Hello everyone, and welcome to Super Heroes. Slate The show we run down the latest superhero entertainment news. We love TV, movies and superhero shows. So let's talk it all out. My name is Chris. And my name is Mike. And this week we're diving into the borderlands with the first trailer for the movie, Not the Game. But what they do in the game is they're a diving mechanic. I've never there's not a diving mechanic and it's not even called Borderlands. It's called the planes called Pandora.
So it will get there. We'll get to the end of the show because I have played all the games. I actually love it. So we'll talk about. this is great. I actually didn't know if any of us had played the game, so I'm. Glad I have. I played them all, all of them across multiple generations. So we'll talk about it later. Mike, you said this to me and it became popular to me. Batman Beyond concept art looks amazing. I'm going to talk about what that means for that movie and potential.
Hope actually sat out. Avatar, The Last Airbender arrived on Netflix. It's live action form this week. We got a little bit we didn't watch it all, but we're talking about our impressions here at the top of the show and more. Yeah, we we've Chris and I have had a fun week ordering, expecting and enjoying many different flavors of Coca-Cola. Yes, it is.
It is like a it is as a whirlwind as you know, if you're a listener of the show weekly, Chris and I love to indulge in like the new fad flavors of snacks and treats that we can find here, at least in America and sometimes overseas. I feel like sometimes we get a little wily and, well, yeah, something in across the border, like from Canada, like. Over Christmas, I went to the local candy shop and I picked up another mystery box of Japanese Kit Kats was like a cube opened up.
There's only five flavors, ten of each five is a 50 pack, ten of each of five flavors. So that was super disappointing. But I do love some foreign candy occasionally, you know, once a year, twice, and. Yeah, and right now Chris and I are both drinking different unique flavors of cocoa. That's right. Kind of unprompted. I mean, Chris, you can do it like a more intensive rundown of all of the different years that you have tried. But right now I'm drinking the more widely available. Yes.
Coca-Cola spiced, which is like raspberry. And I think there's like some extra spice. Spiced raspberries, what it's called. So. Yeah. Are the flavor. Well, I'm looking at the bottle and it just says spiced. So. Well, I'm the last one to say raspberry and spice flavors. Yeah, it does say yeah. But if you're looking at the main logo lock up, it does just say a spice. Which makes me think actually. Now, Chris, I'm analyzing the label now. The spice could just be a new moniker, could be a new label.
So maybe like this season, it's raspberry, maybe a later season. They do like a mango or a BlackBerry one, anything like that. That can be. One of the things you'll also notice on that, unlike the one I'm drinking now, it's not limited edition spice. It is supposed to be a permanent addition to the Coke family. So it may have something on that. Yeah, and it's good. Chris and I both really, really like this flavor. I always drink. The zero sugar was same. Even the zero sugar one.
I'm I'm digging and be on the lookout because it looks very suspiciously similar to like the cherry label because it has that kind of like that raspberry hue. Yeah, it's a deep red is a deep red in the black font. So it's even looks like a zero bottle sometimes. Yeah. It's really hard. You might actually buy it on accident thinking you're getting a Coke Zero. Cherry But Chris, Chris has what we both ordered earlier this week. Mine is lost in the mail somewhere. So Chris, tell everybody.
What you're so Coke has so many creations that come out with every couple of months, six months or so. I believe the last one was called Dream World. I believe so. The new one. I'm honestly lost track of what that definitely was. Yeah, absolutely. So the newest flavor is called K Wave, and you have to order it from their website to get it rather than the store in K wave. It is a fruity fantasy flavored Coca-Cola and I enjoy it. It doesn't have an overpowering flavor.
So I would say spiced isn't overpowering, but you know, you're not getting a regular Coke at the top of the bottle. And yeah, I mean, Chris, you're missing the most important component. I know, I know. I know. It's well, it's I was going to get there, but it is subtle and very smooth, like my favorite K-Pop songs. Mike as well. I was because it's a K-Pop flavored thing. It actually came with a bunch of stickers as well, which I thought were really cool.
Like the raised stickers, like the textured ones in the box. Mike hasn't gotten his box, so I got two, but okay, maybe a limited K-Pop collaboration, Fruity Flavor. It's really got a subtle flavor. I enjoy it. Has the K-Pop, just infatuation hit the malls of Middle America just yet because we have a, we have a mall out here at least in the the Galleria over here in Glendale. There's like a random, like, K-Pop fan store, but it's not like one of those established mall stores.
You know, you can tell like, somebody rented this space that used to be like a K Jewelers or like, what's the other, like, jewelry store where kids get their ears? Claire's It's like Claire's. It looks like an old Claire's. Like they, they, they don't have quite enough merchandise to fill the volume of the store, but it's just full of a bunch of K-Pop stuff. So let me tell. You, I'm sure if they could sell the Coca-Cola they like.
I have not been into a mall officially probably since COVID like, I got like literally any chance I can avoid crowds of people I'm going to at this point in my life. So unless. It's a theme park. Though. Well, that's that's not really a mall, though, is it? That gives me some breathing room in a marvel. Claustrophobic. I've been at one or two. The candy store I went to in the middle of the day, it was fine, but like, I'm not really been into mall, but like. I said, I swear we're adults.
Yeah, we're talking about going in the mall candy store. I bought. Videogames yesterday. Okay, people, let's let's let's not sugarcoat this, but, yeah, I think, you know, one of the things I know we have we have a lot of fire you have to face in my town. And those they have their K-Pop areas of the store when you go in those, too, to get that. So absolutely. I mean, like I'm a Blackpink fan. I don't know if you knew that or not.
I enjoyed me some blackpink of beyond that, what was the other bts's My wife enjoys them, but yeah, we're not k poppers here if I'm going to be completely honest. But that brings me to my third coke flavor. Mike that is only available in the Tik tok. I don't know. I have I I had a transition from. sorry. Go ahead. Sorry mate. You might not be k poppers, but some of us could be tic talkers. Well, yes, I'm not a tech talker. So this is this is actually this is going to work out very well.
So the next layer of coke is only available in the Tok store. And I do not have one. My wife doesn't have one. But my sister in law, God bless her, does and was able to order me Coca Cola. Happy tears, which is only in the Tik Tok store and. Insane title before you even get into it. Chris. What an insane title for a product. But obviously they at least meeting the consumer at the store that they're shopping at.
I mean, happy tears seems very much Gen-z maybe overlapping a little bit with the the burgeoning Gen Alpha. Yeah, well, they're, they're meeting their consumers. And so you might be asking Chris what is what is happy tears. Well, it's a salty peach flavor, if you will not overly salty. I mean my kind of conversation about how salty drinks could be already before we got on to the show. But it's not like it's not like some poor salt in your drink.
It's not, you know, electrolyte filled, but it's there a little bit. It kind of cuts up the acidity of a regular Coke, if you will, in that regard. And it's a subtle piece. It feels very clear, very light coke. And I really enjoy it.
But I will tell you, the packaging for Coca Cola, happy tears blew me away literally in my my job is as someone who works in marketing, if I ever had the opportunity to design packaging, I would I would have loved to have been in the room when they came up with this because, yeah. You sent me a picture of it looks really cool. Yeah. So when you get one box, you open that box is another box and like, great, they're really protecting these, these coke cans open up.
