We’re back sooner than usual, with a special episode focused entirely on James Gunn’s SUPERMAN! The film is the official launch of the new DCU, but much more importantly, it’s an actual Superman movie, one that truly gets the character and his world in a way no live-action Superman film has in our lifetimes. Jonathan reviewed the film in writing last week at Fade to Lack, but we dive much deeper here with a full spoiler-filled discussion, breaking down all the characters, performances, themes, set pieces, and more! We have a few criticisms here and there, but for the most part agree this is a pretty wonderful superhero movie – and it’s truly awesome to finally have this much fun talking about Superman on a podcast.

Enjoy!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

For the July installment of ‘The Monthly Stuff,’ we break down the news of Xbox’s latest round of devastating layoffs, give fuller impressions of the Nintendo Switch 2 after a full month of play, and discuss recent games and TV shows we’ve experienced. Jonathan gives thoughts on Fast Fusion and Raidou Remastered, alongside continued impressions of Mario Kart World, while Sean talks about playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the PS5, watchingUltraman Gaia, and the second season of Disney+’s acclaimed Star Wars series Andor. And for The Monthly Ten, Jonathan counts down the 10 craziest ideas for superhero movies he could think of. A fun time is had by all.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:35

News: 0:03:35 – 0:59:35

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: 0:59:35 – 1:24:20

Switch 2 Adventures: 1:24:20 – 2:06:57

Ultraman Gaia: 2:06:57 – 2:20:09

Andor: 2:20:09 – 2:33:37

The Monthly Ten: 2:33:37 – 3:05:34

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

With Marvel’s ‘first family’ finally joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe next month in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the theatrical history of this extremely troubled franchise. There have been three attempts across four movies to make the Fantastic Four work on the silver screen, from the unreleased 1994 Roger Corman production, to the two Tim Story-directed films at 20th Century Fox in 2005 and 2007, to the ill-fated production of 2015’s Fant4stic, which might just be the worst superhero movie ever made. Some of these movies are better than their reputations suggest – the Tim Story films, with a charming cast and good sense of tone, are fine, if not particularly special – but on the whole, Hollywood has never known what to do with these characters, and surveying these 30 years of failed attempts to bring the Fantastic Four into the cinematic mainstream makes for a fun and fascinating conversation.

Enjoy!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman