The Monday Morning Broadcast
Bite-sized pop culture news to start your week
This is something new I’m trying out, just to see how it feels. Thought there might be value in a short newsletter highlighting a couple of notable and/or fun things from the past week (or so) in pop culture, and a bit of commentary from yours truly.
Kudos if you spot the Wedding Crashers reference above.
Warner Bros is Superman’s Real Kryptonite
Last week I lamented how the sheer volume of Marvel content had eroded my love for the franchise. It’s a problem Warner Bros wish they had. They recently said good-bye to Henry Cavill’s Superman as they prepare to reboot the DC “universe” <snicker> again. Julie Gray wrote a great summary of the fiasco.
Honestly, it almost doesn’t even matter that director James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad) may finally give DC it’s own Kevin Feige (Feige is Marvel’s maestro, FYI). Warner Bros’ years of ineptitude is staggering, and the damage is already done. Comic book movies are so 2010, bro. We’ve moved on. I also am skeptical that Gunn’s eccentric brand of storytelling will play well with more serious characters.
The NFL is a Money-Printing Juggernaut
I really enjoyed this recent entry in Fanfare about the migration of NFL Sunday Ticket to YouTube. The article is a pretty detailed accounting of how we got here, going all the way back to the formation of the modern NFL as we know it. Fascinating stuff.
Avatar: The Least Buzzy Billion Dollar Movie
Avatar: The Way of Water has brought in $1.7 Billion at the worldwide box office and has moved into seventh on the all-time list (Forbes). Readers may recall that I publicly asked if anybody cared about Avatar. This would seem to suggest that, yes, people care. Or at least are curious? A rando on Twitter kindly threw the box office data in my face; I can only assume it was James Cameron in disguise.
I’m not taking an L on this, though. The question wasn’t ‘are people going to see it’. I still don’t really believe anyone gives a fig about Avatar as anything other than a technological marvel. Where’s the buzz? Where’s the excitement? Avatar recently passed Top Gun: Maverick on the box office scoreboard. It seemed like everyone was talking about Maverick last summer. The only buzz I’ve heard about Avatar relates to its bank account. Anyway, I have zero intention of going to see it, for whatever that’s worth.
2023 Content > 2022 Content
Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like its been a long time since I was really excited about any upcoming films or video games. The film I was most excited to see last year was Thor: Love and Thunder. The less said about that travesty, the better. A couple of recent stories in Fanfare have stoked those old feelings once again.
Three films I can’t wait to see (pulled from Patrick Crawford’s article on the 2023 film slate): Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Oppenheimer, and Dune: Part Two.
Three games I can’t wait to play (inspired by a Fanfare story on exciting 2023 video game releases): Alan Wake II, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield. Or as I like to call them: Play With the Lights On: Part II, Harry Potter: The RPG, and Skyrim in Space.
There’s a chance my friend and noted cinephile Simon Dillon would contest this entire assertion (and my rolling up of films under the heading of ‘content’), as by all accounts, he quite enjoyed the 2022 film slate. Here’s his 10 ten films of the year.
What’d you think of this experiment? Dig it? Hate it? Drop a comment and let me know!