Christian Ashley and Kevin Schaeffer dive into the latest pop culture happenings in this "What's New(s)" episode of Systematic Geekology, focusing on some major highlights that are sure to tickle the fancy of every geek out there. Right off the bat, they discuss the buzzing Mandalorian and Grogu film, where the dynamics of their favorite characters unfold in a galactic adventure that’s both fun and familiar. They also take a good look at the new Lanterns trailer, which promises to bring a mix of intrigue and nostalgia to DC fans, while dissecting the Marvel Special Presentation, "The Punisher: One Last Kill," which brings a darker, gripping narrative that fans have been craving. It’s a laid-back chat packed with insightful commentary and witty banter, as they explore how these new entries resonate within a shared Christian perspective, while also reflecting on what’s next for these beloved franchises. Stick around for a journey through the multiverse of pop culture that’s as enlightening as it is entertaining!

Systematic Geekology's episode brings listeners into the heart of geek culture, where hosts Kevin Schaefer and Christian Ashley navigate through a treasure trove of topics. The episode begins with an upbeat vibe, as the hosts share their excitement about the latest Punisher special. Kevin and Christian dive into the character's complex psyche, discussing how he struggles with the demons of his past while also facing new threats. Their conversation is peppered with humor and relatable commentary, making it feel like a chat among friends rather than a formal analysis. They reflect on the narrative choices made in the special, examining what works and what could have been improved, all while celebrating the iconic status of Frank Castle in the Marvel universe.

As the episode unfolds, the hosts seamlessly transition to discussing the future of DC, particularly the Green Lanterns series. They express their mixed feelings about the direction of the characters and the creative choices behind the new trailer. This segment showcases their knowledge of the source material, as they delve into the complexities of adapting beloved characters for the screen. The witty repartee between Kevin and Christian keeps the energy high, and listeners can sense their genuine passion for the topics at hand. The discussion touches on the cultural significance of these characters and the evolving landscape of superhero narratives, inviting viewers to reflect on their own experiences as fans.

The episode concludes with a spirited discussion about the Mandalorian movie, where Kevin and Christian share their candid thoughts on the film's execution and character arcs. They analyze the pacing, the visual aesthetics, and the overall impact of the movie within the Star Wars franchise. Their insights are balanced with humor, as they acknowledge the fun elements while also critiquing the narrative structure. This blend of light-hearted banter and thoughtful analysis creates an engaging listening experience for fans of all ages. By the end of the episode, listeners are left with a sense of anticipation for what's next in the comic and sci-fi realms, as the hosts encourage audience interaction and engagement with the show.

Takeaways:

• In this episode, Kevin and Christian dive into the latest geek culture, including the new Punisher special, which they both agree is a decent addition but could have been better executed.
• The Lanterns trailer has sparked mixed feelings among the hosts, with Christian expressing excitement but caution about character ages and development in the story.
• They discuss the Mandalorian and Grogu movie, noting that while it was enjoyable, it felt more like a series of episodes cobbled together rather than a standalone film.
• Kevin highlights the score by Ludwig Göransson as one of the film's standout features, capturing the essence of Star Wars while adding his unique touch to it.
• Christian points out that the most character growth in the Mandalorian movie comes from Radha the Hutt, who has evolved since his appearance in the Clone Wars, showcasing depth in unexpected characters.
• The duo debates the future of the Star Wars franchise and the importance of maintaining high standards for narrative quality in future films, noting that the love for Star Wars should not lower expectations.

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Star wars needs right now is the new Punisher special, a worthy addition to the character story. And what is going on with dc?

We have a lot to talk about tonight in or late afternoon, wherever you are in the world in this episode of what's News. This is Systematic Ecology. We are the priest of the geeks.

And during our what's News episodes, we talk about all the latest things going on in geek culture. So that little intro gave you a preview of what we're going to talk about in this episode and I hope you stick around and enjoy.

I am one of your geekologists, Kevin Schaefer here with my good friend Christian Ashley. X Wing pilot. Christian, how are you?

Doing? Well, had a really good day. A lot of good geeky content out to discuss. I'm really happy about this one.

Wish other people were able to join us, but unfortunately schedules didn't align. We'll shout out real quick to Evan. He did the work on the slides and you can tell he did the work on the slides because they actually look good.

You know, him and Andy, they actually do good work.

They, they are like our slide professionals by far. But yes, like yeah, we were going to have Evan and Jill on this one but schedules didn't line up. But we're, we're also.

So we are making a Mandalorian and Grogu review a part of tonight's episode. But we're also going to do a separate episode that will be a more in depth one.

So this is more just kind of like we just saw the movie, you know, this weekend and we're going to do initial reactions but we also have other topics cover. So we'll do a whole episode devoted to, you know, thoughts on the movie as well as like future of Star wars movies and whatnot.

Will Rose is on sabbatical, but he has to be on that one. He's already said so we'll make that happen and get him and Jill and Evan on that. So that'll be fun. But, but for now, you know. Yeah.

So thank you for tuning in.

Whether you're here on YouTube or you are listening to this later on any of our platforms, wherever you get your podcast, we, we really appreciate you. And if you are new, welcome to Systematic Ecology.

You know, I know there are a lot of geek podcasts out there, but thank you for clicking play on this one.

We hope you have a good time and there if you want to support the show, if you click on the link in the description, you can find out ways you can become a fourth Wall supporter and you can, you can check out some awesome, awesome merchandise we have on our store. You can follow us on social media, a lot of ways to connect with us.

We're very accessible and I want to give you a shout out to one of our supporters, Annette Noel. Annette, thank you so much for your support of the show. We really appreciate it. But yes, please Like Rate Subscribe Review we really appreciate it.

And before we get into our main topics, let us go to a lightning round where we hit on some of the cool things we've been geeking out on lately. So, Christian, let's start with you. What are some things you've been geeking out on?

