Clayface

Tonight, I went and saw “Clayface,” which came out four days ago. Seeing how I have liked the new “DC Universe” so far, I wanted to see a film about a Batman villain that never made an appearance in any Batman film. Seeing how this is a difficult one to pull off, I thought of looking at how they succeeded, and if you want to know, just read.

Mini Anthikad Chhibber started her review by saying, “Eye trauma and flight turbulence: Can Clayface be more revolting? One is tempted to ask in the manner of Chandler Bing.” “Clayface” is the third film in James Gunn and Peter Safran’s four-year-old “DC Universe,” following “Superman” and “Supergirl.”

Chhibber noted,

Directed by the excellent Speak No Evil’s James Watkins, Clayface tells the origin story of the popular villain and sometime ally of Batman.

With a story and screenplay by Mike Flanagan (who could not direct because of scheduling conflicts with the mini-series Carrie and The Exorcist: Martyrs coming out in 2027), Clayface eschews the 1950s iteration of the science fiction-inspired treasure hunter for the shapeshifter’s origins in the 1940s Detective Comics.

Matt Hagen, played by Tom Rhys Harries, has everything he wants. Coming from a rough background, Matt is now the hottest actor of Hollywood. Actually, when we first meet Matt, he is getting ready for a tryout, and an announcement happens. Matt and his best friend, Corey, played by Joshua James, who is also an actor, hear the Best Actor nominations at the Academy Awards. He gets congratulated by everyone when Matt’s name is announced.

Matt and Corey go to Gotham for an interview with a popular talk show host, played by Rob Brydon. While celebrating at a nightclub, Matt sees a beautiful woman, Mia, played by Joana Ribeiro. Corey warns Matt to stay away from Mia, as she is the girlfriend of the local mob boss, Markos Szabo, played by David Dencik, but Matt still sleeps with her.

When we wakes up, Szabo and his men are at his bedside, and he cuts Matt’s face with a switchblade. Matt’s friends and associates, including his agent, Hildie (Nancy Carroll) and manager, Frank (Eddie Marsan), rush him to the hospital.

Chhibber said, “Following a smear campaign and six expensive surgeries, Matt becomes an outcast, refusing to step out of his roach-infested apartment and unable to face the disgusted looks his badly disfigured face garners.”

At his lowest, he sees a news report on a research done by Dr. Caitlyn Corr, played by Naomi Ackie, where nano cells infiltrate the body to heal it. Matt visits Caitlyn and lets him be used as a test subject, but she says they are at least a year away from human tests. Matt says he is willing to sign anything, and even if he dies because of the treatment, it is better than living the way he currently has been.

Chhibber said, “The treatment at first seems to go well, and Matt’s face is healed, but of course there are side effects (also thanks to one of Matt’s desperate gambits), and Matt soon finds his body taking on the consistency of clay.” As his body changes, his mind and soul does too, letting himself turn evil.

After “Joker,” “Clayface is another attempt to give a Batman villain an origin story to show a tragedy which causes all the evil to come out. Chhibber said, “Clayface works best when leaning into its pulpy (pun intended) heard, as the attempt to make an anti-hero of a villain does not earn its space.”

Chhibber continued, “Going full body horror is fun, if predictable – we instinctively know who Matt will impersonate next and that bowl of nuts was signaling louder than a lighthouse what was going to happen next.”

Rhys Harries is great as the vulnerable, impulsive star celebrity, and his chemistry with Ackie is one of the best parts. Max Minghella brings serious intelligence to his role as police detective John Borrelli, investigating the recent violent crimes.

The complete absence of wisdom is redeeming. Chhibber ended her review by saying, “As long as one does not wander too deeply into the metaphor of clay being the building block of life, Clayface is interesting enough. Some gorgeous visuals offset the stomach-churning ones. Images of Matt in the bathtub and the lovers entwined like the couple of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss are veritable works of art.”

