So, 2019. The year of Endgame , Joker and, er, Dark Phoenix . But also the year we covered a range of films including Snowpiercer , Supergirl , Addams Family , The Matrix , The Dark Knight Rises and Blade II . The question is, which of these films were worthy of awards in our annual handing-out? Seb and James are joined by Joe and Caroline in this very special two-part episode to thrash it all out. In part one we cover awards including Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Best Song, the Howard T. Duck...
Dec 31, 2019•1 hr 38 min
It's a busy old time for trailers, so Seb and James are here with their thoughts on the first two of the big female-fronted releases of 2020: Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984 . Be warned: the Maxwell Lord bit goes on for about five whole minutes. Cinematic Universe is supported by the generosity of our backers on Patreon, who also get to hear episodes ad-free along with occasional bonus content! Check out our page and consider subscribing at patreon.com/cinematicuniverse You can find our comic ...
Dec 12, 2019•39 min
Amon Warmann has got a bone to pick with us, and that bone is the fact that we weren’t exactly very enthusiastic about his beloved Blade when we talked about it all the way back in 2015. So we’ve invited him on to tell us where we went wrong back then, as well as looking in-depth at Guillermo del Toro’s somewhat flashier (and gorier) follow-up. In the news, meanwhile, we try not to run too headlong into The Discourse, but we do find ourselves picking up on that Joker sequel talk, that JSA-in- Bl...
Dec 05, 2019•1 hr 54 min
It turns out that basically ever since we started having Caroline on as a guest, she’s wanted to talk about an X-Men film, and particularly a Wolverine film. If only she’d said something sooner, we might have got around to this one sooner, because it turns out that James Mangold’s first Jackman-starrer that you all forgot about is actually, possibly – whisper it – his best? Over in the news, meanwhile, we catch up on The Batman casting, Joker ’s runaway freight train success, confirmation of Int...
Nov 14, 2019•2 hr 14 min
It’s our first ever Halloween Special! And by “special”, we mean it’s just a two-hander with Seb and James, and there’s no news, and we’re covering two movies in a shorter space of time than we’d normally afford to one movie. But there are good reasons for all of this, and we’re delighted to be talking about this pair of seminal early ‘90s black comedy films that happen to be based on a comic strip (although spoilers, one of them is much, much better than the other). Rounding off the episode, me...
Oct 31, 2019•1 hr 40 min
Seb and James spend a lot of time talking about corporate structure and overarching narrative coherence at Marvel, in the wake of Kevin Feige's promotion to Supreme Overlord of Everything. We also give our thoughts on the latest casting news from The Batman , the possibility of Tom Holland making it Into the Venom-Verse , those wacky The Suicide Squad set pics, and what might be going on in The Boys season two. Cinematic Universe is supported by the generosity of our backers on Patreon, who also...
Oct 18, 2019•45 min
Okay, look: it’s Joker . Whatever we say about it is going to annoy somebody somewhere, right? But Seb and Caroline are joined by some bloke called Joe who apparently used to do a podcast, or something, to talk about Todd Phillips’ divisive, controversial, and possibly actually surprisingly a bit boring “not a comic book movie” comic book movie. Regular listeners will know that we don’t ordinarily do a news section on new releases, in favour of a spoiler-free thoughts section; however, we had a ...
Oct 08, 2019•2 hr 43 min
We’re righting a longstanding wrong as we finally, finally get Steve Lacey of The Fantasticast onboard to talk about a Fantastic Four movie. Having enjoyed the original 2005 film a surprising amount, how did we feel about the Doug-Jones-cum-Laurence-Fishburne-enhanced sequel? In the news, we run through the casting announcement for The Suicide Squad , giving Seb the opportunity to talk for a while about a logo. And Steve catches us up on everything that’s going on in the Arrowverse in the wake o...
Sep 27, 2019•2 hr 9 min
James finally gets his Monkey’s Paw wish, and has persuaded Seb and returning special guest Caroline Siede to watch Robert Rodriguez (and James Cameron)’s Alita: Battle Angel ! But will they find themselves surprisingly charmed by it, or just mock him relentlessly for fancying a robot? Meanwhile, the news section gives Seb the opportunity to talk about Peter Capaldi and Grant Morrison for quite a while, so there’s his wish taken care of as well. We also look at the Birds of Prey teaser, the late...
Sep 13, 2019•2 hr 23 min
We're finally back doing minisodes again! Seb and James have a run through all the Marvel news out of D23, which now feels a long time ago; as does the Joker trailer, but we give our thoughts on that, which were recorded before all the post-reviews Discourse started to happen. We also have time for a quick bit of consideration of the Titans trailer and DC's televisual future. Cinematic Universe is supported by the generosity of our backers on Patreon, who also get to hear episodes ad-free along ...
