As the gap between big releases widens, the Waypoint Radio crew find themselves filling the time by diving deep into the Snyderverse. Austin is supplementing his Snyderverse dive with a dip into Batman: Arkham Origins, the (unfairly?) maligned prequel that seems better than some of the lauded sequels to Batman: Arkham Asylum. Rob has been checking out The Evil Within since its addition to Game Pass, and is starting to regret it. Patrick actually played a new game named Cozy Grove, a life-sim that he’s gelling with due to its narrative nature and daily limits on play. Cado is still playing Bravely Default 2, though at this point he’s not even sure why. And we take another dive in the briny bath of the Question Bucket to finally learn what a pickle actually is.
I think Arkham City gets short shrift. It’s not the full realization that Arkham Knight is (although it has a better story, I think) and it’s not as tight as Asylum is, but I still think it’s a great game in its own right.
Also the Snyder Cut is a gloriously self-indulgent piece of melodramatic cheese but twoish hours in I’m enjoying it…quite a bit?
I had a very weird experience with Arkham City. I assumed the countdown Hugo Strange keeps announcing was an actual countdown so I mainlined the plot and so was fairly under leveled for the endgame.
Really enjoying the sandwich/pickle email arc the pod’s been going on recently! It’s lead to me (slightly) mixing up my usual sandwich preparation and learned that peanut butter and jelly on sourdough is more enjoyable than thought it’d be and that chunky peanut butter is not as unpleasant as I thought it’d be! (Still not a fan though.)
Also, I guess I missed the part in the last episode where they connected lines between the characters in the Sonic and DC universes but I loved Austin’s complete rejection at Cado’s assertion that Knuckles would beat up the mafia if given the chance.
Personally, I’ve just come to accept that Rob and Austin bring a lot more of themselves to the things they consume than I’m willing to. If I’m willing to meet games halfway, they’ll go 2/3 as long as there’s something there to reward the effort, even if the reward isn’t proportional to the effort. It’s what makes them interesting critics to listen to, but when it comes to making decisions about what I’m going to play or watch I honestly just ignore them unless they think something is just really bad, in which case it’s definitely not worth my time.
To each their own, but I HATE Man of Steel. HATE it. For whatever smattering of good moments or visuals it has, the rest of it is dragged down into the dirt by the god awful viewpoints and staggeringly bad writing.
The entire conflict of the movie, literally all of it, hinges on the fact that Zod refuses to move his car because he already found a parking spot. The city could be saved, countless lives could have been saved, if everyone wasn’t the biggest god damned fool possible at all given times.
Zod - we want the baby making DNA thing and we’re going to turn this planet into Krypton!
Kal - Look, I kind of like this planet, how about I give you what you want and in exchange you just find another planet? There are literally billions to choose from, many with yellow suns.
Zod - Well that is infinitely reasonable, thank you kindly. I’ll take my weird macguffin and be on my way!
But nope, Zod has to risk it all and anger the only remaining Kryptonian all because… reasons? Oh, and remember when Zod insists Lois comes aboard the ship for no reason at all? You, plot device, get over here, Russel Crowe needs someone to talk to.
Pa Kent telling young Clark not to help people because it might make life harder for him. Clark messing up some dude’s truck for being an asshole despite the fact that he probably doesn’t even own it. Being hit in the head with christ imagery like a 50 ton sledgehammer.
I can’t fathom not saving the best food for last although I have evolved from being regimented with eating things individually to shoving it all into one big enjoyable mess. But if there’s something on there I’m not too keen on that is dispensed with first.
The worst part is that Man of Steel made me immensely dislike Henry Cavill, and it took a double dose of MI: Fallout and The Witcher to make me see what a charismatic action star he can be. What a waste of talent in service of a doomed endeavor.
Never forget that Snyder once said that if he made Captain America that he would have Cap get raped or something traumatic like that. I have no reaction that is exasperated enough for this guy.
I’m not even opposed to having a different approach to an established character. I have zero connection or attachment to Superman, I didn’t read the comics and I watched some of the old movies. I do feel that if you’re going to take a newer angle an on established character, you have to do something with it or examine it in some way so the contrast is meaningful. Man of Steel and all of the snyderverse basically boils down to “what if all heroes thought the way that I, Zack Snyder did?” and that’s it. It’s sickeningly interesting as a study of its creator, but it’s got fuck all to do with Superman. The world reacts to this different Superman the exact same way because Snyder thinks this Superman is dope. Who has a state funeral for a man who dodges a gas truck so it can blow up the building behind him when he’s indestructible? To Superman getting hit by that truck is the same as me getting hit by the slightest of breezes, but he lets it hit the building behind him and cause extra damage for no reason. It is a Superman who will take extra steps to intentionally let more harm happen because he can’t be bothered to give a shit, but he is laid out in honor. Fuck off.
Edit: just to not exclusively pile on Snyder, remember in Superman Returns where Clark Kent has unprotected sex with Lois Lane and then immediately leaves earth for a couple of years? Does anyone even know what character they’re writing for?
To be fair, the Injustice games low-key have better plots than most superhero movies, period.
Having finished the Snyder Cut in its entirety now, I’m surprised by how much I like it. I still think it’s a self-indulgent piece of melodramatic cheese, but none of the characters gets shortchanged. He manages to make Batman more than the gruff psychopath he was in Batman vs. Superman. It manages to have funny moments (although it is a dour movie) without sounding like every other superhero movie ever written. I don’t know that I would recommend it because I’m not sure that it’s worth the four-hour sitdown, but it’s substantially better than I was anticipating.
Snyder is a huge jock dumbass who loves movies. Absolutely no clue how to write humans but he certainly has an eye. We cannot even begin to unpack how comically fucked the gender politics of Sucker Punch are here. The guy has hamburger meat for brains.
It’s not the Pyramid ships that invaded the Cabal homeworld, it was Xivu Arath and her Hive forces. Amanda Holliday’s mother died of unspecified cause while traveling to The Last City, well before there even were Cabal on Earth. Her grievance is over the same Red War stuff as everyone else.
