Esther Rosenfield (@capybaroness) from Get Cynical joins us to discuss a movie... we all actually quite liked! The Robert Rodriguez directed, James Cameron produced manga adaptation of Battle Angel Alita (aka GUNNM). In this episode: Earnestness in adaptation, good action, big dick jimmy, modifiable and interchangeable bodies, trans and queer themes, differences between the film and the manga, what seperates 'good' and 'bad' CGI, and much more!Performance and Selfhood in 'Alita: Battle Angel'
 
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid) 
PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley and barf. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

In this episode: Solo, a film cobbled together from memberberries and reshoots. An annoying bisexual 'sjw' robot. Pansexual Lando. A plot driven around space gasoline. It's a film less interesting than it's troubled production. They fired the Lego movie guys and hired the kid from Andy Griffith, who is too old to understand how digital cameras work so you can't see shit. Seriously, I thought there was something wrong with my TV, but the movie is just Like That. Also: Explicit human on droid sex. Is it the worst Star Wars film? Yes! And that includes the holiday special. If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid) 
PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley and barf. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

We launched the podcast in 2021. Since then, thanks entirely to our efforts, the MCU has taken loss after loss. Diminishing box office returns, declining critical support, plummeting audience enthusiasm. Under-performers have given way to flops have given way to fiascos. On the eve of 'The Marvels' disastrous box office returns, we take to the mics to discuss where we are, how we got here, and take a lap in the afterglow of our assured victory over the forces of evil. Ladies and gentlemen: We got 'em.Like what you hear? Get the full episode and much more on Patreon

Special guest and Transformers scholar Liz (@liz_irl) enters the graveyard to discuss 'Bumblebee', the moderately successful and unexpectedly likeable spinoff of the Michael Bay Transformers franchise. In this episode: Franchise refreshes: the softest of reboots and how they try to shed their skins without losing their audiences. Fullmetal Fujoshi: Do girls like transformers? How a background in animation can help make better use of CGI. Is this movie just The Iron Giant + Christine? McKnight Begins: Stu makes an astonishing discovery about the origins and career of director Travis "Chilly Tee" McKnight.
 
Listen to Chilly Tee - Get Off Mine
 
Liz is available for video editing work! Contact her on twitter.
 
If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid) 
PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
 
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley and barf. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Cole (zoomer with attention deficit disorder) somehow talked us (Nicole and Stu, aging millennials) into watching the Teen Titans Go! movie. Not sure why we did this because we all maybe talked about the movie itself for a total of twenty minutes and somehow milked the conversation to almost two hours? Lotta cartoon talk, some debate over whether a joke can just be "it's a butt," and Cole explains Teen Titans comic lore. If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:
ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid) 
PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
 
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley and barf. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Why did we buck our own regularly scheduled programming of Funko Pop capeshit and IP pig slop to watch The Book of Henry, from the twisted mind of the demon Colin Trevorrow? Well, because it more or less killed his chances at what would become Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker and effectively nuked a totally separate film franchise than the one he was already dragging through pigshit. Also because this movie is batshit crazy. A "so bad it's good" cult hit in the making? Or, as Cole claims, "the smartest movie ever made"? 
 
Commentary track here.
 
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

It might be the dumbest movie about dinosaurs ever made. Too bored (and, in Nicole's case, incensed) by the first one to bother talking about it, we parachute into the second entry in this ur legacy-franchise-sequel-reboot for all the adult babies that never let go of their childhoods. The dinosaurs are your friends. Your pals. They're literally puppies. They're pedophiles. They're living things just like us, and deserve to live (and exterminate various other species in the process). Come for the dinosaurs, stay for rage-mode Nicole, Science Facts™, the refinement of our critique of 'soy dialogue', and an extended discussion of pubic hair in Baldur'a Gate 3.
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

It's another Marvel movie, and like most sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant Man and the Wasp doubles down on everything that was irritating and boring about its admittedly okay predecessor. It doesn't stand on its own as a film because it's just a prolonged set up for a plot mechanic in a future Avengers movie. Not too much to say here aside from the usual complaints, so for the first half of this episode, Nicole, Cole, and Stu go back to basics for anyone just joining in on the ride that is this podcast. What are the fundamental issues that plague not just the MCU but any attempt at an IP cinematic universe? What's a lampshade? What exactly is soy dialogue and what makes it any different from Whedonspeak? Will Nicole's curtains survive the recording? (Spoiler alert: they don't.)
Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.