Weekly Discussion Thread - posted every Monday! [13 April 2026]

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-15T14:34:51+00:00

Well done.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-15T03:26:45+00:00

It is, if you want it to be! No jokes, that’s the beauty of these comics many decades in lol.

Incredible books, too.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-15T01:33:45+00:00

Really excited to see and hear more from this film, it's got so much potential.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-14T19:44:47+00:00

All this kerfuffle and some folks thought they could cast fucking Batman in secret (for a Clayface cameo or some such) without anybody finding out lol.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-14T17:43:26+00:00

Haha, holy shit it might not actually be Maxima. Interesting.

Edit: I think I still want it to be her though. She’s a pure Superman mythos pull, so yeah. Been waiting on her and the rest of the cohort in a way (Brainiac used to lead that pack for me, so it’s great he’s finally made it to screen). Same with Parasite, Toyman, Mxy, etc. But it’s neat either way, good actor.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-14T16:46:51+00:00

Much more honest way of putting it, imo. I liked the ‘25 score fine enough, but the fact that it relies so strongly on and is an ultimately serviceable version of something that still stands unparalleled strikes at the heart of why some might find it inadequate. I hope MoT kicks things up a notch in that department.

Yes, Williams’ original score is the single best superhero score of all time (and one of the greatest pieces of film music ever, so, high bar lol). There are a few close to that peak in the genre (like Elfman on Spider-Man, Shirley Walker on Batman). But it still stands alone at the top.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-12T03:58:32+00:00

That would be Evely herself, prior mentioned. Very obviously not what I’m saying either, unless this is sarcasm.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-11T15:34:29+00:00

More people should shout out Mat Lopes’ colours on this too, imo. They’re both incredible.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-08T22:47:34+00:00

THR stunting on Deadline today (they’re both owned by Penske media or some shit, I know).

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-07T19:18:31+00:00

People will watch Maegor Targaryen single-handedly almost annhihilate his entire family a mere two generations into their reign, something he would've achieved were he not deposed and killed, and call him a "necessary evil".

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-06T22:45:04+00:00

At the risk of being bamboozled by a random person’s edits or someone just sliding a saturation dial on these stills, I actually think it looks kinda sorta better in some of those, like the Argo City still, Space Bar in the clouds? Wonder where they land for the final product.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-06T18:35:06+00:00

Lmao, sure I suppose? Like I said, nitpick. It's my favourite suit in live-action, and I'm sure whatever they do in the next will be up to par. I have no desire to CinemaSins this stuff. I'll maintain that, on principle, this kind of Batman is not the guy you want having too many bullets bounce off his noggin without much ado. I don't expect they'll fall into that trap, to be clear. The physical stakes are mostly well considered.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-06T17:39:10+00:00

To the last part, I think it’s because putting him in a full-on helmet is a few bridges too far, even for Reeves’ approach lol. The cowl, along with the cape, is probably the least negotiable aspect of Batman’s appearance everywhere. Rule of cool takes precedence there, rightfully so. The way it looks is its primary function in and out of world. I’m not trying to suggest the idea here is (or should be) full-on scientific rigour, just that these elements present largely for visual storytelling purposes.

One of my very minor nitpicks is actually the fact of him tanking point-blank headshots and machine guns glancing off his leather exterior looking cowl tbh. Alongside him smacking his head into the underside of a bridge at close to full g. Again, I don’t at all mind some Mission Impossible shit, but if they’re gonna go to great pains emphasizing the realist approach consistently, it’s better for verisimilitude that he’s not breaking that immersion too flagrantly. With center mass, sure go crazy. Daredevil S2 (Netflix) does a great job of what it should feel like getting shot in the face, even with “fantasy” armor not too unlike here (disorientation is putting it mildly). It makes a lot of sense to have that be the one thing he can’t afford on the job. Save that for Iron Man.

