Superman (2025)

Yeahhhh, to say a spanner was thrown into the works would be the understatement of the decade (Doctor Who will happen I promise).

So Superman! Best comic book movie ever? Great start to the new DC universe? A piece of filmmaking that could potentially reek of 2025 or stand as a testament for years to come? Wellllll yes and no. It wasn't a phenomenal movie but it was a very good solid ass comic book movie, and to be honest that's all I wanted. Set in an already established world where Superman has been active for 3 years we follow his most recent skirmish trying to avert a war between two countties and try to stay one step ahead of the machinations of quite possibly the most xenophobic Lex Luthor in history. It's definitely an involved plot, there is quite a lot that happens and the movie is always moving, not to an extent of burnout and whiplash between scenes but it's fast. It's also quite an ensemble cast, there are so many characters and they all play into the progressing story even if they're on screen for a few minutes but it didn't seem overcrowded and overtly busy, they know when to use a character or introduce a character. It's a very light and bright superhero movie akin to the Richard Donner original but definitely has stakes and doesn't veer away from some violent moments. But it is undoubtedly very Silver Age in it's tone with robots, random monsters, a true boyscout Superman who still has some emotional baggage to sift through, it has friggin' Krypto the superdog for God's sake! To shift over to cast for a moment, David is a stalwart Superman and can pull off the Clark Kent side which very few of the actors were able to do in this long history, he gets his ass beat in this movie and really has to come to terms with some stuff but there isn't a doubt about his morals and commitment to help people which is what's great about Superman. Rachel Brosnahan was...interesting as Lois, maybe this is my shortcomings to not being very familiar with Superman but she gave Lois so much damn attitude and seemed quite prickly, I mean more than usual, which makes me both respect the hell out of her but also kinda drives me nuts. Nicholas Hoult was a very solid Lex Luthor, very easy to hate but certainly held that intelligence edge and genuinely did crack me up a bit throughout. Big time shoutout to Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, a character I know precisely dick about but he won me over fast and he was a standout for me! I think this is the first time I've actually seen Nathan Fillion in something and didn't immediately adore him, Guy Gardner is an asshole and he pulled it off spectacularly with this very cocky leader type but hey he had his moments of humor so fair play to him. Do kinda wish we got more Hawkgirl but I'm just a mark for that lady and I dig Isabela Merced in this part. Big surprises in the cast list that I can't even go into now, in fact I strongly urge everyone to steer friggin' clear of the IMDB cast list cause man it's stacked. The effects were damn good, both in terms of flight and fight, I don't know man seeing Superman fly regardless of decade never quite gets old and the battles are shot inventively and you can keep up with it no problem. I do feel the music was strangely subdued throughout, even when you get soaring scores and that ridiculously awesome electric guitar it seemed kinda buried in the mix, maybe that's more a shortcoming from the theater so I'll look into that. I gotta say it was weird not being the aficionado for once on a well known superhero, Blue Beetle I can forgive myself on, but Superman I mean I caught some but I certainly didn't catch all but I'm sure the mega nerds and lifelong fans will appreciate the nods. I certainly liked it, I'm happy and yet simultaneously depressed so many real world parallels could be drawn in this movie from foreign wars, to social media demonizing, to literal loss of rights for an alien immigrant being taken into custody and shipped off to God knows where, it stuck to it's guns and I'm proud of that. Truly I am. In a world where such pinnacles of hope and power do not exist, I don't think it hurts if we embody such characters ourselves for a better world. What's so funny about truth, justice, and the american way? Far from a masterpiece but a strong step in the right direction, I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10!

Boy howdy life has been tailspinning recently so I'm not sure when I shall return but I'm sincerely hoping for sooner rather than later. If I still have a roof over my head come August I shall endeavour to pick up the pieces and do some varied writing for you.

The Penguin

It is about as good as everyone says.

Admittedly I wasn't all gung-ho on the prospect of a Penguin show, certainly viable potential but nothing to wet my knickers about and from the slight brief buzz I heard it sounded good enough. I heard the "Gotham Sopranos" comparison and frankly if The Sopranos is anything like this I'm watching it! Crime drama ain't my genre but there is an exception to every rule, and this is it crafting a story you can sink your teeth into with plenty of character building and arcs remarkably done in the obsolete 8 episode structure. When I saw the epilogue to The Batman where you see Oz with Bruce's monologue talking about a power vacuum was all I really needed, but having this series and the bridge showing the wild ass trip Oswald has to undertake to be the king of Gotham is pretty solid! It's an interesting comparison if nothing else to the same character and the same journey presented in Gotham, wildly different tones and story telling but I'm a lover of both. So Oz is starting to make moves climbing the ladder before hitting a speed bump by the name of Sofia Falcone, but he has an up and coming protege named Vic who becomes his right hand man in thebstruggle for something better. Bare bones gist but highly worth watching. Colin Farrell undoubtedly makes his stamp on the character, he was good already in the film but there is no denying he is the Penguin showcasing nothing but pure A-game acting across the board and honestly hits emotional marks that I never would have thought we would see in this character. Award winning? Hey, wouldn't it be nice. Shock of all shocks, flippin' mystery to end all mysteries, I...like Sofia Falcone?? Welllll, let me put it to you this way even though she was losing me near the end of the season I still enjoyed her about 10 billion percent more than the Gotham iteration, Cristin Milioti has such an interesting character journey and she milks it for all it's worth once again putting forth quite potentially award winning acting. You can understand why she does what she does, feel the way she feels, and honestly I was rooting for her a bit. Last of our main leads young Vic played by Rhenzy Feliz, taking on a slightly Jason Todd origin of getting caught trying to steal Oz's rims before slowly coming under his wing as he becomes a novice gangster, he plays it with a lot of heart and is very believable in the role with plenty to do than just be a sidekick to Oz. What's great also is we get almost entire bleeding episodes dedicated to each of their backstories making us connect and therefore care more, aceing the balancing act in my opinion between past and current events. Also I have to shoutout Deidre O'Connell as Oz's mom which was a prospect I was leaping for joy upon discovering, injecting an intense dose of realism to such a lavishly ludicrous world and the dynamic and relationship between Oswald and Francis plays the full emotional gambit. Pretty phenomenal. Didn't take long I'll admit for it to hit this is a grown up show for adults, about as many F bombs in an episode I drop in a day, not skimping out on the blood, you flat out see a tiddy in episode one, like they picked a lane and stuck to it! While the plot didn't exactly twist and twirl it has ways to keep your attention and never gets dull for a second, hell I was blowing through the episodes as fast as I could and not just for the purposes of this review either! The production value truthfully wowed me at times, the scope of the street sets, the architecture, the combined drip of Oswald and Sofia makes the seawall collapse look like a spilled glass of water, the interiors, the vehicles, combined with the non-stop stunning skyline of Gotham all gets an A+ from me. I want to say so much but that would ruin the show, you just gotta go see it. Am I expecting a lot of callbacks to it in the second Batman film? Here and there, perhaps very much like the returning actors and callbacks were present in this series, and no I wasn't expecting to see vengeance himself appear, not even as a brief silhouette. I look at this show like the supplemental material from Star Wars, you don't have to watch Andor, you don't have to watch Clone Wars to understand the films but it adds a lot to the experience when you do even as the series stand on their own merits. Do you really need to watch the movie to get this series? I don't think so actually, it's self contained enough and fills whatever gaps need filling without being exposition. It's written well enough and has style and artistic qualities enough to where you can watch it and have a great time. I'm sure it was a trip to watch it weekly and whatever the future may hold for Matt Reeve's Batman world I'm gonna keep my eyes open. I give it 4 stars, 9/10!, and next week more witches and fantasy are in the works.

Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom

Last new movie, how was it?