It's a metal briefcase is literally a briefcase with the paper wrap around it and two keys, one this is happy, one that says tires on it. The keys actually don't open the briefcase, sadly. So you flip it up, open it, and inside it's like a foam insert, two coke cans of happy tears, a long sleeve shirt dedicated to happy tears and a bunch of stickers, I guess with like ticktock things or something to do with happy tears. It is like it literally like if I don't know, I don't know what it costs.
My my sister would not let me pay her back for it, but whatever it cost was well worth the money. Like this was a huge packaging. The key way coke came in a cardboard box, it still had a great presentation, but it's there to transport you for Coca-Cola. So you're going to drink. This was a whole experience and essentially what they're wanting probably someone to film it, put it on TikTok. Right. And share their experience with it.
One of the things about the design of Happy Tears is that there's like a looks like a teardrop falling down across the Coke can and the the logos and stuff. Even the shirt, it's actually on the coke can like that clear raised plastic, kind of like, it's like. it's like a resin. Okay, Yeah, it's like a resin on the can. It's a it was a result on the, the case as well. So they actually give it some texture to that. You want to know when you touch it. So I was, I was thoroughly impressed with that.
And if I'm going to be completely honest, I did not think it would be as involved as it was for that experience. So absolutely, if you're interested in that two cans on that Tik-tok shop Key Wave comes with four cans in space. You can buy in bottles, cans and mini cans, I believe, at your local stores at this point. So if you wanted to call us, your coke dealers will absolutely take that. That superhero slate. The coke is flowing, but also with the popcorn.
And when the popcorn is flowing, Chris, you need a bucket. Well, here's the we're going to talk about Dune because we've talked about the dune popcorn bucket already. However, you miss a chance for the space from dune being be an opportunity. I know you. Know I haven't seen these movies yet. But space is a thing in Doom anyway so Dune, last night I watched Dune. Tonight I going to go watch Dune part two at a fan screening. So we're recording this a little earlier on Sunday.
Thank you, Mike. But my wife went to the theater to see if they had the ecto another Ghostbusters popcorn holder, The trap, the proton trap, because I think that was fantastic. B and C. All I have. I haven't even seen that one. You sent me the the Slimer one. no. Yeah, they actually have a trap and it comes with a plastic inset to hold the popcorn. So it's like the beams coming out of the trap of the proton trap. I think that's what it's called. I'm looking for it.
Yeah. You're like the AMC ones. Yes. So I was like, Hey, go check out if you can see we're close to the theater. Have Man, these are getting so detailed. This is like a full on movie prop that they've just created a plastic a plastic addition. They'll hold popcorn. Yeah, absolutely. So it looks just like the trap. It's a little little thing on top that holds popcorn.
So she went like they actually had she said at the AMC, a whole wall dedicated to movie popcorn stuff or like, you know, I guess memorabilia you could buy. I think she said like some of the plushies and other things. But she was able to snag me the infamous Dune popcorn bucket and Topper. And I will say what they don't show you. They show you the thing together. It comes in two pieces that the topper is plastic wrapped, the bottom is metal.
But inside the the metal is gold, Shiny metal in that bucket make for the popcorn bucket like it's so it's very much again, it gives you the idea of like the gold space and do not know you have a watch that you will see the gold space when you watch Dune. But like it adds more, I guess to it than you would think it was other than were laughing at the literally the little flanges, the word mouth that you put in to get popcorn out of. It is pretty funny.
I feel like some movie marketer, I don't know if this is on the supply side of like AMC and Cinemark or if it's some sort of like corporate merchandizing person at the theaters. But somebody has latched in to what theme parks have been doing for a while now, which is the which is the collectible popcorn buckets. Yeah. So, give that person a raise for putting over a lucrative moneymaking idea. Popcorn boxes are great, but I want a better drink holder.
I want a collectible drink holder that stands the test of time other than just a cup with the straw on it or a topper. Because to me, when I go to the parks, we always we get the bigger the big fancy cups at Disney World, right? We have an alien dressed up as seeing the popcorn bucket, I believe, and a couple other Mickey ones that we've gotten over the years. But like, I really like a fancy drink holder is what I want.
Yeah, there seem there seems to be a missing middle market for collectible drink cups. You either have like the very standard like plastic cup where they just like kind of wrap it with just some sort of graphic, you know, and it's like, that's going to end up at a Goodwill. Even if the person likes whatever it's wrapped in the. The outside comes off to like it rubs off after time. So like, you know. Yeah. It's very sturdy. Yeah. And God forbid it goes in the dishwasher, you'll never see this.
Absolutely destroy it. But and then at the way other end you have the really nice ceramic like cups, you know, think of like a collectible like tiki mug or something. I think like, is it Mondo? I think they used to do kind of like they did. The Mandalorian Tiki ones and Yeah. So but it's like nobody wants to like, nobody wants to walk around with, like, sharable cups just either at a theme park or at a movie theater. So, like, why can't they find, like, a middle ground?
I mean, it feels weird advocating for more plastic, you know, on planet Earth. But like, if you make it nice enough that somebody wants to keep around less likely to end up in a landfill, you know? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, not every the popcorn buckets are just unwieldy, right? Some of them like, I see how you eat popcorn out of this. Some I'm like, I don't understand this at all. And I would, I think, drink cups, you know, I'd use them.
I use my my feet drink cups all the time in my in my basement area. So they have way more reusability then I think popcorn buckets do. But who are we, Who are we. Might we just go to the movies and buy this stuff? Okay, so I don't know. I don't know what to tell you. But some dudes at home watching Netflix. Watch Netflix, I guess I actually ask because I don't have Netflix still after all this time.
But we did catch I caught the first episode today, make you watch at least three episodes, if not more. Yes, since we've talked of Avatar the last Airbender, the live action adaptation now on Netflix and Netflix has just taken off with their anime adaptation right after one piece. Again, we were not invested in one piece before we watched the show. Our show loved it. We're in avatars here. They did what I always I always mess up the names that you have to show them.
Yeah, you hockey's show that one feels maybe slightly different because I think that's an entirely Japanese based production. So it's a little less Western centric. And the Japanese have kind of been doing live action adaptations for longer than kind of weird. But it's on Netflix. But they're producing, right? Same with was it death note years ago? Really the only thing they haven't spoiled are touched either way. I don't know if these are good or not.
Is is Dragon Ball, thank God. So we're still safe on that. Yeah, but Avatar, The Last Airbender are technically an American show drawn with anime style, so. So that's a school out now with I've actually. Mike, you are an Avatar fan. You are of the two of us. You are invested in this universe, you know it, You, you love it. Me I The first my introduction to Avatar was the M Night Shyamalan movie in 2009.
What a way to go. Yeah. And I've only watched three quarters of the animated show so far, and that's only been in the past, maybe two years since I've lived in this house and we've only been here coming up on three years. So you, you are way more knowledgeable and invested. And this is more yes to you. The show was made for people like you, not for people like me. So I want you go first because I think you've watched more and I think you might have a little more to say.
Yeah, obviously we're going to do this spoiler free. But you know, also the source material has been out for a while. So I'll just kind of just speak in more general terms of this just unfortunately isn't for me. After three episodes.
The first biggest takeaway I get from the show is there's nothing that I'm being presented that's executed better than what was originally made in the animated series, whether it just comes with the the relationship between the characters, the the acting, the action is a big deal. You know, you can throw as much money as you want at the visual effects and try to make realistic flying bison hair.
