COMIC BOOK GUY (SEASON 11)

 

Welcome to Comic Book Guy, where my opinions are stronger than Thor's hammer and sharper than Wolverine's claws! This season’s lineup delivers everything from cosmic Martian drama to the campy resurrection of a football hero turned intergalactic savior. We’ve got a gritty animal spirit revenge tale, a superhero suffering through Martian therapy, and a Bone adaptation that proves even beloved comics can stumble on the big screen. Buckle up, true believers—this batch of films will take you from the depths of Zambesi to the moons of Mongo, and maybe even make you question the viability of animated quiche-based humor. Let the reviewing begin!

MARTIAN MANHUNTER

It’s rare for a superhero film to feel like a therapy session, but Martian Manhunter manages to deliver emotional introspection alongside Martian fireballs. Mahershala Ali embodies J’onn J’onzz with the gravitas of a Shakespearean actor tackling a space soap opera, but the existential angst gets a little heavy-handed. When our stoic hero can't turn into his Martian form anymore, he spends half the movie moping around like a college freshman who just discovered Nietzsche. Then there’s Firefly, played by Karl Glusman, whose villainous monologues are so fiery they might qualify for a barbecue competition. The moon showdown with Malefic has the makings of cosmic melodrama, but when Malefic calls himself the "Serpent King," I half expected J’onn to roll his eyes. It’s deep, it’s weird, and it’s oddly touching, but maybe next time they can sprinkle in a little more action and a little less brooding.

VIXEN: THE TOTEMS OF ZAMBESI

Vixen is what happens when you throw a superhero, a revenge tale, and an Animal Planet documentary into a blender. Gugu Mbatha-Raw absolutely owns the role of Mari Jiwe, but the script gives her whiplash from switching between spiritual awakening and "Liam Neeson in Taken mode." Jefferson Pierce (Trevante Rhodes) steals the show as Black Lightning, delivering zingers while also working through his existential crisis. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon as Eobard Thawne seems like he wandered in from a completely different movie, chewing scenery like a mad scientist on speed. The story is a rollercoaster of emotions, explosions, and enough totems to fill an Indiana Jones museum, but at least it keeps you entertained even when it’s utterly ridiculous.

FLASH GORDON

James Gunn’s Flash Gordon is exactly what you’d expect if Guardians of the Galaxy had a baby with a 1980s fever dream. Channing Tatum’s Flash is an endearingly clueless himbo who somehow stumbles his way into saving the galaxy while rocking a football jersey. Jeremy Irons’ Emperor Ming delivers villainy so hammy it should come with a side of eggs, and Emily Ratajkowski’s Princess Aura seems to have missed the memo that this isn’t a soap opera. The film’s campiness hits the sweet spot, with scenes like Flash fighting a swamp monster with a football playbook or Dave Bautista’s Prince Vultan screaming, “Dive!” with the gusto of a man auditioning for Game of Thrones. It’s ridiculous, over-the-top, and pure fun—just don’t ask it to make sense.

BONE

Bone is what happens when you try to cram Jeff Smith’s whimsical comic series into a movie and forget the whimsy. The animation is beautiful, and the voice cast (Elijah Wood, Paul Giamatti, and Bill Hader) brings their A-game, but the film feels like it’s trying to be Lord of the Rings with slapstick jokes. The Rat Creatures are supposed to be menacing, but their obsession with quiche turns every scene with them into an unintentional farce. The Great Red Dragon (Patrick Stewart) is underused, and Phony Bone’s endless scheming feels like padding for a runtime that already overstays its welcome. By the time the convoluted story reaches its anticlimactic conclusion, you’re left wondering if the studio even knew who the audience for this film was supposed to be. It’s a flop, but hey, at least it looked pretty.

Release: Lobo

 

Lobo

Genre: Action / Superhero / Sci-Fi

Director: Doug Liman

Writer: Jack Brown

Based on DC Comics characters

Cast: Vin Diesel, Ruth Negga, Tom Hopper, Zach Cherry, Alyssa Sutherland

Budget: $150,000,000

Domestic Box Office: $271,890,777

Foreign Box Office: $209,003,179

Total Profit: $78,674,598

Reaction: Considering its big budget and its R-rating, Lobo turned out to be a massive success as far as we're concerned.

"Lobo is a loud, chaotic, and unapologetically violent ride that leans heavily into its anti-hero’s absurdity. Doug Liman embraces the film’s irreverent tone, delivering creative action sequences and a bizarre sense of humor that mostly works. Vin Diesel clearly enjoys himself in the role, bringing a gruff charm to the Main Man, while the space-dolphin subplot adds a surprisingly endearing edge. It’s messy and over-the-top, but often entertaining." - Rex Calder, ComicBookMovie.com

"Lobo is a loud, vicious space brawler that fully commits to the character’s ugliest impulses, delivering gleeful carnage. Vin Diesel is uneven but physically convincing, while Doug Liman’s messy, high-velocity direction and Ruth Negga’s grounded performance keep the film from collapsing into pure noise. It’s too indulgent and brutal to be broadly appealing, but as a hard-R cult comic adaptation, it largely understands exactly what it is." - Dave Manning, Ridgefield Press

"While Lobo commits fully to its wild tone, it often mistakes chaos for storytelling. The plot is thin, jumping from set piece to set piece without much cohesion, and the central conflict between Bludhound and Gold Star feels underdeveloped despite its potential. The humor is hit-or-miss, and some of the film’s more outrageous elements—like the space dolphins—feel more distracting than charming. Diesel fits the attitude, but the film around him lacks focus." - Elliot Grange, The Modern Blockbuster

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language throughout, and crude humor.

COMIC TO FILM: LOBO

 

Welcome back for another edition of Comic to Film! This time around we are looking at the cast of the Main Man's first solo big screeen outing for the DC Comics Universe.... Lobo! Vin Diesel is reprising the role he originated in Superman: The Last Son of Krypton in the space epic directed by Doug Liman (Life on Mars, Splinter Cell) and penned by Jack Brown (The Crow: Yomi, Blood and Glory).

Now Showing: Lobo

 

Lobo

Genre: Action / Superhero / Sci-Fi

Director: Doug Liman

Writer: Jack Brown

Based on DC Comics characters

Cast: Vin Diesel, Ruth Negga, Tom Hopper, Zach Cherry, Alyssa Sutherland

Plot: Lobo (Vin Diesel) finds himself on Mondo Carno, a red-lit industrial planet teeming with creatures built for war. In the middle of a ceremonial arena wedding between two alien dynasties, chaos erupts as Lobo drops in on his SpaceHog. Lobo tears through a swarm of massive Thanagarian Snare Beasts. He uses a chain-hook to rip one in half, crushes another with his booth, and then turns the rest into a pile of goo with a grenade blast. As the guests flee, Lobo decapitates the groom, flips off the wedding party, and snatches a bounty puck from a terrified scribe. When the bride hurls a drink at him, Lobo just mutters a threat about respecting the "Main Man" and roars off. Lobo curses that the Thanagarian Snare Beasts have damaged his ride.

A flashback shows the extinction of Lobo's home planet, Czarnia. Once a utopia of peace, it is attacked by black, insectoid monsters with massive scorpion-like pincers, who massacre the entire planet. The last survivor is Lobo, sitting calm in the ruins. The creatures bow before him. Lobo lights a cigar and walks away as the planet dies.

Back in the present, Lobo lands at Space City Robinson, a filthy spaceport hub filled with criminals, pirates, and drunks. Inside a dive bar-turned-bounty-house is Bunsen (Zach Cherry) a twitchy, nervous bounty broker. Lobo shows up looking for something juicy to occupy his time. Bunsen reluctantly offers a top-tier contract: a bounty on a killer named Bludhound, responsible for over three hundred system-wide deaths. High risk, high payout. Lobo grunts, pockets the puck, and calls it fraggin' easy money.

In the repair yard next door, Darlene (Ruth Negga), works on Lobo’s broken-down ride — a Frankensteined SpaceHog patched together with alien tech and old warship armor. She mocks him for trashing it again, but he is quick to blame the Thanagarian Snare Beasts. 

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy, Bludhound (Tom Hopper) - hulking and blood-covered - wipes out an entire mercenary crew aboard an old hauler. He crushes a man’s skull with his bare hand, leaves another impaled on a pipe, and walks through gunfire like it’s a breeze. Afterward, he injects himself with a glowing serum, trying to fight the effects of his rare, terminal condition: Rob’s Disease. The side effects are already showing - blood vessels bulge, his skin shifts in tone, and his face spasms with pain.

Lobo tracks Bludhound across a trail of carnage in space. He stops at the remains of a mining rig carved into an asteroid belt, now nothing more than splintered hulls and floating corpses. Lobo can tell Bludhound was there.

