DCU Blog - July 2023 Edition: More Heroes For Superman: Legacy, Blue Beetle Approaches and The Flash Goes Audio

Well, with both the writers and actors currently striking and studios learning the wrong lessons, we're in for a few bumpy months ahead. Anyways, here's a round up of this month, DC wise.

Before the actors strike kicked off, four additional cast members were revealed for Superman: Legacy. Nathan Fillion will play Guy Gardner, Isabela Merced will play Hawkgirl, Edi Gathegi will play Mister Terrific and Anthony Carrigan has been cast as Metamorpho. 

There's a rumoured actor for Jimmy Olsen but I'll wait to see if/when that specific casting gets confirmed. It's very likely to be that actor though.

James Gunn has confirmed there are no current plan for a Suicide Squad project for the DCU but has potentially confirmed big screen animated movies.

Because of the strike, it's unlikely that any pre-production or casting will be done for The Batman - Part II this year.

Blue Beetle is due for release this upcoming month (August 18th) and in a turn of events, even Zack Snyder and David Ayer have tweeted/posted in support of the movie, with Xolo Mariduena in the lead role.

Overall The Flash has made $268.1 million from the box office but managed to get number one upon its digital release for it's first week.

Zachary Levi has also spoken out about the criticisms surrounding Shazam! Fury Of The Gods while also admitting to being uncertain about his future within the DCU.

Prior to production shutting down on the second season of The Sandman, it was revealed that Indya Moore had joined the cast in an undisclosed role.

Michelle Gomez had voiced concerns that Max might not release the final episodes of Doom Patrol though James Gunn has assured they will be released later this year.

Carmen Ejogo's character, Eve will be a love interest for Oswald Cobblepot for The Penguin series on Max.

Max Greenfield was cast as Barry Allen for the audio series, The Flash: Escape The Midnight Circus, which was released this month.

The 2024 DC Animated movies will be Watchmen and Justice League: Crisis On Infinite Earths.

A prequel comic series for Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom will be released from October. 

The final episode of Superpowered: The DC Story will be released on Max from August 3rd and air on SkyShowcase from August 7th at 11.30pm.

That's it for this month. As always, let's see what happens next month.

My Review of My Adventures With Superman 1x05: "You Will Believe A Man Can Lie"

 

Written by M Willis And Cynthia Furey And Aman Adumer 

Directed by Diana Huh

The General: "Be seeing you, Superman."

Well, that certainly escalated a lot faster than expected. Lois found out that Clark and Superman were the same person last week and this episode she went to extreme lengths to get him to admit the truth. Then things went south for the pair very fast.

While I do like this version of Lois, there's no denying that she's far more reckless than other versions. I get that she felt a bit betrayed over Clark not telling her sooner but maybe she could have cut him a bit more slack too. Especially given that he's not the only man in her life not being tototally honest with her.

Yeah, the General working with Amanda Waller and Agent Wilson/Deathstroke clearly was meant to be General Sam Lane. His interactions with Superman were extremely hostile and when Wilson had the perfect kill shot, it was Lane that told him to stand down. Despite Lane's clear hostile for aliens, Superman got through to him by just saving a group of civilians on a bus.

I did find it interesting that guest villain - a female version of Heat Wave was convinced that Superman was responsible for the tech metas getting kidnapped before Agent Wilson/Task Force X made their presence known. Villain wise, they didnt feel as spotlighted as previous ones have been this season.

As for Jimmy, he spent a lot of the episode feeling left out by Lois and Clark and also having to spend time with Steve Lombard. While the latter might have certainly wound Jimmy up, he sadly did raise some points about the latter being a lone wolf.

Jimmy spent the episodes wanting his friends to go with him to find a Sasquatch before going it alone. On top of that, a big gorilla snatched him, ending the episode on a cliffhanger. You probably should've stayed stayed at home, Jimmy.

- Steve was quickly revealed to be a Flamebird troll account. Jimmy had a video about Sub Diego/Atlantis.

- Clark had his own investigation board, drawing the links between Livewire, Silver Banshee and Parasite. 

- General Lane was seen in Clark's flashbacks. Agent Wilson was dressed as Deathstroke. 

- Chronology: Not long from the last episode. 

You Will Believe A Man Can Lie certainly put Lois and Clark in a very awkward position. While I sympathised with the former, I was more on the latter's side here. The ending was good though as was the whole Jimmy subplot.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 4x03: "Icons Only"

 

Written by Sarah Nevada Smith 

Directed by Michaell Moloney

Harley (to Ivy): "I've decided to move in with the Batfamily."

Well, I guess they're really going all in with Harley commiting to the Batfamily this season. Though this episode also had Harley actively avoiding Batgirl's phone call until that final revelation.  Again, that will probably cause some problems later on.

This episode certainly showed Harley to be an outcast in the villain community to the point everyone who wasn't Ivy was openly hostile to Harley. Then again this episode was mostly in Vegas at a villain holiday and Harley no longer applied as one in that regard.

Harley's solution to that issue was to steal a pink wig, take on the alias of Hargret and to work with Ivy to steal some tickets for Clayface's residency gig. Oh and a bit of fooling around with each other in the elevator while dressed as bellhops. 

Speaking of Clayface, we saw Ivy ignoring him during the premiere episode, only for it to have consequences here. The two of them really came to blows and Harley wasn't able to resolve their conflict. I'm not sure I like this side of Clayface to be honest.

Of course what did stop Ivy and Clayface from turning Las Vegas into a bloodbath was Tabitha giving birth to the nine baby sharks. Tabitha then took one of them and left the remaining eight for King Shark to look after. I guess that's Tabitha gone for a bit. 