But at the but at the end of the day, it's just the cartoon is so much more fun to watch the way the action is choreographed and like storyboard is just so visceral and exciting. And also I've talked about this before on the show, but there's this magic trick that happens in an animated property where in an animated world you can the audience can just let themselves go a little bit more and they can give a lot more up to the story.
So when more magical things happen, you don't question it as much because, you know, you're kind of watching this fantasy world. But when you're porting something over to live action, you just intentionally have to take everything so much more serious and accurate. If you're going to hit this dramatic tone, which is kind of the opposite of one piece. Like one piece is such a wacky world that they ported that over into the live action and it still works.
But Avatar is a very serious narrative at times. Yeah, with occasional comedic relief from characters. And I think the nail on the head, like the Avatar is, I mean, this first episode I watched, there's no fun in this at all. Hardly at all. The first episode, like it is like setting the stakes for, you know, death, destruction, you know, literal, you know, hopelessness, if you will, because, you know, the avatar is the last hope of of the world.
But, you know, one piece there, they're pirates and they have powers that are based on a fruit they ate. But like, they're goofy about it, right? Like the the optimism of monkey movie is is is contagious. And he's like, yes, I'm going to be the king of the pirates. I'm like, we're always shooting for better Avatar is the other thing. Hey, we are in the worst timeline possible. How do we how do we fix it? So absolutely, they're complete polar opposites in tone out the game.
Yeah. And that's just the execution, I would say, of the adaptation. The whole other part is just the straight up execution of making a TV show. The acting is awful, the directing is awful. I hope that the kids can age into the role a little bit more, but and you know and you're you're your pool of hiring is smaller when you have to you know meet those age criteria and all of these kids are obviously better at acting than I am.
But like everything falls so flat, the exposition is out of control like I thought it would. I thought it would smooth out maybe after the first episode because, you know, you give the first episode a bit of a pass because they got a they got to dump a lot on you, but everyone's telling you exactly how they're feeling. There's this hilarious moment.
I can't remember if it's in the first episode, but it might be in the second where Zuko and his uncle are like kind of on a beach and they're just like, where did this character go? And this random merchant from nowhere that we've never met before just walks up like, you want to know where this guy went? I think I saw him getting in a boat and he went that direction and then just walks away and you never hear from me again. It's just. It's just wild.
So just on the simple execution of just making television, well, they're not doing a good job. And I feel very, very odd about this because I went out there on the Internet just to see what the general tone was. And it seems to be very, very split. People seem to either be having a good time and they're just kind of, you know, letting all of these problems, you know, be pushed aside because they're just happy to have a somewhat competent live action adaptation.
And there's other people that seem to be on my side of the fence of just like the source material is. So it's just so much better in every way. And, you know, when you think about adapting something like a book, right, the live action serves a purpose in a way of like, we finally get to see what we read visualized, right? The world that we built up in our head. Let's put it on a screen. Let's put it out to a bigger audience and let's see if we can kind of be additional to it. Right?
But like we already have this adapted visually and in long and similar in in a book longer, right? You know, this is condensed to eight episodes. So they have to take a lot of really iconic story points and put them all in like one multiple episodes together. So yeah, this just unfortunately isn't working for me. I can't imagine going back and watching more unless they start doing some really crazy stuff and the internet gets gets like heated up.
Maybe I'll pop into an episode here or there if they end up making more seasons because I maybe it might be kind of fun to see, what is the guy with the laser beam on his forehead look like in live action if they end up making it to the third season? But I'm just not invested in this. I mean, Chris, what did you think just with watching being a little bit more on the outside of this and just watching one episode? I'm not watching more than one.
I was like, I tried to you know, I have nothing against the anime version. I don't remember the one from 2009 enough to care like, right those 15 years ago for me. And I wasn't affected then because don't care. So to me watching this, I was like, there's why? Remember what I hate about this production journal things, you know, this exposition.
There's a scene where the old man tells and you are the avatar, and then he goes and has a rant to oppa about it and he's just talking out loud what we should already like, like we should know this character and who he is and what he does and what he likes already after all this time. But like, dude, it's been 10 minutes into the show. Like, we don't know anything about you, so you're just telling us rather than showing us those things. And that's a fatal flaw for anything, right?
Like you should show us in a show. Don't just tell us in the show. I will say some good things. The bending looks delightful. I enjoy the this the beginning. Like early on, they say earth bender versus fire bender scene and that's enough water or the air's fine whatever and comply. This is going to be controversial. I think two people kind of weird. He uses it sometimes. He doesn't use it, other times perfectly weird.
But like, there's just a lot of telling in that showing and I think the show would be better from my point of view, is that they just kind of started it off where the show halfway is, like with Katara, with Sokka, and then do they find it and do flashbacks or story points? Tell us what happened rather than just started out and give us. And that is. And it's so funny that you say it that way because that's exactly how they do it in the animated show.
Yeah, the the show kind of starts out chronologically because if you don't know, if you're not familiar, Ang is a character that kind of gets frozen in time and we flash back to see his origin later in the first season and the show starts off right back in that flashback. I mean, I can't fault necessarily the creators for trying to do something original or different with it, right? You know, you don't want to. Exactly. Just do one tune exactly what the cartoon was.
So yeah, but like, there's like very just great structure to how that story is told. So this is just what I'm saying. It's just like when you if it's not broke, don't fix it. This feels so much similar to some of the live action adaptation of Disney movies, right? Of like strip all the magic and joy and wonder out of it. Well, I guess again, I think you can't do a one for one, especially with like the inmates he's double were they like 16 or 20 episodes? I think so.
Like you're condensing a lot. Absolutely. I think I, I the actors to me are fine. I disagree with you on that, but I don't have any affinity for the actual ones in the show, the animated show either. So I can't draw that line, but I just it felt so heavy handed. And I hate to say it literally, like a lot of maybe Madam Web, like it's just explaining a lot to us as viewers rather than just. But in this experience, they're showing it to us as you go. And. Right. That's the first episode you have.
You might have to do some of that heavy lifting, but I've seen shows jump in and leave the mystery and the intrigue and like this magical world, show us the wonder and the joy of it and then, you know, take away with with the hey, this was this was all lost years ago rather than, hey, we're just going to destroy everything now from the get go.
I one of the cool things I will say, Mike, and agree with me or disagree with me don't matter the fire nation, the brutality on the fire nation are way more apparent in this line than I feel The animated show like will be burning people alive with their powers didn't really see a lot of that in the animated show. So I kind of wish they would have leaned more into that.
Right. You know, I always think about the Harry Potter movie franchise where, as the films progressed, they got they got darker, they got more mature because the audience got more mature. Like, I'm sure there are some kids watching this live action adaptation for sure. But I mean, the fan base, we are all grown, we're all grown, you know, we're mature.
And I think that would have been a great way to set yourself off from the source material of like have more of that and just honestly maturity and everything, like more mature storytelling thing. Trust the audience to pick up on nuance between storytelling and like you were saying, Chris, instead they just tell you everything you need to know because they're worried you're not going to get it. Yeah, yeah.
I would say on the flip side, you know, in contrast to one piece, because this one going to look at this, you know, for comparison, there is some weighty stuff in that. There's one episode, right, with the the chef kid, right? Like sitting along with that dude who had to eat his own leg to stay alive, Like they handle adult themes and mature things and like life and death fairly well in that show without, you know, being as heavy handed. But they also didn't start off heavy.
