distributor until Lionsgate thankfully stepped in.  I really do hope it turns out to be better than expected because this is a movie that I’ve been hearing about for such a long time and I’m thrilled to see it become a reality.  It’s been a while since we’ve seen Coppola work on this kind of scale and I think it’ll be worth it to see the “great master” take one final big swing.  The visuals look great, and the all star cast that includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf and Dustin Hoffman looks really impressive.  I hope this movie delivers on it’s promise.  The man who gave us The Godfather Parts I and II, as well as Apocalypse Now (1979) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) is one of the last swing for the fences filmmakers left of his generation, and even if it may be a mess, it’s a mess that I must see to fully appreciate.

JOKER: FOLIE A DEUX (OCTOBER 4)

Five years ago, Warner Brothers and DC put out a somewhat controversial comic book film that centered around the famed “clown prince of crime.”  Some saw it as a brilliant deconstruction of one of comic books and cinemas greatest villains that also tapped into some intriguing social commentary.  Others thought it was exploitative and convoluted in it’s approach towards creating a fully fleshed out characterization of it’s central character, as well as being derivative of too many other movies like those of director Martin Scorsese.  But the one thing that nobody could dispute was the powerful performance given by Joaquin Phoenix as the titular psychopath, earning him a well deserved Oscar for Best Actor that year.  In the years since, the movie has continued to be controversial, with a lot of people worried that it has been co-opted by reactionary thugs on the internet who clearly misread the intention of the movie and believe that the movie supports their own twisted and bigoted agendas.  Which is why I’m pleased to see the direction that returning director Todd Phillips and company have decided to go with for this sequel by making it a musical.  Nothing would upset the edge lords who embraced the first movie more than to see this franchise turn into a song and dance extravaganza.  I can already see the click bate reactions by this crowd complaining that “Joker’s Gone Woke” and I’m so eager to see that crowd meltdown over this movie.  I respected the first movie well enough without outright loving it.  I do think turning this kind of story into a musical is an interesting angle and I’m intrigued to see how it’s executed.  It would be interesting to see if the musical numbers feel like the musicals of the same era that the original Joker was trying to evoke, like say emulating the movie of Bob Fosse or other kinds of grounded, gritty musicals.  Or are we going to see some old school Hollywood musical sequences like Singin’ In the Rain (1952) had.  Having Joaquin Phoenix back is a plus, and I’m interested to see how handles the musical aspect.  We know Lady Gaga can carry her own, and I’m interested to see what she does with the character of Harley Quinn.  This movie is taking a risk to be sure, with the possibility of alienating part of it’s fan-base, but that’s the kind of gamble I like to see from Hollywood.

MOANA 2 (NOVEMBER 27)

It’s been a tough couple of years for Disney Animation.  Their last truly blockbuster hit was pre-pandemic with Frozen II (2019).  Since then they’ve been putting out completely original films, and none of them have been lighting up the box office.  Sure, the pandemic had something to do with the reversal of fortune, and the move to streaming has altered audience patterns, especially with Encanto (2021), which became a smash hit once it started to stream on Disney+.  But, the back to back flops of Strange World (2022) and Wish (2023) have put a damper on the animation powerhouse, with the latter being especially disappointing as it was supposed to be the studio’s big 100th anniversary project.  Disney Animation really needs something to turn it’s fortunes around, and that means relying on that dirty word again; sequels.  It’s understandable to think that Disney is selling out by falling back on sequels rather than adding something new to the mix, but new things are what we’ve been getting for the last couple years, and it’s not working.  To help rebuild themselves back to where they were, they need to go with what’s worked before, and they have a reliable winner with Moana (2016).  The original film was a smash hit, and has only gained in esteem in the years since.  It is the most streamed movie not just on Disney+, but across all platforms, which is quite a feat so it makes sense that Disney would want to make a sequel given the original’s staying power.  The film thankfully returns the original cast, including Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui.  While the sequel looks like it will be covering some of the same territory as the first, it does appear that it will offer some new thrills to the mix, including the hint of a yet to be revealed villain.  One thing that sadly will not be present in this movie are new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda.  Hopefully the new songwriters are capable of living up to the high standards set by the first movie, which included now beloved classics like “How Far I’ll Go” and “You’re Welcome.”  The one thing you can count on is that the Disney animators will still make this movie a visual feast, and I certainly am eager to hit the high seas again with Moana and Maui.

NOSFERATU (DECEMBER 25)

Merry Christmas from the Dark Side.  This isn’t the first time someone has attempted to update F.W. Murnau’s chilling and now century old horror masterpiece for the modern day.  Werner Herzog famously remade Nosferatu in 1979 with Klaus Kinski as the titular vampire.  But, if there was ever a right person to make another attempt at re-creating the spooky horror of this classic story, it’s the man behind terrifying films like The Witch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019).  Robert Eggers is a director that has done a magnificent job of putting style back into horror, and what better way to show off what he can do than to pay homage to the movie that set the standard for the genre.  The film does look like it will be a visual feast, but I also appreciate just how much Robert is trying to create the most unsettling visuals that he can with this version of the story.  The shadow of a hand stretching over the city is an especially evocative visual, and one that is clearly a nod to the original, which was very much reliant on the use of shadows for conveying the supernatural.  The trailer wisely keeps things vague, because I’m sure the studio would like to keep a few of the scares secret, but those familiar with the original film will definitely pick up on the story itself.  Thankfully one of the withheld secrets is what the lead vampire, Count Orlock will look like.  We know he is being played by Bill Skarsgard, who’s no stranger to playing iconic movie monsters.  But I’m wondering if his look will be akin to the original creation by actor Max Schreck in the original, or are we getting a different Nosferatu.  Ironically, frequent Robert Eggers collaborator Willem Dafoe is also in this movie, taking on the Van Helsing type role, who 24 years ago was nominated for an Oscar for playing Max Schreck in the film Shadow of the Vampire (2000).  It will certainly be quite an experience, especially with this coming out on Christmas Day in one of the wildest out of season movie premieres in a while.

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (SEPTEMBER 6)

It looks like the Fall season may be kicked off with a bang with the “ghost with the most” running the show.  Legacy sequels that come out way beyond the release of the original can be a huge risk, but it helps when the same people who made the original are on board.  There has been talk of a Beetlejuice (1988) sequel for over 30 years, and now it has finally become a reality.  The question is, can it still spook up the same mix of laughs and scares.  It’s been five years since Tim Burton last released a film in theaters, the ill-fated remake of Dumbo (2019), but in the meantime he managed to find his mojo once again with the hit Netflix series Wednesday, of which he produced and directed half of the episodes.  The positive sign is that he is bringing on board the creative team from the Wednesday series to help him craft this sequel, including the shows writers as well as the star Jenna Ortega.  What is also pleasing is that Tim Burton is making an effort with this film to primarily use practical effects instead of computer animation, so that the movie will feel authentic and in the same spirit of the original.  This includes long neglected effects like stop motion and complex prosthetic make-up, which were key components of creating the world of the original Beetlejuice.  But of course, you can’t do a Beetlejuice sequel without the man who brought him to afterlife in the first place, Michael Keaton.  Keaton is certainly a much older man now, but Beetlejuice is the kind of character where that doesn’t matter and it looks like he is slipping right back into that iconic striped suit like he never took it off.  And if he can play Batman again, why not also play Beetlejuice while he still can.  Another plus is that Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara are also returning to reprise their roles as Lydia and Delia Deetz.  And the new cast including Justin Theroux and (hello again) Willem Dafoe all look like they will be a lot of fun in their roles.  Let’s hope that the long wait is worth it and that Tim Burton is able to deliver yet another thrilling and funny adventure with the recently departed.

MOVIES THAT HAVE ME WORRIED:

GLADIATOR II (NOVEMBER 22)

It is remarkable that in his mid-80’s Ridley Scott is still capable of making epic scale films for the big screen.  At the same time, he has also been a bit hit or miss in recent years.  For every The Martian (2015) or The Last Duel (2021) that lands, there is an Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) or Napoleon (2023) that doesn’t.  He also has a very shaky track record when it comes to creating franchise follow ups, as the movies Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) failed to reignite the Aliens franchise.  So, there’s a bit of doubt surrounding whether he is able to create a follow-up to his Oscar-winning epic Gladiator (2000).  There are a lot of variables that are working against this movie, chief among them is that there is no Maximus in this sequel.  The iconic central character of the original ends up dead at the end, so where do you go from there.  Of course, it would be a tall order to have Russell Crowe reprise the role in a different way, as he is much older and out of shape now.  So, what this movie does instead is to take the child character from the first movie, the son of the Emperess Lucilla (played by Connie Nielsen) and have him aged up and in the role of a gladiator inspired by the memory of Maximus.  I will say that the casting choices in this movie are intriguing.  I’m especially interested in seeing how Denzel Washington performs in this swords and sandals style epic.  He may feel too modern and out of place, but then again I just saw him kill it as Macbeth only a couple years ago so he might surprise people.  I also am interested in seeing Pedro Pascal perform in this movie, playing a general in service to two corrupt emperors that have taken over after the death of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).  What remains to be seen is if Paul Mescal can fill the big boots left by Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for his performance.  Maximus is one of the most iconic movie heroes of the last quarter century.  Also, it’s hard to say if a movie like Gladiator needs a second chapter, as the first one felt so complete.  Hopefully Ridley Scott still has it in him to deliver yet another grand epic on that same level again.

MUFASA: THE LION KING (DECEMBER 20)

If you’ve been reading my blog for at least the last five years, you’ll recall that I absolutely hated The Lion King (2019), Disney’s so-called “live action” remake of their animated masterpiece.  What frustrated me was that the movie was just a copy and paste job that added nothing to the experience, and in fact robbed the story of it’s strength by having the characters be animated in this naturalistic style that robbed them of any personality.  So, you’re probably wondering why I have this movie here and not in the movies to skip category.  Well, I still have plenty of reservations about this movie, primarily with how it still uses that unappealing photo realistic character animation for the animals.  But, at least with this film they are working with an original story, rather than copying beat for beat the same plot of the original film.  Sure, it’s a prequel, telling the back story of Mufasa and Sacr so we aren’t really going to cover any unknown territory.  But at least now I don’t have to negatively contrast the beats of this film with those of a vastly superior movie.  One other intriguing aspect of this film is that it is being directed by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk).  Getting a prestige, art house filmmaker like him to jump on board is a bold move on Disney’s part, and it might make this a bit more of a deeper film that it normally would be.  At least that’s the hope.  I am worried that this could be the kind of movie that could sully Barry Jenkins’ reputation as well if it still feels like a cash grab the same way that the first one did.  My hope is that Jenkins is capable of finding a rich and meaningful story with this film that transcends the limitations of the medium and well exceeds expectations.  The track record of Disney remakes is pretty shoddy, and the sequels to those remakes fare even worse.  Here’s hoping the gamble of giving this project over to a filmmaker of Barry Jenkins’ caliber helps to make this Lion King prequel roar.