Harley and Ivy's mutual affection for making fun of the baby sharks did get them to end the episode on a funny note. Maybe a little bit mean, but at least they did reconnect after struggling a bit in this episode. Now let's hope they can reconnect with Clayface.

- Snowflame the coke snorting baddie got tied to the bed with a chocolate grenade in his mouth.

- We got to see Starro and Ragdoll in this episode to name a few characters. Not to mention a cheeky reference to And Just Like That.

- Tabitha really did want to snog a stage magician and did. King Shark cut off a mermaid's tail to make that labour inducing gumbo.

- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

Icons Only had fun with the Vegas setting but I was kind of disappointed with the way Clayface and Ivy turned on each other. Everything else was pretty fun though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 4x02: "B.I.T.C.H."

 

Written by Ava Tramer

Directed by Joonki Park

Talia (message bag to Ivy): "The future is female. And evil."

Yes, after the last scene in the opening episode, Talia Al Ghul has made her proper debut and I have to admit, I like this show's version of the character more than Catwoman. Already she's appearing to be a strong addition to the show.

Mainly because she seems to naturally fit into both Harley and Ivy's separate worlds and quite effortlessly to boot. With Harley, though it's it's dynamic that could get antagonistic very fast though.

Talia's arrival at Wayne Manor meant that she was taking over the family business, which also meant the Batfamily and of course, that also meant that Alfred's job was on the line. His solution included the meaning behind the acronym of the episode. That mostly involved making Harley step up a gear this week.

Harley got benched as punishment for killing Peofessor Pyg and we got some genuinely entertaining scenes between her and Alfred. While Harley foiled a robbery and Alfred was hoping to be reunited with Bruce, the former earned herself a superhero costume. 

As for Ivy, she got collared into an evil ladies lunch thing, led by Veronica Cale. Ivy didn't seem too impressed with Cale and I can't say I blame her. However she was very much impressed with Talia, almost to the point of having a girl crush on her. Then Ivy realised Talia was the enemy and suddenly Joker wasn't her biggest problem of the episode.

The dynamic between Ivy and Talia was definitely a highlight outside the Harley/Alfred scenes with this one. Still though, Ivy has yet to do anything even remotely evil at the Legion of Doom. I mean she didn't even try that hard to kill the Joker but she did give Talia a worthy professional adversary. 

- The acronym in question stood for: breathe, identify the problem, tea break, consider your options and handle it.

- Bane has a crush on Nora Fries and she used that to get him to fix the handle of a broken pasta maker and organise a baby shower for King Shark.

- Of course Talia has a Lazaru project of her own. We got to see the effects on Cheetah.  Firefly, Livewire, Captain Cold and Volcana also appeared in this one.

- Chronology:  Not long from the previous episode.

B.I.T.C.H. absolutely had fun with the title, the comments on third wave feminism (exemplified by every scene with Veronica Cale) and in general the scenes with Harley/Alfred and Ivy/Talia were fun. A very entertaining episode.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Harley Quinn's 4x01: "Gotham's Hottest Hotties"

 

Written by Tom Hyndman

Directed by Vinton Hueck

Harley: "I have to save Nightwing."

And we're back. After that delightfully bonkers Valentine's Day special back in February, the fourth season has finally arrived and it's off to a madcap start.

Last season Harley decided to work with the Batfamily and Ivy took over the Legion of Doom while Lex took to the moon. Needless to say, both ladies are having a hell of a time at their new jobs.

For Ivy, she's found out a bit too quickly that her male co-workers don't care for a woman in charge. She tried the nice boss bit by letting them do whatever they wanted, only for Bane to blow up an oil rig. That in itself defeated Ivy's ambitious plan for socially conscious evil and she had to become tough boss to get them all in line. Plot wise, this was rather funny stuff.

As for Harley, being a superhero had its conflicts. She couldn't get Ivy to give her info on crimes and she annoyed Nightwing by referencing his ass way too many times. However, Nightwing's ass also became an asset in taking out the mystery slicer this week.

Well, not a mystery because we all knew it was Professor Pyg's MO and he made a point about certain beautiful people whom he later attacked for hands and a clavicle. Oh and using Nightwing to catch him out managed to work in Harley's favour.

Within this first episode we had both Harley and Ivy finding success in their new jobs in a roundabout way. However Ivy's success also seemed to attract the attention of someone who's clearly meant to be Talia Al Ghul, so there's our season Big Bad.

- Clayface popped up as an ad while Ivy was watching boss tutorials by Veronica Cale. Nora Fries became Ivy's right hand woman while Snowflame was the most hostile to Ivy.

- King Shark and Tabitha are expecting their own baby sharks while Alfred took an immediate dislike to Bruce's prison butler, Alvin.

- Again, Max opened up with a triple bill and I'll get to the remaining episodes in the next day.

- Chronology: Not long since the events of the Valentine's Day special.

Gotham's Hottest Hotties had it's fun with Nightwing's behind, the hijinks of making a new career work while setting up whatever they're going to do with Talia Al Ghul. All the while Lex Luthor takes a phallic shaped rocket to the moon.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Barbie (2023)

 

Written by Greta Gerwig And Noah Baumbach

Directed by Greta Gerwig

Ruth (to Barbie): "Humans have one ending. Ideas live forever."

Things that I did not have on my movie bingo card for 2023 would be how much of a juggernaut this movie would be. I mean, it was clearly going to be a success story but on the level it's become one even before it's release was unprecedented. There are definitely going to be studies on this movie in years to come.

Everyone knows who and what Barbie is and what it represents. There are positive and negative connotations to the iconic doll and the fact that a seemingly family friendly movie would dare to explore both ideas with proper conviction will be a huge reason why this movie alone will have an enduring future legacy.

