Project Geekology
Embark on an epic journey with Anthony and Dakota as they delve into the vast realms of geek culture, from cherished classics to cutting-edge creations. Join us for an exhilarating adventure of exploration and nostalgia, as we unearth hidden gems and reminisce about the moments that have shaped us. Welcome to the ultimate celebration of all things geeky!
Project Geekology
Superman (2025)
What defines a hero? Not the powers they possess, but the choices they make when facing impossible situations. Superman 2025 stands as a testament to this fundamental truth, reintroducing audiences to a Man of Steel whose greatest strength isn't his ability to fly or lift mountains, but his unwavering compassion and moral clarity.
While exploring James Gunn's fresh vision for Superman, we dive deep into what makes this interpretation both faithful to Superman's 85-year legacy and boldly innovative. David Corenswet breathes new life into both Clark Kent and Superman, crafting distinct personalities that somehow feel like two sides of the same genuine heart. His Kansas farm boy humility shines through even when he's soaring above Metropolis, creating a Superman whose power is matched only by his humanity.
Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane emerges as the perfect counterpart - fierce, brilliant, and unwavering in her commitment to truth. Their chemistry crackles with authenticity, particularly during that electrifying interview scene where professional integrity clashes with personal connection. We dissect how this relationship anchors the film, giving Superman something worth protecting beyond abstract ideals.
The film's most controversial element - the revelation about Superman's original purpose on Earth - transforms from potential stumbling block to profound statement about nurture versus nature. Superman isn't good because he was sent to Earth to be a savior; he's good because Jonathan and Martha Kent raised him with values that transcend his alien origins. His heroism becomes more meaningful precisely because it's a choice, not a destiny.
From Nicholas Hoult's calculating Lex Luthor to Nathan Fillion's hilariously accurate Guy Gardner, we celebrate how the supporting cast enriches this world without overshadowing its protagonist. And of course, we couldn't resist gushing over Krypto the Superdog, whose presence captures the perfect balance of comic book whimsy and emotional resonance that defines this film.
Whether you're a lifelong Superman fan or newcomer to the character, join us as we examine why Superman 2025 succeeds by understanding that what makes Superman super has never been the "powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men," but rather his fundamentally human heart. After all, anyone can save the world - but it takes someone special to care about saving one scared, not-very-good dog.
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Three centuries ago, the first superpowered beings known as metahumans appeared on Earth, ushering in a new age of gods and monsters. Three decades ago, an extraterrestrial baby was sent in a spacecraft to Earth and adopted by Kansas farmers. Three years ago, the baby, now grown, announced himself as Dakota, the first host of Project Ecology, and I'm joined, as always, with the first host of Project Ecology and I'm joined, as always, with Anthony.
Speaker 2:You know I've been spending some time at a convention in a galaxy with a red sun, so you know I've just been having a good time. You know how? How about you? Uh, you know, let me send you over to our third host.
Speaker 3:Rich. I've been just basically working photography for a little bit lately and I have been, just, you know, dating all the girls because I'm a human, but I do work at a newspaper. That's what I've been doing over the last couple of weeks, since you guys haven't heard us.
Speaker 1:That's how you get the girls.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Guys, we are covering Superman today, the 2025 film by James Gunn. It's the start of the DCU on the big screen. Obviously, creature Commandos came out last year, I believe, or earlier this year, I forget, but yeah. So this is the first time that we're seeing this new superhero universe on screen, or semi-new, but we'll get to that later and, yeah, I'm excited to dive into this. Anthony, you said this was episode 126 of Project Ecology.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:Congratulations, folks. You're witnessing in real time episode 126 of Project Ecology, but not in real time because we're recording this earlier, guys, before we talk about Superman, which I think we're all kind of really jazzed about, and I think there's a definite vibe shift in the conversation so far, and I think it's because we're all hopped up on coffee and it's the first thing in the morning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, this is the first thing we're doing today is recording a podcast. We haven't done a morning podcast in a long time In a long time.
Speaker 1:I think this is the first morning podcast for Rich.
Speaker 3:Yep 100%.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. Yeah, so we have a lot to catch up on because we have been away for a couple weeks as a team. I know, anthony, you released the Crunchyroll mini-sode last week, so, guys, check that out, if you haven't already. A deep dive into the early stages of crunchyroll and how it became what it is today it's crunchy it's, it's crunchy. Yeah, yes, yes, be sure to give that a five-star crunchy review when you get the chance. Anthony, what have you been up to this past couple weeks?
Speaker 2:well, the the reason why we're we're doing, uh, we're actually recording on a sunday morning. We usually record on wednesday nights. Um, my, my mom came into town so I I was unable to record earlier in the week. But you know, also, the reason why I haven't been able to to record in the evenings, on uh, friday, saturday or today, is that I've been going to a convention this weekend, man, I've been going to Supercon and, yeah, man, I, I've, I've been enjoying myself. You know I'll, uh, we'll have to, you know, definitely expand a little bit more on that. You know I'm there with a press pass. Thank you, fans of Project Ecology. I would not be able to do it if it weren't for you all. But, yeah, no, man, that's where I'm going to head, right after this. We're going to record this and then I'll get ready, maybe take a shower and head out.
Speaker 1:Man, All right, so we're recording a super early podcast for Superman and then you're going to get super ready to go to Supercon. Yes, that's what I'm on this Super Sunday.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a super podcast man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that yeah. Awesome bro, it's a super podcast man. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, awesome bro, that's uh. We'll have to touch, touch base on you in a little bit just to see how super con is going rich. What do you, what have you been up to? Uh?
Speaker 3:surprisingly not too much baseball because we were on an all-star break. Uh. So just uh kind of relaxing I'm, uh my son's at camp all-star super break. Yes, all-star, super, all-star break. Or we did have a lot of number of mets playing in the game, but I will not regale you guys with all of that. My son's been away at camp, so it's a little weird, because the house is kind of empty uh, but I it's so quiet it is weird.
Speaker 3:I've uh, I think I told you guys I commandeered the switch too for my son, so I've been playing uh breath of the wild. He had kind of bullied me into facing Ganon before I did my completionist stuff, so I went back to my save and I've been playing that a lot and I just bought Days Gone Remastered. It's one of my favorite games from the Xbox 360, I believe it was on at first, or maybe it was PS5. I really enjoyed it. You're basically yours. Uh, what's the same? Who's the guy who did the voice of uh, who does a lot of voice acting in star wars?
Speaker 3:uh, sam witwer or something yeah, sam witwer yeah, so he's the main character in the game. It's his likeness and everything. Uh, so he, I just love the game. It's basically a zombie apocalypse and you have a motorcycle and you can upgrade the motorcycle to help you uh, you know survive. And then there's kind of a con. There's a little bit of a story in there. It's not just like random zombie apocalypse stuff. There's actually like a thread going through it. So I really enjoy it. If you guys haven't played it before, I haven't played it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that sounds. It's not just like random zombie apocalypse stuff.
Speaker 3:There's actually like a thread going through it, so I really enjoy it. If you guys haven't played it before, I haven't played it. Yeah, that sounds awesome. It is way worth it, because it's remastered now so it looks a lot better. But I mean, I watched a video that kind of described it as you being MacGyver, like a MacGyver in the zombie apocalypse, because you just have these hordes and when I say hordes I'm talking like on the screen you'll see like 70 zombies coming at you, like you'll see these. I mean these, these hordes are. Quite honestly, I can't remember the last time that I played a game and I don't like to play a lot of horror games but that I played a game where I was gripped with anxiety. As I'm playing it, I'm like, oh, that horde, I have to get away. You know, just like panic. Uh, it's a great game, uh, so highly recommended I haven't felt that way since playing.
Speaker 2:Need for speed underground too, I'm telling you you might actually just kidding you got me again, you got me you gotta it was you gotta go back to left for dead too, man, you know all those zombie hordes and need for speed man.
Speaker 1:I, that actually does sound like a really good time and, uh, I'm sure my, my wife, would love that. Um, being the the baby that she is, she can't even watch like a scary trailer for a movie, like she'll have to, like close her eyes in a theater or else she'll have literal nightmares for days. But, yeah, that would be fun to subject it with. Let's see. I, uh am probably the primary reason we were not able to record last. I was the primary reason we could not record. I was not at my house. I was, um, in my second home that I rent from mickey mouse. I went to, uh, walt disney worlds. I I went with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's first time, like you know, doing a trip with with them, and that was fun. It's always fun going somewhere where you're very familiar with everything and showing other people the ropes, whether it's Rich, I'm sure you've brought a bunch of people to Citi Field for the first time and like oh, here's where this is.