Decent. It's no masterfully written film but if you dig comic stuff, DC stuff, Aquaman in general, or just Jason Momoa it's a competently made entertaining watch. So we flash forward a brief while since Arthur has taken up the throne, he's a full time dad and part time king who is in the crosshairs of Black Manta's seething vendetta and trouble comes a knockin' when Manta finds an ancient cursed trident, so Arthur enlists the help of Orm to stop him. It's a very basic story with not a lot of frills or bells and whistles, it takes moments to progress the characters a notch but mostly it's a status quo movie. Not at all that it's a bad thing the movie does this, simplicity can be highly entertaining and indeed the film has solid good aspects to it, but at the end of the day it's trying to be a fun distraction and not an amazing film. I have no real qualms stating I went to see this primarily for Jason Momoa, the dude is just friggin' cool and I challenge anyone to badmouth seeing Arthur as a papa because those scenes are gold star stuff and I love his just fun, wiseass, bright energy he brings to this role. It took me by surprise we got Orm back in this and to be a good guy after the fairly irredeemable nature of his character in the last movie, but I attest that to the power of Patrick Wilson who trumps all dastardly writing because well...not to make a shameless scene of myself once again but I think I'm hopelessly in love with that man. Like seriously, I've liked him a great deal since Schumacher's Phantom but the crush is kinda real these days guys. Moving swiftly on. Yahya Abdul Mateen still brings his all to this role, granted it's undeniably one dimensional in his lust for revenge, but never once is he uninteresting or dull to watch and I give him fair dues for that! And never to shirk away from unpleasant business, Amber Heard, do I think they should have just fucking recast the bitch and moved on? Absolutely. Now my statement made in my Flash review still stands, there is characters and there is actors. They are seperate entities. You can hate an actor but still view the character as simply a character. I love Mera, I think she is one of the best comic book characters this century, the woman is so badass it frankly scares me, and it is a joy to see her in various adaptations. She's barely in this movie, I can understand your feelings if you can't disassociate enough and there is nothing wrong with that, we can't change it we simply must accept it and move along. And I'm also very happy they gave Dolph Lundgren a lot more to do this time around than previously, I am always down to see some Lundgren. I actually also rather like quite a lot of expansion on the world and mythos of the sea, you get to see a lot of different and new stuff that wasn't present before, and the visuals are still really nice! Bioluminescence for the win! We get expanded history on the kingdoms which is interesting, new creatures, new locales, I dig that. Soundtrack is also unique and neat too. Now the negative aspects are incredibly far from film breaking or even just plain dumb, but there are things that could have been written better and or just edited out. I feel the main scientist guy is crossing into sheer stereotypical, scientist who works for the bad guys but isn't a bad guy himself, and just plain superflous territory. Whoever the living shit made these stupid location title cards, Jerry on the 3rd floor who wanted to contribute to the movie somehow, God fuck almighty you want to talk about waste? The less than in depth writing of Black Manta which I know could have been better but it's overall serviceable to the plot. It's just small things that could have been done better and chips away at the final score a good bit, but this is not a bad sit and you can enjoy parts of it. I know some people are looking at this movie and saying what's the goddamn point when the DCEU is effectively done and over lasting 10 years since Man Of Steel? And while I fully and passionately agree that this series of films had a ton of bullshit interference from the studios, more so later on near the end, to say it was all worthless and "a decade of nothing" as one unproductive member of society said it could not be farther from the truth. I really liked Man Of Steel, Wonder Woman was great, Shazam was fun and fancy free, Birds Of Prey I actually rather enjoyed, The Suicide Squad was class, Blue Beetle had surprising amounts of heart, and even the ones I wouldn't consider the greatest of the lot still held entertainment and interest for me. Am I biased towards DC over Marvel? Yeah, but I'm also wise enough to know every movie has it's problems objectively but it's your perspective that matters whether you like something or not. I can't truthfully speak on what will come for DC and whether I shall be onboard or not, but how will I know if I don't come and see? Will I see and behold a white horse and the name that sat upon it was Death, or will it be a great new beginning? This chapter of history is over. Turn the page. 2 stars, 6.5/10, a passable end to a decade of actually decent flicks.

Blue Beetle

I won't lie to you for a second, this was great.

I seriously believe this to be a damn good superhero movie, and speaking as someone who walked in with next door to zero expectations I was kinda impressed. I knew of Blue Beetle but really knew no character details besides the scarab and he's best friends with Booster Gold, so this was a real introduction for me like it will be for most everyone else. Jaime is a returning graduate to his hometown of Palma City where things have went south with the family since he's been gone and gets a sort of interview with a young lady who passes off aforementioned scarab to protect it from becoming a weapon, and wha-bam! New superhero in town. The first thing I gotta tell you is I have never seen a comic book movie with as much heart, emotion, and even family dynamic as this. Jaime's family is very front and center throughout and you get attached, at least with me anyway, very quickly. The family unit is what made the entire film for me. Now that's not to say all the other aspects fell flat, not at all! The effects, the suit, the action is well done and props to them for making a legit suit for Xolo to wear. The soundtrack is heavy on the synthesizers so it's an A+ score from me. The pace is just right and the plot isn't super involved, and frankly simplicity works best for an origin. Hell a superhero movie hasn't made me get goosebumps in a long ass time and this film accomplished such a feat 3 times. I really can't stress how much heart there is, cause Jaime and the family are entirely a real believable family and act pretty much how you would in such an ass wild situation. Solid great acting throughout, the comedy may be a notch much in brief instances but when push comes to shove and emotions start rising, you feel that! Xolo Mariduena is a fantastic lead trying to grasp the gravity of these events and protect his family, he may not have a giant arc other than becoming a hero but I wouldn't dream of anyone else in the role. Belissa Escobedo I won't lie I crushed, I thought she was great even with the more groany lines she owned it and that girl can act her heart out. George Lopez got the biggest laugh out of me and man if you want anybody to trust with a secret identity trust a guy who is anti-government and thinks anything could be a bug. Susan Sarandon was an interesting choice to play a villain and while she doesn't have much to do, she still has that hateable quality and it was kinda neat to see her as a baddie. It's a rock solid production and I'll be damned it kindled a spark of hope after I've basically written off DC films, I'll even go so far off on a limb here come what may and say if this is the future of DC movies, continuity or not, the future is very bright indeed. 4 stars, 8/10, seriously give this a watch in theaters. I'm almost begging for Blue Beetle 2 and I'll gladly do more research on this character. And this is kinda it for a brief moment in time, by my calculations 4 weeks until the next new release. But who knows, something could arrest my attention along the way. Until then be safe, hug your family tight, and rock on.

The Flash

Okay so it's finally here.

As a more DC centric fan I was interested how they would do the Flash movie, in no small part to the return of Michael Keaton, and ignoring the real world walking fiasco that is Ezra Miller and focusing entirely on the film how was it? Not bad, pretty decent I would say, adapting parts of The Flashpoint Paradox (feel free to read up my review on that for a synopsis) and adding plenty of a mix from all corners of the DC universe. Handy pro tip straight up, DO NOT look up anything about the movie on the IMDB period! So Barry on the eve of his father's appeal case and having a rough PTSD flashback to his mom dying, runs faster than ever before and travels back in time. The year 2013, where Zod invaded Earth but with zero metahumans to help, he has to enlist help wherever he can to get back to his proper universe and time. Obviously he gets a hell of a partner and a slight twist to an old classic. A lot of stuff happens, some of which I shall not reveal, but how the story progresses feels natural and since the crux of it all is an emotional dilemma for Barry you feel some stuff man. Just that general idea of turning back the clock just to see your mom alive again holds some emotional drama and that's the arc for Barry, to accept it and live for the future and not the past. Obviously we get a lot of action between the start and finish of that arc but it's still potent enough. For the sake of brevity I shant indulge my inner Keaton fanboy a tremendous deal, but come on was there a doubt he wouldn't be as cool and awesome? Highly doubt this is a straight up continuation of the Burton movies but screw it, I saw all the details and nods and appreciated it. And truth be told, Sasha Calle is a pretty good Supergirl too, but I'll admit up front I haven't watched the show or had the gumption to watch the movie so my view is limited for sure, but I really digged the shit out of her! Ezra still has that bubbly, completely autistic, and fun attitude and ain't terrible at the heavy scenes either, but I fully and completely understand if people can't disassociate enough between artist and art. So let's lightning round some details! Music, okay but points for the Danny Elfman theme. Action was shot well and never got boring with good and ample use of speedforce. Effects, they're not super polished and I heard some people say the movie is flat out unfinished but in all reality the vast majority of the film holds up with only two major areas where it looked very early PS3, so it's passable. Acting all around was solid. And hey if this movie ain't your cup of tea from the get go, rent The Flashpoint Paradox animated movie and pop in the 1989 Batman! I'm probably gonna do that anyway this weekend after we talk about Elemental tomorrow. Final score 2.5 stars, 7.5/10, and they don't really do the reboot thing like in the comics so who knows what will come next after Blue Beetle. Just do weird random movies DC, the cinematic universe seems to be getting lethargic and bloated to the point of expiration so just make some wild ass superhero movies every now and then! Can't hurt, I promise you that.

Shazam Fury Of The Gods

I felt they were quite deliberate in showing little for this movie.

