Category Archives: DC
Batman Begins
Batman Begins 2005
I am equal parts overjoyed and annoyed by all of the Batman reviews that have been popping up these past couple weeks. I especially enjoy it when some of the lesser reviewed gems come out of the woodwork, like a review of the first season of Batman: The Animated Series, or some of the DC Animated films. But I’m also annoyed because one of the reasons that I started this blog as a niche review site instead of a general movie review site was to stand out, and yet now I’ll be blending in as I take another look at Christopher Nolan’s already legendary Batman Trilogy. Today I start with the beginning, as that’s typically the best place. This is yet another origin story, but it’s unique in the fact that Batman is one of the few superheroes that kind of skipped over the whole origin story. Yes, Tim Burton’s Batman movie has that pivotal moment in Crime Alley where his parents are murdered, but when the flashback is over, he’s Batman in full force. This is the first time that audiences actually got to see how Bruce Wayne turned tragedy into vigilante.
Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman 2009
I was originally going to start reviewing the Spider-Man movies today, but I decided that I wanted to give myself a couple extra days of leeway to watch the new flick, and since I’ve watched the animated movies for Green Lantern, Superman, and Batman, I thought it was only fair to add the only other DC solo hero to get their own animated movie: Wonder Woman. It was especially a no-brainer because I already own the DVD. As a quick side-note, I should make a list of all the superhero movies I actually own and haven’t reviewed yet at some point, but that’s another day. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess with ties to Greek mythology similar to Thor’s connection to Norse mythology, although Wonder Woman is more of an original creation that’s rooted in Greek mythology where Thor is a repurposing of Norse mythology. For my part, I enjoyed it enough to buy it on DVD at some point, though rewatching it now I don’t think it’s as strong as some of the other DC animation. It’s still quite good, but it could easily be better.
Batman: Under the Red Hood
Batman: Under the Red Hood 2010
Even before starting this site, I was a fan of DC’s animation studio and had watched most of their earlier releases like New Frontier, Doomsday, and Gotham Knight. They were all pretty good and I enjoyed watching them as I did some of the Marvel releases around that point like Ultimate Avengers and Planet Hulk. All of them were good. Under the Red Hood is great. It’s interesting that I watched this after Superman vs. the Elite because they both deal with slightly similar ideas, and yet Under the Red Hood takes those ideas and instead of using some random anti-heroes/villains that were never heard of before or since, they take characters much more rooted to the core of the Batman mythos and break down the story on a completely personal level. I must say that this is the best one of these movies that I’ve seen so far. There are a couple weak spots, but it’s pretty impressive overall.
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights 2010
Back to yet another movie my wife picked out for me at the video store. Apparently she has horrible timing, as this would have fit much better right after the first two Green Lantern movies I watched, but that’s completely beside the point. In an effort to cross-market with the theatrical release of the live action Green Lantern movie, DC Animation released this animated movie, which is a compilation of other Green Lantern’s stories similar to Gotham Knight, but this movie wraps it around a central framework based on Hal Jordan telling stories to a rookie lantern. It’s well done animation on par with all of the other DC animated movies I’ve seen to this point and I really enjoyed it.
Superman vs. the Elite
Superman vs. the Elite 2012
When I started this site, I had planned to watch only theatrical movies including all the movies that come out this year. But when I recently decided to also watch other types of releases I had forgotten to check out straight to video release dates. So I didn’t even realize that this movie had come out last Tuesday until just a few days ago, so I had to give it a look. It’s yet another DC Animated movie from producer Bruce Timm, whose name you’ll hear a lot anytime superheroes and animation are brought up. And honestly, this is one of the best of these animated movies I’ve seen so far, from the animation, to the story, to the characters, to actually getting to tell an interesting Superman story, it’s all here. It even got my wife and daughter hooked through the whole thing.
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
Superhero Shorts: Superman Classic
Welcome to this week’s edition of Superhero Shorts where I take a look at a different superhero themed short film and get the creator of the film to answer a few interview questions. This week I’m talking with Robb Pratt, a professional storyboard artist, director, and animator who is currently working for Disney on their upcoming film Planes. He created an original independently animated Superman short film called Superman Classic which you can watch below. You can also visit Robb’s official site.
Green Lantern: First Flight
Green Lantern: First Flight 2009
After watching the mediocre live action origin story, it made me want to revisit an earlier Green Lantern origin movie, only this one was animated and straight to home video. It was also a whole lot better. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I really love all of the DC Animation that I’ve seen so far which ranges from pretty good to excellent. They’ve covered a lot of ground on some of the better comic book stories out there without worrying too much about being a blockbuster. They’re generally all under the supervision and occasional direction of legendary Bruce Timm. The only downside I really have with them which isn’t a major downside is that they all tend to be rather short, most of them clocking in at a little over an hour. I’m still waiting for when they have the guts to make one of these animated movies for the theaters. I imagine it’s because of the decline of 2D animation. But whatever, First Flight is still a great movie.
Green Lantern
Green Lantern 2011
After watching so many Marvel movies, I thought it was only fair to come back with a DC movie. I’ve been wanting to watch Green Lantern for a while now, I’ve heard there’s a lot of hate out there for it, but from what I’ve seen of the movie so far, I thought I would generally like it. And I was right, I did like it, but at the same time, I didn’t love it. I enjoyed the animated Green Lantern movie First Flight much better, which is a shame because Green Lantern as a character has a lot of potential and this movie took several steps in the right direction, it just didn’t get all the way there yet.
DC Showcase Short Films
DC Showcase
I absolutely love animation, so when I saw a blogathon about animated short films over at Pussy Goes Grrr I knew I wanted to participate. And I didn’t want to just use an installment of my Superhero Shorts for it. So instead I decided to search out all the recent DC Showcase short films that have been packaged with various DC movies. There have been five of them so far, but as the blogathon limits it to a total hour of animation, I eliminated the longest one. Read below for my short reviews for Catwoman, The Spectre, Jonah Hex, and Green Arrow.
The Spirit
The Spirit 2008
Finally getting around to watching our rental copy of Frank Miller’s The Spirit. It’s funny that I watch and write about all of these superhero movies, but as far as comic book artists and writers I don’t really know all that much. Although I suppose I know a heck of a lot more than the average person, I know exceedingly few compared to a comic book fan. I’m familiar with the name Frank Miller largely due to his work on Sin City with Robert Rodriguez, and then instead of Sin City 2 which seems to be in development hell as it was rumored to be worked on shortly after the release of the first movie and yet seven years after its release there’s still no word on it. Instead Frank Miller went on his own to create another movie very similar in style to Sin City, only it features a classic noir detective character called The Spirit.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 