Yeah, on the Marvel Comics side of things, we're gearing up for the Armageddon event headed by Chip Zdarsky. I've been enjoying his Captain America run. The miniseries with Wolverine has been fun too. Kind of leading up to what's happening there.

People are talking like it could be potentially like Crisis on Infinite Earths to an extent. I think that's like an overhyping people talk about revamping and rebooting Marvel stuff, which would be interesting if they did.

So Zdarsky's behind and for the most part he's been one of my guys. Pretty solid overall.

Zdarsky is one of the best creators, I think, working today. I mean, everything he touches is just brilliant, whether it's his indie work. I mean his Daredevil run is phenomenal. Yeah, excellent pick there.

But yeah. Anything else on your end?

Not that I can think of off the top of my head. We're talking about most of them today.

Okay, sounds good. But yeah, I just have two quick ones. Also on the Marvel, well, Marvel and dcn.

But any comics readers probably know they've been doing a lot of Marvel DC crossovers lately and some of them have been okay, some have been interesting. But the one, but yeah, the one that I really loved was the Spider Man Superman one shot that Brad Meltzer wrote.

So there's two you can read because like for each of these they've done like the DC first one and then the Marvel first one. This is the Marvel first one, so published under Marvel. And I really love the main story here, but I also love it.

This was a pretty stacked issue that comes with seven additional stories from all time great creators.

And I really, I mean, see, I don't know about you, but sometimes like when I pick up an issue like that where there are a bunch of backup stories, typically I enjoy like half of them and then the other ones are kind of like. And whatever. This one was like banger after banger. I mean there were ones I enjoyed more than others. But I did like reading through all of those.

I didn't find one I disliked like I thought it would like. There was a one that paired Gwen Stacy with. With Lana Lang and then there were.

One of my favorites was the spider noir and Superman and it was like the classic Superman. That was great.

So Fleischer kinda. Yeah.

Yes, yes. Oh, it was fantastic. So excellent book all around. I. I was in Charlotte last weekend and I picked that up from the Heroes aren't Hard to Find store.

So really love that. Enough. Yeah. Oh, it's the best they got. They got the SP in the doc. Ock on the Wall. It's always a place I have to visit anytime I'm in Charlotte.

So great book. Definitely recommend that. Even if. And the beauty of it too is if you're not even a regular comics reader, it's a very accessible.

But I mean it's a very self contained stories. So go pick that one up. A lot of great creators in there. The other one. And I'm going to. I'm going to have to do a whole episode on this.

I mean, you and I need to talk about this at some point. I don't know if you've gotten to see it yet, but there's a lot of buzz about the new horror film obsession and rightfully so.

Chris, are you familiar with it at all?

I'm familiar with it. I haven't seen it yet.

Yeah, I saw it yesterday. It blew me away. I mean this was a. I don't want to give too much about the premise like, because I really want people to go in kind of fresh.

But I think like it boils down to be careful what you wish for. And a guy takes like a magic stick, wishes for something that he thinks is harmless and then the repercussions of that he has to deal with.

And the, the rage, the rave around this film.

A lot of it has to do with the performance by Indy Navarret, who I knew from Superman and Lois, she played the daughter of Lana Lang there and I thought she was great in that show. But she gives a powerhouse performance in this film.

That again, I really don't even want to talk about too much because I just want people to go ahead and see it. It's already doing spectacular. It was made on a shoestring budget.

Curry barker, the director is a YouTuber and I think it was like made on a budget of like A million dollars, which is crazy. And it's already grossed like 100 million something.

So like that gives me, I always love hearing that when, you know, creator driven passion projects that are made on extremely low budgets do this well and resonate with a lot of people. But yeah, this is just horror at its finest. There are no like cheap jump scares.

Even when I saw a couple of the jump scares coming, they still terrified me. I mean, it was just the visceral execution of it was wonderfully done. There's both dark comedy and horror in it.

I, I mean, I cannot recommend this enough. So that's easily one I'm going to be talking about for a while. I, I, I cannot imagine it not making my top 10 of the year.

If you've seen any reviews and praise about it, all of that is deserved. So yeah.

Okay.

Awesome. Well, Christian, that is our lightning round. We've got a lot of main topics to talk about tonight though. The first is the Punisher. One last kill.

Even though this is not one last kill, because there are a lot of kills in this 45 minute special. But yeah. So, Christian, do you want to give a brief recap of what this is and the whole Marvel Present presentation format?

So after his last appearance in Daredevil, Born again. You know, Frank Castle has tried to be on the run for a little bit, find a new place for himself.

And he's also kind of at a crisis point of like, why do I keep going? Like I killed. I mean, I'm fairly certain he's killed everyone involved with his family's death.

And yeah, you know, Kingpin is still out there, but like he wasn't one of the ones directly involved or anything. So he's having a crisis of not really. Well, I guess faith in his belief in what he, in his crusade.

And you know, he comes, almost comes to the point where he commits suicide, but is he's having all these breakdowns psychologically seeing people who aren't there, one of which being his daughter, encouraging them to live. Another we see later on being Karen Page, you know, kind of in a very twisted way in a bit.

But he is met by this woman in a wheelchair who has suffered immensely and said her family has been taken from her.

And we find that she is actually Ma Nucci of the Nucci family, of which Frank killed the vast majority of them there are still gang members, but the family is gone. She's all that remains. And she has called a hit on him.

She's found out where he lives and she is indiscriminately sending her thugs into this apartment building to wipe out everyone there, hoping at least one of them will claim, you know, the kill of the Punisher himself. Kind of maybe being one last kill would be that person who gets the last kill on Frank actually gets the money, maybe is what they were going for.

I'd have to rewatch it again, which this is really good for less than an hour, him battling through regaining his sense of self. Yeah. Is a person like Frank Castle good for the world? Well, for Marvel, yes. Not so much for us, but that's part of his. Who he is. I really enjoyed it.

I want to hear what you have to say, Kevin.

