December | 2010 | the m0vie blog

Justice League Unlimited – Flash and Substance (Review)

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. To tie into the review of Green Lantern: First Flight today, we thought we’d take a look at an episode centred on that other iconic Silver Age DC hero, the Flash.

Justice League and its spin-off Justice League Unlimited were two very strange shows, at least from a structural perspective. They both featured expansive casts (the latter more than the former, admittedly) – most of which were crammed full of characters new to the DC animated universe. Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: The Animated Series had done a great job establishing the two biggest names, but the bulk of the characters were pretty much blank slates heading into the crossover series. So characters like the Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern relied on episodes centring on them to grow and develop character – although the focus was very much on the ensemble cast. However, my own favourite episode of the show is a more intimate character profile of a character frequently overlooked: the Flash.

Frenemies…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: alexis denisof, animation, batman, captain cold, dc animated universe, dc comics, dcau, diniverse, donal gibson, flash, flash and substance, green lantern, jl, jlu, justice league, justice league unlimited, Justiceleague, kevin conroy, lex luthor, mark hamill, Martian Manhunter, mirror master, rogues, Television, the flash, timmverse, wally west | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Green Lantern – First Flight

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. This is one of the “stand-alone” animated movies produced by the creative team that gave us the television shows.

In case you weren’t aware, director Martin Campbell (the man who saved the Bond franchise twice – with both GoldenEye and Casino Royale) will be bringing a big screen adaptation of DC comic’s Green Lantern our way next summer. I am really looking forward to it, which might seem odd – Green Lantern has never really had the popular exposure that Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or even Flash has had. Of course, that might be down to the fact that nobody has produced a television show based entirely around the character – hell, even Aquaman had that aborted Ving Rhames pilot and that fictional movie. So, it’s understandable if Green Lantern isn’t exactly lighting up the radar in the same way that, say, Kenneth Branagh’s Thor is. That said, if you’re looking to get a taste for the character, you could do a lot worse than checking out Green Lantern: First Flight.

Shoulda put a ring on it, indeed...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, bruce timm, christopher meloni, comic book, Comics, dc, dc animated universe, dc universe, dcau, geoff johns, green, green lantern, Green Lantern: First Flight, hal jordan, martin campbell, Movie, oa, sinestro, victor garber, yellow | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Carriers

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Darren

At the end of the world, what do you take with you? It’s a question that underpins the vast majority of post-apocalyptic tales, wondering if our human could survive past the collapse of society. At its best, Carriers handles the question head-on, with refreshing frankness. Unfortunately, it tends to fluctuate rather unevenly – going for fairly straight-forward “gotcha!” scares and aping other far more successful movies in a fairly shallow manner. Carries isn’t the best piece of post-apocalyptic fiction in recent memory – nor is it even the best one produced in the past year. However, if you’re a fan of the genre, it provides a fairly decent amount of entertainment.

You wouldn't to sick them on you...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: 28 days later, Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, avian flu, bird flu, carriers, chris pine, christopher meloni, films, infection, infectious disease, Movies, non-review review, review | 2 Comments »

The New Batman Adventures – Over The Edge (Review)

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. I’ll be looking at movies and episodes and even some of the related comic books. To tie into this morning’s review of Under the Red Hood, I thought I’d take a look at what might happen to Batman if he lost a partner.

Following the success of Superman: The Animated Series, a new bunch of Batman episodes were commissioned by Warner Brothers to compliment Batman: The Animated Series. However, this new series would be animated in the style of the Superman series – typically meaning a lighter animation and fewer lines. The transition was jarring, to say the least. Indeed, many commentators make the observation (whether fair or not) that The New Batman Adventures offered a “lighter and softer” approach to the Caped Crusader and his universe. Though I think that’s not an unfair description, it is also worth conceding that the season also gave us quite possibly the single darkest half-hour in the entire history of the DC animated universe. I refer to Over the Edge.

Those expecting a light story might want to look elsewhere…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: bane, barbara gordon, batgirl, batman, batman: the animated series, Bruce, bruce wayne, commissioner gordon, commissioner james gordon, commissioner jim gordon, Dark Knight Rise, dc, dc animated universe, dcau, gordon, james gordon, jim gordon, New Batman Adventures, over the edge, Television, the new batman adventures | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman – Under the Red Hood

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Darren

You did it! You found a way to win and everybody still loses!

– The Joker

The story of Batman, boiled down to its most essential elements, is a tragedy. He’s a character defined by hurt and loss – the suffering and failures he has endured while fighting simply to stay alive in an uncertain world. The reason that the animated Batman: Under the Red Hood works so well is because it manages to capture that observation perfectly in its relatively tight runtime. Over the course of the movie, Batman has several of his rather glaring failures touted out in front of him and – what’s more – faces the possibility that he may himself end up obsolete.

The joke’s on Batman…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a death in the family, animation, batman, batman: under the hood, batman: under the red hood, Black Mask, bruce greenwood, bruce timm, christian bale, comic books, dark knight, dc animated universe, dcau, dick grayson, film, Jason Todd, john dimaggio, joker, judd winick, kevin conroy, Red Hood, robin, superheroes, the joker, the red hood, under the hood, under the red hood | 2 Comments »

Batman: A Death in the Family

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. Later on today, I’ll be taking a look at the animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood, so I thought I might take a look at one of the stories which inspired it.

