Cinematic Universe

It was Superbowl Sunday this week, which traditionally means an influx of absolutely massive movie trailer news. Or, at least it does in theory - in reality, it can end up being a bit like the movie equivalent of Transfer Deadline Day. Either way, and because we needed to catch up with some outstanding news matters anyway, Seb and James have roped in Den of Geek news editor Kirsten Howard to run through the latest Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel spots, that Birds of Prey teaser, an old Keanu Reeves story getting reported as new, Y: The Last Man going to series, James Gunn moving away from Superman and towards The Suicide Squad, and plenty more besides. Well, some more besides, anyway. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's our first news roundup of 2019, so of course it's come out nearly a week late after we spent several days unable between us to edit it. But listen on for our takes on Black Panther's Oscars nomination, Katherine Langford's new hairdo, the possible presence of Genis-Vell in Captain Marvel, the latest Morbius developments, James Wan lining up Aquaman 2 and various other bits of DC future, the Flarrowverse doing Crisis, and trailers for The Boys and The Umbrella Academy. And! We'll actually be back before our next main episode with another news special, rounding up last week's developments as well as anything that might get shown during the Superbowl tomorrow... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're kicking off our fifth year with a jam-packed episode, and the film that might just have marked the creation of the first ever cinematic universe: Jeanott Szwarc's 1984 version of Supergirl! Plus, we catch up on some of the latest news, including a dive into the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, and Seb getting to have a big old rant about Stargirl's choice of Starman. All of this, and you get to learn the fate of the Pitch segment! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sure, we're a week into 2019, but there's still time to keep looking back at 2018, right? Well, there'd better be, as here we are one week later with PART TWO of our epic end-of-year awards special. So listen on to find out our all-important remaining picks, including Best Film, new Hall of Fame entrants, AND news on how you, yes YOU, can have your say on one of the major awards! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's been a heck of a year for great new comic book movies, which might explain why we balanced it out by covering so many old bad ones, too. Join us for our annual awards bash as we hand out gongs for our favourites (and less-than-favourites) of everything we've covered in the last year. And don't forget, this is only part one - we'll be along with the second half to round everything else up in a few days' time! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In all the plot twists of 2018, an animated Miles Morales movie sneaking in at the death to arguably be not only the superhero film of the year, but also possibly the best Spider-Man film ever, is something to behold. But even bigger than that is that James liked it. Join us as we take a deep dive into this immensely enjoyable insta-masterpiece - with a spoiler-free section at the beginning for those of you who somehow haven't seen it yet (but seriously... see it). Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So yeah, the Avengers trailer (and title) dropped, and naturally we were able to spend a good half an hour talking about it. But, we had already just before that recorded our long-awaited catchup on all the news that's happened over the last couple of weeks before that - and because we're mean, we're making you sit through that before we get on to all the Endgame talk. Enjoy! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's another one of those "comic book movies that most people didn't know were comic book movies" that the 1990s were so fond of! But how does The Rocketeer hold up nowadays when both the film itself and its source material were already so deliberately throwback? Does it contain the seeds of greatness that would lead to Captain America: The First Avenger? Joe and Seb are joined by a man who has had the film's poster as his Twitter avatar for years and years, so Matthew Turner definitely won't be biased at all... right? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So yeah, sorry about this: we managed to drop the ball on editing and releasing this episode through a combination of bad scheduling, work pressures, illness, and fitting in an additional Stan Lee tribute episode. But having recorded it a couple of weeks ago we did still want to make sure you actually got to hear our takes on some of these outstanding news items. Truth be told, we can't actually remember what most of them were, so we might have to listen along with you to find out! Normal service will, thankfully, resume very shortly... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joe, Seb and James gather to discuss the passing of Stan Lee, and his impact and legacy on Marvel's comics, movies and the superhero genre in general. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's hard to imagine, but when we launched Cinematic Universe, this film was less than a year old. We've talked about it an awful lot since, but thanks to our slavish devotion to doing each film series in their correct sequence, we're only now getting to actually covering it in its own right. Is it the greatest modern superhero movie? Bucky superfan Limara Salt joins Joe and Seb to delve into that question and an awful lot more besides. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There's been an awful lot of news since the last time we had a chance to talk about anyway, and we've been a bit slack in keeping up with it. So here's the first part of our attempt to catch up: a minisode in which Joe and James talk about some of the outstanding news items, before Joe and Seb talk about a bunch more of it on our next main episode. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joe and James are joined by special guest Amon Warmann to discuss the Sony Spider-Man symbiote spinoff that someone, somewhere, seemingly solicited:: Venom! Does it manage to be a worthy addition to the Spidey canon (not to mention the Tom Hardy canon), or does it live up to its own tagline of "The World Has Enough Super-Heroes"? Find out! As per usual for a new release episode, there's no news section beforehand - just some non-spoilery opinions followed by a launch straight into the spoiler section. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In a truly fantastic piece of timing, we recorded this episode before the Dark Phoenix trailer landed. But then it's taken us so long to release it that we've actually had time to record an extra insert discussing it - which means that for the first time ever, the news section and the main section are basically about the same film. That, along with our surprising reaction to those Joker images, would explain why the news section is nearly an hour long, before we finally get onto X-Men: The Last Stand, the film that killed the X-franchise the first time, before it rose like a certain nameless character, only to... well, let's face it, to probably be killed again whenever (if?) Dark Phoenix finally comes out. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Well, there's been quite a lot to talk about lately, hasn't there? So much so that in the weeks between our V For Vendetta and X-Men: The Last Stand episodes, we've ended up gathering to record not one, but TWO minisodes. And our schedules being what they are, we didn't actually manage to edit and release the first one before that Captain Marvel trailer came out and we had to record the second. So welcome back the trusty old "Megasode" format, as first Joe and Seb get together to talk about all that Henry Cavill speculation, Supergirl and Sabrina, before James then gets in on the act to talk all things Captain Marvel and the new MCU telly slate. Plus! We catch up on not one, but TWO weeks worth of pitches that James definitely spent time preparing for. All of this, and we haven't even got on to Joker yet... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We've teased it for years, and it's finally here. We're finally talking about V For Vendetta - the Alan Moore adaptation that Seb viscerally hates and James inexplicably doesn't. At least... that's what they thought back in 2005, when its vision of a fascist-ruled dystopian future was just a wild pipe dream. How does it look in the altogether cheerier 2018? Are they going to disappoint everyone who's been waiting for this episode by being more moderate, or have they become only more fanatical in their views? And which way will Joe land? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's safe to say that even by the low standards of "comic book movies from 1997", Spawn is not a particularly well-regarded film. But you know us, we always like to look for the good in things, from Howard the Duck to The Punisher. Were we able to similarly find something to enjoy about the adaptation of Todd McFarlane's early-90s-defining Image series? The answer... won't shock you, actually, because seriously, this is just a terrible, terrible movie. But hopefully you'll enjoy hearing us talk about it anyway, because we had plenty to unpick. Meanwhile, in the absence of much news (and hey, Alec Baldwin managed to become Thomas Wayne and then not be Thomas Wayne any more during the time between recording this and releasing it) Seb and James take a trip into Comics Corner to fill Joe in on what's been going on in the funny pages since the last time! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For the three or four of you who are actually big fans of the Pitch segment, we've finally managed to get around to catching up on all the business that's been left outstanding over the past couple of months. So listen on to hear Seb and James' responses to the various challenges laid down in our Incredibles 2, Spider-Man 3 and Ant-Man and the Wasp episodes. And, although we didn't have a huge amount of news left to cover, we've pitchified those little tidbits we have decided to look at as well. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It came out so long ago in the US - and, come to that, in the UK - that we almost can't even really call this a "new release" pod. But! Nevertheless, we have all now finally seen Ant-Man and the Wasp, and what's more... there's some pretty strong disagreement over its merits. So tune in for an almighty ding-dong, as well as a catchup on some of the latest comic book movie news, including James and Seb laughing heartily at Sony's latest piece of barrel scraping. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Well, here it is: the last time we'll cover a Spider-Man movie that already existed before we did the podcast, and our fond farewell to Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, JK Simmons, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and, uh, John Paxton. Largely derided on its release for being the (then) duffest Spidey film by some way, has time (and Marc Webb) proven kinder to its reputation? Meanwhile, since there's thankfully not been much news since our big SDCC blowout, we mostly spend the news section indulging in some probably-already-out-of-date speculation about the latest developments in the Disney/Fox deal. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/cinematicuniverse.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.