Awesome Link of the Day: James Lipton was a Pimp!

Via PopBlend/Cinemablend:

James Lipton Worked As A Pimp In Paris In The 1950s

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.

16. Batman: Gotham Knight

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

This movie suffers the same problems as Batman: Gotham Knights for me.  Its another anthology movie weaving different tales directed by different anime directors and studios in different styles.  What makes this better than Gotham Knights is that there is a central storyline, even if it is only that the Green Lanterns are all waiting in line to recharge at the central power battery, telling new recruit Arisia the tales of the Green Lantern Corps.  Nathan Fillion is Hal Jordan, but he is not the central focus of more than one of the tales.  I think the Mogo tale was a favorite for me.

13. Superman Vs. The Elite

This is one of the more recent DCU Animated films, adapting a story from Action Comics #775.  For my memory, it was a pretty decent adaptation, but the movie kind of slogs along until we get to the final battle where Superman just goes nuts on Manchester Black, pointing out his hypocrisy.  I found it on Netflix, so if you're only fairly interested in the last fight, feel free to take a look, its the only thing here that is fun to watch.

12. Green Lantern: First Flight

Ironically, this movie came out before the live action Green Lantern film, and neither stand head and shoulder above the other.  In 70 minutes here we get the origin of Hal Jordan, a buddy cop adventure with Sinestro, and then a battle with Yellow Lantern Sinestro.  That is a lot to cram into a movie this short.  Visually, it is great, but I think it falls apart under the weight of all it is trying to accomplish.  Take a look at this alongside the live action film and see if you disagree with me.  I think these show how hard it is to do a Green Lantern movie.  Maybe next time we see GL on the big screen, we can skip the origin.

11. Batman: Year One

This movie is an adaptation of Frank Miller's classic story. And its pretty much done panel for panel.  I don't think that it did a bad job adapting, it just feels so slow, and kind of bland.  The voice actors aren't terrible, the animation echoes David Mazzucchelli's art, but nothing really makes the movie stand out apart from the story its adapted from. Nothing here reaches out and grabs you, but nothing is to terrible either. Kind of a middle of the road effort for the DCU Animated movies.

10. Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

This movie astonished me when it was released.  Why? They took Ed McGuiness' art and translated it into animation.  The character designs are fantastic, and McGuiness' style is PERFECT for animation.  Everybody is big, loud, muscular, and larger than life. Also, this was the first time that Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, and Clancy Brown returned together from the old TV animated series to do the voices.  This was every fan's dream, and it happened again and again after the success of this movie.  The story is great and offers something for everyone, like the comic, it's action packed. All in all, this one is just plain fun

9.  Justice League: The New Frontier

Adapted from Darwyn Cooke's mini-series, this was the first big Justice League story of the DCU Animated films.  It took awhile for the JLA to get together, but each character got their own spotlight and it wove the story together more cohesively than maybe the book did.  The movie also apes the art style of the book, but not as successfully as the Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.  What's fun about this film is that characters like Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Lantern get more screentime than Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.  Also of note, this is a better Hal Jordan origin than Green Lantern: First Flight.

8.  Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

This movie was fun. It wasn't a straight adaptation of Grant Morrison's Earth 2 Graphic Novel, but it took the same characters and attitudes established there and transferred them here. I think the best part of the movie might be James Woods as Owlman.  His sneering and sniveling over the JLA makes for a great character.  This JLA does not have the usual voice actors, Chris Noth, Mark Harmon, and William Baldwin all take a turn here as Lex Luthor, Superman, and Batman.

7.  Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Like Superman/Batman: Public Enemies this movie took the comics storyline and art and perfectly translated them into animation.  Michael Turner's style does not look like it would be good for animation, but the producers here found a way to make it work.  It's not as perfect as Public Enemies was, but Michael Turner's style is not as clean and cartoony as Ed McGuiness'.  This movie brings back Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, from the JLU series, and since they call back to the events of Public Enemies it works perfectly.  Andre Braugher is Darkseid, and while he certainly has the deep voice one might imagine with the character, he never comes across as inherently threatening. Once again, Jeph Loeb's original storyline fits this format very well.  I'd be interested to see them do more Superman/Batman storylines from the comics. There are only one or two more, c'mon!