Opening with an amusing narration from Helen Mirren about little girls tiring of baby dolls and taking to Barbie (Margot Robbie), we then cut to our Stereotypical Barbie waking up in Barbie Land, greeting her fellow dolls and keeping the Stereotypical Ken (Ryan Gosling) firmly in the friends zone, much to his chagrin. Of course, not being interested in Ken romantically has repercussions but it's all part of a bigger plot.

The big plot of course having Stereotypical Barbie disrupt her own disco party by bringing up the notion of death. Not only that but when her waffles burn, her landings miss the mark and her feet go flat, much to the horror of the other Barbies, it's time to for Stereotypical Barbie to address some issues she'd rather not.

Thanks to Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), there's a need for both Barbie and Ken to leave Barbie Land and go to the real world where both get the crash course on the pros and cons of humanity and the roles between men and women in general. Let's just say what Ken takes away from it differed to what Barbie did.

For Ken, it was a case of turning Barbie Land into Kendom Land where his fellow Kens began to rule over the Barbies while Barbie herself met the Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) who wanted to to put her back into the box while also connecting her humans. The humans being Mattel employee Gloria (America Ferrera) and teenage daughter, Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). The latter of whom was particularly brutal to Barbie at first while the former was instrumental in Barbie reclaiming Barbie Land from the Kens.

The commentary on gender in this film isn't subtle but nor is it mean spirited and demonising of men in general. Neither does it present women as perfect. In fact through the Barbies, the Kens, discontinued characters like Midge (Emerald Fennell) and Allan (Michael Cera) as well as the humans in question, the movie does an excellent job with both men and women overall. 

Performance wise, it's undeniably Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling who excel here but there are so many other performances that need to be praised. In terms of the other Barbies, I have to praise Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae (President Barbie), Alexandra Shipp (Writer Barbie), Emma Mackey (Physicist Barbie) and Hari Nef (Doctor Barbie).

In terms of the Kens, they're not defined by roles but Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Ncuti Gatwa certainly had some nice moments while Michael Cera was just hilarious as Allan. Oh and the appearance of Rob Brydon's Sugar Daddy Ken had me in stitches.

However aside from Will Ferrell being on terrific form as the CEO of Mattel, the two best human performances were of course America Ferrera's Gloria who got a beautiful dialogue about women while Rhea Perlman had some scene stealing moments as Barbie creator, Ruth Handler, especially during her scenes with her own creation.

As for the actual ending of this movie, talk about a slam dunk. It felt completely earned given what the movie was about and also had a sophistication that family friendly movies have lacked in recent times. It also served as a nice closer overall but given the way things are panning out, this might not be the last we see of this world.

- It's kind of staggering to see how many actors from other big shows and franchises pop up here. Even John Cena popped up as Merman Ken as a counter to Dua Lipa's Mermaid Barbies.

- I wasn't expecting references to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Pride And Prejudice, The Godfather and Zack Snyder's Justice League but we got them and they worked within the context they were used in.

- Some of the jokes in this movie were definitely for the adults who went to see it. I imagine there were some awkward conversations on the way from the cinema. 

- Other dolls referenced included the pooping dog and Skipper. Barbie also went by Barbara Handler at the end of the movie.

- Standout music: Dua Lipa's Dance The Night, Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For? as well as Ryan Gosling's I'm Just Ken.

- Chronology: Let's assume 2023 as Barbie and Ken got a glimpse into the real world.

If you had told me six months ago that possibly the best movie of 2023 would've been Barbie, I would've been a little sceptical. However it truly is and while Greta Gerwig could've played completely safe (how did WB/Mattel let her get away with so much?) with this IP, I'm really glad she didn't. Yes, it'll appeal to a wider audience but it's a movie both heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, clever, funny and genuinely subversive. I loved this from start to finish.

Rating: 10 out of 10 (or Ken out of Ken)

My Review of Oppenheimer (2023)

 

Written And Directed by Christopher Nolan

J Robert Oppenheimer: "Now, I become death. The destroyer of worlds."

In something I hadn't initially planned on doing, I did the Barbenheimer where I watched two certain movies yesterday, both of which were very different to one another but oddly complimented the other. Also both screenings were fricking packed, so there's proof that counterprogramming really can work to a mutual advantage.

Anyways reviewing the more serious of the two first, Oppenheimer has to be a movie where director Christopher Nolan made it abundantly clear that he wanted the awards love. I don't mean that in a flippant way. This movie really screamed awards contender in the months leading to its release and now it's here, it's going to get them and then some.

Tackling historical biopics will always been easy awards bait but it also leaves a director wide open to multiple criticisms to boot. Along with the unanimous praise, it's something that Nolan will have to deal with. Saying that, how fucking brilliant is Cillian Murphy as an actor? Christopher Nolan clearly adores working with Cillian as this movie marked their sixth collaboration together. 

Cast brilliantly as American theorist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Murphy delivered quite arguably the strongest performance in his career. The movie began and ended with Oppenheimer undergoing an investigation of his communist connections and in general trying to silence his influence.

It's an investigation largely spurred on by the machinations of Oppenheimer's former ally Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr) who never forgave Robert for publicly humiliating him that one time and waited patiently to get his own back. However for Strauss, his attempts to bury Oppenheimer for good led to his own public downfall as a result.

Of course the crux of the movie was Oppenheimer involvement with the atomic bomb that would devastate Hiroshima. The movie spent most of it's bouncing back and forth between Oppenheimer and Strauss's own hearings while also getting Oppenheimer various scientists and the military to help with his research. The latter group largely represented by Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) who sometimes provided a foil for Oppenheimer.