Speaker 3:It's my favorite thing to know. It's the best, it's the best.
Speaker 1:So being able to share experiences with other people is like one of like the coolest things about anything that you can be a part of, that you can be a part of and, yeah, doing something as like big and grandiose and expensive as Walt Disney World. It's fun, it's a good time, you know, looking at everything for the first time through someone else's eyes. So that was cool and, yeah, other than that, I think Superman Superman is the big thing that happened over the past couple weeks and it's become something I've been thinking a lot about and I'm happy that we're covering it this week because I need to talk about it to someone you know, I guess, before we jump into our discussion of Superman. Anthony, what are some of the panels and stuff that you've been to? What are some of the people you've met with? Press pass, um, I want to hear some experiences from supercon. What's going on over there?
Speaker 2:well, with supercon, I I kind of want to. I want to like wait until you know. Like I, I want to like give more of a comprehensive like coverage on it. But some of the panels that that I've gone to like, I've gone to like some of the to cosplay contest, believe it or not, like there's, there was a lost one. You know, you know who's at this convention? Uh, josh holloway sawyer oh, I love sawyer.
Speaker 2:Oh, john boyega is actually here too. Was he at the last panel? No, no, no, no, but um, they, they've had a. There's been a a couple different panels there's. There's also some of the.
Speaker 1:There's the voice actors for yugi and kaiba from yugioh we also have uh, they, he plays the same person or he plays two different people in the same show no, no, no, no like oh, there's two separate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, okay okay, okay and uh, we also have uh and this is. This is like you know, he's well known, but uh, chris sabbat and he yeah he does the, the voices of like, well, most notably with us. Growing up he did vegeta and dragon ball z, but then he also does.
Speaker 2:He also does all my uh from my hero, yami from black clover. So he, yeah, he, he's well known. And there's also eric veil that's there. He's done a lot also, most notably Sanji from, or also Chris Abbott does Zorro from One Piece, and then Eric Vale does Sanji from One Piece among like several other characters, and there's also a couple people that do voices and you know persona. You know I got a what's that?
Speaker 2:you know if you go if you go back to the hundreds of podcasts that we've covered. You know that that'll refresh you.
Speaker 2:Okay, I will but uh, but yeah, man, it's, it's, it's been fun or as you would pronounce it in spanish persona oh persona I know, yeah, it's a good golden but yeah, dude, and uh, I've just been, I've been trying to, I've I've also kind of been like thinking of you know who I want to cosplay next, like because you know I've done, I've done obi-wan several times, but I want to do somebody from from one piece, you know, and so I'm still trying to like figure that stuff out. But yeah, man, it's, it's been a good time. I definitely want to cover, cover it, cover it. But you know, still in the midst of it, you know I'm going to be heading back there after after we're done recording, maybe not right away, you know, but but I'll, I'll head there. I think they open up at 10. I'll probably get there, probably by noon um how far is it?
Speaker 2:from you it's not terribly far, depending on traffic, I mean today it should only take me. It should take me about like 45 minutes to get there and guys, it's only five miles away.
Speaker 1:that's how, how bad Miami traffic is.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, dude Can you imagine I'm kidding, it's a Miami beach. That's what makes it terrible.
Speaker 1:It's terrible, yeah, even on a Sunday. It's just Florida, man, it's just so skinny.
Speaker 2:There's only one road that you can go on. Oh man, one of the very few reasons why I go to Miami beach, miami beach, other than that I don't, I'd never go there, dude, I went to a raising canes yesterday and it was like literally a club. That's bizarre dude. It had a dj in there. I'm like I've never been to a raising canes that had a dj in there. Like I'm like what is going on? But it made sense because it was miami beach, so like I mean, you really don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, that still doesn't make sense, anthony, it's still. It't.
Speaker 2:It's a racing game no, no, no, dude, Like Miami Beach, they're extra. That's what.
Speaker 1:I know, I know.
Speaker 2:That's like thinking chickens roaming around down in South Florida or you know it's. You know, rich, we have chickens in South Florida like just roaming the streets and peacocks and peacocks, yeah, and peacocks, and peacocks, yeah and peacocks. Actually there's probably more peacocks than there are chickens like dude.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, the the further you go out like to like the, to like the red lit redlands slash like. You start going towards, like the everglades and stuff man. You like you see a lot of peacocks, man them day and then them dang rich people bro, they're bringing them peacocks over bro I don't know about that, all that noise, but but the chickens are are definitely from, like all the migrants yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Another. Another thing that's actually like changed the ecosystem quite a bit in the past, like decade or two, is like the iguana issue that you guys have in south florida dude.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's the best it's out of control it has given us so much joy to watch, like, honestly, one of my charlie's favorite things to do when he was, like I don't know, maybe it was during pandemic, right during that, uh, that era he he's just loved watching videos of iguanas falling off trees in florida yeah, yeah, because they get so cold, they just they're literally.
Speaker 1:Their body temperature just drops to nothing and they just fall out of trees and hit people.
Speaker 2:I think it's sad to say that Florida is the Australia of the United States.
Speaker 1:Oh, 100%, oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, let's cool it with the Florida discussion, because Florida, I don't think, has anything to do with the discussion at hand today oh, he doesn't visit in in the movie.
Speaker 2:What's the florida?
Speaker 1:no, that was boravia oh, I thought he had a south florida man oh, actually they do visit florida, yeah, when they go into um that pocket universe there's a lot of side. There's a lot of florida men in this, in that pocket universe.
Speaker 3:It was, it was yeah, I mean, uh, peacekeeper's dad could be like a Florida man, I okay.
Speaker 1:I could believe it. All right, guys, let's talk about Superman 2025, james Gunn Off the cuff. What are your first opinions? Like, dislike, ambivalent Anthony. Let's start with you.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to start on the cuff, you know.
Speaker 3:Why was?
Speaker 2:that so funny to me Sorry.
Speaker 1:We should do morning shows more often coffee's like, actually like making this a lot more fun you know, for for me, I was coming into it, you know, cautious, cautiously optimistic.
Speaker 2:You know I wasn't too sure. I felt like the, the, I felt like the trailers weren't really like. I guess the trailers didn't really do the movie justice. But you know, I started to see the reviews come in. I was like okay, so it must be like pretty, pretty decent. But yeah, I mean so so far. Or, you know, like my, my, my thoughts, like after the movie was like you know, that was surprisingly better than I expected. You know it, it, you know a lot of, I mean you. You also hear, like a lot of people which you know, for me, like I don't care what, like, if I enjoy something, I enjoy something. But you know, I think that that was like the same case for a lot of people. A lot of people are like, ah, this movie, I don't think it's gonna be good.
Speaker 1:And then, like you know, they leave thinking like, oh, wow, this was actually good yeah, I think um know, just jumping off of what you just said there a lot of people going into this film are looking at the trailers, looking at the promotional material, looking at the tone of the film. There's a lot going on. There's a lot that happens in this film and from an outsider looking in it doesn't look like it will all cohesively mix, but we'll talk about whether or not it works in a little bit Rich. What are your initial thoughts?
Speaker 3:I really liked it. I had moments of like F yeah, man, that's Superman. There were those moments where I kind of I think my heart jumped a little bit. I was like, oh, that's Superman.
Speaker 1:You know and.
Speaker 3:I'm a Smallville guy. I mean I didn't really get into the DCEU much, I watched a couple of them and whatever. But I was a big Smallville guy, like really into it. I also watched Lois and Clark. I really loved, kind of really loved that show just because it was like superman content and I downloaded it. Yeah, I really like this movie. And then, you know, this kind of forced me and we'll talk about it later. But I went back and, as I often do, I get into my my content, uh, like world spirals, yeah spirals.
Speaker 3:So I, you know, I immediately went home and you started watching, you know, started watching tons of dc content, uh, but, you know, after watching a number of those movies, I like a lot about this. I like the colors, um, and this is even something that my you know, my wife's complained about. But just the darkness that we have so many of these movies in. You know, part of comic books for me is the color, is the brightness right is that they kind of look ridiculous in their costumes. So I love so much about this, and that's not even talking about the dog, yet that changes everything yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna they were probably I think originally the dceu was probably trying to tap into like the edginess of marvel, but that only works for marvel. You know that's not dc. I mean dc can get dark, you know. I mean as as we've seen with the batman, but I mean superman. Come on, dude, superman is like mostly bright colors. I do.