Sep 03, 2019•55 min
We head into Cinematic Universe’s new era with one of the biggest films we’ve yet tackled – and it’s so big, we had to get TWO guests to cover it! Making their long-awaited CU debuts are Sam Clements (of 90 Minutes Or Less Film Festival and Picturehouse Podcast) and Simon Renshaw (formerly of Picturehouse Podcast). And yes, there will be Bane impressions. We also take a run through the latest comic book movie and TV news, including a breakdown of the Spider-Man/Marvel Studios, er, breakdown; but...
Aug 28, 2019•2 hr 20 min
Well, here we are. It's our hundredth episode, we're tackling one of the most self-referential-joke-filled superhero movies of all time - and one that some people have been waiting ages for us to do - and what's more, we've got some Extremely Significant Personal News to announce, which you'll hear at the outset. There are laughs, there's reminiscence, there are quizzes, there are listener tweets, there's a guest appearance from a four-year-old, there are songs, there's refusing to let the Far F...
Aug 11, 2019•2 hr 51 min
Almost coinciding with its twentieth anniversary theatrical re-release, Seb and James are joined by comics critic and editor Claire Napier to look back at the Wachowskis' era-defining sci-fi classic. And if you're going "Hang on, that's not a comic book movie" or "Hang on, that's not a superhero movie", well, we get into both of those discussions, and a lot more besides. Elsewhere, with Joe temporarily absent and not much else in the way of news to pick up on after our mammoth SDCC special, we t...
Aug 01, 2019•1 hr 39 min
"Let's do an hour or so on the SDCC news," we said. Two and a half hours later, we emerged. Unsurprisingly, we had a lot to say about all that MCU stuff - although even when we're done with Thor: Love & Thunder , Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and all the rest, there's still plenty more to cover. We chat in depth about the Brandon Routh Flarrowverse Crisis news, and the trailers for The King's Man , Snowpiercer , Jay & Silent Bob Reboot and - yes, we're sorry, we had An Argument...
Jul 22, 2019•2 hr 27 min
It feels like an age since we last did a Minisode, although - the Thor 4 news that landed after we recorded this notwithstanding - we didn't find ourselves with a huge amount to talk about. So why is this our longest ever minisode, longer than the Endgame trailer one, longer even than all the doubled-up ones we used to call "Megasodes"? Well, because one of the things is The Sandman , something we've been waiting to talk about in detail for a while. Plus we run through a few other bits and bobs ...
Jul 18, 2019•1 hr 39 min
Okay, THIS time we've finally caught up with the MCU. We really have. For the first time since we began this podcast, there does not exist an MCU movie that we haven't covered. And we're celebrating with... a surprisingly large amount of argument. Yes, the reaction to Spider-Man: Far From Home is far from universal in these corridors, so tune in to find out which one of the three of us has decided to be a grumpy sod about these lovable high-school kids, and which of us is just grumpy about not g...
Jul 09, 2019•2 hr 19 min
It's been a long time coming, but we have finally - finally - caught up with the MCU (or at least we would have, if we'd got this episode produced and released before Far From Home arrived in cinemas). The last MCU film to be released before we started this podcast also happens to be one of the best and most important movies not just of this series, but of the entire genre. We've an awful lot to say about it, so it's no surprise that we go somewhat long. There's also a big news catchup including...
Jul 04, 2019•2 hr 42 min
The main part of Fox's X-Men franchise comes to an end with a film that... well, let's face it, it would be charitable to call it a whimper. We don't want to just relentlessly give Dark Phoenix a non-stop kicking, we'll try to find the good where we can... but let's just say that if you're Simon Kinberg, you probably don't want to be giving this one a listen. As usual with a new release, we've skipped news (there wasn't loads lately anyway), in favour of a bit of spoiler-free opinion chat before...
Jun 13, 2019•2 hr 25 min
It's taken its sweet time - nearly six years! - but Bong Joon-Ho's 2013 post-apocalyptic epic is finally available legally to UK viewers, courtesy of Netflix. We might have considered it for inclusion on the podcast purely based on the number of previous comic-book-movie stars featured within, but happily, it is actually based on a comic - Jacques Lob's La Transperceneige - so it counts entirely on merit. And what merit it has. Over in news, meanwhile, we give our thoughts on the Robert Battinso...