With the movie being very male led for the obvious reasons, the only two female characters of note where Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt) and his mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh). Neither are given a huge amount to do with Florence Pugh in particular feeling rather wasted in the whole movie.

However other actors did benefit a little more from this movie. Benny Safdie and Josh Hartnett are great as Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence while Tom Conti pulled in a strong performance as Albert Einstein and appeared more than expected in the movie. I'll also give a shout-out to Alden Ehrenreich who was rather underrated as a senator aide. The thing is, there's so many actors and a lot of standout scenes in a very talky movie. 

- According to Nolan, when recreating the Manhattan Project for the movie, they did film at the real Los Alamos, New Mexico.

- The scenes depicting the collapsing of stars as well as the bomb in question were stunning along with some other surreal moments.

- The jumping back and forth between black and white and color was less jarring than I thought it would be.

- Nolan isn't exactly known for his sex scenes and the ones between Oppenheimer and Jean Tatlock were a bit awkward in parts.

- Shout-out to other performances from the likes of Dane DeHaan, Rami Malek, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh, David Dastmalchian, Jack Quaid and Alex Wolff to name but a few in a very packed movie.

- Chronology: The movie covered Oppenheimer's university days up until him getting the Enrico Fermi Award.

Oppenheimer could be the greatest movie that Christopher Nolan will ever do in his career or perhaps he will better himself with his next project. I'm not sure if it's my favourite from him but it's definitely deserving of the praise it's generating this far. There are sublime performances here from the main cast and the end scene alone will stick with film goers for a while.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of My Adventures With Superman 1x04: "Let's Go To Ivo Tower, You Say"

 

Written by Josie Campbell And Brendan Clougher 

Directed by Kiki Manrique

Ivo: "You know, I built this company myself and I deserve more."

Four episodes in and this show isn't shying from both delving deeper into other members of Superman's rogues gallery and of course, a final revelation that I'm surprised happened this fast in the series but I'm glad it did.

First of all, the Rogue stuff. In previous episodes we have had Livewire, Intergang, Silver Banshee,  Mist and now we can add Dr Anthony Ivo/Parasite into the mix. Oh this was a goodie alright. The show has definitely gotten a groove for new ways to introduce these baddies.

This week Perry White decided to throw Clark, Lois and Jimmy a bone by having them attend Dr Ivo's latest event where he was planning something quite big. Lois couldn't get to interview,  Jimmy got roped into taking family pics and Clark actually getting to confront Ivo led to him being kicked out of the event. Then Lois snuck him back in.

The event being that Ivo was using that ever ubiquitous alien tech and had made himself into a version of Parasite. A murderous version both intent on taking out his competitors and Superman in one fell swoop. He almost succeeded had Lois and Jimmy not found a way to shut him down for good.

In the end, Ivo became a dessicated husk of a man, his alien tech removed but by the end of the episode,  Lois had pieced that Clark and Superman were the same person. As a reveal, it came surprisingly quick but it'll be interesting to see how this will play out in the second half of the season.

- There were clippings of pre Superman sightings that finally got Lois piecing things together.

- I'm assuming that Task Force X took both Ivo's alien tech and him by the end of the episode. 

- Jimmy's Flamebird account seems to be quietly gaining momentum.

- Chronology: Lois admitted to Clark that she's been an intern for over a year while screening her calls from her father.

Let's Go To Ivo Tower, You Say did a great job with the Parasite plot and the final scene this week. Four episodes in and the show has its groove and continues to be a joy to watch.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

 

Written by Leslie Bohem

Directed by Stephen Hopkins

Freddy (to Dan): "Kids .... always a disappointment."

Yeah, we've entered the nadir of the franchise with this. I mean the writing was there with the previous offering, but here it's really hit the fan. This one's a stinker.

I do find it interesting that movies three to five in a way can be seen as a trilogy of sorts within this franchise and yet again. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) ain't dead and once again, he's out to settle some scores.

After getting his ass handed to him by Alice (Lisa Wilcox) in the last movie, one of the first things that Freddy does in this one was to take out Alice's boyfriend and baby daddy, Dan (Danny Hassel) pretty sharpish. Goodbye Dan, we barely knew you.

With Dan out of the way, this movie has two big plot strands. The first obviously being Alice's pregnancy and her reluctance to become a mother. Naturally, it's something that Freddy attempted to exploit for his own gain but a dream version of Jacob (Whit Hertford) somewhat managed to provide Freddy's downfall this time around as Alice soon embraced the idea of being a mother.

The other big strand was getting more context on Amanda Krueger (Beatrice Boepple). She had previously appeared in Dream Warriors but through flashbacks we were given the graphic origins of Freddy's conception while also being responsible in the final act for Freddy's defeat.

As for the rest of the characters, we saw a sober and supportive Dennis (Nicholas Mele) as wel as Dan's less supportive parents. Friends wise, both Mark (Joe Seeley) and Greta (Erika Anderson) were a bit underwhelming while Yvonne (Kelly Jo Minter) managed to make it out of this one alive.

- Robert Englund got to be out of make up again at least twice in this movie.

- The second lowest grossing movie of the franchise but still a hit for the year it was released in.

- Standout music: Samantha Fox's Now I Lay Me Down and Bruce Dickinson's Bring Your Daughter ... To The Slaughter.

- Chronology: A year since the events of the last movie.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child might easily be the worst movie in this franchise. The child plot is badly handled, the kills get too silly and the script's a mess overall. I know other movies are more hated by some but for me, this one was truly a mess altogether.