Speaker 1:I do think that the dc universe is slightly more mature, leaning than marvel's um output. Marvel can get dark and dc definitely can get dark, or is dark. You know, like the, the entire backbone of their mythos. Uh, there's a whole city that's only ever like shown in darkness. You know, like you never see Gotham during the daytime, it's never, yeah, never, yeah.
Speaker 2:I always thought that was like funny, uh, but well, I mean. But but also, like you know, I always saw like, yeah, you know, I always saw like, yeah, you know, like marvel was, you know, it was like the, the teenager of comics, you know, whereas dc was like you know, your your grandfather's comics, you know it's that, that's like the okay, older, you know yeah, like you said, there's a lot of there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker 2:It is like more mature, but then the colors are like Rich said, it's brighter. And they tried to get visually dark with the DCEU and it just didn't work, man, I mean along with the writing, but they really brightened up the Superman and it worked. And I'm going to be honest with you. And I'm going to be honest with you, like, I really do think that that Henry Cavill was a fantastic Superman, but he just like he didn't have good writers for him.
Speaker 2:And if he had really good writers, I think he would have knocked it out of the park bro.
Speaker 3:But it's heartbreaking for him, to be honest, Like that's the one thing that I take away from, like my, my deep dive not super deep dive, but my, you know, going back and watching a lot of the movies was man Like he was. He was so good and it's just so dealt with beforehand.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's a shame that he you know he's not on this. He's obviously. He made the decision to pull himself out of witcher because he did. He disagreed with the content, but he's just like such a consummate professional that really deep dives into these things that it's a shame that he's not. And he's a fan, he's obviously. Yeah, that's the big yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I, I I'm in agreement with you guys. I I also think that Henry Cavill had what it took to be a great Superman, and in many ways he was a great Superman in a world where he wasn't written very well or he wasn't written like superman. You know, he wasn't written. Um, I think the the worst thing about, uh, man of steel and batman versus superman, everything is that I never bought his interpretation of clark kent. You know it didn't ever feel like clark to me.
Speaker 1:He's not bumbling enough not bumbling enough, too much aura farming, not giddy enough, you know, and we got that with this film and I'm excited to to jump into that and again, I, I like henry cavill as an actor.
Speaker 1:Um, I like his uh look for superman and I wish that he had better material to work with. And that's not to say that this film is necessarily like top tier material always. You know it's quite goofy in some places and we'll discuss that. But I just, like Rich said, this is Superman watching this and you know the smile you get at certain scenes, the heart-rending moments that you get just from him saying something nice is superman to to like the core. And we're also smallville. Uh, anthony and I grew up on smallville. Like there were. There were many a weekend where, like, we would just have the dvd box set of small Season 3, and I'd go to his grandma's house and we'd just watch episode after episode of Smallville. So we were in that age range for that we were binging before Netflix man.
Speaker 1:I always say that Superman is, smallville specifically, and Kingdom Hearts are my benchmarks for the content that I realized would make me a good human. Kingdom Hearts is all about friendship and Smallville is all about humility, and that's kind of the two benchmarks that I've taken throughout my life about what I want to emulate from content that I consume. But let's jump into Superman. I haven't given my opinion yet. I really liked it. I think this is a really fun film. It's not perfect. There are some things that I'm still trying to grapple with, but I really, as a timeline guy, I like and dislike certain things. I love that we start the film with a timeline, a literal timeline, as I started this podcast with Three centuries ago, metahumans Three decades ago, clark Santa Earth or Kala Santa Earth. Three years ago he announces himself as Superman and actually I read the book. It's a tie-in book called Superman Welcome to Metropolis and it's actually him and his first week as announcing himself as Superman in the DCU and it's fun. It's a junior novel, so it's very childish, but it's a fun look at the early Superman in this world, so that is fun. But yeah, as we go on we find that Superman first started dating Lois three months ago. Then three weeks ago he stopped Baravia from invading Jarhampur. Three days ago, blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of threes, there's a lot of threes. Three days ago, blah, blah, blah. There's a lot of threes, there's a lot of threes. And it's gotten me thinking that I have to kind of make a breakdown of this in like a YouTube video. So I started writing a YouTube video. I haven't finished writing it, but I might make it into a video.
Speaker 1:I'm still determining whether or not the script has like enough weight to it, but it is interesting because there's a lot of symbolic three stuff happening here. Because there's a lot of symbolic three stuff happening here. You think of Superman's classic quote truth, justice in the American way. That's a set of three. You have him wearing three primary colors on his uniform blue, red and yellow.
Speaker 1:There's a bunch of almost like trinity aspects to the character as well. You could look at it a certain number of ways. You can look at it as like his father, his mother and and him as a son, like uh on on krypton. You can look at it as pocket mock hands and superman, or like clark. You could also look at it as like the father, the son and the yellow star.
Speaker 1:You know like there's a lot, the yellow star being the holy trinity or, um, the holy spirit rather, and it's there's a lot of threes in the superman mythos and you know, a lot of times that translates to like a very like divinely inspired number, and also the fact that this film takes place over seven days, and seven, symbolically, is a sense of completeness, you know, like a perfect completeness. So I think there's a lot going into the background of this character that, numerologically, is really cool and well thought out, unless I'm just seeing patterns and things that aren't actually there. Um, but yeah, as as a timeline guy, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking about all these things as something that is very well thought out, well-intentioned, and I'm excited to explore that more. Sorry, timeline tangent over, you guys can talk about Superman.
Speaker 2:Matt, what was it tangent over? You guys can talk about superman now man, was it? You know? Guys just just know that dakota's a little biased because you know superman is his favorite.
Speaker 1:It is, yeah, I would. I would say superman is in my top five fictional characters of all time.
Speaker 2:But how about in dc, number one? Yes yeah, yes, yeah, I figured, but uh, you know, I I like. So you brought up Ma and Pa Kent and I'm going to be honest with you. I really liked their casting because they made sense for a Kansas, like a parent kind of like you would believe that they're farmers. You know, they had that look. That was immediately what popped up in my head. They had, like, this sense of homeliness that you would only really get like, maybe in the south, or like the Midwest, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, unless I visit a Cracker Barrel, I'm not experiencing that, you know yeah, I mean, like kevin costner just felt like a guy who danced with wolves, like he didn't feel like a farmer, you know and then definitely dance with wolves and and then, you know, uh, jonathan snyder felt more like a, you know, he was more like a duke, you know uh, yeah, he was very hazardous.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, um sorry old guy reference I'm so happy.
Speaker 2:I'm like yes um yeah, both of them in smallville. They definitely like, they were definitely like. You know more. I mean, it was for for a kid, kid, it was like whatever, and still like as a show. Like you know, I can I can suspend that disbelief, but I was believing that. I was thinking that, like, out of all the Superman material that I've seen, these are like the most believable parents that we have gotten.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, I. I don't know if it's like the most believable like when it comes to you picturing kansas farmers. You know not that they need to be like unattractive or extremely homely, but they felt right at home. You know, like you did not. There was no, it was as humble of origins as you could possibly expect from clark. You know they weren't overly attractive individuals, but they were good people and that's exactly what superman needs in this, in any mythos you know like he needs, but they were good people and that's exactly what Superman needs in any mythos. He needs to be raised by good people to make the decisions that he ultimately needs to make. Speaking of decisions that he needs to make, I think we should go into.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put a spoiler warning from here on out. If you haven't seen Superman, I going to uh talk about some spoilery stuff that you won't have received in the trailers. So if you haven't seen it already, please go check the movie out before uh going forward. Uh, we have the message from uh jor-el and his uh and his mother and uh, the first half of the movie is interesting because we only get the first half of the message, where he basically tells Kal-El to.
Speaker 1:He's sending you down to Earth to do good, and that seems to jive well with the way he was raised in Kansas, in Smallville. That's normal way. He was raised in Kansas, in Smallville, that's normal. We've always had Jor-El give a positive, or mostly positive, message about his purpose in life. But then later on we find the second half of the recording made by his parents on Krypton is not very PC, it's not very politically correct for the 21st century on planet Earth and it's actually becomes quite a detriment to him and his mental well-being throughout the film. What are, what are your thoughts on this guys?
