The Roundup with Jeff Stockton (Season 27 Round 5)

  

  

Round 5 finally featured the massive hit the studio has been waiting for. Here's The Roundup....

3. Box Office

Clearly Batman: Knightfall saved the overall box office for the first half of Season 27. Things should be a little more spread out in the second half with Wonder Woman, Namor the Sub-Mariner and Swamp Thing all showing up for sequels.

2. Ruthersville, Brazil

I found the story here very engrossing. At first I was put off by Wyatt Allen's choice to fictionalize the events of Fordlandia (I still think he could have used the real names and had a little more impact with the history of the Fords), but I eventually stopped caring and just fell into the story. 

1. Batman: Knightfall

APJ managed to churn out the best Batman film yet the fifth time around. While an obvious choice, Dave Bautista still managed to be a great physical threat for Jake Gyllenhaal's Batman. The events of the film clearly are also still setting up future events for the series, which frankly, is impressive from a storytelling standpoint after all these seasons.

3. Awards Races

So far through 15 films, only Batman: Knightfall has garnered the "Must See" status. While that film is deserving of some GRA nominations, it isn't a great sign when the biggest awards contender of the first half of the season is a superhero blockbuster.

2. Profits

If you take Batman: Knightfall out of the equation, the other 14 films only managed to combine for $25 million in profit. The studio cannot live off of just the occasional superhero record setter. It's just not sustainable. While the second half has some safe bets to be hits in the superhero genre, it would be nice if some non-blockbuster type of films manage better profits.

1. The Girls

I could not get into the story of The Girls one bit. The switches between time periods were too jarring and not handled well in the writing, even though it was not as bad and disorienting as films like Home Before Dark. I did like the casting of the major roles, but the story just lacked focus (especially in the present day period).