A Death in the Family holds something of a sacred spot in the line-up of classic Batman stories. It was the moment that Batman failed – and he failed monumentally. The image of Batman cradling a bloody and bruised Robin in his arms is almost iconic, recognisable to any pop culture aficionado. However, the story itself really isn’t anything too spectacular – it’s as if writer Jim Starlin was trying to combine the adventurous take on Batman from the seventies with the more grim-and-gritty crusader of the late eighties, with a frankly inexplicable desire to dabble in global politics. Frankly, despite the power of the rich imagery provided by Jim Aparo, the story is more than just a little bit weak, and certainly not strong enough to support the label of “classic” that is applied so frequently to the story.

Batman will be carrying this with him for quite some time...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: a death in the family, ambassador, batman, batman: a death in the family, Comics, dark knight returns, dc comics, dick grayson, iran, Jason Todd, Jim Starlin, joker, New Batman Adventures, robin, un, under the red hood | 1 Comment »

Batman: The Animated Series – The Demon’s Quest (Parts I & II)

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. I’ll be looking at movies and episodes and even some of the related comic books. To tie into tomorrow’s review of Under the Red Hood, I thought I’d take a look at the episode which introduced Ra’s Al Ghul to the animated DC universe (and represented the character’s first appearance outside comic books).

If Heart of Ice – perhaps one of the best pieces of Western Animation produced during the nineties – illustrated just how good the creative minds behind Batman: The Animated Series where at innovation (updating and adding depth to previously shallow characters), then The Demon’s Quest perhaps reflects their skill at adaptation. Adapted from Denny O’Neill’s seventies story arc introducing Ra’s Al Ghul as an adversary of the Dark Knight, by the author himself, it’s also a testament to the show’s diversity. This isn’t exactly a conventional Batman story, and certainly not one conforming to the gothic or noir conventions which seemed to grip the character during the nineties.

"We'll always have your father's desert stronghold..."

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: animation, batman, batman: the animated series, btas, dc animated universe, dcau, denny o'neill, ra's al ghul, robin, Television, the demon, the demon's quest | 1 Comment »

Batman: The Animated Series – Heart of Ice (Review)

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Darren

This post is part of the DCAU fortnight, a series of articles looking at the Warner Brothers animations featuring DC’s iconic selection of characters. I’ll be looking at movies and episodes and even some of the related comic books. While most of the episodes and comics I look at will tie into the feature-length animated movies, I thought I’d start with perhaps the most beloved piece of animation that the studio produced using DC characters.

I believe that Batman: The Animated Series sorely deserves a place on list compiled of the “best animated series of all time”. It’s certainly perhaps the single best distillation of the Batman mythos into one pure form (although Christopher Nolan’s film series – and especially The Dark Knight – also deserve some acknowledgement). What made the series unique was that, instead of simply borrowing from the comic books, it also actively contributed to them – and not just in a “we need to tie into a popular adaptation” sort of way. Lasting changes to the Batman mythos can be traced back to this particular animated series – the fan-favourite character of Harley Quinn, for example, or several sympathetic origins to well-established characters. Heart of Ice is perhaps the most successful and well-executed of these revisionist takes on Batman’s iconic selection of bad guys – offering as it does an origin for Mr. Freeze.

Dude needs to chill out…

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: animation, batman, batman: the animated series, btas, Christopher Nolan, Freeze, Harley Quinn, heart of ice, joker, mr. freeze, Nora, Nora Fries, Scott Snyder, Television | 2 Comments »

DCAU Fortnight Kicks Off!

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Darren

Right, I am taking a little break from work and blogging and everything for the next little while, just trying to clear my head a bit, so I won’t be around quite as much as I would like to be. However, I do have a treat for the nerdier children of the nineties out there – I’m going to take a retrospective look at the animated DC universe, the Warner Brothers cartoons produced during the nineties and into the last decade which gave us Batman: The Animated Series among many other things. Anyone who grew up during the decade can’t possibly have missed these wonderful little shows, which perhaps got me interested in comic books in the first place.

And he always times it juuust right to catch the bolt of lightning...

Note: Over the course of this two week event (and a schedule can be found below), I will occasionally return to cover something big or huge (like our scheduled Tron: Legacy review, for example). I also hope to have more time to get back into reading and engaging with other bloggers. It has been far too long.

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Filed under: Comics, Television | Tagged: animation, arts, batman, batman: the animated series, Comics, dc, dc animated universe, dc comics, dcau, dcau fortnight, dcu, justice league, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Justiceleague, superman, superman: the animated series, Warner Brothers | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Meet the Parents

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Darren

Meet the Parents is a pleasant little film which works so well because it takes an awkward social experience that most of us have lived through – in this case meeting a partner’s parents – and turns it into a comedy of errors. It’s this smart little premise and the way that it plays off a familiar situation (with judicious application of the philosophy that “anything that can go wrong will“) that makes it so appealing – and perhaps explains the weaknesses of the movie’s sequel. Still, the original is an effective and charming comedy of manners which executes its premise well and, despite some difficulty balancing everything, manages to consistently entertain throughout.