Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Ranking the DCU Animated Movies
With the release of the new DCU Animated Movie Superman: Unbound I figured we should take a look back at all the other DCU Animated releases and rank them from worst to best. I haven't seen Superman: Unbound yet so that is not included in this list.
Batman: Gotham Knight just didn't do it for me. Released the same month as Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, this is series of shorts done by different anime studios and directors. There is a lot of comics writing talent behind this movie, it should have been stronger. David Goyer, Greg Rucka, Brian Azarrello all participate. The movie was advertised as taking place between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight but the tales are so separate that the only thing that would make you think they took place in the same universe would be the inclusion of Lucius Fox. All in all it's a disjointed effort that suffers from no central storytelling or theme.
15. Superman: Doomsday
This movie sounds great. What better thing for a film than to have Superman and Doomsday battling for 80 minutes? Well, when they decide to adapt the Return of Superman very loosely and cram that into the movie, it just falls apart. This was the first DCU Animated movie released, and it is a good effort, its just not up to par with the other ones that were released later. Superman and Doomsday battle right at the beginning of the film, and at the time, we'd never seen an animated Superman fight like this. Punches looked like they hurt here, there was blood! But then a clone Superman turns up and fights mullet Superman with a gun. That's where the movie ends. If this wasn't the first DCU Animated movie, and if they had gone with a 2 part story with the Death of Superman being Part 1, and the Return of Superman being Part 2, we might have had a better movie. The DVD is worthwhile for the 45 minute documentary/retrospective on the Death of Superman storyline in the 90's.
14. Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
13. Superman Vs. The Elite
12. Green Lantern: First Flight
11. Batman: Year One
10. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
9. Justice League: The New Frontier
8. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths
7. Superman/Batman: Apocalypse
6. Batman: Under the Red Hood
5. All Star Superman
4. Justice League: Doom
3. Wonder Woman
2. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1
1. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2
Hope you enjoyed my countdown! Let me know in the comments section if you agree/disagree. What's your favorite DCU Animated movie? How was Superman: Unbound? Are you looking forward to Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox? Let me know!
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Star Trek Into Dark-WHAT? (SPOILERS)
Ready? Okay. First of all, for anyone who was following the blog-o-sphere, of which I am now a part of, it was pretty clear who Benedict Cumberbatch was playing. Yes we had years of "he-is," "no-he-isn't," "no-wait-he's-who?" nonsense. To me, that game only hampered the film. It certainly built up a lot of anticipation for Trek fans, but I think if we hadn't played these identity games we could have had a much better movie. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Into Darkness but not as much as I would have liked. I feel like JJ Abrams and the writers got caught up in all the "They have to do Khan!" hysteria, that they lost themselves and the spirit of the new franchise they had established in the 2009 film.
I've never seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all the way through, but I know enough about it that I feel like the Into Darkness team hit all the beats they thought they had to hit. I feel like this hurt the film. The Into Darkness team failed to do for Khan what Christopher Nolan and his team did for the Joker in The Dark Knight. We didn't get a re-invention that was so well done that it can live alongside the original performance like Heath Ledger's Joker does alongside Jack Nicholson's.
So, rather than get an new original Trek story, we got a rehash of the 1982 film, in that it used Khan as a villain and a Starfleet officer dies, but not the one you might think. Everything else I'm assuming is new to this alternate timeline. The basic plot is that "John Harrison" aka Khan is mad at a Starfleet Admiral because he is some ancient warlike superhuman that was cryogenically frozen for 300 years along with some others of his same race. He's mad because the rest of his ship's crew is still frozen, and for this he wants revenge. Does this seem like the best way to un-freeze your friends? Probably not. Who is Khan and what race is he? Where does he come from? Is he human? None of this is addressed in the film via exposition or flashback, its mostly thrown at you while the bombastic score plays on because they just revealed it is in fact Khan. I guess the audience is expected to forget about all of this backstory and just accept that Khan is super-strong, smart, mean, and wants to kill Starfleet.