The only things I knew going was Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu were the baddies, there was a dragon involved, and....Captain Marvel's suit turned a bit black. Not much to go on but I'm happy to report I really liked the movie! I even will say I liked it better than the first with this movie doing what a good sequel should, expanding the world, furthering the characters, and progressing the plot. So we pick up some time after the first, it's stated Billy will be 18 in a few months but I truthfully can't remember his age in the first film so forgive me on that, but Billy has become a bit of a control freak trying to corral and focus the family's efforts as a group when two ancient gods have a quarrel with a familiar wizard in this world and conflict of course arises. Now I will state the control freak thing isn't given much weight in the story, it's no character arc part two for Billy, so the movie primarily goes business as usual for a superhero film. You get your fights, learning bits about the villains, seeing some creature fodder, and a higher stakes scenario for the family to resolve. One aspect I oh so wish they delved much deeper into is the goddesses have a deep rooted hatred for the wizard because he used the staff to actually steal the gods powers and thusly caused their realm to crumble, because that is a cool ass story where this benevolent figure who creates heroes did some shitty things that could be construed as evil, kinda forcing the idea of you're the villain in someone else's story and not always a good guy, but it's barely touched. However the dynamic between our antagonists are interesting when it's revealed the duo is actually a triumvirate of trouble and none fully get along with the other, it gives some interesting dynamic and good characterization. But the same aspect of inner dynamic didn't transfer well to our Shazam fam, they're much the same except for Freddie and Mary who just want to do their own thing with their own lives. It's not badly written or anything but it's just the status quo, but I can appreciate that. Not every superhero film has to keep pushing the envelope and craft a deep emotionally complex story so that doesn't bother me greatly. The stuff the movie actually gives besides a few groaner lines hither and thither, is good stuff! Now that Zachary Levi has room to spread his wings more, he projects a lot more personality and still captures that teen awkwardness. Jack Dylan Grazer, the friggin' MVP of this whole damn movie, screw Billy Badass Freddie Badass is where it's really at and he kicks ass throughout! Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu are actually pretty intimidating from the word go, especially in their opening scene and the fact they never drop to the level of quips and humor helps tremendously. We don't see much of the kids until near the end but I applaud them for not recasting anybody to increase the continuity. And it's official Meagan Good is my favorite of the family hands down, never to be topped, I cannot get over her adorable and fun personality. She saves kittens before humans, that is a girl who knows her priorities and lives rent free in my heart of hearts. Of course the acting is good from all our major players, some of them bringing their A-game acting, and I bring more good news! Mary, still a babyface. Thank the gods. The CG has improved, giving us a bounty of fantastical creatures beyond a Godzilla wannabe dragon, blue fire breath is still neat though, and any fan of greek myth will have a smile on their face. I really have no clue what the future holds for all these movies releasing this year, we still got Flash and Aquaman but I sense this is probably gonna be their last bow. I hope not! But my pessimistic side is outweighing my optimistic side profusely. Nothing lasts forever. And on that somber bombshell it is time to end, I still very much enjoyed the movie and I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10! Thank you so much for joining another week of rambles and reviews, and next week we're diving back in time for some Keanu action before John Wick 4.

In Retrospect: Shazam

You know man, this movie has a lot to enjoy but it really puts me in a bad mood at the end.

I'm really trying here with all of my might not to just devolve into this cyclone, this maelstrom of anger and utter fucking frustration the likes of which even GOD has never seen so I'm going to attempt to just talk about the movie. Shazam has lost none of it's fun luster in the intervening 4 years, sweet Samhain has it been that long? And I feel I appreciated aspects much more than the first go around, in particular the whole character of Billy Badass because the whole point of Captain Marvel is you pretty much gotta be a virtuous, pure of heart, selfless individual to even obtain the powers of the wizard Shazam, but this version of Billy isn't as altruistic and much more just a teenage kid, dare I say a little shit at times. He's not a completely bad kid by any stretch, but he does have several moments of selfishness, cowardice, and emotional distance to people but the beauty of it is the movie is all about the arc. We see him grow, change, and become a hero at the end and it doesn't feel like a failed attempt at character growth or anything like that cause it's done well and not super in your face. And well the performances of Asher Angel and Zachary Levi did not hurt one bit, they are what makes the movie as fun as it is. Mark Strong in terms of villains for the DC movies may be low tier but he still cuts an intimidating presence and does quite well. I'm actually really happy Djimon Hounsou isn't dead as he appeared to be in this movie and he will return in Fury Of The Gods and I'm really interested what part he may play in that. What I'm also curious about is if they will decide to adapt that stupid ass decision of Mary Marvel turning heel like in Countdown To Final Crisis, hopefully not because some comic book ideas just should never be brought to the screen. As one last huge positive before delving into one aspect I wasn't keen on, Faithe Herman and her grown up counterpart Meagan Good still own my heart completely. They just have this infectious degree of cuteness and I am powerless in their wake, easily my favorite of the whole family group and the only competition is Billy himself. This may sound terribly strange to say considering the time period we live in, but I really did not like the seven deadly sin monsters due to one specific factor that they are all CGI. There was just something about this movie where it felt so flat and fakey, and this is coming from the series of films that gave us Doomsday, Steppenwolf, and not Cheetara from Wonder Woman 84, and I think I can pin it down to they're kinda gaseous creatures that can take a solid shape so there's no weight or substance to them despite some interesting designs. But that's truthfully the biggest mark against this movie. Well....god fucking dammit, I knowww I know, he was filming a different movie at the time but fuck me sideways it has aged poorly and like I said I'm trying here. It's not working in the slightest but I'm trying. Just why? He was there! You had Superman ready in the wings and you did fuck all!! You what, let some C grade television company have any fucking semblance of a stake in the future of your projects and company, decided to do a shake up, and pretty much shit canned a series that while was finding it's footing early on when it settled we actually got some good movies out of it but oh no wait, I'm sorry, we can't have that. He is GONE, my patience has snapped, you have no sympathy from me and all I can say is catch you later you disappointing fucking traitors! Waste of my time. I'm out. Good movie, happy to see it again, fingers crossed for the second but time is running out for this series it seems. 3.5 stars, 7.5/10!

Superman & Shazam: The Return Of Black Adam

Well shit that wasn't what I expected at all!

I'm pretty sure this is the only instance of such a conundrum, considering this was an animated release in 2010 before the DC animated movies mostly had their own continuity, but what would you expect from this title? I'll give you some clues to help out. It's a notch over just an hour long, it covers the origin of Billy becoming Captain Marvel (the correct superhero name in my opinion), and while it doesn't touch a great deal on Black Adam's backstory mention is made of him being a fallen champion for the wizard Shazam. Sounds like a decently made movie showing Billy Batson come into his powers, meet up with Superman, and be a pretty formidable tag team when Black Adam comes knocking. This is partially true. What you get is that and 3 additional short stories that have no correlation with each other, focusing on The Spectre, Green Arrow, and Jonah Hex as pretty much a silver age anthology movie. Brilliant title huh? It's not a complete lie but goddamn it, I walked in expecting an hour of Superman and Shazam to get me in gear for the rest of this week so what the hell am I supposed to do? Talk about a quarter of this film or touch base on all the stories? Well I did actually enjoy all the segments, and while the animation style is unchanged throughout each story has their own flavor and storytelling style. Shazam is a contemporary, no frills, modern day crossover between two class act superheroes. The Spectre is full on 70s cop movie, groovy soundtrack and film grain included, with a highly lesser known hero of the DC universe getting his time to shine sans the origin story. Green Arrow goes back to contemporary and basic, with Oliver Queen stopping an assassination attempt on a foreign princess from Malcolm Merlyn. And Jonah Hex of course leans hard into westerns, with classic iconography in terms of setting and costuming, great music, and a pretty ruthless but awesome anti-hero depiction of his character. I feel Shazam and Green Arrow got the longer segments, but each one brings something interesting and enjoyable to the table one way or another so I do feel all of them are worth watching. Hell I'm honestly really wanting to dig into the history of The Spectre, I was ever so slightly aware of the name but knew nothing beyond that but color me intrigued after this! The animation, voice cast, and music are all quite good across the board I'll say. I feel each actor voicing their designated hero are top notch, and it's pretty damn cool to see big name talent like Malcolm McDowell, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Vosloo, and Michael Rooker in this as well! I'm still just kinda floundering here, I'm really thrown off, it's like I tried to switch gears without the clutch and I don't even know what the fuck that means because I don't know cars. I mean it was a happy surprise, I'm not mad I saw some cool shorts, but I mean you couldn't brainstorm for a better title? Granted I couldn't come up with jack shit and I was thinking on it for a bit, even if you threw a silver age comic title like World's Finest not everyone would immediately know what it was. But then again you could have called it, DC Showcase: Bronze Age Heroes or something akin to that with a collage of each hero and plainly put on the box cover this is an anthology! Once upon a time that was how comics were. You didn't get the story just on the cover, you got several stories with the longest one being the showcase. If that was what they were intending and going for stylistically, okay fine job well done, but it's not the late 1940s to the early 1970s anymore and unless you know comic book history they just ain't gonna get it, and the title is misleading. But whatever. It's in the past and I'm fairly certain this was the only case. Just...urgh, nevermind. Scores! 3 stars, 7.5/10, now that you know the frick fraking trap card on the field I leave it up to you to give it a watch and see what you make of it. If we can avoid any more surprises this might turn out to be a good week.

