The Reel Rejects - Sebastian Stans Two Face X Men In Doomsday Why Were Concerned

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

There are some BIG Questions worth talking about. We have ‪@FilmSpeak‬ in the studio today where we break down everything happening with The Batman Part II, including the latest casting rumors and what they could mean for Matt Reeves’ grounded Gotham universe. From speculation surrounding Scarlett Johansson potentially playing either Phantasm or Gilda Dent, to the major rumor that Sebastian Stan could be stepping into the role of Harvey Dent / Two-Face alongside Robert Pattinson, we discuss the pros, the risks, and whether this version of Gotham is ready for it. We also dive into Avengers: Doomsday, reacting to what fans are calling Avengers: Doomsday Trailer 3 — featuring the return of legacy X-Men (2000) characters like Cyclops (James Marsden), Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and the looming presence of Sentinels. We also go through the full Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal, including the confirmation of Doctor Doom being played by Robert Downey Jr.. Plus, we touch on surprising Star Wars Starfighter news, with reports of Tom Cruise visiting the set of the upcoming Shawn Levy–directed Star Wars film starring Ryan Gosling — and what that could mean. There’s a lot to be excited about… but are there some creative risks hiding beneath the surface? Let’s talk about it. Follow Griffin at Filmspeak:    / @filmspeak   Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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of a conversation, you know? Right. This is the best kind of podcast. Yeah, they just start in the middle. Yeah. Oh, wow. Chris Williamson. None of this intro crap. Who does intros anymore? Who does intros or whatever? That's not interesting. Hey guys. I'm Greg and I'm here with, I'm going to tell this story again for like the 50th time. Hey, do it. Maybe the last time. Do it. Here with Griffin from the channel FilmSpeak.

My God, I'm not used to the fanfare like that. Holy shit. Wow, we're going in, all right. I'm a huge fan of certain video essay channels. Film speak, I was already a really big fan of. And the way we met, we were at, I was at the Superman premiere. and he was a plus one can you say your friend's name?

Yeah, Sharonda Williams. She runs the Payorway channel which you should also check out because she's great. She does the best interviews. She does. She's a good interviewer. Dude,

payor weight is rad. I can vote for that. Yes, there you go. I'm a fan. There you go. This isn't about her. We're talking about me and Griffin right now. Before we talk about the Batman 2,

X-Men Avengers Doomsday trailer and Star Wars, the news. Yep. I just want to make sure you guys know what we're going to talk about today. but I'll tell you first how we met. So we were discussing because he had already seen Superman. I'd already seen Superman, but we were fortunate to be at the premiere.

I didn't know I was talking with film speak just yet, though. Like he didn't say like, I'm Griffin. I have a channel film speak, you know. Yeah, I tend not to do that, and I probably should do that more. It would help you out a lot out here, man. I'm just telling you. And as we were talking, I had to stop in the middle of it because I started thinking, like, this guy sounds a lot like films speak.

And I've never said this to anyone in my life. I just stopped in the middle of conversation. I'm sorry, man. I recognize your voice. And then your friend said, he's hit film center before she said, like, your film speak, right? And I was freaking out because, like, I literally said, I'm like, I was just listening. Like, you look at my history. You're right here.

And then we didn't like do the thing that most people do. Like, we should collab, bro. We didn't do that. No, not at all. Yeah. Instead, I hit him up. And I was just real with him. I was like, you know, I, I, I,

feel like we could be friends. I already have a weird parasycial relationship with you. Let's make this real. We're on track. God damn. And then we hung out and we were supposed to go to lunch for like an hour and then we ended up being there for like three hours just chatting about life. Yeah. And eventually I went on your channel

did a peacemaker talk and now you're here. Yeah. Koi's out of town. So I said let's bring in someone else who can be very contrary into the Avengers team's day. type. I actually don't know where Koi stands on this. It's very much like your opinion, but more positive swaying on the X-Men side. Yeah, I feel like that's most people at this point, and I'm just kind of like, it's all the same to me. Well, this is why, I mean, I love, like, talking with you, and a big part of it is, like, it's possible to follow channels where you don't agree with their opinion a lot of the time. Believe it or not.

It's a real thing. Shocking, shocking, yeah. I just love hearing your takes on things. I love having the discussion about it. Like, I'm not here to, like, fight with you and stuff. Yeah. So we won't do that first, you know? Let's not do the X-Men trailer first. Okay. All right. Save it for later.

Because the thing I was messaging Griffin about, because we almost didn't do this today. Yeah. Is we have to talk. I really want to talk about the Batman Part 2. Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. You're a big DC fan. Yeah. And I know at the time of shooting this, you already have a script ready for your next video. Oh, yeah, I've got to pull it up. I'm going to read it right now.

It's going to read the whole thing. Exclusive essay. Yeah, exclusive essay. Yeah, yeah. No, I, yeah, of course. Yeah, the Sebastian Stan casting. Yeah, yeah. Don't rely too much on your texts.

Make eye contact with me. Connect with me, Griffin. I was looking at you this whole time. So what's the news on it? What's the big news this week? What, just Sebastian Stan was cast or potentially cast in talks for the Batman Part 2. That's right. Yeah.

How, I don't know. your feelings. I don't know what you think about it. Yeah, I'm... As Harvey Dent, right? It's Two-Face. Well, that's the presumed... That's like the prevailing theory. Yeah, my take is probably going to be weird because I like it.

I think it makes a lot of sense. I think he would be a very good Harvey Dent. But I also... Man, I'm just kind of tired of the long Halloween. Like, can we adapt literally anything else for any Batman story? And especially because, like, the Dark Knight

also took a lot from the long Halloween. it isn't like the most faithful adaptation. So there's like stuff for, you know, Reeves is the Batman part two to take in and take into account and adapt primarily like the Gilda Dent stuff that it's looking like it's going to do because that's what Scarlett Johansson is presumably playing. I don't even know if it was presumably. At last I checked it was presumably, but it might be confirmed. She's playing Gilda Dent's in the film.

Do you want to explain a little bit about who Gilda Dent is? Yeah. If you know like the long Halloween, she's. the holiday killer in that. It's like she's, she's Harvey Dunn's wife, and she basically goes out on a personal vendetta and kills a bunch of people. And the whole story, the whole comic is about

her trying to figure out, or sorry, Batman working with Calendar Man to try and figure out who the holiday killer is. Calendar Man is kind of like this Hannibal Lecter, like figure at the center of the story that Bruce kind of converses with. And so towards the end, it's revealed that

she is the one doing all of this, and it kind of breaks Harvey, and it leads down into the, you know, his downfall into becoming two-face and everything like that. So, um, naturally, I think casting someone

like Scarlett Johansson as that character makes a lot of sense. I, like, as for the stand, the Sebastian Stan side of it, going back to what I was saying, I really like the casting, if he is playing Harvey Dent. Um, my only thing is that it's one of those

ones where it's like, sometimes it feels too obvious. Like, he's, he, he, plays characters that deal with duality, whether it's like the Winter Soldier, his characters from a different man or, you know, even like The Apprentice. So it's like duality is clearly something that he's really interested in as an actor. And I think that's fine. Like it's cool to see actors have these ideas that they really latch on to and explore in different ways. I just don't see him playing Harvey Dent as him doing anything interesting. I was talking to one of my friends, we were like, it's like one of those castings that like you'd see on Tumblr and be like,

oh yeah that it's like because he plays bucky and because he's like conventionally attractive can play like you know good american boy kind of thing um he would be he could be a good uh harvey dent and also because he has the duality side of him so it's like it's not really an inspired piece of casting but i i think sebastian stan as an actor is incredibly talented really uh should be utilized more in projects outside of the comic book media you know genre movie genre which is kind the other thing. I wish that he was just getting away from it. Even though I know Matt Reeves the Batman is like elevated comic book material. It's like it's good stuff that actors are actively chasing down. He's been in, you know, the MCU for like over a decade at this point.

Let's let's see him do something different. And I was excited by him doing stuff like a different man or the apprentice, whereas he was really stretching his muscles as a performer. He was really getting out there and showing that he wasn't just, you know, someone who could be in mainstream movies as like Bucky Barnes or whoever. And while I'm sure Reeves and Mattson Tomlin will, you know, have written great material for him, it's just one of those things where it's like, hey, I wish you would just break away a little bit more. So, yeah, this was the other thing I kind of thought of.

I don't know if you remember this, but when Matt Reeves first cast the penguin, or maybe not cast, but the first person Matt Reeves was looking for for the penguin was Jonah Hill. and Jonah Hill passed on that role and I'm really happy he passed on that role because it forced him Yeah he was like very obvious And it forced him to think outside the box And get creative and we got Colin Farrell

Get the boast, good looking guy But he's like he's a freak He's a weirdo he's like a really good character actor And he was able to just fully transform himself And give us arguably the definitive take on the penguin You know between the Penguin series and And the Batman God you're so right

Every time someone brings it, like, right now, I'm like, I want to rewatch the penguin. Oh, dude, it's so good. You start talking about, like, I really want to rewatch. I know. No, no, no, no, no, it's so true. But it's the same sort of thing with Sebastian Stan, where, like, Sebastian Stan feels like the Jonah Hill choice for Matt Reeves. Sure.

And he got it. So there's not really, like, stretching outside. It's not really, like, thinking outside the box kind of thing. So, I don't know. Maybe that's just, like, my weird reservation about it. I'm sure there's a lot of people who will disagree with me who are just like, yeah, that's perfect. He's a great actor. He should be in this universe. He's great with duality. Like, all the reasons that you're disagreeing with me are the reasons why Matt Reeves probably went with him.

And I think is a great choice and he'll do a great job and I'll get over this. But the two things that I'm a little concerned about right now are just him being very obvious, like a very obvious choice. And then also, I kind of was just hoping they'd move away from the long Halloween, you know, taking pieces from that. I don't know. Maybe he doesn't become Too-Face at the end. I hope he wouldn't become two-faced. We still don't know for sure who any of these people are playing. It's true. For the longest time, you had a really great video on it too, where we shared exactly the same opinion about Scarlett Johansson potentially being Andrea Beaumont, Fantasim. I still feel like there's a way for that to happen.

Yes. If you keep him as just Harvey Dent the entire time, because I could see a narrative that forms where the third one would ultimately be court of owls because so much about this is uprooting the corruption, the deep, you know, the true roots of Gotham. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you have like this poster boy, again, being the one who does convert,

but instead you do it the way Tim Burton intentionally wanted to do it, which is you have Harvey Dent just be a character, don't do it in the first film, and then eventually arc into it. That way there's a true sense of tragedy. Yeah. Like, I love the Dark Knight. It is one of my favorite movies of all time.

It is one of the best comic of the movies of all time. There's still that missing part for me. I'm like, ah, you know, if they held off on Harvey, even though I think it's perfect for the movie, I would have felt the tragedy of losing the district attorney, everyone. I want the movie that sells me

that I hope they don't do it. You know, like when you watch a good prequel where you're going, I know we were supposed to go this way with the tragic turn, but I love this so much. I'm hoping they don't do it. And I hope they can pull that. off if he is indeed that and as well as if she is gilded dent I feel like that would be probably the most uninspired casting because character not casting a character I totally agree yeah yeah because

then at that point you would just be doing them if if you're able to just go to a comic and be like well it's going to be this similar to uh you know winter soldier yeah or like the mystery of captain american winter soldier when the trailers are like who's the winter soldier yeah if you read the comic It's his Bucky. Everyone knows it's Bucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that is the exact same thing that it could be here

if it's Gilded the Den. They might subvert it and then maybe with the subversion, they might piss people off kind of the way how, what was that one that everyone thought, hush, the way how the hush animated movie did a twist and they're like,

we don't want to do just a comic. Yeah. So you could do a situation where you end up just upsetting people again. I feel like there is a version where it very much still, she could be Andrea Beaumont based up everything Matt Reeves was,

everything Matt Reeves was saying lines up way more with that. as the villain that they haven't done yet. Well, also to your point, the holiday killer isn't necessarily someone who's like, like, it could be anyone, right? So, like, why not make the holiday killer? Why not be phantasm?

