The Weekly Stuff Podcast #157 – Reviewing ‘Persona 3 The Movie #4 – Winter of Rebirth’

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

If you’ve listened to us for any length of time, you’ll know that our favorite video game here at the Weekly Stuff is Persona 3. You’ll also know that, as the four-part anime film adaptation has been coming out in Japan over the past three years, we’ve devoted an entire episode to each new installment – and now, with the fourth and final movie in the series, Winter of Rebirth, finally available on home video (copies are still available from RightStuf, for now at least), it’s time for our final review. We dive in great depth not only into this final film itself, but also to the series as a whole, and how vastly it has surpassed whatever expectations we initially had. Persona 3 was, is, and shall always be a great game – but this four-part film series has, miraculously, earned a place on the shelf alongside it, something that is a welcome surprise indeed.

Enjoy!

Previous Persona 3 Episodes:

Episode #60 – Original Persona 3 Game Review

Episode #87 – Reviewing ‘Persona 3 The Movie #1 – Spring of Birth’

Episode #107 – Reviewing ‘Persona 3 The Movie #2 – Midsummer Knight’s Dream’

Episode #134 – Reviewing ‘Persona 3 The Movie #3 – Falling Down’

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #157 as an MP3

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #156 – News Round-up, Suicide Squad Review, and Discussing No Man’s Sky

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

This week starts with Jonathan talking about his unexpected journey with the now 15-year-old Final Fantasy X, and Sean continuing his assassination adventures with Hitman, before we dive into some recent news, such as the passing of Star Wars’ Kenny Baker and the delay (now confirmed) of Final Fantasy XV. Then, for our main topics, we review Suicide Squad – or, at least, Jonathan despairs over the movie while Sean remains glad he was never stupid enough to go watch it – and discuss No Man’s Sky, the game that everybody in the world seems to be talking about, but perhaps for the wrong reasons.

Enjoy!

Time Chart

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:45

Jonathan talks Final Fantasy X: 0:08:45 – 0:31:30

Sean talks Hitman: 0:31:30 – 0:40:35

News round-up: 0:40:35 – 1:06:50

Suicide Squad PTSD flashbacks: 1:06:50 – 2:15:30

Discussing No Man’s Sky: 2:15:30 – 3:08:20

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff'Episode #156 as an MP3

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow ‘The Weekly Stuff’ on Tumblr!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

Review: "Suicide Squad" is awful, sexist, pandering, incoherent trash

I’m done.

I’m out. After only two films, the ‘DC Extended Universe’ of films, as they would like us to call it, has utterly beaten me into submission, and about five minutes before the end of Suicide Squad – perhaps the worst, most soulless, most oppressively incompetent Hollywood film I have ever paid to see in a theatre – I tapped out. I couldn’t take it. After the jaw-dropping awfulness of this Spring’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – a film where Batman murders everyone in sight, Superman admits to having zero enthusiasm for being a hero, Wonder Woman watches viral YouTube trailers for the other Justice League members on her laptop, and the incomprehensible plot revolves around a Lex Luthor so obnoxious he made my skin crawl – I honestly thought Warner Brothers and their DC Films division couldn’t sink any lower. How blissfully naïve I was. On every level, Suicide Squad is worse, a wretchedly produced, pandering disaster of a movie that made me actively long for the relative sanity and baseline cinematic competence of Batman v Superman. No movie has ever made me itch to walk out of the theatre more intensely than this, but whether out of sheer pride or spite, I tried my best to stick with it to the end. I couldn’t. A little before the credits rolled, after sitting through the silliest, stupidest CGI barf explosion of a climax I’ve ever seen in a comic-book movie, and just as the 453^rd overexposed pop song started on the soundtrack, my will gave out. I threw up my hands in defeat, and walked out (alongside, I should note, the similarly frustrated twenty-something couple sitting next to me).

Maybe I’m weak. Maybe I’m getting older and bitterer and my tolerance for films that give its audience a giant middle finger in exchange for their paid admission has eroded. But I’m done. I’ve given WB and their awful, insulting attempt at making DC films a ‘thing’ far too much of my time, attention, and money, and after this article, I’m tapping out for good. I’d love to be excited for a Justice League movie, but after seeing the way this group of filmmakers views iconic characters like Batman, I can only approach it with active dread. It would feel so great to be enthusiastic about the Wonder Woman movie, but after seeing how despicably DC has treated women in both their movies this year – especially here in Suicide Squad, which plumbs depths of objectification and misogyny so low it would make Michael Bay blush in shock – I just can’t brush away my distrust. It would be like Republicans – anti-choice, opposed to equal pay, willfully ignorant of women’s healthcare and economic issues – nominating the first female President instead of the Democrats. Sure, it would still be historic – as is the creation of Wonder Woman, Hollywood’s first major female-led superhero movie – but coming from a studio seemingly filled with sexist louts, who obviously view women the same way as a teenager discovering porn for the first time, my confidence is hardly high.

Continue reading after the jump...

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #155 – Reviewing Jason Bourne, Talking NX Rumors, DC Shenanigans, and lots more!

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

This week is a bit of a grab-bag, as our main topic involves our spoiler-filled review of Jason Bourne – a disappointing and frustrating sequel that is nevertheless interesting to talk about – but we have a solid two hours of other assorted conversations before we reach that point. I talk about a few video games I’ve been playing recently – including I am Setsuna, Stardew Valley, and Abzu – while Sean talks about his experiences with the new episodic Hitman; I review the new Harry Potter story, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and both of us talk about DC’s disastrous Killing Joke movie and the negative hype surrounding the upcoming Suicide Squad. And finally, we break down the latest reports about Nintendo’s upcoming NX system, and whether this sounds like a good direction for the company to take.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:08:18

Jonathan talks Video Games, including I am Setsuna and Abzu: 0:08:18 – 0:29:08

Sean talks Hitman: 0:29:08 – 0:40:00

Sean talks Stranger Things: 0:40:00 – 0:51:02

Jonathan talks Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: 0:51:02 – 1:05:52

Batman: The Killing Joke Discussion: 1:05:52 – 1:26:17

Suicide Squad Shenanigans: 1:26:17 – 1:47:10

Nintendo NX Reports: 1:47:10 – 2:00:02

Reviewing Jason Bourne: 2:00:02 – 2:45:38

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #155 as an MP3

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow ‘The Weekly Stuff’ on Tumblr!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.