I mean, just take it away and say, don't you remember the good times? No, I don't remember because you didn't show it to us or give. Us an account. Yeah. Or even like when nami like breaks down, I think it's like maybe the last or second to last episode. Yeah, she's, like, stabbing herself. Just, like. Just cutting off the tattoo. She's giving off the tattoo. And it's just like that was so intense and it was earned over all those episodes.
And then you have in the first episode, Ang Finding Giotto's like cartoon esque skeleton, like Halloween prop, you know, sitting on his. Mustache was still there, I'm pretty sure. And it's just like, Come on. So yeah, I'm not going to be surprised to find people out there that like it. You know, some people can just like, you know, kind of push some of the stuff to the side and just like, enjoy it for what it is.
Yeah. I'm happy they're getting a competent avatar live action version because all they've had to sit on is is literally the 29 version, which is universally hated. Right. If the world had come together on one thing, no one likes that movie. And so, you know, they're getting something competent, whether it's it's as good as the source material. I don't know if you'll ever be able to get that right. Like, yeah, like you mentioned people, people are feeling that's peak.
So, you know, it may not get that good but they're getting something. Yeah, and that's a good point. And honestly, you can paint it as a win no matter which way that it went. Right. You know, if this would have been an absolutely amazing adaptation and everyone loved it, it became the next Game of Thrones.
The original creators of Avatar who aren't connected to this Netflix show anymore, they could have been applauded for creating such an amazing world and such in-depth storytelling that the live action adaptation just had a just an amazing source material to pull from. And congratulations to them for creating such an amazing narrative. Right?
And then if the live action ends up being just absolutely horrible and terrible, that just goes to show you how impressive the the animated original is because they were able to tell this amazing story in this medium that a lot of people look down on and think is just for kids. So at least at the end of the day, even though I don't like it, I can think back to the original creators and congratulate them.
And also I can look forward to all of the animated expansion that they're going to do to the Avatar universe, which is great. So we're going to get more of the stuff that I like straight from the creators mouths. And honestly, I it feels like the Avatar stuff is best case scenario. I think it just gets three live action seasons. Netflix cuts their losses. Well. That will just.
Cut it because they'll cut anything after three seasons but that then if there's going to be more live action, it'll be, I would say, from Paramount Plus, but they might not exist. So I don't think I think I think three seasons. You told your three books, right? I give them three seasons. Let them actually finish a story rather than cutting the last one. They may, they may be able to come back, write like something, you know, here's our criticism. Fair point.
Let's let's adapt for season two and season three. And it could be something that, you know, starts off with. I don't think I just don't think it has an identity. I just don't think it knows what it wants to do. What does it want to lean into the cartoony ness? Does it want to lean into the seriousness? And maybe they can find that footing in another season, right? Because you the introduction of it tough, right? The earth bender.
You know, it's a you know, the book too for the anime, if I remember correctly, like Ang loses like literally like that's like the the hero's journey he falls in. He doesn't come up too. So season three is all about that redemption arc. And like, you know, making characters like, I know what's the the fire kid's name? Zuko. Zuko. He he has a change of heart right in his thing. There's more characters introduced. So I think there's opportunity for this to bounce back.
But Netflix, Netflix has to to give it. I think it's going to have watch numbers no matter what we say. People are watching this. So I think people get it, too, if they can listen to too, or listen to the feedback and create a two, that's better. There's still hope. I still think there's hope for this. So I'm not going to comment down on out yet. But I just as someone who's not in this world, it is very hard to get me into this role.
I said the only episode I wanted to watch based on the thumbnails Mike is episode four and that's because it's got that crazy earth bender guy that things friends with things like 100 years old or whatever, and they have that crazy town with all the slides and stuff in there and like, I would like to see how they do that world or that, that city in that episode, because it'd be, it'd be interesting to see more earth bending than, you know, just, just fire the whole time we get it.
So that's where I said, That brings us to our next topic, which might ruffle some other feathers out there in the world. But Naruto, a long lived anime, is getting a live action adaptation from Lionsgate and it will be directed by Destin. Daniel Cretton, who is known for Shang-chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings. So to me, I've never watched Naruto, don't understand it, never watch the sequel either. This is well out of my wheelhouse. I'm a Dragon Ball guy, you know. You know that? Yeah.
So Naruto is like the very next, like I would say, graduating class. I feel like after us, right? Like we were like Dragon Ball Z kids, right? And then, like, then the next people behind us like, we're all on Naruto and very similar in a sense of like it ran probably just as long it has has its own kind of like spin off series, a cast of characters of character with a big, ambitious goals.
I've only seen maybe like four or five episodes, like when I would randomly catch it, like on like Adult Swim or something like that, like late at night or Tsunami or whatever it was. So I am similarly as detached as you are, Chris, from the show. So I'm hoping for another one piece experience. That's exciting. I have no affiliation with it. I don't really care how it's adapted.
One thing that's really cool, Destin Daniel Cretton, he is an executive producer on a show that I'm watching right now, which I haven't brought up on the show just yet because I'm still working my way through the first season called Tokyo Vice. It's a show that just kind of started its second season on Max and I only reason I knew about it is because they were promoting the second season. So I went back and was like, okay, I'll watch this.
And it's this kind of fun, like late nineties drama of a guy, an American from Missouri who moved to Tokyo and he's the first he's the first foreigner to work at like the I think it's called the meet show, which is Tokyo is like number one like newspaper. So it's back in the day just kind of pre-internet. You know, he's he's trying to get to the underbelly of Tokyo and the Yakuza. It's like it's a really fun show.
So he didn't cretins not the creator of the show, but he's an executive producer, so he's he's got his fingers in it as well as well. So I mean and we like chunky, you know. Well I think. The thing that it was we liked. It. That's the one thing, you know, if I look at live action adaptations of this stuff, I've seen more clips of the old Avatar movie lately, you know, in comparison to Dragon Ball of that same year, Evolution, the fighting start up department just sucked, sucks so bad.
And, you know, looking back at Shanghai, one of the best parts is the martial arts, right? And we know that he is working on, you know, the second Shanghai he's got a director and a producer role on Wonder Man for Marvel. So like he knows his action scenes and he knows this stuff. And he briefly was going to make one of. Those. Avengers movies. So that fell apart probably for for many reasons. But yeah, like, it's like he's got the chops.
Yeah. If anyone can do something that I would probably watch and not have any investment in, probably him, right? I'm like, Yeah, I'll watch this. I'll check it out again. No investment, low, low stakes, low cost for me to enter into Naruto. I'm not wearing the headband though. That's all I remember are the people who love wearing the naruto headbands in the run where he puts his arms down. And that's the question. Nobody looks goofier in real life when they run like Naruto. So do you.
Do you attempt to adapt that and make it look cool? Yeah. You know, I think you do. I think that was all part. I mean, whenever we all rush to Area 51, remember that we all ran like, so it's part of the world, but yeah. Anyway, if anyone has any comments or thoughts on that, let us know because we are well out of our league on that one. But back in early, let's talk about this Superman legacy, the first film coming out of DC.
You from James Gunn, Peter Safran written directed by James Gunn, will begin filming this week after a they have a cast table read so sounds pretty cool. Like to actually understand this is actually producing for once rather than someone on Instagram talking about it for days and days. Yeah. It's it's so weird to think that there are dozens of people now that have read the script, know everything that's going to happen.