Why not be her give, I don't know if she's going to be playing Gilda or Andrea or whatever, but say she's playing Gilda Dent. Give her the backstory of Andrea Beaumont, the history with Bruce or whatever. Maybe not, but yeah, give her the history with Bruce. And then also, instead of it being the holiday, Killer, make it Fantasm.

I know some people are like, well, then we already know that if it's phantasm that it's going to be her. But I think it's a different scenario where it's like with the long Halloween, the twist is that the holiday killer is Gilda Dent and you have no idea. Whereas even with Fantasm, if you know that Andrea Beaumont is Fantasim, there's still drama between the two characters that makes it worthwhile.

And for the people who haven't watched Mask of the Fantasim, there's a cool little reveal there. Yeah. It's not really that huge of it. deal if you know. No, I don't think so. Like when you're watching the movie, I don't know. I don't know how this podcast.

I don't know how quickly people would catch on that. But the movie lets you win on it way before Bruce figures it out. Oh, yeah. They make it pretty clear that, oh, the phantasm is Andrea Beaumont. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. To me, I think it lends itself more to the emotionality more than anything else. And I think having Gilded Dent might undercut. And then I feel like got a whole different.

movie with a whole different focus and it doesn't feel anywhere near as much about Bruce Wayne at that point. Yeah, yeah. Well, there's another thing that they could do here that I think would make the Harvey thing work a little bit more. And, you know, people are, one of the things that people have been speculating with the Batman part two and one of the things I think people have been wanting to see is hush because the film, you know, from everything Matt Reeves has said is going to be focusing more on Bruce Wayne giving the Bruce Wayne persona more attention since the last film was primarily him being Batman and learning that, or I guess, vengeance and then learning that he needs to be Batman.

And then he's more than just like this person unleashing his personal issues onto criminals on the street. And so duality is always a part of a Batman story, but it seems like it's going to be really at the focus of this film. So if you have Harvey in the mix, who is also a character that embodies duality, you could give Harvey elements of Hush's backstory, specifically like them being like child childhood best friends. Maybe Harvey grew up in an abusive household and that really, you know, galvanized him and pushed him to try and make the city a better place. Whereas like with Bruce,

who grew up in privilege and then experienced the worst that, you know, the city could, could offer, then kind of went in the other direction and started just like beating down on people for his own personal reasons. So you have these two characters that are, you know, converging in this way where it's like Bruce is going to recognize that he needs to be more than just like a vigilante in the streets. He needs to be a public face that does stuff. Whereas like Harvey, who has spent his entire life, trying to write the wrongs of the city, kind of has this realization after something happens. I don't know. Maybe it's like he realizes his wife is a criminal. Yeah. And yeah, you should be writing this down.

You actually, suddenly, to interject, the thing that just hit me from what you were saying is, what if, just what if he's only just a supporting character of the way Colin. and Farrell was, and then he's going to get his own television show on HBO as well, and he gets to be his own, really watch the morphing of that, the way we watch Penguin become. That'd be cool. That'd be cool. I mean, they should do it. Pretty sweet, pretty sweet, pretty sweet, pretty sweet, pretty sweet.

Didn't someone ask it? Was it, was it Josh Horowitz who asked Reeves about this, about like, oh, are you going to do like a Harvey Dank kind of series or something? I can't remember if it was him, if it was someone else that asked him about that. Jamie, can you look it up? Oh, I want to show. They were like, oh, do you have any interest in doing like a, like a Harvey Dent show or something, like, or some sort of like crime? I have no idea. Did he like reject it?

Do you recall that? Well, no. He said that like he's interested in, I, from my recollection, he was interested in that character and like elements of that. But it seems like that might find its way into the Batman part two unless he saves some of it for the series. So, hey, I mean, maybe he could do both. I've, who knows? What's kind of cool about what's happening just with our conversation, what's been happening with the Batman in total is the speculation fun of it, the theory fun of it.

I'm having a lot of fun with it, right? This is the first time and a long time I'm having fun speculating about a comic book film. And a lot of times of speculation can feel a little bit generic. And even with some of these other movies and stuff, like I love Superman, you know. And then I love the Supergirl comic. and so I'm looking forward to the movie despite the trailer being underwhelming to me that just that first one, who knows?

Maybe the second one will be like, awesome as hell for me personally. Anyway, that's beside the point. It's like when we heard about Man of Tomorrow. Sure. You're like, Brainiac, right? Yeah. We're all going to speculate brainiac.

Well, it's good a, oh, it's a brainiac. You know, something like that just kind of seems like, yeah, we speculated, we got what we wanted. And there's something that doesn't feel as a catharsis or as strongly validating. Yeah. You know, whereas this one,

we're like freaking bob it and weaving all over the place. I think, and this isn't a knock on James Gunn because I've obviously really liked what he's done with the DCU, but James Gunn is an otter who loves the comics and he's got like a slavish devotion to the comics, even though he does kind of like change things up here and there. And obviously Superman isn't a direct adaptation of any one comic, but it does borrow heavily from comics. I think with the Batman, it's interesting because you have an autore, And I don't doubt that Matt Reeves likes Batman comics,

but he's not really from that world. He's a filmmaker first, and then, like, he kind of has fascinations with characters like this, which is why I really like that he's leaned into, like, the noir elements of it. He's borrowing from stuff, like, I don't know, like, seven or whatever, like, the influences were for that, for that first film that are escaping me at the moment.

But... It was a Chinatown. Right, China. Yeah, like other, just, like, typical noires. that, you know, yeah. Boring typical. I'm doing a bad job right now. I was always time of pictures.

Yeah, those black and whites, right? I feel like a fucking ass. Talkies, right? But he was, I think similar to Christopher Nolan, he was, he was, his influences were more rooted in, in like, film and not, versus comics. And so that makes his approach. to the Batman more interesting, because you know he's going to take from comics, but you're like,

what parts of the comics is he going to take? Like, is he, you know, a lot of these characters could just be, like, composites of people that we know from the comics. The stories could be, like, adapting different elements of it, which is why I'm not totally against the idea of Harvey Dent being in this film, but, you know, when you've got Harvey Dent, the Joker and Batman and everything, and, like, Scarlett Johansson potentially playing some version of the Gilda Dent character. I'm like, there's a little too many elements of here that remind me of the long Halloween. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt though

because I know that you aren't just going to adapt that comic or part of that comic. I know you're going to do something interesting with it, but it is just like, it was one of those things where I was like a little hesitant of it. But again, going back to what I was saying about him being influenced by things other than comics. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's the thing that I think makes his films really interesting, specifically the Batman and like the speculation regarding that is because he's, yeah, he's a comic book fan, but he's like more than that, and he proved himself to be more than that before really diving into that stuff, you know.

Well, I feel like for the career pivot move, I guess the one thing I would say on the Sebastian Stan casting, because I do agree, there is that feeling of like sometimes if it's an obvious casting, I'm totally cool with it. Like, if they had, I think Jeffrey Wright as Gordon,

it's not the most obvious casting, but there's something by one of those, I'm like, yeah, that, that fits. But if they had said Brian Cranston, which is like an obvious casting choice, I still would have been super excited. Right, because these people are, yeah, these are truly

exceptional actors. Like, in everyone who has played Gordon, like even like J.K. Simmons, who I also think is kind of an obvious choice, and while he didn't have the most to do in like the Snyder films, he was a great Gordon for the material he was given. Yeah, he's a great actor.

you know, that's not the problem. It's just like sometimes when you think outside the box, like Gary Oman's a great example because we, like, you look at Gary Olin now and you're like, oh, of course he'd be great as Gordon. But before then, he was a character actor who primarily played villains. Yeah, like you think of the guy from the professional. The professional, thank you.

Or the guy from the Fifth Element, right? Like, you don't think of anyone remotely like Jim Gordon who's so pure of hearts. Altruistic, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, and you get arguably, I think, the best Jim Gordon that we've ever seen on screen. No offense to Jeffrey Wright, who I think is a very strong number two.

So that's kind of like why I like, you know, when filmmakers are forced to think outside the box. I agree with you. I think on like a business producer level, you know, Sebastian Stan, I could see it being a good smart pivot for him because he knows he's in the common book world. Sure.

A lot of his work outside of the comic book world is like you pointed out films that are not huge, right? Yeah. And I have been weirdly raving about the show that I randomly put on last year. And I loved him in it, Pam and Tommy. I thought he was so good at that. He was excellent in that show. It's like for, it's such a departure. And then even that one, I like this felt too.

I can never remember the title. The one I do with Pattinson and Tom Holland. Not the devil all the time. What's it called? Is it the devil all the time? the devil all the time. Yeah. You did it. Wow. Good for you. I remember seeing, that was my first not, you know, whoa. Whoa. Dang. That was my first film I'd seen of him that was not Winter Soldier. And I was like, wow, this is such a departure for what I'm used to this guy doing, which is only Winter Soldier at that moment.

So this is a good chance, I think, for him to show he can, even though it's obvious casting, I imagine. he wanted to do something very, very different with him. But to your point, like, Robert Pattinson is not an obvious Batman. And that's kind of the thing. It's just like, but even saying this, I think there is an interesting dynamic they could play into here, which is like, Robert Pattinson is like a freak. And that's part of why he's such a great actor. He's got conventionally attractive looks, but he's a weirdo to his core.

Whereas, like, Sebastian Stan, I think has that weirdo inside of him. He just hasn't necessarily, like, brought it out. So you've got two actors, one who is kind of more in tune with their inner weird. and the other who is maybe trying to keep a lid on it. Yeah. So if you think about how that can kind of manifest in the characters, you've got Harvey Dent, who's trying to keep a lid on, like,

what he thinks he needs to do until it eventually just explodes and he becomes Two-Face. Whereas, like, Batman, I think, you know, gradually becoming in touch with, like, his inner weirdo actually allows him to grow and mature as a person. So, I don't know. That would be an interesting way of leveraging those personas. Obviously, I don't know either of these two people.

I'm just going based off of my limited knowledge. The thing is, though, we didn't really get, here's the part, like, Harvey Dent is obvious. Yeah. Two-face is not so obvious. Like, what will the two-face portrayal be? Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's a very big departure from a Harvey Dent, you know, like, Aaron Eckhart had to kind of, like, he had to mainly be Harvey Dent on the emotional side, which is the smart choice for that film to do it.

But a lot of the times, two-face is mainly portrayed as a very different split personality, a very different person compared to just the emotional. turmoil of Harvey Dent, which of course carries over into him on the psychosis side. But I feel like he would give an extremely unique approach. I do agree. Yeah. To the two-faced side. So I get it. On the Harvey Dent side, I'm like, yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. On the two-faced side, I go, what would that be? Yeah, I know. I kind of would want it to be something along the lines of what we saw in the Arkham games or what we saw in, you know, Batman the animated series. I think that the more they kind of draw from B-Taz. I'm sorry, I said B-Taz, Batman the animated series. Do you get sure for that?

you're not supposed to say B. Taz. You're supposed to say Batman. I had a friend. I'm not even joking. I mean, I've never heard it. Said that way before. But I was a like, you're canceled. Like, what an asshole.

I just, I had a friend at one point in time tell me like, hey, I know you wrote this as B Taz. Don't say B Taz in the script. Say Batman the animated series. And I was just going to be like, I was like, okay. I knew what you meant. Well, yeah. I mean, I would assume anyone who's seen B.Taz. What a bitchy acronym.

Every time you do that, I'm going to. scratch this. Oh, bitch ass, B-Taz. Anyway, sorry. No,

no, no, no, that was fine. On your, B-Taz. But I think they should I,

that's so silly. I've never heard that. B-T-T-S? Other people say B-Taz before? Well, I write it out as B-Taz, but I don't, and then I say B-Taz to my friends,

but my close friends, but then I don't actually say B-Taz. You should say B-Tas in your video. You people would coin it. You know the thing, man. I don't say beat tass. People say beat ads all the time. I've never heard beat tass.

Yeah, this is a thing. I mean, you just don't, you don't say it on a public forum, you know, you say Batman the anime series. You say it in private amongst your closest friends. Yeah, of course, of course.

