Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg Reportedly Back for Transformers as The Social Reckoning Reviews Land

The news on Transformers is that Michael Bay is coming back and Steven Spielberg is going to put his name on the movie. Honestly, I don't care much about it, and I'll explain why below. First, though, the reviews for The Social Reckoning are in, and there's new tracking for the opening weekend of Clayface.

The Social Reckoning Reviews Blame Aaron Sorkin's Directing More Than His Writing

With 42 reviews in, The Social Reckoning sits at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 6.4, which the roundup I read called pretty underwhelming. It's worse on Metacritic, where the film landed at 50. That's not as bad as a couple of last week's releases, which scored in the mid 40s, but it's not far off. Most of the criticism is less about Aaron Sorkin's writing than his directing, with a general complaint that the film has the look and feel of a streaming release.

One review argues the film's greatest flaw is that David Fincher isn't directing, while its greatest strength is Sorkin's script. Another closes with: "By the time The Social Reckoning reaches its inevitable conclusion, we're forced to wonder if Aaron Sorkin knows what the word reckoning means." I agree that this script could have benefited from having Fincher back. It does feel like kind of a TV-ish movie. You miss the Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor score. I don't think they do the score for this one, and if they do, it's not as recognizable as the first. I kind of missed Jesse Eisenberg too, but it's not such a direct sequel that you needed him.

Jeremy Strong's Zuckerberg and a Story That Plays Like a News Special

I like Jeremy Strong. I think he shows how robotic and out of tune with reality Zuckerberg is now, as if he's at a different tier of humanity because of what he's done financially. Sorkin's dialogue is so good, but not every character talks like that in real life. He writes everybody as smart, and that's just something that comes with Sorkin.

I thought Mikey Madison was good, and she's kind of the overall lead. She plays a whistleblower who was on an ethics team at Facebook warning that the algorithm was pushing people toward certain groups, and nobody did anything about it. She goes to Jeremy Allen White, who is good in the role because he's so likable, as the investigative reporter. The story shows that Facebook changed its algorithm. They weren't necessarily promoting hateful content themselves, but sharing it meant more of those pages popped up, leading to hate groups and radicalization, with something like a 40% jump, because they were losing users to TikTok.

There are a lot of positives to social media. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to raise the money for my pilot. That's what I enjoyed about Madison's character: she says she doesn't hate Facebook, she loves its mission, while White's character basically believes they should shut the whole thing down. The two have a really good back and forth. I liked a lot of what it was saying, but it almost felt like a news special more than a movie.

I think this is one you could probably catch on TV; I don't know if you need to run out to the theater. It's nowhere near its predecessor. Still, it's intriguing, and I think it's going to be divisive because it takes one side of the aisle. With elections coming up, I think there's a reason it's coming out now. If you already bought a ticket, don't let me talk you out of it. Maybe it crushes. I have no idea.

Clayface Tracking at 23 Million Could Still Work on a 40 Million Budget

Box Office Pro's very early tracking has Clayface eyeing 23 million to 33 million dollars at the North American box office. Those aren't typical numbers for a DC adaptation, but the film has a 40 million dollar production budget. By the usual rule that a film needs two to 2.5 times its budget, it would need between 80 and 100 million to break even, and with marketing it has likely cost less than 100 million in total. The report I read adds that, after Superman made 618.7 million worldwide and Supergirl managed 126.4 million in June, James Gunn and Peter Safran's positions appear safe as Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merge, though that could change. Its conclusion is that Clayface could lose tens of millions but not hundreds, and Paramount surely won't punish them for the risk.

I couldn't agree with that more. If this movie makes 200 million dollars, that's big for them, and that's why this strategy is really smart if they can make it work. It's also why I still wonder why they don't try a Jurassic Park movie for 60 or 70 million with a bunch of unknowns. If I picked a director, it would be Fede Álvarez, who did the most recent Alien movie.

Clayface is a small movie with a pretty unknown actor, based on an obscure villain. They took their shot and didn't overspend. Even if it bombs and loses, say, 40 million dollars, that's not enough for anyone to say they're out. It's all about Man of Tomorrow. My bigger question is how the new Batman will interact with Clayface, especially if the Brave and the Bold version is supposed to be older. I hope they change that story, because I don't think bringing in an already established Batman makes sense. You need to establish him. And with Matt Reeves' movie getting pushed back even more, the business question of what to do with Batman will have to come at some point.

Michael Bay's Transformers Had Great Visuals but, to Me, No Soul

I hate the point Roka made, but unfortunately I think it's true: the Michael Bay movies all did significantly better than the ones that followed without him. Still, I'd say Bumblebee is the best one, story-wise and in staying true to Transformers. I was a big fan growing up, so when Optimus Prime is dancing behind a house and nobody notices him, it took me out of it.

The visuals were always great, and in the first one they were phenomenal. He just has no soul to his movies. As for Spielberg, he was a producer in name. How involved was he really? Maybe they change it up a little. I don't know. My co-host Kevin wants them to look more like the toys, pointing to how He-Man did a great job.

Ben Affleck Questions DC's Approach and Calls Kevin Feige a Genius

Ben Affleck said: "Yeah, look, I really like doing Batman v Superman. That was really fun, Justice League had a lot of issues, and that wasn't that much fun, frankly." He also acknowledged the sense that Zack Snyder's version was "a little bit too dark or scary, and it lost some of the younger audience," and added that "Kevin Feige is kind of a genius."