6.  Batman: Under the Red Hood

No one expected Judd Winick's Under the Red Hood to be a blockbuster comics story. Similarly, no one expected this movie to be as good as it was. I think it was because Judd Winick himself handled the initial draft of the script.  He knew what to keep in, what needed to go, and added things in the place of others in order to keep the characters moving and the action moving as well.  Very few times does an animated scene beat the actual comics, but the final confrontation here with Joker, Batman, and Red Hood is and edge of your seat family drama.  I'd rather watch that scene over and over again than read the final issue of  Winick's storyline with the fill-in art, bar none.

5.  All Star Superman

This one is a doozy.  It took Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's instant classic 12-issue series and crammed it into a 70 minute movie.  The movie manages to keep the light, warm feel of the comic and still tell the overall story of Superman's last days on Earth.  Sure we lose some parts, like the Superman Squad, or Bizarro-world, but everything else is here and in superb fashion. Viewing this makes you appreciate how fresh the comic was when it came out, and in similar fashion this movie was in between two dark Batman tales Red Hood and Year One.  I think a lot of people may have wrote this off since it was such a massive undertaking, but its well worth a viewing or two.  Now, if only they'd get to Batman: The Long Halloween, and Dark Victory.  This movie proves those can be great.

4.  Justice League: Doom

This film is two great things coming together. One part Mark Waid's brilliant Tower of Babel story, one part Legion of Doom, Justice League: Doom is a great film.  Instead of battling Ra's Al Ghul the League goes up against Vandal Savage, Bane, Star Sapphire, Metallo, and Cheetah.  Every JLA member goes up against their opposite, who use Batman's plans against them.  How Cyborg turns out and Batman is redeemed are two great parts of the movie.  This is the last thing Dwayne McDuffie wrote before he passed away and it is a great testament to his strength as a writer and creator.

3.  Wonder Woman

If you haven't seen this yet, you will not believe your eyes in the first 15 minutes.  The film opens with an epic battle between the Amazons and the forces of Ares.  Then the limb-chopping and beheadings begin.  Yes you read that right. Beheadings! My jaw dropped at that moment, and I was hooked for the rest of the film. While Diana isn't present for that scene, it does establish that these Amazons are not to be messed with. Then Steve Trevor lands and proceeds to completely mess that up.  Nathan Fillion plays Steve Trevor with aplomb, and delivers some serious laughs while hitting on Diana.  Diana escorts him back to man's world and Ares attacks from there.  If there is any template for a live action Wonder Woman movie, it is this one. Just take the script and film it already!

2.  Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 1

Dark Knight Returns may be the best Batman story ever.  Is it the best Batman animated movie? Yes.  Best DCU Animated movie? So far.  And since Part 2 is better than Part 1, these two take the top of the list.   Part 1 sets up the world, and the fight with the leader is perfectly executed. The overall movie is not as great as Part 2 since a lot of it is setup and exposition, but it is still very well done.  The animation style resembles Frank Miller's blocky style and does a good job as a representation of the comic.  Casual Batman fans should definitely check out this dark, yet definitive take on Batman.

1.  Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2

This movie succeeds over Part 1 only because it has so less to do and so many classic characters to feature.  Here, we have Robin, the Joker, Superman, and Green Arrow alongside Batman. Its like the movie just rises above because we have these interesting future takes on the characters to watch.  Plus, these moments are so famous in comic fandom you love to watch them happen before your eyes.  If you haven't read the book beforehand, more likely you can' believe what is happening before your eyes.  This shows how strong the DCU Animated films can be if they adapt the right material in the right way.  That doesn't mean they can all be winners, but they should all strive to be of this caliber.

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!

Star Trek Into Dark-WHAT? (SPOILERS)

I finally saw Star Trek Into Darkness on Friday. Later than others, I know, but that's okay.  I had tried my best to stay away from spoilers but some things were spoiled for me, but they only affirmed my assumptions.  So, for your sake, SPOILERS from here on out.







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

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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!

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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!