I didn't even know that was, I'm dead ass. I did not know that was a thing until I had a friend say, hey, just make sure in your script, you say Batman the animated series. I was like,

why? Like, why can I say beat bad? Like, I just, you got it. He got it. There we go. He's doing the whole time. Yeah, this is good.

He's keeping it on top of it. I'm watching you. Yeah, I don't even know where I was going. Oh, no. What I was saying is that I think that them, borrowing from stuff, like the animated series, which has like an, you wanted to say a half. Do I say it?

One more time. You know, which, you know, invented characters. Like, they, the films have adopted Harley Quinn. She originated in that show. there we've been people have been clamoring for like a heart of ice adaptation in some you know shape or form that

Mr. Freeze has not become a great character until that show Fantasm was in you know the film that kind of kicked off the animated series and stuff like that so and actually the clay face the most compelling clay face stories are in the animated series so like

there is an entire just like treasure trove of material there for them to to mine and dig in into and I you know James Gunn has clearly taken that approach with Superman and like the Justice League and stuff so you know I think Batman should do the same thing which is which is kind of why you want Scarlett Johansson to be phantasm absolutely drawing from like something that isn't so obvious something that people thought was oh sacred you can't touch phantasm but it's like she's only being in one movie yeah in like a very small part in another comic it's like that she

there's so much there to do with this character that I don't think we've, you know, tapped into. Yeah, I'm 99.9% way more excited at the thought of phantasm than... Yeah, over Gilded... Then you say Gilded... Oh, yeah, Long Halloween. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna, like, jog my memory there for a second.

But, so here's the other thing. And this would make the Long Halloween, um, borrowing from the, the Harvey Dent's side of that a little bit more, uh, palatable for me is if they also, you know, brought in Robin and they adapted the dark victory stuff, which... You really want Robin. I do, man. I've heard you bring him up a lot of us. You and Patrick H. Willems are out here riding down.

Well, because it's like he's a character that challenges Bruce in a very interesting way. Like, think about, I think some of the best stuff in Batman Forever is Bruce kind of reconciling with his inner trauma while also bringing a child. Like, not a child. I mean, Chris O'Donnell was not a child. He was a 25-year-old child. Right, but bringing in like a kid that he's, someone that he's mentoring. And then how that forces him. to reflect on the stuff that he hasn't processed.

Because Robin, like Dick Grayson, Robin specifically, is positioned if, you know, I guess mentored in the right way to be better than Batman. He is, he has Batman's trauma, but he doesn't let his trauma direct him, whereas I think Bruce kind of can let his trauma pull him in directions. And it's just a really interesting, you know, parent son or pseudo-son relationship dynamic that I don't think has actually been given the proper treatment on screen. What I will say is that the argument that I hear presented with Robert Pattinson is, hey, it feels like a little too young to be and a little too early in the ages of it.

But when I think about all the Batman we've had, the only one that psychologically makes sense to me of a portrayal that would be, who's weird enough to take this on? Yeah. And like, yeah, it's this guy. Also, how many years has been since like the Batman, like the Batman, like the Batman was 21, so it's been like, what, four, four years or so? By the time that film comes out, it'll have, it'll have been over five years. Robert Pattinson is not the young Batman anymore. Well, the movie be like four years. I hope so. I don't, I don't think that movie should be a direct

follow-up to the Batman. I think you need to address the passage of time in that film. Oh, really? Yeah. You don't think so? No, I think that because of where we left off, I like that we had the Batman one and then Penguin, which directly followed into it. seems like they're in a very specific pocket of time that we're exploring here. I don't know how much passage of time we should do on that. Well, no, I don't mean like, I mean like just literally the amount of years that it is taken for the Batman 2 to come to screen. That is the amount of time that should pass between those two films.

I'll never consider that. Well, because like Robert Pattinson, I mean, looks really good, but like he is, he's like well into his 40s now, I'm pretty sure, right? I mean, I don't know how old is. He'll get that plastic surgery every guy and girls getting right now. No, I don't think he'll do that. Get that Instagram face. Our past is 39 years old.

Oh, he's 39? I actually thought he was in his 40s. Well, okay, he'll be into his 40s by the time that he's, by the Batman, by the time they're filming the Batman until he will be 40s. So I think, I don't know. That makes sense. Maybe address the passage of time. And then you can give him the Robin that everyone wants to see.

Marlon Wayans. Marlon Williams. Finally. Holy shit. Also, just real quick, I did find. the little tidbit here. There was a roundtable interview during Penguin and one of the interviewers asked if they were considering any sort of Harvey Dent

legal series and they gave a very coy answer but Matt Reeves basically said that the journalist was thinking certainly in a way that our conversations have gone so Harvey Dent legal drama of sorts could be possible. Oh that'd be fun. See? That'd be fun. There you have it. Daredevil show that never was the one they originally wanted to do that Kevin Feigy hated and shut down. Anyway, Let's go off script for a second. Are you excited for Born Again Season 2?

Good. We've been on script the entire time. Well, of course. This whole thing is scripted. Come on. I have the script right in front of me. Daredevil, Born Again Season 2. Am I excited for that?

It's so strange. I think it'll be so much better than season one. I genuinely think it will be better than season one. Am I as anticipatory of it? I wouldn't say I am, though. Like, I was a big, I was a massive guy on that train for Save Daredevil. I was so. so stoked.

I was declaring him for the longest time as my favorite, like, MCU character. He's the one I easily most identified with, growing up Catholic and everything. Oh, yeah. He was like my guy. Yep, yep. And Daredevil, born again, I don't even really think about that show. And, like, it was such an, there was some amazing stuff, and then there were some stuff that just, it was definitely like the weakest of the Daredevil seasons.

And it didn't super elevate Kingpin for me. I think that's the biggest sin that the thing. MCU has done to Kingpin is like they're trying to bring him back to the kingpin that was but it didn't fully get there it seemed like they were doing all the things they felt they should do to do it but it still didn't quite sing as high as I wanted to yeah so I'm not as excited as I want to be yet I have faith because the episodes I did enjoy were from the guys that's all being done by them now like the creative direction is much more clear and I feel like they'll take notes and they've done other MCU stuff that I've really enjoyed. So I feel like this will be a much better season. So I'm,

I kind of like having my expectations a little bit lower. So that way when I go watch it, I'm really going to enjoy it. But, you know, like Daredevil versus Kingbin, how much, how much can we do with that? Yeah, they're really milking them. And then, they're going to have them. I assume you're not. No, because I really didn't care for Born Again at all. I, I, I thought it was just an absolute mess where it was just like they couldn't commit to any single idea. The best arc in that entire, uh, show was the white tiger arc and they actually like were pretty unflinching with it and then the rest of the show never really got to those not never really got to those heights i mean like they they kind of had an interesting commentary going on with like police brutality and everything like that but then they that when i felt towards the end they started to pull their punches a little bit um but i i i to your point yeah i do think that the where that show ended um will be like it's it's positioned to be a more interesting show in the second season.

So I do agree with you that it'll be better than the first season. It's also one of those things where it's like, I wish this was just kind of, like the second season was just like the show we were getting all along. But yeah, I don't know. And then having Karen go away for like an entire,

like what the fuck? Like it was just. Well, it was beyond just like directing it. It was all the writing issue. There's so, they, the whole overhaul they had to give this season. There's no way there's a reality where it's going to be a smooth season.

No, not at all. And so I do think it'll be better, though. I really hope so. If it's not, I think I'm going to check out on whatever Born Again is going to be, because I can't just watch them, like, desecrate that show. It's like, I love Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch, and I love Vincent Donofrio as Kingpin and Deborah Ann Wall as Karen Page and obviously John Bernthal's Frank Castle and all that.

but if they're not going to treat them the same way that the Netflix show treated them in terms of just like the maturity of the writing, yeah, I don't know, man, it's not for me. Well, I do miss the pacing of the original series and the characterization. Yeah. That's the main thing that made it amazing

was the blend of characterization motivating violence. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, they were like prestige dramas that just happened to... Yeah, they're great dramas. Right, yeah, deal with, you know, people who... occasionally like punch bad guys more costumes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, that was kind of like the cool thing about that first season of Daredevil, and actually the third season as well, is that he didn't wear the traditional costume for like a good chunk of it. You know, he was just going around as a guy in a makeshift costume, and it looked sick, and it was awesome, and you felt like it being an extension of his rage and everything. I don't know, and this show we're just kind of missing that. Do you think that's the thing that I find the most fascinating,

is how they did go super gory on that final moment where kingpin lips that guy's face it is one of the goryest things the daredevil series has ever done yeah yet at the same time there was something that felt the underlying emotional it's like you don't really see the guy's head getting broken in on the car smash but that feels more disturbing for some reason yeah because of the emotion to it and this is more like gory stuff, you know what I mean? Literally what you are describing is the difference between the two shows. Born Again thinks

that showing gratuitous violence in a very visible way is what the original show did. You're right, the original show was incredibly violent, but it picked the moments when it showed, like, with their... Or it's telling of the character.

Exactly. Like, when Matt was beating down on Kingpin at the end of the third season, they did not hold back from showing the gore and the violence of that moment because it was in line with where the character's emotions were at. Whereas like, yeah, with Kingpin smashing the guy's head in, yeah, incredibly violent, but they don't need to show the guy's head actually getting smashed in for you to feel it. Sometimes not seeing it is more effective because then your imagination, yeah, your imagination can go wild paired with just Dinoffrio's incredible performance. So that moment, at the end of Born

again, when he just fully crushes his skull in, was so. so jarring in off-putting to me, I was just like, what the fuck are we doing? This is, this is gross. It was really gross. It was gross. Like, not even like visibly gross, just like, like, as it a, like, just like, just like, not morally, like, obviously morally gross, but just like, it was, it was, it was, I'm like losing the words. You know what I'm saying, right? It sounds like they took a show that used to use violence in conversation with action and turned it to a show that's more about. action and then put a moment of horrific violence in. Yeah. And it highlights the contrast between the two approaches, basically. Yes. Yeah.

Wow. We should just let you speak for us. That was what we were particular to be. That is John's special gift. He's so good at like he knows what the, someone will set up the shot and he'll do the layup. He'll do the alley-you. He's perfect with the conversation.

Yeah. And me losing words is why I script stuff out. I do it all time. But your name is film speak. We should move on to Starfighter. Let's talk about that first. Let's change it up, then we'll refresh our minds with some X-Men talk. Is that cool?

Because I only have very few opinions on Starfighter. Is that what it's called? I don't even remember what it's called. Hey, it's Star Wars Starfighter. Why don't you get the title right? Is it the last Starfighter? No, that's an existing film. Yeah.

It's just a different movie. Oh, there's a movie called The Last Starfighter? It's a beloved 80s movie. Oh, is that a... The one with the kid. Carpenter? No, it's not Carpenter. It's not John Carp. He did Star Man. Yes, which is underrated. It's an underrated Johnny Carps.

I've never seen it either. Yeah. And I've actually never seen the last Starfighter, though I am aware of it. Well, it's a 1984 sci-fi family film. Well, I sent you a screenshot of what I saw of like the breakdown of what they said was happening with his last Starfighter. I just want to get the beats on this and then go through all the beats because how are you feeling about Star Wars? in the Mandalorian and Grogu. See ya. I'm out.

I don't... No, dude, I am so done on Star Wars, man. I am... I don't know you in the Star Wars realm that well. It's funny. Star Wars was like my favorite franchise growing up as a kid. Like, I was hardcore into the prequels.

I loved the original trilogy, obviously. Like, my earliest childhood memory is my uncle showing me the Phantom Menace. And, like, I was enamored... Really? Yeah, and like, I was enamored with Darth Maul and all that stuff

and the duel of the fates. It was just like, whoa, I've never experienced anything like this before. It's so fucking cool. And then, yeah, I mean, like I was so hyped for the Force Awakens, came out, loved it. Yeah, I was a retread of a new hope, but you know what I saw what they were kind of doing with it. Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars movie.

So that film, yes, thank you. Did you watch it after and or season two? No, I've been, I know. It's a great watch, dude. I know, I know. And it's segues, we did that. It's segue's perfect. Yeah, that's, it's trippy.

