Last bit, dug into the early years of DC animated flicks, now, the newer stuff.
But first....
The Batman Superman Movie
The film-
Three episodes of the 90's Superman series stitched together into a film.
Excellent, I fucking love it.
Thanks for reminding me of this one, and recommending it, Max.
Fuggin' Wikipedia didn't have this one listed under movies.
Bastiches.
In the last entry, I bemoaned some of them being "long episodes", well, this one actually IS a 3 part episode of the fucking Saturday morning show, cheap animation and all, and it kicks the asses of those "long episodes", movies.
SubZero, Batwoman, Brainiac Attacks, Titans in Tokyo, the lot.
Budget is no excuse for slacking, this is the proof.
Anyway, it's Superman and Batman retroactively meeting for the first time, and vs Luthor, and his henchwoman, and Joker, and Harley.
If you love these characters, it shows all of them at their best.
For crossovers, I put this up there with Batman/Hulk.
Yep, I liked it THAT much.
:D
I'd tell ya more, but I don't wanna give a damned thing away.
Oh, okay, favorite scene, Superman x-ray-ing Batman's mask, Supes exclaiming "Bruce Wayne!?", and Wayne/Bats deadpan grumbling "you peeked...".
The history-
Again, thanks, Max.
Okay, now, to the 00's/10's...
Superman: Doomsday
The film-
Pretty damned good.
Encapsulates the whole "Death Of Superman", comics arc, but...I gotta say, I dig this version better.
Changes made include-
(Spoilers BTW)
Doomsday fight confined to Metropolis, and beefier.
The death blow isn't just hand to hand now, Supes smashes Doomsday all the way up from orbit, and goes through a re-entry impact.
Which, is what it would really take to kill/coma these guys.
Eradicator, and Clone-Superboy are merged into one character, of a bad adult Superman clone pretending to be risen Supes.
No Cadmus, now it's directly Lexcorp.
There is no John Henry Steel.
There is no Cyborg-Superman, or side bullshit with Green Lantern, and Mongul.
Funeral is short and sweet, no every hero and villain in the DCU prattling on.
Supes coming back weaker, with long hair, and a black cyber-suit is about the same, but he gets right down to business fighting the clone.
This second fight is great, not tiresome like the one in "Brainiac Attacks", it's paced very much like the Zod/Ursa/Non in Metropolis fight in "Superman II".
Pretty damned impressive little production, I recommend.
The history-
Read the comics back in the day.
Had to withstand sniffy, jerky, stereotypical comic-book-guys to do so.
Thanks for ending that fucking era, internet.
Justice League: The New Frontier
The film-
Based on the graphic novel that I didn't read.
Pretty much a retro alterni-verse of these characters starting out in the 50's/60's.
What it really seems to be though, is DC (at long last) shrugging off the bad mojo of the bad-old-days when they bent over like bitches for the Senate Subcommittee Hearings, and the shitty Comics Code Authority they birthed.
Here, we see the DC heroes as they should have/would have been back then.
Questioning authority, acknowledging the issues of the day, all the stuff they finally do now, but, as I said, retro to the 50's/60's.
Think Watchmen without the rape, and prostitutes, and looming gloom.
I applaud the effort, and the film is pleasant to watch, but....it wasn't the "masterpiece", I've heard fanboys claim.
It's just good.
Maybe the book is better, but I gotta judge this on its own merits.
Anyway, worth a watch.
The history-
N/A
Batman: Gotham Knight
The film-
From here...
The animated in-between-quel to "Batman Begins", and "The Dark Knight".
Eh, I didn't say much about Animatrix that applied, since I liked Animatrix, but hated The Matrix.
Another anthology in the vein of "The Animatrix".
So, ditto a lot of what I said about that.
Including counting this as Heavy Metal 3.
I love the Nolan-verse films.
Forgot to mention in that entry, Kevin Conroy plays Bats for this one.
I refuse to say "returns to the role", because..well, he's had more retirements than Rocky.
Arkham City is supposed to be the last for him, but..come on...he'll be back.
The history-
N/A
Wonder Woman
Pretty damned good.
The Wonder Woman flick we'll probably never get to see in live-action.
But, hey, Warners, prove me wrong.
I love how DC Animation makes these pretty much to say "this is how you fuckin' do it, Hollywood!".
