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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 4, 2023 3:14:26 GMT -5
*I realized that I should have posted this in this thread rather than creating a new one:
Just watched this direct-to-video DC animated feature, Batman & Superman: Battle of the Super Sons a few days ago on HBO...
...and rather enjoyed it. Here the boys are in their early teens, with Jonathan Kent (the son of Superman and Lois) only learning about who his dad really is and having his powers kick in in the first act. Then he gets to meet Batman and his current Robin (his mean and bratty son, Damien) and later it's up to them to save the planet when Starro subjugates all of the other heroes. There's nothing terribly original here and the outcome is never in doubt, but it's still a pretty fun ride.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Sept 4, 2023 3:28:42 GMT -5
Batman: Soul of the Dragon dropped a teaser today: And I also watched this for the first time last night; I pretty much agree with everything the late, great Brutalis wrote about it. I really loved that it was also an homage to the martial arts flicks of the 1970s and, to a limited extent (mainly in terms of the soundtrack), the Blaxploitation movies as well. It was cool to see a whole bunch of characters and concepts from DC's 1970s output thrown into the pot, i.e., O Sensei, Richard Dragon, Shiva, Bronze Tiger and Kobra, as well as Rip Jagger, Jade (Cheshire) and King Snake. And yeah, not only is Batman not the nigh-supreme Batgod here, he's also almost a supporting character (he's obviously the headliner for marketing purposes). |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 9, 2023 3:01:32 GMT -5
Watched another new DC animated feature, Legion of Super-Heroes (2023)...
The title is a bit deceptive, since it's very Supergirl focused (probably should have been called 'Supergirl & the Legion...'); it starts with her being rocketed off Krypton, then switches to a few months after her arrival on Earth, where she's having serious trouble adjusting, so cousin Kal takes her to the 31st century, where he suggests that she undergo superhero training in the Legion Academy. In this version, a lot of the standard Legionnaires are still trainees, like Mon-El, Brainiac 5, Phantom Girl, Dawnstar, Bouncing Boy, etc. Also, except for Shadow Lass, Chemical King and Timberwolf, all of the other regular members are missing and cannot be contacted for reasons unknown. Supergirl otherwise notices some mysterious black-clad figures lurking around (which she also did back in the 20th century), and it seems that arrogant trainee Brainiac 5 knows more than he's letting on...
Like the Super Sons feature I mentioned above, this is solid, roughly 90 minute diversion.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 10, 2023 5:01:48 GMT -5
And rounding off my viewings of DC animated features over the past few weeks or so, I got around to Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022)...
As indicated by the trailer, the focus here is on John Stewart, who in this iteration is a former Marine sniper having trouble adjusting to civilian life (and suffering from PTSD, although it's not explicitly stated). One night a space ship crashes near his house, and when he goes to check the wreckage, he comes across a dying alien (which we can recognize as a Guardian of Oa) who only manages to say his name before dying. Then a green power ring flies out of the Guardian's cloak and onto John's finger. Initially John doesn't want anything to do with any of this, and flies up to the JLA satellite to find someone there who can help him. However, this all leads to a cosmic adventure, with a trip to Oa and a confrontation with a bunch of spacefaring evildoers apparently led by renegade Green Lantern Sinestro. Again, I found this one pretty enjoyable, despite many story elements in that came well after my time as a regular comics reader, like the Rann-Thanager War, Parallax, etc., as well as a few flaws in the story/plot and the really high - and graphic - body count.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2023 8:02:04 GMT -5
The Legion movie was really hard for me being a long-time Legion fan. The Supergirl "problem" set-up was a little annoying to me (including the whole exchange between Batman and Superman), and the Legion characters were not really the ones we know and love (e.g., Dawnstar sounded like an airhead). They REALLY did Mon-El wrong in this as well.
I thought Soul of the Dragon was stellar though, awesome love letter to the 70's and everything worked for me on that one. REALLY nice animation style as well, much better than a lot of other modern DC animation.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 27, 2023 3:18:31 GMT -5
I re-watched Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) last night...
...after not seeing for well over a decade. The first time around I still hadn't watched any of the Batman animated series, so it was my first exposure to that whole 'universe' and I quite liked it. Now that I've seen the animated series as well, it's lost some of its novelty for me. Based on some of the reviews I've seen online as well as comments elsewhere on this site, I don't think I quite liked it as much as many, but I still think it's a damn good movie. The Phantasm/Andrea Beaumont in particular is a really outstanding creation - it's a good retooling (to some extent) of the Reaper from Batman Year 2/Full Circle.
