The DC cinematic universe was known for being mostly a failure. However, there animated offerings tend to be quite good. I have watched a few of them and I'm not sure if I just got a bad lot, but the results for me have been mixed. This is definitely in the mixed bag.
This movie is about Batman teaming up with Nightwing and Harley Quinn. Their goal is to beat Poison Ivy and Floronic Man who want to turn all humans into plants. The majority of the voice work and animation is servicable to good. However, the problems all abound in the script.
The first thing is that it doesn't know if it wants to be an adult movie or a kids movie. This leads to weird mixes such as children's action scenes and a plot, but then you have them playing up Harley Quinn's sexuality with some BDSM or a particularly gory kill of a security guard. It can't decide whether to be serious or joking.
The characters don't even know. For example, with the whole world at risk and them being outgunned, they still refuse help from other heroes. That and the ending and how they win is the very definition of anti-climaxes.
There are other problems as well, but that is the main one. One pet peeve I have is how they keep trying to make Harley not so bad to fill in as an antihero, instead of the mass murderer she is. But that is just a bit of background. At the end of the day, the inconsistent tone prevented any build-up of tension, which made this show feel like it just dragged on too long.
2 out of 5 swampy waffles.
Showing posts with label DC comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DC comics. Show all posts
Tuesday, 25 September 2018
Thursday, 24 March 2016
MOVIE REVIEW: BATMAN V. SUPERMAN- DAWN OF JUSTICE (2016)
Spoiler: Perhaps the worst movie I have ever seen.
Dawn of Justice (2016) somehow manages to be more boring, more offensive and ultimately just worse than Man of Steel on so many levels. At the end of the movie, I felt equal parts rage and just being absolutely bored by the DC movie universe. Somehow, this manages to even triumph over Fantastic Four as literally one of the worst movies I have seen. I am thinking of taking the Linkara approach and calling them Steve and Ray instead of Bruce and Clark as there characters sucked so badly. I give fair warning that this review will be more a stream of consciousness as I think of things that annoyed me. Oh, and Spoilers.
The Civil War trailer was awesome. It looks like it is a Captain America movie through and through (despite having every superhero in it), unlike this movie where it is more about Batman and Wonder Woman and Lex not shutting up than Superman. And it looks like it is doing hero vs hero right. It can't disappoint me. But compared to this, one decently choreographed fight scene would be good.
The movie is 2.5 hours. 2 of these hours is spent trying to contrive a reason for Batman and Superman to fight and also teasing Wonder Woman and a Doomsday/Revised Zod coming out. When Wonder Woman comes out, it is treated like a big triumph (complete with music) so sure as heck is not earned (apart from DC not doing it for so long). She is a character that stands for nothing and has no motivations (apart from a little bit of exposition towards the end at Superman's funeral to give the most bare basic of motivations). And her motivations is that she is a scared girl.
This is universe building at its worst. For every Avengers, Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man that are 100% awesome from marvel, you need things like Amazing Spiderman 2 or X-Men Days of Future Past where the universe is used as an excuse for the movie. This is corporate profiteering. But the best parts of this are the equivalent of the worst parts of Amazing Spiderman. This makes Man of Steel look mediocre (a HUGE upgrade) and Avengers: Age of Ultron to be a timeless classic (making the first Avengers something made by God for us poor mortals). At least they don't have Lex not shutting up for every scene he is in.
This movie is a mess. Parts of it are randomly narrated by Batman, part of it dreams and part of it from another point of view. And it is all stupid. People blame Superman for an alien race trying to take over the planet instead of, you know, Zod. Superman spends allot of it being angsty. They all figure out it is Luthor halfway through and proceed to do nothing about it. There is a big build up about the governments decision about Superman only for it to literally mean ABSOLULETLY NOTHING. This is like Avengers if the whole movie was just the fight between Iron Man, Thor and Captain America in the forest and the rest build-up.
