Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) 
Director: Sam Fell
Screenwriters: Karey Kirkpatrick, John O’Farrell, Rachel Tunnard
Starring: Bella Ramsey, Thandiwe Newton, Zachary Levi, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, David Bradley, Jane Horrocks, Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays, Josie Sedgwick-Jones, Peter Serafinowicz, Nick Mohammed, Miranda Richardson

On the surface, the original Chicken Run (2000) was a fantastic children’s movie and a feat for animated films. It was 90 minutes of pure feathery fun and righteous chicken anger. The movie had impeccable comedic timing akin to Aardman Studio’s other works like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. These movies have a beating heart and soul that has stuck with children and adults alike because of their ability to wrap us in the warm hug of their respective worlds. And still, beneath it all lies something even deeper, something profound. For many millennials and cuspers, Chicken Run was an introduction to Marxism and revolution itself. 

As rebel chicken, Ginger (played by Julia Sawalha in 2000) rallies the hens against tyrannical farmers, she dares them to imagine a world governed only by their own will. “Don’t you get it?” she clucks, “There’s no morning headcount, no dogs, no farmers, no coops and keys, and no fences.” It’s a powerful cry for revolution – a call to rise up against injustice, no matter the cost. Though the film is filled with slapstick humor, its demand to rage against oppression transcends the children’s animation genre, cementing it as a powerful allegory for World War II and universal demands for human (and chicken) rights. 

Needless to say, the sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, was highly anticipated by audiences and critics. Nearly 20 years after the original, the follow-up had big shoes to fill. What lessons would the new Chicken Run teach us? Perhaps something about the rise of fascism? Environmentalism? Maybe it would lead us to the answers we’ve all been searching for in these tumultuous times? Unfortunately, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget takes more of a formulaic follow-up approach than broaching anything remotely groundbreaking. 

In this rendition, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi, replacing Mel Gibson) return, now living in an idyllic, poultry utopia. Though they are happy in their new homes, they are closed off from the rest of society. Their daughter, Molly (Bella Ramsey), takes after her mother and dreams of life bigger than their confined existence on the island. Soon, Molly escapes to the mainland and finds herself trapped in a chicken factory called Fun-Land Farm. Now, it’s up to the other chickens to break into the factory, a subversion from the previous film’s breakout. 

Dawn of the Nugget isn’t completely without charm. The animation is beautiful and bright, stepping away from the original film’s muted color palate to favor a more vibrant chicken paradise. Fun-Land Farm is garishly bright, showcasing the false promises of the deceptively named poultry plant. Even the heist-like stunts feel higher stakes and more elaborate. There are more hijinks, slipping, falling, and scrambling than ever. 

Though the scale feels dialled up to 11, the film is missing its original creativity and simplistic but resilient spirit that made it an instant classic. Dawn of the Nugget is much more concerned with simple tropes like breaking away from tradition and marching to the beat of your own drum than anything revolutionary. Its simple premise and resistance to taking risks – both thematically and comedically – make the 101-minute run feel like a bit of a slog. 

It’s a lot to ask of a film – to be both a succinct manifesto about the state of modern politics and revolutionary movements and a hokey comedy about chickens falling on their heads – but it has been done before. Perhaps the reason Dawn of the Nugget felt so flat is the enormous shadow its predecessor casts upon the film. And, in the 20 years in between the first and second editions of Ginger and Rocky’s story, we’ve had plenty of time to fill in the gaps on our own. Dawn of the Nugget is a fine movie to turn on for the kids on a Saturday afternoon, but turn on Chicken Run (2000) and you might just have a revolution on your hands. 

Score: 12/24

Recommended for you: Aardman Animation Movies 2000-2020 Ranked

To date, the DCEU has presented us with 12 releases, some standalones and others as part of a franchise (or two, or even three), but all linked in a shared universe of darker and more brooding fantasy-action cinema than their Disney-owned counterparts; inspired, at least at first, by the massive critical and commercial success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.

With iconic heroes arguably more famous and universally recognisable than those even in the culturally dominant MCU – certainly prior to the release of Iron Man in 2008 – the DCEU may have been critically panned on a number of occasions, but it has leant on the super-strong and ever-popular backs of the likes of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to earn a staggering $6billion at the worldwide box office since 2013, and likely countless more profits across its releases on home video, streaming and more recently on HBO Max.

In this edition of Ranked, we at The Film Magazine are looking at this mega power of contemporary studio cinema to judge each of its 12 releases from worst to best in terms of quality, significance, legacy, critical reception and public perception. 2019’s DC Comics adaptation Joker aside (per its status as a standalone DC film unrelated to the central DCEU), these are the DCEU Movies Ranked.