I’ll be honest, when they showed Matt’s face after Szabo’s attack up to when he was being Caitlyn’s test subject, I was feeling uneasy. Meaning, I was nauseous, loosing feeling, I had to put the recliner seat down, felt like I was about to pass out, excessive sweating that I had to ask the person next to me for a napkin, and body chills that I had to put my hoodie on. Other than that, the movie is good. I would recommend it, but only if you can stomach the graphic details in this film. I first heard of Clayface from “Batman: The Animated Series,” which is different than this film, but this is definitely dark and gory that it deserved the R rating. I will say check it out, but only if you can handle what they show in here.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the finale of “Halloween Month 2026.”

Supergirl (2026)

My brother wanted to see the new “Supergirl” movie, which came out four days ago, so we went to check it out today. I have seen that critics are not liking it, but audiences are. What’s my opinion on this next installment in the restarted “DC Universe?”

Sean P. Means started his review by saying, “If you like your superheroes surly, then director Craig Gillespie’s “Supergirl” is right up your alley — though you may wish, as I did, for more for the young woman of steel to do in the second movie of James Gunn’s DC cinematic era.”

What you may know about Supergirl – either from her first comic book in 1959, the 1984 film with Helen Slater, Melissa Benoist starring in the CW show from 2015 to 2021, or Sasha Calle’s brief cameo in the 2023 “The Flash” movie – is that she’s Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin and the second survivor of the explosion of the planet Krypton. Unlike Kal-El or Clark Kent or Superman, Kara lived in Argo City before arriving on Earth.

In this movie, that life – seen in flashbacks, with David Krumholtz and Emily Beecham playing her parents – have made Kara, played by Milly Alcock, more tired about the universe. At one part of the movie, Kara says Clark “sees the good in everyone, and I see the truth.”

Kara spends a lot of time planet hopping, usually looking for planets with red suns like Krypton – because on those planets, she can drink alcohol and not have superpowers. Means describes, “She rides around in a junker spacecraft that looks like an RV on the inside, with her sole companion her dog, Krypto, who stole Gunn’s “Superman” out from under David Corenswet in his blue tights.”

New screenwriter Ana Nogueira’s story starts with a vicious scavenger race, the Brigands, who murder a family, played by Ferdinand Kingsley, Emily Piggford, and Bruce Lennox, in the middle of nowhere. The Brigands leave a teen girl, Ruthye, played by Eve Ridley, alive, who swears vengeance on their leader, Krem, played by Matthias Schoenaerts.

Ruthye’s father (Kingsley) managed to destroy the Brigands’ ship before he was killed, so the group finds a new one to steal: Kara’s. When she fights them, Krem hits Krypto with a poison dart – and a healer, played by Keeley Forsyth, tells Kara, through Ruthye, that she has three days to find Krem to get the antidote.

Kara searches for the Brigands, and Ruthye goes with her, despite the two strongly disagreeing on what will happen when they find Krem. Ruthye wants to kill him, but Kara needs him alive to get the antidote to save Krypto.

Means described, “What follows are a series of fight scenes, some of them in dive bars that make the Mos Eisley cantina look like a Best Western. In one bar, Kara and Ruthye encounter Lobo (Jason Momoa), a bored immortal who works as a bounty hunter. Lobo is a DC Comics fan favorite, I’m told, and Momoa brings the same comical menace to the role that he did to “Fast X” and “A Minecraft Movie.””

Means continued, “Gillespie’s action sequences are serviceable, if overly reliant on CGI and whiplash-inducing camera moves, in a narrative that borrows a little too much from Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.”

The best part of “Supergirl” is Kara herself, and the way Alcock finds the center between the self-righteous hero and the angry, hopeless survivor. Hopefully James Gunn and his team will bring her back in a movie that has her use that bad girl attitude.