Batman Bad Blood

Not a bad end but I feel it's still fairly open ended.




I feel this whole continuity has ended though, if you look at a complete list of these DC animated films the last one released 3 years ago so I think they are moving on to new horizons and there won't be a continuation. Again the movie takes certain aspects of the comics around that time where Batman apparently dies in an explosion leading Dick to take up the cape and cowl, with the Batfamily expanding to Robin, Batwoman, and Batwing to be the guardians of Gotham. They don't go all the way with Bruce's death but the movie's focus is primarily on those four to varying degrees of success. Obviously we haven't encountered Kate or Luke in any previous movies so this is our introduction to them, and I feel Kate gets the better end of the stick. We learn more about her past, personal life, not so much as to why she dresses in a kick ass red and black batsuit but she's here to help fight crime so good on her. Luke on the other hand really is just kinda there, we know he's Lucius Fox's son, he's had military experience and gets swept up in this criminal plot and dons this mechanoid batsuit to assist in the hunt after Lucius gets attacked, but that's really it. I feel the reason and appeal of adding him in was because of the suit's capabilities in the action scenes, and I gotta say the animation for the fights have only gotten better and better each time, here it's really fluid and at a quick pace but not so fast it's hard to keep up they do it just right showcasing the skills of each fighter. The villain scheme leans back to lavishly ludicrous but I still say the last movie had the superior plot and making all the pieces work. It's competently made and to see this period of history where Dick is now Batman I never thought I would see in any medium outside of the comics, I legit would not mind picking up those issues and reading them until Bruce returned, but the movie has a lot of plates spinning and it could have had some stuff trimmed for it's benefit. I loved seeing Sean Maher get upgrade after upgrade in these movies from being a cameo, to side character, to practically the main character here! Also huge love to Yvonne Strahovski, I would really like to dig into the Batwoman comics and I did get halfway through the first season of the CW show before life stuff happened but I wasn't hating it, so her character has always held interest for me and she did mighty good work here! It's a decent little trilogy, for someone as hardcore a fan as me you'd enjoy it but in all truth and honesty the DC animated movies are pretty much for exclusively the fans, not that anybody can't watch them but I don't know many people who go out of their way to view them despite there being gleaming gems in it's library. So take it for what it's worth, I liked them but they're not my favorites either. Final score I give it 3 stars, 7/10! Next week is a bit unconventional but it's kind of necessary for me considering the new movie coming out, we're going way back into the back catalogue of reviews next time so I'll see you there.

Batman Vs. Robin

Court Of Owls confirmed!

Even better it's a semi-adaptation of the comic storyline that is one of the rare exceptions where I've read it. I'm not fully aware as to why I decided to pick up the hardcover collections of both Court and City Of Owls, but to see this story adapted even very loosely is pretty awesome! Set some months after Son, Damian is approached by a masked assassin telling him to use his lethal instincts and to turn on his father and mentor, with the Court targeting Batman so they can reassert total control on the city once more. You think this would be another Hush situation where any divergence or dropped plotpoint for this adaptation would raise my ire greatly, but considering the title is not the same as the comic already skates free from that. True they take slight inspiration and pick bits and pieces of the comic to utilize but all in all it is an original story. We get more confrontation between Bruce and Damian, and how our Robin still struggles with the no kill rule which helps resolve my slight grievance with that in the last movie. Bruce has to come to better terms that he is a father first and a vigilante mentor second, that's a fairly solid arc that contributes to them having more respect and trust in one another. How they handle the Court is better than Gotham, God bless them they tried and I love that show to bits despite it's maddening quirks, yet the original elements they inject still work perhaps not as a faithful adaptation but as a version in this continuity. Now do I highly recommend and easily say the comic is better? Oh hell fucking yeah! Scott Snyder crafted something rarely seen in the comic runs with making Gotham City a central character itself, and with it being the first story out of the gate for the New 52 series it's a homerun! I haven't read the entire storyline penned by him but I got farther than any other regular comic book series before or since. All voice cast members return from the first and still deliver well. I can't really submit hard evidence of this feeling I got, but the animation style honestly felt very much like an anime show, again there's nothing distinct that would lead to such a conclusion, maybe I noticed more details of the animation and character designs, maybe it was the plot, but I fully 100% expected the Court members to have hair color of every shade of the rainbow and then some in this. It's bizzare, I can't place my finger on why, but there was something to this movie. Yet another uber short entry, 79 minutes with credits this time, say what you will but they are some quick sits. Did I like it better than Son Of Batman? I do feel the plot was more focused and better written, I liked the character dynamics more now that they've been expanded upon, and the adapatation aspect I enjoyed. 3.5 stars, 7.5/10, for real now I have no clue what comes next so it is truly anybody's guess how this trilogy wraps up. One way to find out.

Son Of Batman

And to think this movie is nearly a decade old, good God time is fricking wild.

I actually have a disclaimer to issue before the review, I was aware of the fact that Bruce and Talia got a little hey hey and had a son named Damian, however I knew nothing of the actual storyline in the comics beyond that so this is essentially my introduction though I've read this adaptation doesn't follow the comics closely. But I gotta admit I did like it! The story presented is more than just Bruce learning he has a son and has to reign in his more lethal tendencies because he was raised by Talia and Ra's, now that is more or less the focus of the movie but I would admit that would still be a really cool and very fascinating story to see as like a drama superhero film, these two opposing personalities and ideologies clashing, but pretty much from the start it had my interest. This might sound odd but the film crafts this mystery for the viewer but there actually isn't a mystery in the film, you follow me? Because opening scene, friggin' Deathstroke flat out assaults the League of Assassins, I mean Protocol 10 missile strike and kills Ra's, now with my history and knowledge of the character Slade Wilson I know he is a mercenary first but the guy can hold a grudge so it proposed this question of who hired him to take out Ra's al Ghul? Turns out he was acting independently but it doesn't give you that information till a bit later on, and the story that unfolds from there is different and far from what I would have guessed but not bad. I really like this friction that Batman and the soon to be Robin have here, and with a character like Damian who has trained with the League since I'm sure he could walk it really dispenses with a lot of the origin of a new Robin who is very much a novice in all forms of crimefighting, and he actually has incredible combat skills and an intelligent mind staying at the same pace as Batman, even if he is a bratty little shit at times. It's a very welcome shake up of a classic formula. And the movie is really short too, not even an hour and fifteen minutes with credits, so it moves at a good pace but still has moments to breathe with a particular favorite scene of mine being Bruce taking his son to the Batcave, no dialogue, no plot, just the Batmobile driving through a rainy Gotham night. I appreciate that tremendously, it's not always a rush to the next action setpiece or the next argument between father and son. Granted the writing is really good when they do hash things out, but even I'll admit the switch between no qualms about murder to playing by the rules of the Batfamily seemed kinda quick for the kid, but like I said it's a short movie so they have to get that arc in quick somehow. I was a bit taken aback by the voice cast here, this follows the normal continuity of the animated DC movies so Jason O'Mara is still the Batman and he does have a good voice. But the big shocks came from the supporting cast, I took note that both Ra's and Deathstroke had excellent voices but couldn't place them and wonder of wonders, Thomas Gibson voices Deathstroke and goddamn does he have such a great voice for him, and Ra's is voiced by modern bad guy extraordinaire Giancarlo Esposito. That blew my mind, I totally couldn't place those voices! And Talia is voiced by Morena Baccarin, beautiful Leslie Thompkins from Gotham, nice! But may I just take a quick sidestep for a moment and say what the actual hell Talia? She flat out, and this is text and not subtext, drugged Bruce and banged the shit out of him! Like....what??? She was that hard up for the guy to perform literal date rape, I'm kinda stunned. I didn't know THAT part of the story going in! Moving on from that fuckery, the animation style is also in the standard of the mainline animated DC movies, and this is so not a slam against that series but I will fully and adamantly admit that my favorite DC movies like the comic books themselves, are the one offs. I love reading the graphic novels and watching stuff like Superman Red Son or Gotham By Gaslight because of the stand alone continuity. Even though to be candid further, the beauty of DC nowadays is you can pick almost any comic run and read it through to the next reboot and call it a day, each run being a different version on the infinite Earths to look at it one way. But all in all it's a very solid movie, not one of the absolute best but a good entry regardless, and considering now I know precisely zero about what comes next I'm looking forward to the next movie. I give this 3 stars, 7.5/10! I've heard murmurs of the Court Of Owls will appear so fingers crossed for that because it is a fantastic story.