He's not wrong. Nobody really knows what the approach is right now, and I think you still have to give them room to figure it out. From what people are saying, Man of Tomorrow won't be like Man of Steel but may be a little more dramatic than the first one, with some comedy, and that really could work.

My Rocky Pitch Brings Back Clubber Lang for a Rubber Match

Kevin had us build a Rocky movie on a budget, and at first I wanted Clubber Lang back in a managerial role rather than as the opponent, since everyone else feels too old. Adonis fighting a Rocky who's 70 years old was too hard for me to make work. So I rearranged it. If you could bring in a young Stallone and everybody was okay with it because it was CGI, with actual artists making it work and not AI, I'd do Clubber Lang. He beat Rocky pretty bad in that first fight, didn't like how the second one went down, and he wants his rematch. That sets up a rubber match.

For director, I think Ryan Coogler doing a Rocky movie outside of a Creed movie would be amazing, considering he used to watch those movies with his dad. But Stallone is the easy answer, because he'd know where it would go between Rocky III and Rocky IV and could take the style from the first one. In Rocky's corner, the only choice that makes sense for my time period is Paulie, since Rocky's son would be about four and little Duke probably eight.

For the big fight I took Madison Square Garden, where Rocky won the title from Clubber, so maybe Clubber wants his revenge there. I almost went with the Roman Colosseum, but I just couldn't find a reason for Clubber Lang to fight Rocky there. For the training montage, I picked the abandoned theme park, maybe Coney Island, which fits if the fight is New York based. Kevin said that was the option he was really proud of. His own pitch had Adonis Creed pull a full heel turn against Rocky, Matt Reeves directing, Clubber Lang in Rocky's corner, the fight on an aircraft carrier in San Diego Harbor, and the same abandoned theme park.

A Rocky V Recut With Bill Conti Music Could Help a Little

Stallone has said he wants to redo Rocky V. One of my collaborators and I are a little split on the Rocky IV director's cut. As it stands, Rocky IV is a product of its time, a really long music video with a great fight. I didn't like how he messed with the fight in the director's cut, but I loved the speech at the funeral, the extended conversations with Apollo, and the extra Bill Conti music. That's what he says he wants to do with Rocky V, which besides being the worst movie in the franchise used a lot of hip hop. I'm a big hip hop guy, but I think swapping in the Conti music will help a little. I don't know how much.

From the clips I watched, I feel the same way about how he plays Rocky there as I do about Harrison Ford in Crystal Skull. It's like a version of Rocky he had in his head. Then in Creed he's right back into the essence of Rocky, someone who went through it all. Rocky V put him back on the street as dopey as in the first movie, and it's not great. The one thing he can't change is that there's no title fight in a boxing ring with Tommy Gunn. If there were, it's a much better movie. My top three usually rotate, but Rocky V comes last.

Kevin recalled finding a work print version of Rocky V online that used the Rocky IV training music for Tommy Gunn's montage, and said he for one hopes Stallone does the rescore. As for Stallone himself, he knows Rocky V was a mistake. He was going to kill off Rocky in that movie, which is so stupid, and he's said it was his own hubris at the time. I like the honesty of it.

If Adria Arjona Isn't Wonder Woman, James Gunn Should Get Ahead of It

In Kevin's hypothetical, James Gunn calls me and Adria Arjona is not playing Wonder Woman. My answer: announce it immediately. Saying fans decided it and he never did won't work, because of his past tweets where he went out of his way to say that's not true when casting was called out. DC isn't in a place to take another hit of the audience being upset, especially right as Man of Tomorrow is releasing. You want all the positive buzz you can get, especially since people are saying it's really good. Kevin said he'd give Gunn a little sympathy and asked how it started. Reporters, man. That's social media casting now.

Dr. Manhattan Is the Scariest Villain to Throw at the Avengers

For a one time Avengers threat, I think Dr. Manhattan's probably the scariest. I'm almost in season four with Omni-Man, so I know his angle and don't want to spoil it. Megatron's been proven beatable, and Homelander just needs therapy. Darkseid and Dr. Manhattan are the two, but Manhattan is just so vapid that to me he's the scariest. For an iconic scene to see opening night, I picked the I am your father moment. I saw Empire Strikes Back at a screening in LA where Irvin Kershner did a Q&A, and you still got that moment even though everybody had seen it.

The Star Wars Mistake I'd Fix Is the Missing Reunion

Palpatine returning was handled poorly, but if you involved Plagueis and looked at the actual lore, it could work. Solo is such a nothing burger that you can put it on the shelf. Finn was set up really well in that first movie. The real problem was no onscreen reunion for Luke, Han and Leia. They passed the torch before the characters did. Let the old characters have about 75 percent of the first movie, 50/50 in the second, 25 in the third. It's an evolution, and they handled it terribly. Kevin added that all they needed was a quarter of a movie with the three of them on the Falcon, maybe getting through a checkpoint.

Sebastian Maniscalco Can Still Fix the SiriusXM Comedy Situation

Whether to boycott is your decision, but I think what happened is really wrong. The SiriusXM comedy channel helped working class comedians who aren't famous get significant checks that help with rent. After Sebastian Maniscalco bought it, a lot of them were cut and replaced. I'm friendly with Sebastian, he's a really good guy, and I think it's a little more complicated than people realize. But he's in the wrong and he can fix it, and I hope he does. I don't think he expected the blowback at all.

Asked what Gunn should do if Matt Reeves needs an extended absence, I honestly don't know the scenario, and it's not for us to reveal. It's up to Matt Reeves, so it's too hard to say.

Which pick from this lineup of hypotheticals would you have made differently?