There are some parts I liked. Bruce Wayne racing through Metropolis while buildings collapse from Zod and Superman fighting is cool. Superman saving Lex from Doomsday without hesitation was cool. Superman flying Doomsday to space was cool. But every part of this was filled with even more idiot ball moments. For example, Bruce is mad at Superman because one of his buildings collapsed killing his employees, but they don't evacuate (despite seeing the terraforming engine) until Bruce rings them to tell them.
And then EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER TAKES A GIANT IDIOT BALL. The fight between Batman and Superman pretty much involves Superman inhaling poisonous gases while somehow not getting away with his super speed and reflexes and senses until Batman beats him up. Batman is a stupid man who nearly kills the symbol of hope for NO GOOD REASON. Lex Luthor just won't shut up while he is trying to be annoying. Clark's mum tells him he shouldn't help anyone. And I wish Nolan, Snyder or whoever is in charge of this mess gives up their love affair of having Batman beat up Superman. And since when did Batman have visions in his dream. Wouldn't that be more suited to Wonder Woman if anyone.
From the very first line in the movie (some quasi-philosophical-sounding-but-garbage-when-you-think) I leant over and said this looks shit. And I was excited and wanting it to be good. The trailers had me believing they would do something. Instead, I could write a Film-Crit Hulk style essay about just how much they get wrong. Henry Cavill is a decent Clark but bad Superman. Ben Affleck is probably the best with his horrible lines. And won't Lex Luthor just shut-up already.
There are other characters that ultimately mean nothing. Seriously, I hope everyone pirates this movie. I hope everyone involved get out of the film industry. This makes Phantom Menace look like A New Hope. I am struggling not to just go through scene by scene and just highlight why this is all so stupid and pointless and tiring. I want this to flop. I hate to think how much they can stuff up Suicide Squad or Justice League. I don't have too high standards (I liked Sucker Punch), but won't Lex Luthor please just SHUT UP.
0 out of 5 Despairing Steel Waffles.
Dawn of Justice (2016) somehow manages to be more boring, more offensive and ultimately just worse than Man of Steel on so many levels. At the end of the movie, I felt equal parts rage and just being absolutely bored by the DC movie universe. Somehow, this manages to even triumph over Fantastic Four as literally one of the worst movies I have seen. I am thinking of taking the Linkara approach and calling them Steve and Ray instead of Bruce and Clark as there characters sucked so badly. I give fair warning that this review will be more a stream of consciousness as I think of things that annoyed me. Oh, and Spoilers.
The Civil War trailer was awesome. It looks like it is a Captain America movie through and through (despite having every superhero in it), unlike this movie where it is more about Batman and Wonder Woman and Lex not shutting up than Superman. And it looks like it is doing hero vs hero right. It can't disappoint me. But compared to this, one decently choreographed fight scene would be good.
The movie is 2.5 hours. 2 of these hours is spent trying to contrive a reason for Batman and Superman to fight and also teasing Wonder Woman and a Doomsday/Revised Zod coming out. When Wonder Woman comes out, it is treated like a big triumph (complete with music) so sure as heck is not earned (apart from DC not doing it for so long). She is a character that stands for nothing and has no motivations (apart from a little bit of exposition towards the end at Superman's funeral to give the most bare basic of motivations). And her motivations is that she is a scared girl.
This is universe building at its worst. For every Avengers, Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man that are 100% awesome from marvel, you need things like Amazing Spiderman 2 or X-Men Days of Future Past where the universe is used as an excuse for the movie. This is corporate profiteering. But the best parts of this are the equivalent of the worst parts of Amazing Spiderman. This makes Man of Steel look mediocre (a HUGE upgrade) and Avengers: Age of Ultron to be a timeless classic (making the first Avengers something made by God for us poor mortals). At least they don't have Lex not shutting up for every scene he is in.
This movie is a mess. Parts of it are randomly narrated by Batman, part of it dreams and part of it from another point of view. And it is all stupid. People blame Superman for an alien race trying to take over the planet instead of, you know, Zod. Superman spends allot of it being angsty. They all figure out it is Luthor halfway through and proceed to do nothing about it. There is a big build up about the governments decision about Superman only for it to literally mean ABSOLULETLY NOTHING. This is like Avengers if the whole movie was just the fight between Iron Man, Thor and Captain America in the forest and the rest build-up.
