Now Playing Podcast Presents: The DC Comics Movies Retrospective Series
Now Playing Podcast presents a retrospective series examining the full history of DC Comics movies, from the classic Superman and Batman films to the Nolan trilogy and the modern Snyder and Gunn eras. The hosts cover big-budget blockbusters, forgotten TV movies, animated features, and obscure misfires, exploring how DC characters have been reinvented and rebooted for generations of moviegoers. Each episode offers in-depth discussion and analysis of a single film or related group of films, balancing humor and critical perspective.
Episodes
Supergirl
DC Universe Series Episode 2 Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon) resists the call to do good like her cousin Clark (David Corenswet), instead spending the second DCU movie partying on red sun planets. Is she finally ready to put down the bottle and become Supergirl after villainous Krem (Mathias Schoenaerts) poisons her dog Krypto and orphans a swordmaker’s daughter (Eve Ridley)? And how much help
Superman
Superman, a journalist in Metropolis, embarks on a journey to reconcile his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing as Clark Kent.
Joker: Folie à Deux
While struggling with his dual identity, Arthur Fleck not only stumbles upon true love, but also finds the music that's always been inside him.
DMZ
In a near-future civil-war-torn America, fearless medic Alma sets out on a harrowing quest to find her missing son - crossing into the demilitarized zone of Manhattan, where a ruthless battle for control rages between rival gang leaders.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father's death and wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. To defeat him, Aquaman must turn to...
Watchmen
Set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name, while attempting to break new ground of its own.
Blue Beetle
Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly...
The Flash
When his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry Allen becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned and there are no Super Heroes to turn to. In order to save the world that...
Muriel’s Wedding
Arnie, Jakob, and Stuart are Flash-ing back to 1990, an era of television when there was only one DC comic book character on prime time. Soap star John Wesley Shipp spent an entire season as Barry Allen in a bulky red suit, chasing down CBS audiences who were quickly turning the dial to The Cosby Show and other light-hearted fare. Was the Red Speedster simply ahead of the superhero trend, or stuck
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Billy Batson and his foster siblings, who transform into superheroes by saying "Shazam!", are forced to get back into action and fight the Daughters of Atlas, who they must stop from using a weapon that could destroy the world.
Black Adam
Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.
DC League of Super-Pets
When Superman and the rest of the Justice League are kidnapped, Krypto the Super-Dog must convince a rag-tag shelter pack - Ace the hound, PB the potbellied pig, Merton the turtle and Chip the squirrel - to master their own...
The Batman
In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.
The Suicide Squad
Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
Wonder Woman 1984
A botched store robbery places Wonder Woman in a global battle against a powerful and mysterious ancient force that puts her powers in jeopardy.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Harley Quinn joins forces with a singer, an assassin and a police detective to help a young girl who had a hit placed on her after she stole a rare diamond from a crime lord.
Joker
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
The Kitchen
The mobster husbands of three 1978 Hell's Kitchen housewives are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia's matters into their own hands — proving unexpectedly adept...
Shazam!
A boy is given the ability to become an adult superhero in times of need with a single magic word.
Aquaman
Once home to the most advanced civilization on Earth, Atlantis is now an underwater kingdom ruled by the power-hungry King Orm. With a vast army at his disposal, Orm plans to conquer the remaining oceanic people and then the surface...
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
All the major DC superheroes are starring in their own films, all but the Teen Titans, so Robin is determined to remedy this situation by getting over his role as a sidekick and becoming a movie star. Thus, with a...
Justice League
Fuelled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince assemble a team of metahumans consisting of Barry Allen, Arthur Curry and Victor Stone to face the catastrophic threat of Steppenwolf and...
Wonder Woman
An Amazon princess comes to the world of Man in the grips of the First World War to confront the forces of evil and bring an end to human conflict.
The New Original Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman Series Episode 2 Also with quick reviews of the 2009 DC Animated Film and the 2011 TV pilot. Cathy Lee Crosby's Wonder Woman series didn't take off. But one year later, ABC was ready to try again with The All-New Original Wonder Woman. It was a huge success, and this is the series everyone remembers. Starring then-unknown Lynda Carter as the titular superhero, how does Wonder Woman wo
Wonder Woman
A super-hero uses her powers to thwart an international spy ring.
Suicide Squad
From DC Comics comes the Suicide Squad, an antihero team of incarcerated supervillains who act as deniable assets for the United States government, undertaking high-risk black ops missions in exchange for commuted prison sentences.
American Splendor
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
The Spirit
Down these mean streets a man must come. A hero born, murdered, and born again. A Rookie cop named Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces from...
The Spirit
A legally dead police detective decides to battle crime as a masked superhero.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Fearing the actions of a god-like Super Hero left unchecked, Gotham City’s own formidable, forceful vigilante takes on Metropolis’s most revered, modern-day savior, while the world wrestles with what sort of hero it really needs. And with Batman and Superman...
Watchmen
In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The...
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
To prevent a world war from breaking out, famous characters from Victorian literature band together to do battle against a cunning villain.
Gen¹³
Caitlin Fairchild, a teenager offered a place in an institute for gifted children. She soon learns that the school isn't really a school, but rather a military project to turn children with a special genetic structure into super soldiers. After...
Justice League of America
The evil Weather Man is intent on destroying New Metro City with a series of malevolent meteorological mishaps. Can the super-powered (and semi-employed) Justice League of America save the day? Or will New Metro be drowned in a humongous tidal...
