Thursday, June 29, 2017

JLU Scene-by-Scene: Suicide Squad Scenes 26-27

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast focuses on Scene 26 (Enchantress converting the Bravo team into Eyes of the Adversary) and Scene 27 (approaching the Ostrander building) of Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer.


  • The squad still follows Flag's orders
  • Checking in on Bravo team
  • Enchantress's kiss and the Eyes of the Adversary
  • Harley's smash and grab
  • Deadshot's reminder of his daughter
  • John F. Ostrander Federal Building
  • Awkward editing
  • Amanda Waller as the unknown objective
  • DCEU thoughts about gods and saving humanity

Contributors: @ottensam @raveryn @NBego

@JLUPodcast

http://www.manofsteelanswers.com/53-wonder-woman/
<Transcript below>

Monday, June 26, 2017

JLU Scene-by-Scene: Wonder Woman Scenes 3-4

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast focuses on Scene 3 (Mount Olympus history lesson) and Scene 4 (gifts of the gods) of Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins.

  • Diana's bedroom
  • Hippolyta and the merits of fighting and war
  • History lesson -- the Greek Gods
  • Ares and Zeus (but no goddesses)
  • George Perez Gods and Mortals
  • Musical hints of Superman
  • Diana begins her training
  • Many gifts from the Gods

Contributors: @ottensam @raveryn @derbykid @wondersyd
@JLUPodcast

Myth of redemptive violence: https://www.ravenfoundation.org/wonder-woman-myth-redemptive-violence-ravencast/
Lakoff paternal vs. maternal: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=493615864
MOSAIC: http://www.manofsteelanswers.com/i-walked-away-from-mankind-explained/

<Transcript below>

Monday, June 19, 2017

Superhero Origin Films: Box Office Performance

Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, has been making headlines not only because of its domestic opening over $100 Million, but also because of its astoundingly good performance in subsequent weekends. Rather than the typical superhero drop of 55-70% for the second weekend (because superhero fans often come out in hordes on opening weekend), Wonder Woman fell only 43%!!! This speaks to positive word-of-mouth and also a general appeal to all ages and to people who don't always come out for superhero movies. Throughout the weekdays, Wonder Woman was also consistently surpassing previous hit superhero films, and now its third weekend posted a mere 30% decline. This is incredible staying power on the domestic side, boosted somewhat by Pirates 5 having an underwhelming run in the U.S. If Transformers 5 also lightens up a bit in the U.S. compared to previous installments, then Wonder Woman will run strong through to the arrival of Spider-Man Homecoming. (Pirates 5 and Transformers 5 are bigger hits internationally, and that might be part of why Wonder Woman is rocking the States even harder than it's rocking the international box office.)

How does Wonder Woman's incredible box office run thus far compare with other recent superhero origin films? I am a mathematics educator by profession, so I enjoy seeing data visually. Here is a depiction of Wonder Woman's domestic box office tally compared to the six solo origin films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as the other solo origin film in the DCEU (Man of Steel) and, to give us a sense of the top end, I've also included the runaway hit, Deadpool from Fox.

NOTE: This graph, with dollars in millions, shows the accumulation for the first 24 days of release, and then I included the final domestic total at the far right.


Notice that, for the opening weekend, Wonder Woman behaved very much like typical box office contour, tracking right along with Iron Man. But then right away on its first weekdays, we can see that Wonder Woman is doing something different than usual -- it slashes upward, bringing in higher rates each day and then for the second and third weekend, allowing it to move from the middle of the pack all the way up to Deadpool's heels (and Deadpool also had very strong legs). If Wonder Woman can keep up its pace for another week or so, we should already see it surpass Deadpool's domestic total at that point in it's run. I suspect that this will happen by Thursday, June 22nd. From then onward, if it can at least hold as well as Deadpool did, it will surpass $365 Million in the U.S. for a worldwide total of at least $730 Million. (Shameless self-promotion: back in February I predicted $725 Million for Wonder Woman.)

For those of you who enjoy more of the details of Hollywood accounting, join me below the fold.

JLU Scene-by-Scene: Wonder Woman Scene 2

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast focuses on Wonder Woman, Scene 2 (Young Diana running through Themyscira and observing the Amazon warriors).

  • Diana famous?
  • Themyscira production design - nature and curves
  • Young Diana in the marketplace
  • Women of Color in the movie
  • Amazon warrior training
  • Diana's leap before she looks
  • Antiope and Hippolyta initial tension
  • Connections to the original comic book issues
  • Some new observations about MoS and BvS

Contributors: @ottensam @raveryn @derbykid @wondersyd

Our preview episode about Wonder Woman: http://comicandscreen.blogspot.com/2017/05/wonder-woman-preparations.html

Medium.com critique of POC in Wonder Woman: https://medium.com/@SonofBaldwin/my-soul-looks-back-and-wonders-a-critical-examination-of-the-wonder-woman-movie-10ba3bfd71f0

Vero Post about MoS and BvS: http://screenrant.com/batman-v-superman-skulls-meaning-zack-snyder/

<Transcript below>

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

JLU Scene-by-Scene: Wonder Woman Scene 1

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast focuses on scene 1 (Opening at the Louvre) of Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins.


  • Diana's opening narration (the world, lessons learned, and facing the truth)
  • Antiques dealer in the Louvre
  • Delivery from Wayne Enterprises
  • Connections to Batman v Superman
  • Connections to the DCEU overall
  • Why was Wonder Woman better received than BvS?
  • Text about the Mona Lisa from http://astore.amazon.com/theimaginativeconservative-20/detail/1480094579
Contributors: @ottensam @raveryn @derbykid @wondersyd

@JLUPodcast

DC TV Podcasts fundraiser for WWF: http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/goto/DCTVpodcasts

Themes in the DCEU: http://www.torontosun.com/2017/06/08/marvels-box-office-hits-cant-compare-to-dc-plots
BvS by the formula: http://comicandscreen.blogspot.com/2016/05/jlu-scene-by-scene-batman-v-superman_22.html

<Transcript below>

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Themes and Characters in WONDER WOMAN

This episode of the Justice League Universe podcast includes our preliminary analysis of the overarching themes and character development. Beginning at 47:31, we also each share some thoughts about a moment from the film that was particularly meaningful to us.



Contributors: @ottensam @raveryn @derbykid @wondersyd

@JLUPodcast

Our BvS analysis: http://comicandscreen.blogspot.com/p/scene-by-scene-analyis-of-batman-v.html


Collider: http://collider.com/patty-jenkins-wonder-woman-interview/
ComicBook.com: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikMGXsbZn9Q
Naive or dumb:

<Transcript>

Saturday, June 3, 2017

Review of WONDER WOMAN

Jason Book and I discuss Wonder Woman from Warner Brothers pictures, directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine. We stay spoiler free for the first 10 minutes and then touch on some spoilers for the last 5 minutes. (These is a verbal and visible warning in the video.)





Detailed analysis will get underway soon on the Justice League Universe podcast:
http://jluniverse.podomatic.com

EDIT: Detailed analysis is underway now!