On the planet Harmony - a clean, peace-loving planet - Gold Star (Tom Hopper) protects the people as their goody two-shoes superhero. However, when his handlers alert him that Bludhound is drawing near and Lobo is in pursuit, he panics. He comments that his image would be tarnished if anyone ever found out that he and Bludhound are twin brothers, separated as infants in a cruel experiment by their self-righteous academic parents - a twisted test of nature versus nurture where Gold Star was raised in luxury on Harmony, while Bludhound was abandoned in filth to live a merc life. Gold Star privately contacts Bunsen, furious that he gave Lobo the bounty. Gold Star demands that Bunsen tell Lobo to hurry up the job. Bunsen gives Lobo a call and tells him to stop Bludhound before he reaches Harmony. Darlene overhears this and wants to warn Lobo about what he's got himself into this time. Unable to reach him through a communicator, Darlene boards her old junker ship and flies toward Lobo's last known coordinates.

Lobo notices something off in the distance: a pod of space dolphins, graceful and glowing. The Main Man grins wide like a child. He mutters to himself about the beautiful bastiches and pauses to watch them - until Bludhound shows up in a surprise bombing run. Bludhound's gunship strafes a nearby asteroid field - causing the rocks to hurtle toward the space dolphins. Lobo dives into action, shielding several dolphins with his body and grabbing one injured in his arms. The leader of the dolphins - Lundgren - lingers near Lobo. Bludhound escapes during the chaos, much to Lobo’s rage. He screams curses into the void, vowing to crush the guy’s lungs when they meet for hurting the dolphins.

Darlene finds a battered Lobo. Darlene patches him up, but he's more concerned about Lundgren, who was injured in Bludhound's attack. Darlene comments that it is the first time Lobo has shown a side of himself other than "walking murder machine."

Shaola von Darragon (Alyssa Sutherland) bursts into Bunsen's Bounty, tossing Bunsen across the room. She demands information for the bounty on Bludhound. He tells her that someone is already on the missions. Shaola violently interrogates Bunsen until he spills all the beans - Lobo has the job, Gold Star initiated the bounty on his own brother, and wants him killed before he reaches Harmony. She thanks him for the information and leaves with Bunsen's Bounty in ruins. Bunsen crawls out of the rubble. 

Bludhound reaches the outer orbit of Harmony. Sick, twitching, and losing control of his own body, he crashes through a security outpost. Gold Star gets the alert and panics. His handlers tell him to evacuate. Instead, he dons his gold, shimmering battle armor, determined to take control of the situation.

Darlene and Lobo fly on a course for Harmony, this time with Lundgren and the rest of the space dolphin pod trailing behind them. As Darlene works on repairs on Lobo's SpaceHog and asks the million credit question - why does Lobo care so much about the space dolphins. Lobo says they are the only decent fraggers in the universe. Lobo points out that they are entering Harmony's orbital perimeter. Darlene tells him that the repairs are not finished on the SpaceHog. Lobo tells her he has a better entrance in mind.

Lobo rides on the back of Lundgren as security drones target him. He blasts through them with gleeful overkill. The other dolphin zip behind him in formation, taking out the rest of the security drones. Shaola suddenly pulls her ship up next to them, colliding mid-flight. Lobo swings his chain at Shaola's ship, causing her ship to crash into a mountainside. Shaola demands Lobo step aside - he wants the bounty. Lobo spits some blood before jabbing a dagger through Shaola's armor. She responds by firing a blaster point-blank at Lobo's face. He shrugs it off with a grin and headbutts Shaola to the ground. 

Meanwhile, Bludhound arrives in the capital city. His limbs swell grotesquely - Rob's Disease is in its final stages. Civilians flee as he tears through Gold Star's security forces. He roars his brother's name. Gold Star descends from his tower. Bludhound accuses Gold Star of abandoning him. Gold Star doesn't argue that point, but contends instead that Bludhoud is diseased and should be put down. The two erupt in a brutal fight. Bludhound fights dirty - using every dirty trick in the book: groin shots, biting, hair pulling. 

Lobo arrives at the peak of the chaos on Lundgren's back with guns blazing. He lands in the middle of the twin showdown. He chains Gold Star through a wall and tackles Bludhound. Lobo pauses when he sees how close to death Bludhound is from his disease. Lobo jokes about how he's tempted to wait for Bludhound to die from Rob's Disease - he's seen plenty of heads explode, but none implode. Bludhoud mocks Lobo, saying death is welcome however it comes as long as his brother goes with him. Gold Star blasts them both from behind, screaming that no one gets to ruin his perfect image. Lobo chains Gold Star around the neck and throws him through Gold Star Tower, the base of operations for Harmony's hero. Bludhound uses his last moments to impale Gold Star with a jagged spike. Gold Star dies, gasping and bloody, still claiming to be the better brother. Bludhound collapses, seizing violently as Rob's Disease overtakes him. His skull distends grotesquely, then implodes with a wet, bloody crack. 