When you're like, when you finish season two and then you watch it, I was like, I've never experienced it. I was weird. Well, I want to do a rewatch of both seasons and then going into. That's the way to do it now. Yeah. So anyway, please continue. No, no, no.

But, anyways, and then the Last Jedi is a film I had, I had like an interesting relationship with. I've now in the camp where I firmly love that film. I think it was really, really inspired take. And then Rise Skywalker sucks I didn't care for solo either I thought solo was like

it was kind of harmless but it wasn't anything that I I don't know How do you feel about the Mandalorian show? Yeah no I haven't liked that show Oh yeah I didn't even Like season one and two? No which I know is the season

that everyone likes to me it just felt like just just fluff It was just empty calories like I wasn't I didn't really get a whole yeah Not three I loved one and two a lot Yeah My good friend friend really likes those first two seasons.

And he's a bit more lenient on the Star Wars stuff. I think he likes that more than me. But yeah, so like Mandalorian, I didn't like Asoka. I didn't like, what are the other shows they had? The Acolyte, terrible. Skeleton Crews. It's like Trump reviewing stuff. So bad.

Terrible. Terrible. Worst thing ever. Oh, yeah. Skeleton Crew is, I think because I'd been like so scorned on everything else up to that point, I went into Skelton Crew with a really negative attitude but then that show actually wound up

winning me over and I was like oh this is pretty charming That's the only one I haven't seen I haven't seen I haven't seen I don't think a lot of people watch that show I haven't seen a clone horse

I haven't seen Skelty crew was outside of Andor which I already knew I was gonna like and just surpassed expectations Skeleton Crew is the only other show I was like cool this is good outside of that

yeah no And then just the constant, I don't know, churning of just Star Wars, the Star Wars content mill is just, I don't know, it's just lost its special appeal. Well, you see, this is why I'm getting a little bit excited for Starfire because as someone, like, we have very different opinions on the Mandalorian. I would say Mandalorian season one is actually my favorite of the Disney era. More than Andor? While being like, I can see objectively that Andor. is a much stronger, better ridden. Like, everything is more powerful,

but on the one I personally just enjoy the most and feel the most just naturally entertained by. I feel like Andor I got to watch and I got to be like, you know, put my smart hat on and really pay attention. And I like the feeling of just being able to sit back and get lost in the space fantasy of it all. That's fair.

Yeah. And it has the Star Warsy things that I like, you know? Yeah, it's Star Warsy, where Andor's like, let's strip away, force and all that stuff. What if Star Wars was like your world? Yeah. Yeah, no, no.

I get that. It is like objectively way stronger. And when someone says like the best thing, I'm like, you're not wrong. It's not my favorite thing, but it's probably the best thing. Sure. But it's easily like right up there. Now, after Mandalorian, but I'm not, I wish I was excited for Mandalorian and Grosu. But season three just didn't really do it for me at all.

And then to hear that they had. a whole plan for four and then they kind of truncated it down for this film is like i don't know if that's like the right approach the last starfighter or even that sounds like a star wars movie it does it really does yeah yeah but starfighters i haven't been that excited for i'd like i'd haven't really cared i adore ryan gosling i feel like i was like the underground crew when like no one was really into ryan gawms like half nelson half nelson that's what i'm talking about, man. Those days of Ryan Gosling, man.

And I mean, I like his new era. I do kind of miss the more dramatic era of him, but I like his new era. And Sean Levy, I think, makes super entertaining films. You know, I like the weird no rules tonight at the museum. I like the Adam Project is enjoyable. A free guy thought was great. He's done some really amazing episodes of Stranger Things.

So, so much about like what they're putting there. seems like they just want to make like an entertaining film. It doesn't really feel like the film that's important to the canon or expanding the lore or whatever. But then we were getting these reports that like Tom Cruise was visiting. Dude, that's crazy. Yeah, I saw that. And getting involved with getting behind the lens

and picking up the camera himself for a certain shot and Steven Spielberg visited set as well. So to get these guys who are all about the theatrical experience, something that feels very cinematic, who are going to visit. the sets of the of this for some reason that gets got me way more excited than anything else because i got my mind trickling right like tom cruise has been part of paramount which has been really trying to like spend every dollar to try to get Netflix and he really is a big believer in the theatrical

experience as well and when thinking about a lot of these like vod things that they do on the release side of it Disney's the one that actually while they have their Disney plus thing Disney's the one that holds out the longest when it comes to putting things out on video on demand. Most people do 30 to 45 days. Disney does like 60 to 80 on average. So they're holding out the longest to try to get people to be in the theaters.

So part of me was going, Tom Cruise considering some type of weird departure to try to get him with Disney so he could be part of the theatrical experience more because Paramount only does like 30 to 45 days as well. Yeah. Or sometimes I do 60 depending on what they're negotiating. and the Mission of Possible franchise is, like, gone now.

And we had similar opinions on that. And what else is? His new movie looks like a character piece that he's going for. Yeah, great. That's the most excited for a Tom Cruise project I've been in years. So Tom Cruise, I feel like, wants to experiment and try new things. And I feel like the guy's secretly been directing all his movies since, like, he became a producer. Like, it just seems like that's been the case with the guy is he's very involved already behind the lens of what to do.

That's why I think he likes Christopher McCory, because McCory does what he wants him to do pretty much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So there's something about them visiting the set. Granted, apparently, Tom Cruise said, The Flash was an amazing film. I don't know if any of that's true. We never heard him say that. We never heard him say that. And I say that as a defender of the Flash, by the way.

I know everyone's going to go, oh, your opinion's invalidated now. But I like that movie. I like that movie. But how are you feeling as someone who loves Star Wars the most growing up? Yeah. Then now the Disney air has kind of ruined it for you despite having and or being great. Is this exciting you at all? Or are you like, nah, it's still the same thing?

I, well, I'm not really a big fan of Sean Levy as a director. I think he's a nice guy. I think he's got some interesting ideas. Like, I will always love him for making Big Fat Liar in Night at the Museum because growing up with Big Fat Liar. Holy shit. I never saw that. I didn't know he did that. What are you doing your?

your next react. You need to do it's a big fat liar, dude. I ain't seen it either. Oh my God. Well, do it around Malcolm in the middle. SEO. Dude. Okay, first of all, that is genuinely

one of the all-time great Paul Giamatti performances. It is so funny. I just remember being blue in the trailer. Well, yeah, he's only blue for like a section of the movie, but he's just like, he's just let off. False advertise. Yeah, he's like, you're not blue the whole movie.

You know, Frankie Munez, Amanda Bynes, like, very like, Y2K. family comedy dude there are just moments in that movie that are unhinged like so genuinely so funny but then it also has like the typical Sean Levy like overly sentimental

stuff in there and you know the kid and his dad and whatnot I won't I won't spoil it but it's like all his movies are father outside of Deadpool and Wolverine they're all like father's side of stories you know Wolverines like the dad to an ADD child that is Deadpool this is true

this is true car Oh, you know what? Actually, I liked Real Steel. Real Steel was a good movie. Oh, Real Steel. Oh, yeah. Boller's a blast. Yeah, oh, yeah, totally great. So, like, I... Sounds like you like, Sean Levy. No, I hated... I hated the Adam Project.

I hated... I hated Free Guy. Holy shit. You hated Free Guy? Oh, that movie pissed me. We can't meet on Free Guy. Aw, dude. Damn. Yeah, it was... That was just...

I was such a defender of that. I was like, I hope more people watch this. I really love. And yeah, just worked me to no end. The concept was interesting. The execution, I was like, nope, nope. This is fascinating. I loved it.

Just, just IP porn. But, uh, what's wrong with that? Anyway, sorry. Oh, my God. Um, so, it's still going. It's still going. You got to adjust.

Let's go. Let's go. Um, so, so all this to say, like, Sean Levy, I just don't think I don't think he has the sauce as a filmmaker as the people say Do that again in closer

The sauce Sean Levy doesn't have The sauce As a filmmaker visually He's just He's very uninteresting Which isn't his fault I mean

You know he's fine He does not have a visual style I'll say Like I wouldn't say like I see a Sean Levy's style When I see ya Which you would think when you're making Star Wars You want someone who at least

has a little flare Right like No pun intended With JJ 8 Abrams there, but like, you know, like, J.J. Ryan, um, even like Gareth Edwards in Rogue 1, even like Tony Gilroy with what he did.

And I mean, he didn't direct all those episodes, but they, they crafted a very, you know, Michael Clayton-esque. Yeah, exactly. Right. So it's like, you're dealing with filmmaker, you know, that was my biggest problem with Skelton crew was I thought John Watts doesn't have a visual style. But then he proved me wrong because you kind of went back to

his horror roots and brought some like, you know, dark, like, Amblin Goonies-esque imagery in there that. worked for it. So, yeah, and actually that's, I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but like that's the reason why I don't really like the Mandalorian visually

is because I think John Favro, very technically proficient filmmaker, is more interested in the toys and the mechanics than he really is in crafting a nice, you know, portrait. That's fair. I suppose. Anyways, all of this to say... You're an asshole, thanks a speech. Yeah, I'm an asshole.

I know, I'm just going off on here. With Sean Levy, yeah, his recent efforts, I haven't really been impressed by. I don't think he's an interesting visual storyteller.

The concept kind of just feels like Mandalorian Light. Just the idea of this guy who's a starfighter who, I don't know if he's a bounty hunter or not, but he's like rescuing this kid

and then he's going to take the kid to like this Jedi and the rumors and he's taking her to Ray or whatever. Like that's kind of the thing. Oh, that was the thing that came out too is that there's going to be like Jedi's and lightsaber fights in this one. Right, yeah. So, and like Matt Smith's the bad guy. How many times have we seen Matt Smith be the bad guy? God love him. He's really good at it, but it's like, okay. But has he been a great bad guy yet? Have you seen Morbius? He was the best part of that movie. Yes, he was. He knew what movie he was in. He knew what movie he was in.

I only pull them abs of. He's my favorite doctor. Oh, okay, yeah. I don't watch Doctor Who, but I... Yeah, he's my favorite one. Okay, there you go. Um, yeah, so anyways, I... He plays a bad guy, doctor. He, is he... I was gonna say, that was always dancing with his shirt off in the season.

That's what I've heard. He just can't keep that shirt on. You can't keep that shirt on, man. So maybe that's what's in store for us. Oh, Dave, he's Damon Turkey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess he's a big fan of incest, too. Ooh, um...

Woo, yeah. Uh, all that to say, uh, all of those reasons are kind of why I'm not. like super stoked on it. But I mean, I haven't seen a trailer, so I'm willing to be convinced. I do like the fact that it is separated from all the previous stuff, all the Disney Plus stuff and whatnot. And if they can kind of, if they can connect it to Ray in a way that, you know, shows that

they're going to try and remedy the mistakes of the Rise of Skywalker in the End of the sequel trilogy, then I'm on board with that. I like Ray. I do too. Have you met on Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland? Yeah, yeah, it's great. It's a lot of fun. You know when you have like the Ray hologram pop up before you go on the ride?

Every time I see her, I'm like, man, you got too much shit. Every time I see her. Hey, blame JJ for the Rise of Skywalker. That's, that's, I guess some of it happened in The Last Jedi, but primarily. But I think the part where I would, on the hopeful counter side here, is I think the best thing he tends to excel at. Even in his not so great stuff, is that father and son thing he tends to be pretty good at. Right. He's got, he's a sentimental guy like you were saying.

He's got a lot of heart. I haven't really been following interviews on this. I would imagine this guy grew up on Star Wars, considering the shit I've seen in some of his movies. Yeah. That seems to be like, I want to put a lightsaber fight. I want to do Star Wars. Exactly. So I feel like this will be truly a film he's making from his heart.

Yeah. At the end of the, even though it's a big film. him, it's big IP, it's Star Wars, I think there'll be a genuine emotion to this. And that's why I'm excited for it to get back to that. I think he's, when he nails it, he's good at getting wonder, when he nails it, I think.