Follow @thefilmagazine on Twitter to never miss another list like this one. 

12. Suicide Squad (2016)

David Ayer’s 2016 anti-hero DCEU movie Suicide Squad was supposed to welcome in an era of viable adult alternatives to the family friendly comic book movie output of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the “leaked” comic-con footage going viral as fans and casuals alike were blown away by its originality.

Fast forward to the actual release however, and things ended up in a very different space.

Suicide Squad was a cluttered mess that included one of the longest first acts of any mainstream film for decades, the character introductions that seemed so cool and original in the trailer playing out like reductionist and trope-tastic moments in the film.

Ayer and company did manage to bring to life a few exciting scenes for the fans who had longed for many of the Suicide Squad’s famous characters to appear on the big screen – such as presenting the Batman as a scary, stalking force of the night in a scene where he pursues Deadshot – but the film was fighting its PG-13 (12A) age rating, obvious studio interference and all the changes in tone and quality that come with both, ultimately concocting an anti-climactic and by-the-numbers superhero-turned-supervillain movie complete with a vicious sky beam of death.

11. Justice League (2017)

Justice League Review

When Zack Snyder departed the 2017 version of Justice League to tend to personal matters much larger than any film release, Warner Bros turned to director of The Avengers Joss Whedon for a fix. It turns out that the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ creator had a much different vision for the film than Snyder did, and the result was another stone cold mess of a movie.

Much like Suicide Squad, Justice League suffered from an overly long first act, the character introductions and team building lasting over 40 minutes and drastically shifting from the serious and apocalyptic tone of Snyder’s vision to comedy bits from the mind of Joss Whedon that ultimately undermined each character and any sense of tension, the stench of studio meddling radiating out of the screen.

Perhaps the biggest offence was how each of the superheroes were failed, none of their powers significant in the grand scheme of the narrative or any of their battles, their personal troubles crowbarred into the dialogue in ways just as jarring as Henry Cavil’s CG mouth (they had to remove the moustache he grew for Mission: Impossible – Fallout during reshoots).

For fans who’d longed to see the Justice League on the big screen, this was such a huge disappointment. What’s worse is that Justice League wasn’t even Batman v Superman II, or Wonder Woman 1.5 – failing to continue the themes, presentation or feel of the previous DCEU films – it was The Avengers-lite, which painted the picture of the DCEU being a lesser version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a reputation that DC and Warner Bros are still battling to overcome per every release to this day.

10. Black Adam (2022)

Hollywood megastar, and multi-time Best Paid Leading Man, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, was apparently fighting to be the lead of his own Black Adam movie for fifteen years before its eventual release in 2022. Given the project’s lack of overall quality and comprehension, that isn’t as surprising as it may first seem.

Black Adam (2022) suffers from a distinct lack of Johnsonisms, the former professional wrestler stripping himself of all the goofy comedy and explosive charisma of his ordinary screen presence to divulge in more dour fare that bleeds any potential directly out of this DC Extended Universe offering.

Even with a stellar supporting cast, and a number of big emotional beats coming to the fore within a timely fable on chosen heroes and forgotten nations, Black Adam feels rushed, its deeper topics mishandled, the film overstuffed with both action set pieces and characters. Even a strong return to the mainstream for former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate isn’t enough to rescue this messy and outrageously cliche superhero film from the doldrums of the DC vault.

In many ways a victim of the modern cycle of studio cinema – that being a script heavy in moments rather than purpose – Black Adam seems to have more under the surface than it does on the screen, like the core of a good idea was extinguished while the film was in production.

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The Mauritanian (2021)
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Screenwriters: Michael Bronner, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shailene Woodley, Zachary Levi

From the moment The Mauritanian begins, there is a strong sense of being in good hands. Kevin Macdonald, back with his first drama feature following close to a decade of documentaries, directs with a smooth precision, while the three leads are each perfectly cast and carry the film through what could have been quite murky waters. Benedict Cumberbatch is suitably stoic, while Jodie Foster makes a very welcome return to our screens, Tahar Rahim proving once again that he’s one of the most subtly powerful (and arguably underrated) actors working today. All of this makes The Mauritanian feel like a solidly classic legal thriller, but the best thing about it is that this detailed feature doesn’t take long to reveal that it is so much more than that.

Based on the true story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi (Rahim), The Mauritanian begins a few months after the 9/11 attacks. Slahi is seen at a family celebration before he’s very quickly picked up by suits and whisked away in a car. Jumping forward a few years, we next see Slahi in a cell at Guantanamo Bay as he meets his prospective defence attorney Nancy Hollander (Foster). Slahi has been accused by the US government of recruiting agents for 9/11, but the lack of evidence against him allows Slahi to appeal for release in court. Filling out the last of the trifecta is Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch), a military lawyer and prosecutor for the government. Couch has a personal connection to the case, having been partners with one of the airline pilots killed in the attacks. As diligent a lawyer as he is, Couch is driven by the need to find someone responsible.