Not for tiny little kids though, lotta violence.
Flat out decapitations, and fully exposed impaling.
Heavy sexual innuendo too.
Oh,...I'd say 7 and up, depending on the kid.
Hey, WW is spun off of Greek/Roman myth, you gotta have war and tragedy in there...
They have WW back to her radical feminist roots too.
Loved that.
I mentally cheered at a couple scenes of her looking down her nose at modern American women for being gutless fluffy conformist pushovers using bimbo-ism for their flirting games.
Yes...yes...thank you...*claps*.
*Delighted/evil chuckle*
Little girls need Wonder Woman more than ever, who else is their heroes?
Kardashians?
Fuck that.
If you let your daughters watch that Kardashian shit, choke yourself.
Choke yourself right the fuck out.
The history-
Tuts!
Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter
The film-
The missing chunk of Watchmen.
It's also in that ultra-mega-ultimate-director's edition, or whatever the fuck they call it.
I gotta get that...
It's fucking great.
Just like the book.
The "Under The Hood", interviews are good too.
The history-
N/A
Green Lantern: First Flight
The film-
From the comments thread in this post, re: live-action "Green Lantern"....
Hmm, well, I expected way more goofiness outta Reynolds, and there's a sprinkle of it, but he more often kinda puppy-dog-eyes acted his way through the mushy stuff, and the self-doubt stuff.
Once he goes to Oa, it plays out like a straight ahead CG-ed reboot issue of Green Lantern Corps.
Some nice stuff about overcoming fear for the kiddies, a nifty boogeyman to slay, s'alright.
A bit too much goes into the "save it for later", bin, like the fall of Sinestro, and now there won't be a sequel so, pppt.
Worth a buck outta Redbox, anyway.
Okay, so, this film did the origin first, so, how did it differ?
Hal gets the ring a lot sooner, and we jump right ahead to that he's had a couple weeks of practice out in the desert, THEN he goes to Oa, then, they get right down to the turning of Sinestro, which is what the live-action sequel would have covered.
So, you can just watch this, and you get that lost sequel.
Overall quality of this one...pretty decent.
Another edgy adult one, lotta mild cursing, and referencing of rectums and such.
These direct-to-DVD ones aren't even trying to be for kids anymore, although, I'd still recommend them to mature/bright kids.
The history-
N/A
Yep, this stretch was consistently enjoyable, Warners/DC really has their shit together now.
This wasn't always so.
Let's just hope the streak holds....
Up next, the last batch of these.
(This goes between this, and this)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Superhero Flicks, Part 3.7: DC Animated (Part 2)
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5 comments:
What I recall liking even better than Supes 'peeking' under Batman's cowl?
A couple of scenes later when Supes is duffing around his Clark Kent apt with his long underwear hanging out, then glances out the window and spots Bats on a rooftop blocks away holding a pair of binoculars.
And Bats gives a little wave.
;)
Haha! Yep, almost wrote the whole thing, but, you remembered it.
You seen any of these other ones?
Mostly no. The first half or so of New Frontier, but I didn't care for it. Like I said in the email, it had the Kingdom Come disease--the writers expected that you were a DC nerd and already knew who everyone was and were not about to expend any effort bringing you up to speed.
I did see Gotham Knights. Pretty kick-ass for the most part. I liked the super-anime Battle Of The Planets looking Bats design in one story. And they even managed to pull that old chestnut of the four kids with different versions of Batman story out of mothballs and not make it suck.
Re: New Frontier.
Yeah, shoulda added in the review it's probably not for kids, not because of anything intense, but because its targeted specifically for old fans.
If it were a from-scratch film, they probably woulda fixed that, but where it had to be a direct adaptation, and the comics culture has become so insular...
...yeah, here I bitch about "every issue is someone's first issue", and I forgot to jump on that, thanks for pointing it out here.
Word.
I try to bear that in mind with my comic, throwing in mild little bits of catch-up exposition when I can. Of course, once you get deep enough in, that shit can really get in the way of the big, balls-out finale battles. Sometimes you just gotta trust that newbies will simply like what they see, shut up and enjoy the ride, and then go do their homework if they want to know who's who and what's what.
'Tis a dagger's edge we walk . . .
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