WICKED (NOVEMBER 22)

One has to wonder if the Broadway to cinema pipeline has run dry.  There have too many stage musical translations recently that have failed to light up the box office.  One of the last true blockbuster musicals that has yet to get the cinematic treatment is finally making it’s way to theaters, and it is a lot to digest.  One thing that worries me is that the film looks a bit overproduced.  It seems like a whole lot of the budget went into the make-up, costuming, and the production design.  But, here’s the problem; it doesn’t give off any authenticity.  Overproduced movies never feel like they are lived in worlds; the artificiality just overwhelms everything else.  You do admire the hard work that the technicians put into building all of the sets and costumes, but unless people connect with the story, no one will care.  And that’s the vibe I am getting with this cinematic adaptation of Wicked.  The trailer seems to be going out of it’s way to hide the fact that this is a musical, which should be the biggest selling point for this movie.  We all know about Wicked from Broadway, so why aren’t they showing us a clip from a musical number.  Perhaps it’s a sign that the studio is concerned with the final product of the musical numbers.  Hopefully this isn’t the case.  One of the pluses of this film is the stellar cast that’s been put together.  I’m not quite sure about Ariana Grande as Glinda, but Cynthia Erivo is one of the most powerful belters working in musicals today, so her casting as Elphaba should be something in the movie’s favor.  The casting of Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard is another inspired choice, and I’m happy to see Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh here as well.  With all that, it’s still unclear if this movie is going to be able to stick the landing.  The Broadway musical is beloved by many, as is the classic 1939 film that made The Wizard of Oz famous in the first place.  That classic film still feels magical, and most of all tangible in how it depicted it’s magical world.  You would think that over 80 years later we would be able to still make the land of Oz feel like a magical place.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (OCTOBER 25)

The iron grip that Sony holds on their rights to the Spider-Man side of the Marvel Universe has not been delivering anything good recently, outside of animation that is.  Morbius (2022) was a disappointing mess and Madame Web (2024) may be an all timer for one of the worst comic book films ever.  The only success that the Sony Spider-Verse has had in live action is with their collection of Venom films.  Though those movies have been a success at the box office, they still are far from the level of quality that we’ve seen from the MCU.  They still have the same convoluted plots and underwhelming action of all the other failed films in the Sony franchise.  The only saving grace has been actor Tom Hardy in the leading role as Venom and his alter ego Eddie Brock.  Hardy may be acting in trashy movies, but he’s still giving it his all and he’s managed to make the characterizations of these characters work.  This new film, Venom: The Last Dance, appears to be where Sony is looking to close out the Venom franchise.  Tom Hardy looks like he’s still having fun in the role, which is a good sign.  But, there are some red flags that show up in the trailer.  One of the big issues is the moment where it looks like they are retconing the stinger from the movie Spider-Man: No Way Home  (2021), where Hardy’s Eddie has been transported briefly into the MCU, where he accidentally deposits part of his symbiote suit, which we thought may be a tease for other problems in that universe later.  But as seen in the trailer, it looks like they are saying that that universe was not the MCU at all but instead is the same universe that they Venom movies have always existed in, thereby shutting down any possible multiverse connections in future.  It gives us the sense that Sony is continuing to go rogue in defiance of the plan that Marvel Studios has been laying out, and I think it’s doing a disservice to their own franchise and the character of Venom.  The hope is that Tom Hardy can still at least keep this movie entertaining, but it’s a shame that Sony has undercut their own cinematic possibilities by refusing to play nice with the rest of the Marvel Universe.

MOVIES TO SKIP:

KRAVEN THE HUNTER (DECEMBER 13)

Speaking of Sony’s endless string of mediocre Marvel films, here we have a new film dedicated to one of Spider-Man’s most famous foes.  This movie was already delayed one whole year, mostly due to the ongoing labor strikes that drove down box office in general, but the massive delay also indicates that Sony didn’t have a lot of confidence in this one carrying the torch immediately after the strike had ended.  The pattern from the Sony Marvel films has been one of completely missing the point why people want to see comic book movies in the first place.  We aren’t concerned about the origins of these characters and why they became who they are.  We just want to see them either be the heroes or villains they were meant to be.  One thing is noteworthy about all of these Spider-Verse films that we’ve seen from Sony; a distinct absence of Spider-Man himself.  That’s because the Spider-Man that everyone loves is in the MCU, putting him out of reach unless Sony plays ball with Marvel.  They are never going to be able to spin-off a cinematic universe on the same level with just the side characters of the Spider-Man comics.  We don’t care about Kraven the Hunter as the main character.  We want to see him fight one on one with Spider-Man, and this movie will definitely not deliver on that.  The casting of Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a bit strange for this character, as he seems to be a fair bit too young for what should be a seasoned hunter.  Maybe there will be some decent action scenes, but the trailer just gives us the same generic style that we’ve seen from all the other Sony Spider movies, where they feel like they are ashamed to be adapted from a comic.  The MCU showed that audiences are embracing of the campy and colorful aspects of comic books.  The Sony films feel like throwbacks to the era of super hero movies that were trying too hard to feel grown up as they grounded their characters too much in reality.  For Kraven, he should be a formidable villain and not just another generic anti-hero.

FLIGHT RISK (OCTOBER 18)

It’s a painful to watch one career downward spiral manifest on film.  This new thriller is giving us two.  Mark Wahlberg’s recent choices in film roles have seen him fall more and more off from his career highs.  He seems to be distancing himself more from Hollywood as he’s become more spiritual in the last couple of years.  Now, it is possible to be more in touch with one’s faith while at the same time continually challenging themselves as an artist, but Wahlberg seems to be distancing himself a bit too much and that is putting a limit on the kinds of roles that he’s taking.  It’s a similar downward trend that this film’s director, Mel Gibson, has gone through and both of them show no signs of changing anytime soon.  Both Wahlberg and Gibson could do so much better, and have so in the past, but their egos have gotten in the way and have led them to attaching their names to schlock like this.  In Gibson’s case, he’s never really gotten out of the rut he put himself in through his own bad behavior, and Wahlberg seems too concerned about his own image that he’s stopped taking risks.  I guess this movie exists because they like working together (this is their third collaboration) and it’s not a bad thing to work with the people you trust the most.  But, both of these guys should take a more introspective look at where their careers are, because this kind of movie should be beneath them, and yet here they are.  But if Wahlberg feels comfortable acting with one of the worst bald caps I’ve seen in recent memory, then it seems to me that he’s not ready to be the risk taker he once was again, and the same goes with Mel who said yes to having Mark wear that bald cap.

RED ONE (NOVEMBER15)

Another painful reminder that star power does not guarantee that a movie will be good.  This Christmas themed action movie feels like it’s late to the party by a couple of years.  Nothing is going to surpass the hilariously over-the-top Violent Night (2022), which was one of the best possible examples of bringing Christmas theming to recognizable action movie tropes.  Given that this is a production from Dwayne Johnson’s own company, Seven Bucks, it’s clear that it’s little more than a star vehicle for him.  It might have been funnier if he were in the Santa role, but no he gave to J.K. Simmons, which even isn’t the first time that the Oscar-winner has played St. Nick.  What makes this trailer especially cringe is the very obvious indication that neither Dwayne nor his co-star Chris Evans have any on screen chemistry.  Evans looks like he was dropped in from an entirely different movie, and his personality is merely looking at all the Christmas themed elements around him and finding it all weird.  That’s pretty much it; no other punchline.  Overall, it just looks like an excuse for an easy paycheck for everyone involved, so I highly doubt this will turn into a new Holiday classic.  There are far better action movies with Christmas theming to them (the aforementioned Violent Night is highly recommended).  I would imagine this movie will be out of theaters not long after we cut our Thanksgiving turkeys, falling well short of the Christmas season that it is hoping to capitalize on.

So, there you have my outlook of the upcoming Fall Season at the movies.  Of course, there are many other films that have yet to make it through the Fall film festival circuit that could become some big deals in the months ahead as the Awards Season heats up.  While the Fall hasn’t exactly been producing big Oscar winners recently (the last two Best Picture winners came out in the Spring and Summer of their respective years), it still is a fertile ground for some movies that no doubt will be talked about for next year’s awards.  I’m certainly interested to see what surprises come up in the next few months.  My favorite movie of 2023, The Holdovers, wasn’t even one of the films on my radar when I did my preview of Fall from last year.  Of the films that I spotlighted in this preview, I would imagine that few are going to be deemed awards worthy, and my excitement is more about anticipating the chance to see them for the first time.  Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis will be one of those experiences that I have to see for myself in a theater, even if there’s the chance that I might not like it.  The fact that the movie even got made is kind of miraculous and that in itself is the allure.  I’m also eager to see how audiences respond to Joker: Folie a Deux, which could be it’s own spectacle.  And my hope is that movies like Gladiator II and Wicked are better than expected.  Given that both movies are releasing on the same day, we could see another Barbenheimer situation arise due to the strange counter-programming, though I doubt either will achieve the same box office levels, given that Moana 2 is likely going to crush both over the same holiday weekend.  There’s a lot of interesting stories waiting to happen this fall, and I will be heading out to the movies quite a bit in the next couple of months.  Hopefully this Fall continues the same box office recovery that we saw happen this Summer.  We may not have the same kind of blockbusters, but a good healthy box office spread across all films will be great for theaters in general.  Here’s hoping for a good finale to the year 2024 at the movies, and an even better future going into 2025.

Editorials

Too Many Notes – 40 Years of Amadeus and the Perils of Making a Musical Biopic

There are many right ways to create an engaging biopic for the big screen and also many wrong ways.  Too often we see movies based on the lives of famous musicians take the latter route.  There are good ones to be sure, but too often we see many musical biopics fall back on formula.  What a lot of bad musical biopics seem to forget is that it’s not the songs that the subject wrote and/or sang that made them stand out, but the lives that they lived that offer up the true cinematic story.  Some of the worst offenders, like this year’s Back to Black (2024) or 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody don’t really tell us anything new about their subjects, but merely just show a point by point book report on the lives of these famous singers.  The formula often involves the characters getting inspired to write their big hit song in the most convoluted way possible, and it glosses over how many great songs came into being which is many hours of fine tuning and rewrites, which truthfully don’t lend themselves very well to a cinematic experience.  And then you have the very icky sort of biopic where you see a performer’s tragic story mined for empathy when it at the same shifts the blame away from the people who drove the person to an early grave; probably due to the fact that those same people probably still control the estate that the movie had to gain permission from in order to make the movie.  But then you have the good musical biopics that aren’t afraid to show a person’s life warts and all in the knowledge that it will be more honest and interesting movie character, such as movies like 8 Mile (2002) or Walk the Line (2005), both of which were movies that got the personal approval and involvement of the musician themselves.  And then there are also good biopics that are completely outside of the norm that they take the musicians story into an entirely elevated level, like The Doors (1991) or Rocketman (2019).  I would however say that the best musical biopic that has ever been made would be a film that entirely flies in the face of actual history.  That would be the Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984).

Amadeus can be described as a musical biopic, while at the same time also be considered a complete work of fiction.  The reason it falls into a biopic designation is because it depicts the life of one of the world’s greatest composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  It shows us the life he led during his most productive years composing in the court of the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor Joseph II in the city of Vienna.  We also see him compose his most famous pieces of work, including the operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and finally The Magic Flute.  But the movie isn’t about any of that, nor is it really about Mozart either.  The film instead is told from the point of view of another character; a rival composer named Antonio Salieri.  Salieri retells his life’s story to us, which so happens to coincide with Mozart’s, and we see how jealousy and insecurity led him down a path towards destroying Mozart completely, which he ends up succeeding in as Mozart’s misfortunes lead him to an early grave.  But to Salieri’s eternal frustration, he sees Mozart’s musical far out live his short life while Salieri grows old and watches his own legacy wither in Mozart’s shadow.  It’s only fitting that the entirety of the film is framed as a confessional, with Salieri recounting his story to a priest after feeling the guilt of having destroyed Mozart’s life and in turn his own.  Amadeus is not a movie about the music that both of these musicians left behind, but rather about the way that fame destroys the soul.  At the same time, the movie is lavishly constructed to recreate the time period of Mozart and Salieri in great detail, and it does touch upon the actual events that shaped their lives as well.  The success of Amadeus is that the story at it’s center and the fascinating characters within are what drive the film along.  The movie is not concerned about hitting all the historical notes perfectly and in order.  And in Amadeus’ case, it’s a movie more about speculative history rather than true history.