Speaker 3:I mean all right. So like when the, the, when the message gets unscrambled, right and we get the second half of it, the fact that, like so many people, right after he's been because, remember, he's been doing this stuff for a while, right, he's been helping people for a while, right, the whole world knows him as a helper yeah, yeah, you get the message and then, like a guy, just like the minute it comes out, like he has just finished helping people and then, like somebody just chucks like a can at his head and it's like are you, I don't know man, maybe this is like my mets fandom, but like I, I don't give up on someone, like in two seconds, like he had done nothing to prove that that's what he was trying to do. And and maybe this is like, uh, in terms of timeline, right, like for me, or pacing, like it just made little sense to me that so many people turned on him so quickly. When we literally have like video evidence of people in power saying things and everyone in, like our country, goes, I mean, who cares? Right, and like that's the actual person saying it.
Speaker 3:This is his parents telling him to do a thing that he hasn't demonstrably done, right, so for so many to turn on him so quickly was a little bit even like. You know like little they showed, like little kids crying when they heard it like, or a little kid like looking at his mom like what now? And it's like if I were a parent I'd be like what has he done to do that like? I don't know? Maybe it's the english teacher in me. Show me the evidence that I should now hate this man who has saved our lives countless times.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that it's a mix of you know, because they have had a voice in their ear pretty much like saying like you know, this is an alien, he doesn't belong to be, you know he doesn't belong here, you know he's going to be a danger. And so, like, pretty much, when there was like an evidence of that like you know, like not evidence that he was going to do something bad, but like pretty much like a way of proof that you know that, like you know, he wasn't originally there for good intention, you know, even though, even though Clark you know this was news to him also, it's not Like to me it wasn't out of the realm of like possibility.
Speaker 2:I mean, sure I don't think that everybody would turn on him right away, Like, but I would say that, like, if you do have somebody that's been in your ear saying something over and over and then as soon as, like, what they've been saying has kind of been proven, then it'd be like, oh dang, he's actually been saying the truth this whole time. You know, and you know, and you know that being Lex Luthor.
Speaker 1:And jumping on what you just said, Anthony, like yeah, you've had Lex Luthor for the past three years telling the world not to trust this alien. You know, he's come out, he's honest about being not from Earth and just three weeks ago you have Superman. You know, in his mind and in reality he's stopping a war between two countries, but he's going against, going against an ally of the United States. He's essentially stopping an ally from exerting their sovereign right to do whatever the heck they were doing. I don't fully understand the uh geopolitical context of the film.
Speaker 3:besides, you know, boravia was uh, I think there's some pretty pretty easy modern day conflict, oh yeah okay, so like, let's, let's just get that out of the way.
Speaker 1:We have, uh, several wars going on in the world right now and I think it's a mix of a bunch of them.
Speaker 1:You know, like you have the Eastern European influence of, you know like, the Russian language and the Russian like lexicon being used in almost like I think the more obvious parallel would be like the Israel and Palestine conflict going on, but we also have the russia ukraine conflict and I feel like boravia and jarhampur are kind of mashed into both of those conflicts together and I think that was the intent by gun and company to, you know, get that across. But uh, whatever your opinions of what's going on in the world, in this universe, superman wanted to stop a war. He wanted to stop people from dying and he did so without killing anyone on either side, which is notable. He did give the president of Baravia a hard time, apparently Put him up against a cactus, made him pee himself time, apparently put him, put him up against a cactus, made him pee himself, um, which is really, really funny, because I I really like the actor who played, uh, like the the leader, for that.
Speaker 1:I thought he was just a very funny guy yeah um, but this caused a moral dilemma, a moral dilemma within the rest of this world, you know like, are his actions sanctioned by any country or is he just working by himself? And this became an issue politically. And when you get into political issues, even if you're technically, by all rights on paper, on the right side of history or on the right side of you know, doing the morally right, right thing, if you are opposing the political opinion of, say, half the country, you are now a bad guy. You are now a bad man. Um, you should keep your political opinions to yourself. So, um, and I think that's where the issue kind of stemmed from. And then adding, on top of, you know, the fact that he's an, now he has potential cause to basically take whatever he wants, take as many women as he wants, into his harem, which I thought was very funny.
Speaker 3:And repopulate Krypton Like Jimmy Olsen would have been a better choice. Jimmy would have.
Speaker 1:Jimmy probably already has, you know, he definitely already has his own little harem yeah so, anyway, what are, what are your thoughts on the change of, uh, the messaging, because I know a lot of people hate it.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people think that that changes the perceived like messianic um intent of the superman character as it's been portrayed in like many films, many shows. Um, you know, he's always been this savior figure, but if you're, if you're being sent to do evil, you're not really a savior figure unless you choose to do so, and that I think that that's what is like the deciding factor about this movie. It's about choice. You know, um, but I feel like a lot of people are that I think we're because of smallville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it, that was like very much show, like something that was pushed by jor-el in smallville, you know, and naturally clark fought against it, but you know, this was something that he knew earlier on in the show. You know, he was still young when he found this stuff out, but it wasn't, I think, because of Smallville. It really like broke that mold of that kind of character, because he obviously made many mistakes in that show and yeah.
Speaker 2:At least one a week, and then you know, yeah, you know, do you have any red kryptonite? You know that was the best.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no, definitely I love the red kryptonite. Oh my God, they're so fun. As soon as you see him in like a leather jacket, you're like oh, bad boy. Oh he's on that red kryptonite. Oh man, he's pulling up in a Harley.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think because of Smallville, that's just something that I grew up being used to Him being somebody that had to learn a lot and making a lot of mistakes and, yeah, him being sent not for such a great reason.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so it paved the way for you. It makes more sense.
Speaker 3:It makes way more sense that a planet who was about to be extinct sent out a child to repopulate their culture and their race right, rather than, oh no, our planet's dying. You know what we should do? We should send clark or we should send kal-el to to this planet to save them. Right, like what? Uh that? Like like in terms of how you would think a world ending would try to repopulate or whatever property. I agree with that. I do agree with that yeah, no, I.
Speaker 1:I think that that's actually a really good point. Um it, it's a seemingly normal message from a dying race to their progeny to live on. You know, like, do whatever you can to keep this race alive. Now a lot of people are saying that like the message was like, destroy the world and, you know, be a horrible person. I don't think they actually said that. No, it does sound that way Because it just says, like you know, take as many women as you want, and maybe in Krypton, that's, you know, it's. It's okay to be polygamous, you can have multiple wives, whatever, I don't know. But on Earth that currently isn't in vogue. Currently it was in the past, a couple centuries ago, or I would say a couple millennia ago. That would have been a real hit message on planet Earth.
Speaker 2:But Genghis Khan's like yes, they rose a mug to him.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's move on. I think we're all in agreement that it was a shock to hear, but it's not the worst thing in the world and it's not even the first time Superman has gotten that message from his biological parents or a similar-ish message. He wasn't entirely altruistic in Smallville and everything, but we brought up Jimmy Olsen. We brought up Jimmy Olsen before Lois Lane, let's talk about. We brought up jimmy olsen. We brought up jimmy olsen before lois lane, let's talk about jimmy's harem.
Speaker 2:Um what are we, what are our thoughts on what I? Thought he was hilarious and like this man had, like this dude had a a mole in like the lex luther camp, like and and she was like just simping for this man so my wife, uh, who's not, um, a major superman fan, has barely watched any smallville or anything like that, maybe watched man of steel in the past.
Speaker 1:She like turns to me in the theater and goes so is this jimmy guy like always a player?
Speaker 2:and I'm, I'm thinking to myself and I'm like no like he was like in the comics he was like uh, superman's like nerdy, yeah, he's the nerdy co-worker with uh with a camera, yeah but, uh, I, I liked it and he wasn't was he a photographer in this one?
Speaker 1:no, I mean he was, but I just I.
Speaker 3:He also wrote articles. He also feels a little bit older and I don't know if this is like for me. In my head Jimmy's always like fairly younger, you know.
Speaker 1:I think Jimmy's in certain stories like the intern of the office.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I was a little bit, I was a little confused with that part, but I think that the actor makes it work.
Speaker 1:I love, his almost like exasperated acceptance of his fate as someone who everyone seems to love. It's funny. It's just funny.
