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"This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang, but a whimper"--TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men" We made it, folks. The final film of the Zach Snyder-started DC Extended Universe is upon us and give us one last ride. It has been an up and down for DC, but 2023 was the most down year ever for them. I first started this series in 2016 when the discourse really took off thinking it was the climax, but in actuality it was only the beginning. There were still twelve movies and a TV show to be included yet. When I reviewed the Whedon Cut of Justice League, it was not the end of the franchise as I had predicted, but it was the beginning of the end. People started to take DC less seriously and the old guard left, including the unofficial master of ceremonies Zach Snyder. While the movies improved in some cases (Blue Beetle, THE Suicide Squad) they were less financially successful. One film in the franchise was even deleted from history before it was ever seen by anyone, which meant it could

“In the pandemonium of image/I present you with the universal Blue/Blue, an open door to soul/An infinite possibility becoming tangible”--Derek Jarman, Blue Blue Beetle was refreshing to see this year. Covering the DCEU has been a nightmare this year due to all the controversies, management shakeups, and the movies as a whole underperforming. This one is the least controversial, with the only legitimate drama coming from shooting on location for a fictional city, but overall it needed to be fun and take my mind off the drama. I was so desperate for it to be good, I vowed this would be the one DCEU movie I saw in theaters. The result was...alright. It doesn't save DC, but it is watchable and one of the better entrants in this much maligned franchise. This movie is about the Jaime Reyes version of the character introduced during the Crisis storyline. This character bonds with an alien scarab to grow a super suit and inherit superpowers, sort of Iron Man by way of Venom. Despite the

"My destiny was before me, and I hesitated...and a universe died."--Alternate Universe Matoro, BIONICLE: The Kingdom Around the release of this movie, DC was kind of at a crossroads. A string of flops and new management at Warner limited what movies they could put out. James Gunn, fresh off his success with The Suicide Squad, decided to start all over again with a new Superman and Batman movie. Plus, with Joker and The Batman being standalone hits, people just seem less interested in shared universes. The key to reboot seemed to be to push the Flashpoint storyline from the comics to reset the universe. Batgirl was cancelled and The Flash, in spite of bad press and all kinds of scandals involving its star, got released. Needless to say, DC bet on the wrong horse. In this movie, The Flash discovers time travel almost by accident, rushing around his childhood home and determining what he must do to prevent the death of his mother. Despite Batman's warnings, he breaks the time-space

“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we’re related for better or for worse…and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.” --Rick Riordan, the Sea of Monsters (said by Hermes) Shazam: Fury of the Gods is sheer fun. It may not be the most robust or structured of DC's catalog, but it does not need to be. This is a throwback to the more fun era of superheroes, where stakes are just high enough to keep you interested and the characters are fun and memorable. There are complaints with this movie I understand, but I don't care. I still had fun with it. This story picks up with the last one. Billy is balancing his life with being Shazam, a new villain threatens the world, and the whole Shazam family comes together to stop it. Simple plot, simple direction, simple execution. All is well. I will say the exposition and story beats went on far too long for my liking, but in general, it kept the tone and

Almost a decade ago, I watched Clone High for the first time, hearing it grew a cult following. I was not sold on it at first, finding it juvenile, cheaply animated, and overall unappealing. But I am older and wiser now, so it is time to revisit the show and see what happened afterward. So much has changed with the fandom and myself, it seems rife for a visit, and my new thoughts on the show…may surprise you. A reboot is on the way, which was not at all planned for when I thought of this project a while ago. Just the funny way things work out. This show is rooted in 2002 culture and style, but in a fun nostalgic way. It’s like Turning Red except contemporaneous to the time. Looking back on this show may be fun to try, and hearing my thoughts now will be a good primer leading into the reboot… Episode 1: “Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand” The show begins with a standard teen love triangle and common stereotypes, except they all happen to be clones of famous people. Abe Lincoln

"I expect nothing, and I'm still let down." --Dewey, Malcolm in the Middle The reason I am so late to the party with this one is because I was so not looking forward to it. Black Adam felt like a Dwayne Johnson vanity project with no rhyme or reason, perhaps better suited for a Shazam sequel than a solo film. This ended up being exactly the case. Black Adam is a character who held the powers of Shazam before Billy Batson. He was born into slavery 3500 years ago, but leads a successful revolt with the powers of the wizard Shazam. This would be nice, except we saw this all before in Shazam. So having it here feels redundant. Black Adam hides in stasis until awoken in present day, where he proceeds to wreak havoc. It is the Justice Society which brings Adam down and steers him to the side of justice...kind of. Adam's moral conflict is not shown much on screen and little is given to sympathize with him. Dwayne did want to play this character or Shazam, but was stuck in this one. His