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Tickets booked, mission accepted. I'm avoiding all spoilers and any new footage. I'm waiting this out and treating what will likely be the last film in the series with respect. It's going to be an experience, that's for sure.

I wouldn't be surprised at this point. If true, so be it. The ball has been dragged along the gravel road to the point of absurdity. Generally speaking my care level with modern cinema is at record lows. I've barely been to a theatre in recent years and apart from The Final Reckoning, which for me will probably be the last old style event film, I have minimal interest in anything else. The propaganda and lack of real stars is so apparent and annoys me no end. The Batman II, even if made, is so far off into the future it's not worth wishing my life away in waiting for in any case. I already have enough great content to enjoy if needed.

A fifth film has been announced and I'm of mixed minds now. I wanted one after the fourth entry but Keanu's age has to be factor by this stage. It's an exhausting part to play and I almost feel sorry for the guy having to go through that all again. I liked Chapter 4 but you could sense time was taking its toll. There's also the possibility a fifth succeeds at the box office and we're in the same position again with the studio wanting more. At some point Keanu's role in the franchise will have to come to an end. I just hope when he finally exits it's on good terms.

Hard to comment much at this early stage. I'm all for Robins being reintroduced into Batman media, however preferably alongside Batman. The puppets could be a master stroke or an embarrassing mistake. Very much a matter of wait and see.

I quite liked Romulus upon release, but the longer I thought about it, the less I liked it. I'm aware how people feel about Covenant and the issue of xenomorph origins, but I'd rank that the last best we've had since Aliens. The performance and machinations of David alone push it upwards in the rankings for me. Romulus felt feels like a greatest hits remix rather than a bold new chapter. Recycled dialogue, visuals and plot beats - and a big one - the xenos didn't feel dangerous. The film needed a bigger cast to inflict more kills. A 6/10 film at best.

I guess that could work, though I know it's just Gunn wanting to put his own spin on a character most people have never heard of, and naturally, you can get away with it. However, I think Ultra and the Syndicate would have much more profound dramatic weight in the grand scheme of things, as unknown invaders from a alternate earth that are here to take over, rather than a defeated villain returning once again with a posse of his own. I don't know. The stakes seem higher with the former, than the latter...

I'm concerned about the villain choice of Ultraman. It could feel generic and samey from what we've already had with Zod and the evil Superman from III. I was hoping for someone radically different like Bizarro or Metallo. But I'l give it a chance. I have a suspicion it could be about providing commentary on the darker interpretations of Superman we've had in recent times like Injustice or Snyder's Knightmare timeline.

As to your other point, it is a shame that his tenure as Batman came to such an undignified end.

Way I see it, we'll always have B89 and BR. Even The Flash leaned heavily into homages ("I'm Batman", "let's get nuts", "how much do you weigh?", moon silhouette imagery etc), suggesting the most meaningful things from his tenure had already been said and done. Which helped make me accept I don't need anything else. I have his duology and the original Batman Beyond TV show, and I've been enjoying the latter a whole lot in recent times. It could look better visually, but I don't think a live action adaption could match it overall, anyway.

Lately there was a social media spat between Grace Randolph and X-Men '97 showrunner Beau DeMayo concerning Matt Reeves. It sounds like he's battling serious health issues, with Randolph going so far as to compare his situation to that of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. DeMayo called Randolph out for saying this, but in doing so seemingly verified that Reeves' health is in a precarious state. We'll just have to keep him in our thoughts and prayers and hope he pulls through whatever it is he's battling.

Unfortunately this means the Batman II script still hasn't been completed. WB CEO Pam Abdy recently said the following:

"We have a bit of other collaboration with Matt Reeves, but Peter and James know he is a writer-directing auteur in his own right, and that it will come when he's written his best Batman script and is ready."

https://movieweb.com/the-batman-part-2-cancelation-rumors-addressed/

It's also rumoured that James Gunn isn't too keen on the idea of multiple cinematic Batmen and would perhaps prefer for Reeves' iteration to be shelved. Whether that's true or not is anyone's guess. But given the overwhelmingly positive reception of The Penguin, some are suggesting the Reevesverse should continue on the small screen, focusing on TV projects instead of movies. That way it could forge its own path without competing with the big screen Batman.

I've heard that. The question for me is how long do they wait? Indefinitely? Reeves can get treatment for whatever he's afflicted with, but I don't buy in to the notion he's irreplaceable. One man holding up the works means the whole universe can die before it even flourishes, which is the worst option. I liked The Penguin but I'm not sure fans would accept this series existing exclusively on the small screen after its cinematic debut in 2022. I'm also unsure if Pattinson would be up for lenghty stints on that format either.