Speaker 3:The actor I think is really good, and if it had been somebody else of a similar age I think I don't know if I would have loved it, but I feel like this guy played it off really well. There's something about this. I've seen him also in like the righteous gemstones. There's something about him that, although he's a little bit older, does give off a kind of youthful ignorance almost in certain areas that make him makes him charming yeah exactly yeah yeah, jimmy had a glow up man rachel brosnahan as lois lane.
Speaker 1:I think that's phenomenal casting. I think it might be the best casting in the movie. Like I love david cornswet as uh superman, I I love nicholas holt. I don't know if I love nich Holt as Lex but I like him as Lex.
Speaker 2:He did a good job.
Speaker 1:He did a good job yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that he did a lot better job than Jesse.
Speaker 1:Eisenberg, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that the Lex in this movie was a lot better.
Speaker 1:I do prefer him to Eisenberg. Yeah, I really think Rachel Brosnahan is an absolutely fantastic Lois Lane Just like gets to the core of who the character is as this quippy and no-nonsense reporter. No-nonsense reporter, you know like even in her personal life with Clark, who she's apparently been dating for roughly three months now, she's probably known that he's Superman for a little longer than that. She is willing to break character so that she can go back into reporter mode and maybe reporter mode is her natural state. You know, like for Superman, his natural state. You know, like for for superman, his, his natural state is superman. It's not clark kent, but for lois lane her natural state is reporter, not, you know, girlfriend and yeah I, I love, I love that dynamic that they have.
Speaker 1:That. That scene where they're arguing while having that interview is just magnetic. You're pulled. I've seen the movie twice now. I went to go see it again after work one day and it's just. I love their chemistry. So so much it's. So. That's. My favorite part about this movie is those two actors being on screen together, and I wish they had more time on screen together. There's a lot of like Lois on her own or Lois with a team of reporters with like behind her. I wish there was more lois and clark, but, um, I'm glad we have that one scene.
Speaker 3:That's just absolutely phenomenal yeah, I think it was. I mean it actually like I, I was like angry at her. I'm like that's your boyfriend, like you know he's trying to save lives and she went like full reporter, you know, before anything else, but she had to and she said she, she gave him that disclosure, like you know this is what.
Speaker 2:And he gave her and he gave her the OK for it. Like you know he, he knew that. That you know it's. It's in those moments where you know you can't let that bias you know it's like you, you know you kind of have to get to the heart of it, otherwise it would have been just another piece that clark would have written. You know that. That that's exactly like what. What you're asking for is literally what clark was doing for himself. You know, interviewing himself as superman.
Speaker 1:I love that line. I love that line where she's like oh so you, you've timed, timed your imaginary conversations to yourself.
Speaker 3:I don't know, I'm just saying if Dakota and I were reporters, you know, and our significant others were these super beings trying to do good in the world, and we interviewed that hard, I think we'd be sleeping on the couch for a couple of weeks, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Honestly to tell you the truth, man like I feel like true love is knowing when to keep somebody accountable and to challenge them.
Speaker 1:That's fair, honestly.
Speaker 2:And that's what she was doing, like she was, and she wasn't wrong. Though she wasn't wrong and you know we are so used to growing up with Superman. You know going off and saving the world. If there's an asteroid coming down, I 100% know that nobody's going to care if this man flies and destroys it. But then, like once, you kind of sprinkle some politics in and it's like okay, who are you doing this on behalf of? You know, like you're obviously, you know he's like kind of he's based out of, you know, the United States. So obviously everything he does is in the name of the United States. And so once he goes and does all this stuff you know it was almost in a way of like her you know, telling him to be mindful of the things that he does do, even though, like you know, it's Superman's nature to want to make sure that everyone is okay. You know it's yeah, like it's. It's also accountability in a way. Like you know you're kind of like the face of the United States. You know you have to be careful.
Speaker 1:You know, Sorry to cut you off. I also liked that she agreed with pretty much everything that he was doing too Like. You know, off the record, she was just like yeah, no, I agree with that, but do I know that? So she was doing her job as an unbiased reporter. You know, Like, and that hurt, you know, Right, right, Because it's so emotionless. That's actually even harder when you know the person you know. It's emotionless, yeah, so the fact that she was able to do.
Speaker 2:that goes to show you, like you know, how strong she is as a reporter. She's good at her job. You know that's why she's at that place is because she's so great at her job. And who knows like in this world, who knows like how much Lois has been dating? You know, like I'm pretty sure that, like you know, she's probably dated like a few guys but like she seems like more of like a career woman and so like now that she has like somebody that kind of in her life, you know that's a balance also for her. So I do you know, like you said, like she is that you know hard hitting reporter and you know you don't get there without like really diving into your work.
Speaker 1:Speaking about career women, let's also talk about career men and women. We have the Hall of Justice being built, which was fun to see on screen. I was just it was just put a smile on my face as a as someone who grew up just watching Super Friends in the background, this was just something very special to me.
Speaker 2:But it was kind of Nah man, it's the Justice gang bro.
Speaker 1:It was sad seeing that it was just three members in this Justice gang, you know, like Hawkgirl, mr Terrific and Guy Gardner's Green Lan, green lantern of all people.
Speaker 2:Dude, um, dude, let's talk about them yes, please, let's talk about guy gardener, let's let's talk about the the like you know, because I I've I have like read some of guy gardener and I feel like nathan phillan like did a freaking spot on job, like he is that like arrogant guy he is. You know, like that, that green lantern, you know that that's who he is. You know he's the like kind of. He's not like um. You know how jordan he's. You know he's a bit of a hard head, you know.
Speaker 2:And I and oh yeah, I love that they kept like the, the comic book haircut yeah, that was the best part.
Speaker 1:He's, he's supposed to be a dick, he's supposed to be like he's. That's literally who he is in the comics and that's who he was on screen. Yeah, at all times they.
Speaker 2:They knocked it out of the park. I think he did a really really, really good job. I I actually really liked he. He knocked that patrol out of the park, it and I laughed. I felt like I laughed every time he was on the screen, like because I almost couldn't take him seriously.
Speaker 1:I loved his constructs that he was making the when, when he was facing the dimensional imp with a, with a baseball bat, and it was just like a bunk, bunk sound Whenever, whenever it hit. I loved that Like a wiffle bat. It was so fun.
Speaker 2:I know Rich was cheering for that when he saw anything.
Speaker 3:I was very excited.
Speaker 1:Mocked it out of the park with that one as well, as like when he's in Jarhanpur and he's like flipping over the tanks with the middle fingers.
Speaker 2:Yes, hilarious, I love that I was like yeah, yeah, I said yeah, that's this character, so irre, yes, hilarious.
Speaker 2:I love that I was like yeah, yeah, I said yeah, that's this character, so they got him like perfect. And it's crazy because like we've only really gotten like um, uh, was it john stewart and hal jordan on the screen, but like we haven't really, like we've had maybe a couple others, but like you know the fact that we got guy guy Gardner and that that was the choice for this film, it was. He was definitely like the one of the the comedic reliefs in this film.
Speaker 1:And it's it takes. It takes someone like James Gunn to be like that's the, that's the Green Lantern I want to play with first. You know, yeah, yeah, nobody, nobody would be like the quintessential Green Lantern that we need for this is Guy Gardner, except James Gunn, because it totally fits his direction, style and everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, he likes deep cuts. Man. You know, you saw what he did with Guardians.
Speaker 1:I saw what he did with Guardians. I saw what he did with Suicide Squad. Yeah, it was terrific. Speaking of terrific, we have Mr Terrific Dude just cool, cool, just a cool character also has my least favorite scene the the scene where they're, you know, in front of the garage hangar and it's just going up slowly and it's just like it comes out of nowhere and it's just like you wasted like 30 seconds of this film on a garage hangar. Uh, I was like I was. I was like I was both times I watched the movie. I'm like this is so dumb, but I I do love a lot of his line deliveries. I love that he just doesn't care about, like, the emotional context of Lois and Clark's relationship. I love that he hates crypto. What are your guys thoughts on Mr Terrific?
Speaker 3:I had known nothing about the character. So, like there are, I do have a lot of dc blind spots, uh, where, you know, I didn't read as much of the comics, so a lot of my dc knowledge happens. It just really comes from uh films and shows yeah, films and shows, you know, and I didn't even go that deep, uh, with certain stuff. So, like I didn't watch, um, was it the flash and wb or archer? I didn't watch, uh, I didn't watch any of those now, you didn't.