That's no great summary there for me, so I'll preface it by saying, I mean I love Bernthal. I've actually met him and Deborah and Woll and he's just as awesome in person as you. Both of them are great.

I met them for like 30 seconds, but they were super nice. And it's one of my favorite convention pictures. But I'm a big Punisher fan.

I like the comics a lot and even dating back to before this series, like, I, I think the Thomas Jane movie is pretty underrated.

So like, I mean it was probably one of the more like, you know, earlier R rated movies I had seen and I just like, I always kind of like the character and I really like the show. I have to say there, there are things about this I liked in terms of the format. Like I like the whole special presentation.

It feels sort of like a, a single issue of a comic, you know, and so I like when Marvel takes advantage of that. That said, I wasn't overly impressed by.

Because I was excited by when it said that Bernthal was going to co write this and I know how passionate he is about the character. I was like, oh, that's cool. But I do think it could have been a better script. I mean it was a.

Mainly because so I had just rewatched the show leading up to this and you know, and I was caught up on Born Again and the thing that kind of annoyed me about this, I know you were talking about like he's at this point where like, oh, should he continue or. But the show already kind of dealt with that ad nauseam in my opinion of like Adar. Where, you know, we saw the trajectory of him.

You know, should I keep going? Should I not? Dealing with ptsd, dealing with the ramifications of his actions.

And at the end of season two, it ends with him fully embracing the Punisher role and going on missions. And mainly because we had already seen a lot of that and this is only a 45 minute special.

I was kind of annoyed that the first 20 minutes is just like a retread of that where he's again coping with the ptsd. And I mean, I know, I like, I know there are a bunch of memes about Bernthal when he does the, the grunting and the like and all that. Like, and like.

And also his iconic line in every one of his roles. You know, let me tell you something, which I mean, I'm not opposed to. I mean again, I love him as an actor, but I was.

But it was just like, okay, for a 45 minute special that again has the feel of a single issue of a comic. I kind of wanted it to get to his point sooner. Like I even, I thought about it after.

I'm like, it could have been, let's say like his daughter's birthday and he, it starts with him at the grave and he does like a monologue to her and said, but at the end of the monologue be like, okay, but I gotta go to work, you know, and like, because I just didn't really need 20 minutes of him still wrestling with his demons and trying to figure out and you know what, Like, I kind of wanted it to get to the action and the mission a little sooner.

And then by the time it did get to the action, well, first of all, I did love Manuchi because that is a character from the Garth Ennis run that they do a lot of fun stuff. And then that, that's very over the top. And I thought that was a good addition here. Something that they hadn't done in the original Netflix series.

And also getting Judith Light to play her was really cool. But then once it got to the action, finally the action, it was fine, but it wasn't like, oh my gosh, like worth the build up there to it.

It felt very like video game, you know, very like trying to be like John Wick, but not quite so overall it. This just felt like, you know, like I like again, I like the format.

I, I always love seeing the character back and I would love a full on Punisher movie.

And you could tell this that both Bernthal and the director Ronaldo Marcus Green, you know, this kind of felt Like a proof of concept for a movie that they want to make.

And I don't know why Marvel doesn't just go ahead and green like that because, you know it's going to be way cheaper than a lot of their really big budget superhero and sci fi epics. So, you know, you could make a Punisher movie, put it in theaters and, you know, and I think it would easily make its money back, if not more.

And so I would rather see that at the point again, I'm not, I, I want to see more of these social presentations. I think it's a cool format, but I just think this one could have been a lot better. So it was fine.

But it ultimately left me wanting more and left me a little disappointed.

Yeah, I'll say. My biggest criticism is it just kind of ends at a certain point. It's more like.

And the story continues, which, you know, if you're doing one comic, yeah, that's fine because, you know, as long as the series hasn't been canceled, it's going to keep going. Yeah, he's going to in the next Spider man movie, but I highly doubt we're going to see Manucci or anything brought up there.

It's from the leaks I've read seems like a totally different direction. So that was, I was not big on. I get what you're saying.

And that, yeah, in those, both of those seasons he's gone through this whole thing of, oh my gosh, am I going to do this again? Like, is my journey over and what's going to bring me back? And I think they do it well enough here for me. Like, I'm still with you to an extent.

And that, yeah, they're retreading ground and they waste, not waste 20 minutes, but they go on longer than they should. And the idea of he sees the little girl in trouble and goes, obviously he sees her as his daughter, even though their relationship, that's brand new.

But like, well, if that can happen to my daughter, it can also happen to her. Can I let that happen again? And knowing that now that Bernthal wrote this, I see a younger writer behind it. As in like fresh.

Sure.

So that makes more sense to me now, all things considered. And you know what? This is perfectly fine. Yeah, it is what it is. It's like the Midnight Goodness. We're not the Midnight Suns. What was the werewolf.

Werewolf by Night. Yeah, I think it was just Werewolf by Night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, yeah. Introduced these characters to me in a limited amount of time.

They did it well enough like many Marvel characters over phase five, six, wherever the heck we are now, it's like we've shown them and now maybe six or seven, eight years later down the road, we'll bring them back again. Which is infuriating in many regards because modern Hollywood. Modern Hollywood will be a topic of discussion later on too.

Oh, 100%. And you know, and I am really curious to see what the future of the character will be.

I'm so stoked to see him in Spider man because for, you know, fans of the comics know that Punisher's first appearance was in an issue of Amazing Spider man as an antagonist there. And so I think that's, you know, it will be really come full circle again. I would love to see a Punisher movie.

I also thought like, it would have helped this too if they had tied it a little more into Bourne again in terms of like where exactly this takes place and why this area specifically is so run down.

Like, because I saw one comment somewhere that was like, I think it would have been cool if like a newscast had said like, Vanessa had just died here. And as a result, Fisk was so distraught that he left, you know, this area completely unattended.