The playwright Peter Shaffer who first penned to script for the stage play Amadeus described his story as a “fantasia on the theme of Mozart and Salieri.”  It was his way of telling us upfront that this story was never meant to be taken as literal history, but rather a universal narrative about jealousy and corruption that just so happened to center around real historical people.  The idea of a rivalry between Mozart and Salieri dates back to a play written by Alexander Pushkin in 1830; a mere couple of years after the death of the real Salieri.  Pushkin’s play was even more accusatory of Salieri, with him actually murdering Mozart at the very end.  Shaffer’s play is not as harsh towards Salieri, merely showing him as being petty and conspiring to deny Mozart success, which in turn aggravates the alcoholism that ultimately ends his life.  Even still, the original Pushkin play is still credited as the inspiration that drove Shaffer to write his own play.  It was Shaffer’s idea to make the center of his story and tell it from his point of view.  This is a great addition to the narrative because it adds the unreliable narrator element to the play.  Yes, we are witnessing the life of Mozart, but it’s through the lens of someone who was jealous of him, and was willing to view him in the most negative light.  And yet, through even Salieri’s spitefulness, there is a reverence for the music.  The theme of divine interaction plays throughout the story of Amadeus, with Salieri often complaining about how God gave such a gift to a boorish, ill-behaved man-child like Mozart.  And the brilliance of Shaffer’s play is that no such gift was ever given; Salieri is only seeing Mozart in that light because he barely knows the man.  He only sees the party animal and clown that Mozart could be in a  public fashion, but he never saw the struggling artist that he was in private; that is until the very end when he sees the true genius in what ends up being his final hours.  The original play debuted to great acclaim in London in 1979, and it soon made it’s way to Broadway afterwards.  Many celebrated actors came and went in the lead roles; one such combination even included heavyweights like Tim Curry as Mozart and Ian McKellan as Salieri.

It’s no surprise that Hollywood was eager to turn this hit play into a big lavish screen adaptation.  Oscar-winning producer Saul Zaentz managed to secure the rights to the play, and he was eager to re-team with Czech filmmaker Milos Forman for the film, having found success before with their film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975).  Peter Shaffer was granted the opportunity of adapting his own play, and he managed to find a good collaboration with the spirited Forman.  The one big thing that Forman wanted to break away from the original play was the way it was staged.  Amadeus was a bit of an Avant Garde play in that it was very minimalist when it came to the setting.  In the case of it’s Broadway run, the play was performed “in the round” meaning that the audience encircled the stage, so the actors had to perform merely with simple props and no scenery.  Forman had no interest in telling this story merely through the power of suggestion.  He wanted to make Mozart’s world come alive, and this was thankfully something that Peter Shaffer also agreed to.  To find the right kind of place to recreate the Vienna of Mozart’s lifetime, Forman looked to his own native land and chose the city of Prague to be the shooting location for this project.  Prague in the early 1980’s was still behind the Iron Curtain of Soviet influence, so it wasn’t easy to bring a big Hollywood production to the city, even if the director was a native born son.  They did manage to get the Czechoslovakian government to grant permission, and shooting began in the very well preserved city, which Milos praised as being free of “all that modern shit,” as he described in the movie’s making of documentary.  Shooting in Prague instead of Vienna was not too out of character for a movie centered on Mozart’s life, as Prague maintains more of it’s 18th century architecture to this day, and it was also a place where the real musician did perform from time to time.  One of the places that the real Mozart frequented in Prague was the majestic Estates Theater, which the film makes incredible use out of in the staging of some of Mozart’s most famous musicals.  In every sense of the word, Milos Forman took a minimalist play and gave it the epic makeover that it deserved.

One other bold move by Milos in the making of the film was in the casting of the characters.  Typically, a high brow historical epic will try to give a sense of authenticity to the performances of the actors as part of their placement in their selective time period.  This usually means casting actors with affectations, or who just have British accents as that commonly seems to be Hollywood’s go to high class way of speaking.  For Amadeus however, Milos decided to cast mostly American actors in the key roles, and not have them put on an accent.  This would seem unusual if the movie were trying to be any other historical epic, but in Milos Forman’s hands, it worked.  The key was in finding the right actors who could convey the characters perfectly, to the point where the accents don’t matter.  For Salieri, Milos found the greatest possible choice in veteran stage actor F. Murray Abraham.  Abraham has to carry the film on his shoulder, conveying all the complexity of Salieri, while straddling that fine line between villainy and empathy.  And Abraham’s performance is note perfect, especially in the non-verbal way that he acts through just his facial expressions alone.  There’s a brilliant scene in the movie where Salieri attempts to humiliate Mozart with a comical entry music theme written just for him, and Mozart reworks it in front of him and turns it into something grander and the way Salieri’s expression sinks into depression is just a brilliant work of acting on Abraham’s part.  Of course, his performance is matched brilliantly by Tom Hulce’s turn as Mozart.  It was probably no coincidence that Milos Forman selected one of the stars of Animal House (1978) to be his Mozart, given the party animal nature of the character.  But there is a profoundness to Hulce’s performance as well, especially in the film’s latter half when we see Mozart deteriorate.  He perfectly captures this sense of stunted youth while at the same time portraying the seriousness he devotes to delivering his music.  And casting the very American Hulce in the role of Mozart in a way helps to contemporize the story a bit more, offering a more universal connection between the tragedy of Mozart’s life and how the perils of fame manifest in today’s society.  It’s a gamble on Forman’s part that pays off, and that’s very much a testament to the strengths of the actors.

For a lot of musical biopics it’s the music itself that mostly appeals to the audience.  Most of the bad musical biopics tend to put the famous songs front and center rather than exploring the complexities of the musician playing them.  What is special about Amadeus is that it gives us the explanation about why music affects us so much.  Salieri isn’t so much a great composer as he has the ear to recognize great music.  It’s a duel edged sword that defines his character; he can recognize greatness in music, but is incapable of composing it himself.  He complains to the priest that is hearing his confession, “We would God implant the desire in my head, and then deny me the talent.”  Not that Salieri was a bad composer by any means.  Historically, he was celebrated in his time and even found favor with the Emperor.  But, there’s another brilliant scene that defines the supposed curse that he believes he has.  In his confession, Salieri describes the brilliance of Mozart’s music, picking apart each instruments role in creating a sublime tune, and it’s all through just reading the notes written on the page.  He can understand the language and hear it in his head, but is incapable of creating it on his own.  It’s been said that this revelatory scene really helped people become fans of orchestral music, because cinematically the film broke down musical theory in a way that anyone could understand and relate to.  And it becomes a theme that runs throughout the whole movie.  Salieri cannot escape the adoration he has for the music even as he despises the man who wrote it.  He uses his influence to sabotage the staging of Don Giovanni and yet also attends every single performance as an act of worship.  It’s ultimately what makes the finale so profound, as the film reaches a climax where Salieri is in the position of having to dictate for an ailing Mozart.  In that moment, Salieri finally gets to participate in the genius of Mozart’s work, and as a result, finally find himself on common ground with him.  Very few other musical biopics can make the music such a crucial part of the character’s arc in the story.

For Milos Forman and Peter Shaffer, the narrative is much more than just a look into the lives of historical figures.  At it’s heart, it’s a story about human mortality, and how we devote our lives to being remembered.  Art of any kind is a great way to leave one’s mark, but as Amadeus shows, the way we create that art also matters.  It’s the thing that separates Salieri and Mozart in the end.  Salieri obeyed the rules, did everything he could to win favor and stifle competition, and what that got him was being forgotten to most of history.  Mozart on the other hand broke the rules constantly, burned many bridges along the way, committed a lot of self-damage, and is still remembered fondly to this day.  That’s the curse that Salieri feels that he has, that he does everything the right way and has nothing to show for it, and yet Mozart is able to stumble his way to immortality based on his raw talent.  But, Amadeus also warns us that fame is not the golden ticket that we all would like to think it’d be.  Forman and Shaffer posit this question to us through the different examples of the two lead characters.  Salieri lives a long and comfortable life, but is isolated through crippling regret.  And Mozart lives a rocky, often painful life and dies penniless, but is immortalized through his enduring art.  One desires to be the greatest, while the other wishes to not have the so many notes crashing around in his head.  While so many other biopics revel in the moments of genius that define their subjects lives, Amadeus stands as a cautionary tale about how ambition and fame can sometimes destroy the soul.  It doesn’t give us a how to of what made Mozart a genius.  It honestly never explains how he became so brilliant other than it was just something he was born with.  Of course, the movie itself never has the historical touchstones as things that matter in the story.  In the end, it is fictionalizing a theory about how someone like Salieri may have plotted against Mozart.  And through that we get the themes of jealousy, ambition, and the suffering through one’s art across in a captivating character study.  Also, the music is still fantastic to listen to.

The brilliance of the movie’s tackling of it’s themes comes across perfectly in one of the first scenes.  When the elderly Salieri first meets with the priest, he plays examples of his music, to which the priest confesses he is unfamiliar with despite how beautiful they sound.  Then, to prove his point, Salieri plays the opening notes from Mozart’s “A Little Night Music” and the priest immediately recognizes it.  In that scene, we see exactly what drives the character of Salieri; the tragedy of time leaving him behind.  But after Salieri tells his story to the priest, the movie ends with him feeling a bit unburdened and finally comfortable with himself; self proclaiming his presence as the patron saint of mediocrities.  In a way, that’s what the story of Amadeus has done.  It has put Salieri back into the narrative of Mozart’s legacy, and uses him as the counterpoint to what made Mozart so special.  No other musical biopics have made their central figures stand out as strongly as these archetypal symbols of human geniuses and human fallibility.  One of the great legacies of this movie is that it did help spark a renewed interest in classical music.  The movie’s soundtrack, which featured new orchestrations of original pieces composed by both Mozart and Salieri, became a best-seller and performed well on the charts alongside many contemporary pop artists of the time.  The movie also went on to sweep through the Oscars, winning eight including Best Picture, along with a career second award for Milos Forman for Best Director, a first for Peter Shaffer for his adaptation, and a win for F. Murray Abraham for Best Actor, which he won in competition with his co-star Tom Hulce.  Even 40 years later the movie still feels timesless and strangely even more relevant to today.  In an era of social media, the Salieris of the world have been given more of a voice and that has resulted in increased levels of online bullying and organized attacks like review bombing with the purpose of destroying one’s work of art as well as the artist themselves.  But, the movie shows a more complex portrayal of human fragility than anything else, and how someone like Salieri can be corrupted so easily through his own feelings of inadequacy.  The complaint leveled at Mozart’s music in the film is that he creates “too many notes,” but the movie itself manages to get every note right and creates a beautiful symphony of story and character that stands so much higher than any other musical biopic out there.

Movie Reviews

Alien: Romulus – Review

The Alien franchise has gone through a rocky history since it’s inception back in the 70’s.  The original Ridley Scott directed film from 1979 was a breakthrough in both horror and science fiction film-making.  A truly terrifying experience that lived up to the film’s tagline, “In space, no one can hear you scream.”  No other genre film looked like it and it completely raised the bar in how to make alien lifeforms a terrifying presence on the big screen.  Many would have thought that this kind of film would be a hard act to follow, but in 1986, James Cameron brought us a sequel to the original film called Aliens that not only matched it in popularity but was also in some ways superior.  What helped to make Aliens work as a sequel was that it didn’t just try to repeat the formula of the first.  Scott’s Alien was a haunted house movie in space, using atmosphere as a valuable tool in crafting the scares in the movie.  Cameron’s Aliens was an action film set within the same universe, still featuring the same scary xenomorph aliens but using a louder action heavy scenes to drive the thrills.  And it worked.  The thing that helped to connect the thread of both films was actress Sigourney Weaver’s performance as Ripley; the sole survivor of the first film and the main heroine of the second.  Weaver’s performance in the second film was so beloved that it even earned her an Oscar nomination; unheard of for a horror based sci-fi flick.  Unfortunately, the years after the success of these first two films wasn’t kind to the series.  The making of Alien3 (1992) was a production nightmare for everyone involved and almost prematurely ended the directing career of it’s then novice filmmaker, David Fincher.  And Alien Resurrection (1997) was an embarrassing misfire that killed the franchise for over a decade.  It might have been wise to potentially just leave the series as it was and move on, just so that the legacy of the original first two classics could be preserved.  But, as it is with every well known franchise, the end is never set in stone.