Speaker 1:You didn't watch the arrowverse, the arrowverse.
Speaker 3:Sorry, sorry, archer. What am I talking about anyway? We're talking about that fx series, that's a fantastic show uh, that's great, but you know I so I didn't know anything about this guy. Uh, so I I just thought he, I was whoa, like everything he started to do. I was like whoa, that's pretty cool, that's pretty dope. So I really liked like I knew nothing about him. I felt like I got to know him in a way that makes me want to see him again and that's fantastic, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that Mr Terrific is a fun character. I wasn't hugely versed on him either. I mean, I knew what his power sets were. I knew like the way that he was portrayed on screen. Anthony, it's kind of like Zenyatta in Overwatch you know like with with the orbs and like floating around and yeah, um, but yeah, no, it was it was really really cool to see on screen.
Speaker 1:It was really really cool to see on screen and it was such a James Gunn moment to have that fight scene from Lois' vantage point within that T-Sphere bubble, as he's just going ham with a stupid song in the background. Fun, fun, fun.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, that was actually a really cool scene, man, but yeah, um, it was that I'm, I'm also kind of like with rich that, like I, I didn't, I didn't know this character. I don't know if he, I don't remember if he's ever really popped up and you know, like there's certain like groups that that you know I've seen, like you know, I like know some of the, the heroes from, like you know, the justice society and you know, yeah, like he, he hasn't really ever like popped up for me. Um, I mean, you know, I know, but I knew the others, the, the other two, uh, hot girl and and guy, guy gardner what'd you guys think of hot girl just like screaming randomly whenever she was attacking people like a bird?
Speaker 1:I thought that was really funny better, so I've been watching.
Speaker 3:Uh, last of us.
Speaker 1:So, uh, isabel oh yeah, it's the same actress.
Speaker 3:She plays a big role there, uh, and she's just fantastic in last of us. To the point where, like the character of dina for me in the game wasn't as interesting as it is actually in the show and interesting okay, uh. So when I saw that she was cast for this, I was excited because I really like her work on last of us I. And then it made me recall that she's been in another one of our favorite superhero movies, dora the explorer.
Speaker 3:Uh, no, but she was one of your, one of your favorites, I actually haven't seen it well she is Dora, but no, there's a movie that you maybe she got tangled up in this movie. Maybe you just don't remember her because Sidney Sweeney was in the movie yes, she was caught in the web. So you know she got like her chance in a superhero movie and obviously that's not going to go anywhere ever again, so I'm really happy for the actor I, I keep thinking like about, like sony's output, and it's just don't, don't do it, don't do it.
Speaker 1:What are we?
Speaker 3:thinking I watched what is going on I what is happening?
Speaker 2:just to watch. They're mishandling spider-man. They need to just like give those rights. It's not even that they're mishandling spider-Man.
Speaker 1:They need to just give those rights up. It's not even that they're mishandling Spider-Man, because he's not even in it. They're beating around the bush for no reason. It's like $100 million there, $100 million there, $100 million there. I'll take $50 million back every time. It's just like let's lose money, guys, let's do this.
Speaker 2:It's like a gambler. They could let's do this. It's. It's like a, it's like a gambler. You know, like they, they put they, they could put in like 200, and if they get like 50, 50 back, they feel like they're ahead.
Speaker 1:It's the sunk cost fallacy with, with the, you know, with the entire sony.
Speaker 2:I we're like yeah, sorry sorry sorry, let's, let's pull it back, let's bring it back in the comic books, but, but yeah, no, I agree, but yeah, no, it's.
Speaker 1:I liked Isabella Merced in this role. I wish there was more of all of these characters, but I guess we'll have to just wait until this universe continues growing. Okay, my cat's being really loud right now, I'll be right back. Sorry, what did I miss?
Speaker 2:you missed tons, man. We're already done with the discussion, man, um, no, no, uh, I, I agree, and I I like that part where they're fighting that, that monster, and like she was hitting his eye.
Speaker 1:Kaiju, oh my gosh, that was so funny.
Speaker 2:I was actually like he like, closed his eye over the the mace and like it got stuck it's just.
Speaker 1:It's such a stupid way to handle a big monster, but it actually kind of makes sense, you know, like go for the eyes and they're just poking away at its cornea.
Speaker 2:It's, it's just I, I love how, like they're like fighting it and and superman's, just like you know, and like they like, proceed to kill it yeah.
Speaker 1:So that scene I think I have to talk about because I made a big stink about it online. So it involves a potential major timeline error where the the film proposes, um, that lex luther and um mutant toes go to. I call her mutant toes because I forget her name, but that was her name in jimmy olsen's book as well as uh, the, the other people, they they go over to the fortress of solitude to find dirt on Superman and in that scene they ask how do we keep Superman away? How do we like distract Superman? And Lex says that he has something planned, basically suggesting that while they're there in the Fortress of Solitude he has something that's going to distract Superman.
Speaker 1:But by the time we actually see the fight with the monster like it's the next day, you know, like it's at least 12 hours have passed, because the monster is now fully grown. So it isn't really a distraction and it really caused me to think like wait, so am I supposed to believe that Lex Luthor was at the Fortress of Solitude, made it back to Metropolis, had a whole interview planned, got onto the interview, did all that, released the footage, translated the footage in the span of the 20 or so minutes that they were fighting this kaiju beast. Well, no, obviously that can't be true, but the way that it's written kind of is it leans in that direction well, I I think in that moment this is where I will.
Speaker 2:I mean it's, it's not. I think it's. I know it's one of those moments that you have to like suspend disbelief, that you know, while this is happening, you know they're planning, you know, like all of the I guess like not everything is happening all at the same time. It's just like kind of over that time right, this stuff is happening in the background while this creature is growing.
Speaker 2:You know they're planning to make their their way over there, but it looks like it's all happening at the same time and, you know, on the screen it might seem like the the monster was like a 20 minute fight, but like you know, who knows, it could have been, you know, longer. It might have been rampaging for longer. You know I mean well I mean it.
Speaker 2:It had been rampaging for longer because it eventually had to grow up right to right, but I don't, so the the actual distraction with superman happened when it was like fully grown, like right, right, so I guess.
Speaker 1:So there's. There's two ways of looking at it. You can be very literal with the script where the distraction that Lex Luthor needs to get the information from the Fortress of Solitude was Superman fighting this beast. So that would be Superman fighting this beast simultaneously with lex luther extracting that information. Or it's just a weird line that lex luther said because by the time the you know distraction was occurring, super lex luther was already like being interviewed on that program, because we actually do see the interview happening, uh, in the background of that scene, like on billboards or buildings. There's screens on buildings and stuff.
Speaker 1:So upon a second watch it made a little bit more sense to me. It's not as glaring of a plot hole, because the film actually is very good about keeping an internal, consistent timeline. You know, like there are seven days showcased throughout the film. Each day that they have like a magazine on screen or a newspaper on screen, rather it's dated correctly as to that day. So it would be like Monday the 18th, then Thursday the 22nd, something like that you know it was. It was very, very consistent like that, so I kind of just overlook it at this point as just like kind of a weird line that didn't need to be in there, because it ultimately just made me think too hard and it distracted me from it was a distraction for me.
Speaker 2:It was more of a distraction for me than it was for superman, I think so and and and I, I think like probably for rich, and I like we just were like none the wiser, we're just like in it. Yeah, I don't even think I, until I saw your tweet.
Speaker 3:I didn't think about it like once. Like I was like, oh yeah, it's just like I don't know. I mean, it's just one of those things like the, the stupid movie God, it's with Arnold Schwar. Like it says christ in new york and he's like maybe it's chris in new york or, uh, christine in new york or christine york, and then the name just pops up on the computer screen and that's who they're looking for, like, and I just kind of accepted it. I'm like you know, arnold's just so good at like enigmas, you know. Or like even in the old batman show, like he'd put in a bunch of evidence into like a machine, right like this old school computer, and they would like beep, beep, boop, boop, boop, and then I would give them a location of where they had to go, like, and and I think that I just was like, yeah, of course lex was able to do that. So I don't think I even thought about.
