Weekly Entertainment Recap: Week of August 14th, 2023

My Adventures With Superman Episode 7 (Adult Swim/HBOMax): The multiverse story is played out a bit, as is the idea of a multiverse council of various iterations of the same character, even if it feels like it has a purpose in this episode considering they’re hunting down Mxyzptlk. That said, using this episode as an opportunity to reset Lois and Clark’s relationship gives some great character moments for the two, even as they split off to do their own plotlines.

Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 5 (HBOMax): Harley’s relationship with Alysia is pretty amusing as they go out to try and find out what happened to Batgirl and Harley needs to grapple with her sleepwalking issues. The Poison Ivy plotline on the other hand feels a little like filler and does not quite mesh in with the rest of the episode in a way where it feels on theme or interesting.

Pokemon Ultimate Journeys Part 2 (Netflix): Unlike last week’s part one, part two does move the show towards the final arc in an interesting way where even Goh’s story feels interesting. If there is a complaint about the show, it is that the seeding for the tournament makes no sense because if it’s an eight-seed tournament, usually it would be one-seed against eight-seed, two-seed against seven-seed, etc. going down the line. It’s obvious from the bracket setup that the people behind the show want to see Ash fight Steven Stone, then Cynthia, then Leon despite being the eight-seed so the bracket is made to give the fights they want.

Heart of Stone (Netflix): Netflix has been hellbent on having its own popular action franchise and making it work and it just never has. They always feel formulaic, they always feel like the effects are substandard, and they always feel like the lead actor or actress is major stunt casting. Extraction was not very good, The Grey Man was not very good, and now Heart of Stone is not very good. The most egregious issue with the film is that it’s just boring, not even bad in the more traditional sense where there are things so egregiously awful that it could be fun to watch. Even the action set pieces are not fun to watch or in the least bit interesting.

You May Have Missed:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney+): After months in theaters (and a fairly solid box office run in a year Disney desperately needs a win), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally hits Disney+ it can be viewed at home included with the base subscription. The movie is a great send-off to a group of characters that were relatively unknown when the first movie came out but steadily grew into household names. Some moments are not quite perfect, but there are still plenty of fantastic bits in the movie that make it worth a watch. For a full review, click here.

This Week In Theaters:

Blue Beetle: Warner Brothers has really been dropping the ball when it comes to marketing Blue Beetle and it is unclear why. Is it a concern about quality? Are they concerned about the movie not connecting with audiences? If one watches a Warner Bros/Discovery television network in the last week they will be inundated with trailers for Ahsoka
which premieres next Wednesday on Disney+ with almost no coverage going to Blue Beetle. Either way, this will be the debut of the DC character Blue Beetle in live action with no clear answer as to how this fits into DC’s new muddled continuity. It could be under the old DCEU which will be culminating with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom or it could be in the new DCU which will officially start with Superman: Legacy
in 2025, or it could be some mixture of the two where bits and pieces move on and other aspects do not. It is what it is, and it does open this Friday.

Strays: Strays is a vulgar comedy in the vein of Cocaine Bear about a dog voiced by Will Ferrell who seeks to get revenge on his owner for abandoning him by teaming up with a bunch of other stray dogs voiced by Isla Fisher, Jamie Foxx, and Randall Park. The movie would have probably been better served by going directly to Peacock or at least doing a day-and-date release strategy like they will be doing with Five Nights at Freddie’s this fall.

Last Week At The Box Office:

Barbie: $33.7 Million

Oppenheimer: $18.8 Million

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: $15.8 Million

Meg 2: The Trench: $12.7 Million

The Last Voyage of the Demeter: $6.5 Million