Because that was the one kind of defining piece of his reign as mayor was like he was cracking down on crime and he was, you know, having the task force all throughout. And here it's like people are just killing each other in broad daylight with, you know, there's no law enforcement. Right. It's just like Wild West.

And so I, you know, I was wondering about that is the timeline again.

I don't need it like an over explanation, but especially just because we had just seen him in Born Again season one and he was absent from season two, which I mean a lot of that I think acknowledge why. I mean, other than the fact that Bernthal is in everything right now and you know, probably didn't have time. But.

But, but also make a reason for the character not to have been there. But. But yeah, I mean, there was still entertaining aspects of this, but. And I would be down for more of these.

Like, I think, like, do you have any characters in mind who a special presentation would be ideal for? I was trying to think about that now.

Yeah, I mean, if we were doing like more cosmic stuff, I'd say like a nova would be perfect for something like that.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you could easily seed stuff like the annihilation wave. As in like something that could be a major factor in a movie later on or even like a miniseries.

I think with The X Men coming up too. They could. With the X Men coming up, like you can do individual characters.

Yes, yes, that'd be perfect.

Yeah, there's plenty they could do with this because with a limited format here, you get, we're introducing the character to you or like giving time to narrow down focus to them. And you could, you could. I'm sure this didn't take as long to film as plenty of other things as a result of that.

And I think they're going to get their monies back on this and then more totally. So maybe this will encourage them to do other stuff like that.

Yeah. Oh, I, absolutely.

I mean, I think about, you know, whichever mutants that they do introduce, like I've heard everything from, they're going to focus on like the original five when they do the reboot, but it's like going to be more based on the Claremont run. So I'm curious about that.

But you could easily do, I mean, if you want to do like a Beast or a Jean Grey special or like one of the like, you know, bigger side characters, like, like a Gambit.

Oh my gosh, that would be perfect, like down the road, you know, like, I mean, that, that would also be like, you know, for the Gambit movie that was never made. I think, you know, a special presentation would be really cool. But yeah, so I do like this format. Yeah.

Based on leaks. We may be seeing one of those pretty soon.

Yeah, yeah, I've heard. Oh, yes, yes. So there's a lot coming. But, but yeah, anyway, I mean, Punisher is always, you know, again, a favorite character for me.

I love Bernthal wasn't crazy about this special, but that said, if this team wanted to do a full on Punisher movie later on, I would be all for it, I just think. And, and I do want to see more with like Manuchi, because again, that was a really fun storyline in the Garth Anders front. The welcome Back Frank.

That would also be a perfect title for the movie too.

But, but yeah, I mean, I, I, you know, and hey, he could even pop up in, if they want to put him in a more cosmic environment, like he could pop up in Secret wars or something like that. They could do something along the lines of like, Punisher kills the Marvel universe like they did in the comics at some point.

So, I mean, I want to see him in other stuff, but yeah, I just hope for a slightly better narrative.

And also, just last note on this, that image, if you're watching on YouTube, the slide here, that image in the middle there, that's the closing shot of the special, I thought that was peak right there. That's just like. That is Punisher, you know, the full suit. He's just towering over this goon who does a very unspeakable thing that they had.

They had. That was the other. They had to go there with the dog at the beginning. I. Yeah, I mean, but. But I love that he's just, like, towering over that.

There's no debate in his mind there what he's gonna do. So. Yeah, so that's Punisher. Let's move on. Next to dc, there's actually a couple things DC to talk about. First is the New Lanterns trailer.

So on a previous what's News episode, we talked about the first teaser that had, you know, as the Internet reacted to, it had no green in it whatsoever. And it felt like just, you know, true detective style. And I said it. I think on that one's news, I was like, guys, I think this is more just a teaser.

There's. We've already seen Guy Gardner in the Superman movie, and this is in the same universe. I think we're gonna see a lot more.

That was just kind of a teaser to capture the feel.

And this, I think, is a more proper Lanterns trailer that shows a little more of not only the Green Lantern stuff going on, but what this show is going to be about. We see a lot more of Hal and John here. I'm really looking forward to this. What are your kind of thoughts on. Because I don't know if we.

I can't remember if you were on that one. We talked about the first teaser. Yeah, yeah.

So what are your kind of, like, overall thoughts about this series in terms of what we know about it currently and with this trailer?

Mixed. Yeah, mostly. Mostly positive, but mixed like Jon Stewart. Love him. Ever since I first saw him in Justice League. We've talked about that before.

It's like, oh, I never knew he existed. Like, I knew how Jordan existed.

Kyle Rayner knew nothing about John, and that's what encouraged me to read some of the stories that my dad had in his comic collection about him. But I. What. When I say mix, it's like I'm still like, yeah, I'm going to watch this. But it's like, I didn't.

Have they said anything before about Hal Jordan being as old as he is? Or is this something that was revealed in this trailer? Am I forgetting something?

The other than, like. I mean, I remember when Kyle Chandler was cast, and they haven't specified exactly the timeline.

And, like, you know, in Sold Explicitly why he is older. Why, you know, John is just coming in as a recruit now. So I think we'll learn more about that now. I.

You know, the theories I've seen, and one I probably am leaning toward is that they're gonna go the Parallax route. You know, by the end of the series, that Halloween, they wanted him to make him kind of, like, older. As a result, I mean, it's very clear that the.

That, like, Hal and Guy have both been around for a while. I mean, Guy was an established Green Lantern in the Superman movie, so the corpse has been around. Like, you know, the method.

You know, this is going to be very much. I think I. I do think that John is going to be the main point of view character as the rookie coming in.

But, yeah, I mean, they've still been pretty shy about specific story details.

Like, I mean, back when James Gunn announced the overall, like, Phase one Gods and Monsters pitch, I mean, he said Lanterns was part of that initial plan, and he said it was going to be Hal and John and it was like, True Detective inspired.