There was hope for a potential re-boot of the series being able to bring back the past glory of the Alien franchise.  In the 2010’s, it was announced that a prequel film set in the same universe as the original Alien was going to be made, and better yet, Ridley Scott himself was returning to direct.  This seemed like great news, because many believed that Ridley Scott would help bring the franchise back to it’s horror roots, though those hopes may have naive in the end.  Instead, Ridley was looking at making a film that was more sci-fi based than horror.  His film, Prometheus (2012) had all the visual hallmarks of the series, but was far more of an action film than a horror film; and it didn’t even feature one of the xenomorph aliens until literally the very last scene.  Suffice to say, audiences were mixed on the results.  Some liked the fact that Ridley Scott was doing more world building in this franchise and exploring the mythology a bit more; particularly when it came to the mysterious Sentinel being hinted at in the first film.  Others thought it was a dull, methodically paced movie that didn’t deliver on the thrills and was a far cry from the roots of the series that Ridley Scott himself established.  It didn’t help that the follow-up film to this one was a far inferior sequel itself, the universally reviled Alien: Covenant (2017), which was neither thrilling nor scary.  That film was also unfortunately directed by Scott as well, and it further tarnished his reputation as the shepherd of this franchise.  For the series to move forward, it needed to find an identity once again, because so many mediocre reboots and sequels were dragging the franchise down.  It would take a while though, as the franchise was put in limbo after it’s parent studio 20th Century Fox was being absorbed into the Disney Company.  Under new management, Alien had a chance to be looked at with a fresh perspective.  The only question was, how Disney would take the still valuable IP and work with it as a part of their cinematic output.  For some, it was pleasing to see that the plan was to bring the series back to it’s horror roots.  Horror film director Fede Alverez was brought on board to bring his own unique vision to the project.  The only question remains does the new film, Alien: Romulus, bring back the same chills that made the original so scary or is it yet another disappointment that falls far from the peak of this franchise.

Alien: Romulus begins on a remote planet that has been completely colonized and exploited by the Weyland Yutani Coporation.  Among all of the exploited workers, a young girl named Rain (Cailee Spaeny) is desperately trying to work her way off planet.  She is accompanied by her “brother” Andy (David Jonsson), who is a synthetic humanoid drone that her late father save from the junkyard and reprogrammed to protect her.  After being rejected by her superiors for off planet privileges, she seeks the help of other space colonists  to give her passage.  She meets up with an old friend named Tyler (Archie Renaux) who is ready to take off from the colonized planet with his sister Kay (Isabela Merced), his associate Bjorn (Spike Fearn) and their pilot Navarro (Aileen Wu).  Just few days prior, they made the discovery of a derelict Weyland Yutani space vessel that has drifted into the orbit of their planet.  Their hope is to find still working cryo-chambers in the wreckage that can enable them to make deep space travel possible in the hopes of reaching a new inhabitable planet.  The only catch is that they need Andy’s droid clearance to access entry into the ship.  Rain and Andy agree to help them in exchange for their safe passage.  Once they reach the vessel, they find that it isn’t just a simple ship, but rather a full station, meant for research purposes.  Split into two sides, each one named Romulus and Remus, the station is a fortress and not so easy to enter.  One other complication, the station is drifting in orbit towards a ring system that encircles the planet, and they only have a short window to complete their mission before the station is destroyed.  Tyler, Bjorn and Andy make their way into the interior of the ship, finding the place to be a ghost town.  All the crew seems to have completely disappeared, and there are massive holes throughout the ship.  Some violent incident had to have happened and the crew decides to speed up their mission so as to not invite whatever caused the mayhem that destroyed the ship.  They find the cryo-chambers they need, but in the same room there are scary looking alien creatures that try to latch onto their faces.  These Facehuggers are dangerous, but as all the crew members soon learn, there are far greater dangers aboard the ship, and the mission soon becomes not just getting out of this world but just surviving long enough to get off the ship.

The bar for Alien movies can definitely be described by it’s extremes.  The original film and it’s direct sequel are absolute masterpieces of the genre where as everything that has come afterwards has been either disappointing or outright junk.  Alien: Romulus is seeking to bring the series back to it’s more grounded roots by leaning more heavily on the horror film side of the series.  The only question is if they managed to succeed.  Thankfully, I can say that Alien: Romulus is unequivocally the best Alien movie we’ve seen in almost 40 years.  But, even as I say that, I do also have to say that it is no where near perfect either.  The bar has been lowered so much over the years that being just better than average immediately puts the film in the upper half of the series.  There are flaws in this movie that did prevent it from being considered among the greats, but thankfully the pluses outshine the minuses.  For one thing, it is pleasing to see a film this in this series that actually is attempting to be scary rather than just being moody or grotesque.  There was effort towards getting this movie back to the simple horror of Ridley Scott’s original vision.  It helps that Scott is still slightly involved with this film as a producer, helping to guide this new generation in line with the legacy of what’s come before.  But make no mistake, this is thoroughly Fede Alverez’s movie, and you can tell that he put his own horror twist on this film that works very well, at least when it comes to making things genuinely scary.  For one thing, I really appreciated his use of sound in the movie.  Whether it’s the absence of it in outer space (including a very effective intro that is completely sound free) to the sudden bursts of loud noises once the mayhem starts.  You really have to appreciate how much the sound plays a role in generating the thrills, especially when there are monstrous creatures that could be lurking in the shadows.  It really is where I feel this movie definitely comes closest to getting back those roots that the series was built off of, and which have been lost ever since Scott and Cameron left their marks on this series long ago.

Unfortunately the flaw that I found with this movie is one that I see all too often with lazy horror movies.  It’s the cliché where your main cast of characters continuously make stupid decisions that end up getting themselves killed or attacked, all with the purpose of manipulating the plot.  There are a lot of out of character moments where the crew decides they are going to go into the obviously dangerous place for the flimsiest of reasons.  I don’t want to spoil too much, but there are decisions made where you know that the character is deciding to walk into a death trap and low and behold, they get themselves killed.  I have seen other horror movies do this cliché worst, but it is unfortunate to see this movie do it as well, especially after it gets so many other things right.  The other flaw of this movie is the way it shoe-horns fan service.  It takes you out of the movie when the film will suddenly throw an Easter egg at you, especially when a character recites a line that’s a catch phrase made famous by the other movies.  There’s no reason for the characters to say those lines.  It’s just there to make the audience laugh or cheer and it’s pandering.  I would have rather the movie just used it’s connection with being part of the same universe as the only thread between itself and the other movies.  Shoehorning in Easter eggs and catch phrases just seems like a desperate move to garner audience approval.  Like I said before, the movie stands well enough on it’s own without them.  Fede Alverez nails the atmosphere and the thrills of this series.  He doesn’t need the assist of fans service.  Thankfully, these elements don’t drag the movie down as a whole, and if you’re not a long time fan of the series and just coming to this film casually, these references will likely just fly over your head.  But, for someone that is familiar with the series, I did find them a bit distracting and it was one of the things that did knock the movie down a peg in terms of it’s place as a part of the series as a whole.

What does work wonderfully in this film is the craft behind it.  When I say that this movie marks a return to form for this series, that’s in response to seeing the return to old school tactics in the filmmaking process.  Unlike most other legacy sequels that we have seen, particularly in this franchise, this one is relying less on wall to wall CGI and instead uses a lot more practical effects.  Sure, there are plenty of CGI moments in this movie, but I was very pleased to see that whenever we got a close-up of the xenomorphs or the facehuggers, they were actually done with either puppetry or with robotics.  That was what made the original films so effective, that the aliens themselves were manufactured to be physically on set.  The xenomorphs themselves were sometimes even portrayed on screen with stunt actors in a rubber suit, and I was happy to see that they did that here are well.  Of course, the wide shots used for the aliens resort to CGI models, and I’m happy to say that those shots are done effectively as well.  It’s what a good action movie should do, which is to mix you effects so that it tricks the eye.  You use the CGI to show the agility of the aliens that otherwise would be impossible with practical effects, and then mix that with the up close shots of the physical puppets and you’ll get a better result in making the alien creatures feel real and threatening, which thankfully this movie does.  The movie also does a great job with it’s world building, especially when it comes to the sense of scale in the physical environments.  Fede Alverez does an effective job of conveying the epic scope of the Romulus space station, while at the same time making the tight corridors feel effectively claustrophobic and foreboding.  And there are some shots in this movie that are just outright beautiful to look at, especially towards the end when the looming ring system begins to near the orbit of the space station.  There are also some really imaginative moments in the movie that I thought brought something new to the series, especially one sequence involving the acidic alien blood.  In many ways, this film has felt the closest in a long time to being the best spiritual successor to Ridley Scott’s original classic, at least in terms of the visuals.

The performances in this movie are generally good as well, though the personalities of the characters are very thinly defined.  The easiest highlight of the film is David Jonsson’s performance as Andy.  The synthetics of the series have always been some of the most interesting characters in the series, dating back to Ian Holm’s Ash in the original film.  Jonsson manages to create a surprisingly complex character out of an android with many limitations.  He is shown to be partially functioning in the beginning, but when he is plugged, so to speak with the operating system of the Romulus station, he almost becomes a new character, and it’s really interesting to see the actor pull of those two different aspects almost like he’s playing different characters in each situation.  There isn’t a whole lot to Cailee Spaeny’s Rain; she’s pretty much there to be a substitute for Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.  But, she does the best that she can do in the role, and she has excellent chemistry with David Jonsson in the film.  Their two characters are certainly the heart of the movie, so it is good to see the actors actually make that surrogate brother and sister dynamic work in the film.  The other actors in the movie are less well defined, but none of them are distractingly bad in their performances and for the most part are effective.  Let’s face it, these characters are just there to be lambs to the slaughter for aliens.  The movie doesn’t waste any time getting us to the gory parts of the movie so these characters don’t need to be particularly deeply defined personalities.  The movie does focus on the characters that matter and thankfully they are characters that we want to root for.  But at the same time, what we go to these movies for are the aliens themselves, and they’ve never been more complex than the deadly terror creatures that we’ve always known them to be.  The one caveat I will mention that I think might be divisive for many is the inclusion of a character loosely connected to the original film that they reference in this movie.  People are either going to love his inclusion here as an Easter egg or hate it and see it as pandering.  I was a bit iffy on it myself but it wasn’t a deal breaker for the experience as a whole, though it is another one of those things that does bring the movie down a peg.

In general, I would rank Alien: Romulus easily as the third best film in the series, though the gap between it and the two classics in front of it is vast.  The reason this gets the third spot is simply because we have been devoid of so many good films in this series that by being merely adequate enough it rises almost to the top.  What this movie gets right is it’s craft.  It has the look and feel of an Aliens film down, and it’s a great return to form for a series that sadly has lost it’s way over the years.  Just get things back to what works, which is scary aliens hunting humans in dark corridors, and that’s the bullseye that the movie manages to nearly hit.  The only thing that holds it back is the paper thin story behind it and the fact that it falls back on so many tired tropes.  I liked that the story was simple, but there has to be logic behind the characters’ motivations and sadly the movie just ends up making it’s characters look like idiots by having them resort to non-sensical actions to help propel the plot forward.  There are thankfully a couple characters that still garner sympathy, and thankfully they are the focus of the film.  I particularly was impressed with the work of David Jonsson, who brought a surprising amount of nuance to a character that otherwise would’ve been a tad bit unbelievable.  And what the movie does get especially right are the aliens themselves.  The xenomorphs are legit terrifying here, which is a welcome return to form after the unconvincing CGI versions that we saw in the movie Alien: Covenant.  It will be interesting to see what might happen next with this franchise; will it still lean into the horror aspect or will it become more action oriented.  I honestly would favor the former, because I’ve always associated Alien more with the horror genre.  My hope is that it stays in that vein in the future, but perhaps they can improve on it with a more grounded premise.  Perhaps a smaller cast of characters with which there will be more screen time devoted to building up their personalities.  Also, please refrain from shoe-horning Easter eggs and catch phrases into the film that don’t need to be there.  There are some frustrating fan service things about this movie, but I do feel that it does get a lot right as an experience, particularly in bringing back old filmmaking tactics that help to make it feel more timeless.  We’ll see what the future holds, and my hope is that Alien will hopefully become a franchise that once again brings out the terror of the unknown that awaits us in the vast darkness of space.