From the beginning it is clear that even though it is Slahi on trial, he is caught in the middle of a much bigger fight. Hollander repeatedly says she’s fighting to ‘uphold the law’; it’s imperative to her that Slahi be given a trial so that the lawless loophole that is Guantanamo can no longer elude US jurisdiction. Couch on the other hand already believes he has his man. Slahi has so many connections to various terrorist actors that he’s practically “the Al Qaeda Forrest Gump”, and Couch is gunning for justice. It’s a battle of philosophies and politics, all swirling around one quite shaken but undeniably charming man.

Each of the leads turn in formidable performances, but Rahim is the standout. Despite being reduced to only a few square feet in his jail cell, Rahim (as Mohamedou), with a few minute movements and expressions, manages to convey a far more expansive inner world. It’s mesmerising just watching him imagining something, while his voice remains soothing despite the horrors it’s describing. That’s not to say he’s not human – with the smallest twitch of an eye or shiver of his shoulders, Rahim conveys a far darker past than his affable personality suggests.

This part of his performance is crucial to the film’s success as it reveals the larger theme of redacted truth, which is The Mauritanian’s true message. Here, the film only flirts with the mystery around his guilt before pivoting to the larger injustice surrounding his incarceration. It is true that this somewhat deletes the established tension of the first act, but that was also never what the film was planning to be. Both Hollander and Couch learn a terrible lesson in the subjective nature of truth as they discover that far from being a defendant, Mohamedou is actually a witness. Having failed to provide the US with the information they wanted, Mohamedou was then tortured into confessing.

Macdonald directs the torture sequence like a horror movie and it appropriately shifts the film from entertaining thriller into a deep discomfort. Like current awards front-runner The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Steve McQueen’s Mangrove, The Mauritanian has more than enough gut punches before it’s over to keep you on the edge of your seat, or perhaps keel over in despair at the sheer scope of this legal injustice.

The Mauritanian is an excellently made film that bears no bones about its moral position; it’s less of a “rip-roaring drama” and more of a “stare open-mouthed in shock as the three leads find themselves increasingly out of their depths”. While it may rock your sense of truth and justice, The Mauritanian also introduces you to one of the most remarkable men of recent history.

18/24

Written by Jack Cameron

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In this edition of ranked, we’re ranking each of these 9 releases from worst to best based on artistry and cultural significance.

Have an opinion? Make sure to leave a comment or tweet us!

9. Hellboy

Lionsgate
Director: Neil Marshall
Starring: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church

In a year of many highs for the superhero/comic book movie sub-genre, the Hellboy reboot from Centurion director Neil Marshall and Lionsgate wasn’t one of them.

Coming some 15 years after Guillermo Del Toro first introduced the character to the silver screen, the remake was perhaps inevitable, but in the midst of Del Toro’s resurgence as a leading Hollywood creative figure following his Best Director Oscar win in 2018 for The Shape of Water, comparisons were perhaps even more likely to be negative than they may have been previously, the 2019 version opting to take a gamble on gore being its defining factor; perhaps using it as a mask for the missing creativity apparent in its creatures, narrative and action set-pieces.

This was a misfire that may warrant a sequel as being unnecessary.

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8. Brightburn

Sony Pictures
Director: David Yarovesky
Starring: Jackson A. Dunn, Elizabeth Banks, David Denman

Marketed as a James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) project asking “what if Superman was evil?”, Brightburn excited many a comic book movie fan for its intriguing idea that stood out from the rest of what we had become used to seeing. A superhero-horror movie seemed like a huge step for the sub-genre, but it offered way too little by the way of its superhero promise, the film instead being “structured and paced more like a contemporary possession or haunted house movie”, according to Jacob Davis in his The Film Magazine review.

Shallow in terms of character and world building, and ultimately underwhelming in other aspects given its promising premise, Brightburn was a gamble we’re glad Sony Pictures took, but one that ultimately didn’t pay off in terms of quality of product, critical reception or box office dollars; making it a somewhat unexpected 2019 superhero movie dud.