As the citizens of Harmony emerge to survey the damage to their home planet, Lobo lights a cigar. He demands payment from Gold Star's handlers. They claim they don't know what he's talking about. He flips them off, hops on Lundgren's back, and calls the rest of the space dolphins. They leave the smoking remains of Harmony's capital and head back into space. 

Lobo and Darlene return to Space City Robinson to find the destruction of Bunsen's Bounty. Inside the wreckage, a panicked and bandaged Bunsen is trying to repair his kiosk with duct tape. When he sees Lobo approaching, he shrieks and dives under what's left of his desk.

In Development

 

Gray: Uma Thurman (An Irish Rendezvous, Caesar Part III), Douglas Booth (Caesar Part III, Batman: Knightfall), and Bella Heathcote (The Big One, The Shadow) have all joined Timothee Chalamet and Jared Leto in the Picture of Dorian Gray update from director Luca Guadagnino - Gray. Thurman will play a member of NYC high society, Booth will play the brother of Suki Waterhouse's character, while Heathcote will play the wife of the artist played by Jared Leto. Roy Horne penned the update.

Echoes of Red: Cate Blanchett (The Betrothed, The Water Cure) is set to headline the thriller Echoes of Red, where she will play a grieving socialite accused of murdering her husband and struggles to piece together what really happened. Luke Evans (Becoming Carole Lombard, Red Lantern Corps) will play her deceased husband, while Vanessa Kirby (Justice League War, Twisted Metal) play her husband's mistress. Emerald Fennell (Supergirl: Power, Wuthering Heights) is set to direct from a script by Mo Buck (Gas Bar Blues, Tomato Can) - marking the writer's first film since Season 30.

Luke Cage: The Purple Man: Harlem's favorite hero is back for another round with Luke Cage: The Purple Man. Omari Hardwick (D.I.C.K., Robopocalypse) is back as Luke Cage, Olivia Munn (The Vacationers, The Fall Guy: Trouble in Tahiti) is back as Jessica Jones, and Nathalie Emmanuel (Among Us, Luke Cage: Power Man) is back as Misty Knight. This time around, Cage and company find themselves contending with the neighborhood being violently brainwashed. George Tillman Jr. (Luke Cage: Power Man, Big George Foreman) is back to direct another Marvel Universe entry, once again from a script by Jimmy Ellis (Rubicon Lies, Coriolanus) and Dwight Gallo (X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, The Lone Ranger).

Assassin's Creed: Eternal: Jacob Elordi (Tara's Wrath, The Lone Ranger) is set to headline a new blockbuster, globe and time spanning take on the Assassin's Creed video game series. Elordi will play Desmond Miles, a descendant of Assassins throughout history forced into a hidden war. Elordi will also play Miles' ancestors in various time periods. Emma Mackey (The House of Black, Sgt. Rock) will join him as Lucy Stillman, an employee of Abstergo - a company that forces Miles to live his ancestor's lives. Mackey will also play multiple character of the time periods. Director Edward Berger (Conclave, All Quiet on the Western Front) will make his LRF debut on the video game adaption penned by Roy Horne (Tara's Wrath, Scarlet Witch).

Darkness: Maika Monroe (Terror of the Lost time, The Tomb of Dracula) is set to take her scream queen status to the sets of Darkness. The film tells the story of a woman who sees only in black and white who can see terrifying shadow monsters during a blackout that others cannot. Camila Mendes (Justice League War, The Day) will co-star in the film as Monroe's roommate. Osgood Perkins (The Monkey, Longlegs) is set as director, while Jack Slipter (Detroit: Become Human, Queen Margot) returns to LRF as writer of Darkness.

Fletch: Glen Powell (Robopocalypse, The Avengers) has been given the monumental task of taking on the title role in a new version of the famous Fletch character, originally appearing in Gregory MacDonald's novels and most famously portrayed on the big screen by the one-and-only Chevy Chase. In this take, Fletch will be find himself embroiled in a murder-for-hire scheme in 1970s Corpus Christi. Christina Hendricks (Excalibur, Misfit), Patrick Schwarzenegger (Bunny, "The White Lotus"), and Kaia Gerber (Outcome, Mother Mary) have also joined the project. Hendricks will play Fletch's no-nonsense editor, Schwarzenegger will play a successful aviation executive plotting an elaborate escape from his own life, and Gerber will play Schwarzenegger's wife who suspects something is off. Richard Linklater (The Thin Man, Hands on a Hard Body) has been brought in to direct the project from a script by Chad Taylor (Starlight, The House Down the Street).