So all of those elements were, you know, have been known for a while, but they've still been pretty, you know, quiet about exactly what, you know, what the mystery is that they're investigating, you know, the rookie element, you know, when John's gonna get his ring, all of that. So that's what honestly has me really interested. And I do like the creative team, I think.

You know, I know that they're controversial creators here, too. I mean, depending on your tastes. But it's like Damon Lindelof and Tom King are two of the creators.

And so, I mean, both of them have done some of my favorite things of all time. Some of them, like, you know, not as much, but I.

They're both, you know, obviously big fans of the comics, and I'm really interested in seeing what they'll bring to it because, I mean, Green Lantern, to be honest, is a really hard property to adapt outside of animation.

So I get wanting to try to craft something that is unique and that captures the spirit of the comics, but it was also going to appeal to a broader audience. So, yeah, I'm really curious what's gonna happen here, but we definitely do see a lot more green in this trailer.

We see more of the cosmic elements, even though it's going to take place on Earth. And. Yeah, and Hal seems more jaded and, you know, he's kind of thrust into this mental role. I'm really.

He's definitely the most curious thing about, like you said, what they're gonna do with the show and how they're gonna present him. I love Kyle Chandler as an actor, and I love Aaron Pierre. And also.

Well, also we'll talk about next, too, but Aaron Pierre has already been confirmed for man of Tomorrow, so it's. I think they're clearly setting him up as, like, kind of the main Lantern going forward. Okay.

You know, I'm curious what they are gonna do with Hal, so it'll be really interesting. I mean, I. I'm definitely gonna watch it. I'm.

You know, I. I like seeing more of the effects and everything in this trailer, and I kind of like not knowing a ton other than the vibe and some of the influences.

Yeah. I guess the ambiguity is kind of what's making me more hesitant overall. Like, why does Hal have to be as old as he is?

Why does it look like he's giving the ring at some point in time, maybe to Jon, instead of Jon being given the ring by the corps? Or could that just be the trailer lying and said happens completely different, and they both have rings?

I. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's just, you know, my initial reaction to the trailer was, I don't know. I'm still gonna watch, but I don't know.

Sure. That's fair. And Andy had a similar reaction to the first teaser because he actually had no idea that it was, like, True Detective and all that.

And so he was like, this doesn't look like Green Lantern. So I'm, you know, I'm kind of, like, very cautious here. And I'm really.

I haven't really talked with many people who don't really know anything about Green Lantern and what their thoughts on this are, but I'd be curious to. And, you know, I'm. At this point, I'm just. I'm really stoked for more DC this year. It's been a minute since Peacemaker Season 2.

I know we got Supergirl right around the corner and then Lanterns and then Clayface, which I'm really stoked about, but that's actually.

I can't believe I'm saying that, but I agree.

Oh, my gosh. That may actually. I mean, so for Supergirl, I love that comic that it's based on, but Clayface might be my most anticipated of those three.

It's hard to tell. I'm excited about all of them, but.

But, yeah, the Supergirl one was, like, I figured that was going to be the slam dunk, but, like, yeah, after having suffering through many Sony villain Films without the main, you know, character of the universe in them. Like focusing on a clay face even with the people behind us and I don't know, but like, they. They've winning me over.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, as soon as it was, I knew that it was a Mike Flanagan script, even though he can't direct it because he has too many other projects going on.

But the director, I saw the. He did a horror movie with James McAvoy years ago that I liked. So yeah, that one's a. But I am super. I'm trying to remember the title off of my head.

It was like him and his wife and son go to a. Like this like neighbor or not a neighbor, but like they meet this couple on a trip and get invited to their country house.

That's right. I can't remember either, but I watched it forever ago.

Yeah, I mean, it was entertaining. It wasn't like, oh my gosh, amazing. But it was an entertaining Friday night horror movie.

But yeah, yeah, so that's lanterns also, you know, speaking just D.C. wise, some of the big news that dropped recently is the casting for The Batman Part 2, which is finally in development. I know a lot of people have been like, when is that movie coming out?

And to that real quick, I will say, you know, I would rather quality over quantity.

So, you know, even though it's been a long wait for this movie, hey, if that's what it takes to make it what Matt Reeves and his creative partners want it to be, I'd rather it be good than it had been rushed because we have seen many movies rushed that where the quality suffered. So, you know, but. But this cast list. Oh my gosh. So in addition to the returning members, we have the big news drop was Sebastian.

Stan is Harvey Dent, which I think is just perfect casting there. And not only that, but another. I mean, even more iconic Marvel veteran Scarlett Johansson will be gilded in that. Which is like, I mean, heck, yeah.

We have Charles Dance as he is Harvey's father, right? I think.

I believe so, yeah.

Yeah. And then Brian Tyree Henry, who like unconfirmed role yet, but I think there have been rumors, but.

But he's also one of my favorite working actors right now. Of course, Colin Farrell is back as Penguin, obviously Pattinson and. And Andy Serkis back as Alfred and Jeffrey Wright back as Gordon and then.

But we do know, as you can tell just from the cast list alone and the confirmed rules, that this is going to be very based on Long Halloween. Which the only thing about that, and I mean I'm still very excited for this movie.

But I. I, like, I saw a meme about this that was like, hey, I'm a filmmaker making a Batman movie. Which storyline should I adapt? And it has this huge library, and they're like. And then he just pulls out Batman Year one and Long Halloween again.

And, I mean, it is kind of laughable how many times we've already seen Long Halloween either.

Maybe not done in its entirety, but very much inspired Batman Begins, Dark Knight, the Batman, and even, you know, elements of it inspired the Penguin series as well.

So that's my only, you know, if I had to say, hesitancy is, you know, and don't get me wrong, like, Long Halloween is the comic that really got me into comics.

Like, I mean, I was already into superheroes at the time, but, I mean, that was a book I read in, like, sixth grade, and that was the beginning of my obsession with not only Batman graphic novels, but just the medium as a whole. And so, I mean, it's a very formative book for me, and I would love to see more of it on screen.