There are some parts I liked. Bruce Wayne racing through Metropolis while buildings collapse from Zod and Superman fighting is cool. Superman saving Lex from Doomsday without hesitation was cool. Superman flying Doomsday to space was cool. But every part of this was filled with even more idiot ball moments. For example, Bruce is mad at Superman because one of his buildings collapsed killing his employees, but they don't evacuate (despite seeing the terraforming engine) until Bruce rings them to tell them.
And then EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER TAKES A GIANT IDIOT BALL. The fight between Batman and Superman pretty much involves Superman inhaling poisonous gases while somehow not getting away with his super speed and reflexes and senses until Batman beats him up. Batman is a stupid man who nearly kills the symbol of hope for NO GOOD REASON. Lex Luthor just won't shut up while he is trying to be annoying. Clark's mum tells him he shouldn't help anyone. And I wish Nolan, Snyder or whoever is in charge of this mess gives up their love affair of having Batman beat up Superman. And since when did Batman have visions in his dream. Wouldn't that be more suited to Wonder Woman if anyone.
From the very first line in the movie (some quasi-philosophical-sounding-but-garbage-when-you-think) I leant over and said this looks shit. And I was excited and wanting it to be good. The trailers had me believing they would do something. Instead, I could write a Film-Crit Hulk style essay about just how much they get wrong. Henry Cavill is a decent Clark but bad Superman. Ben Affleck is probably the best with his horrible lines. And won't Lex Luthor just shut-up already.
There are other characters that ultimately mean nothing. Seriously, I hope everyone pirates this movie. I hope everyone involved get out of the film industry. This makes Phantom Menace look like A New Hope. I am struggling not to just go through scene by scene and just highlight why this is all so stupid and pointless and tiring. I want this to flop. I hate to think how much they can stuff up Suicide Squad or Justice League. I don't have too high standards (I liked Sucker Punch), but won't Lex Luthor please just SHUT UP.
0 out of 5 Despairing Steel Waffles.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood (The New 52)
I've never been much of a Wonder Woman reader or DC enthusiast. For the longest time, I considered Wonder Woman a character only recognizable by her association with the Justice League and really nothing more. I’ve only been reading praise for DC new 52 relaunch of Wonder Woman under writer Brian Azzarello (100 Bullets, Loveless, Joker, Hellblazer, and many more) which peaked my attention, and the end result is the best Wonder Woman story I've read.
What I gather this is a soft reboot, meaning it's still has all the same character but they’ve tweaked wonder woman mythology. Which is good because one of the reason I never got into Wonder Woman was due to her laughable origin story. Seriously. go Wikipedia it for yourself if you want to know more. Azzarello replaces it with something much more interesting and fitting for the character.
The plot basically revolves a young woman named Zola whose pregnant with Zeus's unborn child. Hera pretty pissed about this so she decided that Zola and the child need to be killed. Lucky Wonder Woman happens to be around to provide protection. While this is happening a prophy regarding Zeus’s offspring is relieved. Like any good father he decided to leave Olympus. Now the king is gone the other gods are making plays for power among themselves for the position of ruler of Olympus. Azzarello has clearly taking inspiration from Greek epics like The Odyssey. There is a little bit of everything adventure, mysticism, suspense, love, desires, humor, revelations, and a whole heap of things being setup for the future. What I like is how clear and balanced the storytelling is. The first story arc is compulsively addictive, the political war of the Gods is always in the background. The action never feels unwanted or to over the top. Which makes it all the more page-turning.
Combine that with the wonderful artwork of Cliff Chiang. The bold thick lines and distinct color palette are just excellent.Chiang's designs for the Gods are creative, intriguing and fascinating to behold (wait till you see Poseidon) .
If like me you’ve never read Wonder Woman before, check out Azzarello's new and exciting take on the character. You'll be pleasantly surprised by the twisty twirly story that will have you salivating for more.
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