Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of July 31st, 2023

Secret Invasion Series Finale (Disney+): One of the best things about She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was the way it tried to retroactively take the issues with the finales of past shows (Ms. Marvel, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, etc.) and make it seem like there was a reason they all kind of did the same ending where the protagonist and antagonist have to fight in a giant CGI mess where they both have the same or similar powers. Then Secret Invasion happens and it is largely the same thing with Gi’ah and Gravik fighting with identical powersets while Fury handles Skrull Rhodes. The other issue is that the show does follow the same pitfalls that befell previous shows, namely the finale does not feel like it is going to have a lasting impact because Marvel Studios understands that the money is in theatrical, not streaming, and more people will show up to watch the next movie, even if they didn’t watch the shows. Therefore, the shows need to be sort of self-contained and not progress anything too far as the most sterile form of an interquel possible. At the end of this, Fury is in the same place as the last time a movie saw him in Spider-Man: Far From Home. He is back on Saber, looking down and protecting Earth from above and this whole show is irrelevant until (possibly) Captain America: Brave New World or Armor Wars. That said, it does sort of set up the X-Men and the fear of mutants at the end by showing how quickly people turned on aliens out of paranoia at the end of the episode.

iCarly Season 3 Finale (Paramount+): Maybe it was watching Zoey 102 before this (see below) that made the finale seem better, or maybe it was the fact that this season had such a quality lull towards the middle of its run, but this finale was not that bad. Carly actually has to deal with an emotional issue this week, which is refreshing since every episode before this has been either superficial or trying its hardest not to have characters feel human emotions. The problem is the cliffhanger which teases that (should season four happen) the audience will finally be introduced to Carly’s mother. The problem with this is that there is no way for this to resolve in the next season where it could be satisfying because either Carly’s mother comes back and leaves quickly after making amends with Carly or she comes back and sticks around and both are predictable. Either way, she’s arriving at someone else’s wedding uninvited, after being absent for almost 20 years so she’s already coming from a position of weakness when it comes to making the audience endear themselves to this character.

My Adventures With Superman Season 1 Episode 5 (Adult Swim App/Max): Having Lois figure out Clark’s secret is great for her character and leads to a few cool homages to Superman II. Jimmy’s subplot is also really fun this week and this show just continues to impress.

Harley Quinn Season 4 Episodes 1-3 (Max)*: Of the four seasons, this is probably the weakest of them, however, it is still entertaining enough to warrant a watch as it is enjoyable. The Bat-family of characters (Nightwing, Damian Wayne, and Batgirl) has a vastly different dynamic from the ensemble of villains in the first three seasons and it feels a little more one-note because all the characters are somewhat similar in how they play against each other and Harley. That said, there is a pretty fun episode coming down the line that is a season highlight and one of the best episodes of the show up until this point.

Zoey 102 (Paramount+): This movie occupies a weird space. It wants the audience to feel bad for Zoey for everything that has gone wrong in her life but the problem is that Zoey is entirely responsible for everything up until that point. Her relationship with Chase ended about five years prior because she abandoned him during a vacation and the fact that she is mad at him for moving on inherently makes her unlikable. The comedic moments don’t land usually and some of the characters don’t feel natural to who they were originally which could be chalked up to them aging, but if you’re going to do a revival designed to bank on nostalgia, what’s the point of the characters feeling different? Why not just make something original with new characters if everyone is going to be different anyway?

This Week In Theaters:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles return to theaters in a star-studded animated movie this Wednesday. The cast includes Seth Rogan, Jackie Chan, Paul Rudd, Ayo Edebiri, John Cena, Ice Cube, and Giancarlo Esposito.

The Meg 2: The Trench: The fan of The Meg will be excited for this sequel which will see Jason Statham face off against more megalodons. Warner Brothers hasn’t done a ton of marketing for this entry and tickets did not go on sale until last week, probably because they’re still pushing Barbie as a long-term strategy.

Last Week At The Box Office:

Barbie: $93.0 Million

Oppeheimer: $46.2 Million

Haunted Mansion: $24.2 Million

Sound of Freedom: $12.4 Million

Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part 1: $10.7 Million

Programming Notes:

Sony has shifted many theatrical releases in the face of the current strikes from both SAG and the WGA. The shifts are as follows:

• Bad Boys 4 has been given a release date of June 14th, 2024. This puts it up against Inside Out 2 from Pixar.
• Venom 3 has been given a release date of July 12th, 2024.
• Gran Turismo has been delayed two weeks to August 25th, 2023 with sneak previews throughout the month in an effort to generate good word-of-mouth since actors cannot promote the movie due to the ongoing strike.
• Madame Web, a Spider-Man adjacent villain movie, moves two days from February 16th, 2024 to February 14th, 2024.
• Kraven the Hunter has been delayed almost a full year from October 6th, 2023 to August 30th, 2024.
• Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 has moved from December 20th, 2023 to March 29th, 2024.
• Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse has been removed from the release slate entirely. This does not mean the movie is canceled, it just means the release date is to be announced.
• A reboot of The Karate Kid moves from June 7th, 2024 to December 13th, 2024, putting it one week before The Thunderbolts from Marvel Studios should Marvel not shift their release slate.

More delays from other studios could be coming in the near future as studios attempt to demoralize striking actors and writers and turn public opinion against them instead of negotiating in good faith. The movies that are being talked about for delay include Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Color Purple, and Dune Part II from Warner Brothers and The Marvels, Magazine Dreams, Wish, and Next Goal Wins from Disney. Disney has already delayed Poor Things from September 8th, 2023 to December 8th, 2023. Many of these decisions will come in the future as it becomes time for the studios to begin the marketing strategy for these films.

*Warner Brothers did provide screeners for the entire fourth season for this review.