But I also am at a point where it's like, guys, there are other Batman stories too. But nonetheless, I mean, this casting news is pretty fantastic. I don't know. Christian, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Waiting this long. Yes, I would rather have a more perfected script, but communication would have been nice over this time.

You know, I don't like being ghosted for a very long time, just being honest. But, hey, you know, I'm 40 done or whatever. You know, that's something versus nothing. But I'm still hyped for it. I'm still willing to head into it.

Like, the set pics we've seen looks like it's going to be in winter at some point in time, heavy snowfall. That's why some people have been speculating that Mr. Freeze may be involved.

I don't think that may be a misdirect, especially if they're doing the Long Halloween stuff, you know, because we got aspects of Year one and the. In the Batman and of course, the other ones that we've had, the animated movies, too.

So going there from there makes sense to me, that solid casting here, like, I mean, Charles Dance alone. What more do you need to say? Like, I'm ready for it big time.

And I. I really think Matt Reeves just lives in a Batcave when he's not making movies. So that's probably why we haven't heard from him. I think he just, like, hid from the world while he was writing this. But. But, yeah, I know.

I mean, I. I love the first one.

I mean, in some ways, I wish, like, I go back and forth on whether I would want Pattinson to be the DCU Batman, because my only, like, as you see, is, like, all these great actors here. It's like. But that means that they can't. If they.

If he's not the DCU Batman, when they eventually do make DCU Batman, they can't use any of these cast members for those roles. And that's a little. It's like, oh, I wish they could, but, you know, I mean, there's. I. I still hear back and forth. I don't think it would happen.

But at the same time, James Gunn has had some ambiguity in that, so I think he's wrestled with it.

But, yeah, his whole thing is that he wants it to be a Batman with Damian Wayne with the Brave and old kind of idea. And, like, it doesn't make sense for, you know, Pattinson at this point in time to be there unless they're like, sure, he's.

This is the origin story and we're going to go in the future. Even though he's going to look the exact same in some films I got.

Sure. And, yeah, it would be hard to do. I'm just like, that. It's another one is. I'm hoping for updates about that movie as well.

I mean, you know, I mean, I. I like that we're getting focused on other characters in dc, but of course, everyone wants to know, okay, what's going on with Batman, Brave and the Vault, But. But, yeah, this one I'm super stoked for. And only other quick thing I'll say is, like, with man of Tomorrow, they announced that.

Yeah, I said that Aaron Pierre is joining. They also announced that Matthew Lillard has joined the cast, which they haven't confirmed the role.

I've seen everything of people, people wanting him to play Plastic Man. I think he would be great as that.

I saw a rumor, too, that he's gonna be Jay Garrick, which is an interesting choice, but I just love him as an actor. I thought, you know, and he was great in Born Again recently.

I. I feel like he's a little young to play Jay Garrick, but, I mean, I. I trust Gun for whatever he wants to do there. Yeah, that would. That's not confirmed at all. That was a rumor I saw.

But, yeah, okay.

Yeah, if you go on IMDb, he is listed in the cast, but no role confirmed. So. Okay, awesome. But that's D.C. right now. We'll have more to say as projects come out. But now on to.

I know everyone is itching to hear our thoughts again. We are going to do a longer episode on the Mandalorian and Grogu and just like, you know, the future of Star wars in general.

But Chris and I have both seen the movie. Um, Grayson, you want to start with your thoughts. I mean, because we don't really need to, do I. Not that the plot is that hard to summarize, but.

But I think we have to like. But I am really curious. We have not shared our thoughts with each other yet, so I'm curious what your initial ones were.

I enjoyed the film. I'm watching it again tomorrow of my own free will because I enjoyed the film.

I. I'm waiting for the other five episodes that were supposed to come with my film.

That's fair. That's fair. No, I mean, like, I would say mine is pretty similar. I like. I mean, I saw like, Evan and Will. Loved it. I thought. Yeah, like, I.

My reaction was almost exact. I. I don't. I try not to go into movies with like too many expectations, good or bad. But my reaction was pretty much exactly what I expected.

It was a fun time. I went with a group of friends and we had a good time. I liked it. It's not offensively bad or great by any means.

It's like literally right in the middle of like fun adventure. I. I've from. Since the show premiered, I wanted to see these characters on the big screen.

I think it would have been better to do a season four and like release the first couple episodes in theaters. And that was the original, I mean, a lot. This was very much an executive level decision for why this movie exists. And we'll talk about that more too.

But you know, Favreau had written outlines for a season four originally and then they scrapped it when they got ordered to make this as a movie. I still think you could have made a full on like proper movie here and a narrative without sacrificing much. But we.

This very much did feel like about two and a half, maybe three episodes as a movie. And you know, if you like that, it's great. But there was also, yeah, more story to tell and yeah, there for me. It's just.

There's nothing a lot to say about the narrative because it's pretty much like they go on a few missions and there's. I mean, I was thinking about.

Things happen.

Things happen. I cannot really definitively say that Mando had Like Dinjarin or Goku really have any kind of substantial character development at any point?

I mean, like, they, they. I mean, they are, they are who they are. I mean, he helps Mando, helps Grogu and vice versa.

And that was probably my favorite part of the movies when the sort of like silent film intermediary where Mando is wounded and Grogu has to pick him up. That was a great scene. I really like that. I liked it.

It took its time there, but for the most part, other than that, they're blasting away, going on missions and. Yeah, I mean, it was fine. I. It's a.

For me, this is kind of what, like, it's easy to recommend to Star wars fans because it's like, yeah, you're going to get exactly what you kind of expect. You'll have, you know, missions. This is not the kind of movie, I don't know that I could like, say, like, to a non Star wars fan.

Oh, this is going to change your mind on the. Because I. Yeah, I also. Yeah. Yes. I mean, they would be lost.