Rating: 7/10

Film Exhibit Reviews

D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2024 – Film Exhibition Report

It hasn’t been that long since the Walt Disney Company put on their last Expo in 2022.  But in those two short years, a whole lot of things have happened.  Mere months after the end of the expo, then CEO Bob Chapek was swiftly removed from his position and replaced by his predecessor Bob Iger.  In the aftermath, Iger has been working hard to fix all the problems that manifested during Chapek’s short but tumultuous tenure, and it’s been quit the mess they’ve had to clean up.  2023, which coincided with the company’s 100th anniversary, unfortunately turned into a difficult year for Disney with box office performance taking a big hit after a lot of costly misfires.  Through that economic uncertainty, which also resulted in a massive round of layoffs at the studio, Iger faced a lot of pressure to right the ship, which some investors were getting antsy about as the stock price began to tumble.  This led to a proxy fight that extended from late 2023 to early 2024, with Iger being threatened with termination by activist investor Nelson Pelz who was trying to buy his way onto Disney’s board.  Iger managed to hold off Pelz’s attack and maintain a board of directors that was on his side, but even with that victory, Iger still has a lot of work still to do to get Disney back on track.  There are positive signs though, especially at the box office with the massive success of both Inside Out 2 (2024) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) this summer.  Overall, Disney appears to be using 2024 as a cool down year, allowing them to regroup and reassess their plans by not flooding the market with too many new movies or shows.  But, they also need to get people interested in what they have planned for the future, which makes it fortunate that they have their bi-annual D23 Expo event happening this summer.  Taking over the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from Disneyland, this is the Walt Disney Company’s biggest celebration, meant to get fans and interested parties alike hyped up about what they have planned for the future, but this year there are definitely changes happening that will make this one unlike any other Expo before.

Like all the other past Expos I have covered, I will be taking in all three days on the Expo floor.  But due to some ticketing changes, my experience will be significantly different than it has been in past years.  Seeing as how they have outgrown the spaces that made available to them at the Anaheim Convention Center, particularly for their main presentations which attract thousands of attendees, Disney has decided to add an even bigger venue to the mix to help give them both more show floor in the convention space but also a bigger home for the big shows.  This year marks the debut of D23’s use of the nearby Honda Center as the event space for their biggest shows; namely their Studios Presentation, their Theme Park presentation, and their Disney Legends presentation.  The Honda Center, situated about a mile away from the Convention Center, is the regular home of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team and is also used for various other functions like concerts.  With a seating capacity of about 15,000 it doubles the seating capacity of what D23 used to seat in their Hall D23 from past years.  Unfortunately, hosting in the Honda Center also requires reserved seating, so this made getting a D23 pass a lot more competitive this year.  I’ve lucked out in the past managing to get into most shows in Hall D23, but sadly I struck out in getting a ticket to the two shows I wanted to see; the Studios and Theme Parks panels.  Thankfully, I did get a 3-Day pass to the convention hall and a Honda Center ticket to the Disney Legends show, but it was not easy.  This year was the fastest the D23 has ever sold out, so I consider myself lucky, but sadly my priority picks were gone before I got a chance.  But, silver lining, I won’t have to spend most of my day waiting in the queue space to enter the main shows like I have in past years, which will give me a lot more time to take in the Convention floor as well as get an opportunity to see some of the other panels that I otherwise would miss.  And I’ll still have that one Honda Center show to close out my experience.  So, what follows is my day by day account of the newly re-christened D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2024, complete with pictures of all the things I see.

FRIDAY AUGUST 9, 2024 (DAY 1)

Going into the first morning of the event, there was very much a notable change in how they were handling the crowds for this year.  In past years, queues just to enter the convention center would begin well before the rising of the sun, filling up the sidewalks along Katella Avenue and Harbor Boulevard which border the convention center.  This year, there were two big differences that changed this dynamic.  One, with the off location venue of the Honda Center taking the big presentations, there was no high demand for a prime spot in standby lines at the Convention Center.  Second, with Hall D no longer being the host for the big presentations, the cavernous hall was no open to more show floor, and in addition to that, a new corral for early morning queuing.  As a result, there was a far more relaxed atmosphere getting into the venue to start off the convention.  The security checkpoints were easy to get through, with no one impatiently trying to rush their way in.  There was no running to the corral area; everyone just leisurely walk their way to Hall D and lined up peacefully.  This was a very welcome change, and the added bonus was that were weren’t all held downstairs this time in the lower ceiling basement of Hall D. It was an overall less oppressive atmosphere in general, which was a massive improvement over previous years.  The only stressful part of the corral area was the impressively long line for the coffee bar.  All the corral lines that people queued up in were directed facing a curtain wall, in the center of which was a large arch with a “Welcome” sing above the entry.  What shocked me the most was the moment once the floor was open to all of us guests.  The curtain was drawn back at the archway, and each line was moved in one by one.  And this was done in a surprisingly orderly and quick process.  The large mass of thousands of us were on the show floor within less than five minutes.  Major kudos to the D23 crowd control team for making this a painless experience, which is very much something we’ve needed for years at this event.

Once through, there were plenty of immediately impressive sights to behold.  With the extra show floor this year, there was a clear effort this year to go bigger than ever at D23.  All the booths were grander in scale than years past.  There was even space open for a whole lot of queue-less attractions.  Everyone enters through the newly opened up Hall D, where the seating area for Hall D23 would’ve been in the past.  Immediately to the right was the Walt Disney Studio Archives exhibit, which for this year was made into a Car Show.  There on the show floor was an open exhibit floor filled with vehicles from across the history of the Disney company.  I didn’t have time to stop and look, so I’ll give details later.  To the left of the entry was the D23 Member lounge, the Walt Disney Company store and the Spotlight Stage; a barrier less stage area where acts would be rotating continuously throughout the convention.  Of course the meatier attractions still laid ahead.  Amongst all the show floor booths, many dedicated to partnered retail brands selling exclusive Disney merch, the many different arms of the Disney company also had impressively sized booths that were each must see attractions.  One thing that this convention had that made D23 an extra bit of fun was a scavenger hunt challenge called “The Great Pin Pursuit.”  One of the most widely collectible things at past D23 events has been enamel pins, so it’s a great idea on Disney’s part to turn it into a game.  By doing this, they have incentivized all of us interested guests to explore as many of the booths as we can in order to collect all the required pins for the challenge.  The booths which were participating in this were all related to different media wings of Disney; namely Hulu, FX, Freeform, ABC, ABC News, Disney Channel, National Geographic, and of course Disney+, which is where the hunt begins as it’s the place to collect your pin lanyard.  A lot of the booths in question showcased a bunch of different hit shows on the different platforms within the Disney Company.  The FX booth for instance spotlighted the hit show The Bear with a mock up kitchen made to look like the one in the show.  Others had a spot where you could record special videos, like the one with the Disney Channel.

There was a lot of stuff available on the upper levels of the convention space as well.  The newer Northern section of the Anaheim Convention Center was where they were housing the Disney Consumer Products booths.  This is where Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars were showing off their new merchandise lines to the public, with each area featuring both sneak previews of merch, some of which was available to buy, as well as additional activities.  Star Wars hosted an arcade experience in their booth, while Disney Publishing offered a coffee bar with free tastings of their new Sorcerer Mickey blend by Joffrey’s.  But perhaps the best attraction of this section was the area dedicated to Pixar.  They built a small miniature golf course themed to the films of Pixar.  There were 9 holes in total, with each one dedicated to a different movie.  And this wasn’t a cheaply put together course; there was some creative effort put into these different holes.  Unfortunately to better give everyone a fair turn, we were only allowed to play 3 holes of the 9.  The ones that I played on were themed to Monster’s Inc. (2001), Ratatouille (2007) and Coco (2017).  I parred Monster’s, birdied on Ratatouille and bogeyed on Coco in case you were interested.  It’s not a huge course, but it was definitely a fun one, and I found that to be one of my favorite floor experiences.  The other holes were dedicated to Inside Out (2015), Turning Red (2022), Toy Story (1995) Finding Nemo (2003) and Cars (2006), and for an extra bit of creativity there was a Pizza Planet truck style golf cart out in front.  On the same floor, there was another room called the Inside Out HQ.  Essentially it was a large activity room themed around the new hit film Inside Out 2 (2024), which included a stand where guests could make their own friendship bracelet, take a picture at a photo op with the characters Joy and Anxiety, and perhaps one of the cleverest ideas of all, take a ride on Mood Swings.  Some of these activities had long lines so it’s definitely a time killer with not much else to it.  Still, for some casual fun, it’s was a fun little space.  Taking up most of the real estate on this floor however was the biggest retail spot of the convention, called the D23 Marketplace.  For a lot of the con exclusive stuff, this was the place to go, especially a hot item like the $300 interactive model of the Star Speeder from the Star Tours ride.

With a lot of my activity dedicated to just looking at the stuff on the convention floor, there was little time to attend the many panels going on at D23.  The one that I did manage to take in happened in the late afternoon.  It was a panel dedicated to the making of the cult classic A Goofy Movie (1995).  Nearly reaching it’s landmark 30th Anniversary, the movie starring the classic Disney goofball is receiving it’s own behind the scenes documentary, which this panel was meant to help promote.  The panel was hosted by Disney Legend and producer of films like Beauty and the Beast (1991) and The Lion King (1994) Don Hahn, and the participants at this panel were the new documentaries producers Eric Kimelton and Christopher Ninness.  In addition, people involved with the making of the original film were present including director Kevin Lima, story artist Steve Moore, editor Gregory Perler and the voice of Goofy himself, Bill Farmer.  The team of panelists all discussed stories about working on the film, but they also talked about what went into the making of the new documentary.  Apparently director Kevin Lima had saved tons of behind the scenes footage that he shot himself and it became a valuable source for documenting the story behind the movies making.  They showed us various clips from the documentary, and the most surprising thing is that a large chunk of it is animated.  What the filmmakers did was use the stories and anecdotes from their interviews with the participants and had a team of animators bring those to life.  But not only that, they did it in the style of the movie, with actual hand drawn animation.  With that, my interest in the movie skyrocketed and now I am very eager to see the full finished thing.  Sadly, we’ll have to wait a while as there is no announced release date yet, but you would imagine that it’ll probably be around the anniversary next year and available on Disney+.  It’s especially hilarious how they visualize Jeffrey Katzenberg in the film.  It’s a panel that I was very happy to have fit in.  I spent the waning hour of the first day walking the show floor.  You could sense the smaller crowd as many people were making their way to the Honda Center for the Disney Studios presentation.  Sadly, I was not going to be one of them, so I had to get the scoops on the announcements from my follows on social media.  Not much was announced that was already known before hand, but from what I heard it was still a very impressive show.  For me, it was a low key night getting ready for Day Two.

SATURDAY AUGUST 10, 2024 (DAY 2)

Going into Day Number Two, word got around the floor about all the announcements from the Studios Presentation.  Quite a few people I talked to in line were luckier than I and were able to attend the show.  I certainly would’ve loved to be in that room too, but a lot of the announcements did make it online immediately after so I was able to be up to date.  On this middle day of the convention, my focus was to explore the different experiences that I had yet to do on my first day.  I still had a couple stops to go on my Great Pin Pursuit challenge, and these I would say were well worth saving for last as they involved the longest lines.  One was a spin the wheel challenge at the Freeform booth, where you would have the chance to win a prize.  With it being a Halloween theme game, in promotion of their upcoming 31 Days of Halloween programming block, you either were rewarded a Trick, a Treat, or a special Oogie prize.  Naturally, I didn’t win the big prize, but instead ended up with a Trick, which was a plastic spider.  Still, I got my pin reward for participating.  The bigger activity though was at the ABC booth, promoting the sitcom Abbott Elementary.  This booth was a full blown fair set up on the convention floor.  Once inside, you had the chance to take part in a few activities, including a hit-the bell game and a stand where you could get your caricature drawn by trained artists.  They also offered a complimentary gift of either a tote bag or trucker hat with a patch of your choice.  Honestly, you could spend more than hour just in this booth alone, which I kind of did as the line for a caricature was pretty lengthy.  But, with this one last booth, I completed my set of pins in the pin pursuit, for a total of 10.  It was probably smart to get this activity out of the way early in the convention, as it would free up the rest of my time there for other things.  It was also worth it to get my shopping done early.  One of the smart things that was introduced at the last Expo and continued here was a virtual queue system for the stores.  This helped to eliminate the excessive wait in line it would normally take in favor of select grouping being called throughout the day, similar to what they do at Disneyland for rides.