Constantine City Of Demons

At long last I'm finally watching The Sandman show this week, but why not look at some related movies too?





I will admit I'm not terribly familiar with John Constantine, but I get the basic idea. Middle aged down to earth bloke from England fights demons and monsters with magic, a concept as easy to grasp as gravity for me, and indeed the first time I encountered the character was in the infancy issues of Sandman. Plus I've been meaning to take a look at his two animated films for a wee while anyway. So John has been called in as a favor from an old friend who suspects foul play when his young daughter slips into a coma, and immediately shit hits the fan real hard leading John to travel to the City of Angels to rescue the daughter's soul from an enterprising demon. The first thing I gotta tell you is, this movie does not fuck about. At all. It is pure mature audiences only, there is more gore and horrific deaths in this than there was in that animated Mortal Kombat movie, so many cuss words, and even a semi(?) sex scene without any of the visual stimulus. That was a wake up call and a half let me tell you. But it was an interesting and engaging film, it goes for gruesomely out there and succeeds quite well. Since it deals with demons and magic there are plenty of cool animation details that make it visually great. Matt Ryan was really really good as Constantine, a pretty smug and yet average guy who's trying to do right but is far from your heroic boy scout archetype, the man smokes like a chimney and drinks more than Raymond Carver and has some attitude. A welcome change of pace in the wide world of comics. Damian O'Hare as John's best friend Chas brings more of that humanity and emotion to it, he fully knows John is a magic man which is an aspect I greatly liked, no need to keep secrets, and you by God want to see him get his daughter back but Jesus wept this movie takes like a foot long knife and just twists that shit but not at all in the way you think. Robin Atkin Downes as the villain Nergal (totally not tentacled dickhead from Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy) is an asssshooooole in this, obviously because the movie goes in such unadulterated dark shit he is just one evil sum'bitch you hate unconditionally, so hey big props to them for that. It's feature length so it takes it's time and while not everything is explained, it's magic you don't have to, and you do kinda have to just roll with it I feel it still works if this is your first exposure to the character. There be no origins stories here, everything is established and ready to be enjoyed if you can stomach the just jaw dropping amounts of gore. I can't recall the last animated project that was this blood soaked but shittin' hell man I've done over 1,000 of these things, it's a miracle I remember what I did yesterday. So all in all it was a good film, very happy I saw it but could only recommend to certain people instead of everybody. I give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and tomorrow's example is even more deeprooted in the mythos of the Endless.

Black Adam

I had some faith in this movie, I bought the movie cup.



I think Black Adam is the weakest of the DC movies, and even then the score is actually pretty good! It's a very odd origin story, not so much in the actual plot of how a slave under a cruel emperor gained the same powers of Captain Marvel and has awakened in the modern day to find his footing and do battle, but more just the execution of the film. If you want your action, this movie sure delivers but obviously there's more to it than that. When I heard Dwayne was gonna be Black Adam instead of Captain Marvel, I felt that was a off choice of casting. No man. It took exactly 1 second after he properly appears and literally pumps a guy with so many volts he essentially disintegrates to a skeleton and then I shut the f*** up real quick. He doesn't have that immense charm but he can still be funny and has no qualms about just brutally massacring people, it's a bit shocking (no pun intended I swear) but still rad. And when I saw trailer appearances of Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone who I never heard of until now, and The Atom (who for some weird ass reason is called Atom Smasher here) I was ever so slightly concerned the movie was going to be too busy with so many characters, and truth be told if you can just roll with it that these characters are here, the movie suffers no serious damage. The focus is on Black Adam throughout and the Justice Society while still prevalent are secondary characters. And I thought the acting for all of them were rock solid, with my favorite of all the characters being Cyclone played by Quintessa Swindell, she is just so fab and full of cute energy, I was there for her hardcore. Noah Centineo as The Atom was more on the funny bumbling side, it legit almost felt like they were backdooring Ezra Miller's Flash into his character portrayal but it still worked for me. Aldis Hodge as Hawkman I felt did justice to the character in his adaptation, and the clashing of ideologies between him and Black Adam leading to physical clashes I thought was a nice touch. Dr. Fate played by Pierce Brosnan, what interesting casting but he was my other favorite and gahd bless it I want that friggin' robe! Also, really nice of the film to put some love toward middle eastern actors and architecture, Sarah Shahi did very well being an emotional compass but sure wasn't afraid to throw down so well done young lady. Bodhi Sabongui, I will not grudge a great deal, he did decent work and while he was fully a kid sidekick I can't bash a kid's acting talent. The story moves in a somewhat predictable fashion but the entertainment can still be felt. The characters serve a purpose and progress the plot. It does have some very dated aspects to it I sensed a lot of 90s in this, a severe dose of slow-mo, trailing kid sidekick, there is literally a character in a shiny black trenchcoat, the effects do work but the CGI is obvious. And I know this is going to happen, and I'm already goddamn sick of it but people are going to call ripoff on this movie. Oh Dr. Fate is just Doctor Strange, Cyclone is almost Storm and dresses like the Eternals, Hawkman is Falcon, Atom's mask is flat out Deadpool's mask just painted blue, the powerful ore Eternium is just Vibranium. Move along! It's a typical superhero movie. A strange semi-recurring motif occurs where action scenes are put to popular music, when Black Adam goes on his first rampage the entire scene damn near is shot in slow motion set to The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black, and another even odder occurence is they reference The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and it was so nice they did it twice, prefacing an action scene with Ennio Morricone's The Trio which was my favorite part of the movie. It isn't a great movie, but nor is it a bad movie, as previously mentioned above it is the weakest of the DC movies in my opinion yet I give it 2.5 stars, 7/10, and stick for that mid-credit's scene. Holy shit man! And we need some 50s classics before this month unfortunately ends so join me next week!

In Retrospect: The Batman

It wouldn't be this show if something was late.



Yeah, I know. I said I was going to see it again and had every intention to but life got busy and this is nearly 3 hours long, but I've seen it 3 or 4 times now and have solidified my stance on the movie. Still love it, still think the story works very well, and the score has indeed been raised. First off, this viewing around I was just gushing profusely over the cinematography, like I know because it's a modern movie and therefore has modern cameras where every frame is crystal clear and the look is out of this world but maaan dat look good! I'm not sure if it's a director stamp of Matt Reeves but his whole focus on one object in the foreground but leave the background out of focus may be considered artsy but I loved it. That's my eyesight in a nutshell, so I'm just keeping it real with glasses. The look of Gotham while still very modern day is unmistakably this iconic city, hell that shot of the diner with the rain and the neon glowing in the darkness is Gotham personified to me. Friggin' Wayne Tower though, Tim Burton wishes he could be this gothic in style and structure, I mean wow but man did I love it. Costume design, brilliant and not just with the batsuit though it is a marvel to behold and study. So visuals, 10/10. Robert Pattinson still does the trick for me and while I personally feel no one can claim a certain actor as the definitive Batman, he covers nearly all the bases with me. With the exception of being Bruce Wayne, though I know it's part of his character and the arc he makes, he is still very much 90% Batman and 10% Bruce but it works because he hasn't found that balance yet where even as Bruce he can still get stuff done and acquire information. I dare almost say this is a character study of a young but hardened Batman, he knows the ropes and still does good work but he isn't flawless and takes a more direct obvious route. That's the thing with this movie, it can tell you so much without saying a word I mean we are talking visual storytelling the likes I have not seen in many a year. Just a simple thing of Batman banging on a club door and forcing his way inside to sneaking through the same door does a lot for the character. The fact that he is faced with a grim reality that he inspires criminals through his actions and starts working less as a vigilante and more a hero is what tipped the scale for me on the second viewing to raise the score. I love seeing detective work in this movie, cause it's very ground level in the process with having a lead, gaining a tentative link, and following that to another lead cause that's how it works. You need to have the skills to read the signs, but also a bit of luck to get you to the next part. And with an adversary like the Riddler, you have to play his game and gain knowledge bit by bit of his scheme which I feel still works on repeated viewing, it's the long game where any bit of information could come into play. I should know, I spammed the Rata Alada website daily and got a lot out of it before the damn G.C.P.D. took the site off. Paul Dano is a very different Riddler but infinitely entertaining, I must have had this twisted smile on my face everytime he was on screen, this disturbing mix of oh my God this is great and sweet Jesus this is eerie as f***. What can I say I loved every second of it, and I'm gonna get shit for this maybe until the day I retire but was it just me or was anyone else getting like real severe ASMR vibes with his voice? I was kinda nodding off at points, I'm sure that says a lot about me but I refuse to take sass from people who spend entire days watching crime and serial killer documentaries so you can take a seat. If memory serves I believe I said Zoe Kravitz was the best live action Catwoman, and I would say yes absolutely. Definitive? Not yet. Incredibly great in many aspects of the character? Affirmative. She got the skills, it's very Year One Catwoman in design which I dig, the romance I feel works well enough, props to them for going the whole Falcone side of her heritage like in the comics following The Long Halloween I appreciate that, she did proper good with this role. I want more Jeffrey Wright, I got enough to satisfy me but I need more, that whole partnership was handled super well in my book and I just love that man so bring it on I say. The action was less pronounced but still had that punch (full pun intended), I know we're not gonna see Rob go full Batfleck and just wreck dudes in seamless Arkham combat style but the work put in must be commended. I'm still kind of on the side of the fence where I just want it to be this movie and not a 3 picture deal, I'm just very disillusioned with the business side of comic book movies rather than the films themselves. But a villain team up I can roll with, I mean come on my first Batman movie was Batman Forever followed closely by Batman & Robin, multiple villains is second nature to me. I still really enjoyed it, I loved the progression for Batman, it's an engrossing and entertaining film and the ending is something I'm proud of them for doing. 4 stars, 9/10, and next time we're doing some comparisons on The Justice League.