And also, again, it's not the kind of, like, if you're looking for, for something with narrative and character substance, you're not really gonna get it with this. And like. And I mean. Yeah. And the. So this is the irony of Martin Scorsese being in this movie, which I love that I get.

You know, I, I think that was pretty loud. But I bring him up because.

So Scorsese either famously or infamously said a few years ago that, you know, he wasn't into Marvel movies because they're, to him, they're just theme park rides and they're not real cinema. And I disagree with that quote as a whole because when you look at an entire genre of movies, of course there are movies that fit into that.

There are definitely Marvel movies, superhero movies that are just, you know, theme park rides, and there's not really much substance to them. But then there are movies there that are great. I mean, I think, like, you know, Logan fits into that Dark Knight, Endgame, etc.

There are ones that are full on cinema. And that's why I disagreed with a statement like that that, you know, kind of is slapped like an entire genre into one.

You know, like, kind of, like, kind of, I think, ignorant statement. But the irony of that is that this movie I could definitely put into the category of theme park ride. Like, I mean, it was fun.

I. I had a good time, but, you know, I. I like, hard to. Yeah, I'd write it again. I mean, I probably will take my. Because I was FaceTiming with my niece and nephew earlier and they haven't seen it yet.

And I think it's, like, it'd be a cool one for their first Star wars movie. So I probably will take them sometime next weekend. Yeah, I'd watch it again. It was fun. But it's also not what I would call, like, peak cinema. And so.

And I know. And I. And that's what. I will talk about this too, in our longer review.

As far as, like, you know, because I've seen those memes that are like, guys, let's just be happy there's a new Star wars movie out. I'm like, okay, that's good. Yeah, I agree. And have fun with it.

But I also don't think we should lower our standards completely to just like, oh, it's, you know, it's fine. That excuses, you know, a script that could have been infinitely better. And I'll bring up, too.

Okay, so point, because this is the point I wanted to bring up with you because we've done an episode on this. But, you know, there was.

Before this movie came even came out, there was a lot of, like, people saying, oh, that never works out for a TV show to have a movie come out in the same universe that never, like, they point to X Files. It's like the classic example of that, which I guess, yeah, I've never watched X Files, so I can't speak to the quality. Right, right.

And I, you know, and like, you know, I know a lot of the Star Trek movies aren't great, but the example I want to bring up that defies that statement of, like, no, you can make a great movie that's set in the world of a TV show. Batman Mask of the Phantasm is the one we've done an episode on. It is a great movie.

It's, to me, the best Batman movie of all time and one of the best comic book movies ever made. And it is not only a treat and a delight for fans of Batman, the animated series. But that is a movie.

You can go into having never watched the show and fully be immersed in it and follow this character's journey. And you can follow the pathos and the heartbreak of him having to sacrifice, like, you know, being happy and being in love with his destiny.

And there's so many great themes there. There's great animation, there's great.

So you could absolutely make a great movie that is the product of a TV series and make it work and it doesn't have to feel like, oh, a couple of episodes strung together. And so that's where I would say, you know, like that, you know, they still could have made this, like, really, really good as it is. It was.

It was fine. It was fun, but it was definitely idea.

I mean, I know Favreau said he had completely scrapped his original version of Mandalorian Season four when him and Filoni and they had one other co writer, Nick. I forget his last name. But like. But anyway, who wrote this movie? They said they had scrapped it completely. I mean, I'll take that as word.

But also, this was very much an episodic format that, you know, felt like, you said, felt unfinished too, you know, so that's where I think, like, no, you could still make a full, you know, very focused movie of Mando and Grogu going on an adventure without it being, you know, a two and a half episode, you know, kind of disguise. It's a movie.

Yeah.

I think it says a lot about the film that the character who goes to the most character development is someone who hasn't appeared for almost 20 years.

He did appear briefly in like a Clone wars episode, but Rada the Hutt, which I love Rada in this film, actually, the idea of where we saw him forever go into Clone wars movie as this pathetic little slug who was barely being kept alive by our newly introduced Ahsoka and her new master, Anak. And like, yeah, it's a rough start to the Clone wars stuff, but it works in the end.

But to see him where he is now, the whole thing about Legacy, it's not really like a main theme of the film or anything, but it's a motivation for why he doesn't want to be what other people wanted him to be or what they had a perception of who he would be. And his decision at the end, I was like, okay, I like, with this character, like, we are making species multifaceted.

Not all huts are gangsters and the like, you know, which is an easy thing to do. It's a Star wars and A Star Trek problem. It's like all Vulcans are based on logic, you know, all huts are gangsters, you know, so on, so forth.

And to have him choose this life for himself, realize he's been tricked, and then make be his own man. I appreciated that a lot. And I will say that there is prior characterization of Din that makes him do what he does in this film.

Like, because of the whole thing with Grogu, that's why he's willing to look out for Radha as well. But like, I know that because I've watched a show and if I was watching a show in sequence, I would expect that to be what happens.

I'll just say great visuals. Fight scenes were really great. The whole Dejarik fight, gladiator scene. Yes. At fan service, absolutely. But you know what? It worked perfectly fine.

It did what it was supposed to do. See a bunch of Star wars monsters on screen fighting our main character and one new ally in this scenario, that was really great.

Seeing now Hutta in live action was really cool. There's some implications about how the Hutts are. They're standing in the galaxy now with everything that's going on here.

They're not as powerful as they seem to kind of a paper tiger. That was really interesting, but there's not really a lot of focus on that.

The New Republic stuff I thought was good, but once again it's hindered by the fact that the rest of the movies in this series happen.

No, totally. I was going to say Radha may have one of my favorite new lines in Star Wars.

Like, not that it's necessarily good, but it's, but I was audibly laughing. It was, you know, it's hard to be your own man when you're the son of Jabba the Hutt.

I was like, okay, well, that, that is like it's going to go down in Star wars history. It's like, you know, one of the most quotable moments. But, but yeah, and the New Republic stuff. So this is the other thing too.