One other thing they used to manage the lines was a reservation system for the panels.  This was introduced back in 2022, and it basically allows attendees to select preferred choices in what panels and experiences they wanted to have a reservation for out of all the available options, and then they would be assigned one randomly from the choices we made.  However, unlike last time, all guests were only given one total for the entire convention, as opposed to the one per day we got the last time.  This was disappointing, but at the very least the reservation that I did get was for a panel that I did want to see.  Even though I missed out on the exclusive sneak peaks at the Disney Studios Presentation, I did get to attend a sneak preview presentation for the slate of upcoming projects from Marvel Animation.  Marvel Animation has seen a major surge in popularity recently, especially from the success of the X-Men ’97 series that premiered to acclaim this year.  The newest season has just started production so there wasn’t anything new to show us at this panel yet, but the makers of the show did bring out special guests from the cast of the series; Cal Dodd (Wolverine) and Lenore Zann (Rogue), both of whom have been playing these characters since the original 90’s animated series.  They shared their favorite moments and lines from the past episodes and where they hope the characters go next in the upcoming season.  Next, the creator of the multiversal series, What If?, Bryan Andrews, came on stage to show us a sneak peak of the third and final season coming up soon.  In this clips they showed, we could see some interesting new concepts that looked exciting, including a Marvel western and an episode where the Avengers fight in giant mech robots like something out of Power Rangers  or Pacific Rim.  The next show we were presented with is a series set in the Black Panther corner of the Marvel Universe called Eyes of Wakanda, and it’s an interesting looking exploration of the history of the fictional African kingdom, showing us the origins of the Black Panther title.  Next was a Spider-Man series call Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.  The art style in this one was interesting, because it felt like a cross between the Spider-Verse animation technique, but applied to the classic Steve Ditko look of Spider-Man comics.  The other big scoop we got was that Norman Osborne in this series was going to be voiced by recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, who was there on stage to greet us.  Latly, we got our first glimpse of the event series Marvel Zombies, which is a spin-off of the What If? Season One episode based on the popular comic series.  It also was confirmed to be Marvel’s first TV-MA rated show.  The scene we were shown focused on Shang-Chi and his friend Katy (Simu Liu and Awkwafina both returning to voice their character) fighting off against the titular zombies.  Overall, an exciting panel to watch.

With half of my second day over, it was time to finally get in an experience at one of the largest and most elaborate booths on the show floor; the one belonging to Marvel Studios.  It was clear what the theme for this massive experience was going to be from the outside.  The outside wall made the booth look like the office of the Time Variance Authority, or TVA, which has been featured prominently in both seasons of the Loki series on Disney+, as well as recently in Deadpool & Wolverine.  The queue switchbacks passed what looks like the reception desk, and once at the front of the line the next stop was a holding room guarded by a uniformed TVA agent called a Minute Man.  The guard corralled a few of us into the next room where we would get our pre-show orientation.  There was a glass window in from of us looking into another office, and through the glass, we get an appearance from the character Ms. Minutes who appeared in the Loki series (played by voice actress Tara Strong).  After she gives us the opening spiel, the door to our right opens up and we proceeded into a set of hallways, each with “time doors” that we could peer into.  The various doors had costumes from various Marvel movies, recreating different milestones in the MCU.  One was the Mach One suit from Iron Man (2008).  Another was Captain America’s, Thor’s and Doctor Strange’s costumes from Avengers: Endgame (2019).  Another was T’Challa and Shuri’s costumes from Black Panther (2018).  And the last display was of Deadpool & Wolverine, with the costumes of the titular duo.  Around the corner there was another doorway where Rocket Racoon was interacting with people who were walking by.  Using a new live performance animation technology, the Rocket on the screen disguised as a doorway could capture a hidden actors’ movements and speech i n real time, giving us a very impressive looking and personal one on one experience in this part of the attraction.  We were then allowed to move further through an actual open “time door” into another section of the experience dedicated to promoting the upcoming Disney+ series Agatha All Along, with a nice spooky atmosphere meant to emulate the Witch’s Road that will play a key role in the show.  After that, we exit while collecting a souvenir pin at end.  It was one of the most impressive experiences I’ve ever seen put together for the show floor at D23, feeling almost like an actual attraction you would experience in the theme parks themselves.  The level of detail put into this was really impressive, and it actually for a moment made you forget that you were still in the convention center.  Maybe it’s a possible preview for what Marvel has planned for the future in the theme parks.

One of the benefits of being in the convention center while many people were leaving to make their way to the Honda Center experience is that you do get to see the show floor cool down a bit, with the lines starting to lighten closer to closing time.  As the day was winding down. I was able to get into one more panel in the Premiere Stage housed in the Anaheim Convention Center’s arena building; the same one that I saw the Marvel Animation presentation in.  Thankfully, the demand for seating wasn’t as high this close to the end of the day, so I was able to find a seat without much trouble.  The final panel for this second day in the Premiere Stage was a show dedicated to the Animation Domination line-up of prime time cartoon shows airing on Fox and streaming on Hulu.  The panel opened up with a round-table discussion with the four creators of the biggest shows in the line-up; Seth McFarlane of Family Guy and American Dad, Matt Groening of The Simpsons and Futurama, Mike Judge of King of the Hill, and Loren Bouchard of Bob’s Burgers.  The discussion was funny to listen to, given the participants involved and the fact that comedian Jason Mantzoukas was moderating.  It was also funny to hear these guys drop a couple of F-bombs during the discussion given that this is a panel at a Disney convention.  The discussion went on for half an hour before the next part of the presentation began with three more 30 minute segments devoted to each show.  First up, Loren Bouchard returned to talk more about the next season of Bob’s Burgers, with cast and crew from the show joining him.  Then Matt Groening and his Futurama team came next, which included voice actors John DiMaggio, Phil Lamar and Maurice LaMarche.  Finally, the last half hour was devoted to The Simpsons, with Groening joined by long time producers Al Jean and Matt Selman, director David Silverman, and the voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright.  Each of the different presentations included Q and A’s with people in the audience as well as sneak peak showings of clips from the upcoming season.  The especially exciting news was that The Simpsons was going to be making, for the first time, streaming exclusive full episodes just for Disney+.  The animatic we were shown appears to be a parody of National Geographic documentaries, with the Simpsons characters portrayed as creatures from the animal kingdom.  It was an eventful and entertaining way to end Day Two, which sadly also meant that this was all going to be over soon.

SUNDAY AUGUST 11, 2024 (DAY 3)

The final day of D23, and you could feel the exhaustion in the air.  It was sad that so few minutes were left, but this was still going to be an exciting day, because I would finally get my chance to see the Honda Center set up they had with the closing Disney Legend ceremony.  Today I intended to finish all the experiences that I had yet to do up until then.  In particular, I had my sights set on the immersive National Geographic experience and the Lucasfilm booth, which put on display a real mock up of their breakthrough LED background tool called The Volume, which they have used on shows like The Mandalorian.  First up was National Geographic.  The massive booth they had built on the show floor was made for a film presentation experience called the Hexadome Experience.  Once inside, a group of guests are meant to stand in the center of the space with a ring of six large screens surrounding them.  When the presentation starts, all the screens have images projected on them from various different nature documentaries from the National Geographic library, including the Oscar winning Free Solo and the nominated film Fire of Love.  The experience was especially immersive, enhanced with a great surround sound element as well.  It reminded me a lot of the Circlevision attraction that used to be at Disneyland.  I hope this booth was done as a test for a possible return of the experience to the parks, because National Geographic would be a very valuable partner in that.  This was easily one of my highlights of the D23 experience and I was very happy to have not missed out on it.  Equally as impressive was the Lucasfilm experience.  Not only did we get a chance to see the groundbreaking technology behind the Volume that Industrial Light and Magic have invented to help make immersive background effects feel more lifelike, but guests visiting the booth were given the chance to have a special video made just for them filmed in front of the Volume.  Of course I took the opportunity, and I was impressed that they were doing this for D23 attendees in front of a working Volume, but with a real Digital Red camera, the same high quality camera used on the show, operated on a crane by one of ILM’s actual cameramen.  I got my short video shot, with a Star Wars droid by my side, and the results were pretty spectacular.  Of all the experiences of this D23, these were the absolute not to miss ones, and I’m glad I did not miss out.

One of the most interesting things about this D23 is the fact that it has attractions completely without a queue.  Most of the time, the lines will die down by the last day, but this year we had two main booths that people could come and go at their own leisure.  One of those was the Disney Studios Archives exhibit, which this year was presented as a Car Show.  in past years, the Archives exhibits would be these elaborate mini museums on the show floor which required lines to manage the capacity within it’s walls.  This year, no such walls were needed.  The cars involved in this showcase were parked out on the floor with no barriers around and you could walk among them and get up and close anytime you wanted over the course of the weekend.  Some of the cars on display were obvious choices; there were a couple of Herbie the Love Bugs there, as well as Cruella De Vil’s luxury cars, both from the Glenn Close version and the Emma Stone version of the character.  A lightcycle from Tron Legacy (2010) was also on display and a few vehicles used in Muppet movies, which included the open undercarriages that allowed the puppeteers to hide under the seats.  One of the other impressive inclusions was a Disneyland parking lot tram that was used back in the 80’s and 90’s, before the construction of Disney’s California Adventure took away the parking lot in front of the park.  For theme park fans, this was definitely an artifact that I don’t think many would ever see again.  The show floor’s other major exhibit without a line was the Imagineering Pavilion.  Here, the Walt Disney Imagineering employees were showing off all the new tech that they had developed for the theme park experiences.  Some of the neatest sights here were working Audio-Animatronic models, including a very life like one of Elsa from Frozen (2013).  There was also so really neat bipedal droid robots just walking around the exhibit, showing just how advanced interactive robots have gotten.  There’s also this neat new invention called the HoloTile floor, which was a type of tile that allowed movement without causing the thing on top to move out of place; something that could be revolutionary for VR experiences.  Like I said, this was an open ended exhibit, that is until the last day.  Because of the announcements made at the Parks Presentation the night before, a whole new room was opened up on Sunday, with new scale models of the announced attractions available for viewing, and of course the lines were long for this.  Sadly. I didn’t get word of this until after the line was cut off, but I did get a side view of the impressive new Encanto (2021) themed ride coming soon to Animal Kingdom in Florida.