The Batman

Yes, it did justice to a new Batman and a new film.

So now comes the part where I applaud this movie as the one who tops them all, the best Batman movie since The Dark Knight, a perfect 10/10. No, but I'd be hardpressed to find people who flat out didn't like it. I personally found it to be a damn fine movie and felt certain aspects were done amazingly well while others were just done good. So it's year 3 for the nightly roaming vengeance on Gotham's streets and very quickly his attention shifts from street thugs to a serial killer with a MO of riddles and death traps, nothing too much beyond what you see in the trailers plot wise. However I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, the very realistic but still grand scale fit just right and nothing went beyond what they could feasibly do. Robert Pattinson is on the more down low potrayals of Batman, not saying very much but still able to get through a lot and he embodies the role very very well. Zoe Kravitz I genuinely thought could be at least in terms of live action the best Catwoman we've had, and while the relationship/partnership dynamic was done fine I think she's on the same level with Michelle Pfeiffer. Paul Dano, sweet Jesus man, I think he creeped me out more when he wasn't wearing the mask and it does fully deliver on that zodiac killer influence, I thought he was great. Jeffrey Wright was as good as I thought he would be and I greatly appreciate that you see him investigate stuff with Batman often. Speaking of which, I loved the detective work even though it's not super involved the direction and pieces of the puzzle are really effective, you see the gears turning behind the analytical eyes of Batman, and it's almost police procedure detective work too in just observing the crime scene and figuring it out. I do feel however the vibe of a losse cannon, reckless, pure physical power Batman was not quite the case. He has some anger, he does go out for vengeance, he is pretty straightforward in his tactics, but he is tempered and doesn't go too out there which makes sense because it is his 3rd year of crimefighting, he knows his way a bit around the block. The cinematography and art direction are excellent, giving us a lot of different shots that wouldn't even be found in one of the animated movies, and the style of costumes and sets both fit the modern grit and classic gothic looks. The music score is proper good and I know I have to listen to the full soundtrack once I'm home. It is a solid movie, it is a real good movie, but I feel it will grow on me as time passes and I see it more. The first time I saw The Dark Knight Rises in theaters I liked it but I felt a bit underwhelmed, partially because I just didn't want it to end and partially because it came off the heels of The Dark Knight. However, as years went by I appreciated it a lot more for what it is and I went from liking it to loving it. I did feel somewhat the same walking out of the theater today, so you may notice in about a week's time a Second Viewing reassesment. But for now, a solid 4 stars, 8.5/10!

Batman The Animated Series: Season 4

You cannot ever change my mind that this isn't a part of the Animated Series.

Officially titled The New Batman Adventures, this series started about 2 years after the Animated Series wrapped up and despite the same voice cast and character relationships is a heavy departure in animation style. Dubbed "the red sky season" by fans, the character designs, backgrounds, and overall animation got a major new facelift essentially making the lines sharper and the colors more on the colder darker side. Now on one hand I can see why people might be against certain characters that got redesigned, but I don't actually take issue with any except one (but not the one you might think). But it baffles me how people say this isn't a part of the Animated Series based on animation style alone, that's like someone saying Star Wars Rebels has nothing to do with The Clone Wars because it looks different. Sod that and sod off, this is the last season of the show. Only totalling in 24 episodes, it's a mighty quick season to knock out to the point where you could feasibly do it in a day. So what stood out most? We start off in a fun multi-story of Gotham Knights, and right off the bat (no pun intended I swear) you can tell the tone in this is more lighter than the other 3 seasons. It's difficult to explain but easy to notice as we see Ivy and Harley go on a shopping spree, Babs takes on Clayface, and the Joker and Batman have a new year's eve brawl which reminds me of The Long Halloween sorta. And you may notice this like I did but I almost feel like one of the animators had a massive black lipstick fetish because seriously, every woman in this show seems to wear black lipstick or dang near close to black. It's very odd and I have no idea why, but I like that Harley kept her design despite a slightly bluer face and Red actually looks more plant like which I dig the hell out of. Next up is Sins Of The Father working as a origin for technically the third Robin Tim Drake, but no love for Jason in this show, as we see young Tim as a thief on the streets that gets tangled up in a Two-Face caper and becomes the new Boy Wonder. It's good to see a young Robin with a lot of attitude and it works quite well for the show. I will not tarnish the young actor Mathew Valencia, he does admirable work but I did notice a fair few times where the line delivery was very flat, but not in a sarcastic smartass way like we see often, yet no harm no foul. Harvey I think looks the slickest of all the redesigned rogues gallery, and that suit is still pure Kino. Next episode Cold Comfort. Alright. I f***ing hate how they handled Mister Freeze in this season, which is odd because the episode set farther in the future with him in Batman Beyond I felt was a pretty good send off for the character which was after this episode was made. So Freeze after his wife has been revived and cured is going after people's passion projects for no other reason than for people to feel his pain which already is so unlike Victor and the fact that....Jesus Christ. His body has deteriorated away due to his condition and he is now a head in a robot suit. Yet they somehow crafted him one in Batman Beyond, go figure. His story should have ended in Subzero, that is all I am saying on the matter. But then! Ohhhh yes! My boy is back, Dr. Crane and holy jumping lemurs is this the version I wish we had so so much more of. Listen to the creators talk about the redesign, even they felt they went too far and too scary with this character. So unfortunately we lose Henry Polic but in his stead is Herbert West himself, Jeffrey Combs and guess what? That voice is nightmare fuel in it's most glorious state. Just this eerily quiet, calm, haunting voice coming out of what looks like a walking corpse in a old west duster and hat, just 10 out of f***ing 10!! Why in the depths of hell was he not used more? Now I treasure Henry Polic, John Noble is mind shatteringly amazing in Arkham Knight, Robert Englund is the epitome of fan casting brilliance in Injustice, but this is the one I feel we need back. Great episode material too with Crane actually taking people's fears away and ransoming the antidote, while actually eliminating Batman's fear of even killing people. Damn, this was a home run. Then we get some Nightwing action in You Scratch My Back, where he forms a fragile alliance with Selina, who I think the redesign is more minimalistic but still works, and the constant power shift between master cat burglar and solo mullet crusader is pretty great honestly. Joker's Millions could easily be an episode of The Twilight Zone with some little rewrites and I never thought I would see the Joker living in poverty, well besides in Joaquin's movie of course. Growing Pains, wow. This episode kinda cut me as a kid, with Robin finding a young lost girl who has more to her past than she remembers. This is a fairly emotional story, with a heartbreaking ending that I must applaud as an adult that they went that far with the story. Mean Seasons while a good episode I think is elevated by the commentary within, a former model has taken on the monicrum of Calendar Girl and pulls a Baby Doll kidnapping her old bosses for booting her out for turning 30. Like man, I am dead serious this bullshit system where older women who aren't even close to being old can't find work in some shade of entertainment or modelling industry can get off my goddamn planet, it is insane how unbelievably relevant this still is today and you can also kinda read it as how people with low self-esteem or even depression can only see faults in themselves despite there being plenty to like and admire about them. It's very good solid writing that makes me recommend this as a must watch episode. The Demon Within brings back a ton of magic in this series, and I just love the comraderie and unspoken past encounters and friendship Bruce has with Jason Blood, better known as the demon Etrigan, which comes up later on in the Justice League series. Good stuff. Then the bomb drops, Over The Edge. I am not saying a friggin' word, just imagine the most worst possible Elseworlds situation about the Batfamily and watch it. Solid gold. Love Is A Croc, really only struck me by just the sheer fascinating idea of what if Baby Doll and Killer Croc did heists together? I am so bewildered this pairing even exists let alone how and why someone thought it up. I will however state I love Baby Doll's voice actor, and we were on the verge of a truly niche relationship in this episode. Just watch it and try not to think anything nauuuughtyyyyy. The Ultimate Thrill was a lot of fun, entirely on the basis of Roxy Rocket who I might be admiring a bit too much, she's a total adrenaline junkie and does some wild ass stunts just to rob people but there's something about her I just like. God dang redheads man, I cannot help myself! Then we jump ahead a bit to Old Wounds, which for very briefly albeit had my money as the best episode of the show. Just the fact that we finally see the seed which was planted back in 1992 with Dick being in college, grow to where we see him call it quits with Bruce and becomes his own agent was wonderful to see and even if you are a major Batman fan and knew Dick would become something more it pays off very well I think. But then comes the crown jewel of the season, Legends Of The Dark Knight. It is so simple but such a loving and wonderful tribute to the iterations of the World's Greatest Detective, where three kids discuss what Batman actually is like. We get a terrific 1950s tribute with a silly Joker, an out there caper, the Dynamic Duo just one stop short of Adam West and Burt Ward revisiting the characters, and it is presented in all it's silver age glory even to the point I myself shouted great scott! Then we flip to the other side of the board where The Dark Knight Returns is presented and while still keeping it's feet firmly in the animation style of the show did such a faithful job getting so many touches of that story, abridging the fight with the mutant leader and giving some fair recognition to Carrie Kelley. I will not however stand for that snub shot to Joel Schumacher, yes I'm in a minority here but the man introduced me to the Batman and made me the fan I am today from Batman Forever alone, I have a lot to owe him. Best episode of the season, probably even top 10 of the whole show. Girl's Night Out at first I thought was going to be another Harley and Ivy romp but turns out all the female costume crowd came out to play, we get Livewire from the Superman Animated Series which I will admit I haven't seen much of but I love her voice and personality a great deal, our favorite girl team is still living together, and both Batgirl and Supergirl team up and even find some solace in each other's opposite lives. This is easily an episode just for the fun match ups and thusly is one of the most fun episodes of the entire show. Beware The Creeper honest to God, the only things I have to say about this episode is that Harley scene, holy moly. And the character of the Creeper practically shouted Freakazoid to me from the word go, I almost was flat out expecting the same voice actor to do both parts. Other than that, pretty crazy but pretty funny. Now we come to a similar problem that the last season had, the last ever episode broadcasted for this show was Mad Love finally laying Harley's backstory bare and seeing her near fatal death which is a positively shocking way to go out. Yet the last episode on my DVD's is Judgement Day, which truthfully is almost if not more shocking and weird to end on as a new face arrives in Gotham and passes sentence on various rogues gallery inductees, and had an almost Psycho-esque ending the more I think about it. The show ends on a fairly creepy note and then that's it. It's all over. So it is an unfortunate circumstance that there really was no definitive ending, but I don't think that was fully a thing for animated shows back then and really, knowing full and well that more shows came out which only built upon the backbone of The Animated Series makes that criticism a moot point, it keeps continuing in some form or another. Batman Beyond, Justice League, the Superman Animated Series, even Static Shock kept this animated DC legacy going. True there are other timelines, universes, whatever you want to call them but this is the one all of them have to thank for even being around. Batman The Animated Series did a tremendous lot for the comics, for the shows, for the games, for an entire generation and then some to this day. Not every episode is a 10/10, not every season has nothing but great things to talk about, it's the overall experience that makes it so good. It's seeing these animators, these creators, these voice actors commit to bringing you Batman and making it accesible and fun for everyone to watch. It's a classic still talked about for a reason, and I just like talking about it. 4 stars, 9/10 for the season but a full 10/10 for the show as a whole, and my lord there is still so much to talk about with the other shows for another day. It can be cruel, poetic, or blind but when denied it's violence you may find in my reviewing mind for The Batman. Will justice be served for all fans?

