Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of February 13th, 2023

The Bad Batch Season 2 Episodes 7 and 8 (Disney+): The best episodes of The Bad Batch are the ones that deal with what is going on in the galaxy at large to show how the Empire consolidated power. This hour of television explores the end of the clones, the social issues that relate to the decommissioning of the cloning program, and the rise of the conscripted military. At the same time, these two episodes show Palpatine/Darth Sidious as the master manipulator that the prequels attempt to portray him as where no matter what happens, he always gets what he needs from those around him. If there is anything worth watching from this show (besides the first episode) it is this small arc.

The Last of Us Episode 5 (HBOMax): This show works very well as a series of vignettes about what is going on in the wastelands of the United States after the Cordyceps fungus takes over that plays out as Joel and Ellie stumble upon them. This episode furthers this as Joel and Ellie help Henry and Sam attempt to escape Kathleen in Kansas City. This idea of taking a small story and laying it into the wider arc of Joel and Ellie is a great way to both drive the narrative while also delivering great emotional moments. This episode also has the most “obviously from the video game” action sequence with the escape of the infected and the Bloater from the pit as they just tear everything up and Joel snipes from above to save Ellie.

The Flash Season 9 Episode 1 (CW/CWApp): Picking up where season eight left off, Barry has his life back together but is terrified of losing his future the way he has seen it play out in one of the multitudes of times he has time-traveled in the past. To this end, he creates a notebook that is basically a script for what is going to happen for the rest of his and Iris’ life until their natural deaths. Now considering the show is nine seasons in and Barry can’t even rely on the laws of reality to reliably work in his favor, it is unclear why he thinks this will work out for him (or why Iris would be cool with this plan without talking to her about it) but this causes a Groundhog Day-like time loop for Barry and Iris to figure out their problems and move onto the rest of the truncated final season.

National Treasure: Edge of History Season Finale (Disney+): Now that the show is over, this is probably the best way to experience it, in that a viewer will probably have more enjoyment from watching the show beginning to end as a binge. This continues the trend of the show not doing anything one wouldn’t expect from a show like this, but at least the cast is endearing enough that the viewers can engage with the material, even if the show doesn’t do as much as they could around them.

This Week In Theaters:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: The third Ant-Man movie hits theaters this Thursday and will feature Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly returning as the title characters alongside Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer as Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. Playing Cassie, now with her own suit and a role in the adventure, is Kathryn Newton (Freaky and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu). The movie will follow this team as they get trapped in the Quantum Realm and interact with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors from Loki) who intends to escape and bring war to the multiverse.

Marlowe: Film Noir continues its comeback with a new mystery that Philip Marlowe (here played by Liam Neeson, however, audiences may recognize the character from adaptations starring James Gardner and Humphrey Bogart) needs to unravel. Unlike most movies, Marlowe opens on Tuesday, not Thursday/Friday.

Last Week At The Box Office:

Magic Mike’s Last Dance: $8.2 Million

Avatar: The Way of Water: $6.9 Million

Titanic (25th Anniversary Re-Release): $6.4 Million

80 For Brady: $6.0 Million

Knock at the Cabin: $5.5 Million

Programming Notes:

While yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday, one of the side effects of that is that major studios will use this opportunity to release new trailers for a bunch of new movies coming out in the first half of the year. Of note, trailers were released for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Flash, and Fast X while extended TV spots for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny aired during the show. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 appears to be taking the same approach seen in its predecessor with multiple planes of action that all have impressive visuals with them. The High Evolutionary seems to be a menacing villain and it will be interesting to see how Adam Warlock factors into the plot going forward. The Flash looks like it will have an interesting time travel story and well-shot action, however (and this is based entirely on this trailer) it is unclear if the emotional arc at the core of The Flashpoint Paradox will carry over to this movie. This Barry has not had the opportunity to become a well-rounded character or grapple with the emotions that come from what emotional turmoil he has to handle in this movie so there will be a lot of telling instead of showing on that front. That said, Sasha Calle should definitely be the Supergirl for the impending Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow movie because it seems she can carry the ferocity necessary and Michael Keaton looks great in the suit again. Fast X looks utterly ridiculous in the best possible way, which is all someone should want from another Fast and the Furious movie. It is worth noting that this is a part-one-of-two movie (maybe the sequel will be Furious X) so it will probably end on a down note. The two TV spots were mostly focused on CGI, namely how great the de-aging technology in Indiana Jones looks while Transformers was designed to showcase an improvement between the first teaser and this one.

Also of note, there are theatrical screenings of the selections for Best Animated Short Film and Best Live Action Short Film starting this Friday at the AMC in Stony Brook. As of right now, none are listed for Island 16 or any of the smaller theaters, but it is still early. These screenings do not include the Best Documentary Short Film category either and there is no word on if these will be programmed anywhere.