This is going to be a mass review of a bunch of the DC animated movies from their direct to dvd line, including: Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Green Lantern: First Flight, Wonder Woman, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Justice League: New Frontier, Superman Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight and Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Also the shorts: DC Showcase: Green Arrow, DC Showcase: Spectre, DC Showcase: Jonah Hex.
ALSO -- here's the order they were released in. I watched them out of order and it didn't bother me. Except for one article saying Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is a sequel to Superman/Batman: Public Enemies I don't think it matters.
#1 -- Superman: Doomsday
#2 -- Justice League: New Frontier
#5 -- Green Lantern: First Flight
#6 -- Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
#8 -- Batman: Under the Red Hood
#9 -- Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (with DC Showcase: Green Arrow)
Let me first give a quick summary. All the features except Batman: Gotham Knight and Justice League: New Frontier that I've seen have been good. Nothing special, mind you, but just good solid superhero stories. They have some action and an occasional joke or sexual reference (in Wonder Woman there is mention of a god forcing himself upon one of the Amazons) that's not suitable for young children, but I think that's why they are PG-13. For older children (even adult age children :) ) the movies are pretty solid, thought not on the level of the live action Spider-Man 2 or Batman: Dark Knight movies. Certainly I thought they were better than most of the Marvel animated films, such as Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2, Doctor Strange, and Hulk Vs (although I did like Next Avengers).
With that, let's get to the individual reviews:
Yeah, it's a solid story. The intro of Supergirl and the JLA trying to figure out what to do with her and her own struggle of where does she fit in, of wanting a real life where she can have fun and not sure she is ready to accept the responsibility of being a hero like Superman takes quite a bit of time in the movie, but it also makes it a more effective than simply an ninety minutes of fighting would have. It's not perfect and it's not great -- too predictable, and while the emotional arc is okay it's also stuff we've seen before (and better done in Spider-Man 2). Still a solid superhero movie.
Movie #8
The story: a new villain, the Red Hood, is setting up in Gotham except he is terrorizing the bad guys and taking over Gothams crime. However, Batman will learn that he is actually someone with a personal connection to Batman and that he has a deeper reason for coming back.
Was it good?
So far, it's the best of the DC Animated movies. The animation itself wasn't any better (unfortunately, watching several movies in a row the style is starting to feel a little clunky), but this was the best story. Now usually I hate the reveal that the bad guy is actually someone from the hero's past (like in Hush -- yuck!) but here, after the initial groan, they do some interesting things. This definitely felt like the most violent of the DC movies I've seen and goes to some dark places.
*** SPOILER -- IN INVISO-TEXT (highlight to read) **** Remember the storyline Death in the Family where Joker kills Jason Todd? Well, this is the storyline where they bring Jason Todd back and the second half of the story, after they reveal who Red Hood is, deals with Jason, Batman and the Joker. The ending wasn't satisfying for me, but everything up to then was good. ***
I know not every Batman fan will like it (based a lot of who Red Hood is and how they feel about that), but this was the best of the bunch so far for me.
Movie #2. Based on the graphic novel by Darwyn Cook.
The story: The origin of Wonder Woman. Basically, Wonder Woman's mom defeated Ares, the God of War. Later a fighter pilot crashes on WW's island. WW wins the right to take him back to New York. Meanwhile another amazon has fallen in love with Ares and sets him free. Now WW and the fighter pilot has to stop Ares before he incites war, including the destruction of WW's island.
Was it good?
Not so much. It wasn't horrible, but a lot of it was cheesy and over-the-top. The romance between Wonder Woman and the fighter pilot never clicks. There's this constant thread of WW being insulted by the idea of a man hitting on her or opening a door for her, etc. Being strong is fine, but seriously -- opening a door? I don't care if a woman holds the door open for me, why should they care if a guy holds one open for them? The storyline with Ares was also awkward. You have this long prologue/battle where you find out Ares forced himself on WW's mom (great thing to explain to the kids) and then all this "Ah! War!" was just so one dimensional. So the women are amazons and don't want men to do anything and all the guys either are hitting on them or trying to kill them? Um...that's a little extreme even for a comic book movie.
Parts of the movie were okay, but this didn't work for me. It's a shame -- I would have loved a good WW movie. This wasn't it.
Movie #6
The story: Lex Luthor is president and frames Superman and Batman for killing Mentallo and orders a billion dollar bounty, which cuases all the villains to attack them, then has the superheroes that are siding with him (since he is the president) to capture them. Meanwhile there is an asteroid about to hit Earth, but it turns out Luthor doesn't want to stop it -- he wants it to hit and wipe out billions because then he can rebuild it in his image. Superman and Batman must fight off Luthor's people and stop the asteroid.
Was it good?