Rating: 5 out of 10

My Review of A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

 

Written by William Kotzwinkle And Brian Helgeland And Ken And Jim Wheat

Directed by Renny Harlin

Freddy: "Welcome to Wonderland, Alice."

After a fantastic opening first and third movie and a very gay coded second movie, it's really around the fourth installment in this franchise where things take something of a turn. A turn that's the definition of divisive as it does start to feel like Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) might have outstayed his welcome.

Deciding to be free of the lingering elements of the previous movie, once again, Freddy's not dead but in desperate need to get some revenge and if you liked both Joey (Rodney Eastman) and Kincaid (Ken Sagoes), well they're dispatched of rather quickly, leaving only one remaining element for Freddy to take off the board.

The element being of Kristen, only this time she's played by Tuesday Knight, has developed a smoking habit as well as a nice new boyfriend in Rick Johnson (Andras Jones) and friend group. None of those things as well as her dream powers saved her from Freddy this time and the latter certainly took great pleasure in killing her off, but while Kristen didn't survive the first quarter of this movie, her powers certainly did.

Transferring over to Rick's sister, Alice (Lisa Wilcox), this franchise managed to find itself a new protagonist and outside of Nancy Thompson, it's a fair argument that Alice Johnson might be the most likeable protagonist in the franchise. She's a pretty solid character in this movie alone and the only newbie that's allowed any real development. Unfortunately everyone else introduced here only served one purpose.

The purpose being fodder for an increasingly vengeful Freddy who delighted in murdering Rick as well as Alice's best friends, Sheila (Toy Newkirk) and Debbie (Brooke Theiss). Even Alice's love interest, Dan Jordan (Danny Hasell) came close to death before the big final confrontation.

Speaking of which, the confrontation itself between Alice and Freddy was definitely the better part of the movie with an old nursery rhyme (the movie's subtitle) playing a role in Freddy's downfall this time around. However this movie did end on the obvious sequel hook note, making it clear that Alice and Freddy would meet again sooner than later.

- More useless parents with Kristen's mother drugging her and actually causing Kristen's last confrontation with Freddy. Alice and Rick's alcoholic father, Dennis (Nicholas Mele) was also mostly unsympathetic. 

- This time we also got to see Robert Englund in drag as a nurse and Freddy's victims as toppings on a pizza for some truly wild sequences in this film.

- Standout music: Tuesday Knight's Nightmare and Go West's Don't Be Afraid Of Your Dreams.

- Chronology: A year since the events of the previous movie.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master definitely feels like the start of the franchise getting a bit too silly for its own good at times, despite a likeable new protagonist in Alice. Both this and the next two movies are in the bottom for me when it comes to this franchise.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Doctor Who - Series 14 Wraps, 60th Anniversary Novels and Barbie Cross Promotion

Ah, Doctor Who. The moment has come and we were slightly prepared for it.

With the show sitting out SDCC this year (largely due to current strikes in the US with the WGA and SAG AFTRA), upcoming Doctor Ncuti Gatwa was recently interviewed for Rolling Stone. The interview didn't reveal too much about the upcoming series as such but Gatwa did drop an interesting soundbite about his personal connection to the role, not to mention this picture from the upcoming Christmas special.

Also after seven months of filming, both Millie Gibson and showrunner Russell T. Davies confirmed that filming for the upcoming series has wrapped. Ncuti Gatwa also confirmed that he will be returning for Series 15, rumoured to start filming from October. 

Yup, the series will contain a Christmas special for this year and eight episodes for Series 14, all of which will feature Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday. Guest stars will include Anita Dobson, Michelle Greenidge, Jinkx Monsoon, Aneurin Barnard, Jemma Redgrave, Indira Varma, Jonathan Groff, Bonnie Langford and Lenny Rush.

Going back to the upcoming 60th anniversary specials, well there's more to look forward to. The BBC Twitter account for the show revealed that novelisations for The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle will be released from January 2024. The novels will be penned by Gary Russell, Mark Morris and James Goss respectively. Russell T. Davies also confirmed the novels will contain extra stuff from the original scripts, including backstories to boot. I'm certainly looking forward to these and like Paul McGann's 8th Doctor, we'll have all of David Tennant's 14th Doctor in print.

In a bit of fun cross promotion earlier this week, the BBC and Warner Brothers got into the Barbie spirit by having a pink TARDIS on display. Ncuti Gatwa plays one of the Ken dolls in the movie, which stars both Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling and will be in theatres from July 21st. Normally I wouldn't mention it but that pic was too cool not to post on here. The movie definitely looks like could be a big summer hit. 

Series 14 has completed filming and will air on BBC1 and stream on Disney+ from 2024 while the 60th anniversary will be released in November.

My Review of My Adventures With Superman 1x03: "My Interview With Superman"

 

Written by Aman Adumer

Directed by Jen Bennett 

Clark: "What did you think of Superman,  huh? He's a pretty great guy."

Lois: "Oh, he's a liar."

Ouch, what a way to end this one, huh? Superman spent most of the episode actively avoiding being interviewed by Lois as well as the rest of the Daily Planet staff, only for Lois to label him a liar to Clark at the very last second.

I mean, Lois kind of had a point. When he finally did agree to be interviewed, Superman kept his answers as brief as possible and flew off. Then again, this version of Lois has proven to be a bit reckless too when it comes to getting her story.

She was annoyed when the big Daily Planet staffers came and stole her murder board and she tried to use a bank robbery as a means of getting herself and Jimmy held hostage so Superman would not only rescue them but agree to an interview. Her plan mostly worked. Still there's the trope of Lois doing something slightly underhanded but also coming through for others when the chips are down.