It's like, I mean, I know this has been done in movies a million times for where like they bring in iconic, an iconic actor and they promote them and everything. And they're in it for like five minutes. Like, I, I, I thought Sigourney Weaver's character could have.

It's like you're gonna bring a legend into that. And they probably will have her more in the.

And I feel like she would have definitely been a main supporting character if this were a season of the show. But as it stands, she's in, like, three scenes, maybe, and they're very short.

And, like, I thought there was an opportunity there, too, to do more of a conflict with.

Because they say something about, like, how Din is an independent contractor still he's not working for the New Republic, even though that's entirely what he does throughout this movie. And there's no.

Like, I thought it would have been kind of an interesting conflict if he either takes another job with, like, someone who's, like, maybe a rival of the New Republic, not an Imperial, but, like a. I don't know, like, contrasting. Yes, exactly. And, you know, maybe if, like, the New Republic hadn't come to the rescue at the end because.

Because also midway through the movie when, you know, he frees Rada and. And, you know, hands them that Imperial officer, but he still, you know, disobeyed the orders from Weaver's character.

I thought it would have been interesting if, like, that had produced some more tension. And, yeah, they hadn't sent the fleet at the end to go rescue him. It would have increased the stakes a little bit. But.

But, yeah, I mean, overall, like. I mean, like I said, I liked it. It was fun. And I'm okay with not every Star wars movie being a.

You know, the stakes are this could be the end of the galaxy if it's not, you know, like, you can have tighter missions and fun space adventures. There's nothing wrong with that at all. And this delivers.

Starfighter is going to be, like.

Exactly. And Starfighter I'm really stoked for. I really hope that's going to be. I mean, everything about it between a lot of it.

Not just because Brian Gosling is, like, great actor and everything, but he's also, I feel, like, more selective about his projects. So I think, like, this was probably one he really wanted to do when he saw the script. And so that, you know, gives me a lot of hope for it. And we.

We know that there's going to be lightsabers in it and that Tom Cruise directed the lightsaber fight. And that sounds awesome, but. Yeah. So I just, you know, I, like, I would.

I disagreed with a lot of the overly negative reviews, but there was merit to what I saw about, like, hey, let's not make this the standard of, like, you know, let's still have, you know, a worthwhile story to tell and not make it feel like, oh, we just gotta put a movie here. Because there hasn't been a Star wars movie since Rise of Skywalker, you know,.

And God knows when we're getting the next season. Of this.

I know, I know. Exactly. And like, and I do hope this one does well enough because I know that, I mean, I.

Apparently I was reading something earlier in Hollywood Reporter that like the opening night was a little lackluster, but then it picked up a lot of steam over the weekend and I, yeah, I am still excited about the prospect of a crossover movie that would have like the Mandoverse characters in a big battle with Ron. If that's good. I think that would be really cool. And I know a lot of that hinges on this movie's performance, so I hope we do get that.

I mean, it would be really cool because I mean, they have been building a lot between Ahsoka, Mandalorian, all the stuff going on there and Thrawn's return that I would hate to see that unresolved. Even though, I mean, obviously you know, he's going to be defeated because this, all this takes place before the sequel trilogy.

Nonetheless, it would, it would be a really fun.

Well, it's how it's done that matters.

How it's exactly how it's done and what elements of the original heir the Empire will come into play. So I, yeah, I, I would very much like to see that as a movie. Yeah, cool. But yeah, that's. I think we're pretty much like in alignment there.

I, yeah, I, we.

Again, we will do a more in depth episode where we're talking about, hear from some other hosts of the show on their thoughts and also like, where does Star wars go from here and what kind of movies and shows would do we want to see in the future? So, so we'll say, well, we'll see what, what we think that the way should be so we can stop on this is the way. Awesome.

Well, Christian, this has been a blast. Before we close out, do you have any recommendations either from anything we've talked about tonight or something totally different?

I'm trying to think if you're a Star wars fan, go and see the movie. Like, it's, like I said, it's not the best I've ever done, but it's acceptable. It's fun. Like, I don't think you'd waste your money seeing it.

If you've, if you're big into what's been happening, if you've been watching the show, everything that's been going on there, I think you'll get an appreciation for it. If not like Kevin said earlier, I think if you're not a Star wars fan or this is not the way to get into the franchise right Right.

Oh, and I did want to say too, I forgot to mention the great element of this movie is the Ludwig Goranson score. Oh my gosh, that's one of the best, best like in the franchise. He's just, I mean, I, he's easily become one of my favorite film composers now.

And the way he captures kind of the elements of John Williams, but also gives it his own spin. A fantastic score. Yes. But yeah. My recommendation though is gonna be Obsession.

I like, I'm, I'm quite obsessed with telling people about how good that movie is right now. If you're a horror fan, go see it. I would say if you're not a horror fan, I mean, it is pretty terrifying.

But this is just the kind of like creator own passion project that I, I people should go and support. And if you want to see an absolutely mesmerizing performance from Indie Navarat, I think you will be blown away.

So if you're a horror fan, you do not want to miss it. And if you're a casual horror lover too, I think it'll be great. So obsession, go see it.

And, and if you want something way less scary, then, yeah, go see Mando. Awesome. Well, Christian, this has been a blast as always.

I always fun geeking out with you and I know we could go on and on, especially with all these topics, but, but we want to hear from you all as well. So tell us your thoughts about Mandalorian, about bc, about Punisher and Marvel, and also what you're geeking out on.

Because we, we watch and read a lot of stuff and play a lot of video games and all, you know, all kinds of geek items we dive into. But there's still a lot out there that we don't know about. So please send us your recommendations as well. Come geek out with us.

Follow us on social media. And again, like rate, subscribe, review and click on that link in the show notes to find out how to support ourselves show. We really appreciate it.

Well, remember, this has been a great episode of what's News. Thank you all for tuning in. And remember, we are all a chosen people. A geekdom of priests.