And I just love to pick their brain and be like, Is this the tip of the iceberg? Do you think there's enough here to launch an entire cinematic universe? There's so much weight that the script has to hold up. I'm so curious. Yeah. Yeah. Can this Kims pull off? Are there too many characters already in this movie? Mike, I just the next thing we're talking about is the photo from the cast reunion. James Gunn said that the table read, he shows off the cast.
You can see Nicholas Hoult with a shaved head back there doing his best, Lex Luther. But like, you know, I was like, Which one's Superman? Again? Looking to us. Like, we have so many people here, right? There's Superman. He's in the back left, I think in the hat, right? That's that's what I'm looking at. You know, Lois Lane front, right. But like, if I was to say my and I can pick out who's going to be his little buddy, the Jimmy Olsen.
Jimmy Olsen, other than that can tell you who anybody else's off this. Right. Like I feel this is this is a I don't know it's going to be it might be crowded he probably pull off I'm not concerned but like boy.
That's there's a lot of people in this about yeah Gunn is always been very great at ensembles so I wouldn't that wouldn't really worry me at all but yeah it's crazy there's just there is a a warehouse on a lot some here where with all of these people and they're going to start making this Superman. So yeah I expect to see some set photos, I expect to see some costume designs coming out of this. Right. Like, yeah, if you can count James Gunn, for one thing,
he's going to be putting stuff online every day while he's filming. So. So get ready for that. But you can check out that photo here, see the cast, Let know if you know who everyone's going to be because, boy, this is a it's going to be wild, a wild ride next summer whenever we get to it. But the last vestiges of the EU are still out there.
Mike, apparently still in theaters, I think maybe, maybe not locally, but like internationally, even Aquaman and The Last Kingdom will be streaming IMAX this week, February 27th, if you have maximum catch it there. But with it being sold here, still turn term prophet like like a small prophet, like a meager prophet. Mike, Don't underestimate Aquaman. I guess that's what all of these superhero movies want, right? Meager profits. That's how you know they're successful.
Here's this. They gave up on this two years ago. So, I mean, the fact is, even so, here's exciting for me. This is the this is the Vegas bet, right, Chris, how long until this shows up, Netflix next to all the other abandoned DC movies? I'm giving it I'm thinking July. I think like July 4th, this will hit Netflix and people will be like, man, okay. Yeah, well, yeah, like for you. Well, I think, you know, it's I had actually written this off well before and made a profit.
I was like, Yeah, we will make it. I don't know anyone else. I don't know anyone else who saw this movie. Mike, if I'm going to be complete other than you and me, do you know anyone else who's talked about watching that or any articles that came out of this? And this is it's so funny. I have not heard a single soul talk about this movie in real life and even on the internet like so. Yeah, this made no cultural impact.
Yeah. No, but it is making a splash wink wink in China as where all the money coming from actually. So it's still running like I'm really, really surprised is still running in some of these countries. Just kind of checking out here if there's any delayed release dates. Japan was January, but everybody else seems to be December. So some people are leaving us in theaters. And I think that just shocked me.
A last we could talk about what was the that Pixar movie last year that did well, Elemental, Elemental, leaving things in theaters longer than 15 days. You know, I know we've been trained to look for streaming, you know, a month, two months later. But like, you leave it in there, too. But it's been two months for this movie before it goes to Max. You can still probably make money off of it. You don't have to give up on movies the first weekend. Right. And say no to watch it.
No one will ever see it because they didn't watch it the opening weekend. So I still think there's opportunity for people who just don't go the opening weekend and trickle in over time, if you will. Not a Bob didn't get that. It dropped 64% on the second weekend and it was already. Loaded on Web is going to be the first the first in association. Marvel movie to end up like free on YouTube.
That free preview of what he wants to buy it like, yeah, they're just going to put it someplace where you watch over. Yeah well here's it might be the only movie you like you know they owe money on at the end of the day. Right. But anyway, so yeah. Acme in Lost Kingdom, if you haven't seen it yet, it's fine, it's not, it's a travesty at the end of the day like we were promised. So you guys can watch IMAX starting this week, February 27th.
We've got an extra day this month, Mike So that means you can take that extra day and watch this movie if you wanted to. But we've already seen it, so we don't need to do that. You sent this to me early in the week and I saw online later a Batman Beyond huge, huge show we saw at the panel, the anniversary panel at Comic-Con 2019. I've never watch this show, to be honest. So that honestly, that shocks me more than anything, Chris, that you you've yet to experience Batman beyond.
Yeah, I mean, I'm excited I downloaded it, but but I haven't even got there yet. But so I can't. Is it Yuki DeMars and Patrick Harpoon, who both one of them, Yuki, was a production designer for Spider-Man, both Spider-Man movies and Patrick, my dad, The Bounty Hunter. I don't know what that show is. Our movie is, but they said five months ago they pitched an animated Batman beyond movie to Warner Brothers. And what went from a there's no way we can do this to a maybe.
And they're working their way through the hierarchy at DC to get to James Gunn and Peter Safran now shared online to get hype behind this right. A lot of hype. Get the public behind it. Guess what? It looks good. This looks cool as hell. Yeah. I mean, I know we can't necessarily trust all of Elon's numbers over on X, but the this post has 4.3 million views. I don't know exactly what that equates to in a kind of Twitter style universe. The the post is nice because it feels very earnest, right?
This isn't necessarily the same energy that people are coming out zaslav out with a release. Cody Coyote versus Acme, right? This is more like, Hey, you know, we've tried to make this work, we've tried to pitch it. This kind of seems like a softer version of the Deadpool movie Leak that created enough energy to get it made. So this seems like maybe this was maybe advice given to them by by like their agents or managers.
Like, hey, why don't you just make like a social media post with some of this? Yeah. Concept art. You see, if you, you know, get some you. Can't we can't get James Gunn or Peter Safran phone number, but you can tag him on Twitter because he's always on there and see if he sees it. Because I think 4.3 million views is great. But I also think think of all the embeds, the people who aren't logged in viewing this as well. Yeah. Like this has been on sites all over the place.
These images are being downloaded and shared. It's really cool to me. The first image really strikes out. You have Batman beyond like looks like he's got his jet boots running from some sort of villain. It's I don't remember the villain's name, but this is kind of the most unique, I would say constant reoccurring villain. Okay. He looks like the. Spock or something. Like he looks like the he looks like the spot, sadly. But like, it's got to me again, this is not a complaint.
This is a compliment into the spider-verse, but like, it fits Batman beyond its future. It's not like retro futuristic, if you will. It's not really futuristic, but it's retro futuristic from the show. Yeah, it's like that retro kind of, ah. Blade Runner, kind. Of Blade Runner type future. I think in a like an adapted style, kind of like spider-verse.
Like you said, I Chris I also hate just equating everything to Spider-verse but it's just like when people say, it's like the Uber of, you know, ordering food or it's the Uber of renting houses. This is basically like the spider verse of Batman Beyond, and it would fit perfectly. Terry McGinnis The character also is such a Miles Morales archetype as well.
You know, you got a kind of like a Patton, one of the more established superhero, but carving their own path and doing it their own way with, you know, familiar powers, but also different. So everything here is so perfect, and I will give credit where credit's due. Batman Beyond came before Miles, you know, so this was this was the the trendsetter for this vibe.