Legends of the Super Heroes
The adventures of many of DC Comics greatest superheroes and villains. In the first episode, The Challenge, the superheroes must race against time to stop the diabolical super-villains' plot to destroy the world. In the second episode, The Roast, the...
The Return of Swamp Thing
The Swamp Thing returns to battle the evil Dr. Arcane, who has a new science lab full of creatures transformed by genetic mutation, and chooses Heather Locklear as his new object of affection.
Swamp Thing
Dr. Alec Holland, hidden away in the depths of a murky swamp, is trying to create a new species - a combination of animal and plant capable of adapting and thriving in the harshest conditions. Unfortunately he becomes subject of...
RED 2
Retired C.I.A. agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device.
RED
When his peaceful life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent, Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive and uncover his assailants.
The Losers
A tale of double cross and revenge, centered upon the members of an elite U.S. Special Forces unit sent into the Bolivian jungle on a search and destroy mission. The team-Clay, Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar -find themselves the target...
V for Vendetta
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government. When V rescues a young woman from the secret police, he finds in...
A History of Violence
An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.
Road to Perdition
Mike Sullivan works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney. Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure, however after his son is witness to a killing, Mike Sullivan finds himself on the run in attempt to save the...
Man of Steel
A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him...
Superman Returns
Superman returns to discover his 5-year absence has allowed Lex Luthor to walk free, and that those he was closest to felt abandoned and have moved on. Luthor plots his ultimate revenge that could see millions killed and change the...
Steel
Justice. Safe streets. Payback. Metallurgist John Henry Irons (O'Neal) vows to claim them all when a renegade military reject (Judd Nelson) puts new superweapons in dangerous hands. Helped by an electronics wiz (Annabeth Gish) and an imaginative scrap metal worker...
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
With global superpowers engaged in an increasingly hostile arms race, Superman leads a crusade to rid the world of nuclear weapons. But Lex Luthor, recently sprung from jail, is declaring war on the Man of Steel and his quest to...
Supergirl
After losing a powerful orb, Kara, Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch.
Superman III
Aiming to defeat the Man of Steel, wealthy executive Ross Webster hires bumbling but brilliant Gus Gorman to develop synthetic kryptonite, which yields some unexpected psychological effects in the third installment of the 1980s Superman franchise. Between rekindling romance with...
Superman II
Three escaped criminals from the planet Krypton test the Man of Steel's mettle. Led by General Zod, the Kryptonians take control of the White House and partner with Lex Luthor to destroy Superman and rule the world. But Superman, who...
Superman
Mild-mannered Clark Kent works as a reporter at the Daily Planet alongside his crush, Lois Lane. Clark must summon his superhero alter-ego when the nefarious Lex Luthor launches a plan to take over the world.
Superman and the Mole Men
Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane arrive in the small town of Silsby to witness the drilling of the world's deepest oil well. The drill, however, has penetrated the underground home of a race of small, furry people who then...
Jonah Hex
Gunslinger Jonah Hex is appointed by President Ulysses Grant to track down terrorist Quentin Turnbull, a former Confederate officer determined on unleashing hell on earth. Jonah not only secures freedom by accepting this task, he also gets revenge on the...
Constantine
John Constantine has literally been to Hell and back. When he teams up with a policewoman to solve the mysterious suicide of her twin sister, their investigation takes them through the world of demons and angels that exists beneath the...
Tank Girl
Based on the British cult comic-strip, our tank-riding anti-heroine fights a mega-corporation, which controls the world's water supply.
Catwoman
Liquidated after discovering a corporate conspiracy, mild-mannered graphic artist Patience Phillips washes up on an island, where she's resurrected and endowed with the prowess of a cat -- and she's eager to use her new skills ... as a vigilante....
The Dark Knight Rises
Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent's crimes to protect the late attorney's reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years later, Batman encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and...
The Dark Knight
Batman raises the stakes in his war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the streets. The partnership proves to be effective,...
Batman Begins
Driven by tragedy, billionaire Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to uncovering and defeating the corruption that plagues his home, Gotham City. Unable to work within the system, he instead creates a new identity, a symbol of fear for the criminal...
Batman & Robin
Batman and Robin deal with relationship issues while preventing Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from attacking Gotham City.
Batman Forever
Batman must battle a disfigured district attorney and a disgruntled former employee with help from an amorous psychologist and a young circus acrobat.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
When a powerful criminal, who is connected to Bruce Wayne's ex-girlfriend, blames the Dark Knight for killing a crime lord, Batman decides to fight against him.
Batman Returns
While Batman deals with a deformed man calling himself the Penguin, an employee of a corrupt businessman transforms into the Catwoman.
Batman
Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis when a deformed madman calling himself "The Joker" seizes control of Gotham's criminal underworld.
Batman
The Dynamic Duo faces four super-villains who plan to hold the world for ransom with the help of a secret invention that instantly dehydrates people.
Green Lantern
For centuries, a small but powerful force of warriors called the Green Lantern Corps has sworn to keep intergalactic order. Each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy...
The Dark Knight
This was an early Now Playing Podcast review, shorter and spoiler-free. It was not intended to be part of our Batman Retrospective Series. The superhero summer hits full stride with The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated sequel that shattered box office records and pulled in serious critical praise. Picking up after Batman Begins, the film pushes Gotham into darker territory, trad
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