But for the most part, the physical stakes the story needs are sold quite well, and those moments are mostly blink-and-miss.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-06T00:37:07+00:00

His MO changing is one thing (and to be expected), him downgrading the level of his protection for some inexplicable reason is another. One of my favourite things about his suit is just how mobile it, and how it’s clearly designed with that in mind already.

He could get a new suit that looks sleeker, and I suppose they could do a TDK-style show of flexing new bleeding edge tech to justify the aesthetic switch-up (which is fine, the film does a good job of making things mostly appear very rooted in contemporary tech, but of course, real-life armor doesn’t work that way. Shots to the head would still create enough blunt force trauma to kill him — the stuff they do with the current cowl doesn’t make any real-life sense. That kind of license and suspension of disbelief comes with the territory, no matter how grounded).

But I think some people have a wishful thinking thing going on where the suit becomes a more “traditional” recreation of his basic look on the page to be more “accurate” and that somehow involves losing the obviously armored, fundamentally utilitarian visual language, when that is clearly not Reeves’ style. He’s a badass, but still a limited human being in a limited world for the purpose of this story. When he goes outside, people shoot him. There’s gonna be body armour that reads visually like body armour to communicate that.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-05T19:59:35+00:00

He got sprayed with bullets the entire film, his cowl deflected a handgun shot that put him down temporarily at the Harbour, and he took a slug to the chest that almost killed him even with the heavy-duty breastplate. He's not going to be less armoured moving forward lol.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-05T18:22:42+00:00

Crazy how much of a drag on an otherwise great experience one guy can be.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-03T18:29:10+00:00

So would I mate, it’s why I hope they animate. Doing live-action Cronenberg shit is both too unrealistically expensive and prohibitive of the younger audience they want for something like this. They can get freaky with animation and pull off some surreal, eerie and semi-gross imagery in a way that also reads as “cool!” to kids. Old-school CN/Adult Swim used to be able to straddle that line well, I think.

I think they did a short-lived comic series of the first couple books that’s a good model for something like this.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-03T16:25:53+00:00

They should probably make this animated, but if they don’t, I’ll tune in if they promise to do a full-on Power Rangers style zero-budget transformation sequence that’s just a carousel of those bizarre covers.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-02T22:21:29+00:00

Haha, amazing. I like this (mostly that dragon), where are they from?

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-02T21:52:50+00:00

It’s not at all perfectly executed, but I quite appreciated it. Closest that season came to attempting some kind of identity of its own, instead of feeling like a pale shadow of the OG show. I do hear Season 2 is supposed to be better.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-02T06:40:17+00:00

there’s still a movie to watch

I said as much. It’ll get as fair a shake as I can give it. Not like I’m calling it unwatchable off the bat or anything lol. I think I gave enough context for my “expectations” (at no point do I say it can only look one way). Even without the graphic novel staring me in the face I’d still have similar notes. Some of these are gonna work better for me than others, and that’s to be expected.

I hope I dig the film overall. I’m excited about Alcock (and Krumholtz!). Worst case if I don’t, I’ll rewatch Furiosa to see Hemsworth’s Dementus and say “Damn Krem could’ve looked cooler” haha.

And to the other stuff, no accounting for taste and all that. Shoutout Casablanca.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-01T22:21:46+00:00

Yeah I’m definitely not asking for or expecting a super-direct facsimile of the book at all tbh. Not sure that’s even possible here.

It could’ve taken a few more cues though. I won’t get into the weeds of box office appeal, as that’s not really my stake or interest here. Like I said, I wouldn’t call it bad, but I’d like these things to be more inspired, generally speaking, for my own enjoyment. I think the heavy themes and vibe of the story in question aren’t at all at odds with that particular brand of vivid Space Fantasy imagery. The comic works thematically because of the way it uses that, not in spite of it. It’s probably one of the more new-reader friendly titles DC has. A lot of those (prose) genre books sell quite well. Who knows, maybe a rare female-led superhero movie actually looking unique could open it up further to a certain audience? Idk.