As for the villains of the week, the first two episodes gave us both Livewire and Task Force X. This week, it was the turn of Siobhan McDoughal (Catherine Taber) and her cohorts Mist (Lucas Grabeel) and Albert, along with some fancy tech that made them invisible and an ice machine that nearly killed the lot of them during their big heist.

Exactly as we had with Livewire last week, we get a basic prototype version of Silver Banshee with it being more Siobhan using alien tech for her impressive shrieking powers. There's a good fight between Superman and the trio known as Intergang, with a familiar face coming back to claim them right under the Boy Scout's nose.

- Jimmy was the one to give Livewire her name while still only having six followers as Flamebird.  Will he be naming all of Superman's enemies this season?

- This episode firmly introduced Steve Lombard, Cat Grant and a gender swapped Ronnie Troupe. Clark, Lois and Jimmy posed as them when trying to get information from the warden about Siobhan.

- Yes, it was Slade Wilson who picked up Intergang. Something tells me they're going to have an upgrade the next time they're seen.

- Chronology: Not long from where the last episode left off.

My Interview With Superman didn't quite hit as big as the first two episodes but it served as a solid origin story for Silver Banshee, while also showing Superman getting used to his own powers. I'm liking how the show is adapting these characters so far.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

 

Written by Wes Craven And Bruce Wagner And Frank Darabont And Chuck Russell

Directed by Chuck Russell 

Kristen: "The man in my dreams. He's real, isn't he?"

Nancy: "He's real."

I reviewed the first two movies a long while back and I meant to get back to reviewing the follow ups. Like every horror franchise, this can be something of a mixed bag. There are definitely instalments in this franchise that are dodgy. However this ain't one of them.

In fact I'd go as far as to say this would be one of the best sequels in the franchise and it's not a coincidence that it's success has a lot to do with creator Wes Craven having been involved with the script. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back and so was Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). Only this time, it was going to end badly for the pair of them.

After terrorising closeted gay guy in the previous movie, this one saw Freddy going after a group of kids all at a local psychiatric hospital. The kids in question being dismissed by the doctors and orderlies and their own parents. Their only ally being of course, Nancy who landed a job as an intern therapy and Dr Neil Gordon (Craig Wasson) who found himself willing to listen to Nancy as well as having a thing for her.

Getting back to the kids in question, there's a bigger selection of characters here. Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) is the closest to a main protagonist and her ability to pull people into her dreams certainly served its purpose. Especially towards the end of the first after the final fight between Nancy and Freddy came to its messy conclusion.

Out of the kids, Kristen was the strongest but the rest of them had their moments. Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow) had aspirations of being a television star while Taryn (Jennifer Rubin) wanted to break out of her drug habit and be a bad ass. Neither of them however survived Freddy as did wannabe puppeteer Phillip (Bradley Gregg).

However Kristen wasn't the only newbie to survive. There was also loudmouth Roland (Ken Sagoes) and shy guy Joey (Rodney Eastman) but just about. It was Freddy's killing of Nancy and her father, Donald (John Saxon) that somewhat proved that previous survivors were now as expendable as anyone else had been.

The mixture of older generation (Nancy and her father) along with the new (Kristen and her friends with Neil) worked rather well and along with Freddy getting nastier than he had been in previous entries, this one threw in a little backstory. Yes, we learned the tragic story of Amanda Krueger, albeit it does get slightly lost in everything else that's going on here.

- Wes Craven co-wrote this one and would later return for Wes Craven's New Nightmare along with Heather Langenkamp and John Saxon.

- This movie was the first to show Freddy's victims souls trapped inside him. 

- Standout music: Heavy metal band Dokken's Dream Warriors of course.

- Chronology: Two years since the events of A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge though that movie isn't referenced at all.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is definitely close to capturing the essence of the first movie and definitely is a Top 3 in terms of best for the franchise. It served as a tragic but noble ending for Nancy as a protagonist and would've been a strong note for ending Freddy's story too. However there are more sequels to get through.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Queen Of Oz (2023, BBC1 series)

 

Written by Catherine Tate And Jeff Gutheim And Zoe Norton Lodge And Aschlin Ditta

Directed by Christiaan Van Vuuren

Georgiana (to her staff): "I hate Australia."

In a post Doctor Who (and pre return for the 60th anniversary specials) world, Catherine Tate has definitely leaned more into her comedy bread and butter with often mixed results. For every regular role in the final few seasons of the US version of The Office, there has been less successful choices.

Namely the overextension of her foul mouthed Nan character in an unsuccessful box office attempt and of course, the very short lived mockumentary show, Hard Cell. That show belonged to the early 2000s and Netflix were quick enough to bin it after one series. 

Comedy has become something of a different landscape in the last few years and much as I do enjoy Catherine Tate, her comedy has not evolved with the times. That's something that's all too clear with this six part series, recently released on BBC iPlayer and barely scraping by on BBC1 every Friday until July 21st. The trailer alone did not make this an enticing sell.

However I was bored, at a loose end and decided to give it a go and funnily enough, while there are a lot of flaws with this show, it's a bit of a step up from Tate's previous efforts. Saying that though, the premise is something else, isn't it?

Basically we have Tate, playing Princess Georgiana or Georgie as she's largely known as throughout the series. Anyways, Georgie's a royal fuck up, constantly providing a blitz of embarrassment to her family. Their solution? Send her to Australia and make her their Queen, something which Georgie wasn't remotely pleased about.

Aided by a dim witted relative/Lady in Waiting named Annabel (Niky Wardley), Private Secretary Bernard (Robert Coleby), Georgie finds herself having to be responsible, attending weekly meetings with the Aussie PM Rebecca (Rachel Gordon) and of course, the task of getting married to avoid being cut off altogether by her family. We did get two episodes where Georgie's rivalry with her perfect brother, Prince Frederick (Daniel Lapaine) was on full display.