Okay, yeah. The Real Steel match somebody that wonder and heart. Like, I could see, I enjoyed the Adam Project, but I often have to be like, oh yeah, this is Jean-Levy. You know, I forget about that. But not at the museum, it's like a film that, this is a weird ass franchise of films. but you know he's got that weird thing where

he manages to find this like whimsy and wonder at times of that. You know what? You're kind of right and you're slowly winning me back. I think maybe my issue is I don't like when he teams up with Ryan Reynolds because then I think his... That's where there's like a Ryan Reynolds is controlling the thing. Well yeah there's that because then I think the

the um the inauthenticity and like the uh yeah like Ryan Reynolds hold schick really comes to the forefront and I think that gets really off-putting to me and it loses a lot of its

I don't know comedic effect on me. It gets exhausting after a while but that's like an issue I have with Ryan Reynolds, not necessarily Sean Levy. So maybe Sean Levy working with Ryan Gosling in Lucasfilm developing a project that to your point is like clearly something that he cares about

there is something cool about seeing like a filmmaker finally getting to play with the toys that they've wanted to play with their whole life. It's why I still advocate for Christopher Nolan making a bond film because yeah, he's made Tenet. Yeah, he's made Inception, but he hasn't done the real thing. People were like, he's made his Bond film. Those are Bond films. Exactly. It's like it is never the same as when you actually get to play with those elements and do what you've always wanted to do as a kid with it. So to your point, something I didn't necessarily consider. I think there is there is an opportunity. here for us to get an enjoyable movie. I don't think Starfighter is going to be groundbreaking. I don't think it's going to turn people around on Disney Starfighter, geez, Disney Star Wars,

per se. But if it's a fun summer blockbuster, people can be like, oh, okay, cool, Star Wars can be entertaining now. And the fact that it's theatrical is the big thing, because I think Star Wars going to television is part of the reason that the brand has become diminished. It's been cheapened. people come to expect it on Disney Plus in a couple of months on a week to week basis. And Star Wars has always been this big cinematic event.

And that's missing. I think that's a big reason why Star Wars is in the position that it's at. And I get them trying to go back that way with the Mandalorian and Grogu. Clearly, that's like a case where like Bob Iger's like, oh, okay, well, there's a fandom for this. Let's see if they'll show up for the movie. But it's different when you're making. a sequel film to a television show.

There's like so many like, you know, hoops there that I guess you have to kind of like go through in order to find your target audience. And so like your average person who doesn't watch the TV shows, who just watches Star Wars on the big screen, are they going to care about the Mandalorian and Grogu? Probably not. So I think that project is a mistake for sure. But I don't think that's going to be a test as to whether or not, you know, Disney Star Wars can come back.

It does feel like Star Wars. Yeah, right. Yeah. It's almost weird that that movie is like coming out and we barely seen a trailer for it and no one's talking about it. I hope Starfighter does not suffer from that fate. Yeah. It is weird too. Yeah.

Because even like there's of course a lot of people who still love Star Wars and are still like, you know, write or die for that thing. Yeah. And I don't ever really hear about Mandelary Crook. It's a, it's bizarre. It's going out of like three months. It's just the trailers haven't been good. my concern is that they're kind of going to do what they did with that really bad anime in a clone wars movie I mean there's even like there's even like a hut child at the center of it and granted it's like

Jeremy Allen White but um it's just you're gonna get the full benefit of that yeah oh boy why did he choose to do that he could have done any franchise probably why that um anyways so I I I'm afraid that it's just going to be a bunch of episodes stitched together. Yeah, truncated, like you said earlier. And it's just going to be, I don't know. We'll see. If there's anything I love, it's being proven raw. Yeah. That's my favorite thing ever. It's true. It's true. Anyway, guys, are you, do you say BTAS? Your thoughts down below? There's the sound. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Save the best for last, something that we have talked so much about already for such a long time. And you've got your

video out on it and it's like a 30 minute, 40 minute video? Like a kind of a lengthy one on it. Was that? I can check the length of it right now if you want. Yeah, give all the analytics. I'm Sean Levy's directorial style. You know what it hit me really quick is like him and a lot of these other big directors who get these big projects. Their style is Amblin slash Lucasfilm.

Oh yeah. It's like Amblin-esque is their style. Yeah. It would be nice if Amlin and Lucasfilm could maybe pull in some people with not only that style. Well, again, this is why. Despite what you think about the Last Jedi, it's one of the most visually interesting movies in the Star Wars canon.

I agree with that, yeah. It's fucking cool-looking movie. Yeah, great film. Great-looking film, too. Anyway, that... Cantobite. Bight, baby. Hey, that's...

If you like the prequels, that's cool shit. I'm not going to get one to that. But, so, no, the X-Men video I made was only 18 minutes. Oh, only. What was, like, 39 minutes that I saw? Was the Steve Rogers one? That one was like 25.

I don't know what I'm talking about. He's making up video lengths. Let's do a new chapter. X-Men. We're talking about X-Men. All right. So, Avengers Doomsday, if you've been watching us for a while, it just at a top 15 most anticipated with Koi,

I put Avengers Dooms Day as my number two. My number one is my number one, and I love my number one. But my number two is Avengers Doomsday. For all the reasons that are either cynical or positive, I just have to see it. I have to see this movie and I can't stop thinking about it. I love the bob and weave conversation with it. It's like a boxing match, honestly.

It's like sometimes it's like, oh, shit, man, why are you doing this Avengers? And I'm like, holy shit, Avengers is doing it. It just keeps going back and forth and like, oh, I could see why this should be good. I can see what this could be terrible. And regardless, I'm just excited to see how it's going to turn out, even though I have no real confidence in which direction it's going to go. And you have been a little bit more along the side of how, like, Koi has definitely been talking about why you haven't been super excited for it. And I did listen to, I think most of your X-Men video already, actually.

And I checked to see your watch time. And yeah, I saw you watched it. And yeah, so I listened to your X-Men video. But what is your, what's your feelings on it right now just to give the audience a bit of an insight here? To be fair to the trailer, it is the best trailer they've released, for sure. How have you been feeling about the marketing plans? Go there first. The four trailers.

At this point, it's agreed. It's just, it's been too tedious. It's like, okay, no one fucking cares, man. It's like, oh, here's another quick shot of a hero doing something. Here's this person meeting this person. Like, whatever. And it's not like that first one was really all that good either. Like the Steve Rogers one, I was like, okay, whatever.

That was just like, could have been an ad for. Like, one of, it's so funny. Someone, someone on Twitter, I think it was one of my friends, he responded and he was like, because I was trying to give a credit, I was like, oh, yeah, when you watch it in a theater, you get a little bit of the feels, even though I don't really like the trailer, it's like you get why this casting was generational and it has impact. And it looks kind of visually interesting, practical sets and everything. And he's like, yeah, I don't know, man, it just looks like it was an ad for pamper's.

And I was like, oh, yeah, that's, I don't know. It's kind of true. So, yeah, that one, the Thor one was great, but I would have liked it if it was like a trailer for a Thor movie, you know, not Avengers Doomsday. But it does prove that they know how to write that character. For the X-Men one, it's weird because it's a good trailer. Again, similar to the Steve Rogers one with the casting,

it proves why, you know, we haven't been able to shake these versions of the characters. that is truly generational casting with these characters. Definitely. It's cool seeing Cyclops do the optic blast. Clearly the Rousseau's are like, we got to level up our visual game a bit, and they're trying to kind of do Zach Snyder-ish visuals, just without the finesse of Snyder.

What did you think of the magnet? Because the one thing that really stood out to me, I felt like no one was really talking about, because the Thor dialogue I thought was really good. Yeah, Thor dialogue was good. And then I really paid attention to like, I thought the magnate. dialogue was really good too.

Yeah, that one, it could have been any random monologue that Magneto was, it felt very just like generic. Like, oh, of course Magneto was saying this. This could have come from Days of Future past or X3 or X2 or whatever. It's just

That was the thing I said during. I was like, this is so weird because this is such a good trailer. But I feel like I watched like an X-Men movie trailer. And not a trailer for the X-Men being in the Avengers world. Yeah. And that's the problem. That's actually my problem with the Thor and the X-Men

trailers. It's like these and this is kind of why the marketing has been weird. It's like this, if you are someone who is not religiously following the MCU, which I guess granted is a very small number of people at this point. But say you're just like a casual person who goes and watches like tent pole films

because that you enjoy going to the movies every now and then you watch Marvel movies enough, you watch the X-Men a bit and you go and you watch this and you're like, wait thought this was over. It's just such a disorienting trailer because you're right, it's like,

oh, this feels like a trailer for something else, not Avengers Doomsday. And then you realize it's in Avengers Doomsday and you're like, what the fuck have I missed? And truthfully, truthfully, you haven't missed anything. It makes no sense why these versions of the X-Men would be in this universe because they haven't laid the foundation for it.

I mean, this is the problem in the movie at large is that there's nothing built up to this point. like outside of the Steve Rogers stuff which yeah you could you could say that's a continuation from endgame but outside of that it's like the X-Men this version of the X-Men said goodbye in days of future

past if you wanted to bring back any X-Men crew why not bring back the first class crew yeah that that didn't get a good farewell they their last movie was Dark Phoenix and that was basically like their X-3 it was a really pitiful

farewell and everyone was like okay you know what Fox X-Men has done let's reboot the whole thing start a new going forward but of course that didn't happen um so the the choice to bring back this particular version of the X-Men just feels exhausting because nothing in this trailer is anything we haven't seen this version of the X-Men do before

um and it's also like how many fucking times do we have to watch these this version of these characters like go through like, you know, no pun intended, but like doomsday level stakes. I feel like every single time we've seen these guys since X3, it's been some sort of farewell tour and them like, you know, fighting, like, on this massive scale for their existence,

which I get is part of the X-Men, right? Like they're fighting for their right to exist alongside humanity. That is just part of the allegory. But when you're doing it on such like a massive scale after a while, it just becomes, numb. So... Do you think it's possibly...

Because I imagine they had to commit to an era, right? Because they introduced Beast, they bring back Kelsey Grammar. That one's like more... Even though Nicholas Holt had way more appearances, I think... But he's not coming back. He's not coming back. But the beast of Kelsey Grammer, I feel, is... That feels more like traditional beast.

That feels more like the beast that you would kind of read from the comics. But why not just... My whole issue with this whole thing, and I've got to like... Bringing back the Fox characters. Just don't even have the X-Men in this movie, or, I mean, truthfully, don't even do this movie yet. Like, start fresh. Like, start at Ground Zero and build, or the ground floor and build up a new X-Men. This is what everyone wanted to see.

I mean, it took them too long to get to the Fantastic Four, and now it's going to take us, like, ten more years to get a proper X-Men reboot. I know that they are doing it, and that Jake Shrier is the guy directing the film. they're going to, you know, do a different version of the X-Men. But the problem is, like, why are we not fast-tracking that? That's the thing that's going to excite people as a new iteration of these characters instead of just, like, playing the same hits from the Fox X-Men that they've been playing ever since 2006. It's actually insane that we are still bringing these versions of the characters back,

and we're not even doing anything interesting with them. It is this, I mean, I obviously haven't seen the film, but based on this trailer, the vibe I'm getting is like some version of a days of future past like story. Maybe they'll fight the Avengers in it. Who knows? I mean, that's a whole other issue because those two characters haven't even met, those sets of characters haven't even met. They have no relation to one another.

It doesn't actually mean anything in universe. Just means stuff to fans superficially. And that's really my problem is it's just, it's playing the nostalgia card over and over and over again without being interesting. it's like, yes, yes, it's cool to see James Marsden in a comic accurate cyclops suit. But I want to see a new cyclops in a comic accurate cyclops suit. I think, do... What did you, if I can just ask really quick then?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was your feeling? I mean, there's a lot of... I know your feelings on the multiverse in general. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But when they did no way home, did you like that? When you first saw it? Yeah, first time I saw it, I was like, oh, yeah, this is cool.

And the novelty of seeing like Toby and Andrew was, like, it was a nice surprise, even with, you know, the campy elite pictures. It was something where I was like, oh, is it actually going to happen? I think because it was unconfirmed, I was like, oh, this is kind of fun. But I also went into that film not liking the fact that they were bringing back, you know, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and Willem Defoe's Green Goblin. I was like, I want to see Tom Holland fight his own versions of those characters because these characters don't mean. anything to him. Yeah. You know.