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Post by Jesse on Oct 28, 2023 22:28:07 GMT -5
Watched Justice League Warzone on HBO Max and thought it was a decent enough entry to their new "Tomorrow-Verse" reboot. Basically the Trinity gets captured by Mongul and has to fight back to regain their memories. Good casting and some fun cameos, Jonah Hex, Warlord, Martian Manhunter, and Lobo are particularly notable. Cliff hanger sets up the next two part film series which I won't spoil for those not up-to-date with recent WB announcements.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Oct 29, 2023 12:43:50 GMT -5
Caught the Batman-Superman Movie: World's Finest from 1997...
...which is apparently a DVD reissue of three episodes of the Superman animated series. It's not bad, but not nearly as good as Mask of the Phantasm or any number of Batman TAS episodes. This take on the Superman/Batman team riffs more off the post-Crisis status quo than the classic World's Finest comics, although they do seem to be a on a slightly friendlier footing here. One thing I did not like was the love triangle sub-plot, i.e., Lois falling for Bruce Wayne - so hard that she makes comments about them possibly getting married, after basically knowing him for a few days and going on all of two dates with him.
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Post by Jesse on Nov 17, 2023 17:06:26 GMT -5
This looks absolutely charming
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 18, 2023 4:22:11 GMT -5
This looks absolutely charming I agree. On a similar note, I just watched DC League of Super-Pets (2022) last night...
...and absolutely loved it. It's incredibly funny, but also has a ton of heart. Since it's obviously pet-centered, none of the people, including Superman and the other members of the Justice League, come across as very bright or capable, which makes it additionally funny. (I love how all of the animals immediately see through Clark Kent's glasses 'disguise'.) And the voice acting is great, with Dwayne Johnson as Krypto and Kevin Hart as Ace (later the Bat-Hound). When the credits rolled around, I was also surprised that Keanu Reeves does the voice of Batman and Jermaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) is Aquaman - I didn't recognize them at all.
Otherwise, at the start, there is a sequence in which Krypto and Superman do a bunch of heroing together, which, frankly, should have been done in the comics. I'd read the hell out of an all ages 'Adventures of Superman and Krypto' series.
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Post by Jesse on Nov 22, 2023 14:14:12 GMT -5
It begins...
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 28, 2023 5:10:32 GMT -5
On the heels of reading the Elseworlds tale of the same title, I recently also watched Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023): It's mostly a pretty faithful adaptation of the Elseworlds story; there are a few changes, most notably Jason Todd and Tim Drake are changed to two characters apparently made specifically for this movie, Sanjay Tawde and a reimagined version of Cassandra Cain called Kai Lin Cain. The animation is the standard style for many of these DC animated features I've watched recently, so it's solid (although I can't help thinking that here it would have been better to take a more stylized approach, i.e., so that it would resemble the art in the original Elseworlds book or even Mignola's art). If you liked the original story, or you just like Lovecraftian-type stories, you'll probably want to catch this one. Otherwise, I was also pleased that Mr. Tuvok himself, Tim Russ, did the voice for Lucius Fox (another change from the original, as that character didn't appear there). |
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Post by majestic on Dec 13, 2023 19:40:56 GMT -5
Watched a Merry Little Batman with my grand daughter. It was a cute Christmas special. Picture the Grinch and Home Alone with Batman mixed in...
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jan 1, 2024 4:37:02 GMT -5
Rang in the New Year by watching Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse (2022)...
...and it's absolutely hilarious, spoofing the more serious comic book/cinematic superheroes and themselves, with tons of meta commentary as well. And none other than the original Super Friends make a brief appearance at the very end. Otherwise, I've watched a little of Teen Titans Go! (which I enjoyed well enough) and most of DC Super Hero Girls (which I loved), but you can go into this without having watched any of that and still enjoy this.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 29, 2024 3:58:03 GMT -5
Just watched the two-part cross-over film Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen (2023) over the past two nights...
For those who may not be familiar (and I'm no expert, everything I'm going to write here is based on what I've gleaned from watching this film and the Wikipedia entry), RWBY - pronounced 'ruby' - is a digitally-generated animesque web cartoon about a team of super-powered warrior girls named Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang (hence the initials) who protect their world, called Remnant, from soulless monsters called the Grimm. In the first half of the film, the various members of the Justice League - Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Vixen, Flash, Green Lantern (Jessica Cruz) and, *sigh* Cyborg -start appearing on Remnant with only fuzzy memories of how they got there, and they are all teenagers. They connect with the RWBY girls, who tell them something is off about their world and the Grimm. It ends up that they're all in a simulation being run by a Flash villain, Kilg%re, although he's being backed by a mysterious yet incredibly powerful villain from Remnant.
That plays into the second part, in which the JLA return home, only to find it being attacked by the Grimm, which are even more dangerous and hypermutated than they were in the first part. It seems that Kilg%re and his mysterious mentor are again behind it. The JLAers need help, they find a way to transport team RWBY to Earth.
There are no surprises here, it's 2 hours of pretty straight forward, stylish, videogamey "blow up the monsters" action. But damned if it isn't entertaining - I guess I was just in the mood for some cartoon violence...
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