May 24, 2019•2 hr 37 min
Right, we're declaring a moratorium on talking about things the writers and directors of Avengers: Endgame have said about the film after its release, although not before talking for a bit about how we're not talking about it any more. Then we've got some chat on the latest Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, a dive into the Disney/Fox release schedule (and a sad lament for the absence of Gambit ), and the question of whether or not James has watched the Watchmen TV show trailer. Cinematic Univer...
May 17, 2019•1 hr 10 min
Well, this took us a while, didn't it? We missed the slot for it when it came out in cinemas, because of Spider-Verse . Then we missed the slot for it when it came out on home release, because of Endgame . And we've even had a slight delay on getting it out to you after having recorded it. But here, finally, finally, is our Aquaman episode. We promise we haven't just been avoiding talking about it. But we do have some stuff to get through before we do, including a news roundup that takes in a wh...
May 11, 2019•1 hr 53 min
It's been a long, long time. But the Endgame is finally here. Just like the last go around, be warned that this is ABSOLUTELY SPOILER FILLED almost from the word go . We're skipping news, we're even skipping spoiler-free, because what's the point in having spoiler-free thoughts on this? And yes, we really have done an episode that's even longer than the film. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 28, 2019•3 hr 28 min
We've got a few news bits to get out of the way in this busy month for new films, so here's a slightly longer than usual mini catching up on a bunch of matters including Black Widow and Eternals casting, Hawkeye's Disney+ series, who Idris Elba might be playing in The Suicide Squad , Iain Glen being the new Bruce Wayne, and finally a belated catchup on the Joker trailer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 17, 2019•1 hr 21 min
It still absolutely boggles our minds that movies about both versions of Captain Marvel have come out within a month of each other, so here we are talking about DC's Actually He's Called Shazam! Now . Is it the first truly great DCEU film? What kind of a future for the series can we see spinning out of it? And isn't it good to finally be able to talk about all of the spoilery stuff that it's kept hidden from the publicity? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 12, 2019•1 hr 54 min
After a slower-than-expected March, we're kicking off a busy April with Joe and Seb on a news roundup that covers those Batman comments, the completion of the Disney/Fox deal, James Gunn's return to the MCU, Angelina Jolie's arrival in the MCU, the imminent new season of The Tick , some general TV stuff, yet more Endgame discussion, Morbius filming outside Seb's office, and yes - but we did put a strict time limit on it - that first Stargirl photo. We haven't got the Joker trailer because this w...
Apr 04, 2019•1 hr 11 min
Yes. We know. Sorry. We've had all manner of catastrophes befall this episode, leading ultimately to our having to completely re-record it having already done it once. But we got there in the end, and hey, we got there before the end of the month of the film's release! So we're sure you've all already seen Captain Marvel and formed your own opinions on it by now, but join us as we give you our thoughts, as well as closing off the episode with some discussion of that latest Avengers: Endgame trai...
Mar 28, 2019•2 hr 5 min
Yes, we know - we haven't got the Captain Marvel episode out yet. It is on the way, we promise, but in the meantime (and after a bit of explanation at the start about those recent scheduling problems) here's a recently-recorded minisode to fill the gap, in which Joe and guest Rhys Williamson rattle through a bunch of recent news - including latest trailers for Hellboy , Dark Phoenix and Shazam , the Suicide Squad recasting, Morbius , the Netflix cancellations, and more (but not the Endgame trail...
Mar 21, 2019•1 hr 23 min
We're joined by Al Kennedy of the outstanding and venerable House to Astonish comics podcast to talk about a movie that never really found its audience back in 1999, but would its satirical superheroics have landed better in the here and now? We talk one-time-only directors, corporate-sponsored superheroes, Eddie Izzard's accent... and yes, of course, that Smash Mouth song. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 21, 2019•2 hr 14 min
It was Superbowl Sunday this week, which traditionally means an influx of absolutely massive movie trailer news. Or, at least it does in theory - in reality, it can end up being a bit like the movie equivalent of Transfer Deadline Day. Either way, and because we needed to catch up with some outstanding news matters anyway, Seb and James have roped in Den of Geek news editor Kirsten Howard to run through the latest Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel spots, that Birds of Prey teaser, an old Kean...
Feb 06, 2019•47 min
It's our first news roundup of 2019, so of course it's come out nearly a week late after we spent several days unable between us to edit it. But listen on for our takes on Black Panther 's Oscars nomination, Katherine Langford's new hairdo, the possible presence of Genis-Vell in Captain Marvel , the latest Morbius developments, James Wan lining up Aquaman 2 and various other bits of DC future, the Flarrowverse doing Crisis , and trailers for The Boys and The Umbrella Academy . And! We'll actuall...
Feb 02, 2019•1 hr 7 min