How did you feel about, I guess I'm asking you, how did you feel about getting the resolve on Andrew Garfield and Toby McGuire? Did you feel like, initially, initially I was like, okay, this works. I kind of see what they're doing with it. But then the more I've sat with it, I actually felt like with the Andrew Garfield character, it was repeating something that he had already gone through in the Amazing Spider-Man too. and him being rageful and angry and stuff like that

is actually the exact opposite of what Gwen wanted for him and what he understood when he was going back out there to be Spider-Man. He endured the loss and had his pouting and his grief and everything like that. And then he went back out there to save the kid and recognize that like, you know what, I am Spider-Man and I need to be a hero to these people. It was such like a beautifully horrendous.

heroic notes to end that film on. And so to then have, like, I guess, the trajectory of his life be that, like, I got rageful because I didn't deal with my trauma over my dead girlfriend. It's like, we already did that. He already did that in the film. And then with Toby, I don't feel like we got enough to really be satisfying. Like, it was cool to see him there and, like, him be like, hey, you know, MJ and I, we worked stuff out or whatever.

Like, that was fine. But I didn't. there wasn't enough for me to be like, okay, this feels like a very satisfying, like, you know, capstone on this character's arc or whatever. I guess it was like on the, because the thing that it works with too, I think it goes with the X-Men,

but it also goes with Spider-Man, is why I was bringing a Spider-Man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're also aware that their story, the audiences are aware of their stories were cut short. Like, there were supposed to be another Spider-Man for Toby, so we didn't get that. Do you genuinely feel like the Fox X-Men

not the first class crew, like the, the, the OG guys. Do you really feel like their story was cut short? I don't feel that way for Professor X.

Or Magneto or Wolverine. Magneto's, I'm trying to recall, it's been a while since I've seen the X-Men movies, but I don't recall Ian McKellen really getting his final movie,

his final, I know he's like in days of future past, but he doesn't really get the closing story. Magneto doesn't get a closing tale. And Cyclops on the,

on the, on the fan side. It is working on me on the fan side of like James Bartson is perfect casting. He was perfect casting. And everyone for years has been saying they really botched him. They did.

So it is that redemption as someone, as people who thought he was like a perfect casting for it. And he came back in days of future past. And I remember people being excited like, oh my God, they're here. And then we never saw them again. Right. So the Professor X side is undoubtedly confusing as hell

me because, you know, like, all right, I could get on board that we got a different one in Dr. Strange. Yeah. And, uh, yes, there was a different time. Okay, so Logan was our timeline. So that's when Professor X should have died. Mm-hmm. Is this taking place before Logan? Is this another different universe of X-Men characters?

You're getting into another issue that I have with it. But, um... But I'm, yeah, I would say that the excitement for me is, I, cannot sit here and be like, you're wrong, Griffin. I've been told I'm wrong many times about this. Well, no, I mean, I think you're right in terms of like narrative and storytelling. That's part of the fun I'm having with this movie. Yeah.

It's like, oh, yep, I already had those thoughts. Yeah. And then I have the other side. I have like the coexisting side of everything I'm saying about the excitement of having James Marston back. Yeah. for me is I remember the period when X-Men was coming out and like there was no Iron Man yet but then something there was an Iron Man while X-Men movies were still coming out

and there was also the Spider-Man movies and like oh but fuck they're not they're not in Marvel why why can't they be there we and these are the X-Men characters that we grew up with these are the portrayals that we grew up with and I think to have that that's why I think there was that payoff excitement of yes there's a narrative storytelling and undercutting that could be with like, oh, you bring Hugh Jackman back after Logan. This, though,

is that payoff of that wish fulfillment. We never got to see these guys playing the Avengers pool. I can't say, though, like, of course it is narratively, this whole thing is a mess with doom coming in and everything. It's all,

and Robert Downey Jr., the whole thing is like a giant pivot, you know, improv game that they've been playing to try to fix this. Of course. Absolutely. And at this point, I'm like, I know what's coming out.

So on this realm, here's where that fan side of me is excited. And I've noticed, though, the weight of what I expect this movie to do is totally different than what I once expected for Marvel films. Yeah. My point with that is when I watched like the Infinity War and Endgame, I really craved like epic storytelling. You know, now when I watch a lot of comic movies, I'm like, I just kind of want to be entertained. I don't feel that way with stuff like Clayface. Or the Batman too. Or the Batman too.

Weirdly, right? Like those ones, I'm like, no, this has to be great storytelling. This has to be awesome scripts, great characterization. But now with like a doomsday, I guess my desire for it to be an amazing film is not as strong. I'm more like, I at this point, I got to go for like an entertainer and solid time, you know. Isn't that sad, though? Of course it's sad. It speaks to a larger problem.

It speaks to a much bigger problem. That's what I'm saying about fucking Starfighter. Yeah. It's like, I just want like an entertaining, heartfelt movie, you know? Yeah. I guess that's the thing is just like I, I, because I know what they're capable of doing,

I just, I don't, I don't accept that this is, this, they're, they're treating their audience with such contempt blatantly, um, that I just,

and, and yeah, I get it. Like the nostalgia thing is cool. The what if scenario was cool. The fact that we'll get these characters interacting in a way that we never thought was possible is cool.

And I'm not necessarily opposed to it. I just don't think that there was anything established to make it, you know, worthwhile. But I guess that's kind of the thing. So it's just meaningless. Like at least, I would still probably dislike it, but like at least if it was,

teed up, it would be, like, there would be something there, right? Something to grab on to. Like, why they're fighting Doom and everything. Like, they have to do a lot of, like, good, like, they have to do good motivation to have this, like, truly make sense. Yeah, yeah. Why are these X-Men guys doing it? And it is, is, of course, the nostalgia side, right? That's all it is, really. I just, I think, yeah, to me, that's just, that's frustrating. Um, because we, we as audience members should demand better from our entertainment. Like, we should demand stories that make you fucking care about these characters. And comics are rich with that stuff.

Comics, like, when comics had crossovers, the crossovers were really just like a check-in point, right? Like, like, the legwork was done in, like, the solo issues or, like, maybe, like, you'd have two characters team up or whatever. But, like, the crossovers, something like, and even something like Secret Wars, which this is building towards, while, yes, is a massive story, is it. actually incredibly intimate because it's about Reed Richards and Dr. Doom. It's about the history of those two men that have been at the heart of Marvel comics since the very beginning.

So I just, you know, even then, even when you get those like these like universe-shattering like dilemmas going on these incurs, like whatever, at its core, it is about two people who have incredibly different worldviews who have been adversaries from the very beginning. That's why endgame's fucking great. Exactly. It's about the law. like I love that five-year blip. I do too. Remember that first time you saw that shit? I was like, what are we doing right now?

Yeah, no, no, no, same. I agree. That's that, I think it might be my favorite part of that movie, to be honest with you. It's like great as the payoffs are at the end and everything. That stuff, like the leftovers kind of like vibe that you get from the first, like part of that movie,

it's like, whoa, we're actually dealing with this. Yeah, that's why I love that. And that's why when they get to the fight, even though it's a different Thanos technically. Yeah. Like, it's still rewarding when you're, there's a personal thing.

With the three of them, the trio of them fighting that Thanos and the fear of that. You know, so yeah, like, it's, it's, uh, it's, I don't see how it could possibly be like, live up to infinity war and end game. It seems like visually they're going for a distinct thing. Visually they're trying. Yeah, which is cool. It's nice that they're trying something different. Yeah, visually looks cool.

And it could be one of the better ones in the last couple years, maybe. But again, it's not saying much. I think that's just because they've just been like, you know, putting out. As you're talking, I feel my heart being like, no, Griffin. I know, I know what you mean, Griffin. I'm safe here. I'm safe like having low expectations. Because you're right.

Like, of course we should expect more from our energy. That's what makes it, that's what makes the MCU, the MCU. That's why MCU stayed so strong for so long. Yeah, yeah. So why do we think, like, they can't keep, it's like, they can't keep getting away with this. It's like, they can't keep thinking they can't get it. It all costs this fucking money. Yeah, exactly.

Robert Danny Drew is being paid a king's ransom and he's got his own like fucking Camelot on set. It's just like, what the hell, man? And like when you're bringing up the comics, like, yeah, I know, man. That's why I like when I read those. Because I read certain event comics where I don't give, like some people love event comics because they're an event comic. Yeah, sure.

And some of them I actually check out during. Like I read The Secret Wars, not Secret Wars. Fucking. My God, what was the show that people didn't like with the scrolls? Secret invasion. Yeah, I read the secret. I read Secret Invasion, and I was like, I don't really care about it. I just didn't care about it when I read the whole thing, and it felt like a chore.

Yeah. So I know what it's like to read an event comic and not really care, and I know I'm on the minority on that opinion. There's a reason people are really excited for that. So, but I also know the feeling when you read an event comic, and it's fucking gripping as shit. And so you're right, especially if you're going to take the title of Secret War. you gotta like you gotta honor that mantle you know it's the way i feel about supergirl woman of tomorrow like what a beautiful brilliant comic if you're gonna be constantly shouting this out then you gotta you gotta visually live up to it too you know beyond just the storytelling that that's fair i i don't

i think that that one i'm a little more less concerned about because i trust the creative team involved with that film and like yeah you can say visually it looks very guardians the galaxy inspired, but I also think that comic, while yes, does have a lot of fantasy influences in it, a lot of like Conan the Barbarian influences in there, the comic also kind of looks like Guardians of the Galaxy. The comic has a mood, though, a tone. It's like a melancholic, cosmic. There's like a sadness pall over every page while being beautiful and wonder.

And so to just go when Guardians is like, it's lighthearted cosmic fun, you know. So that's the part of what I'm talking about. And I know with this, it's a completely different film, completely different conversation. Yeah. And I just can't help. Like, do, my number one most anticipated movie is Street Fighter. Because. God damn.

Wow. That's crazy. The reason why is because there's something about it where I just keep watching that trailer over and over again. Why? Why? Why not? Let me clarify.

I don't think it'll be my favorite movie of the year. Right. Like my favorite movie of the year of 2025 is like no one's favorite movie the year. But it's not a blockbuster. It's Eddington. I fucking loved Eddington. Yeah, I love Eddington too. Yeah, it's great film.

Absolutely love that film. And for like a lot of the reasons why people hate it are a lot of reasons why I love that movie. So by any stretch, I'm not like Street Fighter is going to be. I highly doubt that'll even be like one of my top 10 favorite movies of the year. Yeah. But there's something on the entertainment side that I'm just looking forward to. And I'm at that weird stage in life where, as usually my favorite movies are the ones that are deeper and more thought-provoking and create a conversation. Those tend to be my favorite movies, the ones that are psychologically rich.

But in terms of anticipation, a lot of times it's just like, I just want the entertainment sometimes now. You know what? That's fair. And I can't fault. I don't fault anyone for being excited for this film. If it makes you happy, then that's really. all that matters. I mean, like, the world is shitty enough as it is. If you want to go watch the 2000 X-Men run around and fight the Avengers, like, more power to...

Like, that's awesome. Do you think they're going to fight the Avengers? I feel like there's going to have to be some kind of like Avengers versus X-Men thing going on in there. That doesn't excite me. I think that'd be terrible. Yeah. Even if it is our 2000, because it's like, yeah, we know them. I'm like, no, the excitement of Avengers's X-Men is the build-up. Yeah, no, I agree with you, but I'm also not expecting any build-up here. Like to me, the reason for them fighting is solely for, like, existence. Like, like, in the, in the sense where it's like, the Fox X-Men are in danger of, like, going away. And so they have to fight for their, for their right to, like, live, basically.

Which kind of feels like it's in line with the generational thing here where it's like the Doom is presumably taking all of, like, the kids away that means something to the OG Avengers or the Fantastic Four or something like that. And then maybe you have the X-Men who is this older generation. that's like trying to yeah i don't know but then you risk kind of like making them look like the bad guys so i i don't know i keep going back to logan for some reason because deadpool and wolverin went way out of its way yeah to be like hey fox x-man universe so that's all can okay so this that's the other thing it's like why because it's less exciting if it's a different time of your life in the quits yeah they say goodbye they said in about as finite of a way as you fucking can.