In the case of marriage, Georgie did somewhat make it to the aisle with a philanthropist named Teddy (Rodger Corser) while the show largely hinted at a mutual attraction between George and her bodyguard Marc (Rob Collins), one of the few people that she allowed herself to be kinder towards. The marriage didn't exactly go to plan and that ending certainly felt like bait for a second series.

Despite some massive logic gaps with the general premise, Tate to her credit does give one of her better recent performances and the casting for the staff compliment her well enough. I found the likes of Mathew (William McKenna), Zoe (Jenna Owen) and Weiwei (Anthony Brandon Wong) rather funny as they all had to deal with Georgie's general disregard for them and the rules as a whole. Still though, by the end of the series, Georgie had come to respect them in her own roundabout way. 

- Catherine Tate wrote this series with her real life partner, Jeff Gutheim but admitted that the original idea was for Canada instead of Australia.

- Good few cameos in here from the likes of Carol Vorderman, Greg James, Zoe Ball, Patrick Kielty, Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones to name a few. 

- Standout music: Nice use of Olivia Newton-John's Physical in the fifth episode.

- Chronology: Very much the present day, though there was a six month gap between the third and fourth episodes.

Queen Of Oz certainly feels like a mixed bag of a series. It's a bit better than the trailers led it to be but it's not something that has clearly caught on, given it's meagre ratings. I'll be shocked if it gets a second series but to her credit, Catherine Tate does manage to cut a fine line with the character of Georgiana. It's not a must see but neither does it feel like a time waster either.

Rating: 6 out of 10

My Review of My Adventures With Superman 1x02: "Adventures Of A Normal Man Part 2"

 

Written by Cynthia Furey

Directed by Diana Huh

Deathstroke (to Livewire): "Tell me everything you know about Superman."

If the first part of this two part premiere kicked things off to a strong start, then this part was a lot stronger and just that tiny bit better. Yes, there was origins retold but they were handled so well and didn't slow the pacing of this episode down one bit.

The second part opened with Jonathan (Reid Scott) and Martha Kent (Kari Wahlgren) showing the younger Clark his pod, buried in a field. The reaction of the pod freaked the younger Clark out but the older version would then find going back to that particular place more helpful.

Especially as it brought him into contact with Jor-El (Jason Marnocha) who not only filled Clark in on the destruction of Krypton but also gave him his Superman suit to boot. Then Martha added some improvements and for those of you who hate the tights, sorry but they're back here and look pretty snazzy for this Superman tbh.

Speaking of returning things, Leslie Willis found herself having to beat off agents desperate to capture her and in her own hubris, she decided to antagonise one of them, who later turned out to be Slade Wilson (Chris Parnell) before using her stolen alien tech to become a prototype Livewire. Oh and she might have threatened to blow up the city and tried to kill Jimmy and Lois yet again.

However the highlight of the episode was seeing Superman publicly in action going up against Livewire and just about managing to save the day, while Lois and Jimmy finally got Perry to publish their story. Except for that byline, which didn't go down with Lois whatsoever. Being an intern at the Daily Planet kind of sucks. Still, we did get some rather cute scenes with Lois and Clark skirting around their feelings towards one another and Jimmy only too happy to play matchmaker.

As for Leslie, we'll, she ended up captured by the very agent she foolishly antagonised earlier and things got very interesting very fast here. We might not be getting Lex Luthor but Livewire has unwillingly gotten herself inducted as a member of Task Force X and they're very much interested in learning more about Superman.

- Jimmy seems to be on the conspiracy theory side of Reddit under the name of Flamebird. Lois became his sixth friend on there.

- And the byline went to Ron Troupe, Cat Grant and Steve Lombard, all of whom we'll be meeting in later episodes.

- There was a nice shout to Amazo as well during this two parter. No word on other DC heroes existing yet in this universe but I assume they do.

- Chronology: Not long from where the first part had left off.

As much as I liked the first part of Adventures Of A Normal Man, I will admit that the second part was just that much better. Seeing Superman suit up, Livewire as a strong threat and the introduction of Task Force X, things are slotting into place very nicely. The workplace dynamics with the main trio are definitely a nice touch to boot.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of My Adventures With Superman 1x01: "Adventures Of A Normal Man Part 1"

 

Written by Josie Campbell And Brendan Clougher And Jake Wyatt

Directed by Jen Bennett

Clark (to himself): "I can do this. I'm gonna hide my powers and be a normal man, having a normal day. Starting now."

You wait a while for high quality Superman content and then you find yourself in quite a fun position. We might have to wait another two year before the character returns to the big screen with Superman: Legacy 

and next year for the next season of Superman And Lois, but until then,  there's this return to animation. 

It's funny thinking about My Adventures With Superman. It was announced over two years as a series, originally intended for HBO Max and then David Zaslav came in, took a wrecking ball to a lot of DC properties and then this series ended up on Adult Swim.

Anyways, the wait was finally over and opening with a two part story (which I'm breaking into two separate reviews), you have this nice opening episode that basically gets things off to a rather straightforward start. It's Superman's show but it's also a little bit of an origin story.

Clark Kent (Jack Quaid) has moved to Metropolis and lives with his best friend Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid). Both of them are also interns at the Daily Planet as is Lois Lane (Alice Lee). Perry White (Darrell Brown) would prefer they stick to coffee runs. Lois on the other hand was somewhat more ambitious as was Jimmy. Clark on the other hand, erred on the side of caution.