Not really. It wasn't bad, but it all is just superhero action...fight, fight fight. It felt just like a Justice League cartoon that had a lot of the same stuff (Luthor president, Superman fighting Captain Atom and Power Girl, etc). There's some CGI mixed in with the hand-drawn and it's not a smooth fit either. Kids might be entertained. Adults will most likely be bored.
The story: this is an anthology of six stories by different animators.
Was it good?
No. None of these were interesting. It's been a while since I watched this, but I don't remember any of the shorts being really interesting. Only for Batman fanatics and people interested in the different animation styles.
Movie #4
The story: The Justice League goes to an alternate earth where the Justice League is evil and Lex Luthor is good and try to bring down the evil versions of themselves.
Was it good?
It was pretty good. There's a lot of fun stuff here and in most ways it was one of the best stories, and one of the most kid friendly. The biggest strike is that I felt like I'd seen a lot of this before. The idea of evil alternate realities has been done to death and there wasn't enough new here to really spark my interest. The final act, where they have to stop one of the bad guys from blowing up the alpha-Earth, which will destroy all the alternate realities, seemed a little out there (and derivative of Roger Zelazny's Amber books). Still, this is one of the ones I think kids could enjoy, although you probably need to be familiar with all the heroes to really get the idea of the evil alternate realities. Still a solid movie.
Movie #5
The story: how Hal Jordan became the Green lantern and joined the intergalactic Green lantern Corps and eventually has to find the traitor who is after the yellow element, the most powerful energy force in the universe.
Was it good?
Okay, I have to admit I've never been into the Green Lantern. He's fine as part of the Justice League, but reading the comics just about him and the GL Corps...not for me. It's all just too random and silly. They have these rings that are fueled by green energy and will, but their weakness is yellow and...I don't know. It all just seems ridiculous, so this movie wasn't for me. For other people -- especially kids -- I can see them having fun with it. Lots of weird intergalactic adventures and strange creatures and the GL theme "In blackest day..." But it wasn't for me.
Superman: DoomsdayMovie #1
The story: a new villain, Doomsday, kills Superman. Then a new Superman appears but it really is...I won't say...but sets up a final confrontation when the real Superman returns (you didn't really think they'd kill off Superman for good, did you?)
Was it good?
It was okay. Silly me, I assumed most of the movie would be aobut Doomsday, but it turns out he was only in it for the first act. The real villain is *** spoiler hidden in inviso-text ** a clone of Superman that Lex Luthor has created. At first this person seems good, but of course that changes and sets up the final battle with Superman. However, none of that really felt strong to me. The story is based on a GN so maybe that's how it works int he book, but I don't see why it doesn't build to a final battle with Doomsday. It's kind of weird. The stuff with the other Superman was okay -- it was interesting figuring out who he was and seeing be good, but changing, but it just didn't have much oomph to it. What did work was the story of Lois Lane and Superman. The scenes between them and their relationship, and the scene after Superman's death when Lois goes to visit Clark's mom, knowing Clark is Superman and yet not saying it and wanting to talk to the one other women who might understand how she feels...well, that was just a cut above all these other animated movies that have come after. I don't know if kids will find it as entertaining (the movie is rated PG-13 so maybe they figure it's not meant for them anyway), but for older kids this is definitely one of the best of the these animated movies.
DC ANIMATED SHORTS
Green Arrow -- a short that has Green Arrow going to the airport where he plans to ask Black Canary to marry him, but he gets involved trying to stop a kidnapping. There are a few nice moments (like the proposal...awww!), but it was mainly a lot of near-random action. Okay, but not worth renting on it's own.
DC Showcase: Jonah Hex -- NOT FOR CHILDREN. I didn't get this at all. I'm not sure I've ever read a JH story and the live action movie was horrible and this short wasn't much better. A prostiture kills a guy, then Jonah Hex comes to town, kills all her people and leaves her in the mine shaft where she left all the other bodies. The end. Um...what? Why? Written by Joe R Lansdale, but this was pretty lame.
DC Showcase: The Spectre -- a cop who is also the Spectre is investigating a murder of a Hollywood producer. Nothing about this was interesting. The Spectre just scares/kills people to get information and the crime has no real mystery to it (follow the money, duh!). Written by Steve Niles. Not worth renting by itself.
Shazam/Superman: Black Adam -- definitely the coolest of the shorts. This shows Billy Batson as a good kid who happens to be friends with Superman. Then Black Adam (an evil kind of Shazam) attacks him, wanting to kill him before the wizard can give him his powers. But Superman interferes, letting Billy get away long enough for the wizard to turn him into Captain Marvel. Now he (and then he and Superman) will fight Black Adam. This was the best of the shorts. Not a perfect story and a few lame beats, but this is the one worth watching.
Thanks for the postAnimated intro
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