Batman The Animated Series: Season 2

It's tricky to review this show cause technically the first season is 65 episodes and only technically had two season so just bear with me.

So obviously there isn't much that has "improved" since the last season since these episodes were made in close proximity to the ones previously reviewed, and the cast reamins the same. So at least for right now this is more of a discussion of episodes that I took great interest in and had things I really wanted to talk about. Perchance To Dream, which is Kevin Conroy's favorite episode of them all is the second episode of this season, and has a premise that works brilliantly. Bruce Wayne wakes up one day to find his parents alive, he's engaged to Selina, and someone else has taken up the mantle of the Batman but he still knows he's Batman, so it becomes this psychological dive into Bruce's mind and his perfect world that he wants no part of. Obviously if this was the basis for a graphic novel they could super easily make it a dark, twisted, psychoanalytical story about Bruce and why he feels compelled to put on the cape and cowl, and that's a book I would gladly read. Robin's Reckoning was a powerhouse two parter for me, finally we get Dick's backstory and origin as Robin as he confronts the man who took his parents life. Honestly, with a few rewrites this could be the episode where he becomes Nightwing, he really clashes with Bruce and his emotions get the better of him. A true classic for a character we haven't spent much time with. The Laughing Fish is another iconic fan favorite, more Joker and Harley action that digs just a tiny bit into Harley's undying affection for him, it's a damn good episode. The Strange Secret Of Bruce Wayne introduces Dr. Hugo Strange (I prefer Professor Strange so we don't mux up our Doctor Strange's.) who through a psychological machine discovers the true identity of Bruce Wayne (Just like Batman Forever!), and places his secret to the highest bidder where Joker, Two-Face, and Penguin bid for it. It's always fun seeing those colorful personalities clash and it's great to have another rogue introduced to the animated series. If You're So Smart Why Aren't You Rich finally gives us The Riddler in a unique potrayal of the character who designed a puzzle video game but seeks vengeance on the boss who fired him, it sort of gives a mix of Frank Gorshin's Riddler with a dash of Jim Carrey's and ultimately this classic iteration voiced by John Glover. Then we get a giant consecutive 4 home run episodes starting off with the pinnacle of fan favorite episode's Almost Got 'Im. People worship this episode, I've rarely seen someone counting down their favorite episodes and it not be #1, and I can attribute that to two points. One, these characters and their interactions is the source of the enjoyment as Joker, Harvey, Penguin, Ivy, and Croc play poker and trade stories about how they almost killed the Bat. Two, you get a lot of stories in one episode, some major bang for your buck. The writing is flawless and it does deserve the love but my personal favorite and wildest is yet to come! Birds Of A Feather comes up next with the Penguin intending on going straight and actually falls for a young socialite, but is the subject of a cruel joke forcing him to be a villain once more. Great story, easily manipulates your emotions in Penguin's favor, and shows a side of the rogue's gallery we don't get to see much. What Is Reality, a mental and expertly animated episode where Riddler crafts a virtual reality headset 25 years before Oculus or Playstation, and traps Comissioner Gordon inside leading Batman and Robin to venture into a world where the Riddler controls all. A bevy of almost trivial knowledge, and ends pretty friggin' dark I gotta say! Speaking of dark. I Am The Night. God. Damn. This is the best episode of the season for me, solely because we see Batman in an emotionally, mentally dark place and after the severe injury of Jim goes into a full on depression. Kevin Conroy if people ever had doubts in their mind about him being the best after this episode are well and truly dead. The angry howlish yells of rage, and melancholic musings of whether or not he's really doing much good absolutely floored me. You can keep your Almost Got 'Im, I will take I Am The Night. The Man Who Killed Batman harbors almost on Elseworld territory as a new and bumbling gangster seemingly albeit accidentally murders Batman, and the whole criminal underworld and more importantly the Joker has some words for him. It plainly paints the relationship between Batman and Joker effortlessly and beautifully, culminating in one of the best character eulogies I've ever heard that nearly made me cry from laughter. And we end the season once more with a bang showcasing Harley & Ivy, as Harley is booted from Joker's gang and forms her own criminal dynasty with Poison Ivy and this is where we get the 411 in all it's terrible detail on Harley's codependence and how Ivy tries to get her to be more independent. It's a real fun episode and obviously has a lot of impact on both these wonderful characters decades to come. So another incredibly strong series, with very few episodes that would be considered skippable by the uninitiated, but we are initiated aren't we? So watch them all, judge for yourself, there be gems here for sure but you'd be surprised how well handled all of them are. Another 10/10? I genuinely would say yeah, even more deserving perhaps than the first season which still knocked it out of the park unconditionally. 4 stars, 10/10, and if memory serves the game changes next time. Tune in tomorrow, same time same channel!