And they're like, well, but just kidding. Well, that's the part. See, when I go back to it, I'm like, I'm excited if it is

the Fox X-Men universe on that nostalgia front. But if it's not, and it's just variance in a different universe, I'm less excited. But that's, yeah, I agree.

I was very, I could not get on board for CGI beast. I could not do it. So a lot of people that wasn't a big deal. They were just excited that it was Kelsey Grammar. I the first words I came out of my mouth where they fucking CGI

I was I was livid at that thought and then other people came to me saying like well it's probably a different beast character is probably a different not the same one or like but the excitement is that it's the same beast character yeah right that's the only and this is my other issue with it which is they're they're like they're almost like conflating two different kinds of nostalgia which is nostalgia for the 90s X-Men series which should be the inspiration for the next like version of the X-Men not this, and then nostalgia for like the, what you might call it, like the 2000s X-Men crew, they should be two, it should be two different things, and yet they're kind of like intertwining them. And so it's this weird thing where they're, they're like exploiting people's nostalgia for the 90s X-Men stuff by dropping that theme in there,

by giving them more of like the 90s X-Men aesthetic and like costumes and whatnot. But with the actors from that arrangement, original generation of live act. So it's, like, you're, you're, you're almost telling the audience that the only people who can ever play these characters are these original actors doesn't really matter in live action. It's just them.

And it can be weird. If we get, because like, you have, I get, we're probably not going to get a new Wolverine for a very long time. And we probably shouldn't get a new Wolverine for a long time because it's going to be a hard thing to live up to for whoever it is. We need distance from, from Hugh Jackman. Yeah. That was the, and it seems like Hugh Jackman, he's going to stick around for a while,

considering what he was saying on that actors on actors interview, after the success of Deadpool will bring, like he's going to stick around. Yeah, he's 90. Until he's 90. Which is insane because Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are actually 90 and they're still doing this. According to Patrick Stewart, it's his last performance, which I don't know how much I'm going to buy that. I mean, my God, that's his last, last, last, last, last, last performance. I genuinely, I believe it. I don't, he's, he's getting up there.

and like just seeing him at Comic-Con sometimes, I'm like, retire, sir. He's in an actual wheelchair now. I know, it's like, I don't know. That's a little frustrating. It's like, that's the other thing. It's like, we have old men running around in costumes. Like, don't we want to see just like fucking new people?

Like, do this? Like, why is it like old men do it? Like, ah. Cast some unknown old men, at least. Sure. Sure. Also, it's also telling the audience that, Xavier and Magneto are only old men, and that's never been the case.

They've always been younger. They had to do a first-class movie to give us more comic-accurate versions of those characters. I mean, Magneto generally is portrayed with, like, gold hair. Yeah, or white and silver, yeah. Yeah, but he's like, gold hair. Yeah, solid gold hair. But, like, in he... But I get what you mean.

They're not elderly, man. Yeah, these are like chariatics, man. Like, fucking hell. There's like young people. Then there's like the teachers, like the Cyclops ages. And then there's the older people like a professor X. But they're not like senior citizens in the way. But then for some reason, Patrick Stewart and A.Michelan have always looked like senior citizens.

And I think that's part of the reason why it was, it's funny because they were like 70 when they first started doing this. And I think because we've always known them as these characters as old men. and were able to like stomach it a little bit more. But like they, they look significantly older than they did in the early 2000s. Yeah. I don't, I don't know.

And Professor X is kind of, I think Patrick Stewart is like rather perfect casting though for Professor X. He is, he is. And there's no denying that. I think all of those guys are perfect casting for, for the characters.

But that doesn't mean they're the only people who can play those characters. No, no, definitely not. Like James Bond knew when to move on. Now granted, that was partly because like Sean Connery was like, I'm fucking done.

I'm going out, and you're going to have to figure this out on your own. But, like, James Bond had to move on. They had to find another actor to cast in that role because the character's age stays the same. The actors age out of these parts. That's kind of the beauty of it. So, like, why would you not, like, unless you're going to tell a story, like an end-of-life story, like a Dial of Destiny or a Logan or something like that, unless their age as an older person is part of the narrative.

Having them be like an old person that you're trying to make do the stuff when they were younger it just feels like it's, it doesn't really like work, but you fall into like a kingdom of the Crystal Skull situation where I think that like, yeah,

well yes, Harrison Ford looked good for his age. They were like making old man jokes in that movie yet we're like having him do stuff that he normally would do. So it was like it was this weird kind of like contradiction where it's like you want to, to address the character's age, but you're like afraid that people aren't going to want to watch this

if it's not like the typical Indiana Jones that we've seen time and time again. From what we've seen, it looks like their relationship has changed, though, right? Because he's in the Xavier Mansion, Magneto. Yeah. And he looks wheelchair-bound, too, by at least the way how it was coming

across. Like age, he's got the long hair. He definitely, I don't know if just Ian McCallon's older now. Sure. Did they not do that in Days of Future Pass, though? I don't remember. No, he was young. Well, they had like a coming together in that, in that film, the older versions of this. They had kind of like reconciled their differences and they recognized that they were like friends. I thought it was that they had to come together, but Magneto and Professor X sometimes come together for a common enemy even than they're back to where they were before.

Right, right. And I didn't think we got the resolve though, specifically with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, you know? Fair enough. Yeah. I guess I. Let me have this. No, no, no. It's fine.

I mean, you brought up the ending of Days of Future Past and being like, oh, I wish they like continued the story on there. I think that was just such like a perfect end for those guys. Like they all came back. They weren't dead anymore. They fixed the mistakes of X3 and they gave them like an ending where it's like the characters will live on even if we don't see them anymore. You know, they're going to keep fighting injustice.

They're going to keep this school alive and whatever. But like they're going like they're in a good place. And Logan lived to see that happen. with the people that he cared about. So, like, that was, I don't know, sometimes I'm like, we don't need to see every stage of their lives going forward. We kind of can just, like, as an audience, understand that, like, this is the end of the story and, you know, whatever happens afterwards happens,

but, like, in our minds, it's like, they're in a good place, and that's great. I'm ready to leave here. And I don't feel like we're able to do that by continually bringing them back like this and then putting them through the same trials that they've always been put on. you know, it's... Or we can just have fun. Yeah, you know, that's like, hey, just have fun, man.

Because it's James Morris. Yeah, James Morrison, Cyclops. That's what they're asking of us. But you don't think that him in the comic accurate suit is going to, like, undercut when the new guy wears the comic accurate suit for the first time? Like, wouldn't it have been great to see... I didn't consider that.

Like, kind of like what they did with the Fantastic Four when they gave them more comic accurate suits. And it was like, whoa, that's, like, really cool to see these guys, like, finally, their environment and there was like all the fanfare with that don't you want to see that with the x-men where we've had enough distance do you feel that way about wolverine's yellow suit uh like did i like it in deadpole wolverine yeah i didn't like the eyes i didn't think that made a lot of sense for for him but i mean like what was it similar to the cyclops thing was it cool to see him

in the yellow suit sure would i have liked them to save that for the new guy yeah like it's i don't know you're kind of just like, I don't know, to me, it just feels like you're undercutting the impact of when we actually do get the X-Men, which to me signals that they don't think this thing, this whole superhero thing, is going to last very long.

Well, then let me, I'll ask you about then Andrew Garfield because I know you're a big defender of the Amazing Spider-Man's. Yeah. They came out pretty close to the Toby McGuire ones, where you, even though they changed the suit, it's still pretty much like this,

the same ingredients that you kind of got to go with some different texture stuff that they do. Do you think that, basketball looking suit was similar to the Raymi suit. It's the same exact kind of design of what Spider-Man, every Spider-Man suit has to have a very

similar thing just with some little differences. Right, but he is the same exact thing. I guess what I will say is red blue with the webbing in the eyes like that's the same exact shit. What I will say is that I think as opposed

to you know the Foxx X-Men and the whatever they do with these new guys. The Fox X-Men never had the comic accuracy. They were in these, like, you know, the leather suits and whatever, because that was just the, that was a product of the time period.

And while, you know, comic purists were like, oh, this sucks. It's not the same. They're insulted by, they're embarrassed by the legacy of the comics. And like, yeah, that might have been true. But they made it work. They took the X-Men and they adapted it

and they made it their own. Spider-Man was pretty perfect from the get-go, and it nailed, like, the comic accuracy of that. And so you expect the next film to kind of like, I mean, mix it up. Yeah, mix it up or at least, but like keep that in mind. Like we've already seen the comic accurate Spider-Man. And so, you know, the Andrew Garfield films wisely pulled from the ultimate stuff.

And that suit reflected that. Maybe not the first one. The first one was like a weird, like, DIY basketball-looking thing. But like the suit for the amazing Spider-Man, too, to this day is my favorite Spider-Man suit. Because I think it is a perfect encapsulation of that ultimate Spider-Man costume. Like to a T. That's a pretty sick suit. And it was sick.

That was sick seeing that because we had never seen that on screen before. You know, the Toby McGuire suit was quintessential Spider-Man. But the people like me, I don't know if this was you, but like who grew up reading Ultimate Spider-Man, which that was like my foray into Spider-Man, seeing that on the screen for the first time with a new actor, I was like, oh, this is, this is perfect. This is everything that I would have hoped for in a series that seems to be pulling a lot from these as inspirations. So even if they do like a comic actor, because there's different Cyclops suits at the end of the day.

Well, this is, I think that they should have done a, if they wanted to shake up the suit a little bit and put more yellow in it, it should have been some kind of like middle. Yeah, some sort of middle ground, like the, like the Grant Morrison jackets or something like that. I've seen that like kind of float around a bit. People saying that like, you know, it gives them a bit more of the identity that they have. I want the weird head thing, the math, the, what's is the original?

Oh, yeah, like the divers suit almost? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Give the new guy the divers suit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, totally. Give Timothy Shalamee Cyclops, the diver suit. Oh, boy, oh, boy. No one's going to be better than him. Give one of the guys from heated rivalry.

Let's go. I'm all for it. You know, one of them's got to be in the X-Men. I can see. I mean, I'm sure. Anyway, damn, this went a lot longer than I expected to see. How long did we talk for? I don't know.

How long we talk for? Going on an hour and 37 minutes now. Damn. Not as long as I thought. No, wow, no,

we tend to go shorter on these. Yeah. That's because we normally do them live. We haven't been able to do them live for a while, but the lives are like, we know we have to get to like a bunch of Q&A's. So let's, uh,

oh, okay, got you. Let's keep just chopy. But now, okay. This allows for us to deep dive in. Nice. That's a good conversation.

I like talking with people with like different opinions. No, same. Yeah. It's, it's great. Like you had all this, like,

like nuance to why you didn't like excited for the X-Men and I'm like nostalgia. And you know what? Either way. Either way it's fine. You know what? It doesn't matter.

Pay off for nostalgia. For payoff I didn't really ask for it, but they're doing it. Yeah, exactly. It's working on like, see Brian just like, oh, yeah, fine, okay, like whatever.

And then with this, I'm like, oh man, that does look cool though. Because I, because I am that fan who always wanted that for, James Mardson. So sure. Yeah.

But the other question is like how many, well, I guess narratively when you do watch it, will it pay off? You know, because that's the thing. When I watched Spider-Man, I was excited like, oh, Spider-Man Noah Home was fucking over the moon about, you know, super excited. When I look back on that, I often, as I don't re-watch it regularly, when I look back on it, I forget about the villains every time. Yeah, which is funny.

I'm like, oh, yeah, Talk Hawk was in there. Yeah, right, right? But they don't stand out as like a true presence. or characters outside of Willem Defoe, who I thought was, like, great in it. Yeah, he was good in it. Yeah. I thought he was the most, he was the one who really stood out. Yeah.

And, like, they, they led the promotion with the excitement of the villains. But, you know, I do think about the Spider-Man. I don't, I don't really think about the villains and how they came across in there, but that was, like, such a staple of the Spider-Man movies was the villains. Yeah. Yeah. Lizard wasn't, like, the greatest. Electra, obviously, wasn't, like, the greatest for a lot of people.