Before I said goodbye to the Convention floor to make my way to the Honda Center for the closing night show, I did manage to fit in one more panel before hand.  It was a panel discussion celebrating the 90th anniversary of Donald Duck.  The panel was presented to guests in multiple parts.  Two people from the Disney Archives showed the audience a slide show of rare artwork from their vaults showcasing the history of Donald Duck, from his debut in the short The Wise Little Hen (1934) to the present day.  The second guest was a film preservationist who discussed his work at the Disney studio with restoring the old classic cartoons, and as a special treat we were given the premiere of the newest restoration of a Donald Duck short from the 1940’s called Donald’s Off Day (1944).  Finally there was an interview with two current Disney artists who have worked on Donald Duck recently; animator Mark Henn, who directed the short D.I.Y. Duck (2024) for Disney+, and the longtime voice of Donald, Tony Anselmo.  Anselmo shared some interesting stories about being trained by Donald’s original voice actor Clearance Nash, and how he approaches voicing Donald today and how it’s changed over the 40 years he’s been doing it.  At the end of the panel, the special guests and all of the audience sang a “Happy Birthday” song for the character, with Anselmo even singing in character, and of course a theme park Donald character ran on stage to take in that celebration.  A fun little panel that offered a great overview of the incredible 90 years of the character.  From there, I spent what little time I had left on the show floor to take in the who atmosphere and see if I missed everything.  In D23’s of the past, I usually would like to linger and catch the winding down of the convention, but this year would be different.  I had to get over to the Honda Center for my Disney Legends show, so sadly I had to leave the show floor four hours before it would actually close.  The Honda Center takes some time to travel to, so I needed those extra hours.  Thankfully, Disney was providing complimentary shuttles for all the guest who were attending the night time shows.  I got there about half an hour before showtime, and thankfully getting through security was a breeze, helped by the venue’s “no-bag” policy.  I took my seat in the massive venue, an I can definitely say just from that first impression this was a major upgrade from Hall D23.

Now began the finale to my three days of D23 and it was a far more elaborate show than I anticipated.  These ceremonies had always been special events in the past, but that was in the context of being part of a convention experience.  This time, Disney put some production behind this show, making it like it was a legit awards ceremony like the Grammys or the Oscars.  We got special guest appearances and live entertainment put on a really impressive show.  And it kind of makes sense that Disney wanted to make a bigger deal out of this, because this is the first Legends ceremony that was going to air for the public view via Disney+.  The honorees span across the Walt Disney Company’s history and represent it’s many different departments too.  The honorees this year were Harrison Ford, Jamie Lee Curtis, Angela Bassett, Martha Blanding, Colleen Atwood, James L. Brooks, James Cameron, Miley Cyrus, Steve Ditko, Mark Henn, Frank Oz, Kelly Ripa, Joe Rohde, and John Williams.  Each presentation of the award gave each honoree a big moment that included some neat surprises.  The highlights I would say were Jamie Lee Curtis leading a sing along with the audience of the Sherman Brothers’ “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow;” Martha Blanding, a theme park veteran who broke down so many barriers as a Black American employee who rose up the ranks of the Disney company; and Mark Henn, the animator of so many famous Disney Princesses, being honored by the voice actresses of his characters, those being Jodi Benson (Ariel), Paige O’Hara (Belle), Linda Larkin (Jasmine), Ming-na Wen (Mulan) and Anika Noni Rose (Tiana).  There were many special surprise guests as well, like Jodie Foster, Lindsey Lohan, Zoe Saldana, and even Danny DeVito.  But, the closing of the night was especially incredible as we got a live orchestra to perform the music of on of the honorees, the legendary John Williams, who sadly was unable to be there in person.  Naturally the medley of music was from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films and I definitely have to say that the orchestra was spot on.  The show ended after with a group photo of all the honorees and a blast of golden confetti from the rafters.  And that’s how my D23 experience came to an end, with a big finale.

This D23 generally had a much better vibe to it than the last one in 2022.  The previous D23 came at a time of uncertainty for Disney as it was at the peak of dissatisfaction with the Chapek regime at the company.  The most notorious story to come out of D23 2022 was that Chapek was booed during his brief appearance at the Legends ceremony of that year.  It was very different this year, as I could very much hear a huge roar of cheering from the crowd when Bob Iger walked on stage.  All of the announcements at this convention seemed to get the warm reception that Disney was hoping for.  From what I heard from a lot of people they were especially excited about the upcoming stuff they saw at the Parks Presentation.  I feel bad about missing out on the big shows, but I’m happy I did get to have one experience inside the Honda Center.  The new venue is definitely a better place to be holding these presentations and I hope they continue using it in future D23’s.  In general, there seemed to be a much bigger effort to impress this year than in past D23’s.  The more room on the show floor gave us bigger experiences to enjoy.  I was especially impressed with the Marvel and National Geographic experiences, which felt like full blown attractions worthy of the theme parks; which makes me think Disney was using them as test runs for feedback in their future plans.  I also love the introduction of the Pin Pursuit game, which gave guests an extra incentive to try out more of the experiences on the floor.  Even the third party booths were more elaborate than usual.  I just hope that in the future they can make the ticketing easier for their biggest shows.  Or maybe I was just unlucky and had to settle with what I got, which is still more than most.  Thankfully, I was still able to spend all three days there and have fun time.  The best thing was that I had more time in general to do as much as I could, because I wasn’t spending half of my day waiting in line for the big shows.  And at least I knew going in I wasn’t going to see two of them, so I didn’t have the disappointed feeling like the last D23 where I barely missed the cut off.  Overall, I am psyched about the future of the D23 experience and my hope is that the next on in 2026 will be just as grand if not better.  Thank you once again Disney, and in the words of the late great Richard Sherman, “Have a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”

Focus on a Franchise

Focus on a Franchise – DC Extended Universe (DCEU): Part Two

At the start of the year, I spotlighted the first half of what we know now as the DCEU, the DC Extended Universe.  What started off as DC Comics answer to the record breaking success of the MCU showed promise early on, but as the years went on the wheels quickly began to fall off.  It wasn’t just one problem that spelled the end for the franchise, but rather a string of bad decisions mixed with bad luck that quickly spiraled out of control and accelerated the demise that much quicker.  What I pointed out in my look at the first half of this retrospective was that the franchise was built on a shaky foundation from the get go, with the Superman movie Man of Steel (2013) being too much of a narrative mess to work as the launching pad of what was supposed to be a multi-decade long connected cinematic universe.  Even still, DC still managed to hit a home run with Wonder Woman (2017), the one time that people agreed that they made something equal to or even superior to a Marvel movie.  DC also looked for a little bit like they were cooking and getting their formula down with surprise hits for Aquaman (2018) and Shazam (2019).  But, there was one misfire that was hanging a cloud over the whole enterprise which was the doomed production Justice League (2017).  Even the most die hard DC fans had a hard time defending the movie because it was so abundantly clear how the movie was mismanaged to death during it’s production.  Marvel had already aced two Avengers films by that point, and were about to hit their high note only a year later with the dual threats of Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019).  If DC couldn’t make their Justice League movie happen, then what was the point.  But as we would see, there were far more monumental things around the corner that would put an end to the DCEU’s brief reign even more.  As we look at the final stretch of the DCEU, we’ll see how world events collided with DC’s plans for the future, as well as how a sea change behind the scenes would point to the final days of this franchise in order to bring about a new future.

WONDER WOMAN 1984 (2020)

Directed by Patty Jenkins

Initially there was a lot of excitement leading up to the premiere of this Wonder Woman sequel.  Both star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins were returning, and the story was bringing us an unknown chapter in the heroine’s history, which was her formative years between WWI and when she finally joined the Justice League.  Specifically, the movie set itself in the 1980’s, which was an interesting choice for the film as it made the movie very tonally distinct from the first film.  Where 2017’s Wonder Woman was a more serious, war themed movie, Wonder Woman 1984 was more playful in keeping with the brighter, 80’s aesthetic.  It seemed like Patty Jenkins drew a lot of influence from the Richard Donner Superman films, which were also from this specific time period.  Like the Donner Supermans, WW84 has a bit more comedic slapstick thrown in with all the action set pieces.  Unfortunately, this shift in tone was not welcomed very well by audiences.  Many felt that it betrayed the spirit of the original and turned Wonder Woman into a less serious character.  I’m one of the few that didn’t seem to mind this tonal shift, because I feel that Patty Jenkins did a strong enough job setting up that this was going to lean a bit more into the cartoonish aspect of this comic book world and setting the story in the 1980’s helped out with that.  It does an effective job of feeling like it would be a comic book movie from the 1980’s, and in a good way; though I’m sure most others would feel different.  There are some truly beautiful moments in the movie that go unappreciated, like the flight through the fireworks aboard an invisible jet.  The inclusion of Pedro Pascal as the film’s scheming villain, Max Lord, was also a strong point of the movie.  Sadly, Wonder Woman 1984 had it’s release massively affected by the pandemic, with it’s release pushed off of it’s original June 2020 date.  Eventually, it got released on Christmas Day 2020, in a first of it’s kind hybrid theatrical and streaming release that would later turn into Warner Brother’s disastrous “Project Popcorn” plan in the following year.  Overall, it’s a misunderstood film that sadly didn’t get the proper opportunity to prove itself.

ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021)

Directed by Zack Snyder

One of the unlikeliest resurrections in cinema history.  When the original Justice League crashed and burned at the box office in 2017, rumors immediately rose about a mythical “Snyder Cut” still being housed in the Warner Brothers vault.  While both WB and Zack Snyder insisted that there was no finished alternate cut of the movie, a movement still grew around wishing for Zack Snyder’s original vision for the Justice League movie to exist in any way.  In a few short years, the #ReleasetheSnyderCut movement became too big to ignore, and sadly it also grew into something a bit toxic as well with the movement getting hijacked by bad faith players.  Still, opportunity rose for an actual Snyder Cut to become a reality when Warner Brothers was looking for a buzz-worthy project to spotlight on their newly launched streaming platform, HBO Max.  To everyone’s surprise, not only was Warner Brothers bring Zack Snyder back to complete his version of the Justice League, but they were giving him a $75 million budget for reshoots and CGI fixes, as well as bringing back whatever actors he needed.  It’s mind blowing that Warner Brothers agreed to do this and invest so much money, given how poorly the original film was received.  But, even in the midst of a raging pandemic, Zack Snyder was able to complete his Justice League, which ended up being a nearly double the original film in length.  Was it any better?  In most ways, yes.  The visual effects were much improved, particularly with the villain Steppenwolf, who looked much better and less like the video game quality character he was in the first movie.  Also, the extra two hours of story line helped to flesh out characters who were mostly trimmed out of the first movie.  Ray Fisher’s Cyborg gets the biggest boost in character development, and you see from Zack Snyder’s cut of the film that he was actually supposed to be more of the main character, which makes the original film extra insulting as a result.  But, a lot of Zack Snyder’s style over substance faults still persist, so while it’s definitely the superior version of this story, it’s still not a great movie overall.  And at 4 hours long, it can be a slog to sit through.  It’s hard to feel the excitement for a Justice League movie when it’s longer than Gone With the Wind (1939).  Still, the Snyder fans got what they wanted, and perhaps the best thing about a “Snyder Cut” finally existing is that people no longer have to complain about it.

THE SUICIDE SQUAD (2021)

Directed by James Gunn

Here we have another example of DC seeking the help of a director from the Marvel camp to fix their broken franchise.  Only in this case, the plan actually worked.  DC snatched up James Gunn at the most opportune time, after Disney had foolishly rushed to terminate his employment at Marvel due to controversial jokes he made on Twitter.  Marvel of course would manage to woo him back for one more Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but Gunn had already been welcomed fully into the DC community by then, and as it would turn out, it would soon become all his in a few short years.  But what would James apply his unique style in the DC universe?  Well, the answer seems pretty in character for a filmmaker who’s drawn to stories about outlaws and misfits.  He would become the new voice behind the Suicide Squad franchise.  David Ayer’s original was unfortunately a movie that suffered a lot of studio interference when Warner Brothers wanted to shift the movie to a lighter tone; ironically citing Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) as a reference.  Now, they had the mastermind of the Guardians franchise, and you can bet that’s what they intended him to bring to the movie.  Creatively, The Suicide Squad is a success on all levels.  Gunn doesn’t miss a beat, bringing his trademark weirdness to the the story, only this time no longer burdened by a PG-13 rating, as this one was aimed from the get go as a hard “R”.  Thankfully, he knew to keep the best elements of the Ayer version, and retained Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnemann as Rick Flag, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller in his cast.  The movie also had great additions to the cast like Idris Elba as Bloodsport, David Dastmalchian as Polka-Dot Man, and John Cena as Peacemaker, who also received his own spin-off series which is also amazing.  And then there was the inclusion of King Shark to the movie (voiced hilariously by Sylvester Stallone) who is just a delight from beginning to end.  But you just know that James Gunn’s top goal for this movie was to make Starro the main villain.  A bizarre character like that could only be truly realized under James Gunn’s vision.  Sadly, due to Warner Brother’s disastrous “Project Popcorn” initiative, which made their entire 2021 slate hybrid releases, Gunn’s The Suicide Squad didn’t get the box office success it deserved.  But as fate would have it, Gunn’s time in the DC leadership was only just starting.

