DC/Marvel at The Animated Movies Thread

[BreakABone]

Okay some quick notes.

-One, switching movies for next two weeks, since Iron Man 2 comes out next week, I figured made more sense to watch Invincible Iron Man than and the following week we will do Ultimate Avengers 2.

-Second, been sticking to the schedule for the most part so here are two brief reviews.


Ultimate Avengers

I've read the comics its based on now, and not liking the comic, also makes me appreciate this movie even less if that makes sense. :lol

The movie does too much too fast, and has no real flow. Actually, this is the same complaint I will have about the next movie. :lol

After reading the comics, they pretty much gloss over the aspect of getting the team together. The alien invasion reminds me too much of the JLA's origins, but eh.

All in all, I recommend only checking out if you come across it.

Next movie, just finished watching.


Like I said above, it has the same flaws as the above movie. Its all action with a poor sense of plotting. The plot is almost non-existant with it just serving to break up the 3 fights between Superman and Brainiac.

But the BIGGEST problem I have with this movie is the treatment of Lex Luthor. He is neither shroud businessman nor evil scientist. He is some weird, alternate Lex who is into grand-standing way too much. He even utters to Superman once "Rooting for you pal" not in some sarcastic tone either. It was AWFUL.

My Recommendation is to pass this movie. I can't believe from the same folks who did Superman TAS!

[Swan]

Agree with BaB about their horrible treatment of Luthor. Complete bastardization of his character. Didn't like the version of Braniac either. Had too much emotion for his character. He is supposed to be an emotionless machine set on completing his task but here he is determined to destroy superman and such.

Dialogue was pretty shoddy as well.


And for Ultimate Avengers I agree with most of what Earl says though I did really enjoy the comics. The end of the movie was way too rushed but was a somewhat enjoyable film.

[BreakABone]

Our film this week was The Invincible Iron Man

Now this is a hard film to review, I mean it isn't a bad movie, but it isn't really remarkable either.

And I could be mistaken (I sometimes drift off while watching movies), but I swore he wore the standard Iron Man costume only once during the course of the movie. In like 80 minutes, he was able to try out the first costume, the standard one, a lava based one and an underwater one. That element of the film felt like they were trying to get in enough versions of the costume for toy tie-ins.



The main villain was the Mandarin, but you probably wouldn't know it until his last minute appearance, which was a bit hooky or whatever. Didn't care much for the board room drama (kind of reminded me of another movie starring a billionaire turned Superhero, but I'll move on)

I recommend seeing it, if you have access. Wouldn't go out of my way.

Next week's movie: Ultimate Avengers 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTov9...eature=related

[BreakABone]

This week's film is Dr. Strange



I'll start off by saying I'm not too familiar with the character. I remember him making an appearance or two in the Fox Spider-man cartoon and believe he shows up in the Ultimate Spider-man comics, other than that I really don't know much about the character.

With that said, this movie serves as a long long origin tale. Now origin tales are often used for first movies, but being an animated movie with a much shorter run-time, the origin takes up a good 80% of the movie or so, and it really isn't nothing new. I mean the characters are played as expected and their arcs lead to a predictable conclusion.

There really aren't no twists and turns along the way but I guess only so much you can do with it.



There are a parade of characters, but honestly most of them are given enough screen time to be killed off so I assume I didn't need to care for them.

And while on the subject of killing, such an odd movie, it avoids showing blood and things, but has no problems showing people being skinned to the bone so go figure.



There are like two villains in this movie, and neither are dealt with in a meaningful manner. The first is swallowed/eaten by the second, and the second is.. well absorbed by Dr. Strange, don't ask me to explain it. I don't know either.

The animation is nice, but I still feel that Marvel's animation department lags behinds DC.

All in all, I recommend If its On I wouldn't go out of my way to find it, but if its on TV why not.

Next week's movie is Superman: Doomsday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3keu...eature=related

I will also try my best to catch up on the few I missed.

[incredibledave]

Hey guys

Just finished watching Batman: Mask of Phantasm last night. It was good, just not as good as people have been telling me it is.
The main bad guy, the Phantasm guy, is really boring. A vigilante who kills and people are mistaking him for Batman, we've all see that story.

The main hook here is the flashbacks to Bruce's time before and just after he became Batman. The Bruce Timm Batman seems much more human than the comic book version, and it was nice to see some real emotion poured into his descision to become Batman. Even the Joker seems to be a lot more human, still out of his mind but still seems to have have a mind rather than just being this force of destruction. Dont get me wrong, I love the Morrison Hyper-manly Batman and the Avatar of Death Joker, but this is a very refreshing take on all of it.

Art style is gorgeous, and voice acting is top notch as per usual.
If you had taken all the Flashback out of this and sold them under the title "Batman: Origin" or something it would have hit the spot, but instead it gets bookended by boring and sometimes confusing run ins with the phantasm

[BreakABone]

This week's movie is Superman: Doomsday



This movie could be seen as the starting point for the new DCU as it was the first DTV they produced that wasn't directly tied into anything else in the Timmverse. (Superman: Brainiac, could also be counted, but believe it uses the same designs)

This movie on the other hand, has no such shackles. It uses a different cast of voice actors and a radically different design for the characters, but let's get into the movie.

The movie is based loosely on the Death/Return of Superman arc from the early 90s. Sadly, I've never read the story myself (something I will remedy one day), but based on the bonus feature it was a pretty cool comic and story. Now the movie guts the middle portion of the comic for the most part (the Superman wanna bes who try to fill in the gap in his absence) and the movie works well without it.

First thing that HAS to be said, this movie is brutal.



The movie pretty much revolves around two major fight scenes. The first if the titular Superman vs Doomsday fight, which is big, bad and brutal. It goes across Metropolis and is probably one of the best crafted fight scenes in all of comic book DTV. You feel every blow, and of course the eventual defeat is done so well.

The second fight is the climax between a clone Superman and returned Superman, which again is a pretty nice fight. Something that both fights get right is the feeling of doom over Superman, at times it is difficult to do a Superman fight where you feel he is threatened due to his power limits, and even rarer to do it without K, but both of these fights accomplish that IMO.



In-between the fights, there is also a movie. The crux of it being the relationship between Superman and Lois, who are seen dating at the start of the movie. This comes out of left field, but you find out why it is important after his death, as Lois carries the emotion of this movie. Between her reaction at his death to speaking with Martha Kent, you feel the gravity of the situation.

We also get emotional arcs through Lex Luthor (who is as cold here as anywhere else, but sometimes feels just a bit off), Jimmy (who takes up a glam gig), Perry White (briefly in his scenes) and Ma Kent.

Oddly, my biggest problem with the movie is the whole act that deals with Luthor's cloned Superman, I know they needed something for Superman to fight when he returned, but I just didn't care for it much. And he quickly spirals out of control.

Some of the voices were good, some took getting use to, but none were as horrible as Superman: Brainiac nor did any of the characters feel so out of place like Luthor did in that movie.

My recommendation Check It Out It may be on Netflix Insta-Steam

Next week's movie is, Justice League: New Frontier
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lEhVhzPy3c