And also, it's great because it's kind of set in the future, so you don't have to worry a whole lot about, like, you know, multiverses and stuff like that. You know, you could do fun stuff where there are I think if I remember right, there is like an episode or it's maybe it's in the Joker movie that they made where Terry gets to meet a like an older grizzled like Nightwing, which is pretty cool, but maybe time travel's involved. I don't understand.
Either way, the concept art is really, really cool. It looks great. I mean, it's just they might not be making, you know, animated stuff a big priority right now, or at least things to compete directly with Sony Animation. Yeah, but it would be crazy to imagine this is not in some sort of tentative future plan. This, you know, after hour after hour phase one goes, well, what should we consider doing for like our phase two? You know, I don't even.
Think this doesn't need to be in the DCU. Don't do that. Like put it like Spider-verse right into the Spider-verse customers. They don't sit in the spam universe, if you will. Right. Like they they exist outside of it. They can do what they want. Take this and do what you want them. Because here's the thing.
Turtles hopped on that train, right, of the, you know, unique animation style with you know, young young leads huge success, right enough to get the TV show and another movie coming down the road. Just hop on this bandwagon. Look for the money. It like the money's here. People like just take our money like we'll go watch it. You'll probably know the people behind it. Obviously have some love. The visual is is black, red and white. Right? What color are miles? Suits? Black, red and white.
Like, literally, it's so parallel. Just do it. You're going to make money no matter what you do with it, right at the end of the day. So I guess I would hope it's good. But like at the same time, even if it wasn't like, boy, this is just a missed opportunity not to take somebody up on this. my God. Chris So I started clicking through some of the nested replies and retweets the the pretty popular account discussing film. They made a post about it that got 15.8 million views.
Yeah. So this, this has for for all intents and purposes and the nerd film community has gone viral this week so absolutely if it hasn't come across Gunn's desk, his assistants, our people around him are doing aren't doing their job. He's probably got the keyword black man blocked on his ex profile. Yeah. No one talk to me. I'm taking photos with. I'm answering other questions on on X right now. Okay. Or what?
Got to tell I got to let people know what brand of underwear peacemaker where they keep tweeting me. I'm sorry, I'm only on threads now. The James Gunn Social Network knows threads, so if it's on threads, he'll never he'll never see it. So get it over to him. But absolutely. Check out those those images in our notes look fantastic in the same vein, Spider-Man, Miles Morales, Spider-Man two.
The game has announced that the new game Plus mode is coming on April 5th make, which will include mission replay, new suits and the ability choose your symbiote color for like the venom tendrils and stuff rather than just doing the black. I think that's cool. They're adding ultimate levels and gold and gadget tiers to add something to that replayability. Other than this being maxed out and playing through the whole story. Okay, so it's a new game.
Plus it's not like additional DLC, correct, just. Yet. Yeah, there are some DLC, but it's like suit designs from this. It's an organization, kids underrepresented in video game developers or designers like Beth. So it's like $5 for some suits and all the money goes to them, but you don't have to buy it to enjoy the game. It's just cosmetics.
So I'm excited to dive back in after I've platinum trophy this thing, so it will give me something to do and enjoy some of the stuff and tweak it a little bit. Just play around, really have some goofing around, if you will. So you beat it, right? Yes. Yes. Okay. I couldn't remember. But yeah, absolutely be be a good time probably. I expect you know, I don't think we're going to get I don't feel if we're going get proper DLC or not since insomniac week last year.
But you know they could they could turn an about face but if they do if not, I imagine possibly a game in the year edition maybe in this year for cheaper has all the stuff with it. Just so I mean just go torture yourself with the DLC that's coming out for Elden Ring I'm sure those those new bosses will absolutely obliterate anything that you do with your controller, so.
They'll be. Interested. Versus some other to me, actually, the Star Wars Battlefront classic collection that you see that the battlefront one and two being remastered for modern consoles with like 64 player online. So it's been a lot of time that kid playing that. Yeah we're on like a video game tangent there they're remastering or what did they call it, like redrawing or repainting. Fabric many were. They use Yeah. For epic Mickey Yeah. Yeah.
I never, I never played that when it came around so I might actually, I actually might pick that up. Yeah. Nintendo had a direct this week and it was, it was pretty, pretty good. Some of some of the Xbox exclusives were coming to switch they announced before some other games were announced overall but yeah absolutely good time for for video games make its more of an time get your get. Your God you're not again.
This March 1st so the end of this week Morbius will be streaming on Disney plus so sounds like some of those Sony deals are finally coming through a couple couple of years later. So this movie came out two years ago this month, March, if you will. So, wow. If you want to. Watch for less to say about Morbius, I don't know if there's anything. You know, we watched it, you know, again, after watching Mad about, you know, it's just boring morbius.
But like, I it's so funny because I was making shorts for video. Mike And you know, this and one of the we were talking about more. We had to go find Morbius clips to put in for a short. So yeah, so I was watching the, the, the clip where he's testing his morbius powers, if you will, and I was like, this, this hurts to watch this part again, Like he's testing the bats. He's like, I've echolocation how bats are like, you know, explaining everything is like, we don't know what echolocation is.
So boy, how did that was fun. But yeah, if you want to if you haven't watched Morbius and you don't want to spend money, it will be free with your Disney Plus subscription already. So you're popular in the background and watch it. Let's be that Star Wars Actual news might well not news, but like more content news because we have had anything new for people who aren't watching the bad batch.
The Acolyte, which is the High Republic era Star Wars show about the in the Sith infiltrating the Jedi, is rumored to debut June 5th this summer. We'll probably get a hard date and May the fourth, if you will. The I mean. I'm surprised we're getting acolyte before I want to call a skeleton Skeleton crew. Yeah. Skeleton crew. Yeah. Because we've actually seen skeleton crew stuff. I mean, I know it was more leaked. Yeah. But I feel like we haven't heard much from acolyte. Yeah, I think we have.
I have, I have a whole trailer of the acolyte too. From that I think it's less CGI intense because there's not one whole CGI character in the act. Like they used the makeup and, you know, in-camera or I guess practical effects. But I'm excited to watch it. You know, I don't know how I've liked reading The High Republic book. I read gets us into a new time zone for Star Wars, where we're not you know, we're not affected by anything around us. It will be interesting.
And again, we're watching the bad batch. I know you're not yet. It's the last season, but like in bad batch ends, literally, I think what May 3rd or fourth, I said like the day before, the day before Star Wars day, we're right on Thursday. So like, this will be good to kind of give us a little month and then kick into some live action stuff because it'll be the first live action thing since Ahsoka. And that was well, late summer last year, August of last year.
So they're they're given some breathing time between content over there. Do you remember watching this? Okay. no, don't don't. Don't remind me. Okay? It's like I just I just hate because I'm afraid for season two coming out and also so I don't have a here is an interesting, interesting topic. The Mandalorian movie Main learning group reportedly cost less than a season of Mandalorian to make like, well. I like. I guess I'm not so surprised, really.
If you think about when we seen those budgets for The Mandalorian in the past and everyone of at the birth of all of these new streaming things were comparing every budget to Game of Thrones, right? Yeah. So, yeah, I guess if you have multiple of those, you are kind of clocking over a movie. Pretty much. Yes, it's a movie. 2 hours. That's what, four of the six episodes. So it should be cheaper right at the end of the day.