Overall, I wasn’t disappointed like so many other people have been. Alcock does a great job playing Kara and there are good elements of the movie. Gillespie does not know how to film action scenes, when they show Kara thinking back to what Clark tells her the meaning of the outfit was forced, and there are writing problems, but I’m still glad I saw it. This is “so” much better than the last time they did a Supergirl movie, if you remember my thoughts on that failed attempt. You should still see this in the theaters because it’s not a waste of money. Check it out and judge it based on your own opinion.

Thank you for joining in on this review today. Stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.

Superman (2025)

Today, my brother and I went to see the new “Superman” movie, which came out last month. This was one of my brother’s most anticipated movies he wanted to see this year, so I went with him since we saw the trailers, and we thought it looked good. How does this one turn out?

Robert Roten admitted in his review, “While there were probably superheroes before Superman, he was my first superhero growing up, both in the movies and on TV.” It is good to see him back in a movie that shows his humanity.

Originally from the planet Krypton, who appears to be exactly like a human, except for all those superpowers, has never made any sense at all, but it sure does make Superman relatable. This latest reboot of the franchise shows Superman’s humanity. This interpretation is helped in no small part with the addition of a pet Kryptonian dog named Krypto. Nothing is more human than having to deal with a loving but annoying dog who won’t behave.

The movie starts with Krypto dragging an injured Superman, played by David Corenswet, back to the Fortress of Solitude where he is helped by a team of Kryptonian robots. Superman was injured in a battle with the powerful robot of supervillain Lex Luthor, played by Nicholas Hoult.

However, Superman is not alone in his fight against the evil henchmen of Lex. He has friends in his fellow members of the Justice League (called the “Justice Gang” in this movie). The other members are Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi), and Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced).

Things get worse for Superman when Luthor breaks into his Fortress of Solitude with Ultraman and The Engineer (María Gabriela de Faría) and learns why his Kryptonian parents (Bradley Cooper and Angela Sarafyan) originally sent him to Earth that causes the public (and some friends) to turn against Superman (with the help of disinformation spread online by Luthor). Soon afterward Superman is sent to prison inside a “pocket universe” created by Luthor, who has access to advanced technology. There he is cellmates with Metamorpho, played by Anthony Carrigan.

Can Superman escape from this prison, and rescue Krypto from the pocket universe too, before Lex Luthor’s evil plans cause worldwide destruction? Can he get back the love from everyone? He does get some help from his girlfriend, Lois Lane, played by Rachel Brosnahan, and from Mister Terrific. Also, Lois gets some help from Jimmy Olson (Skyler Gisondo) thanks to Lex Luthor’s girlfriend, Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampaio). Superman also gets some parental help from his Earth parents, Jonathan (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and Martha Kent (Neva Howell).

Roten admitted, “Some critics call this a corny throwback to earlier films like the 1978 Superman movie starring Christopher Reeve, but that's not the way I see it. This film has more moral ambiguity and the bad guys are more evil and menacing in this new Superman movie.” While this is lighter in tone than Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, it has a better balance between drama and comedy than a lot of other superhero movies. That is one reason it looks to have a more current tone than the 1978 Superman movie.

Director James Gunn has left his mark all over this film, which shares a lot of the story features with his earlier films, like the balance of comedy and drama and how it shows the difficulty of getting a team of powerful heroes to work together. Roten said, “I would like to see more of this team of superheroes.” It shows a lot of potential.

As the start of the rebooted “DC Universe,” this shows a lot of potential and promise. I think this film might be just as good, or even better than the original Superman movie. That might be a stretch, but that’s just my opinion. I like that Gunn made it about Superman not caring if he wins or lose and shows that there will be times where he won’t be successful every time. You should see this because this is one of the best superhero movies to have come out this year and this summer. This is one of my favorite superhero movies. Don’t listen to the people that say this is woke or have more a liberal view on it because that doesn’t matter.

Thank you for joining in on this review tonight. Stay tuned this Friday for the continuation of “Michael Douglas Month.”