The Suggestion Box #111: Krypton, and Hellspawn, and LeBron, Oh My!

Posted on by Lauren

Wondering what to do with your upcoming free time? Good thing we have some suggestions for what you should (and definitely shouldn’t) be watching, playing, reading, listening to, etc.

Ben’s Movie Warning: Space Jam: A New Legacy – Look, I’m not gonna say that the original Space Jam is one of the all-time best sport or Looney Tunes movies, but I enjoyed it. It had a creative premise, a charming lead actor/athlete in Michael Jordan and was often quite funny. A New Legacy lacks all of that. I’ve only seen Lebron James in one other movie (Trainwreck, which I thought he was terrific in) so I won’t say he’s a bad actor, but it seems like he had zero enthusiasm for this movie. And to be fair, why would he? The story, gags, and pretty much every piece of A New Legacy screams “creative bankruptcy.” Instead of approaching anything near originality the movie just tries to engage you by throwing in lazy references to other Warner Bros IP’s, cameos, or shiny, hollow recreations that were far better in whatever they were haphazardly ripped from. Even the tremendous talent and apparent effort of Don Cheadle is utterly wasted on this depressingly cynical cash-grab. Do yourself a favor and just rewatch the original… Or almost anything else.

Ben’s Short Film Pick: Zygote – Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo star in this short film that checks a lot of the same boxes as my favorite sci-fi horror franchises do, all the while managing to carve out its own identity. An isolated mining operation that’s cut off from everywhere else? Check. Said mining operation discovering a deadly force that they’re completely unprepared for? Yup. Lighting, camerawork and lots of corridors used to heighten tension and feelings of claustrophobia? You bet. Inspired creature design that’s the stuff nightmares are made of? You better believe it. If you’re a fan of the likes of Alien, The Thing or Dead Space I strongly urge you to check out Zygote; and be sure of go in with no more information than what I just shared.

Lauren’s TV Pick: My Adventures with Superman Season 2 – I know Ben and I both separately just sang the praises of this show in recent “Suggestion Box” posts, but I can’t not speak about the new season thanks to the the introduction of my favorite Kryptonian in the back half. Step aside, Clark’s insecurities about not being human enough for the world to accept him — helped in no small part by a distracted Lois too busy trying to finally be enough for her dad to sit down and work through Clark’s escalating fear that maybe she doesn’t actually love all of him — my weirdly overwhelming preoccupation with Jimmy burning through his millions of dollars from selling Flamebird to the Daily Planet, and Clark’s newly developed (super random) shield powers, it’s Kara Zor-El time! Her origin story may be different than the versions I’m used to — no living through the fall of Krypton as a young teen (as she and Kal are both babies at the time of the planet’s destruction here) and/or getting trapped in the Phantom Zone while following her cousin’s pod to Earth — but one thing never changes for our Girl of Steel: the TRAUMA. Turns out being shaped into the ultimate example of Kryptonian excellence by an ethnocentric father holding tightly to her leash isn’t the best way to develop into a happy adult, as Kara grapples with honoring the heritage she has been forced to prioritize since birth (and spread to other planets through, um, questionable means), as well as the guilt of finding joy in the “less important” aspects of cultures that make life truly worth living. Like ice cream (I say as someone whose stomach gets raised to the ground like an unworthy planet each and every time I decide to give the dairy product another chance). She can have all of my ice cream, and everyone else’s too. She more than deserves it.

Ben’s TV Pick: Todd McFarlane’s Spawn – Instead of trying in vain to get a movie reboot off the ground every few years, Todd McFarlane should just continue the cult classic TV show he helped create in the late 90’s. Kieth David voices the titular antihero, and it’s still one of my favorite performances from the legendary actor. The animation and score ooze a darkness, grime, and pathos that help encapsulate the world of hellspawns, demonic clowns, and the purest of evils humanity has to offer. The story of Al Simmons, a deeply flawed man who made a literal deal with the devil (that pans out for him even worse than you’d expect) is also quite compelling, and the show’s brief three-season run feels like it’s just scratching the surface of his journey – which makes sense considering the comic is still ongoing. I rarely recommend shows that end on cliffhangers, but I think part of why Todd McFarlane’s Spawn was canceled is because it was too far ahead of its time. Now, though, in an era of reboots and where adult animation is widely respected? I feel like plenty of people would tune in for a fourth season of horror-tinged antiheroism.

And on the slim chance that anyone at Warner Bros. is reading this: please, please let Mcfarlane continue to do the live-action introductions for each episode. Yeah, those segments where he talks to the audience are 90’s as Hell, but I still love them.

So what do you think about these picks? What content did we miss over the past two weeks while we were spending time with these? Be sure to leave a comment below letting us know about everything (both current and simply new to you) you’ve been consuming lately!

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