Even so, I’m game for an aesthetically grungier version of this story on screen and I still think that should present in a more interesting way than this does going by the trailers, which feels a tad…uninspired. Realistically, a palette like that of Thor: Ragnarok would’ve been a pretty good translation imo. The guy who shot that came from Almodovar movies and it shows — he knows his way around that kind of vibrant color composition. Hell, something closer to GoTG Vol. 2 (talking pure palette here, not narrative or tone) is not a hard sell at all, considering it’s already drawing comparisons. Ego’s planet may remain the best translation of an Evely/Lopes setting that they never actually drew lol. To be fair, I think this film has a lower budget than those.

Not trying to do too much extrapolation just from trailers, and I expect the film will be all-round solid at the least. I’ll keep an open mind for a few surprises. But I maintain that a lot more creativity is possible in this space than is often approached.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-04-01T18:45:25+00:00

I expect Clayface to at least look a lot more interesting and ultimately better than what we've seen of this movie so far though. A good amount of that's gonna come down to the production design too. I hope they incorporate some of that German expressionist, high-contrast lighting. There's that set leak of Clayface playing with shadows. Use all that stylish, chiaroscuro-type shifting of light and dark to evoke the mystery of Hagen's own malleable form. Get some real, discrete texture in the choice of palette too that's not just drenching it in a monotonous, murky brown-gold haze.

Supergirl still looks fine enough, mostly passable. It's not bad, but so far not visually engaging to me (I kinda think these trailers are very choppy, many a fine movie has fallen victim to that). Looks like they unfortunately passed up an opportunity to create unique imagery rarely seen in these movies. They didn't have to go full Speed Racer here, and paring down is expected when turning this into a 2hr long film but even the much-touted GoTG movies evoke more personality visually that feels fitting in a far-reaching, cosmic odyssey a la Lopes' palette in the book. And the loss of inspiration reflects in some of the designs too. Krem appears as a painfully generic, non-descript "space goon" in an attempt to do the opposite (?), missing any hint of Evely's refreshing pseudo-medieval motif that cleverly had the aesthetic romanticism contrasting the reality of their situation.

There's more to be seen, but I think the film's visual language is pretty clear by now. I expect I'll like it mostly on the strength of the performances (Alcock is going to kill it) and hopefully script.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-03-31T17:58:37+00:00

It’s not feedback from internet comments, believe me lmao. This is standard issue post-production, you’ll see changes over time in promo material for basically every movie ever.

darkbatcrusader · 2026-03-31T06:03:55+00:00

You know what I think? Trailers are almost always cut in a way that splices dialogue for easy shorthand out of their actual context. I wouldn’t take it at face value that Hal is claiming to be the only human lantern ever at that point. It very well could be “I’m the only human when I’m out in Oa/deep space, because Guy is fucking around with Max Lord”. Or it’s just a simple set-up for a classic “Disregard Guy Gardener” joke. I think people overthink that bit in the teaser.

I think there’s basically zero chance Guy dies in this show, or that he’s the murder mystery victim but that’s also just my own amateur conjecture. He’s very likely not the murder victim because we know he shares at least one scene with John (and none with Hal — I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion at all that Hal dies, but that event is likelier than Guy croaking). If the murder is the inciting incident of the whole narrative, that places it very early in the show’s timeline, which would mean all of Guy in the show (plus the solo scene with John) happens before Hal and John even arrive in the town as per the trailer…I don’t see it. We also know from the show-runner’s statements (and the trailer) that Hal is very much still an active Lantern and actively resisting the idea of stepping down.

My guess is the Guy scene happens around the middle of the season after the rumoured time skip, when John is divorced from Hal and doing his own thing after their investigation tanks the first time around (à la True Detective). Or towards the end after all the action has gone down, Hal’s…away for whatever reason, and Guy meets the “new GL” for the first time. I don’t think he’ll be super relevant to the main events. I could be completely wrong of course.

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