But, you know, especially Doc Ock and. Green Goblin. They were like pinnacles. They're iconic for a reason. And so I'm wondering, I just hope that's not the same feeling with this. Like, is it cool for the marketing and the anticipation for the trailer? But I hope that when we watch it, when there's a cast of like a hundred people, will we ultimately like, will we remember what the fuck they did in this movie? Yeah, no, for real. When there's like a hundred, there's literally like a hundred people in this film. Oh, I know. I know. I know. I think the other thing that's weird about the X-Men

coming back in this is I mean, to, and correct me if I'm wrong, to my knowledge, Farmka Jansen and Halliberry are not in it. Thank God. I mean, fuck it out. I mean, those are like two of the best

best and most important characters in that in the original, you know, Fox X-Men thing. Fucking God, especially Hallie Barry. Yeah. She is Storm. So if you're going to do this for everyone else, why are you being selective about it?

I felt like her storm was inconsistent. Yeah, well, I mean, there's a character where if you want to kind of give the cyclops treatment to, it should probably be her as well. I think she could even lead the X-Men. She probably should. She could get a solo movie, too. I think Storm is an incredible character.

The X-Men 97 reminds you of that, like, guys, Storm is like a beast. She's not beast-a-character. You know, Fumke Jensen and Halliberry have both confirmed they're not in... We don't know that. Well, they don't usually

care to bring back the women, right? That's what they do. We don't need Kirsten, Emma Stone. But they're bringing back mystique in a comic accurate costume. Should we get the white clothes? Yeah, probably because they're such prudes, right?

Yeah. I mean, genuinely, like, I think the cool thing about the the aught's mystique is that it was like I mean yes it was they were basically like naked in the role but I think it was a way for the character to like show a form of confidence and embrace herself and in different ways and I think it fell off with the Jennifer Lawrence stuff because she just stopped caring but like with I forget the actually it's Rebecca Remain Remain Rebecca Remain yeah like she was so good in those

movies just with very little dialogue just as a presence yeah and she She didn't need, like, the white, you know, the comic accurate stuff. She was hot. You like the slick back hair? Slick back hair. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Carried vulnerable, care of acceptance. She was hot.

All right. That's what it comes down to. You do too much essaying when you talk about this. You think you're too hard. You think way too much. We do reactions here. Film speak, not film speak. No, no, no.

It's okay. We don't want to think this hard about it. No, no, it's just like, did she hot or not? It's like, yeah, well, yeah. Your videos would do better if you've thought. You know what, you're so right. I really should just do that. Shouldn't we think of head nipples.

That's the kind of video you should have done. We can do a whole essay. Let's take a poll. Let's take a poll. Nipples in the comic book film. It's true. Bad nipples. I was going to say to your guys' point, the thing about Doomsday,

the biggest thing seems to be that this thing needs to work like clockwork, because No Way Home is a fascinating example because to me No Way Home is a good poster child for how to get just enough things really right to overtake the fact that this is like a holy mess.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Circumstances and like weird mumbo-jumbo. And I don't think Doomsday can survive on that. No. Like, I think Doomsday has to be like tight and striking. You know, they should bring the watcher in. If they have the watcher and there's a narrator. There might be cool.

There you go. It might be cool to have an actual narrator here. I think to your point, the, uh, the reason why No Way Home doesn't, like, collapse under the weight of everything going on is because it was following the the spider-man identity crisis that the far from home left off on and so it kind of like is working through that and then kind of like throws that into the narrative and stuff and then and then eventually the kind of yeah kind of right but if they had that there they had they had a foundation there for like 10 minutes of the movie i'm giving the movie too much credit it's it's you know i like the one defending so much of

that movie i won't defend it yeah let me say, what's wrong about what you just said? You know what would have been great? A movie actually dealing with that very issue. Yeah, that would have been a sweet. I mean, that was the excitement of the clipping. They're like, oh, my God, everyone knows his identity. Yeah.

There's an alt world where that movie exists, and that would have been a pretty amazing movie. Yeah. That they so could have done the, they still could have eventually done the No Way Home. Yeah, they could have. Yeah. Just like how they could have maybe done some like Dr. Doom thing first and then done the Doomsday movie. I still can't get over it.

that man. I cannot get over that there is not a single piece of MCU media at all that has featured this character that has not featured this character. Yeah, man, it's like the literally the announcement of Dr. Doom is

the entire thesis of my experience with this whole film. Of like, holy shit, Mike drop, oh my God! It followed the next day by, wait a minute, I have a lot of thoughts. Yeah, exactly. And then just the back and forth of it.

But oh, what if they pull it off, that could be cool. Anyway, that's it for today, guys. Thanks for coming here. Thanks for having me.

You know, bringing your honest feelings here. I know. I'm sure people are going to be like, don't bring this fucking guy back. Oh, yeah, I wouldn't read the comments on this one.

Oh, probably not. I don't even read the comments on my own videos. Yeah, I rarely read the comments on our videos now, especially if I know I'm like, that's the thing is like,

there's a couple of channels that do reactions where they, I would say most reaction channels attract audiences that are already fans of the material that you're talking about. Right. So I think there's, for a lot of reaction channels, there's probably a pressure to be positive and lean positive because of that, you know. And that's why we don't ever, we don't generally lean negative.

We generally don't. However, we will be very positive. We'll be very, not positive. We'll be very honest. And we'll see it show up in the comments and the dyslux and everything like that. We will still be very honest, though, even though we're doing our best.

Because naturally, I like to try to be optimistic. Naturally, like, just happen to our fucking dooms they talk. No, no, that's great. Dude, I feel all the things you're saying. I've talked about all those things. But now I'm at a point where I'm just trying to like, hold on. This is why people like you and people think that I'm a cynical asshole. You're not, you're not wrong.

Video essay guys are cynical. I mean, That's all of you guys And I love all you guys You're not wrong We just fucking bitch and moat All the time about stuff that we About things that we wish were different

Yeah, you guys are The video essay guys are normally like contrarians And they're known as contrarians Even though I wouldn't call you guys Contrarians Right because it's not coming from like a Oh, you're contrarian to be contrarian It's like I guess I happen to be contrarian

About this very specific thing or whatever You're in the business of having unique takes. Yeah. It's like you'll love and defend the things that are often like not like I would say the same thing for cosmonauts, anything for high top. Even Patrick H. Willem's to,

you know, like the defend and love the things that often people might not. And then you'll talk, speak out against the things that people are probably overhyping or or being overly positive about. Right. Like that's a big part of it. Like that's weird.

Like on the reaction community, this is what, what I'm aware like, oh man, if I was, if I was really honest and. critical about this, it's best I avoid the comments on this. Because I know the, we don't usually get top comments that are going to agree with the

negativity that we have. Whereas like, you might lead negative and you'll get top comments that agree with the negativity, you know? And it's just the, in our categories of what we do is what it comes from, right? Yeah, it's like, again, similar to the doomsday thing. People are like, either just looking to be entertained or they're looking for something a bit more. And I think that you see that, I guess, in the reaction to the videos in the comments section or whatever. Yeah, yeah. I don't even know if that made sense. They didn't make sense to me, but honestly.

But that's why I like doing the podcast talks because we really get a deep dive into the nuance. Because, yeah, when I watch that X-Men trip, I'm fucking, fucking super excited. No, I, truthfully, like, to give it its flowers, I was like, yeah, man, I like the X-Men. But it also just made me like, man, I really wish I was getting a new X-Men movie. So that is, that's the doomsday experience though. Yeah. It's like with Batman 2, it is speculation in theories and like, here's the exciting things that can happen. And with doomsday, it is constant debating.

Yeah. That's what I'm seeing everywhere. So in a weird way, it's working in terms of keeping it in the conversation. Yeah. You know, like good marketing. It's, that's a question if it is good marketing. It's like people are aware will it actually. lead to ticket sales, though. I'm not, I don't really

believe that, that old phrase of like, what all controversies like good or something. All press is good press. I don't agree with that shit, all right? Like, I don't think, I don't either. Like, how much, just because everyone was like shitting on the marvels didn't lead to box office sales. Like, you know, even

even though people were talking about time. Acoly, people watched so many videos shitting on Acolyte, but they didn't watch the actual acolyte, so no, I don't agree that all press is good press. And that's the kind of the question here. Is like, so much debate. There's clearly millions and millions people who are

super excited about it and millions and millions of people who are also like really on the fence about this thing. And it's leading to a lot of conversation and a lot of debate. Now the question is, well, like, will there be a lot of people like yourself who are like, yeah, I'm on the fence? I don't really believe in this, but I'm going to see it, you know? Well, I'm going to see it because I have a channel and need to talk about this

stuff. But what if you didn't have a channel? Would you still see it? That's a really good question that I've kind of thought about in terms of the MCU at large, would I still be watching any of this stuff if I didn't have a channel and wanted to cover it? Doomsday specifically. I imagine there's stuff you would, like, I skipped that on Skeleton Group because I just

didn't care and I wasn't personally covering it here. Yeah, that's fair. I haven't seen like the eyes of Wakanda show. Yeah, I haven't seen that either. I probably, if it's a zeitgeist movie where there's an, well, there's actually a conversation surrounding it, yes. But if it's just one of those things where it's like nostalgia porn

and most people are just like, dude, this is bad. I probably wouldn't waste my time. Okay. Okay. Fair. Yeah, I don't know. But that's just me. Subscribe to High Top Films. Good channel.

Jesus Christ. Yeah, don't subscribe to me. I'm a hack. Or wait, that's his thing. He says he's the hack. He says he's the hack. Not me. We're all hacks. All of us.

It's all just a giant cesspool of imposter syndrome. It's just lurking about. Yeah. All talking about Betaz. Beataz, Barry. Beataz. Bitas. Bitas.

Guys, I do love this guy. I really do. I really do. As a friend, first and foremost. And then I also am able to listen to your, I say it to you all the time. Like, yeah, that weird thing where I can still listen. listen to your videos and completely disassociate the fact that I know you and like that's cool there's none of the personal thoughts of what I know about you or the guy Griffin that I know

probably helps you're not on like outside of like certain videos most of your main videos you're not really on camera yeah I don't get sick of my face yeah yeah yeah this way you can have your actual relationship and your your social media uh you know was what's the terms of social media presence or no no no social paris oh yeah yeah the guy are so like fuck you Griffin you you're in your stupid opinions. Film speak. And then I hang out with you. Hey, buddy.

It's cool. Yeah, right. Two different people. That's actually kind of the beauty of not having, I mean, I'm on camera sometimes. This is kind of the beauty of not being on camera is that it's like, I don't. Yeah. I don't know. People throw 7-Eleven cups at me all the time.

Yeah. But it's not good. I will say it's not good for me professionally. I do not get a lot of opportunities because I'm not like front and, like I'm on the channel. It's whatever. But I, I, I, yeah. That's why a lot of people who weren't on camera. put themselves on camera a lot more now.

Yeah, that's true. Maybe I should do that. Yeah. Probably not. This is a good start. On the channel that attracts people who mainly want to be positive. Yeah. We're going to bring films to be positive.

For the record, I am actually like very positive. It's just, yeah. You're very nuanced. And I think what happens, though, on the internet is that if there is the side that it's not positive leaning, that's all people here is that a positive leaning side. I understand, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was true.

Look, you will never find anyone who goes to bat for the Jurassic franchise. No, man. I fucking love those movies. No, like, I was a big part of being a fan of yours was that, like, their Jurassic Park through, I commented it on your video. I was like, you might have just convinced me to like this movie. Go, go, hey. I don't really like.

Yeah. Good movie. Go rewatch it. Jurassic Park 3. And the Lost World. Two great. Lost World. Yeah, you've definitely elevated my thoughts on that film for sure.

Los World is underrated. It is criminally underrated. Yeah. Anyway, sorry. I know I've just, yeah. We're done. We got to go. I got shit to do.

And film speak has to leave. Follow his channel. Thanks, John, for holding down the board and doing the tech today. Yet again, my friend. Peace out, people. Hashtag B-Taz. Beetaz.