Waiting this long is the fault of WB in my view. If I'm sick at work the show goes on without me. If he actually has a general sequel outline and the studio want to use it, have him give it and have someone else write it. But here we are, to the point I feel like the series is being killed in the crib. I've seen this sentiment expressed elsewhere too. The delays make people long for something else as tastes change. Once Superman 2025 comes out, and if people feel generally okay with what the DCU is doing, they'll be wanting to see its Batman. If a script still isn't ready at that point, something has surely got to happen.

If test screenings are to be believed, apparently the film felt episodic and reaction was mixed. The humor and "silliness" was cited, with ViewerAnon saying Warner Bros.' internal response was less glowing than some positive reports suggested. I don't necessarily have a problem with Krypo, and I'm up for new things, but I get the feeling he's going to be pushed hard, and possibly too hard.

All I really needed Gunn to do, is to get out of his comfort zone, and truly swing for the fences. If this is the start of your planned DCU, let's aspire to try something a little different, and not rely on playing it safe with MCU-style humor and quips (MCU-style quips is just beyond tired at this point, and with so many movies aping it, it's just killing movies altogether ... but the director is one of the main architects of this style of humor, so that's expecting waaay too much lol), smashing things together (we've seen this a lot and the fall out has been incredibly mixed), and having a overabundance of characters the movie seriously doesn't need.

Progression in recent years, seems to be not to not get rid of the poison pill, but to simply get better at coating it in sugar. Still, the end result remains the same.

Something I was feeling but couldn't say as good as Uncle Bingo. For all the points of differences like Krypto, Superman 2025 seems inherently the same as what came before with Reeve. And not just Reeve, but just about every MCU movie that's been avalanched down the mountains the past decade. I don't see this being the game changer or cultural moment the fans want it to be. That stuff is rare. At a bare minimum I'd be happy with recouping production costs and making enough profit. Superman 2025 doesn't just have to fight its own war against the Superman curse, but general apathy about going to the cinema.

I think Jimmy sincerely missed a golden opportunity with this, in simply casting himself as Superman. The long and short of the campaign thus far, has amusingly been just as focused on him (if not more), as it has been the actual title character.

Speaking of branding, is it too late to have his name above the title? I'm thinking, "Why not?" at this point.

If test screenings are to be believed, apparently the film felt episodic and reaction was mixed. The humor and "silliness" was cited, with ViewerAnon saying Warner Bros.' internal response was less glowing than some positive reports suggested. I don't necessarily have a problem with Krypo, and I'm up for new things, but I get the feeling he's going to be pushed hard, and possibly too hard.

It's the same situation with the Batcave. So many movies, yet we've never seen the giant penny or dinosaur. The closest any live action depiction has come to the wackiness of the comic book Batcave would be the Adam West show, and I'm sure Dozier would have included the dinosaur and penny in that series if he'd been able to. But every other live action version of the cave has opted for a more grounded take, where it's basically just the Batcomputer, the armoury and the Batmobile workshop. Hopefully the next cinematic Batcave will break that trend.

With the Fortress, I'd love to see some of the more traditional comic book elements make an appearance. The statues of Lara and Jor-El, the Phantom Zone projector, bottled Kandor, the zoo of endangered aliens. Earlier in this thread we speculated about Solaris making an appearance, which seems very plausible given the obvious Grant Morrison influence. If Solaris does show up, that would present the perfect opportunity to reference the zoo and have Superman use a Sun-Eater to defeat the Tyrant Sun.

At any rate, I like the way the robots look in this footage. They're like Frank Quitely's designs come to life.

I have no problems with the way this Fortress looks and I hope it's decked out with all sorts of futuristic gear. That's long overdue. I may not agree with other aspects but I also hope Superman is a success to some degree because I'm eager for DCU Batman even if it's just for a classical, high tech batcave. WB have waited around for Matt Reeves to the point of stupidity in my opinion. If he has personal issues or is just plain lazy it doesn't matter - momentum for this early years Batman story has been hit hard. Make Part II a conclusion or just move on right now.

A couple of things that have been raised elsewhere that I agree with: I don't know the context of this new scene but Snyder's Superman took a nuke at point blank range and healed from the sun without feeling any pain. Just being in the sun should be enough to heal. The giggling robot that says "he looked at me!" after another just said they have no consciousness at all is an instant contradiction. It could work out better than III, IV and Returns, but I still need to be convinced this will set the box office on fire.