PREMIERE MAGAZINE #353

 

THE ROUNDUP WITH JEFF STOCKTON (SEASON 36 ROUND 3)

 

Nine films into Season 36 and I think we finally know what kind of season this is: wildly inconsistent, occasionally excellent, and financially confusing. This round gave us two genuine crowd-pleasers, one expensive misfire, and enough nostalgia bait to make every millennial in the audience suddenly want to ride bikes around their hometown again. Here's The Roundup....

1995

Look, I’m not going to pretend 1995 reinvented the wheel.

This thing is basically Stand By Me with a mid-90s coat of paint, a little extra sentimentality, and enough coming-of-age nostalgia to trigger flashbacks for anyone who remembers dial-up internet or renting VHS tapes. But here’s the thing: it actually worked.

Sometimes audiences just want a solid, emotionally sincere movie with characters they enjoy spending time around. 1995 knew exactly what it wanted to be and never overcomplicated itself trying to chase “prestige.” It had heart, charm, and just enough emotional honesty to overcome how familiar the formula was. Not every movie has to reinvent cinema to be good.

SOUNDTRACKS

After seven straight releases without much musical identity, Round 3 suddenly gave us two soundtrack-driven films. Was Double Date my thing musically? Not even remotely. But at least it had a personality.

Then there’s 1995, which came in like somebody raided the CD wallet of every suburban teenager from 1994 and somehow turned it into an emotional weapon. The soundtrack doesn’t just complement the movie — it elevates it. At this point, it feels like an immediate Golden Reel Awards contender for Best Soundtrack, and frankly, it might already be the thing to beat.

More movies should remember how much music matters.

JACOB JONES

Good for Jacob Jones. It’s easy to forget because he’s had a pretty consistent LRF presence, but Jones had quietly become one of those writers who kept getting opportunities without landing a true breakout success. 

Then comes Double Date, which — despite my personal issues with it — actually connects with audiences in a meaningful way and turns into a legitimate success story.

No, it doesn’t suddenly make Jacob Jones the king of romantic comedies. But after a stretch of poor results, getting a clean commercial win matters. Sometimes a hit is exactly what a career needs to regain momentum.

DOUBLE DATE

I’m happy this movie succeeded.

I really am.

But I just couldn’t get into it.

Part of the problem was the cast. Outside of Olivia Rodrigo and Joey King — who both understood the tone and had actual charisma — everybody else felt distractingly baby-faced. And the male leads in particular? I’m sorry, but charisma matters in a romantic comedy. If your audience isn’t at least somewhat buying why people are falling for these characters, the whole thing starts wobbling.

Maybe I’m just aging out of the target demographic here, but Double Date felt like a movie where everyone looked about fourteen years old trying to navigate adult relationship drama. The audience clearly disagreed with me, which happens, but this one just wasn’t for Jeff Stockton.

STRETCH ARMSTRONG

I hated the concept before I even saw the movie.

And unfortunately, seeing the movie didn’t really improve my opinion.

Here’s the problem: Stretch Armstrong stretches.

That’s the character.

There isn’t decades of mythology here. No rich emotional lore. No obvious cinematic angle. The filmmakers were forced to create an entire narrative ecosystem around a toy whose defining characteristic is basically “rubber guy.”

You could practically feel the strain of everyone trying to convince themselves this premise had enough meat on the bone for a blockbuster. Ryan Gosling tried. Lord and Miller tried. Giovanni Garcia definitely tried. But in the end, it felt exactly like what it was: a movie desperately stretching (pun absolutely intended) a paper-thin concept into two hours of entertainment.

BOX OFFICE

And once again… the math gets ugly.

Yes, two of the three films this round turned profits.

That should be good news.

Except Stretch Armstrong lost so much money that it basically swallowed those wins whole and asked for dessert.

This is becoming a worrying trend for Season 36: the season keeps generating winners, but the losers are losing big. Financially, it’s starting to feel like LRF is winning battles while quietly losing chunks of the war. At some point, the slate has to start producing more singles and doubles instead of constantly relying on home runs to make up for strikeouts.