So yeah. And also, if you think about it from a sales perspective, you know, if you can have a TV show span, you know, if you plan it out just right, you know, three monthly payments of a streaming service, you know, that ends up equating to more than the cost of a movie ticket. So, you know, if that's how they're doing it. And then also they're hoping that people, you know, don't cancel, they don't churn through so. Or way or wait and binge until the end, you know.
Yeah, that there's a lot of that. But yeah so I guess it's interesting that they said it was last minute. I was like kind of math guy ends up if you look at time to to production to to that but anyway Marvel zombies the animated show coming to Disney Plus eventually will debut Mahershala Ali as Blade Mike because he is rumored to as one of the leaders of the show and has voiced the character. That's what the rumors say. I mean, do we do we think this is an intentional or. I don't think so.
Do we like because I feel like this the character was supposed to exist in live action beforehand, right? Well, yes. So the rumor was always that you can't use him in animation. We don't have a live action yet. However, Blade suffers from the it too the lack of commitment to release dates. So yeah, this movie was supposed to have been out. I think a year ago, so we are well beyond that. So they probably recorded all this stuff and had planned on it coming out after the movie.
But with everything changing, with strikes and pandemics and stuff like that, it's probably shifted around quite a bit for this. I mean, that'll be that'll be, that'll be interesting to see a character debut. I mean, I guess if the if the brand new character that was invented for what if season two ends up crossing over to live action, you know, that'll be a character that debuts there first. So but I would say. The character as well if they end up bringing the watch.
Yeah I guess yeah, the watcher. But we did kind of get to see a semblance of that race of characters in line. Yeah, but it's like a blink and miss it cameo. Like I don't know if anyone else was equivalent that to like premiering. So if, if that actor comes back and voices in the movie Secret Wars maybe yeah. Now what would be absolutely crazy is if this is indeed voiced by Mahershala Ali and then like the movie deal just falls through and they end up recasting.
So Mahershala Ali does do Blade, but only in this animated show. It'd be so odd. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think it will, but I think it'd be cool country but like I'm glad they're at least putting blade in the Marvel Zombies thing because he seems like the most of all the Marvel characters, you know that we know coming out he's seen the most equipped to handle the zombies. yeah. Head chopping. I mean. He's got a sword, he's got swords, he knows how to do vampires. So absolutely.
He he probably probably know what to do in that. So I'm excited to see that show, the theory on that one when it comes out. But we'll maybe see. Maybe it'll be Halloween. Released this year though the Fantastic Four.
I know we talked about that last week with the casting announcements, but the rumor that came out later this week from, I guess, you know, scoopers, if you will, and said that the movie will take place across two timelines and they this can be taken two ways Mike neither of these are confirmed. One is it's going to be like the 1963 64 era and do flashbacks flashback powers rather than starting off with how they get them.
But like, hey, we're already existing characters and they show you how they get the powers over time, right? Which is great. Or it could be a modern thing. And then flashback to the sixties ala like similar to Captain America the First Avenger. Now it starts off in the modern time and then bounces back.
So yeah, I mean, we were we were proposing the idea last week that, you know, the movie could primarily take place in the sixties and then, you know, your third act at the end of your third act, similar to the Captain America, the First Avenger, you know, he gets frozen and then in the last like 5 minutes, you know, he shows up and with Nick Fury in that, undisclosed location in New York City. Yeah. So that's that's kind of what I was mentally expecting. That's kind of how I would take it, too.
I mean, again, you know, edits can change a lot of things, right? Script can have one thing and it's can say another. So if it doesn't feel right. But yeah, I mean, this kind of what we were talking about, right, having two different eras in one movie, no matter how they put them down there. So it'll be be interesting. I'm excited for this. I know that they're going to be filming soon, so if we get more information, we'll share with you guys. Apparently the guy who was cast is the thing.
Evan Moss. Bacharach, he he's apparently like, no, like was told he they were wanted for the thing last like August so he's known for like since last summer. Even so none of these. Were like, I think. He's under the wire lately. Yeah. And he's been kind of chatting a little bit recently. I don't know if he's gone through the the, the, the Marvel nondisclosure agreement just yet, but he was quoted saying that they're going to primarily be doing the thing and.
CG Yeah. So I was kind of hoping maybe for like a mix of practical and CG, but also I'm not surprised. Yeah. Alicia We might have that one answered. Yeah, well, we'll see how it plays often. And here, you know, again, a lot of the suits are romances, other sets. They all look realistic, right? Thanos Complete CGI character. It'll be fine with me. Now. Mike, you said you've never played a Borderlands game before. Is that true? I ain't never played a borderlands once.
The only thing I know about the game, y'know, I think two things is the art style is pretty distinct. They got a lot of kind of like hard outline, like comic book outlines. Very cell shaded, very. Graphical style. Yes. el-Shater That's a great way to put it. And also a I don't know if it invented the term looter shooter or if it popularized the term looter shooter, but I know it's a looter shooter.
Yeah. So absolutely So Borderlands is a game trilogy from Gearbox came out, man, that was our mid to late 2000. I would say 2000, maybe seven or eight. And so you go to this planet called Pandora in your vault. Hunter, you were searching for the mythical vault, which you know is where all the treasure is on the planet. And so you go through and you go across Pandora, which is full of a wasteland, full of Junkers, cars and people with all sorts of crazy types of guns.
You get new guns with new mods and abilities and then you kill animals and raiders, essentially crazy caricatures of people as you go towards the vault. And the game spawned Borderlands one, Borderlands two, Borderlands three, a game called a Priest sequel, which is a prequel to that. And then I think there's even a Telltale game, Tales from the Borderlands, where like it does the storyline stuff and all sorts of things, it's gone across several, several generations consoles.
I played from the first, from the first game all the way to the third one, and they think that they're going to announce the fourth one next month at PAX in March. So we'll see if they do another one. But this they years ago they announced they're going to make a video game of it with Eli Roth. And we finally get our first trailer of this video game to watch this week. And one thing my wife said, she's watched Borderlands. She knows what Borderlands is. She's like, I did Mother make a movie?
my gosh. There's a lot of famous people in this movie. And I was like, Yes, yes, there is. There are tons of big names in here, including Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, who's only recently cross our Our Radar and Avengers, Infinity War, Barbie and soccer and Jack Black as well Like. Yeah, even I don't know much about this game but I have seen is claptrap is that the. Claptrap Yeah the little robots are claptrap.
Yeah. So somehow somehow droids can transcend media and I always know about them, even though I've never experienced them myself. I thought the trailer was fun. Obviously you can tell whatever marketing department or company was tasked with this job or really channeling the Guardians of the Galaxy vibe. I knew you're going to say that.
I'm going to I'm going to pause you because the game, if you go watch the intro for the very, very first game, the song No Rest for the Wicked by Cage, the Elephant, they used it before it was popular, like before it had hit like mainstream. And they have the same splashed out intros for all the characters in that game. So I would even say Guardians of the Galaxy borrowed from this game to do that because that's that that's how they did the splash screen.
Do they introduce villains and other heroes that you're playing on that it's also a four player game, I've got to put that. So that's why all these characters and then because a four player game. But anyway continue with with your experience. But I want to say everyone has said that, but I'm like, no, actually they had the popular radio songs and later the splash screen. It is. It's hard not to draw the draw the comparison. Yeah, absolutely.
