Black Mask set as Villain for Gotham Sirens

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One of the more interesting films coming out of the quagmire that is the DCEU is Gotham Sirens, a spin-off to 2016’s Suicide Squad.  I never actually reviewed Suicide Squad so I’ll just say very quickly that it was a garbage movie and I didn’t like it.  I know some people enjoyed it, but honestly, I thought Batman v. Superman was the better film.  I know those are fighting words on a lot of the Internet so I’ll temper that critique by saying I, along with the rest of geek culture, really liked Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. 

Harley Quinn’s always been a complicated character to get right, mainly because she walks along that thin problematic line between manic pixie villain and domestic abuse victim, but in more recent years she’s backed off from that point.  A lot of that has come from her newly out and proud romance with Poison Ivy, which will be the core focus of the Harley-centric spin-off Gotham Sirens.  Catwoman will also be on hand because we needed a third lead but now we’ve finally gotten an idea of who our villain is- Black Mask. 

Panel Vision - Guide to Jonah Hex

Edited by Robert Beach 

This is going to be something of a different guide than usual. Most of the time in these guides I'm going through a list of characters with the understanding that I’m guiding you through a collection of characters or universe elements, so you’ll have a greater understanding the superhero mythos that’s come to dominate pop culture. However, seeking to capitalize on Jonah Hex’s appearance on Legends of Tomorrow, I had so many options to choose from. 

I decided it’d be easier than writing 5 different articles about the guy to just combine them all in a single guide to the various broad strokes stories of Jonah Hex. This is going to be part history, part recommendation list, part review, and who knows if people are interested. Maybe we’ll do it again when some other character with a lot of content to cover makes their debut. 

5 New Characters Coming To Legends of Tomorrow

At time of writing, Legends of Tomorrow has managed to clear its first major hurdle by completing its 2-part pilot in spectacular fashion.  The team is assembled, the characters are fun and engaging, and the fight scenes spectacular, and the stakes have never been higher within the realm of the CW.  Now that the opening salvo has been fired Legends of Tomorrow is settling in for the long haul, planning a full season’s worth of time travel throughout the crazy corners of DC’s past and introducing even more weird heroes of the DC universe. 

This has always been CW’s greatest strength, a complete embrace of the weirdest and most obscure elements of DC continuity without a hint of irony or self-consciousness over the strangeness of the characters they’re adapting.  That incredible confidence of adaptation seems to be coming to a head now as CW announces 5 new characters to appear in Legends of Tomorrow, some logical like Jonah Hex or Sergeant Rock while other likes Hourman the third and Ma Hunkle are as strange a choice as comic book adaptations are allowed to make nowadays. 

7 Films That Could Use A Female-Led Reboot

I've got another listicle up for the fine folks at Laser Time Podcast, this time going through all the movies I think could really benefit from a female-led reboot ala Ghostbusters & Roadhouse, read the full article here:

http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2015/09/23/7-films-that-could-use-a-female-led-reboot/

Movie Monthly: On The Beach

Edited by Robert Beach

August Apocalypse has been a slightly more sporadic Movie Monthly. That’s mainly owed to my own hectic schedule keeping me from getting to everything I hoped to touch on. I’m glad that things worked out for me to still be able to touch on the incredible under appreciated 1959 post-apocalyptic classic On The Beach. Directed by the great Stanley Kramer and starring treasured actor Gregory Peck, On The Beach is one of the absolute darkest, harshest and most realistic post-apocalyptic tales you’ll ever see. 

What’s so impressive about this, however, is On The Beach manages its chilling vision of a future after the fall of humanity,but not through the crushing melodrama of Walking Dead or the abject human ugliness of The Road. Instead the heartbreaking tragedy of the situation comes from the acknowledgement of a very simple, but affecting, anxiety at the heart of all post-apocalypse movies: inevitability.  

Slasher Reboots & How To Do Them

Edited by Robert Beach 

Recently, it was announced that New Line would be producing a new remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. Hot on the heals of this announcement came the news that CW was developing a Friday the 13^th TV show, most likely in attempt to capitalize on the success of similar horror shows like Bates Motel, Hannibal, and Scream. 

These two announcements represent the latest in the long, rough cycle of slasher film reboots that started in 2003 when Platinum Dunes first resurrected the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film series.  Speaking of which, that series is getting its 5^th reboot attempt next year with Leatherface, another prequel intended to explore the character’s origins. 

Movie Monthly - Road Warrior

Edited by Robert Beach

Welcome back to Movie Monthly where every month it’s a new theme. This month is August Apocalypse. We’ll be looking at a bunch of films that take place in the wide world of creativity, pyrotechnic adventure, and human ugliness that is the post-apocalyptic wasteland. While I don’t normally focus on bigger films, our first one up is going to be Mad Max 2: Road Warrior. This is partially because Mad Max just saw an incredibly successful revival this year with Mad Max: Fury Road, but because I wanted to talk about Road Warrior through the lens of being an LGBT reviewer.