Speaker 1:That's another thing too. Like in my head as I'm watching this I'm thinking all right, so lex gets access to this alien language or like two minutes max, two minutes total of like this sample of kryptonian, like an alien language that has no etymological links to anything in like the earth lexicon, and within the day he has already communicated with all of the like top like the top 28 linguists in the world and they've deciphered exactly what this says from a two-minute sample. And I looked it up like how long would it take linguists to like decipher a humanoid language from another planet? Um, and according to ChatGPT, it would say realistically, it would never happen from a two-minute sample.
Speaker 3:I'm going to actually quiet the voices in your head with this. If he has a metahuman who can turn himself into a substance that doesn't even exist on this world, I wouldn't put it past Lex to have some sort of metahuman locked up in his pocket universe who's like the brainiac level of being able to figure stuff out I also think that you could make the argument that the computer that they hacked probably had some translation of the language.
Speaker 1:It's not the worst thing in the world, it just in my in the moment. While that was happening, uh, and the the quick translation on screen for the world to see, I was just like well, well I mean the thing is is that here here goes.
Speaker 2:Another one of those things is that lex might have had exposure to other other things. You know from that language. I mean, he knew about kryptonite. That was never explained. Yeah, so the thing is is that you know from that language, I mean, he knew about kryptonite.
Speaker 2:That was never explained, yeah so the thing is is that, you know, you also got to think that, like he might have had, you know, some sort of kryptonian language that he, he had been able to to have analyzed, and so, when it came to that time, they were able to download all that stuff he was able to it's in the caves, man I guess get it.
Speaker 2:You know, I guess get it. Here's a question for you people. It's in the caves, man. I guess get it. You know, I guess get it. Here's a question for you people it's in the caves here's.
Speaker 1:I got a question, lionel has it he's in the caves.
Speaker 1:He's got the language already dang it, lionel yeah he's, he's like carving it into the wall just like, uh, phil colson and agents of shield yeah, um, they mentioned early on that there's no more kryptonite left in the world. What happened to it? Where did it go Like? Does it dissolve Like? Does it have like a really like strong half-life kind of like uranium, where it just starts disintegrating like really quickly? And that's what I'm very confused about, like where all the kryptonite went. And they obviously know about kryptonite. I read the junior novelization where Luther finds a substance that he imbues a cyborg with, that he determines eventually that this weakened Superman somehow, I don't know why. Blah, blah, blah. And three years later it is known as kryptonite, but it is also known as a substance that no longer exists in this world, so they have to bring in element man to create it. Where did it go, guys? What happened?
Speaker 3:hmm it it disintegrated I like that theory I, I just uh, you know, let's like, like, let's like try to do so much, tried to do so many experiments with it that it I mean like it's not the same movie. But you know, I'm batman versus superman, which obviously I mean, um, astoundingly, has so many similar themes that I'm rather shocked by the outrage of some of the people, uh, the reaction to this movie, because I'm like, uh, in some beats it's kind of the same story. It's still, like you know, superman's an outsider alien and everyone kind of starts to turn on him a little bit here. Uh, and in that one it was this idea that, like they, they just had a finite amount, right, and that they, they could have messed. Like batman ends up getting his hands on it and he, he almost wastes all of it, but before the end, right. So I could see a scenario where Lex has been like doing some shady experiments in the pocket realm. I mean, maybe even creation of Ultraman required some in some strange way.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 3:How did he get the DNA? How did Superman's hair even fall off? Maybe that was even a kryptonite thing that got the hair cut, because you would imagine that his hair can't be cut by anything else, so I mean, unless he's just going through early, uh, male pattern he is in his early 30s.
Speaker 3:I mean, it's not I hope that at the next movie they're like you know, there's, there is somebody who's like, how did he lose his hair? He's like, how did they, how did I lose it? And then lois goes well, you know, I didn't want to say this clark, but uh, you've, I've caught some hairs in the shower. Uh, you know I've taken it out of the drain before you see it. But uh, you have indeed been losing hair.
Speaker 1:Hey the average person loses like 30 to 60 hairs a day. So they grow back, but you know, so anyway yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 1:I I like all the little stupid banter, but there's one thing that we need to talk about before we finish the conversation, and that's crypto. We haven't talked about crypto at all. I think that that's a really fun thing, like when I first saw the trailer and I saw him whistle and I saw the cloud of dust, like you know, in antarctica, like coming towards him. I'm like no way, no way, they're doing crypto, which is the most campy thing that's ever existed. In comic books, I have a super dog, uh, and you know, back in like the golden era, there was like a whole super family, but and I guess they they still exist in, you know, modern comics, but they're not all as interlinked as they are, uh, in golden age stuff but, yeah, crypto is one of the most comic book things possible and I think they handled it phenomenally, like in this movie.
Speaker 1:Just it felt so you didn't question it for a second. Within the confines of the, the logic of this film am I? Am I wrong there? Like, do you guys feel the same way?
Speaker 2:no, no, like I, I didn't feel like it. It didn't feel campy. Like you know the, the comics, or they had that animated series also.
Speaker 2:Uh, crypto the super dog and and so, yeah, that I I really felt like it. It made sense and he had like the, the mannerisms of like a dog, like in that. That trailer was literally like the, the start of the movie also, and no, it was just like funny, though, like you know, the crypto comes up and he's just like trying to play and like jump on him and stuff, and I'm like, yeah, that's so much so, so much so like what a dog would do, and it's infinitely worse because the dog is super strong oh my gosh, it's probably, it's probably so painful like having, you know, being recently beaten like to a pulp.
Speaker 1:Uh, superman is like incapable of walking and you have this super dog just breaking bones trying to play with you. Love that, it's so.
Speaker 2:It's so funny actually that's one thing that I didn't bring up. That I liked about this movie is that superman was not overpowered. That was always my issue with superman. They did give him, they did give him a weakness, but super Superman has always been just overly strong. In the comic books he gets so much stronger.
Speaker 1:They gave him boundaries that he can play around in. He's still the strongest super-powered being, I guess, outside of the Hammer of Baravia and or Ultraman and or Ultraman, but I don't even know if that's true, because I think it's more that, like brain, brain beats Braun and in that scenario where, like, lex is controlling Ultraman so that he knows every move before Superman takes it. So I don't know that he's necessarily stronger than Superman, um, but but yeah, I, as far as Superman's power level goes, he's not infinitely strong.
Speaker 1:He does have an upper limit and it is met several times in this movie I, I also like that.
Speaker 2:The, the super bots were like you know, we got to give them a dose of the yellow sun and like they magnified it, so it was just like a straight beam of sun, like hitting him, like he was getting hit with a pokemon solar beam and you know that that was like really cool, like I liked that they did something like that, um, and then the the robots were also like kind of funny, like you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're incapable of caring yeah, um, I didn't really care for some of the minions of lex luther. I thought that the film didn't really need it, uh, and they could have written around them, but I guess it was cool to watch, uh, but yeah, uh. So, anyway, my, do you guys have a favorite scene?
Speaker 3:I think or like a a scene where you felt like this is superman the he, he's up in the air and it sounds ridiculous because that he flies, but it's the scene where the he almost kind of I wouldn't say eclipses the sun, but it's just like he floats up and the screen is just the sun, like like sunshine, like wrapping around him and enveloping him, and it just very much reminded me of uh, I don't know if you guys watched it, but like when I was super young my grandmother would record uh, all of the old, or she would find the old Superman cartoon from the 1950s and then just kind of the way he'd be up in the air with the light, almost a little bit like your background picture, dakota, that everyone else can't see.
Speaker 3:But just this, him being enveloped, and that to me was like that's Superman for me being enveloped, and that to me was like that's Superman for me. You're talking about the max max Fleischer animated stuff from yes 40s right yeah, I think so I'm trying to think.
Speaker 1:There's two scenes that I can think of that kind of work in that frame.
Speaker 1:There's one where he's he throws Ultraman into the, into that like cavern, that, that tear in reality, um, and then he kind of like he descends onto the screen and, uh, he's like light, light shines through the background or whatever there's that one, and then there's the scene that I like a lot, which is right after he saves, uh, that lady in the car and he like busts out of like the rubble and he's just floating and just like aura farming for a second. I love that. That's a gorgeous shot yeah, I love that, anthony, do you have a favorite scene?
Speaker 2:I liked a lot of the scenes that that humanized superman, like the, the scene with his parents, you know like where he's like recovering or where he was like kind of like mentally beat up.
Speaker 2:And you know, lois like was talking to him, and then you saw like that monster in the background which was, like you know, lois is like kind of like addresses it too, like, oh, were you helping him out over there?
Speaker 2:And like you could just see like the, just the, the justice gang you know, beating up on on it, um, but I I liked those moments that, uh, you know, because, like you had, um, you know, and it also like showed a lot of of what Superman was, which was we focus so much on the super. But, like you know, like this is where, like the man part shows and you know, like the, the empathy, and he's like you know the dog, you know he's's like, you know I, I need, I need to turn myself in. You know they're gonna bring me where the dog is, which was, you know, which was like a really good, like you know it was good intuition, because that's exactly what happened. Yeah, man, I, I, I just I liked those scenes and and uh, and it really showing the, the, the human side that that he grew up with, and and um, yeah, man, the humility.
Speaker 1:Jumping on what you just said, anthony, I think that scene, specifically um of him and lois, encapsulates the personage of superman better than anything else in the film, because she's like arguing with him about you know, like the world is full of bad people, but you look at every life as something that's pure and beautiful and that's literally Superman, whether he's saving a squirrel or he's going out and chasing that dog.
Speaker 2:And he does that and he saves a dog. Yeah, he uses like the super breath of bloom from like another monster. Yeah, dude, I was like it's so funny because, like you see that in like the, the animated series, and you see stuff like that in the comics, it's like so yeah, like I mean he, he really, he really does, and I don't know. Like I think that that's what I really liked in in those moments the.
Speaker 1:The scene that got me, or like the line that got me from that scene was um, I have, I have the script up in front of me, I'm going to turn myself in. Maybe they'll take me wherever they took the dog. And Lois goes it's just a dog and Superman goes, I know, and he's not even a very good one, but he's alone and he's probably scared and he just flies out. That's the most Superman thing he could have said. It's so brilliantly written. I, I absolutely adore I. I went back to see the movie a second time just for that scene. It, you know, it pulls at the heartstrings and it just makes the movie for me and I, I feel like I haven't seen that superman on screen in a long time and it's like uh yeah, you have a well-behaved dog.
Speaker 3:I mean, my dog is you have a crypto. You actually have I kind of have like like. Just just yesterday I was sitting on the couch minding my business. The dog jumps up angrily, barks at me like he's talking to me, and then immediately pushes me off the couch to bring him outside, just so that he could run in figure eights.
Speaker 2:And I'm just like what and then and then some dogs. I feel like they learn the art of where to get a reaction out of a man, Because they will literally jump on your family jewels and I don't know how they have the aim for that, but they always do it and you're in pain for five minutes.
Speaker 1:But you can't deny that, you can't deny their presence. That's the issue.
Speaker 2:Right, right, that's what they've learned, you're like dang you and like that is like literally something that crypto would do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, something else that. What did you think about the entrance of Rich's girl from his favorite TV show, House of the Dragon, Millie Alcock?
Speaker 1:as.
Speaker 2:Supergirl.
Speaker 1:You're asking me, or Rich?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Rich.
Speaker 3:So I know that she had been cast for it beforehand. I didn't know that she was going to appear in this movie and then I did a little bit of research on her and it kind of the little we got although comedic is going to probably be further explained, obviously, in her movie and we're going to kind of deep dive into her there. Often like, if I have to be honest with superhero movies, I don't like when character actors that I know portray uh the act like the characters I like. I didn't know anything about chris hemsworth, for example, uh beforehand and I was like, yeah, that's great. You know, like I didn't know hugh jackman at all and although he's too tall, I was like, yeah, that's great. Uh, like you know, I don't love the fact that pascal is in so much stuff. Um, I think it's almost like I'm getting too much of him. I want him to be one guy and I know actors don't want that in their lives.
Speaker 2:What's his one guy for you, though? Because, I remember him from Game of Thrones.
Speaker 3:So see, yeah, I was like, oh, it's the spear of.
Speaker 2:But then I liked him a lot in the Mandalorian also. So for me so you kind of typecast people a little bit, yeah, I do For me, it doesn't bother me. I've seen Nathan fill in so many different things Firefly and all that stuff and I think he killed it as Guy Gardner. I loved him as Guy Gardner. I do think that Millie Alcock, uh, firefly and all that stuff, and I think he killed it as Guy Gardner. I loved him as Guy Gardner, you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, I do think that Millie Alcock um her, her role as um Rhaenyra Targaryen is very different from her portrayal of super girl and I I think that in itself is um good enough for me. You know, like I, that in itself is um good enough for me. You know, like I even like the, the look of the character, like it's. It's much more regal. She's got the white hair and and supergirl and all that or in um house of the dragon but, do you?
Speaker 1:do you still feel like that's a, that's a very familiar face? Is that like jumping out at you?
Speaker 3:I mean I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna need to see the movie, right, obviously, the appearance is the appearance, right, like you know, like, uh, we got what's his name, uh, the guy who, I'm sorry, who was supposed to play hercules, but it looks like he's never gonna come out, right, uh, brett, something, uh, he's, he's from, uh, this is the worst podcast ted lasso, ted lasso. There we go right. So he came on as hercules and I'm like are you joking me? Like that's the guy who curses and plays soccer, uh, yeah you know so.
Speaker 1:Or even better, uh, in eternals, at the end of eternals, when, um, uh, harry styles comes out in a in an outfit that doesn't even fit him. It doesn't, it's the outfit was just like in the like he picked it up off the the background of some casting lot somewhere, put it on, just walked on stage very bizarre, and I don't think you know what. We probably will see him again. That's that's what annoys me. Um, but yeah, I don't know that we're going to see hercules again yeah, so so the movie.
Speaker 3:When her movie comes out right like then, I'll be able to probably comment a little bit more, because there was very little that we were given here. It was more Easter egg-y to me than anything else.
Speaker 1:I do like her character, though. I love the irreverence that she's just like an angsty teenager going to parties and leaving her dog for weeks on end.
Speaker 3:Well, can I comment more on?
Speaker 1:that, no, rich, you can't Go ahead. Can I comment more on that? No, rich, you can't Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Well, so I've been reading a little bit about the character and the character. So she so actually her city like floated up from Krypton before it exploded or before it got destroyed, so she actually had like a Kryptonian experience a little bit longer.
Speaker 1:and then, um, the reason she goes to these red planets is because she's grieving and she wants to be able to get drunk to drink the pain away to drink the sorrow, so she's not just partying because she's like a wayward teen, it's because she's uh really going through it and, uh, that's when I think it'll be interesting to see the actor's portrayal of the character and then maybe she will become in my eyes, maybe she'll be super you know, super girl before she's before it's interesting because there's definitely some weird like time dilation stuff with her where, um, she was a teenager when her planet exploded, um, or a young adult I don't know what, what they're going to do with that whereas clark was a baby um, her planet exploded or a young adult I don't know what what they're going to do with that Whereas Clark was a baby and now Clark is the older one and she's the younger one.
Speaker 1:So the roles have reversed in some weird, strange like time dilation mayhem of like subjective reality. But I want to see how they play that in in the movies and I'm excited because I do like her irreverent attitude, you know just you know, coming back for her dog and you know what that's actually.
Speaker 2:You know that that's actually something that's like really cool, that could be explored, like the. You know that you're talking about the time dilation. You know, obviously she's going to these different galaxies and you know, with the travel between the galaxies and all that stuff, you know her aging, yeah, could, could be slowing down compared to clark, who's just mainly on earth it might be the yellow sun like is like a growth agent. Uh, you know, like chloroplasts and stuff so yeah, no that that'll be getting real sci-fi here folks.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we're bringing in chloroplasts here. Guys, I think we should bring this podcast to a close, but not before Anyone else have anything to say. I'm good.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'm good.
Speaker 1:I want to bring up one last scene, specifically when Guy Gardner opened up the eye of the kaiju. That was a reference to this podcast on how we always say things are juicy, because when he was poking the eyeball it was a very juicy thing. So, guys, if you liked the show today, you like our podcast. You want to see it relayed to more folks. Please be sure to give us a juicy, eye-wateringly juicy, five-star review.
Speaker 1:You know something that you wouldn't want to poke your eyes with, but you'd want to poke your ears with. Thanks so much for listening to us here for our 126th episode of Project Ecology. Again, this is Dakota signing off with Anthony and Rich, and we hope you enjoyed our show. If you want to check out any of our socials, be sure to click down into the show notes for more. Thanks, guys. See you next week.
Speaker 3:Bye, the Wolverine Perfect.