Even though you could say Borderlands are extremely popular video game franchise, I think Guardians of the Galaxy as an IP has maybe reached more eyes out there in the world, but I thought the trailer was fun. I have no idea if the casting is effective or not compared to what is in the game. But everything. Everyone seems like they're riffing off each other, having a fun time.
I don't know if this is weirdly refreshing or not, but usually I feel like in these movies there's some sort of like you know, super famous, like a super attractive, like bombshell. That's usually they just slap on the screen all over the trailers and everyone really seems to be more like rooted in their roles of like, this is kind of like a Mad Max style universe. There's no like, you know, excessive like, you know, clever edge or like, you know, skimpy body armor.
I don't know why I picked up on it now, even though I'm usually not looking for it, but so at least I feel like they're kind of being true to the story they're trying to tell. Possibly. So I like that the the visuals seem fun. The energy seems to be kinetic. I saw some people online saying that the Kevin Hart casting seems kind of crazy. I guess he doesn't resemble the character much, but it doesn't really bother me because I, you know, I don't really know what it's supposed to be.
But yeah, this, this looks surprisingly it's I'd like to see it. What I like about Borderlands is the comedy has always been a very rude comedy, if you will, and you kind of get it from the trailer where two things. One, there's they're talking about the piss in the window. I was like, that's interesting. So absolutely, that's very, very like, you're not expecting that in like a normal action movie, right? Like, so like they're talking about, you know, aliens peeing in the windows.
And then Jack Black, he said he can't go. And when people like him, he's like, never mind. So he's like, to me, he's channeling his Tropic Thunder character a little bit in this one when he's coming through. But like the humor in these are very rude and crude along the way. So, you know, you get to see a couple other characters, Mad Moxy, who is a who runs like a casino. She's in one shot, like, I don't know who's playing her, but like, it's it's very action packed.
And, you know, knowing this Eli Roth, who is known for his horror things, I believe this is R-rated as well. You know, we're going to get some explosions and body damage like we do in the game. So people literally explode if you hit them with rockets in the game kind of thing. So like, I'm excited to be in this brutal world and see how how it works. The story, the characters like this story does not exist in the games. Like this is like an alternate universe version, if you will, which doesn't
bother me. It they, they have the right characters to have a good story. I think at the end of the day. So to me I'm excited. I'm looking to have some fun with it. I, I did say the one thing I did include here is one character poster that pokes fun at Madame Web. The Kevin Hart poster says, Meet Roland. He was in the Amazon with my mom when she was researching spiders right before she died. Yeah, the official thing. So, boy, the other ones don't have anything like that. They only tell you there.
So this was a pretty low blow crossing it, if you will. But it seems to be it seems to be a statcast good time. So it was you know, I'm already sold. I play the games. I understand it. Even if it's different. I get the Borderlands universe. So glad to hear that. You're like, this is different. You're on board with that a little more than. Even even some of the stuff in the trailer seems like a little cringe. Like when the character with the bazooka says, like mine, mine's bigger than yours.
Usually something that I would just do a total eyeroll at. But the world, at least that they're presenting me with, it seems like something like that kind of belongs because it seems to be very heightened just in general. So yeah, this, this kind of actually gives me a little bit of, dungeons and Dragons vibe, that movie. I don't remember what the official subtitle of that movie was. Autor Among the Highest Honor among Thieves.
Yeah, like, maybe that's what we're going to get out of this, like, a fun ensemble, you know, from an IP that, you know, you know, is popular, but maybe not super widely, you know, adapted. So. Yeah, Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. Yeah, it looks like a good, like, you know, unlikely team of people crossing the desert with guns rather than magic, if you will, at the end of the day. So. Absolutely. And it comes out August 9th. So late summer, late summer this year.
That would be a good in the summer camp, if you will, for four films. Lastly, got a quick just update for the boys season four poster confirming June 4th on Amazon Prime. So says and I quote, Break out the fucking confetti. So cool. That's exciting. Right? Bring out the confetti and also break out your additional 299 a month if you want to watch it without commercials now. So. Yeah, that's that's rough. Yeah. Yeah. Get on top of what you were already paying, which is free.
You freeze commercials now. But yeah, absolutely. And boy, season four was. Yeah. The other show on Netflix, the Umbrella Umbrella Academy, Season three supposedly in this year as well too. Sorry. So their final season in season four I think in season four this year as well. So been about two years since we had our original season of the boys that the spinoff. So we're well overdue for it. We'll see how this goes.
I know they said they might be confirming season five soon later on the boys, but I don't know how much longer that show has in its tank. Right. Like at this point, like other other shows, Invincible stuff like that. They're gearing up. They're kind of taking its place. Do you think how many more seasons of the boys do you have in you make before you're like. I mean, I got to hope since the boys is helmed by Seth Rogan's production company Point. Gray Right. I'm not making that know.
That's what it is, right? No, I don't think a Seth Rogan. I. I swear I thought it was his production company point great because they, they went on from preacher to the boys I'm pretty sure. I mean, I pulled up. That's right. I know he's a producer. Don't know if it was. You know the point, Grace. Okay. There's there's eight. There's eight production companies. They are one of them. Okay. Gotcha. I because and there are they also have their hands in Invincible as well.
But I got to I got to hope that they at least would have the sway, the storytelling acumen to go, okay, this is a good place to end it. You know, we don't want to overstay our welcome. We don't want to, like, you know, strain the fan base in the audience. Let's not overdo it. Let's not make this another The walking Dead, you know? Right. Yeah. And they did that with the preacher. They had preacher beforehand. They ended it after, I think, three seasons.
And the book the book's done like the the subtler. They're adapting this one. So maybe, maybe they could do five, five and be done because I think, you know, this just been going since 2019, you know and we're looking at two years between production to be 2026 before we even get season five at this rate. So hopefully they're able to, like you said, see that light at the end of the tunnel and their own decision to end it rather than than having somebody else do that.
But yeah, we'll keep you posted. That gets closer to coming out later this summer. Mike That's it for for the episode this week. I've got nothing of. Did you finish your did you finish your quiz? It's almost like I'm at the bottom. I was. You know, kind of savoring it right here, so I'll finish it. Well, you tell us where people can find. Yep. Yeah, they can find me and my webcomics at life rewards risk dot com and pickled comics dot com.
Chris if people want to catch you hopefully with that doing popcorn bucket and. I don't I don't record with what I'm doing make them popcorn. But where can they find you. You can find me on Instagram vault in 87 Vow Dan seven or video game systems of the same name. If people wanna know more about the show we're doing, where they can subscribe to us at, where they can get that information out. As always, just go visit Super heroes. Slate.com.
That is the domain that we own and where we put stuff that I mean, that's the that's the most bare way I can put it. We got an upcoming release calendar on there of the movies and, the TV shows that we're looking forward to talking about. We got awesome show notes that are really, really helpful of keeping track of everything that's going on.
I'm curious what would happen if we put the show notes in an I Chris and asked it to predict the news and maybe we can see how smart it is because if we do see repeating patterns here after doing this show for so long that you can find us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, wherever else you love to listen to, fine podcasts, you can get merch at Super Hero Slate.com slash store. We love hearing from you. Are you drinking some extra flavored Coca-Colas? What's what do you want to know?
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