Instead of Khan's revenge being the main plot and conflict of the film we have this other plot about Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) wanting to start a war with the Klingon Empire. We see the Klingons, but only one without their dopey helmets on, on an "un-inhabited" part of their home planet. I thought it was a cop out, personally. Save on set decoration and make-up by being on this rocky terrain, with these conveniently placed rocks, and conveniently covered aliens in the middle of a foggy phaser battle. Why is Khan here at all? We don't know. Somehow it's the Admiral's plan to launch torpedoes here to kill Khan and start a war, but why did Khan go there at all if he's at odds with this Admiral? After that we get an even bigger Enterprise called the U.S.S Vengence, seen here. In the film its described as a ship designed for war, that can have a minimal crew. We know its badass because its bigger than the Enterprise and its painted black. If it needs minimal crew then why is it so large? I would think that something more frightening would be a tiny, undetectable ship that is super-powerful, and doesn't completely look like a bigger Enterprise. Couldn't we come up with a different Federation starship design? Some dialogue in the film makes a big deal about the Enterprise being the flagship of Starfleet, and then we introduce this monstrosity.
Don't get me wrong, the film is still enjoyable. The actors are all great in their roles, its just that the story is too convoluted for their own good. Spock and Kirk are becoming better friends, and Scotty is more useful, although it is interesting to note that in this film, like the last, we see more of Scotty off the Enterprise than we do on it. That is the biggest strength of the film, is that the actors seem at home in their roles and are so fun to watch, even if we don't know why they are all doing what they are doing all the time. The action scenes are thrilling, there is less lens flares (a plus!) and funny character interactions, all of which I liked. I just took major issues with the plot. Hopefully the next film can go into brand new territory for Star Trek and tell an original tale instead of rehashing old ones.
3 out of 5 Stars
Trailer
Iron Man 3 Movie Review Podcast
Aside from this blog, I've been part of the Comic Timing Podcast for several years with my friend +Ian Levenstein. We recently talked about Iron Man 3 on our podcast so I'd like to link you to there to listen to it. Donovan also guest stars.
Listen Here
Comic Timing is a comics podcast where +Ian L and I will discuss comics, comic films, comic video games, and anything comics related. We've been doing it for a couple of years and are quickly approaching our 150th episode. If you like the Iron Man 3 review, we have done other movie reviews in the past, and I may link them here from time to time.
~Enjoy!
Trailer
First Post - Welcome - What's coming...
Welcome to Brent's Movie/TV Blog!
What will be blogged about here? Numerous things, mostly within the movie/television sphere. I like all kinds of movies/films/documentaries etc. From time to time I'll post here my thoughts on a movie or TV show. Maybe they will have a rating, maybe not. From time to time I'll share links to interesting movie/TV news for you to peruse. Sometimes the things I'll be discussing will be current, maybe I'll revisit something older that I enjoyed or didn't enjoy. I'm not intending this site to be overly long or wordy, maybe sometimes you will get only a few paragraphs or two on a topic. Maybe only a link. Maybe a few paragraphs. I don't know. There's no format, no mantra, just thoughts, maybe some pictures.
~Enjoy!
What will be blogged about here? Numerous things, mostly within the movie/television sphere. I like all kinds of movies/films/documentaries etc. From time to time I'll post here my thoughts on a movie or TV show. Maybe they will have a rating, maybe not. From time to time I'll share links to interesting movie/TV news for you to peruse. Sometimes the things I'll be discussing will be current, maybe I'll revisit something older that I enjoyed or didn't enjoy. I'm not intending this site to be overly long or wordy, maybe sometimes you will get only a few paragraphs or two on a topic. Maybe only a link. Maybe a few paragraphs. I don't know. There's no format, no mantra, just thoughts, maybe some pictures.
~Enjoy!
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