The main threat of the first episode involved killer robots and stolen tech. The main villain of the piece was a seemingly grounded and very trigger happy Leslie Willis (Zehra Fazel) who was a little too happy to kill the inquisitive trio until Clark and a rather convenient use of a dock workers costume somewhat helped to save the day. It also flared up Lois and Jimmy's ambitions too, which Perry shot down due to blurry pics.

As an opening episode, this was the first of a two part story but the core dynamic with Clark, Jimmy and  Lois was nicely established.  There's a glaringly obvious mutual attraction between Lois and Clark and Jimmy had no problem picking up on it. Jimmy's also firmly in the camp of aliens existing and this encounter with a flying man only solidified that for him.

- Nice opening scene where a young Clark saved a mother and baby while also discovering his flight for the first time.

- We met a group of kid reporters led by Flo Johnson, who Lois got strong armed into helping with essays in exchange for information.

- YouTube made the first episode available to watch for free. In general though, the series is on Adult Swim,  Max and Cartoon Network as well as repeated on Toonami. 

- Chronology: Safe to assume this series is very much set in the present day.

Things got off to a very strong start with the first half of Adventures Of A Normal Man. Jack Quaid certainly has a likeable factor as Superman, the animation should appeal to animation fans and I appreciate that they went with a pre-Livewire version of Leslie Willis as an opening threat. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Birds (1963)

 

Written by Evan Hunter

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Mrs Bundy: "Birds are not aggressive creatures, Miss. They bring beauty to the world."

If there was a movie that expertly disproved that following quote, it would be this one. At some point, I might do a Top 10 Hitchcock movies list on Twitter. This movie alone will likely be in Top 5 of any potential list.

Anyways the movie in question, based on the short story by Daphne Du Maurier of the same name certainly has romance on the brain from the very first scene in question. The scene being something of a meet cute between socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) and lawyer Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) in a pet store of all places.

Not only that but the two soon find themselves talking about practical jokes and lovebirds. The latter being something that Melanie would then purchase in order to get into Mitch's good graces as she decided to make a visit to Bodega Bay where the latter was spending the weekend with his family and younger sister, Cathy (Veronica Cartwright).

A simple visit for a potential hook up, so what could go wrong? Well, given the title of the movie, how about some very violent birds for starters? Despite having ornithologist Mrs Bundy (Ethel Griffies) point out that birds were not aggressive, the events of the film proved the exact opposite here.

By the time we got had gotten into the second half of the film, not only was Melanie herself getting terrorised by the birds but so were the locals of Bodega Bay themselves. Even a former lover of Mitch's named Annie (Suzanne Pleshette) and his overbearing mother, Lydia (Jessica Tandy) fell victim at different times to the not so friendly birds. 

With Bodega Bay being ravaged by the creatures, it was largely down to Melanie, Mitch and Cathy to get out of the seaside village, take the only non violent birds with them (Cathy's lovebirds) and leave everyone else behind to deal with the unexplained attack itself.

- Evan Hunter was asked by Alfred Hitchcock to add more to the script while also retaining the lack of explanation for the birds attack.

- The movie was also inspired by a real life mass bird attack in Capitola, California in 1961. The real explanation was toxic algae but that was unknown back then.

- A sequel titled, The Birds II: Land's End came out in 1986 and Tippi Hedren appeared as a different character.

- Chronology: The movie came out in 1963 and was set in San Francisco and Bodega Bay.

The Birds absolutely delivered on it's premise, proving that the feathered kind really can be deadly for no reason whatsoever. Add a great use of locations and a commanding lead performance from Tippi Hedren and this one's a classic.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Monsters - The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story: Main Cast Revealed, American Sports Story and more

Following the runaway success of Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Netflix took was what was intended to be a limited series and decided to make an true crime anthology series.

For Ryan Murphy, he was already doing this for FX with American Crime Story but given the record breaking hit that Dahmer had become, you almost can't begrudge him for going down the anthology route, given that it's his bread and butter since 2011.

The second season of the now Netflix True Crime Anthology series has the title of Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story and earlier this week, the two leading actors were cast. Playing the role of Lyle Menendez will be Nicholas Alexander Chavez, best known for his role in long running US soap General Hospital. 

As for Erik Menendez, the role has been given to Copper Koch. The actor, slightly less known but in recent months has appeared in LGBT horror movies such as They/Them and Swallowed. I reviewed the latter on this blog earlier in the year and will get to the former fairly soon. Filming for the second season will begin later in the year with a release on Netflix scheduled for 2024. I'll review it in a similar to how I tackled the first season.

Speaking of Dahmer, while it was a source of online controversy, the series has in subsequent months been nominated and won various awards (recently including a BAFTA) with leading actor Evan Peters repeatedly praised for his performance. I don't know if Lyle And Erik Menendez will garner similar awards but it's Murphy's only remaining link to Netflix (along with a second season of The Watcher) as his five year contract with the streaming comes to an end and he heads back to Disney. When more casting becomes known, I will post another update.

Getting back to Disney or more accurately, the FX and Hulu, it seems that not only has American Sports Story been in production since April this year but Josh Andres Rivera was cast in the role of NFL player Aaron Hernandez while Ariana DeBose has also been cast in an undisclosed role. The other rumoured anthology series, American Love Story is still in development and will focus on the courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. 

Last but not least, a little update on American Horror Story: Delicate would be that Denis O'Hare has seemingly confirmed that he will be in the upcoming season, though his role has yet to be revealed. As for spin-off show, American Horror Stories, the only actors confirmed for now are Lisa Rinna, Jeff Hiller and Petra Collins in undisclosed roles.

That's everything for now. More updates soon.