Batman

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: Joker discovers the magical art of not giving a f*ck

    Movie Review | Becky Suter | 8th October 2019

    To be honest, I had every intention of getting this review done as soon as I’d watched the film on Friday, but then I got distracted by Untitled Goose Game and the rest of the weekend was a bit of a waterfowl blur, to be honest. My waking hours were mainly spent terrorising a small, English village, checking off my to-do list before I grew bored and wanted to fuck shit up, just for the sake of it. I stole goods from a small business and planted them in a man’s garden to frame him for theft for pure lols. I trapped the boy in the garage over and over again, because I thought he was was weak and he didn’t like my honking. Unbound by societal demands, I was liberated; I was free. The poor inhabitants of the village had done nothing to deserve my feathery reign of terror, other than they didn’t like me and therefore, I didn’t like them. By the end of the weekend, had even one villager shown just a morsel of kindness toward me (a piece of bread, perhaps), I would have just honked in their stupid faces, and continued to destroy everything they hold dear. I didn’t set out to be the figurehead of the goose rebellion; they made me that way. Throughout the ages, village elders will tell tales of "The Goose That Hid in a Box, Then Jumped Out and Scared the Lady.” In the early hours of the morning with no more worlds left to conquer, I closed my laptop and remembered I said I was going to do a write-up of Joker, about a marginalised character on the fringes of society who adopts an alter-ego in a downward spiral, and I realised my story had already been told, except it was filmed a lot better and had Joaquin Phoenix in it and not so many geese.

  • 20 exciting and totally achievable ways the DC Universe can rebuild

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 17th September 2018

    The DC universe is broken. Henry Cavill is done with Superman. Ben Affleck is too goth even for Batman and reportedly wants an escape route. Wonder Woman accidentally became the most successful one and now all the men at the studio have no idea what to do with her. And Aquaman... exists. Forget whatever humanitarian crises the Fake News Media are pushing on you this week: we need to focus our efforts on figuring out how to fix these adult manbaby movie franchises, and STAT. These 20 ideas to fix the DCCU by yours truly are a start, but frankly, I'm not hearing anything coming from your end. Is this thing even on?

  • San Diego Comic-Con 2018 news round-up

    Movie Feature | Matt Looker | 23rd July 2018

    Geeks across the globe reconvened in San Diego this weekend for their annual meeting of dressing up and playing with toys and arguing over which superpower is the awesomest. Haha NERDS. Anyway, here's a round-up of all the super-cool and important film and TV stuff that happened.

  • Justice League

    Movie Review | Ali Gray | 19th November 2017

    It wasn’t evil aliens that defeated the Justice League: it was facial hair.

  • Hot take: Martin Scorsese's Joker movie might be good but might also be bad, more as it develops

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 23rd August 2017

    Two separate news stories broke in the same news story this morning. First, it was reported that Martin Scorsese would be producing a brand new '80s crime-era origin story for The Joker, with the role recast and the film unrelated to the nascent DC Cinematic Universe. Then, upon further scrutiny, it was discovered in the same report that Todd Phillips would be directing it. Oh. Right. Rough, meet smooth. Depending on how you frame it, this is either a savvy move from DC to decentralise their movie universe by putting legendary filmmaking talent at the centre of it, or it's an act of desperation from a studio who can't settle on a tone and can't even keep an actor interested in a role between one movie and the next. Which opinion is correct? Find out after these messages!

  • An oral history of superhero actors complaining about going to the toilet

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 6th July 2017

    There's a strange, unspoken relationship between a journalist and a film star that absolutely nothing personal must be discussed during an interview. Except, that is, when that film star is playing a superhero, in which case it's absolutely on message to ask them exactly how they pissed and/or shat while wearing their super-suit. The weirdest thing is just how willing the actors are to share.

  • Zack Snyder revealed a new picture of Batman but Donald Trump is still president so nothing matters

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 29th June 2017

    Filmmaker Zack Snyder has released a brand new picture of Batman from the forthcoming superhero ensemble Justice League but Donald J Trump is still in the White House so the very concept of justice is a joke and we remain numb to everything.

  • Suicide Squad, DC and the Warner Bros war against coherence

    Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 8th August 2016

    It should be abundantly clear now to anyone with even a passing interest in superhero movies that the concept of the "shared universe" should be feared. Credit to Marvel: they took a big risk, did their groundwork and built up their shared universe by releasing not one but four successful individual franchises, before bringing them together like a corporate executive doing an overbite and interlocking his fingers in the universal sign language for 'synergy'. Everyone else saw The Avengers' box-office success and thought, 'Yeah, we'll have a bit of that. But sod all that hard work!' And thus, the very blueprint for superhero movies was torn up, sellotaped back together and plonked on the desks of finance departments throughout Hollywood.

  • Suicide Squad

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 5th August 2016

    Here's something that shouldn't be a thing: any director, cast member or studio that says "we made it for the fans, not the critics". Now, I would say that I occupy a space somewhere in between those two clearly very unique and separate positions. I'm an occasional blogger currently writing a review (that, heaven forbid, will be listed on Rotten Tomatoes) but who particularly enjoys superheroes and comic-book movies. So where does the DC party line of 'fans not critics' leave me? I'll tell you where - in the same place as literally anybody else who sees this film: with an opinion, and only that. Obviously, it should be argued as objectively as possible, but for the sake of DC's stance in the matter, let me try to review this like a fan rather than like a clueless critic doing super-serious critiquing on Marvel's payroll. With that in mind, Suicide Squad is a bit rubbs.

  • Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

    Movie Review | Matt Looker | 24th March 2016

    The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: God versus man.
    By which, of course, I mean Zack Snyder, the all-powerful harbinger of wanton destruction, versus us, the humble cinema-goer, merely looking for some entertainment. Some cool stuff, for sure. Maybe even a joke of two. It's Student from the School of Michael Bay versus, say, Andy from Dagenham. Who will win?