In Retrospect: The Suicide Squad

King Shark is the king of my heart.

Yeah it was fun watching this again in all it's bloodsoaked, gruesome, humorous glory. And I feel I got more out of it the second go around, now that I know all the big stuff I can see the little details. I mean I praise the cast day and night, but dang Margot Robbie has a great little monologue that honestly says more about Harley than anything we've seen in live action. Daniela Melchior has stolen my heart and probably the internet's too, forever being my precious ray of sunshine in this film, she's absolute class 10/10! I do feel ashamed I wasn't party to Idris Elba's acting much before this because my man, my man, I love you my man. But dude James Gunn you are a bastard, you killed Savant who really struck me as a great character and one who I was quickly rooting for and Michael Rooker plays it perfectly. You did have the balls to drop Captain Boomerang and Rick Flagg, and you have my respect for shaking things up. But....how f***ing dare you kill Polka Dot Man. I am never getting over this, the shittin' Weasel lives but my guy dies? Because the second I heard we were getting Polka Dot Man I was ecstatic, and proves once more why David Dastmalchian keeps getting work at DC, because he rocks! And I knew, I frick fraking knew he wasn't gonna make it too, when I saw in the trailer of him triumphantly shouting with joy "I'm a superhero!" I was like well he's about to get shot in the head right after saying that. Asshole. I'm not actually mad at James for doing that, if anything I highly applaud the team here for getting me to care so much about these characters to begin with. I cared enough for the first Squad with Deadshot and all them, and appreciate both films for taking the time out to have emotional moments with these characters period. I dig the style and tone the movie has going for it, almost edging towards Tarantino tribute to 70s cinema but with it's own unique flair to it. I'd still say it's a great movie and clearly has the rewatchability factor to own. So the verdict still stands, 4 stars, 8.5/10. It's never a bad day when you watch a DC movie....except for The Killing Joke. Worthless bitch. And on that joyous remark it is time to end, and pray for me. I beg of you.

The Suicide Squad

Better than The Dark Knight? No. Damn good movie? Yes.

It's probably the most light hearted romp with a hard R rating I've ever seen in my life, juxtapositioning gnarly brutal gore and violence with light comedy and fun characters. The story follows two teams of Task Force X as they are sent to the known DC locale of Corto Maltese to investigate and shut down a government operation known as Starfish as the body count rises and we get to see good adaptations of DC characters both returning and new. Now I still stand by my review of the 2016 original, I still like it, I felt the studio should have kept it's big noses out of a director's work, but it is a movie I enjoy and would call good so this is not devolving to a, well clearly the new Suicide Squad movie is better than that trash. F*** yourself! They're two different movies and both are fine. Granted this one feels strangely a lot similar to the first movie and yet so different. It's heavily stylized, the camera work is more intricate, the blood factor is almost comical in it's excess, and each character gets a good smidge of backstory and personality. It could easily be seen as it's own thing but there's lots to connect it to the first which I like. While I couldn't bash the casting of the original hard, this one is mighty spot on giving the actors to make the character their own and not just feel like they are playing a character in a tight box. Margot Robbie is still royalty, Idris Elba is and has been the man, Daniela Melchior is my moon and stars in this movie, David Dastmalchian is mighty good but I still lean heavily towards his Calendar Man performance, and Sylvester Stallone as King Shark easily was the best character of them all. Yes even above Harley, he's that good, I said it. But even the side characters like Viola Davis, Peter Capaldi, and Michael Rooker were all great. The story is linear and might not make much sense when you break it down but I can truly see this as a movie people will watch again and again. The effects I felt were really good, maybe not enough practical gore but that's a small gripe, King Shark and Starro look good and have spot on textures plus they just have fun with it. I also feel the comedy was balanced, it could have a serious moment, it could have action without a comedy beat, this movie flat out says f*** your feelings they'll kill anyone without hesitation, and I know there will be some jackass chucklehead who will just say, oh it shows how bad the DC movies are that they have to take MCU directors to make their movies better, to which I reply with a quote from the movie "Eat a big bag of dicks." and f***ity bye. It's really good stuff, despite the fact they killed nearly every character I liked a lot so the verdict is .5/10. I'm just kidding, it upsets me but I'll get over. 4 stars, 8.5/10, this will be the last new movie for a bit but there's always stuff to talk about. Be good people.

Batman The Long Halloween

Thank you God.

Good news! It didn't suck. In fact....it's right up there with The Dark Knight Returns and Superman Red Son for me. There is a lot to talk about without spoilers so I will attempt to keep this coherent. The first thing I gotta say is, the film had me on two fronts from the start. The first shot of the Gotham skyline is absolutely gorgeous and the opening titles are easily the best out of the modern animated DC movies. If Matt Reeve's The Batman has an opening even half as good as this, it may get a 10/10. I'm so thankful we didn't have to wait long for part 2, and was actually quite curious where they would split the film. I very much liked and appreciated how they handled this story, with a long game of holiday related murders leading Batman, Jim, and Harvey to figure out who the mysterious killer is as boundaries are pushed on all sides. It's a very complicated case man, a lot of in's, a lot of out's, a lot of what have you's. I actually went and read The Long Halloween before watching the whole film and there was so much in that book that I was wondering how they would put it to the screen, because the book is very much a detective story with not a lot of action, it's stylized as all hell with at least a dozen Sin City parts composed of black, white, and red but I can safely say I love the production. The animation is absolutely great, the backgrounds are impeccable and the character designs have these thick black outlines that give this mix of The Brave And The Bold with Venture Bros., I kinda like how minimalistic yet striking the batsuit is in this it gave me heavy season 4 of The Animated Series vibes. Cast is wonderful and brings nothing short of their A-game, with Jensen Ackles getting the promotion to Batman since Under The Red Hood and has such a strong great voice and as a Supernatural fan I was impressed how much I didn't just hear Dean in the role. Naya Rivera is right up there with the all time greats of Catwoman voice acting in this, she was a joy to watch and I have nothing but love and respect for her. Josh Duhamel taking on my favorite Batman villain was also spot on, I adored the relationship between Harvey and his wife Gilda you can really get that sense of true romance in their perfomances and the same goes for Bruce and Selina, but yeah he was mighty good as Harvey and I swear he sounded just like the original Animated Series Two-Face near the end, way to go my guy. Wonderful to see Troy Baker back as Joker, how I missed this man in this role, despite not a load of screen time. The absolute stand out performance, believe it or not, is once again the man of a thousand DC characters David Dastmalchian as the Calendar Man. Best performance I've seen him give yet in the DC universe, can't wait for Suicide Squad, and while I always hear Maurice LaMarche from the Arkham Games when I read the comics he is awesome in this part! Here's to many more future parts my friend. And the absolute best part is that they treat the story seriously and not only that but it's a total run time of about 3 hours so it doesn't rush, you would be surprised how many quiet moments there are in this film. It really struck me that they just focus on these characters, cause at the end of the day a lot of the graphic novel did the same. I can't tell you how much I love it. Sure they change stuff, streamline stuff, yet it really didn't bother me and something struck me that really needs to happen to more people. A lot of people shit on adaptations, oh it didn't follow the book exactly, oh they changed this element, and I was sitting there thinking why would you want to watch a movie where you know exactly everything that is about to happen? Cause this movie kept me guessing, I was wondering where they were going with it cause the book ends on kind of an open note where debate and discussion is encouraged, so it didn't feel like a carbon copy of the book. They did their own thing while still adhering to the story of the original work and paying respect to it. That is no bad thing. I did however take a bit of grievance with two things, one being the ending that seemed out of left field and contributed nothing, I liked the book ending way better. Second is the movie projects Batman as a crimefighter but not a detective, it even brings up multiple times how Bruce didn't expect to be a detective. Bollocks! Great bolshy yarblockos to you! I know this kinda follows the events after Batman Year One so he isn't flawless in his technique, but seriously are you taking the piss? He studied how to be a detective! Urgh, but other than that excellent film. A serious fullhearted recommendation, 4 stars, 8.5/10 maybe even a 9, now I think the only big story they need to cover now is Knightfall. But time will tell, and I will see you Friday.