7. Dark Phoenix

20th Century Fox
Director: Simon Kinberg
Starring: Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain, Tye Sheridan, Nicholas Hoult, Alexandra Shipp, Kodi Smit-McPhee

Dark Phoenix was re-shot and rescheduled in the build-up to its Summer 2019 release, and with issues behind the scenes regarding its studio 20th Century Fox being bought out by Marvel overlords Disney, and the likelihood of Marvel Studios incorporating the X-Men IP into their studio because of that purchase, Simon Kinberg’s passion project seemed sent out to die. Perhaps that’s why they removed “X-Men” from the film’s title…

What Dark Phoenix did right, it did pretty well – there was a fantastic train battle sequence that was reminiscent of some of the X-Men franchise’s greatest moments – but the film suffered from a lack of originality in a number of key aspects (including a finale massively similar to Avengers: Infinity War) and looked cheap; the re-shoots probably being to blame for the massive lack of cinematic qualities on offer in a number of sequences.

To say goodbye to nearly 20 years of the X-Men like this was disappointing, and to still be waiting for a good Dark Phoenix Saga film after two tries is beyond disappointing, but Dark Phoenix managed to offer sparks of something special that at least lifted it from our bottom spot.

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Shazam! (2019)
Director: David F. Sandberg
Screenwriters: Henry Gayden
Starring: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Djimon Hounsou

Shazam! has brought the DCEU to a whole new level.

David F. Sandberg and his team have created a picture that has humor, heart and larger themes that at once elevate the material and make sense for the film. Even after Aquaman, nobody could have expected that.

From the opening shot, Sandberg shows off his horror pedigree with an incredibly well shot, cut and acted sequence that establishes our villain’s motivation. And guess what? He’s actually somewhat sympathetic while also being evil…

Young Thad Sivana is in a car with his abusive father and brother, and the scene is bathed in dark, moody lighting. Thad is whisked away to the Rock of Eternity where he meets Shazam, the last of a council of wizards looking to pass his power on to the “pure of heart.” Before he can transfer his power to Thad, he tests whether or not he can withstand the temptation of the Seven Deadly Sins. Thad fails and is transported back to the car which ends up crashing in a well-done Snyder-esque slow-mo shot, leaving the dad paralysed from the waste down. Sivana then makes it his mission to return to Shazam and take his revenge, Mark Strong offering his adult version of the character a combination of menace and bad-assery that lifts the antagonist to a whole new level. 

Meanwhile, Billy Batson is a foster kid searching for his mother. He ends up in a new home with two incredibly wise and empathetic foster parents (they were also foster kids) and their five foster children. The sequences with the family are where the film really shines with comedic and heartwarming material. Especially impressive were Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Billy’s youngest sibling, and Jack Dylan Grazer who plays Billy’s superhero-obsessed brother/best friend Freddy Freeman. Everyone’s comedic timing and line delivery was spot-on, even when the joke was far from perfect. 

While the crux of the story in Shazam! is about family, with every member of nuclear group having their moments, the primary focus is on Freddy and Billy as they experiment with Billy’s new superpowers.

They do all the things you’d expect a kid with superpowers to do; they make money street performing, post videos on YouTube, make up silly superhero names, and attempt to stop some low level crime. Zachary Levi’s portrayal of a kid in an adult’s body is hilarious and he has great chemistry with Grazer. He forgets he has superpowers and hides from danger, Freddy having to remind him that he can stop a convenience store robbery, which might be the funniest scene in the movie (despite partially being in the trailer). The conflict comes with Billy and Freddy each being too focused on themselves, a completely realistic thing for a movie about teenagers that doesn’t involve a central love story.

At its core, Shazam! is a celebration of myth. The name Shazam is an acronym for several mythical figures spanning Greek, Jewish and Roman mythology (Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury). The struggle between Shazam and the Sins is similar to the book of Job. The film takes place at Christmastime, maybe the most magical and mythical time of year in the Western world. Manger scenes are depicted throughout the film, and in one particular scene they’re turned towards Billy as he approaches what he believes to be his mother’s house, while Santa makes several appearances, including a censored rant during a news interview.

To Freddy, “The Holy Grail” is a bullet Superman stopped, and like King Arthur, Billy had to be worthy to receive his power. The film references American film myth including Rocky (through explicit statement, locations in Philadelphia, and arguably a stuffed tiger) and Freddy Krueger (a shot of one Sin extending claws).

Of course, the greatest myths in the modern day are those contained within the superhero film genre, and as such the characters talk about Batman and Superman the way we do. Freddy is an analogue for the audience of nerds that loves going to see the DC/Marvel films and spends their time talking about, theorizing about, and writing about superheroes. Freddy wishes he could be a superhero, and I’m sure most of us feel similarly when we see these movies. I think we do become a part of these stories when we engage with them and take them seriously, perhaps an odd takeaway from a comedic film.

DC has delivered a gem that isn’t merely competent or dumb fun. I hope Sandberg gets more opportunities like this because pretty much everything in this movie hit for me. It may not beat The Dark Knight, but it’s easily the best DCEU film and by far the most fun and heartwarming.

21/24

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