BLACK ADAM (2022)

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Of all the movies in the DCEU, this is the one that probably had the longest development in total.  Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  There was talk of Johnson being interested in the role all the way back in 2007, long before the DCEU was even a thing.  However, those plans kept being put on hold as DC was planning it’s course in the wake of Marvel’s rise with it’s cinematic universe.  There wouldn’t be any traction for a project that would feature the famous DC rogue until 2017, when the Shazam movie started production.  All the while, Dwayne Johnson still remained committed to the role, and over time as he began his own production company Seven Bucks, he was more involved in the actual development as well.  While the pandemic postponed things even further, a Black Adam movie finally went into production with an intended release for Fall of 2022.  Unfortunately, this film was coming at a shaky time not just for DC in general, but for comic book movies as a whole.  For many fans, super hero movie fatigue seemed to finally be hitting in the post pandemic market.  The once mighty genre was not pulling in audiences like it used to, though some of that may have been due to the pandemic affecting theatrical attendance.  But, Dwayne Johnson remained confident in his Black Adam movie, and perhaps a bit too naïve.  He defiantly said that his movie was going to shake up the entire DC hierarchy, which definitely came across a bit too cocky and self-indulgent, which wouldn’t be so bad if he had a great movie to back that enthusiasm up with.  Sadly, Black Adam was not a great movie.  It was by no means a terrible movie, but it also wasn’t game-changing either.  One of the big problems was that Black Adam lacked any character.  Sure Dwayne Johnson looked amazing in the suit and definitely felt like the character come to life, but the movie failed to make him interesting.  The film is very by the numbers as far as comic movies go, and it feels like a waste of potential, especially with the inclusion of the Justice Society of America characters.  Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate was an especially strong casting coup, but sadly he feels squandered too.  The mediocre result of Black Adam, as it would turn out, would be the first really true sign that the end was near for the DCEU, and the following year would get worse.

SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS (2023)

Directed by David F. Sandberg

In a year that in general very hostile towards comic book movies, both from Marvel and DC, this Shazam sequel seemed to have especially fallen victim to the increased audience apathy towards the genre.  The film grossed a staggering low $57 million at the domestic box office, and it couldn’t use the pandemic as an excuse for it’s sluggish performance either.  The days where even an obscure character like Shazam could become a success at the box office appeared to be over, as this movie made less in it’s entire run than what movies of it’s type used to make in their first weekend, and in some cases their first day.  And it’s too bad, because Fury of the Gods is a pretty decent movie when you look at it on it’s own.  Returning director David F. Sandberg managed to maintain the general sense of fun that the original Shazam film had and this sequel does what all good sequels do which is to build upon what worked in the original.  I do like that the movie leans much more into the mythology behind the Shazam character, while at the same time finding ways to make those bigger elements feel at home in this sillier style of comic book story.  In this movie, Billy Batson and family come across a trio of goddesses, played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler, all of whom are great additions to the cast.  Zachary Levi also continues to work well as the titular super hero, bringing a great deal of funny moments to the movie.  The one downside is that Asher Angel, the actor who plays Shazam’s de-powered alter ego Billy Batson, gets far less screen time this go around, which is a shame because his emotional arc was a highlight in the first movie.  On the other hand, another star of the first film, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, gets much more to do in this film and is definitely one of the highlights here.  What makes this movie and the original film stand out among all the DCEU films is that they find the right balance between sincerity when it comes to the high stakes of comic book adventure, while at the same time knowing to keep things silly and colorful like a comic book usually does.  This may have the reputation of being the DCEU’s biggest bomb, but anyone who looks at it outside of it’s box office numbers will see that it’s still an overall fun time.

THE FLASH (2023)

Directed by Andy Muschietti

Perhaps the most cursed film in all of the DCEU.  Everything that could go wrong with this movie did in fact go wrong, and more than any other film, this put the nail in the coffin of the DCEU, even though there were still two films still to go on the calendar.  Things went bad for this movie even before super hero fatigue set in.  While it was inevitable that a Flash movie would get made in the wake of the formation of the Justice League, getting it into production was a hassle from the beginning and never got better.  The original director Rick Famuyiwa dropped out fairly early in 2016 and the film was left on hold for years while the film’s star Ezra Miller was busy working in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.  In the meantime, numerous rewrites occurred, with numerous scriptwriters being hired to give the troubled project shape.  Eventually, Andy Muschietti of the IT series fame was given the role of director and cameras finally started rolling in 2019.  Unfortunately, the pandemic delayed things even more.  And then in 2022, just as the movie was finally getting set to be finished, Ezra Miller got themselves involved in a string of scandalous, career ending crimes that unfortunately cast a dark cloud on the movie as a whole.  At this point, Warner Brothers and DC had already invested well over $200 million dollars into this beast of a project, and now they had a movie that tied to a disgraced figure that was going to bring this movie bad press no matter what.  What were they going to do?  Put it in theaters and hope for the best or dump it quietly onto streaming and cut their losses.  It ultimately was decided to go with the latter.  There was some faint hope.  Apart from the whole Ezra Miller of it all, the story was centered around a multiversal storyline based on the beloved “Flashpoint” arc from the comics.  Here, just as with what Marvel was doing with their own venture into the multiverse, DC could mine from their past glories to have some fan favorite casting choices to fill their cast.  The most exciting part of this movie was that it was going to mark the return of Michael Keaton to the role of Batman.  In truth, seeing Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight, full rubber suit and all, is the one worthwhile thing in this movie.  Everything else, sadly is not.  Nothing could save this film from all of it’s backstage woes, and the film is a jumbled mess anchored, which Ezra Miller was ill-equipped to save.  It makes things even worse when they have to play an alternate universe Barry Allen whose even more obnoxious.  The movie tanked at the box office, and it was very soon after that DC threw in the towel, announcing that they were scrapping all future projects in the DCEU beyond that year, aiming for a full reboot.  Sadly the sour taste of The Flash cast a cloud over the two films that remained, neither of which was nearly as bad.

BLUE BEETLE (2023)

Directed by Angel Manuel Soto

The timing of this movie’s release could not have been worse.  It released into theaters on the heels of the failure of The Flash, and to make things worse it had it’s publicity kneecapped by the ongoing Writers and Actors’ strikes of Summer 2023, and it had to compete against the juggernaut of the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that was dominating the box office.  Suffice to say, Blue Beetle did not perform well in theaters.  But, the fact that it made it to theaters at all was a bit of a triumph in itself, as it was originally meant to be a direct to streaming release.  The film was a bit of a milestone for the genre, because it was the first super hero film centered around a Latino main character.  Though Blue Beetle has gone through multiple personas throughout the years in the comics, it was wise of DC to spotlight the Jaime Reyes version in his big screen debut, and to also lean heavily into his cultural heritage.  While it is for the most part a formulaic super hero origin movie, it does do the right thing in making Jaime a likable and interesting character, and a lot of the success with the character has to do with the solid casting of Xolo Mariduena in the role.  Xolo brings the right amount of physicality to the role, helped by his training working on the show Cobra Kai, but he also brings an innocent charm to the character as well, making him a bit of a goofball in addition to being a good fighter.  What also helps to elevate the movie is that it makes all the members of the Reyes family just as important to the story as the main hero.  Each one is a well defined character which is refreshing in a genre that sometimes doesn’t devote enough characterizations to it’s supporting players.  Despite the movie not performing well at the box office, it has thankfully found a following on streaming and is generally well regarded by genre fans.  It’s reputation has been salvaged so much that Xolo Mariduena is one of the few actors whose actually going to keep his role moving forward in the reboot of the DC Universe in the years ahead.  That in a way is it’s own triumph, and a reflection that the movie stands well enough on it’s own as a solid entry into the super hero genre.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM (2023)

Directed by James Wan

And here we come to the end of the road for the DCEU.  Sadly, when this movie went into production, no one was anticipating this is where it would all end, so this standard sequel feels something like an anticlimax.  Is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom a sour note to end the DCEU on.  Well, it’s not the worst movie that DC could’ve closed this chapter on.  Lost Kingdom is a sub par sequel at best.  It really feels like everyone in the film is just doing it because they were under contract.  There isn’t a drive to have this movie prove itself and smash any expectations.  I will say that it at least doesn’t feel as overblown as the first film.  It keeps things simple, with Aquaman again being called upon to save the world like he always does, only this time he needs the help of his estranged half brother Orm the Oceanmaster (Patrick Wilson returning to the role).  Another good thing is that Aquaman’s arch nemesis Black Manta is finally elevated to the main villain role this time around, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II does a great job of making him an effective sinister force.  But, like the first movie, the sequel also gets bogged down in unconvincing CGI environments that never feel real, and too many subplots just end up padding the film further.  At least Jason Mamoa brings some buoyancy to the film, and he reminds you quite a bit why he was a great choice for the role in the first place.  Overall, the movie ends the DCEU on a whimper with a barely passable final film, though it is far from DC at their worst.  I get the feeling that the final scene of the movie was a late addition, with Mamoa picking up a microphone and yelling defiantly, “I am Aquaman,” in a mirror of the scene that started off the MCU with Robert Downey Jr. declaring “I am Iron Man.”  That scene was probably added knowing that it was going to be the sign off for the DCEU, so what better way to end this Cinematic Universe than by copying how another began.  DC has been accused of chasing Marvel all throughout the run of the DCEU, but they managed to do with this movie something that Marvel has yet to do, which is to close the book and start anew.

It’s hard to sum up the whole of the ten years of the DCEU.  It can’t be seen as a complete failure, as it did produce some genuine hits like Wonder Woman and Aquaman.  But it sadly was never able to completely escape the shadow cast by Marvel during that same time.  It was also a franchise that suffered through a lot of bad luck and bad decisions.  It was perhaps a bad choice from the beginning to use the Zack Snyder aesthetic to build the foundation of this franchise off of.  And then the course correction during the making of the Justice League only made matters worse, and it gave the franchise a black eye that it never recovered from.  And just when DC was starting to find it’s groove midway through, the pandemic disrupted all of those well laid plans, and the strikes made it near impossible to recoup soon thereafter.  But, even with all that bad luck, there were some things that did work out for DC in the long run.  They lucked out in getting James Gunn into their camp during his brief departure from Marvel.  And now that he’s closed the book on his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy in the MCU, he’s now back to DC to not only continue making movies with them, but to also steer the future of the franchise as a whole as DC’s new creative director.  Effectively, he is now carrying on the same role at DC that producer Kevin Feige has had at Marvel all throughout it’s rise.  Naturally, to begin this new phase of the DC universe, Gunn is going to bring a new take on the “man of steel” with next year’s Superman (2025), which he is directing himself.  Hopefully it provides a stronger foundation than what the DCEU had.  If anything, poor planning and envy were the main factors behind the downfall of the DCEU.  But, over time, we may look back on the DCEU as a fascinating era of the comic book movie genre.  It did give us plenty good to even great films.  Some are even worth rediscovering like the Shazam films, or Blue Beetle, or Birds of Prey.  If I had to single out my favorites, it would be the movies that embraced their quirkiness, which would exclude pretty much the whole Snyderverse side of the franchise.  James Gunn’s Suicide Squad is objectively the best one, but it also kind of stands on it’s own.  For a purely great DCEU style film, I feel Shazam was the movie that came closest to hitting all the right marks.  Hopefully history will recognize the best that the DCEU had to offer, because there were definitely gems hidden amongst all that sludge.